UNBELIEF IN INDIA-Not a strong movement yet

UNBELIEF IN INDIA

Unbelief in religion has never been strong in India. In ancient times (approx. third century B.C.E.) materialist thought prevailed for a brief period under the name of CARVAKA. The movement was also known as Lokayata. Religious fundamentalists destroyed most of the Carvaka movement, including its writings. There were periods when Buddhist philosophies held sway (see BUDDHISM, UNBELIEF WITHIN), but these lasted only as long as they enjoyed the favour of local rulers. Eventually Buddhism became nearly extinct in India, even as it metamorphosed into a religion which spread to other parts of Asia.

Centuries would pass before further attempts could be made to re-launch organized unbelief. When the opportunity arose, it would be in consequence of Great Britain’s occupation and subsequent rule of India. A small number of Indians who travelled abroad brought back Western ideas about the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, and the scientific world view.

Throughout the nineteenth century, India underwent nearly continual religious reform, but most of these efforts were unsuccessful in bringing about radical or deep-rooted social change. Harmful institutions, including India’s strong caste system, untouchability, the practice of Sati (burning the widow alive on her husband’s pyre), and a  demoralizing belief in Karma or fate, were based directly on ancient Hindu scriptures. While some nineteenth century reform movements— including Arya Samaj, Brahma Samaj, Prarthana Samaj, and even THEOSOPHY in its reformist aspects—brought about some social change, their impact was short lived because none of them questioned the prevailing belief system in a fundamental way. So long as no reform movement dared to confront messages of India’s so-called holy scriptures, the social evils opposed by reformers would always endure in some form, enjoying popular support on the false grounds that they embodied India’s tradition and heritage.

INDIAN UNBELIEF IN THE EARLY TO MID 20TH

CENTURY

Only with the beginning of the twentieth century did a more resilient and dynamic form of unbelief emerges. It began in southern India, not surprisingly as this region was then at the forefront of efforts to force drastic changes in India’s social structure.

E.V. Ramasami, better known as PERIYAR (1879­1973), launched an anti-Brahmin movement in what is now the state of Tamil Nadu. Tripuraneni Ramaswami (died 1942) in Andhra Pradesh simultaneously started anti-Brahmin movements, publishing literature in Tamil and Telugu to spread iconoclastic ideas against oppression of upper caste Brahmins. They also questioned the unchallenged supremacy of Sanskrit language, which was used as yet another tool to promote social differentiation, and suggested the replacement of Brahmin priests with non-Brahmins.

Both Periyar and Ramaswami did not mince their words, using strong language to express atheistic ideas and questioning the prevailing rituals, customs, such as child marriages, and taboos of Hindus. Ramasami organized nursing homes, charitable institutions to help the downtrodden people. Both of them challenged the holy scripts of Hindus and organized training camps to educate a small number of middle class people with rational outlook. They officiated inter-caste marriages, which raised eyebrows in early 20th century. Ramasami organized sensational processions against the Hindu God Rama while hitting the Rama photo with shoes! Ramasami moved the masses with his speeches and rallied large number of people.

S. Ramanathan, a prominent politician who was a minister in the state government, showing the deep influence of the movement in the state’s intelligentsia, carried Periyar’s mantle until the early 1980s. While Periyar’s Dravida Khazagam movement would attract charismatic leaders such as Annadurai and Karunanidhi, both of whom were later to become chief ministers of the state, they ended up taking the organization into politics, pretty much ending the movement started by Ramaswami

Some followers, such ask. Veeramani tried to continue the “self-respect” movement of Dravidar Kazhagam and would later join India’s humanist movement. Others, such as Ravipudi Venkatadri, meanwhile carried the rationalist flame in Andhra.

One of the shining lights of southern India’s unbelief movement was Gora (died 1975), or Goparaju Rama­chandrarao. He was a Brahmin who stood against the supremacy of Brahmins and hence excommunicated from the caste. He hailed from Andhra Pradesh and was closely associated with M.K. Gandhi in the freedom fight against the British.

Gora never compromised on the principle of atheism and established a hermit in Mudunur village where untouchables were living. His wife Saraswati, who also came from orthodox Brahmin family, was an active participant and together they led the atheist movement. In 1940, Gora established an atheist centre in Vijayawada, a coastal town in Andhra Pradesh and spread the ideas through magazines, literature and meetings. Gora toured many countries of the world and contacted world atheist leaders such as Madalya O’Hair. He make a point, Gora organized beef and pork dinners, targeting both Hindus and Muslims who considered both products as sacred or unclean. He wanted party less democracy, simple living and the spread of positive atheism, which asserts ethical life. His entire family is still promoting his ideas: his sons Lavanam, Vijayam and Samaram, his daughter Chennupati Vidya, his daughter-in-law, Hemalatha, and even his grandson, Vikas Gora.

Gora also officiated several inter-caste and inter-religious marriages and both his son and daughter married spouses who came from the untouchable castes, showing by example what their father preached.

The international atheist centre established by Gora and managed by his family is well known throughout India as well in rationalist circles around the world for its path breaking activity.

Andhra Pradesh’s atheist movements spawned several splinter groups, often with their own magazines and literature. Jayagopal, Katti Padmarao, B. Sambasivarao, Ramakrishna, Gutta Radhakrishna Murthy, Saraiah, M. Subbarao, I. Muralidhar, C.L.N. Gandhi, Siddarth Baksh, M. Basavapunnarao, M. Sharif, Pasala Bhimanna, Vikram and others continue to fly the flag of atheism, however small or localized their efforts might be.

Other Southern and Western Indian states of Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra also saw a splurge in rationalist activity in the early 20th century with skeptical and agnostic ideas. Abraham Kovoor electrified the skeptics movement with his speeches and demonstrations, touring several states in India as well as Sri Lanka to spread the movement. His books—debunking astrologers,  godmen—were popular. Another active member of the rationalist movement in Kerala is Govindan, who edits the magazine, Sameeksha. The duo of Joseph and Sanal Edamaruku were also instrumental in challenging god men and exposing fraudulent “miracles,” touring intensively to demonstrate the falsehood of miracles.

Sanal Edamaruku would later shift to Delhi where he started international rationalist organization with a web site,  journals, books and an active campaign.

In Maharashtra, a big campaign was organized to convert the Hindus into Buddhists so that they get rid of inequality, untouchability and attain human rights with dignity. B.R. Ambedkar led the movement though without much success.

Meanwhile, skeptics groups began working in states such as West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Punjab, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. B. Premanand arranged for a Federation of all the groups and conducted several meetings at the national level, personally training several people in magic so that faith healers and god men and women could be easily exposed. State level federation in Andhra Pradesh (FARA) actively fought against fraudulent claims of god men, alternative medicines and supernatural claims under the coordinator N. Innaiah.

The Rationalist Association, which started in Bombay during 1930s slowly, picked up the momentum. Abraham Solomon, Lokkiandawala, M.N. Roy, M. Ramamurhty, R. Venkatadri, Avula Gopalakrishna Murthy, Innaiah Narisetti were all active participants and advocates of the movement.

M.N. Roy gave philosophical and scientific outlook to unbelief movements at India level. He organized re­orientation study camps where scientific orientation was promoted for renaissance, scientific study of history and asserting sovereignty of the individual in political field. Roy also established Radical Humanist, Renaissance and Rationalist organizations and elevated them at international level, often questioning the prevailing Gandhian spiritual ideology.

UNBELIEF IN INDEPENDENT INDIA

As the first prime minister of an independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru established a secular framework for the country but too had to compromise on several occasions due to political pressures, including giving up on the idea of a uniform civil code applicable to all Indians. The Congress Party, which is by far the most liberal and secular in its stated outlook, continues to compromise with all religions even as the BJP, a Hindu fundamentalist party that was in power recently, strongly reversed the rationalist trends in public life and educational fields.

Meanwhile, Communist parties won power in three states—West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura—raising hopes that rational and scientific thought will take root. But in all the states, the Communists compromised with the religious sentiments of people and never encouraged the efforts of rationalists, humanists and skeptics.

Communist leaders encourage popular religious festivals such as Durga Puja in West Bengal, Ayyappa festival in Kerala so that they get pilgrims and tourist revenue, not counting votes in elections. The fundamental Marxian principle that “Religion is opium to the people” was not implemented during Communist rule in India.

After the death of M.N. Roy in 1955, several intellectuals carried the spirit of inquiry through study camps, training classes, publications, seminars, and magazines. They diversified the activities into the fields of Human Rights (V.M. Tarkunde), equality of women (Indumati Parikh, Malladi Subbamma, Gauri Malik), publications (Shib Narayan Ray, Prem Nath Bazaz, Philip Sprat, Ram Singh, R.M. Pal, R.L. Nigam, C.R.M. Rao, Balraj Puri, Professor Niranjan Dhar (Vedanta and Bengal Renaissance), civil liberties (N.D. Pancholi, C.T. Daru, Jayant Patel), international organizations (G.R.R. Babu), secular activity (Avula Gopalakrishna Murthy).

V.B. Karnik and Maniben Kara concentrated their efforts among labour and humanist movement. Prof. A.B. Shah (died 1982) founded the Indian Secular Society and tried to educate Muslims with the help of Hamid Dalwai. He also established Satya Shodak Mandal for bringing the Muslim youth into mainstream of secular society. His book “Muslim Politics” provoked much discussion.

A.B. Shah faced the wrath of many Hindus by questioning the ban on killing cows but he vigorously propagated the scientific method as a solution to several problems facing obscurantist India. His book Scientific Method made a rare breakthrough in Indian academia when it was prescribed as a textbook in Bangalore University when H. Narasimhaiah was the vice chancellor. Shah started several publications, magazines (Humanist Review, New Quest, The Secularist) and educational reform campaigns for humanism and secularism.

UNBELIEF IN THE LATE 20TH CENTURY

Much of the effort to promote unbelief in India has become a regional effort with pockets of resistance to the continued lack of scientific thinking and fundamentalism within the country.

In West Bengal, for instance, Prafulla Kumar Naik under local humanists and rationalists has questioned the claims of miracles by Mother Theresa. Over in Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, focus has been against god men and women who claim to provide miracle cures. Andhra rationalists opposed unscientific alternative medicines  (Homeopathy), exposing the bogus claims of Alex Orbito (psychic surgery), the swallowing of live fish for asthma cures, the hugging of Matha Amrithananda Mayi in order to obtain prosperity, Geomancy (Vaastu).

Several books have been published with documentation about fraudulent god men such as Satya Sai Baba (Murders in Sai Baba Ashram by Premanand), Jilh’llamcidi Ainnin (by M.V. Ramamurthy), The Truth about Bible (N.V. Brahmam), The Falsehood of Geomancy (R. Venkatadri), Lie Hunting.(N. Innaiah), The Unscientific Nature of Astrology (Dr. Narasimhaiah), Why I am Not a Hindu (Ramendra), Be Gone Godmen (Abraham Kovoor). Books exposing the holy scriptures (Critique of Hinduism by Laxman Sastri Joshi, The Truth about the Gita by V.R. Narla, Gita by Premnath Bazaz, Critique on Ramayana by P.H. Gupta, Ochre Robe by Agehananda Bharati, writings of Khushwant Singh also helped spread of skeptical thinking.

Basava Premanand, Sanal Edamaruku, Innaiah Narisetti, and G.R.R. Babu continue to question the authenticity of holy persons and have taken their message to an international level, drawing considerable media attention to what is going on inside India. Charvaka, Telugu magazine edited by Mr. Thotakura Venkateswarlu from Vijayawada had great impact on youth in early 1970s.

Increasingly, the movement is also getting help from Indians who are now living abroad, people such as Aramalla Purnachandra, Nirmal Mishra, Jyothi Sankar (died in 1998) in USA who are providing key intellectual backing to India’s small number of humanists, skeptics and rationalists.

Despite their efforts, these miracle cures continue to draw thousands of believers, many of whom are conned into making financial donations in the hope of curing their ills.

UNBELIEF IN THE 21ST CENTURY

India entered the 21st century without much success in achieving a basic scientific society. While groups of people in various states continuously fight traditional and fundamentalist –mostly religious—groups, skeptic, rational, secular, atheist, humanist groups face an uphill task of modernizing Indian society into one that has a scientific outlook. Indian Secular society (V.K. Sinha editor The Secularist), Radical Humanist association (Managing Editor, Saraswati Rekha) Indian Humanist Union (leader Prakash Narain), Bihar Buddhiwadi Samaj (leader Dr. Ramendra), Satya Shodhak Sabha in Surat, and Babubhai Desai in Gujarat state, Anti superstition organization (Maharashtra under the leadership of Dhabolkar), Muhonat (leader in Rajasthan humanist group), Rationalist groups (leaders Srini Pattathanam, Oomen), Manavatavadi Viswa Samstha (leader Manavatavadi in Haryana state), Narendra Naik in Mangalore for Indian Sceptic Society (FIRA), Subhankar, Manoj Datta, Ajit Bhattacharjee, humanist group in West Bengal, Civil liberties group and Renaissance association Mr. N.D. Pancholi, Mahipal Singh, Mr. R.B. Rawat, Gauri Malik, B.D. Sarma, Vinod Jain are functioning in their regions.

All these movements have little membership and remain an almost insignificant minority among India’s millions. But they continue to express their views and raise their voices, often using local media to try and push back the onslaught of religions and dogmatic thinking.

Centre for Inquiry India started in 2006 with Dr. N. Innaiah and Mr. I. Muralidhar from Hyderabad as directors. Other  organisations like Jana Vignana Vedika, Manava, Vikasam, Bharat Nastika Samajam cooperate in agreeable areas.

Over time, the humanist, rationalist, atheist, and skeptic movements  in India established many contacts and connections with international, like-minded organizations, organizing international conferences in India and inviting foreign experts and thinkers to share their experiences.

