TELANGANA DEVELOPMENT FORUM (TDF-USA)
Fourth North American Bathukamma in Chicago: A Grand Success Beyond Expectations
Chicago,
ILLINOIS
September
16th, 2006
Telanganites
living in Chicago land area celebrated
Telangana Liberation Day along with 4th North American Bathukamma
Festival. The event was attended
well and it was a grand success by any
measure. The event was organized by Telangana Development Forum (TDF-USA),
Chicago Chapter.
More
than 200 people attended the event and celebrated Bathuakamma with great
enthusiasm and gaiety. People of all ages participated in this event.
It
was a nice sunny day and people woke up early and collected flowers for
Bathukammas. This activity brought back memories from backhome where children
used to go to fields to collect various wild flowers like Gunugu poolu,
Thangedu Poolu and other domestic flowers like Beera Poolu and Cutley
Poolu. Since we cannot get these
flowers in North America, we had to substitute them with locally available flowers.
Bathukamma
Picnic started at 10am with people trickling in slowly. We had big Bathukamma banner specially
brought from India for this occasion.
TDF Volunteers, with specially designed TDF T-shirts were seen
everywhere setting up the site for Bathukamma.
Venkat
Juwadi anchored the event and welcomed all participants, to follow the
tradition everyone introduced themselves. The next event was the celebration of
Telangana Liberation Day (Telangana Vimochana Dinam). Purna C R Allamneni
explained briefly about TDF and its activities and also spoke about Telangana
Liberation Day, Sept 17th, 1948. Telangana was still fighting against Nizam’s
dictatorship even after India got freedom from British on August 15th
1947. Many people were surprised to
learn this historical fact and were happy to get to know that. Many Telangana people sacrificed their lives
to get their freedom from the oppressive rule of Nizam. It is important not
only to remember the day as a historical record when Telangana got its freedom
but also to remember all those who lost their lives fighting for their freedom.
All the participants observed a moment of silence to honor those heroes.
Venkat
Thudi briefly explained the history of the Bathukamma celebrations in Chicago, how we started 4 years back with
a small group and how it has become a major cultural event among NRI’s in
Chicago.
One
of the volunteer Ashok Mudrakola sang a couple of folk songs.
Next,
lunch was served and it was a great feast, thanks to all the Ladies who
prepared them. There were about 27 different delicious Telangana dishes.
After
Lunch, there were varieties of games for people of all ages who participated
with great enthusiasm.
Bathukamma
started at about 3pm with women in traditional sarees, girls in half sarees, with Bathukammas made of locally available
flowers which were placed in the center and women played around the
Bathukammas. It was a visual treat when
women danced around Bathukammas with Bathukamma songs in the rhythm of “Bathukamma Bathukamma Uyyaalo.” Women folks danced more than an hour to the tunes of Bathukamma songs that were
brought from India.
There
was a special prize for “Best Bathukamma” sponsored by Sridhar Loka of
I.T.
Harbor.
Final
event of the day was when all the participants assembled together for prize distribution to winners of various
games. We requested the elders to
distribute the prizes.
Some
of the elders who are visiting U.S, also came to attend. They spoke very
emotionally and were very surprised and happy to see the celebrations which
were done in a traditional way.
Finally Venkat Juwadi thanked everyone in helping organize the event. The event
was a great success because of the hard work and contributions of the following
TDF volunteers Mahesh Pasula, Manjula Reddy, Sreenath Chinnala, Ashok
Mudrakola, Niranjan Allamneni, , Pradeep Damidi and Sridhar Loka.
Over all, it was a great event that exceeded every ones
expectations. All the particiapants were very pleased with the event.
TDF-USA
is a not-for-profit organization created to provide a platform for Non-Resident
Telanganites to come together to discuss various problems faced by Telangana
people. Please visit www.telangana.org
for information about TDF-USA.
Please note that TDF chapter at
Australia is celebrating Bathukamma on 17th in Sydney.
Bay area and Seattle chapters are celebrating Bathukamma on 23rd
September, Saturday.
Toronto (Canada) chapter is celebrating Bathukamma on 24th September, Sunday.
Cincinnatti, Detroit and Wasington
DC chapters are celebrating Bathukamma on 30th September, Saturday.
Atlanta chapter is celebrating Bathukamma on 1st October, Sunday.
We appeal all telanganites to
join the local event and share the fun!
Photos can be see from this Yahoo
photos link: