More than 2000 people attended the Bay Area Telugu Association’s Ugadi celebrations held recently. Many people had to leave because seats were not available.

The day started with a warm welcome from the volunteers of the BATA family who were traditionally dressed. The venue was well decorated with Mamidi toranaalu flowers. The tradition of the day, “ UGADI PACHCHADI” was served all through the day for all the people attending the festival. A much awaited Panchanga Sravanam for the Parthiva nama samvatsaram was rendered by Marepalli Venkata Sastry. This was followed by offering prayers to Lord Ganesha. The signature event of BATA Ugadi Mela is the annual “Pratibha Lahari” song and dance competitions. This event was sponsored by Gemini TV, Telugu Times and TANA. 

There was overwhelming response to the competitions with over 90 entries in different categories including classical, folk, film, non-film songs and dances. The participants included all age ranges starting from three-year old kids. The competitions started with classical singing with Sub juniors who were under 7 yr old age group followed by junior and then senior categories. This was followed by folk/non-film, and film songs and dance competitions in all three categories. The performances presented at the competitions set high standards with a great quality for the coming years. The competitions were judged by the popular artists of the Bay Area Gayathri Avvari, Madhu, Kala Iyer, Sreedevi Poduri, Sunita and famous Movie play back singer G. Anand.

The event was not just limited to the competitions in singing and dancing but also extended to painting, carom and chess amongst all the age groups starting from five years. While the main stage was taken by the competitions, the other end of the hall had commercial booths including jewelers, handicrafts, Indian boutique and other non-profit booths. The hall also had lot of fun carnival games hosted by Sabita and Madhuri. The kids had a lot of fun with the carnival games. 

The evening started with a spectacular cultural program organized by BATA. The program began with classical dance ballet “ Brindavani Saaranga” by Sri Kripa Dance Company. . This is followed by contrasting transition to foot tapping fast numbers including Nalla Nallani, Pattu Pattu performed by kids under 12 yr old. This program was choreographed by Smt. Vijaya Aasuri, Smt Srilakshmi Veligeti and Smt. Sireesha Duggirala. These performances were adorable with all the cute kids performing on stage. This was followed by a wonderful classical ballet “ Muddu Gare Yashoda”. This program was followed by unique festivity celebration for upcoming Sriramanavami of the New Year. This “Rama Rama’ program presented a beautiful celebration of Sitaram kalyanam and Songs praising Lord. Hanuman. This program was much applauded by the audience for its high energy, traditional kolatam, chekka bhajana and colorful costumes. This program was followed by a performance by Sireesha Duggirala and Prema Mohammad who presented the vivacious 6 seasons from one of the great compositions of Kuchipudi Dance. 

The flow of the evening took a new dimension after the Festive celebrations, foot tapping folk numbers. The next program was “Letha Manasulu”. This is a unique recreation of Typical love story of yester years interwoven with Ghantasala and Suseela melodies choreographed by Rajesh chavli. Audiences were left in melodious nostalgic memories of the Black and white days of old cinema. This was followed by “Vachche vachche vaana” a fun filled entertainment by young and cheerful girls. The event took pleasant turn with a hilarious skit “Chalo India” presented by Kalyan Kattamuri. The auditorium was full of laughter, the performers were much appreciated. 

The cultural program presented a wonderful blend of versatility throughout the evening. The next program was a vibrant, fast paced film dance number presenting a theme “Vasta Nee venuka”. This medley depicted fun filled teasers, mischief and romance in college days. This program was choreographed by Vijaya Aasuri and Sri Lakshmi Veligeti. 

The prizes for the competitions were given away by the dignitaries JayaRam Komati, Satish Chilukuri, K.C. Prasad, Johnson and G. The prizes were sponsored by Nilgiris. Community publicity support was generously provided by Lu Muvva and Raman Sachula of IMC Theatres.The other sponsors included Ravi Tax, Win Wintek, New York life and Venkat Raman. The evening concluded with a vote of thanks by BATA President Ramesh Mandalapu and the committee members Karun Veligeti, Yugandhar Karakala, Srilakshmi Veligeti, Prasad Mangina, Sateesh Pola, Ravi Thiruveedula, Kalyan Kattamuri and Rajesh Chavli and Volunteers Veera Nanugonda, Shilpa, Srinivas Kolli, Srini Mangipudi, Nagamohan, Deepthi, Shilpa, Vasu, Madhavi, Tanuja, Madhuri, Aparna, Sruthi, Amita, Sneha, Sanju, Bobby, Prema, Pasha, Manasa, Sireesha, Jhansi, Narasimha Rao, Padma, Sai Kiran, Sailaja, Shravan, Kamesh, Spandana, Sriram, Vinay, Rani, Shiva, Purna Chandra Babu, Lokender, Rajesh, Chandra, Praveen and Shekhar.