Rob Tielman, Jim Harrick, Paul Kurtz, Larry Jones, Roy Brown, Madalya O’Hair, Fred Edwords, Matt Cherry, Fenneth Hiogarth, Levi Fragil, Barbara Smoker and Herman Bondi, among others, participated, enriching Indian associations in many ways. At the same time, key Indian leaders began actively participating in overseas conferences and conventions.

Another avenue of helping spread unbelief in India has been the translation of key books and articles into India’s myriad languages. Books by Paul Kurtz, M.N. Roy, A.B. Shah, R.G. Ingersol, V.R. Narla, Agehanand Bharati, Laxman Sastri Joshi, Premnath Bazaz including titles such as Living without Religion and Courage to Become, Why I am Not a Muslim, The Truth about the Gita, Memoirs of a Cat, Scientific Method are popular in southern Indian languages- such as Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. Skeptics in India have also benefited greatly from the populist writings of James Randi and have taken advantage of his $ 1 million challenge to go after India god men, none of whom are yet to come forward.

International organizations such as the International humanist and Ethical Union, Centre for Scientific Study of Paranormal Claims, Centre for Inquiry, as well as Humanist and Rationalist associations of various Western countries continue to provide help in this important fight,

Periyar movement in Tamilnadu played unique role in India which susvtained the atheist, rationalist and humanist movements. It is sustained with the efforts of Mr K. Veeramani and his followers. They honored Paul Kurtz, the leader from USA as well published Richard Dawkins God Delusion which is unique translation .

Innaiah Narisetti

V R Narla(late)on GITA

Twelve hundred years ago Sankaracharya picked up the Gita from the dust it was gathering, wrote a commentary on it with his unmatched genius for sophistry, and placed it before the people as the supreme guide to their life and thought and salvation. Since then its influence has been all too pervasive, all too pernicious. It has made our national mind flabby, our national spirit feeble. It has made us callous to human inequality and human suffering. It has made us shameless psychophants and sanctimonious hypocrites. This is the basic theme of a big and bold book by Prem Nath Bazaz. Of its 750 pages, nearly 500 discuss this particular aspect. Next only to the scattered writings on the Gita by Kosambi, the best critique on it is by Bazaz.

As I pointed out once earlier, the emergence of the Gita as a national scripture and the emasculation of the national mind and spirit are closely linked. This is a historical truth which can hardly be challenged. But no devotee of Krishna, nor an admirer of Sankara, would take that statement lying down. They will react strongly, and call me all sorts of names. The more violent their tirade against me, the happier will I be. For there can be no surer indication that my writing did have the desired effect. What, I desired most was to start a dialogue, to provoke a debate, to stir up a disputation. It is all the same to me whether people agree or disagree with me, whether they praise or abuse me. What I always seek — as I remember to have said elsewhere — is a clash of minds, a flash of ideas. It is the only means for the upsurge of a new spirit, indeed, for the birth of new life.

As I have had my say, it is time for me to wind up. But before doing so, I very much wish to give expression to two of my most ardent wishes. The first is that Krishna, if he is really the greatest god as he claimed to be again and again in the Gita and elsewhere, should not keep his promise to come down again and again to our poor little earth,  whenever he thinks that righteousness is in jeopardy (IX - 7). His coming on the last occasion did infinitely more harm than good. In the name of reinstating righteousness, he was primarily instrumental to the outbreak of a terrible war, and if we were to go by the Mahabharata, the number of survivors at its end was just nine from among the millions of its active combatants. What is worse, it marked the end of a better age (the Dwapara) and the beginning of a worse age (the Kali). It may also be recalled in this context that Krishna claimed that, of weapons, he was Vajrayudha or "the thunderbolt", as Radhakrishnan preferred to translate it (X - 28). If he were reappear now, he would claim that he is the latest among the nuclear weapons. And the war which he would actively promote to reestablish righteousness would result in the extermi­nation of all life from the face of our earth.

Now my second wish, no less ardent, is that we as a nation should forget the Gita as Arjuna did. In less than a year or two after it was taught to him by Krishna as a special favour, he told his friend and mentor that it had all "disappeared" from his mind. It will be a great blessing if our nation, too, allows the Gita to disappear completely from its mind. Only then can we awaken from the slumber of ages; only then can we shake off our many illusions and delusions; only then can we know the value of free, daring and original thought. And then only can we learn to despise the ideal of personal salvation and fix our sights on the future of humanity, indeed, on the time when man can migrate to other, and perhaps better, worlds in our vast cosmos. If only he could reach them what a great triumph will it be for the ever-questing, ever-soaring and ever-daring spirit of man! According to Sagan, there may be millions of such worlds in our galaxy alone. Being much older than our earth, some of these worlds may have far surpassed us in arts, science, philosophy, literature, culture, civilization and the rest of the graces of life.

I will not live to see that happy day when India will forget, like Arjuna, the Gita with all its contradictions and confusions, its equivoca­tions and evasions, its twists, turns and trickeries. But such a day will come, may be a long time after my death, but come it will. And when it comes the people of India will begin to live again, vitally, joyously, meaningfully. They would then stop fixing their gaze on the tip of their nose to still the mind and to kill all thought; they would then cease to peer into the so-called empty space within the heart where the soul is believed to have its temporary tenement, they would then scorn the ideal of union with that mirage, the Supreme Soul (Paramatma). With a new awakening, a fresh vision and a burning zeal, they would join the progressive world community in trying to unravel the many mysteries which are still locked inside the microcosm of the atom and the macrocosm of the cosmos.

To hasten that golden dawn on the murky history of India the first step to be taken is to disown Krishna and to discard the Gita.

Shirdi  Sai Baba – Myth and Business : newly created god

  Prabhakar K.Nanawaty

 There is a climax shot in  popular Hindi film Amar, Akbar, Anthony of erstwhile era.  Akbar is

singing at the top if his voice in front of Saibaba’s giant statue.  Two bright and colourful rays emerge

out of the eyes of statue  and enter in the eyes  of Akbar’s blind mother. Mother shouts: “I can see

now! God blessed me!” All the spectators in the cinema hall are excited.

    “Saibaba is a GOD’ ‘What a wonderful thing to happen’.... Saibaba of Shiridi has become a

symbol of money-spinners for film industry people.  Without his blessing neither film shooting will

start nor a completed film will be released in the cinema halls.  While travelling to Shirdi, a place

regularly visited by the film industry people and thousands of devotees from all over India.  We will

hear the dialogues like “We are devotees of Baba for last twenty years’.  His blessings saved me

many times. “The Great Saibaba!’ There is no point in arguing with devotees since all of them have

immersed in Sai miracle.  The impact of this strong belief will not allow one to think nationally or

think at all.  While travelling one can observe many people reading loudly ‘Sai Charit”.  Late Govind

Raghunath Dabholkar has written this book.  This book is mostly about the miracles performed by

Saibaba.  The followers vow that they have read  the book 20-30 times. The contents have been

impregnated in their brains permanently if you just glance through the pages you will find miracles

like  Saibaba taking out his intestine, drying it in the air and again pushing it inside the abdomen.

One will get nausea while reading such miracles.  But the book had been reprinted more than 20

times in the last 50 years selling thousands of copies.  Saibaba Trust officially publishes this book and

Dadasaheb Khaparde’s son had swelling on his skin and was in severe pain.  His mother

rushed to Saibaba .  Saibaba told “Don’t worry, it will rain”.  Saibaba started taking out his clothes

and mother saw the swelling on Saibaba”s body.  Saibaba said that he suffers all the pains of his

followers.  The author, Govind Dabholkar was a magistrate and he confirmed that all these events

have happened in reality and no one should doubt about them.  One co-passenger started babbling:

’my daughter-in-law had some problem while delivering.  I took  holy ash from the Sai temple and

pasted on her stomach and within five minutes she delivered a healthy baby.”

As soon as we enter Shirdi town, handouts and cards will start passing through the windows.

“Sai Shankar Flower Merchants: All items required for Pooja and Abhishek are available at

reasonable prices”.  However there is one more precautionary sentence for the benefit of devotees:

Beware of thieves.  One cannot imagine that in miracle of Saibaba.  Meantime  a few people

practically try to drag you saying

In the year 1838, a Phakeer (Muslim priest)  lands here.  For want of any other name the

local goldsmith calls him  Saibaba.  Shirdi was  a small village consisting of dilapidated houses.

Villagers had great fun to see such a stranger in their village.  Most of them were farmers.

Nowadays the farming has been set aside and every one is engaged in only one industry.... Sai baba

 Sai is business for this town

Enter  any shop.  By paying Rs.25  one will get all the essential  items of Abhiskek. Talkative

shop owners murmur ; Saibaba blesses you. ‘How to get Darshan?’. Innocent question but difficult to

answer. Abhishek is performed at 9 ’O’clock in the morning. For this you should stand in queue right

from early morning at 5 ‘O’ clock . Satyanarayana Pooja will be at noon 12 ‘O’ Clock. In the evening

there will be Aarati will be at 10 pm. He listed the timetable. ‘Will it be possible to avoid standing in

‘You need right contacts at highest level. Or you should be political  bigwig like MP, MLA,

Minister or Govt. Bureaucrat from secretariat.  Permission is granted to enter the main temple to

these influential persons only.  But if one is ready to pay huge donation, say Rs.50,000, will open the

gates of main Mandir immediately. Money has more miraculous power than Sai.

A board is displayed in the office of Sai trust about the special category for Darshan.  Some

are more equal  than others even here too.  Whom do you complain?  The trust has built a big hall

for devotees anxious for Sai Daeshan.  Marble benches have been provided  to take rest.  Close

circuit TV has been installed to view the Pooja performed in the main temple by other devotees.

Most in the waiting are fully satisfied with this virtual reality.  All the walls in the hall have been

painted with the scenes showing Saibaba’s miracles.

Miracle 1.  When the villages were infected by cholera, Saibaba put jowar  flour around the

village and cured cholera affected people.  Miracle 2.  Chandbhai who brought Saibaba to Shiridi,

wanted to smoke Chilum (sort of handmade pipe).  He couldn’t find fire anywhere nearby. Phakeer

touched the green grass and fire was lit!  3.  A river started from the toe of the feet of Saibaba.              

4.  Thousands of lamps were lit on the water while Saibaba is standing on the shore.

If someone stands in a queue surrounded  by such scenes,  one will certainly  start believing

anything.  Mind will be conditioned to accept anything without thinking.  The books like Sai Charit

or Sai Leelamrit are continuously glorifying the miraculous power of Saibaba.  The glorification of

anything has become a core theme of Indian society.  The believer will become helpless and

intellectually week and starts losing  confidence in himself and his efforts.  Anything good that is

happening in his life will be attributed to God, Guru or somebody except himself .  Anything

determined will be result of his fate.  No one wanted to go into details of these  miracles have been

described never bother  to give any references and historical evidences.  Perhaps there may not be

any base.   Everything is just for these miracles.  Everything is just imagination to make money.  Even

the photographs displayed are fake or created by Imaging.  On enquiry at trust office, the

concerned official  said that there no original photographs of Saibaba anywhere.  One  starts

wondering how the cult is is being built around such imaginary things and the market force to flood

the photographs of Saibaba.  In one of the books published in 1914, there is a reference that district

collector Desai has taken a snap shot.  But the reference does not have any credibility.  Trust

released a photograph  in 1922.  But the trust also took the miracle route.

The serpentine queue has moving snail’s speed.  The devotees were mostly  from Gujarat.

Every 10-15 minutes you would hear the shouting in unison: Bolo Sainath Maharaj ki Jai, Jor se bolo

Sai bolo.  Every one is holding a plate with flowers and other items of worship.  A saffron scarf was

used as headgear.  Queue as moving slowly.  Even the toilets have been provided for nature call of

devotees.  If some miscreant tries to jump queue, people will express their anger by shouting the

slogan with higher pitch.   Some one said “Sai will punish the  intruder”.

Meanwhile, someone started selling Laddu for Rs. Two.  The devotees are expected to put

Laddu at the feet of Sai’s idol at main Mandir and eat as Prasadam, which is blessed by Sai to wash

away the sins committed by devotee knowingly or  unknowingly .  On an average four thousand

devotees are visiting  every day.  On Thursdays  this figure will rise to sixty thousand.  So you can

imagine the turnover in a place like Shiridi, Satyanarain pooja will cost twenty five rupees.  The Pooja

itself must be fetching straight away more than 20 lakh per week.  At the basement 15-18 huge

sealed  steel boxes are kept to receive the donations.  No receipts are demanded for the donations

deposited by the devotees.  Some times the total collection goes upto Rs. Fifty lakh per week.  In

this money collecting game, one day Shiridi Saibaba will surpass Tirupati Balaji.

After going through all the hasseles, battering by the security guards and the anxiety, at last

one enters into the main Mandir where the devotees can physically touch the Sai Idol.  Suddenly a

few in the queue roll on the floor and beat their head as through possessed by some invisible thing.

Devotee hands over the plate.  The priest  touches the plate at the idol’s feet in a flash and hands

over back to the devotee.  Devotee is not satisfied.  He wants to be kept longer time.  Everything

needs to be charged  by the Sai power.  The priests  start protesting.  However, some one pacifies

both the parties.  Queue has to move.  There are 24 priests  who work in two shifts.  These priests

are middlemen between God Sai and the devotees.  The total staff consists of 45 persons who are

attending Sai round the clock.  Out of 24 priests, 9 of them  are holding diploma certificate from

Tryambakeshwaar School of Veda , which conducts regular courses of 3 years duration on

priesthood.  This includes idol worship, offering  flowers, Satyanarayan Pooja and various Mantras to

be chanted at various occasions etc.  Even the priests have to go through the shifts to earn their

livelihood like any industrial worker though all of them are so near to Saibaba and everyday seeing

him in person.  Sai Idol  is made of Italian marble.  There is a throne embedded with  designed

carved in silver  and gold plates.  The Idol has been dressed with red and saffron coloured garments.

