Telangana Formation Day celebrated with gaiety and fervor
The American Telangana Association celebrated the third Telangana Formation Day at Ramada Inn banquet hall in Glendale Heights, with more than 500 Telanganites and Telugu families from all over U.S.
The day was full of activities that unfurled with major decisions taken by American Telangana Association board.
The day started at 9 a.m. with American Telangana Association board meeting in Renaissance Hotel conference room in Schaumburg to appoint new board, elect new office bearers, and finalize location for the upcoming second Telangana World conference. Satyanarayana Kandimalla was sworn as president, and Karunakar Madhavaram was unanimously elected as chairman. Vinod Kuknoor was unanimously elected as president-elect. Bangar Reddy Aaloori was unanimously elected as Convener for the Convention. The convention will be in Houston, Texas.
The evening 3rd Telangana Formation Day event started with a welcome address by Narendar Chemarla. Lighting of the lamp by Satyanarayana Kandimalla, Karunakar Madhavaram, Vinod Kukunoor, Bangar Reddy and Srinivas Reddy Gajji which was followed by a Ganesh prayer by Teja and Abhigna. Two minutes of silence was observed by the guests in remembrance of founding father Sri. Madhava Reddy Bobbili garu, Telangana State water board adviser Sri. Vidya Sagar Rao garu and veteran congress leader and Rajyasabha member Sri. Palwai Govardhan Reddy garu.
Cultural performances for folk, Tollywood, Bollywood songs by local talent and musical night was led by renowned singer Praveen Jaligama, singer Janardhan from Atlanta, Mani Raju and Madhu Gandhi from Columbus, Ohio.
They entertained the guests with diversified and upbeat songs on Telangana. A special dance was performed by David who came from Columbus. The American Telangana Association team recognized all the performers with plaques and certificates. Children outperformed the cultural segment. The American Telangana Association thanked its media partners.
American Telangana Association Chicago team also thanked Telangana state government tourism and cultural departments for their support, all the guests who attended third Telangana formation day and all the volunteers who relentlessly worked hard to make the event a great success.
Secretary Ravi Upad started the meeting with quorum present. The board approved the last meeting minutes and requested the team to share their experiences and inputs on the previous conference which would help taking steps to improve next conference.
President Ram Mohan Konda, conference convener Vinod Kuknoor, co-convenor Nagedra Aytha, president-elect Satya Kandimalla, founding directors Karun Madhavaram, Narender Chemarla, Srinivas Chada, Kalyan Anandula and trustees shared their experiences, thoughts and thanked each and every individual who helped and supported the memorable first Telangana World Conference in Detroit on July 10, 2016. Some of the suggestions and recommendations from trustees and guests was to celebrate one or two signature ATA events in all the cities across U.S. in association with local organizations, improvise ATA-helpline by appointing more number of coordinators and volunteers in each city.
ATA Founding directors dissolved the entire current board of trustees to give opportunity for new leadership to take shape. The new board was constituted to include passionate and enthusiastic young and dynamic members. The board thanked all trustees who voluntarily exited from the board for giving the opportunity to inject new blood in the organization.
The outgoing president, Rammohan Konda, handed over the gavel to the incoming president, Satyanarayana Kandimalla. The new board took oath to protect the organization constitution, bylaws, and promote its vision and mission. The new board unanimously elected the following office bearers are Vishnu Madhavaram (secretary), Prathap Chintalapani (treasurer), Raghuveer Maripeddi (joint secretary) and Mahidhar Reddy (joint treasurer).
After electing new office bearers the board elected Vinod Kukunoor as president-elect and Karunakar Madhavaram as board chairman (July 2017 to December 2020). The board also appointed Narendar Chemarla as executive director and Anil Dhannapuneni as national coordinator. The new board discussed the agenda for the next two years on ATA activities. In his inaugural speech, President Satyanarayana Kandimalla thanked the outgoing board and EC for their efforts in transforming the organization into one of the most dynamic and vibrant national organizations in the country.
Three cities - Chicago, Dallas and Houston - had given the presentations to host 2nd Telangana World Conference in 2018. Houston was selected to host the conference from June 29 to July 1. Bangar Reddy Aaloori was unanimously elected as the Conference Convener.
Bangar Reddy, along with Texas hosting team, thanked the board for the opportunity and welcomed everyone to the convention. An amount of $500,000 was raised for the convention on the spot out of which $200,000 was raised from Houston by board trustee Sreedhar Kanchanakuntla.