The Telugu Association of Southern California(TASC) celebrated the Deepavali function on Nov 1st 2009, the AP formation day at the Excelsior School Auditorium in Norwalk, California. The TASC community services setup up a fund raising booth for the AP Flood relief victims during this event. A social hour between 3pm to 5pm provided an opportunity for guests to mingle with each other. Delicious snacks and refreshments were provided by Vasantha Bhavan, Cerritos, CA.

The program was started with a traditional lamp lighting by the TASC Executive committee members and Community Leaders Dharma Reddy Gummadi, Subba Rao Makkam, Prasad Vepa, Chenchaiah Bathala . The cultural talent show by TASC members started off with Disha a little girl singing the Ganapati Prardhana. Cultural program of the evening was MC’d by Sri Syam Appali. In recognition of the Andhra Pradesh formation day, Mangala Chava sang the song “Maa Telugu Talliki” followed by Sri Tandava Krishnamacharyulu giving a brief discourse on the Deepavali and its mythological relevance. The rest of the programs during the course of the evening included a variety of talent shows like Srikar Rani singing Siva Stotram, Bharatanatyam by Smt. Swati, movie songs by Sudha Kotha and Sravya Kotha. The sister duo singing the Lava Kusa song was well presented and bought back nostalgic moments of the old movie with the same name.

Dances to fast beat movie numbers from super hit movies like Magadheera, Mallanna, King and Arya has made the audience move to the tunes. The whiz kid talent show by Sagar, a four year old boy who was answering the capital city names of more than a 100 countries in the world truly surprised many adults and inspired many young ones. Surendra Dara from Santa Barbara left many in the audience in splits with his comedy which comprised of many events and experiences along his life. A variety interactive game show on telugu movies, music and history, conducted by quiz master Srinivas Rani was well received by the audience. All in all the Diwali 2009 program was performed by 100% of the local talent, keeping up with the organizations objective of promoting and showcasing cultural talents in our member communities.

The TASC Executive Committee – Sreekanth Reddy Komatireddy, Bharathi Pinninty, and Murali Venkataramana Reddy thanked the participants for their spirited performances, the donors who contributed to the AP flood relief effort for their generous gesture, the sponsors of the Diwali event Raj Jewelers, Mr & Mrs Srinivasa Reddy and Dr.Arjun Dalvoy and to chairs and volunteers and past presidents Anil Arrabelli and Mallik Banda for their support. The chairs and volunteers Prasad Rani, Raju Vedala, Vijaya Bhaskar, Sitaram Pamireddy, Shekhar Seera, Pasha Sheik, Vishal Srivastava, Sujit Vadi, Vamsy Boyanapally, Raja, Monica Rani, Srinivas Rani, Chakradhar Reddy, Syam Appali were appreciated for their hardwork and dedication through the year to bringing many of the programs to fruition and for their contributions to the community.