A pearl necklace is around the neck.  Like in any other temples, there is no mound of coconuts near

the Idol but heap of dry flowers occupy the major portion of floor space.

Dabholkar, Deshpande and Saagasrabuddhe  trio initially started the flourishing business of

Saibaba idol worship about hundred years ago.  If one critically tries to analyze the stories and myths

propagated, one will start doubting whether such a person   was really alive or was it a figment of

imagination of a few gangsters to rob the gullible public.  A Phakeer comes to remotest  village, says

in a  sort of mosque, and taken names of Allah.  It means the person was never a hindu.  In fact the

person had a very abnormal  pattern of behaviour.  He was a smoker of chillum (a sort of pipe).  He

wandered all  around the place  on rivar banks and hill tops, always wearing torn clothes.  Most of

the time he stared at the sky without blinking the eyes.  Villagers called him a mad phakeer.  Beggars

stole his food.  Bayajabai cooked food for him.  But he was never regular for his meals and got

irritated very quickly.  Sometimes he used to dance on the streets,  Once he out his hands in the

fire.  He used obscene language   whenever women approached him.  No one was  able   to make

sense  of what he was saying in the undertone.    All these details are available in the biographies

published by the trust.  While going through his biography one gets convinced that there is a

deliberate attempt by Dabholkar, Despande, Dasganoo etc. to project Saibaba as Hindu saint. Infact

Saibaba stayed al l his life in a dilapidated mosque and prayed Allah in Muslim style.  But most of

the Hindu Traditionalists imagined him as incarnation of their favourite God or saint.  Some worship

him as Swami Ramdas of 16th century era.  Some say he is a Avataar of  Shankar.  Some   vouch that

he is incarnation  of Dattatreya. Some had gone to the extent that he is an incarnation of  Akkalkot

Maharaj of 18th century.  There is neither logic nor consistency in these biographies.  Sai baba’s

famous slogan is Allah Malik Hai.  But in spite of all these supporting evidences that he is not a

Hindu, every devotee assumes that there is an ardent.  Hindu but behaved a bit abnormally.  The

prestigious gang, who elevated Sai to God’s status to fulfil their vested interests, have given him a

new dimension of Hinduism.  Chandorkar went to an extent saying that he had assisted Saibaba

during his bath and confirmed that Sai’s ears were punctured like in Hindu tradition. Thus, an aura of

Hinduism was built around Sai.  Infact Saibaba had nothing to do with Ram Navami festival.  This was

started by the trio to make money.   The tomb built on his death body was also in Hindu tradition.

SAI BABA SECULARISM IS FRAUD

If one goes through the historical details of Saibaba’s life there was not even a single

Muslim devotee.  As per Muslim religion worshipping an idol is banned.  As per Muslim religion

worshipping an idol is banned. As such the secularism attached to Saibaba or to his place is an

outright fraud.  No Muslim visits this place.  No Muslim priest performs  prayer. Even then  media

advertises this temple as a symbol of secularism.  Secularism in the world of faith is a complex

concept.  Both Hindus and Muslims have to come to an agreement to evolve a methodology without

hurting the religious feelings.  However, vested interests have dominated and Hinduism is

One will realize the extent of exploitation while coming out of the temple and look around it.

Gullible Hindu devotees have contributed whole-heartedly to build mansions and high rise buildings,

now owned by the Trust.  The property may be 7-8 crore rupees worth.  The building projects are

still continuing and everyone except the devotees is benefited.

A Neem tree  with thatched roof is nearby.  The legend says that the leaves of this Neem

tree are very  sweet.  However, you can’t confirm the same since one is not allowed to pluck the

leaves   from the tree for eating.  However, Hindu religion has a solution for any Catch 22 situation!

You can eat the leaves fallen on the ground.  If they are not sweet, it means you are not a pious

person. God is not blessing you.  One of the trust official announced that a German scientist was not

able to explore the secret of sweetness.  After asking for the report, he expressed his inability to

produce the same.  There is a very small lane passing through this place.  The lane is crowded with

the beggars.  At least 800 beggars might have been there out of which 50-60 are women.  If you just

wait for a while, a bread seller will pop up with 4-5 loves of bread and request you to distribute

bread to beggars.  Each loaf will cost Rs.20 or more.  Like him 5-10 bread sellers are standing among

beggars to give an opportunity to feed the beggars.  The beggars are earning at least 400 Rupees per

day; most of them are bank account holders.  In this economically liberated era everything has

become ‘instant’ : instant beggars, instant food in the form of bread chunks.  Instant sellers.

Everyone wants to make a fast buck.

Across the road there is a place presumed to be where Sai baba distributed the holy ash.

The place is popularly known as Chandorkar Chavadi. Inside, there is nicely carved wooden plank;

above which a notice board is hung indicating Baba’s sleeping place.  If you keenly observe, the plank

might have been carved 5-6 years ago.  There is also a notice board, which warns that no woman is

allowed inside.  In fact as per Saibaba’s biography, Bayajabai took care of him throughout his life.

But no one could explain why such a ban or discrimination towards women in these days.  It appears

even in 21st century some one wants to follow the dictates of age old Manusmriti.

Saibaba’s  contemporary, Abdul Baba’s house is very near to this place.  An old man, poses

of photographs that  look  exactly like the portraits of Saibaba.  He pointed to holy book and other

items and told that all these belong to Abdul baba.  Devotees are coming inside and Rahimbaba

blesses them.  They put a few coins in return.

      “Have you seen Saibaba?”

      ‘I don’t lie and I don’t want to talk on this issue.  Everything is commercialized nowadays.  Who is

bothered about Saibaba and his whereabouts?‘ He vented his sorrow.  ‘Is there any original snapshot

       ‘You see, Abdulbaba was his contemporary and we have his genuine photographs.  I don’t know

about anything else.  No place for the truth, Sir”.

There is one more place known as Dwarakamai’s Mosque.  The items, like wheat bag, bath

stone, Chulha etc. have been displayed in this place like in historical museum and people come to

this place with all the reverence,  The wheat bag  has fresh look as though purchased very recently

and certainly not 100 years old.  The Chulla is painted in various colours. The fireplace is still burning.

All devotees bow in front of each item very piously expecting blessings from Saibaba.  No one seems

to have any doubts in their minds about whether these artifacts are genuine or fake.  No one

displays inquisitiveness while looking at these almost fake items.  Thinking power, rationality, spirit

of enquiry are totally absent.  The manipulators of religious values have made everyone slave.  Baba

has all the remedies for any problems.  He can cure all the diseases.  Ashes given by him (or his

cronies) is an ultimate medicine for diseases ranging form common cold  to severe type of cancer.

Tatyasheb Noolkar recovered from blindness.  Padmanabh Swamy  was able to hear clearly

through  he was deaf right from the birth since he had received blessings of Baba.  Balasaheb Shimpi

recovered from Malaria fully just feeding the food to dog by Baba. Shrimant recovered  from

Like these, there may be thousands of myths percolating every generation and at every

place.  No one dares to doubt Baba’s glory, his super power and his compassion.  Mahadevrao

Deshpande was cured of his piles by eating peanuts given by Saibaba.  Just by exhauling, Baba cured

the snake and scorpion bites.  Swallowing the holy ash cured Dattopant’s stomachache.  Though the

whole village was suffering from plague.  Chandorkar’s  friend was saved  because she had put holy

ash on her face.  TB patient of Malegaon could recover by just applying  the holy ash all over the

All these miracles printed in Sai Leelamrit, are told, retold, modified, glorified and improved

so that no one will have an iota of doubt about its truthfulness.   Everything is described as though

narrator was invisibly present all the while and at all the place till the end.  Mind is conditioned and

devotees are addicted to listen to such trash.   If the diseases can be cured  by Darshan or by

applying the holy ash, why has  trust built an ultra modern hospital?  The hospital incurs Rs.25 lakh

loss every year since it subsidizes the medical bills of ‘poor’ devotees.  Why is Saibaba not able to

prevent  any diseases?  Why is he not able to cure poor without any medical assistance?  If the place

and person are so powerful.  Why do you need diagnostic centres, operation theatres, surgical

facilities, ICUs, trained medical staff, experienced surgeons? Shamdas Foundation owned by a

devotee of Saibaba had built an ultra modern hospital at Hong Kong.  Hundreds of medical experts

from all over the world are attending this Hospital one or other capacity.  In spite of all these

modern facilities and blessings received from Saibaba, the recovery rates are at par with any other

hospitals of the same caliber.  Saibaba did not make any difference, inspite of all these statistical

probabilities, realities and apparent evidences, the Trust still publishes various types of miracles in

its monthly bulletin Sai Leela.  One can understand the illiterate devotees may not be aware of the

process of spread/origin of diseases or may not know the nuances of diagnostics, immunization,

recovery process, or healing methods.  However one thing is clear that anything good that is

happening in the life is attributed to Saibaba.  This mindset is playing a major role in the spread of

curing power of Saibaba.  Nowadays the patients suffering from polio, cancer, and heart ailments are

visiting in large numbers.  Couples come here very often to be blessed with a child.  Offerings are

made at the spur of the moment.  Enourmous amount is promised if the wish is granted without

taking into consideration the financial conditions.  To fulfil the vow one has to be in the clutches of

pawnbrokers.  However, main beneficiary is the Trust which is hoarding a large sum donated by the

gullible devotees.  The stories of miraculous curing power of Saibaba plays greater role in amassing

wealth.  Trust goes on printing and reprinting the books, magazines and other materials depicting

the miraculous power of Saibaba, just changing names here and there.  All stories read alike.

Sometime back KS Pathak, an IAS officer was nominated as receiving officer of the Trust. He

found  that misappropriation of large fund by the local trustees.  They were looting the public.  The

golden and silver ornaments, belonging to the Trust, were found in the houses of the trustees.

When  police raided their houses, they threw the ornaments in the nearby fields.  Charity

commissioner  imposed inquiries.  CID officials investigated the frauds.  Trustees tried their best to

put political pressure on the receiving officer and charity commissioner to stall further

investigations.  A few of the trustees were punished and put into jail.

In spite of these headlines in the  media, the devotees are deterred to visit.  ‘Saibaba is

great!  He will take care of our sins’.  That is the attitude of the devotees.  Political leaders come

here to enhance their ‘power’.  But sometimes they to suffer badly.  Ex-President Shankar Dayal

Sharma paid a visit with all its pomposity: within a few days after the visit he was suffering with

severe ailments.  Sharad Pawar visited the temple while he was experimenting with like-minded

parties.  Three months after the visit his experiment utterly failed.  Shankarrao Chavan, Vasantdada

Patil also suffered very badly.  P.V. Narasimha Rao  came to this place as a Prime Minister,  but by

the time he returned Delhi he was no more a minister!  This may also be a miracle of Saibaba!

Even if we keep aside the devotees and their problems, the trustees and local population are

at daggers head.  Each party wants its share of flesh in this money game.  One of the trustees was

arguing that villagers don’t know what they are missing since too much familiarity breeds contempt.

Villagers argue that Trust has turned whole villages into five star hotel with money flowing like

water.  Highrice buildings, asphalt roads, even airport but local population is still deprived to basic

necessities... Trustees want that local people should cooperate (in looting)  with trust so that they

too can get benefited.  Villagers erected shanty shops all around the temple and started earning

their livelihood by selling the goods required by the devotees.  This irritated the trustees.  They

wanted these ugly structures should be removed immediately.  For years together this confrontation

is continuing and sometimes the situation is turning violent.  If Saibaba cannot solve these problems

amicably how can one expect him to take up problems of some individuals?  Nowadays devotees

have to take care of their belongings, cash etc.  Since Saibaba is favouring   pick pocketers, thieves

too.  Even while one is inside the main temple bags, purses etc.  are stolen.  While devotees are

gathering on auspious days like Ram Navami, Guru Purnima, Dasera it becomes very easy for thieves

to do their own business!  But ardent  belief in Saibaba gives  the devotees to absolve these

To  overcome the minor problems trust has started ‘Sai Darshan’ on internet.  The

prominent message on the internet is “If you look at me, I will look  at you”.   Devotees from distant

places can have instant Darshan and get blessed by Saibaba.  A few foreigners’ e-mails pasted on the

website make very interesting readings .  Varah Appikatla is an NRI staying in US.  He took

‘Darshanam’ of Saibaba  and managed to secure top position in IBM.  Now he is ready to send huge

donation to the trust.  The assistance of advanced science and technology is sought to strengthen

their superstitions.  Saibaba  cult is a sort of contagious disease and is not restricted to only

Maharashtra region.  In  the south Puttaparthy Saibaba has surpassed the original Saibaba in all

respects.  Dharma Sai Seva Trust has already spread its tentacles asking for huge donations to feed

the children of downtrodden and marginalized poor people and to construct Hindu nationality and

People from all over India come to Shiridi.  All of them are emotionally choking while they

visit this place.  Each one’s  story is quite unique.  But if one probes deeper, the devotees have lost

their self-confidence and are afraid of everything – the wealth, luxuries, people around them, the

place where they stay, family members etc.  They are not in a position to trust anybody.  A sort of

mental disease has taken over these devotees.  From outside  they all look normal human beings can

believe all these legends, miracles and power of blessings and artefacts like amulets and charms.

While returning from a place like this, even a rational human being will start doubting whether this

society is normal enough to realize in what trap it is bound.

        Once again you are amidst

        “Saibaba Bolo ... Saibaba Bolo...”

