T A T A

Telugu Association of Tucson Arizona! 1

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News letter for members of TATA October 2009, Issue - 2. Kalyan Dasika - Editor (520) 529-7138!

TATA Kaburlu

Board Members

Murthy Kudagal - Presidentswamurthy@gmail.com(520) 299-8568

N. VenkatVice Presidentushvenk@yahoo.com(520) 745-4927

Prasad Kari Treasurerapnkari@yahoo.com(520) 529-4098

Ranga Aradhyula Cultural Secretarysumhith@hotmail.com(520) 299-5666

Hari Venkat Web MasterHariharan_vs@yahoo.com(520) 495-0189

Naveen Tirumalasetty Secretarytsnaveen@hotmail.com(520) 907-6894

Nirmala Lavu Founder nirmala_lavu@yahoo.com(520) 529-8664

!"#$%&' () Presidents Note

Hi everyone, First of all "!*+', -./0 123*45" ( Deepavali wishes to all of you). Wish you

all a very happy , healthy and prosperous year. My sincere and special thanks to every one who helped to make the celebration of 10th anniversary of TATA a very successful event on 8-29- 09. I also want to thank SaiMurali and Nisha Pasupuleti for agreeing to host our Deepavali event on 10-24-09. As I promised earlier I want to make this news letter a dialogue rather than a monologue. I strongly urge you to help me do that by giving your comments and suggestions to improve our association. I was told after the 10th year celebration there were some concerns on the part of some of the members. One of them was that the music group sang mostly old songs and did not include more modern songs. I assure that the Board of Directors were not aware that the music group preferred old songs, other than what was requested from the floor there was no other influence on what they decided to sing. We also did not have any other choice in terms of other groups being available and willing to perform in Tucson within our budget. The other concern was that why we decided to extend the music program beyond the scheduled time of 9pm. This was done mainly because we had agreed to that the music group would perform at least for 3 hours and since the program was delayed by about one hour ( because of the food being delivered late.) It was decided to continue the music program beyond 9pm and in fact we had to dampen the enthusiasm of the music group by requesting to stop at about 9.45pm. If any of you have questions please feel free to call me to discuss further. I also want to thank all of you for generously contributing to the AP flood relief fund. So far we have collected $ 2,477.00 which will be sent through TANA. Going forward I have concern about upcoming events. First of all it is becoming increasingly difficult to find people to host TATA events. As it has been mentioned several times before the amount collected in membership dues is not enough for the association to host all the events. we definitely need every ones input in addressing this issue. Please mark your calender for the upcoming event Muggulu poti sponsored by Satheesh and Ranga Aradhyula on 12-19-2009. Details to follow. Once again I want to thank each and everyone of you for all the support you have provided. I would like to thank all the Board members and their families, Sub Committee members and their families and all those who helped to decorate the stage under the guidance of Aradhana and Nirmala garu.

Murthy

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2! Telugu Association of Tucson Arizona

TATA celebrated the Telugu New Year day - Ugadi in a very traditional way on April 11th 2009. TATA President Dr. Murthy Kudagal started the proceedings with introductions. Ugadi is a festival that is celebrated with a rich tradition by reciting the Panchangam and also an occasion for various poets to show case their creative works. The MC Sri Satheesh Aradhyula lead the evening by reciting some interesting poems including the first ever written in Telugu and also one that was written by him. We also had a group of bala kavis (poets) / kavayatris (poetesses) that recited some famous poems.

