It was home away from home as more than one thousand people joined the Bathukamma and Dussera Festival organized by Detroit Telangana Community (DTC). It was night filled with festive gaiety, religious fervor at the St. Toma Banquet Hall in Farmington Hills here on Saturday.
The event was organized by Detroit Telangana Community (DTC), which translated its months of planning and hard work into making the show a tremendous success which was evident by the huge attendance never seen before.
The festivities were kicked for the day with the inaugural speech of DTC president Nagendar Aytha and program went on for hours with huge crowd. It was a great visual treat to see women folk, young and old clad in colorful traditional attires singing and dancing around the beautifully decorated Bathukammas. The Bathukamma songs reverberated for over an hour and that was only part of the fun for the night. This year an overwhelming number of Bathukammasn were brought in by participants. Every participant who brought a Bathukamma received a silver coin as a token of appreciation; in addition the top seven most beautifully decorated Bathukammas received huge trophies and a gold coin. With so many Bathukammas, it was a tough job for the organizers to pick the best one.
Venkat Manthena, President-Elect of DTC has introduced and invited the chief guest of the event Mr. Anil Eravathri (Govt. whip and Balkonda MLA). Speaking on the occasion Anil has appreciated the efforts of DTC and the Telangana diaspora in preserving and promoting Telangana culture and identity. He recollected his memories of his life at Detroit and also his involvement with the initial activities of Telangana. Bharath Madadi, Chairman of DTC along with other board members has felicitated Anil Eravathri, Gorati Venkanna, Ravi Chakti and Ravi Tokala for their contributions to Telangana. Sreedhar Bandaru ovearseas co-ordinator, of TELANGANA JAGRUTHI was part of Batukamma celebrations thanked crowd for participating in this great event.
The dinner was prepared differently with variety of saddulu like Pulihora, Cocunut rice, Lemon rice, Tomoto rice and curd rice etc. Thanks to Mirchi Restaurant for providing delightful dinner.
Later there were a series of cultural programs by kids, which were anchored by Vijay Pallerla and Vikyathi Pallerla. The real fun began when the main performing artists, the noted Telangana Prajakavi Gorati Venkanna, Ravi Chakti of the Rela Re Rela fame and the Ravi Tokala who earned the nick name of America Gaddar took over the stage. Gorati Venkanna speaking on the occasion said, looking at these grand celebrations, he wondered for a while whether he is in India or America. The passionate performance of these artists has spellbound the audience. For every song the audience responded with applause and dancing. The show ran into past midnight as the audience was reluctant to move.
The organizing committee has also felicitated the sponsors, Vinod Kukunoor, Kashi Kotha, Krishna Nichanamatla, Sreedhar Bandaru, Sistar Mortgage, Srinivasa Rao Gali – whose financial contributions have facilitated such extravagant celebrations. The event was made possible with the efforts of the Detroit Telangana Community committee members – Bharath Madadi, Nagendar Aytha,Venkat Manthena, Ramgopal Uppula, Bhujanga Rao, Hari Parankusham, Raju Brahmandabheri, Hari Maroju,Shailendra Sanam,Thirupathi Vengati, Sreedhar Bandaru, Sunil Marri, Venkat Devara, Kashi Kotha, Murali Bommanaveni, Krishna Guduguntla, Srinivas Raju Dhenuvakonda, Vijayabhaskar Pallerla and Sreenivasa Rao Gali.