(Author is an active Rationalist and Humanist, Editor of Tought and action web magazine resides in Pune)

                                                                     -- :oOo:--

Brief History of TANA (Telugu association of North America)

Living History of T.A.N.A

Tana History :Writer

Innaiah Narisetti

Living History of TANA

Writer

Innaiah Narisetti

Contents

I)  TANA  1 - 19  Conferences

II)  TANA Youth Conferences

III)  TANA Foundation

IV)  TANA Patrika

22. TANA Marching Towards 20th Conference

Living history of T.A.N.A

Telugu Association of North America is young in age but dynamic in work progress. During 1977  the first founding conference was held in New York with 1000 participants and within a year the second conference in Detroit, MI officially named it as Telugu association of North America. Slowly but steadily T.A.N.A extended its activities into various fields. So far 19 bi-annual conferences were held in various cities of USA which got attention of Telugu people worldwide .Each conference  with one president and one coordinator conducted deliberations while hundreds of persons extended their help. TANA encouraged local talent and involved boys, girls, youth, and experts from various fields.

From President Bill Clinton to K. R. Narayan ,the president of India, the conferences had the benefit of getting the messages, speeches and advices. Each conference played unique role with stage dramas, folk arts, songs, cine artists, experts in various fields like business, technology, education, and music. Several talented persons from various walks of life gave their excellent knowledge to the conferences. Each conference also brought out one special souvenir with articles in English and Telugu , covering wide range of subjects.

The conferences popularized TANA in all walks of life among Telugu people. After completing 19 conferences TANA steadily moving to 20th conference to be held in Detroit during 2015 under the presidentship of Mohan Nannapaneni and Mr Gangadhar Nadella as co ordinator. In way it can be said that TANA officially commenced at Detroit and coming to  the same place to conduct its 20th conference.

In between biannual conferences TANA is serving Telugu people continuously in Andhra Pradesh, India and in USA. TANA foundation is the main source of service through several projects to uplift the living conditions of people. Many villages in Andhra Pradesh were modernized with these projects  as donors put their money.  That includes helping cancer patients, eye camps  and few other medical services.

Telugu language promotion is another uphill task undertaken by TANA which drew attention of boys and girls. In USA proper TANA has taken up emergency help programs to those who involved in accidents and who also are duped in the name false educational institutions.

Tana brings out monthly magazine in Telugu and English which is now running as web magazine. It is covering wide range of fields.It has editors like Dr Jampala Choudary, Mr Nehru Cherukupalli, Kidambi Raghunath, etc

Another special feature which TANA can proudly claim is the election of woman as its president, elected Ms Mutyala Padma Sri  in democratic way. Tana is paying great tributes to the yeoman work of women and their contribution to the upbringing  of children.

This history of TANA covers all these aspects in brief and placing before the public for the first time. It is called LIVING HISTORY OF TANA since it has only beginning and no end!

At the request of Mr Nannapaneni Mohan , president TANA the task is undertaken -both in Telugu and English (as well as web edition) with available pictures and brief speeches of selected persons -like President Bill Clinton, N.T.Rama Rao (chief minister of Andhra Pradesh) Mr Ch.Ramoji Rao  chief editor of Eenadu Telugu daily,  and so on so forth.

The help extended by various persons including past presidents, coordinators, and others duly acknowledged.

It is small wonder to know that among all ethnic language groups from India, TANA is the first to organize nationwide organization in USA!

Innaiah Narisetti

Tana History Writer

TANA Founding Conference

                                                                                        

Formation of TANA is a dynamic idea. TANA is Telugu Association of North America. Once the idea is formed it has its own logic and momentum. Few Telugu people had the idea of coming together to form into an association to discuss ideas, preserve culture and establish communication in USA.

Telugu people in New York and New Jersey gathered at a picnic in New York during 1977.  Several doctors, engineers, officers working at United Nations office and other places have discussed the formation of a cultural society of Telugu people.  They invited all the Telugu associations in North America to assemble in New York. The Telugu Literary and Cultural Association (TLCA) was formed with Dr. B. Siva Ram Reddy as the president.  The next year Kakarla Subba Rao has become the president and Dr. Guthikonda Ravindranath was the secretary.  

Founding Conference

Dr. Kakarla Subba Rao, Dr. Guthikonda Ranvindranath, Dr. Bandaru Sivarama Reddy, Mr. Kidambi Raghunath have taken the initiative in September 1976 and contacted  several Telugus in North America, including Mr. Veluvolu Basavaiah, Dr. Tummala Madhava Rao, Mr. Vanguri Chitten Raju, Mr. Manney Ramana Rao and others for their input to organize the  conference. After several deliberations by these individuals a decision was made to organize the first North American Telugu Conference in New York during the Memorial Day weekend, May 27-28, 1977. Dr. Kakarla Subba Rao was the president of Telugu literary and Cultural Association of New York Tri-state Area (TLCA) in 1975-76 followed by Guttikonda Ravindranath in 1976-77.

The very first thought of having a conference for Telugus in U.S.A came during the first World Telugu Conference, which was organized by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, India under the leadership of the then Chief Minister Sri Jalagam Vengala  Rao and the Education Minister Sri M.V. Krishna Rao in  Hyderabad in April 1975.  The few participants, who were invited to that conference from North America were Veluvolu Basavaiah (Toronto),  Sri S.V. Rama Rao (Boston)  and couple of others. During the conference the idea world Telugu meeting has emerged.

At that time local Telugu Associations were functioning at New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Toronto and Washington D.C. The first Telugu Association was formed in Chicago with the title of Telugu Literary and Cultural Association. Immediately after that the Telugu Literary and Cultural Association of New York-New Jersey was formed in Toronto, Canada. Before this, in the mid-60s, North East Ohio Telugu Association consisting of Greater Cleveland, Youngstown, Akron, Bowling Green, and Pittsburgh areas was formed by Dr. Kakarala Chandrasekhara Rao.

Origin of Founding   TELUGU CONFERENCE (1977): The idea of   Telugu people coming together in USA is the brainchild of Dr. Kakarla Subba Rao (1st President) and Dr. Guttikonda  Ravindranath (Convener of the first Telugu conference).

Telugu Literary and Cultural association of New York (TLCA) was one of the earliest Indian organizations in USA, founded in 1971.  Dr. Kakarla Subba Rao was the president of Telugu literary and Cultural Association of New York Tri State Area (TLCA) in 1975-76 followed by Guttikonda Ravindranath in 1976-77.  Both of them felt the need to have a meeting of all the Telugus living in USA and Canada at New York to promote Telugu language and culture.  They invited all the Telugu associations in North America to assemble in New York City.

5000-7000 Telugu families in North America represented by nine associations are : Telugu Literary and Cultural association of New York (TLCA), Telugu Cultural Association of Delaware Valley (TAGDV), Greater Washington Telugu Cultural Society (GWTCS) Telugu Cultural Association of Houston (TCAH), Telugu Cultural Association of Greater Chicago (TAGC), Detroit Telugu Cultural Association (DTA), Bay Area Telugu Association of San Francisco (BATA)  and Andhra Cultural Association of Southern California in Los Angeles (ACASC) from USA and Andhra Cultural Association of Edmonton (ACAE) from Canada.

Representatives of nine associations met under the leadership of Dr. Kakarla Subba Rao and Mr. Guttikonda Ravindranath and formulated the details for the first North America Telugu Conference that was held on May 28-29, 1977.  Chief Guest was Mr. Anna Rao of TTD. This was attended by about 310 Telugu families, with 940 delegates from 30 states of USA. It was held in a high school, attendees were hosted in local homes and food was prepared by the volunteer women at the venue. A total of $8,004.08 was collected with surplus of $1,412.10 after $6,591.98 expenses. $412.10 spent on post conference report and $1000 was passed on to Detroit as seed money for the 2nd conference.

Conference Committee:

Dr.    Ravindranath Guthikonda, Convener

Dr.    Kakarla Subba Rao, Souvenir Committee Chair

Dr.    Sivarama Reddy Bandaru, Reception Committee Chair

Mr.    Vempati Krishnamurthy, Finance Committee Chair

Mrs. Lakshmi Subba Rao Kakarla, Food Committee Chair

Dr.    Subba Rao Ghandikota, Cultural Committee Chair

Mr.    TellaTirupathaiah (Chicago)

Dr.    Madhava Rao Tummala (Detroit)

Dr.    Tataiah Koneru (Huston)

Mr.    Kondavalasa Shyamsundara Rao (Edmonton, Canada)

Dr     (Mrs). Bandaru Subhashini Reddy (Metropolitan New York)

Mr.    K. Rama Krishna Reddy (Philadelphia)

Mr.    Basavaiah Veluvolu (Toronto, Canada)

Mr.    Ramana Rao Manney (Washington, D.C.)

Founding conference was arranged in a local school, which was attended by 1000. The food was prepared by the local Telugu families.  Dr. Ravindranath Guthikonda, Convener welcomed the guests.   

Dr. Bandaru Subhashini Reddy has introduced the speakers. An ad-hoc committee consisting of Dr.Kakarla SubbaRao (Chairperson), Dr. Madhava Rao Tummala (Secretary), Dr. Guthikonda Ravindranath, Mr. Ramana Rao Manney, K Ramakrishna Reddy, Mr. Tella Tirupataiah, Mr. Veluvolu Basavaiah and Mr. Vanguri Chitten Raju was formed.

Inaugural Ceremonies were presided over by Dr. Kakarala Subba Rao (New York) Member of the Conference Committee. He welcomed all the delegates and invited the chief guest, Mr. C. Annaro of Tirupati - Tirumala Devasthanams, A.P. India, Ms. Anasuya Anna Rao, Dr. Ravindra Nath Guttikonda (New Jersey), Convener of the Conference, Sri B. Krishnam Raju (Hyderabad Andhra Pradesh, India) who release the literary souvenir and opened the art craft exhibition, Sri S.V. Rama Rao, Artist (Kentucky), who release the philatelic souvenir; Mr. G. A. Narasimha Rao (New York), who introduced Mr. C. Annarao; Dr. B. S. Reddy (New York), Chairman, Reception Committee, who introduced all the dignitaries to the audience; Mr. Krishna M. Vempaty, Chairman, Finance Committee, who read all the special message of best wishes received from many countries; Dr. Subhashini Reddy, Metropolitan New York area representative on the Conference Committee, who introduced all the other area representatives on the conference committee -- Dr. Madhava Rao Tummala (Detroit), Mr. Emmadi Ramakrishna (Michigan), Mr. Veluvolu Basavaiah (Toronto), Mr. Ramana Rao Manney (Washington), Mr. Tirupataiah Tella (Chicago), Mr. K. Ramakrishna Reddy (Philadelphia), Dr. Chitten Raju Vanguri (Houston), And Mr. Tirumalarao Tipirneni (New Jersey), Secretary of the Host Organization Telugu Literary and Cultural Association, New York, thanked the participants.

Conference song

Ms. Prabha Raghunath sang a song in Telugu, composed by Ms. Samanthakamani Murthy Mukkavilli composed and presented the conference song, along with her daughter, Ms. Lalitha while Ms. Prabha Raghunath recited a  song in Telugu.

Dr. Ravindra Nath Guthikonda, Convener of the conference, in his welcome address said:  

“Welcome to the proceedings of the First Telugu Conference of North America.

The main aim of this conference is to establish links between various organizations with common goal of setting up guidelines and suggestions to attain a unique blend of Telugu, American and Canadian cultural heritages … TANA have more than 800 delegates participating here both in the cultural programs and the discussions. These, TANA hopes, will extensively contribute to the welfare of the entire Indian Community, with special reference to Telugu Community, in the years ahead. Some of the cultural programs reflect the revival of now less-popular items, which are fast going extinct - even in Andhra Pradesh - most of the outcomes of the discussions, recommendations and mechanisms of action will be announced in the general body meeting. We sincerely hope the participation will be extensive now and in the future also.”

Dr. Vempaty read the messages received from various countries -

Messages from Jimmy Carter, the President of the United States, Walter Mondale, Vice President, Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, several senators and representatives from United States and Canada, and Mayor Abraham Became of New York were read out.

Ambassador of India to U.S. Mr. Kewal Singh said in this message, “I do hope the First Telugu Conference will be a real success and will lead to further activities promoting mutual appreciations of India’s cultural heritage and the cultural richness of this great country.” Indian Consul General, Mr. Ashrani of New York, said, “I share your hope that the conference will provide an opportunity for North American people to know, understand and appreciate the Telugu Cultural Heritage.” Vice-consul sent his best wishes.

From India, Minister for Education and Cultural Affairs Mr. M.V. Krishna Rao received messages from several ministers and vice chancellors of the universities.

Mr. P.S. Raja Gopala Raju from Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam sent messages in Telugu.

Other messages from Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Gummadi, P.S.R. Apparao, Director of World Telugu Institute, Hyderabad, Dasarathi, Poet, and Dr. C. Apparao, President of Andhra Association of Malaysia were read out.

Mr. C. A. Narasimha Rao introduced the chief guest, Mr. C. Annarao who spoke in Telugu.

CHIEF GUEST’S ADDRESS

Mr. C. Anna Rao, the chief guest spoke thus : “The main aim of this conference is to establish links between various organizations with a common goal of setting up guidelines and suggestions to attain a unique blend of Telugu, American and Canadian cultural heritages   we have more than 800 delegates participating here both in the cultural programs and the discussions. These, we hope, will extensively contribute to the welfare of the entire Indian community, with special reference to Telugu community, in the years ahead. The topics for discussion have been given above by me a short while ago. Some of the cultural programs reflect the revival of now less-popular isms' which are fast going extinct - even in Andhra Pradesh - most of the outcomes of the discussions recommendations and mechanisms of action will be announced to you in the general body meeting tomorrow. We sincerely hope your participation will be extensive now and in the future also.”

The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh conveyed his best wishes.

