The Bay Area Telugu Association (BATA) raised $10,438 towards Tsunami relief during Sankranthi celebrations in January. Over 500 people attended the event.

The evening started with a prayer song by Sruthi, Manya and Shreya. This was followed by a beautiful presentation of “tandanana ahi tandanana pure”, an annamayya composition by S.N. Prabhu from Surabhi music grop. This was followed by a classical dance ballet “Swagatam Krishna” by students of Sri Krupa Dance Company, directed by Vishal Ramani. Next was a brief heart moving presentation on Tsunami tragedy that talked about the details of the affected families in Andhra Pradesh including Nellore, Machilipatnam, Prakasam, Krishna and Kakinada. The presentation also included details about the project that is adapted by Bay Area Telugu Association. BATA is adopting this project in repair and rehabilitation of affected areas with the money raised during the evening.

BATA had planned to organize the annual Sankranti celebrations with a mix of classical dances, movie dances, comedy and social plays. BATA committee made a decision to change the “Sankranti Sambaralu” event to a fund raising event in response to the Tsunami tragedy that hit South East Asia. BATA committee needs to be applauded for making this decision and raise funds for the affected families. As a part of fund raising, there were a series of entertaining programs that actively involved both the organizers and the audience. 

The first of these was a live Auction of sarees, jewelry and handicrafts which generated a lot of interest in the audience. The items were donated by Vijaya Aasuri. Murali Chari, popular mimicry artist in the Bay Area, entertained the audience during the auction with his mimicry imitating different popular cinema actors. About $800 was raised through live auctions. This was followed by a series of wonderful dance performances including Brahmanjali, Madhuranagarilo, Kuchi kuchi koonamma. These were all the performances presented by young kids of ages 3-15 yr old, who kept audience enthralled with their graceful moves, pleasant presentation. This cultural program was followed by Tambola (housie). This was unique idea which involved all the audience. Youth volunteers should be commended for selling tickets enthusiastically and raising $637. The kids would not take no for an answer and pleaded with elders to purchase tickets. It was heart warming to see the 5-16 year old kids running around the hall after their performances with donation boxes for additional donations and selling tambola tickets. Telugu cinema DVDs donated by Crown DVD were presented for the winners. 

Tambola was followed by a cultural program ‘Elo Elo enniyalo, Venugna sammohanam-a dedication to K. Vishwanath. The performance was a treat to the eyes with 29 children from ages of 4-16 re-creating the magic of the song on stage. The dance was choreographed by Vijaya Aasuri. The dance was followed by folk dances Bangaru pilla, Lalaguda Lambadi pilla, Konda kona tirigeti. All these cultural programs were performed by Young talented kids of the community in the bay area. These cultural programs were appreciated by one and all. This was followed by a wonderful melodious concert presented by Prabhu, sridevi, Jayasri, Raja, Rajkumar, venki from Surabhi music band. They presented melodious numbers from 60s to recent yrs. Vijaya Aasuri MCd the event and encouraged the audience to donate generously for these songs. BATA raised about $2000 through auction of these songs.

Next was a song sung by Saketh, a 7 yr old kid which alone raised about $875 as pledges from all the kids in the auditorium. Saketh left the audience spellbound with his amazing performance and knowledge of Telugu. This is an exemplary evidence of philanthropic nature of the audience and the importance of the cause. This was followed by Antakshari, yet another fundraiser event which divided the entire audience into 3 teams and had a playful time with audio rounds, audio visual rounds, and word rounds. This event raised $1100. 

The event was sponsored and supported by Jayaram Komati who not only generously donated $2000 towards Tsunami relief fund but also provided sumptuous food from Swagat restaurant. Other kinds sponsors included Ravi tax services, Swagat and Nilgiris and many (please check the website for names.) others generously donated towards the relief fund. 

The BATA committee Ramesh Mandalapu, Karun Veligeti, Yugandhar Karakala, Kalyan Kattamuri, Ravi Thiruveedula, Srilu Veligeti, Sateesh Pola, Prasad Mangina,Vijaya Aasuri and Veeru Vuppala.

Ramesh Mandalapu, President of BATA thanked the audience for their support and donations. He thanked the volunteers for their tireless efforts in fund raising and organizing the event.