Dallas Area Telangana Association (DATA) Celebrates Holi & Vanabhojanalu in a Colorful WayDallas Area Telangana Association (DATA) celebrated its annual Holi & Vanabhojanalu on Saturday, 30th March,2013 at Hidden Cove Park & Marina in Frisco, Texas. It was a colorful and fun filled day event with more than 700+adults and kids gathered to celebrate Holi & Vanabhojanalu. The weather was perfect for the occasion with pictureperfect Park setting right next to beautiful Lewisville Lake reminding back home village setting. With lots of trees,greenery around the lake shore next to park, cool breeze from the lake made it pleasant all day for attendees. Theevent started with attendees coming as early as 10:00 AM and then adults started playing Cricket, Volleyball andkids playing in the sandy beach on the lake. As DATA team led by Bhanu Chowdary, Kiran Chelamalla, HarishMandadi, Srinath Sadam and other volunteers started cooking BBQ Chicken and ‘Mokka Jonna Buttalu’ (Corn) on a the BBQ grill, the ladies started preparations & cutting for the main Vanabhojanalu dishes under the shades oflarge trees. As the attendees tasted the Barbeque grilled food and Corn, with Telugu music on the background,and with kids running around & playing with kites, the gathering looked like a back home village gathering for a festive Vanabhojanalu occasion.

The picnic brought a colorful festive look to the park with majority of kids and parents dressing up in traditionalwhite dresses, ready for Holi colors. All the Vanabhojanalu dishes for lunch was prepared & cooked at the park under the shades of the trees with perfect spring breeze for traditional Telugu cooking. Several guests were seen around the cooking grills helping with cooking, casually chatting on different topics and catching up with memories from back home Vanabhojanalu. Once the DATA volunteers finished the cooking, the food was served by the volunteers. The back home tradition was displayed as the attendees sat together with friends and family as they eat sumptuous lunch sitting on the green lawns at the park. Mouthwatering dishes prepared by DATA volunteers, biggest highlight at the event especially traditional spicy Telangana Chicken Kura, Aloo Kurma, and Tomato Pappu & Pachi Pulusu. After delicious lunch, the guests turned focus onto the Holi festivities. With DJ – Vishnu, playing the music to the tunes of likes ‘Rang Barse & Maya Dari Misammo‘, all the attendees started playing with colors and dancing to the tunes of DJ music. All the attendees had a colorful day with playing with Holi colors with their families, friends and other participants. The non-stop Holi festivities didn’t end until 05:30pm even after stipulated time for the event. It was more like a village ‘Chettla Kinda’ atmosphere, with everyone pitching in for various activities from food preparation & cooking to organizing games and cleaning. As the guest were leaving one could hear them talking about how colorful & tasteful the event was and how eagerly everyone will be looking forward for the next year event.

DATA Team Members including Anil Boddu, Bhasker Garlapati, Deepak Gantla, Harish Mandadi, Kiran K Chelamalla, Mahendar Ganapuram, Mahesh Mereddy, Manohar Jangeti, Narsimha Mereddy, Parikshit Velama, Raghuveer Maripeddi, Rajesh Pillamari, Ram Kasarla, Shekar Brahmmadevara, Srinivas Reddy (Bike), Srinath Sadam, Srinivas Dendi, Srinivas Damera, Srinivas Surakanti, Srinivas Thipanna, Sudhir Guda , Suresh Gottimukula, Venkateshwar Reddy Seri, Venu Annapureddy, Sridhar Devulapally organized the Holi & Vanabhojanlu event. The event ended with Vote of Thanks by Mahendar Ganapuram thanking event sponsor ‘Ruchi Palace’ for their generous support for the event. DATA organizers also thanked the attendees, volunteers & media partners for making the event a grand success.

Media partners for the event wereTV9, TV5, TNews, V6, ABN, Yuva Media, DPTV, DesiPlaza, & Radio Khushi. For more details about DATA & for upcoming Bathukamma festival please visit DATA website atwww.dataus.org.The event photo gallery can be found at DATA Holi & Vanabhojanalu - 2013