Dr. Subhashini Reddy introduced all the representatives:

Mr. Veluvolu Basavaiah, Toronto; Mr. Tirupataiah Tella, Chicago; Dr. Chitten Raju Vanguri, Houston; Mr. Ramana Rao Manney, Washington; Mr. K. Ramakrishna Reddy, Philadelphia; Attendees were felicitations by Dr. B. S. Reddi.

RELEASE OF THE LITERARY SOUVENIR BY MR. B. KRISHNAM RAJU

Dr. Kakarla Subbarao introduced the guest thus: Mr. B. Krishnam Raju was the vice President of Bharatiya Natya Sangh, joint secretary of Andhra Pradesh Sangeet Nataka Academy; president of all India theater institute, number of the Andhra Pradesh Children’s Academy. Conspicuous among the positions held is during the First World Telugu Conference as Convener and Coordinator, actor, writer, journalist, and editor of “Sutradhari” Journal devoted to theater arts..

Mr. B. Krishnam Raju released the Souvenir.

Dr. Ravindranath Guthikonda, Convener, handed over the first copy of the Literary Souvenir to Mr. B. Krishnam Raju and everyone sitting on the dias has been given one copy each.

RELEASE OF THE PHILATELIC SOUVENIR BY MR. S. V. RAMARAO

Mr. S. V. Ramarao, who designed the cachet on the First Day Issue of the Philatelic Souvenir, was introduced by Dr. Kakarla Subbarao:

“Mr. S.V. Ramarao graduated from Madras University. He is an abstract Telugu painter. He taught Art and Design Painting in London, Cincinnati and Kentucky. At present he is living in Kentucky. His exhibitions and works were reviewed extensively by the International Press. He was Chairman of the Art Conference for the First World Telugu Conference and is serving on the Executive Committee of the Second World Telugu Conference, to be held in Malaysia in 1978. May I invite him to release the philatelic souvenir cover and address us.”

Dr. Ravindranath Guthikonda, convener, handed over the first copy of the philatelic souvenir cover to Mr. S.V.Ramarao and every one sitting on the dias has been given one copy each.

Then Dr. Ravindranath Guthikonda, the convener, made announcements.

Mr. S. V. Ramarao spoke in Telugu.

Mr. Tirumala Rao Tipiraneni, Secretary of the hosting organization, Telugu Literary and Cultural Association, was asked to propose a vote of thanks. Mr. Tipirneni spoke in Telugu.

Program:

Photos of the Conference…….

INAUGURATION OF THE ARTS & CRAFTS EXHIBITION

Formation which led to TANA

In December 1977, to follow up the activities of the organization, a meeting was organized by Dr. Madhava Rao Tummala in Detroit and was attended by several Ad-Hoc committee members and other interested from Detroit and Chicago Telugu communities. Several names were suggested and it was decided to name it the Telugu Association of North America (TANA). It was also decided to make this organization a Federation of different Telugu associations existing in North America mainly to promote the dialogue and develop interactions among these associations. Organizing conferences and to have newsletters could be the vehicles to achieve this important function.

The first Executive Committee:

Dr. KakarlaSubba Rao:  President,

Dr. Madhava Rao Tummala:  Secretary

All the delegates then proceeded to the Exhibition Hall for Arts & Crafts. Mr. B. Krishnam Raju inaugurated the exhibition with a few remarks in Telugu.

*The material for this compilation has been very patiently transcribed from the original record tapes by Dr. Kidambi Raghunath.

Dr. Appa Rao Mukkamala: Treasurer

First Executive Committee were formed by the Ad-Hoc Committee in Detroit. Also, a subcommittee consisting of Dr.  Jasti Venkateswarlu, Mr. Atchuta Rao Ramineni and others was appointed to draft the by-laws of TANA. A follow up meeting of TANA was organized to discuss the draft copy of the by-laws in Washington D.C. It was in this meeting the Executive Committee has decided to incorporate TANA in Washington D.C.  The Detroit Telugu Association (DTA) was also established in 1977. This made DTA possible to become a member association of TANA since only associations are eligible as TANA is based on the concept of Federation of Telugu Associations. Detroit Telugu Association, Chicago Telugu Association (TLCA), and Washington Telugu Association came forward to organize the second Telugu conference. It was decided that Detroit Telugu Association to organize the second Telugu conference, Chicago Telugu Association to organize the third Telugu conference, and Washington D.C. Telugu Association to organize the fourth Telugu conference. It is interesting to note that Detroit conference was the first TANA conference and Chicago conference was the Second TANA conference since TANA was formally conceived in December 1977. However, we are treating the first Telugu conference as the first foundation that led toTANA conference for historical and sentimental perspective.

Aims and objectives set for future in founding conference

"Being a Housewife"

“We attempted to define the role of a housewife. We agreed that a housewife is a woman responsible for running her home. In our society the role is customarily performed by a woman who is married.

As we are a group of women coming from a different countries, cultures and environments and living in the United States, we decided to examine the relative merits and demerits in living here away from India. We found that with all the appliances and convenience foods available here, housekeeping is made a lot easier. most of us, of course, missed the domestic help we got in India and found basic housekeeping unproductive and frustrating. It is suggested that women who are confined to the house because of young children or lack of suitable or marketable skills, take an active interest in community events.

Out of the five panelists, four are pursuing careers that take them outside their homes, and they discussed knowledgeably, the problems a woman confronts when holding what amounts to two jobs. These housewives hoped men would pitch in with the housework and child-raising and help them realize their full potential in their careers.

Since the mother is mainly responsible in raising her children and since all agreed that our children growing here should be made aware of their Telugu roots, culture and tradition, we felt that the housewife could do a lot in this respect. She could continue the rituals and festivals that are part of our tradition, so that children could grow familiar with them. Also we could pool our resources and organize co-op libraries for Telugu books and records.

When the discussion was thrown open to the audience, many men had a lot to say about women and careers. They seemed to think that the suggestion that the women seek careers to make their lives more fulfilling just so much women's liberation rhetoric. The panel had no intention of suggesting that being a housewife is unfulfilling for everyone. A lot of men and one lady were very defensive about the "feminine mystique" and the "joys of mother­hood". A couple of gentlemen pointed out the dearth of suitable jobs for graduate women who are not professionals.

Though we did not reach any momentous conclusions, the panel felt that they tried truly to examine the situation of the Telugu housewife transplanted on the American soil”

Members of the Panel : Smt. Akkaraju Kameswari, Dr. Tallam Kusumakumari, Smt. Kuchibhatla Jaya, Smt. Indira Rajan and Smt. Timmaraju Chaya.

Philadelphia, PA

"Marriages of Our Children"

The  remarks made by Shri Putrevu Jagannadha Rao, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations.

“Traditional Indian marriages are based on two primary considerations. These are, a) stability of marriage as a life-long bond, and b) welfare of the offspring. Realizing that stability largely depends on compatibility of the partners, Indian parents look for a spouse with similar social, economic and cultural backgrounds -- a factor that largely makes for similar reaction to situations and helps minimize friction. In the old days selection of a spouse from the same caste or sub-caste was considered the best possible method of ensuring similarity of backgrounds leading to maximum compatibility.

Parental initiative and guidance in the selection of a spouse is necessary because, at the age at which a boy and girl are married, neither is really mature enough to judge suita­bility of the match from all points of view, and in particular, that of durability.

The supreme importance that Indians give to the durability factor is related to the second consideration mentioned, namely, welfare of children. It is the innocent children, offspring of a broken marriage who become its worst victims. Notwithstanding all the precautions taken to ensure compatibility between marital partners, frictions can and do develop between a husband and wife. Ours is a highly individualistic culture and two individuals sharing a common life can, despite their similar social backgrounds, find themselves in frequent disagreement leading to friction and thoughts of separation or divorce. Our norms demand that the partners develop tolerance and accommodation and not break their marriage. To do otherwise is considered rank selfishness in that it shows reluctance to make the necessary sacrifice in the legitimate interests of the offspring. Social disapproval has been the most potent factor against a pair resorting to divorce.

The above two principles followed in India in the selection of a spouse have stood the test of time. They are unexceptionable by any cultural standards. The society is a growing organism which flourishes best in its native soil which promotes natural evolution. While the basic norms outlined earlier hold good, considerations of caste and other outdated customs have little validity today. Compatibility is looked for in other aspects of social and cultural life, host Telugus in North America are first generation immigrants who have their cultural moorings in the society back home. Their children, on the other hand are brought up in a foreign environment which deprives them of the cultural influences of life in India. The influence of home has to make up for this. The speaker who had lived in several countries by virtue of his job found one way of filling in the gap as far as his children were concerned. That was to read out to them regularly the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata. The importance of these epics, as the single unifying cultural influence among Hindus can hardly be over­stressed. Despite the low percentage of formal education in India, men, women and children through the length and breadth of the country share the same value system because of their knowledge of and veneration for these great epics. The pattern of life at home also shapes the ideas and values of growing children and should be fully utilized. These and other methods of inculcating respect for the accepted social and cultural norms among the young people are the best guarantee of keeping up these time-tested values.

The interaction of the culture of their adopted country on their inherited culture often produces desirable results provided they have the capacity to value the best of both. In certain countries where Indian immigration is older, one can notice a distinct regional color­ing in the social and cultural life of these immigrant communities. By the third or fourth generation they do tend to be self-sufficient in that they can find matches locally. The main thing is to preserve the best in the Indian tradition which will also be a valuable addition to the composite culture of the countries they adopt.

2nd TANA CONFERENCE

1979 - Detroit

T.A.N.A. (Telugu Association of North America) officially came into vogue from second conference onwards. The conference was held in Detroit 1979 under the presidentship of Kakarla Subba Rao. Tummala Madhava Rao is the convenor. A souvenir committee was constituted with Ramadevi Cherukuri and Achyuta Rao Ramineni. Another committee for art exhibition was formed with S.V. Rama Rao, Vijaya Emmadi as the organisers. Dr. G.M. Sastry, Prasada Rao Kollipara undertook the responsibility of the publicity. Dr. Kakarala Chandrasekhara Rao is the Chairman of committee for nominations. Detroit Telugu people hosted the conference.

Poet Laureate Dasaradhi graced the occasion as a chief guest. Akkineni Nageswara Rao (actor), Avula Sambasiva Rao, Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court, Cherukuri Ramoji Rao’ Chief Editor of Eenaadu were the guest participants in the conference. P.V. Narasimha Rao (Minister in Indira Gandhi`s cabinet during emergency) commenced the literary programmes. This conference specially discussed the problems of Telugu people living in America.

The special attraction in the conference was Harikatha of Veeragandham Venkata Subba Rao. The audience enjoyed with spell bound attention. Mr. Subba Rao came to the conference with his own expenditure.  2000 people attended the conference.

2nd TANA conference followed the by-laws which were passed by then. The member societies from various parts in USA are allowed as official delegates. The general body elected executive committee for 1979-81. Dr. Madhara Rao Tummala was the Chairman. Dr. Bandaru Siva Ramireddy, Dr. Duggirala Premchand were  vice-presidents. General Secretary wasTella Tirupataiah.

Dr. Guthikonda Ravindranath sent $1000 (Half of the proceeds of the leftover funds from the First TANA Conference) to start the initial activities of the Second TANA Conference. The rest was collected from conference registration fees and donor-patron categories. Total amount collected was about $11,000 and the expenses were in the order of $7,000 and $4,000 . Of this amount, $2,000 was given to Detroit Telugu Association, the co-sponsoring organization of the second Telugu Conference, and $2,000 was given to TANA. .

Directors : Dr. Kakarala Chandrasekhara Rao, Vadlamudi Sri Krishna, V.R. Anumolu Mr. Vanitha Velgonda, Mrs. Lakshmi Cherukuri. This was the first elected executive committee.

TANA conference  constituted TANA foundation.  TANA board of directors accepted this decision. TANA was also recognised as non profitable institute. According to by-laws every member should pay the fee depending upon the total number of the committee.

TANA was registered in Maryland near Washington DC with efforts of Durvasula Sastry, Yugundhar Hanumara, Vadlamudi Srikrishna and Jakkampudi Subbaraidu.

TELUGU PALUKU  - SOUVENIR

The conference  souvenir was printed in Andhra Jyothi Press with the generous help of K..LN. Prasad, General Manager, Andhra Jyothi. Cherukuri Rama Devi is the president of Souvenir committee, Puranam Subrahmanya Sarma helped her from India. The title art was done by artist S.V. Rama Rao. The writers in this souvenir are : Satyasai, B.S.R. Krishna, Nanduri Pardha Saradhi, Venudhar, S.V. Rama Rao, Ramadevi Galla, Puranam Subrahmanya Sarma,  Nayagara Dance (Poem),  Noma S.R. Sarma, Pathuri Nagabhushanam, K.V. Ramana Reddy, - C. Venugopala Rao,  - Jakkampudi Subbaraidu,  - Bandaru Lakshma Reddy.  - Ravindranath Guttikonda,  - Rama Kakarala,and contributors from Telugu Associations in Chicago, New york, Detroit, San francisco.