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TATA celebrated its 10th anniversary this year at the St. Gregory High School auditorium on the 29th of August. The venue was was very welcoming to the guests from the community. There were performances by professionals as well as from children of TATA members. The evening got started by the president Mr. Kudagal Murthy welcoming the guests and by introducing the MC, Mr. Satheesh Aradhyula. TATA was formed as a small group and evolved into a larger entity trying hard to promote the Indian culture and also to provide community service. The founding members Mrs. Nirmal Lavu and Mr. Rana pratap was aptly honored by Mr. Murthy. Mr. Murthy honored all the past presidents of TATA. Mr. Murthy also honored Mr. & Mrs. Satheesh & Ranga Aradhyula and Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Ramakrishnan for their efforts in bringing the community together. Mr. Jayahari Madduri honored the current president Mr. Murthy. Mr. Satheesh invited the children of TATA to sing Maa Telugu Talliki which was a significant moment of the evening. Mr. Subrahmanyam Aradyula treated the audience with a movie, that he created, that had many a nostalgic moment that most TATA members were able to relate to. Later, the audience were entertained by a professional group of singers and their band for about 3 hours.

Mr. Kudagal Murthy gives the inaugural address. Mr. Murthy also highlighted the efforts made by past and current members of TATA in fulfilling the commitments of the organization.

The founding members of TATA Mrs. Nirmala Lavu and Mr. Rana Pratap Lavu are presented a memento for their outstanding support to the organization.

Mr. Murthy presents a mememto to Mrs. Ranga Aradhula and Mr. Satheesh Aradhyula.

Mr. Jayahari Madduri presents a memento to Mr. Gangadhar Rao Bollimpalli.

Mr. Murthy presents a memento to Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Ramakrishnan

Mr. Jayahari Madduri presents a memento to Mr. Kudagal Murthy .

Mr. Subrahmanyam Aradyula addresses the gathering.

The M.C for the evening Mr. Satheesh Aradhyula addresses the gathering

Children of TATA members sing the official song of Andhra Pradesh, Maa Telugu Talliki.

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Swaravallari Group from Chicago.

The singers enthralled the audience with their mellifluous voices and their orchestra provided an enjoyable atmosphere.

Mr. Venkat and Mrs. Usha Venkat gave the vote of thanks to end the evening.

More pictures are available on the shared picasa web album. Contact Hariharan if you dont have the link to that album.

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HalloweenBy Meena Venkataramanan

Ghastly ghosts float in the chilly airTheyre so deadly, they neednt have a careVicious vampires show off their pointy fangs

See those scary skulls that like to hangWise old wizards conjure some spooky spells

While tortured turtles go into their massive shellsJealous jack-o-lanterns spread a wide smile

To trick or treat in all the houses- it may take a whileWorn-out witches give a chilly evil cackle

A fierce knight looks like its about to tackleThe sky is so pitch-black tonight

With Halloween spreading all kinds of fright

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The Event - by N. Venkat

Mahesh woke up early though it was the weekend. He was lying in bed and was thinking about the event today. It was the association's biannual event. To serve the community Mahesh had volunteered to go on the board 2yrs ago. The Board had been quite tense trying to find a host for the event. There was a sigh of relief when somebody stepped forward to take on the responsibility. Board meetings were pretty long and vocal usually prior to making any decision. After everybody had their say, usually a consensus was reached after voting. People said that Mahesh usually put forth his views pretty strongly (much to the irritation of the current president Rajasekhar) but the rest of the board did not most of the time see things his way . But that did not stop him from serving on the Board and volunteering. His wife Sandhya was up earlier than him today. The event had a pot luck dinner and the dishes were chosen by lots and she was "very lucky" to get the snack along with two other poor souls. Snacks were usually deep fried and Sandhya was getting the oil ready. When Mahesh and Sandhya moved to town they had rented an apartment and it was these kind of days Mahesh hated, as the smell of the frying gave him a headache as the whole apartment used to smell of the snack for a few days. He ended up taking Motrin on days Sandhya had a snack dish to prepare for the potluck. Now, that Mahesh had bought a house he instructed Sandhya that all frying for the association's events were to be done in the patio. A barbeque grill with a facility to attach a gas cylinder was bought by them at Big Five after moving into their house. Their daughter Revathi was giving a performance at the event. This was with a group of kids who were trained to sing a song by Venkat Rao. A great singer himself, he was in fact the Assoc