3rd TANA CONFERENCE  

1981 - Chicago

3rd TANA Conference was held in Chicago on May 23rd and 24th 1981. (The venue was Oak Park and River Forest High School, Oakmont, Chicago). The Telugu Association of Chicago extended full co-operation for the conference. Madhava Rao Tummala supervised while Tirupataiah Tella was the convenor. For the 4000 people, Chicago Telugu residents hosted with Telugu delicious food items. In the co-ordination committee Shankar N Franjari, Ananth R Vutukuri, Arunasri Tanuku, Baburao Javvaji, C.L.Narayana, C. Umapathi Reddy, Janardhan Manthani Reddy took full responsibility in conducting the conference. The cultural celebrations were conducted by Ramana Murthy V. Yadavalli and Co-chairman Ram Reddy Sama. Naidu R Galla was the chairman of committee for discussions. S.V. Rama Rao and Arunasri Tanuku were the chairman and co-chairman for art exhibition. Upendranath Nimmagadda as chairman and Harnath B. Tripuraneni, K.S. Chowdary Gorantla were in the finance committee. The stage arrangements were supervised by Y. Shyama Sundara Rao and Umapathi Reddy. Madhava B.M. Reddy looked after the publicity as chairman and Pattabhi Allmittapalli as vice Chairman. Souvenir committee Chairman was Utkuru Anantha Rama Rao whereas Parimi Sri Ranga Nayakulu, Damaraju Sachchidananda Murthy were co-chairmans. Host Committee chairman was Sudarshana Rao Akkineni and Co-chairman Savitri G. Komanduri.

Third conference was held under stewardship of Tella Tirupataiah as convener at Chicago, who subsequently became the third president of TANA. This was attended by about 2000 people with a budget around $30,000. Tirupataiah was instrumental in making TANA more visible. Getting a full fledged delegation from AP government, responsible in obtaining  non-profit status for TANA by IRS and was also responsible for initiating the TANA Foundation in 1981 (Before it used to be called Telugu foundation of TANA). 3,200 people participated in the conference.  Each family contributed $40.  

Youth was given utmost importance in the conference.  A separate stage was prepared for them; and separate rooms were provided for the youth programs.  These programs were conducted by the youth themselves.

The food for the entire conference was prepared and served by the host families of Chicago.  This included a breakfast in the first day, and serving both lunches and dinners for two days.  This itself was a gigantic operation, completed without any hitch or complaints.

The Conference provided an excellent Art Exhibition, with paintings by artists from both USA and India.  “Baapu” paintings were special attraction in the exhibition.

The conference had several discussion panels on various subjects, such as Women’s and Children’s problems, Setting up Industries in AP., Old age, Retirement issues,  Medical Issues.

A gramophone LP Record was issued, for the first time in the Chicago TANA Conference in 1981.  This consisted of Invitation and a musical presentation to the guests.

In the conference Akkineni Nageswara Rao (Cine actor), S. Rajeswara Rao (Music director), Yedlapati Venkatarao Chairman Industrial Development Corporation), Freedom fighter Veluvolu Sitharamaiah, Industrialist Mullapudi Harischandra Prasad, Famous poets C. Narayana Reddy and Sri Sri, Ministers of Andhra Pradesh M. Baga Reddy and Avula Madana Mohan, Govt. of India Representative Bhatnagar spoke briefly. Was addressing the conference Sri Sri said : that the conference gave him a feeling as …. he will attending the marriage celebration. He further commented that the conference gave him a feeling as a blend of east west cultures and he wished to see the future generation as Universal peace lovers. Poet C. Narayana Reddy commented that - the moon light in the east is the same as sunlight in the west and vice versa.

The other guests who participated in the conference were : Dr. Venkata Rao, C.N. Sastry, Anandaramam, Nayani Krishna Kumari, Maharadhi Tripuraneni, M.S. Reddy, Mullapudi Harischandra Prasad, U. Venkateswarlu, V. Rama Rao, Basavapunnaiah (journalist), Veeramachineni Madhusudana Rao, Dr. Somaraju, Y.V. Ramana, Akkineni Annapurna, Sumathi Kousal, Narla Tata Rao. High level discussion on industrial development was held in the conference.

TANA commence to all the famous personalities from the third conference onwards. The old famous statistutional professor C.R.Rao was the first person who received such an honour. Based on the dias TANA elected the executive committee. Tella Titupataiah as president, Kakarla Chandra Sekhara and Gorantla Chowdary as vice-chairman, Yadavalli Somayajulu as Secretary and Madhava Rao Tummala along with the presidents of other Telugu associations as directors.

TELUGU PALUKU - SOUVENIR

The writers in the souvenir are : Dasaradhi, C. Narayana Reddy, Durga Prasad Varanasi, Upendra Pushka, Sista Vijaya, Yadavalli Ramana Murthy, V. Padmavathi, Cintham Rani  Samyukta, Bangaru Swarupa, Sama Ramireddy, V. Susarla, Krishna Devulapalli, Anil Kumar, A. Lakshmi Ramana, S.V. Rama Rao, Kota Sundara Rama Sarma, Vanguri Chittemraju, Galla Aruna, Mani Issola, Saradapurna Sonti, Kakarla Subbarao, Cherukuri Rama Devi, Lakshmi Damaraju, Obula Narayana Sarma, Challuri Jaganmohana Reddy, Pachha Vasudeva Rao, Satya, Vemuri Venkata Surya Narayana, Vemuri Venkateswara Rao, Murthy N. Damaraju, Puchcha Vasantha Lakshmi, Mokkapati S. Prasad, Dr. Kristu Rao, Nayani Krishna Kumari, Yarlagadda Anjaneyulu, Suryakantham Pappu, Kolavennu Venkata Krishnaiah, V.V. L. Narasimba Rao, Vadrevu Subba Rao.

In English section: P. Venugopala Rao, Kota S. R. Sarma, Annapurna Garimella, Usha Annam Bhatla, Y. Shyama Sundara Rao, P. Rajagopala Naidu, Nadumi Aditam, Padmaja Reddy Saama, Benguluru Sureswara, Madhuri Kakarala, Giridhar Devulapalli, Kala Annambhotla, Shyamala Elamanchili. V. V. Manikyala Rao,

4th TANA Conference

Washington DC (1983)  

For the first time TANA conference was held in Washington DC on May 28th-29th 1983. Local Greater Washington Telugu Cultural Society co-operated for the success of the conference. The venue was Northwood High School, Silver Spring, Maryland. 2000 delegates participated in the conference. Thirupathaiah Tella was the president whereas Subbarayudu Jakkampudi was the convenor. The co-ordination committee consisting of Rajagopala Rao Koneru, S.V. Rama Rao, Soma Sudarshan Reddy shared the responsibilities. Food committee was formed under the Chairmanship of Vadlmudi Jamuanbai, Mannava Madhusudana Rao as Co-chairman and Sadananda Mrulani as co-chairperson. Guntakatta Srinivasa Murthy was the chairman of program committee whereas Kesari Lakshmi Narayana was the chairman of host committee. S.V. Rama Rao as chairman of art committee conducted the exhibitions.

Mr. K.R. Narayanan done ambassador of India in USA., The peasant leader Prof. N.G. Ranga, Charles Gil Christ, Justice Ramarao, Former Chief Minister Dr. M. Chennareddy were the main speakers. The cultural programmes were held on both days. There were dance dramas, stage plays, Bhuvana Vijayam Play and Several attractive items put the audience spell down attention.  Apart from the special souvenir, a special stamp also was released. Several  stalls with industrial, and artpeace were exhibited. The two day discussion was highlighted with problems of sharing several arts which are disappearing in Andhra Pradesh. The educational problems of Telugu children in America, exchange of technical knowledge, trade opportunities for Telugu people in America, protection of health were the themes discussed in two day deliberations. The discussions also included marriage problems, literature, culture, and art. Varaprasada Rao Gutti supervised these discussions. Cherukuri Ramadevi, Velcheru Malathi, Madhusudhana Reddy Kakulavarapu, Akella Murthy, Latha Rao, S.V. Rama Rao R.V.S. Sundaram took keen interest in the deliberations.

TANA awards were given to Dr. G. Nageswara Rao, founder L.V. Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad; Prof. Pesara Reddy Sudhakar, Associate Professor in the Medical Department of Pittsburgh University; famous artist S.V. Rama Rao; Prof. Nannapaneni Narayana Rao, Electrical Engineer in Illinois University. Kakarala Subba Rao was the chairman of awards committee. Special function was arranged to give the awards under the chairmanship of Dr. Kakarala Chandrasekhara Rao.

TELUGU PALUKU  - SOUVENIR

Title cover by Bapu

The writers in the souvenir are : Saama Ramireddy, Dr. Rani Samyukta Chintam, Prabha Chityala, Sudheshna, Utkuri Ananth, T.V.V. Ramarao, Kotra Krishnamurthy, Jakkampudi Subbaraidu Suktulu, Tangirala Lakshmi Narayana, Pattinnapu Sakuntala Gangadharam, Tripuraneni Venkateswara Rao, Yethukuchi Krishna, Gandhiji Yelamanchili, Yeluri Venkateswara Rao, Damaraju Sachchidananda Murthy, Aruna Galla, Devulapalli Krishna.

Writers of English articles - Ramarao Cherukuri, S. S. Murthy, P. Venugopala Rao, Sabala Mandava, Phani Bantumilli, Suguna Pappu, Neeraja Rao Cheragondla, Madhuri Kakarala, Padmaja Sama, Sumukha Guntakatta, Pemmaraju Sri Ramarao.

5th TANA Conference

Los Angeles (1985)

This conference was held with Dr. Raghavendra Prasad as convener, Co-convenor Dr. Premchand Duggirala  and Kakarala Chandrasekhara Rao as TANA president.

16 committees were formed  with members from  Los Angeles Telugu community.  The conference was held  in  Long Beach Convention Center with budget of $100,000.

In the central coordination committee Atluri Chandra Sekhara Rao President of Los Angeles Telugu Association along with Nageswara Rao Gangula, Rallabandi Shankaram, Chowdary D. Voleti, Satyanarayana Upadhyayula, A. Narendra Nath Reddy, Vijayasaradhi Komanduri, Mani Ayasola, P.S. Vijaya Kumar, Ramalinga Reddy, Damodar Reddy, G Reddy Prasad, Venkateswara Rao Daluvayi, Padma Upadhyayula, Sundari Samudrala, Gummadi Dharmarao, Ramachandra Rao Paladugu, Papaiah Gogineni, Aruna Reddy Chilumula, Subbarao Balusu, Vemuri Venkateswara Rao, J.S.M. Kamala, P.S. Kamala, Koganti Madhusudana Rao, Kamesh Iyyasola, Janapati Hanumantha Rao, Komanduri Lakshmi, Sitha Vemuri co-operated well actively.

Parvathaneni Upendra, opposition leader in Lok Sabha, M.S. Koteswara Rao, Minister, Vasantha Nageswara Rao Minister, C. Narayana Reddy poet, Potturi Venkateswara Rao Journalist, P. L. Sanjeeva Reddy Managing director of Andhra Pradesh Industrial Development Corporation, Varlu Director Andhra Pradesh Electronics Corporation, Dr. Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad, Chairman Hindi Academy, Dr. Kasaraneni Sadasiva Rao spoke in the conference.

Burrakatha and Harikatha attracted the participants were in Kurmanatha Rao Dusi, Bandaru Parvathiswara Rao, V. Rama Rao, Mandapaka Sarada played active role.

Sobhanaidu’s Kuchipudi Dance was  tremendous success in the conference.  Cultural programmes were directed by Nunna Nagabhushanam (Pittsburgh), K.V. Rao (New York).

Awards Banquet  was separately arranged to save time on main stage. A moving Stage was created to save time in transition between artists groups. 100 Telugu young adults served in awards banquet.

Kavi Sammelanam - recital of poetry by various poets commenced in this conference for the first time. Astavadhanam was added attraction in the conference. Business Conference took up serious discussion with several experts.  The conference saved $30,000. Instead of May the Conference was held in July in America. The expenses of the six member Delegation of artists  which participated in  TANA were met by Government of Andhra Pradesh.   Shri. Krishnam Raju, movie icon sent a delegation at his expense. Los Angeles Telugu community involved actively in the convention.  

After Fifth TANA Convention, Raghavendra Prasad was unanimously elected as TANA Fifth President.  TANA received wide publicity in India because of its service activities.  Vempati Chinna Sathyam,  Sobha Naidu Dance Troups performed in the conference.  TANA created and introduced the concept of continuing medical education discussions during conference.

Eminent persons who received awards during the conference under the chaimanship of Pemmaraju Venugopala Rao : Awardees : Ratna Anil Kumar

Special session was held where serious discussions were conducted on commerce and trade. The discussion was centred about investing in  various industries and business establishments. Ministers, Industrialists, trade representatives contributed useful discussions. Continuing medical education session was held with several doctors. The sessions paid tributes to Late Dr. Y. Nayudamma who died in the plane accident. Women`s forum met separately in which Jyotsna Paruchuri, Bharathi Vayuvegula, Aruna Chilumula, Neti Suseela contributed their thoughts. Under youth forum discussions were held. Lakshmi Komanduri was in chair. Love marriages, opinions of parents, and aspects of weddings were main themes in the  discussion.

SOUVENIR - TELUGU PALUKU

Writers in the souvenir : Pucha Annapurna, Viswanatha Achyutha Rayalu, Cherukuri Ramadevi, Vital Janaki Ramasastry, Vanguri Chitten raju, Isola Mani, Jayaprada Srinivasan, Vemuri Narasimhamurthy, Gidugu Lakshmi Dattu, K. Sakuntala, Vadlakonda Ravindra, Pudipeddi Lakshmana Murthy, Manepalli Satyanarayana, Lalla Devi, Prema Gayatri, Puranam Seetha, V.V.Suryanarayana, Paladugu Venkateswara Rao, Pappu Venugopala Rao, Cherukupalli Nehru, Akella Jagannadham, Malathi Chandur, B. Vidyasagar, Gollapudi Maruthi rao, Vemuri Venkateswara Rao, Pillutla Narasimha, Mahendra, Vemuri Venkateswara Rao, B.S.R. Krishna, Sama Rami Reddi, Puligadda Viswanatha Rao, C.S. Kumar, Ravi Kondala Rao, Pattinapu Gangadharam, Vadlakonda Swarajya  Lakshmi, Kota Sundara Rama Sarma, Puranam Subrahmanya Sarma.

6th TANA Conference

St. Louis - 1987

Sixth TANA conference was held in 1987 (July 11 and 12th) in  university campus at St Louis, with Dr. Mantena Narasa Raju as the convener and Raghavendra Prasad as President.   Co-convenor Gopichand Yelamanchili.

Dr. Kaja Rama Rao, Dr. Dandamudi Rajendra Prasad took overall responsibility for making the conference success. Various  responsibilities were undertaken by Patibandla V. Rao, Sudha Satya Sagar, Rajyalakshmi Naidu, Vinjamuri Sujatha, Dandu Raghunandan, Kosuri Subbaiah, Ananthaneni Prakasa Rao, Valluri Prasad, Gandikota V Rao, and Kaja Venkateswara Rao.

Prof. Sripathi Chandrasekhar (1918-2001) was the keynote speaker. He was famous demographer and minister in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet. Ambassador representative S. Mukherjee addressed the   conference.

Few popular cine stars were introduced in the conference at St. Louis.  

There was special exhibition on the culture, art, and life styles of Telugu people. A separate session was held where the industrial sector and investments were discussed. Vijaya Kumar was the co-ordinator were the discussions. Mr. Pandurangarao assessed the growing impact of industries. K. R. Rao reviewed the progress of various projects. C.S. Sarma delivered the keynote speech. Mr. Bhagath singh the Industrialist brought out the difficulties and problems in running small industries with advanced technology. Several industrialists from Andhra Pradesh actively participated.

In the Medical Seminar Dr. G.V. Naidu was the co-ordinator, Dr. Kakarla Subba Rao discussed the problems of health in Andhra Pradesh. Dr. K. Jaganmohana Rao brought out the problems in supplying medical technical equipment. Dr. Sankaram discussed medical course progress and problems in India. Dr. Raghavendra Prasad Sudanagunta brought out details about medical educational schemes in Andhra Pradesh. G. Damodar Reddy explained about tax shelters.

Dr. Raghavendra Prasad in his presidential remarks said : “The migrants from Andhra Pradesh put lot of effort and reached high position in America. 5% of Indians in America were Telugu people who attained higher income slab. It is gratifying that they combined the best in east and west. There are conflicting cultural lifestyles at home and in society in America. Our people are reconciling and make best out of it. Youth must take lead in deriving   best of both countries”.

The conference had special fashion show and youth were given at most importance. A special session was held with women where beware of in the ladies, culture, bringing up children were discussed. The participants are : Paruchuri Jyotsna, Meenal Manthani, Uma Echchampati, Nayani Krishna Kumari, Vinjamuri Sithadevi. Shakuntala Gangadharam, Nidadavolu Malathi, Yashoda Reddy.

Youth problems were discussed by Krishna Mantena, Sailendra Sunkara, Sireesha Samudrala, Sherli Vamaraju, Dr. Vedavyas, Krishna Usha.

The cultural programmes were special attraction with Shobharaju, Vamsee Troop, Githasri, Mrs. Madhusudana Rao.

Awards received by : Akuluri V. Ramaiah (Nuclear Physics), Dr. K. Janardhana Reddy (Medicine), Matempalli Madhusudana Rao (Medicine), Kakarala Subbarao (Community Service), Narsing Aduparao (Medicine), Pemmaraju Venugopala Rao (Community Service), Nimmagadda Upendra Nath (Community Service), Pothu Narasimha Rao (Community Service), Sitha, Githa Kalapatapu (Classical Music), Singiresu Sambasiva Rao (Mechanical Engineering) Dr. Tejaswini (Sastriya Nrityam), Tella Tirupataiah (Community Service), Velicheti Narayana Rao (Telugu Literature), Tummala V. Madhava Rao (Scientific Research).

TELUGU PALUKU - SOUVENIR

Title cover: Bapu.  Director: Gandikota Venkata Rao, Co-chairperson: Buddhiraju Vijayalakshmi, Youth division convenor: Anitha G. Rao, members Dandamudi Prasad, Kaasinadhuni Udaya Shankar, Rednam Krishna Rao, Ventra Pragada Mohan are in the souvenir committee. Writers  : C. Narayana Reddy, Vinjamuri Anasuyadevi, Viswanatha Achyutha Devarayalu, Pavani Sasstry, Puranam Sitha, Prayaga Ramakrishna, Arudra.

7th  TANA Conference

Houston (1989)

7th TANA conference was held with Dr. Vinta  Janardhan Reddy as its convener and Mr. B. Venkateswara Rao as president  in University of Houston campus on july 1-2,1989..   2000 people enjoyed the deliberations. $110,000 was collected with a surplus of $20,000 that was shared between TANA and local Telugu Association.   Seating was segregated with ropes to separate donors from the ordinary registrants.

“Unity is the Strength” is the main theme of the conference. The unique feature of the conference was outstanding linguist Dr. Bhardriraju Krishnamurthy ,Vice Chancellor of Hyderabad University, (1928-2012)gave expert talk about the experiments in the language.

P. Suseela, Ramakrishna attracted the audience with their songs.

This conference officially accepted and released TANA logo. Audience were asked to select the best items of the conference. Accordingly, the first prize was given to Kuchipudi Dance Drama. The troop came from Atlanta under the direction of Pemmaraju Venugopala Rao.  The 2nd prize was given “Amerikanyasulkam” play written by Chitten Raju with music direction by Kodavatiganti Rohini Prasad. Medasani Mohan performed Astavadhanam first time in TANA conference. The souvenir release at this conference was given the title ‘Madhura Vani’.

The conference executive committee : Mallik S. Puchcha, Yaratha Ramamohan Reddy, A.V.N. Reddy, Rajasekhar Yelamanchili, Palani Janaki Rani, Ratnakumar, Sita Mutyala, Venugopala R., Ballari Shyama Sundaram, Nagaraju Yeleswarapu, Surya Rao Tota, M. Jitender Reddy, A. Janardhan Reddy, V. Kesava Rao. Houston Telugu cultural Society executive committee member played key role.

Special Scholarship was given in the name of Guttikonda Aruna.

Awards were given to : Ambati Jayakrishna, Ambati Balamurali Krishna, Dattatreya Nori (Cancer research), Raju K. Kucharlapalli (Molecular Genetics), Dr. P. Syamasundara Rao (Pediatric Cordialogy), Shankuntala Pattisapam (Literature and culture), Bandaru Subhashini Reddy (Community Services), Avanthi Moduri (Clssical Music), Uma Bharathi (Classical Dance), Vinjamuri Sithadevi, Avasarala Anasuyadevi (Folk Music).

Mr Janardhana Reddy Vinta  Convenor of the conference said:”Active involvement and patronage of more and more generous and industrious people will improve the quality and span of organization.The repeated Biennial conferences will add more and more vigor and life to TANA.Let us hope that our united efforts strike to direct our youth to emerge into a brighter race and a noble humanity.”

       Mr B.Venkateswararao , president TANA said:  We have enriched TANA and made it one of the best Indian organizations in North America.We put TANA on the right track for the future and everyone associated with the constructive efforts should feel very good about it.”

SOUVENIR - MADHURAVANI

President of the souvenir : Vanguri Chittenraju.  editors : Kalanadha Bhatta Veerabhadra Sastry, Puranam Subrahmanya Sarma. Special articles: on Telugu language history, music, dance, art, dramas, cinema, state politics, religion, education, Songs, stories .

Writers  : Chalasani Prasada Rao, Sri Sri, Ravi kondala Rao, Indraganti Janaki Bala, Indraganti Srikanth Sarma, Namini Subrahmanyam Naidu, Puranapanda Ranganath, Turlapati Kutumba Rao, Malathi Chandur, Dr. G. Samaram, Veeraji, Guntur Seshendra Sarma, Ushasri.

Poetry translated into English : Devarakonda Balagangadhara Tilak, Sri Sri, Somasundar, C. Narayana Reddy, Devulapalli Venkata Krishna Sastry

Messages  : Houston mayor Vint Mair, Indian ambassador in America P.N.Koul, US senator Philgram, Layid Bent Sen .  

8th TANA Conference

Atlanta - 1991

8th TANA  conference was held in world convention center, Atlanta, july 5, 6 -1991 with Dr. Vanapalli Manga Raju as the convener and Dr. Nallamothu Satyanarayana as president.  The main theme of the conference : “Our Culture - Our Progress”.

Conference executive committee : P. Seshu Sharma, Aruna Prasad Kancharla, P. Ramachandra Reddy, Ranakumar Nadendla, Narender G. Reddy, Sheela R Lingani, P. Ravisharma, Rama Rao Meka, Rajaravulapalli, B. Krishna Mohan, C. Bapireddy, Sarveswar I Naidu, Jayaprakash Bangaru, Purna Ginjupalli, Sudhakar Devaraju, Gopichand Manne, Narahari Rao Purugulla, Sujatha K. Reddy, Kusuma Zonavally. Chief Adviser : P. Venugopala Rao. Telugu Association of Metro Atlanta conducted the conference. The executive committee members : Ravinder C. Reddy, P. S. Lakshmi Rao, Narendra G. Reddy, Sanjeeva Rao, Sujatha Ginjupalli. Ex-official member : Nallamothu Satyanarayana, President TANA. Sudhakar Pavuluri, Treasurer, Ramakishan Rao Damala, Vice-President.

20 eminent persons from India participated in the conference. Indian Ambassador in USA Dr. Abid Hussain spoke at the first day of the conference. Murali Mohan, Cine actor directed stage plays with Gummadi, Janaki, Sakshi Ranga Rao, Sarath Babu. In this conference Arudra’s Literary History Volumes were released. Cherukupalli David commenced with invocation prayer.

Awards were given to : Parikshit Sarma Voleti, Lakshmi Saroja Poruri, Ranga N. B.  Gorrepati, Chandrasekhara Rao Kakarala, Raghavedra Prasad, D. Venkateswara Rao, Ravindra Nath Guttikonda, Jaganmohana Rao Kakarala, Rajireddy, R.K.N. Jayanthi, Venkat S. Ram, Vijayalakshmi Unnava. In recognition of their outstanding achievements the awards were given.

The second day of the conference: Ramoji Rao, Head of the Eenadu  News paper delivered a special speech. He came out very strongly against caste system which is eating the vitality of the society and also dividing the people. Caste has become main obstruction for social progress. He strongly pleaded to discard caste system and appealed Telugu people in America to bring casteless society. He appreciated the achievements of Telugu people in America and congratulated those who attained higher levels.

TELUGU PALUKU - SOUVENIR

Writers : Maruvada Rajeswara Rao, Radhika Nori, Malempati Indira Priyadarsini, Vasundhara (Sydney, Australia), K. Saroja (Canada), Tangirala Lakshmi Narayana, Machiraju Savitri, A. Subba Rao, S. Vardhani Murthy, Vanguri Chittemraju, Ragipudi Yogiswara Swamy, Nellutla Ranga Rao, Meka Ramarao, P.V.G., Indira, Usha Raju, Kondapalli Koteswaramma (Vijayawada), B.N.Reddy (artist - Pavan, Hyderabad), J. Bapu Reddy (Hyderabad), Narasimha Malladi Sidhdhanti, Sunkara Mani Ramachandra Rao (Rajahmundry), Kota Sundara Ramasarma, Sonti Saradapurna, Kolugotla Suryaprakasa Rao, Vinnakota Ravi Sankar (Hyderabad), Elchuri Vijaya Raghava Rao, N.S.S. Murthy, K.V.S. Swamy (Rajahmundry), Meka Rama Rao, Tumuluri Sastry (Sydney, Australia), Jaya Prabha (Hyderabad), Suseela Subbarao (Canada), Vemuri Venkateswara Rao, Chaparala Baburao (England), Sulochana Bandaru, Satya Duvvuri, Radhika Sastry, Pillalamarri Ramakrishna, Viswanatha Achyutha Devarayalu, Pemmaraju Venugopala Rao, Kota Sundara Ramasarma, Vinnakota Phanidra.

9th TANA Conference - World Telugu Conference

1993 - New York

World Telugu conference and Tana Conference held joint deliberations for 5 days in New York during July first week in 1993. It was largely attended conference with 10 thousand people participated in divergent activities, and discussions.

On the inaugural session day former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Mr N.T.Rama rao delivered a very emotional spirited speech which was received amidst cheers and applause.

The conference was given support by New York Telugu association and tri state telugu association.

Dr Nallamothu Satyanarayana and DR Dasaratharam Reddi put great effort to make the conference a grand success and turning point in the history of TANA.

Participants from USA were the largest contingent while other enthusiastic participants were from Andhra Pradesh, Australia, Malaysia, UK, Europe,and few other places.

The conference which was held in Nasa Colisium, Long Island, New York has Colisium vehicles which carried the guests to the stage with announcements.

9th TANA conference which combines World Telugu Conference was held in July 1st to 5th in the World Trade City, New York. The Venue was Nasa Colisium, Long Island.  Telugu Literary Association of New york, Telugu Fine Arts Society joined hands to celebrate the conference. One of the unique features in the conference was the art exhibition of Suryadevara Sanjeeva dev, renowned selfmade artist from Andhra Pradesh.  :  K.R. Narayanan (Later President of India), P.V. Narasimha Rao, Prime Minister of India, King of Nepal sent their special messages. N.T. Rama Rao, Chief Minister, actor who stood for  upliftment of Telugu language and culture specially graced the conference. Cine actor Chiranjeevi  and Parvathaneni Upendra, cabinet minister in central cabinet graced the occasion.. M.V.Krishnarao former Education minister in Andhra Pradesh participated in the conference.

Steering committee chairman Satyanarayana Rao Nallamothu, Coordinator and Chairman Gaddam Dasaratha Ramireddy, Co-convenors Radha Krishna Murthy, Kidambi Raghunath, Secretary Nehru Cherukupalli, Joint Secretary Mahesh Saladi, Treasurer Meka Venkata Narayana, Joint treasurer Sambasivarao Venigalla, Members Mohan Rao Bade, Murthy R. Bhavaraju, Ramakrishna Jonnada, Krishna Kochcharala Kota, R. K. Narra, Nagamma Diddempudi, Kusumakar, Ara Kuchakulla, Krishna Polavarapu, Janaki Rao, Royapeta SekharDattatreya Nori, Krishna Vemuri, Raghava Rao Polavarapu, Prasad Chalasani, Swami Dukkipati, Ramakrishna Chalikonda, Nirmala Sastry, Vijaya Dukkipati, Padmavathi Erramalli, Dr. P.S. Rao, Subhadra Nori, Sivanarayana Paturi, Mani Paturi, Rama Rao shared various responsibilities and conducted the conference successfully.

TANA specially brought out ‘Yagnam’ the story of Kalipatnam Rama Rao which was given Central Saahitya Akademi Award in India.

N.T.R. in his eloquent  speech  brought out the glory of Telugu language and culture. He appealed to preserve the greatness of Telugu heritage while observing the human values in USA.

Dr. Dasaradharami Reddy as the convener and Dr. Nallamothu Satyanarayana as the president.  

Large number of artists  participated in  this conference  .

Sanjiva Dev, self made writer, artist exhibited his paintings which drew interesting audience.

NTR’S ADDRESS in the COVENTION

Ye Desamegina - Yendu Kaalidina

Ye Peethamekkina -Yevvaraduraina

Pogadara Neetalli - Bhoomi Bharatini

Nilupara Neejaati –Nindu Gowravamu

I salute all those who are striving to protect heritage of Indian Culture and civilization,  carrying with them the sweetness of Telugu language of their mother land to continents, spreading culture and to those dedicated workers, preservers of Telugu honor, spreading  glory of Andhra. I salute, those masters in arts who are taking them to its pinnacle. My blessings to my sisters who gave this place the look as if we are attending a female festival (perantam), with their colorful decoration with ‘rangavallulu’. I bless all these little children who are nothing less than little gods. I offer my celestial blessings to those Telugus who came down here from around thirty countries to share their experience.  The convention looks as though Telugu is there across the world as though it glorified this place, giving a feel that Telugu language, its arts and technology congregated at this place. I salute to all those who gathered here.

  I am honored for being invited as chief guest to take part in this conference organized by all those who were born in Telugu land, brought up in mother’s lap sharing mother’s unmatched love, learning alphabets and now working in economic, technical, science, social and political fields. I wish all the efforts you are putting in would sure become the path laying endeavor.

  Your mother, Telugu land, is keeping a constant watch over what all you are contributing to this land for its progress in the fields of science and technology that gave you space to work. Your mother land is hoping that your presence here would sure double up her happiness. Though you came away to these far off places, either for sustenance or to gain greater knowledge; remember the land you migrated to is no less than your own mother land. Can we find any difference between the love shown the land that gave you birth and the one that is now taking care of you?

This equality is nothing but commenting as ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbam’ (World is one family). This outlook peels off one’s narrow mindedness, rendering one the citizen of the world. Friendship and brotherly love should become our model for living. This feel of love should be the rule that all subjects in the world are the same.

Science and technology erased the distance between people and brought all people together as if this earth is dwarfed. At one time Swamy Vivekananda, who spread sweetness of ‘Indian spiritualism’ across the world, shortened the distance between countries, with his message to the world from this country. For this Vivekananda had to take an adventurous journey and traveled all the way to this land. Today from the ends of the world thousands of enthusiasts congregated here, even reducing the time of travel to not even ten hours, defeating the theory of time and distance.

We salute  to all those who are producing live babies from test tubes, activating stopped hearts by employing top class medical knowledge, building colonies in sending interplanetary vehicles and even doing research for further knowledge in this field.

 At the same time we are also worried the knowledge they are gaining is being used to destroy the entire world with nuclear arms. This is indeed unfortunate development and is sad part that the entire world is worried about, that too at a time small nations are making progress in developmental activities.

Besides some nations are kicking up communal tensions leading to wars taking toll of human life. Yet there are many poverty ridden nations facing health problems, illiteracy, hunger and diseases.

Why is this difference?

   .Why is it indifference?

  

 On one side we find slogans for rightful life

 On the other activities of terrorism

 On one side cries for human rights

 On the other hateful killings

 On one side darkness around, hunger, health problems and deaths

 Is there no solution?

  Can’t our intellectual energy find solutions?

  Shouldn’t we find solutions in these times when some drastic changes are taking place erasing the very base despite some of our advanced countries stepping forward to mitigate these problems by laying minimum plans to mitigate these problems.

To earn a roti, one has to stand in endless queues in one nation

To get a potful water women walking miles in one country

To get food packets supplied by international agencies, while praying to gods above in    

another country.

What a miserable situation is this?

How long can they suffer this?

Is there no solution?

This is not a job to be attended to just by a few. You are all highly educated. Please concentrate on these problems. You are all well equipped. Get started to mitigate these evils. Move forward.

   Ours is sacred land. We always chant ‘Sarve Janah Sukhnobhavantu’ Let all the people be happy. Let us start our work to fulfill these needs. Let us make a beginning.

   You have all come from the land of Budha. ‘Viswa Santhi’ is our slogan. Make ways to attain peace. You came from land where Mahatma Gandhi was born. Lay plans to achieve this. Your motherland is a place that gave birth to Ambedkar. Fill your hearts with a mission to serve utterly poor with love.

  You are all descendents of Swamy Vivekananda who said ‘even starving dog would shake my conscience’. Please plan to help the downtrodden. The humanism in us should surface to initiate lending help to the poor. Help illiterates to become literates.

Adi Sankara said that all humans are equal. You should work in that direction. Treat all humans as equal and with dignity.

You are not just representatives of the six crore Telugus, but you are brothers of 86 crores of Indians. You are bridge to carry the culture of the country to project the soul of the country and greatness of Telugu land. You steer the future of the Telugus. I wish you share part of your earnings to your motherland that gave birth and progress in your life, like you are doing to the nation you are serving now. You should also share the knowledge you gained hear in politics, scientific achievements, technology, intellectual caliber and social service. Your motherland should have all the benefits you gained serving this nation to keep the wheels of Telugu land keep going. I hope you fulfill all my desires for betterment of the land you hailed from.

You are now part and parcel of the progress of this nation you are serving. You need to live as co-patriots of this land you are working for, as brothers with co existence. I wish this country’s greatness would sure be further elevated because of you too.

  There are two types of humans - those who choose tradition and truth – They are called ‘Samanyulu’ (common people). Those who implement them are the second kept in higher pedestal. There should be a combination of providing help for the progress of both countries with collaborative attempts in all fields.

TANA an old Telugu Association putting joint efforts to make this even successful was a positive measure in elevating the pride of Telugu people. I thank the American Government for taking the Telugu people’s services in equal measure in the progress of the nation and I hope this would continue in future.

  I also appeal to the parents in Telugu land to help their children learn and retain the Telugu traditions. Telugus working here should also retain their culture and help to develop the Telugu land, doing which they keep in touch with their mother land too.

Choosing New York’s Long Island, amidst high raised buildings to hold this 9th conference and inviting me to address you is an honor you bestowed on me and I thank you again for this gesture.   

TELUGU PALUKU – SOUVENIR                    

Editors : Cherukupalli Nehru (president of souvenir committee), Parinam Srinivas Rao, Kasatapadi Srinivasa Rao, Dr. Katasapadi Srinivasa Rao, Dr. Jemmi Sudha Ratnanjali.

Members : P.S.Rao, Srinivasa Rao, J. Sudha Ratnanjali

Cover page : Puppet Dolls

Messages from : King of Nepal, Ex. Prime Minister P.V.Narasimha Rao, Vice-president K.R.Narayana Rao

TANA President : Nallamothu Satyanarayana

Writers : Cherukuri Ramadevi, Kamala Chimata, Vanguri Chitten raju, P. Venugopala Rao, Yarlagadda Kimira, Venkateswara Rao Veluri, Pillalamarri Sivaramakrishna, Cherukupalli Nehru, Sista Sriramachandramurthy, Parvathi Ponnaluri, Pippilla Suryaprakasa Rao, Prasadu Varanasi, Updrasta Satyanarayana, Kolagotla Suryaprakasa Rao, Komaravolu Saroja, Kota Sundara Ramasarma, Damaraju Murthy, Kidambi Raghunatha, Srinivas, P.S.Murali, N. R. Nandi, S. S. Murthy, Brahmam Kanchibotla, Puranam Sitha, Kanaka Prasad, Syamala Jayaraman, Anamika, Ram Kolluri, Baburao Samudrala, S.V.Rama Rao, Krishna Vemuri, P. Venugoala Rao, Sankarambadi, Samdrala Vijayalakshmi, Pammara Seshagirirao, Arudra, Vemuri Venkata Ramanadham, Sri Nagesh, Kovvali Jyothi, Meka Rama Rao, Bhoj, Tirumala Seshacharyulu, A. V. Murali Krishna, Sadhana Venkata Swamy Naidu, Kolagotla Surya Prakasa Rao, Aparna Gunupudi, Sama Ramireddy, Sriramamurthy Daggupati, K. Saroja, Sudarshan Raj, Machiraju Savitri, Gangapalli Jagannadha Rao, Samudrala Baburao, C.H.Ramulu, Suneetha Vankayalapaati, Pranati Kondalaneni, G. Rajeswara Rao, Ramireddy Sama, Kotapati Sambasiva Rao, Aari Sitharamaiah, Chitrapu Prabhakar, Rayali Rajagopal, Narayana Rao, A. Veera Prasad, Murali Mohan Reddy, Meka Rama Rao, Ratna Kumar, Viswanatha Achyutha Rayalu, Mohan, Kamala, Yadavalli Ramakrishna, Sobha, Pratima G. N. Rao, Krishna, Dr. Jyothi, Totakura Appa Rao, Sonti Sarada Purna.

Writers in English : P. Venugopala Rao, Bhavaraju, Rajitha Bhavaraju, P. Narsinga Rao, Ramarao, Aari Sitharamaiah, P. Srinivasa Rao, Ushadevi.

10th TANA Conference

Chicago - 1995

10th  conference was conducted with Yadlapati Yugandhar as convener and Mantena Narasa Raju as the President.  7200 people participated.. $ 785,000 was collected.  Expenses were $ 700,000 leaving a surplus of $85,000 that was given to TANA. This had the first  inaugural dance ballet and the first laser show. Business seminar is well attended. Youth were involved on the main stage.

10th TANA conference which was held from July 1st to 3rd 1995 in Chicago had made a mark. Dr. Yugandhar Yedlapati as convenor. Mr. Narasaraju Manthena as President with the help of numerous persons made the conference great success. Sidhdhardha Sankar Ray Ambassador of India in America delivered keynote speech. Mr. Rangaiah Naidu, Central minister from India Mr. Yanamala Ramakrishnudu speaker Andhra Pradesh assembly, Mr. Madhava Reddy, Pratibha Bharathi, Devineni Nehru were the Chief guest of the Conference.

Dr. Lakshmi Prasad Yarlgadda and Artist Bapu were specially honoured by the conference. In this contest Bapu, Ramana first title “Bomma Borusu” was brought out as a special honour to them. Kongara Jaggaiah as a special guest to the conference released his translation of Tagore’s Githanjali and Dr. Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad History of Modern Telugu Literature were released in the conference. The stories of Bhamidipati Ramagopalam which were written to honour Bapu Ramana, The stories of smile, The stories of Dr. K. Sadasiva Rao were released in the Conference. Kongara Jaggaiah cine actor  inaugurated the cultural programmes. In various programmes in this conference Amani, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Ramakrishna, Sarada, Brahmanandam, Avs, Suseela, Ramakrishna, Zikki, M. Raja took active part. Vempati China Satyam performed special Kuchipudi Dance. Surabhi stage players exhibited their talent in various stage plays.

TELUGU PALUKU - SOUVENIR

Editor : Jampala Chowdary

Editorial Board :

Chairperson : Venkata Subbarao Vuppuluri

Co-chairperson : Ramaraju B. Yalavarthi

Members : Dronam Raju Sivarama Krishna, Raghavendra rao Pathuri, Bhaskar Ravi, Krishnaiah Revuluri, Venkata Rama Rao, C. Ramadasu, Sarada Purna Sonti

Youth Division Member : Dipika Reddy

Writers : Mullapudi Venkata Ramana, N.T. Rama Rao, Kongara Jaggaiah, Malathi Chandur, Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad, Vempati China Satyam, Nanduri Ramamohana Rao, Bharago.

11th TANA Conference

Anaheim (1997)

11th conference was conducted with Kottapalli Kondala Rayudu as the convener and Vadlamudi Ramamohana Rao as the President.   The first Novel writing competition was held with a prize money of Rs.1.5 lakhs. A supplemental stage was started for selection of local artists to perform on the main stage.  This conference collected $750,000 with expenditure of $500,000. Surplus of $250,000 was passed on to TANA treasury .

Mr Vadlamudi Rama Mohana Rao “in his speech appealed for the unity of Telugu people in America. He also stressed the need for development of internet which youth help to organise their activities in a better way.  He appealed to the youth and Telugu people in America he make Janmabhumi programme in Andhra Pradesh so that villages will have modern facilities.”

Chalasani Mallikharjuna Rao was the president from 1997-99. During his tenure, he beefed up the membership list, issued ID numbers for life members, updated voter list by removing more than 3 votes for one family. TANA finances were beefed up by cutting down TANA Patrika to 8 issues/year from 12./ year. He had  a novel writing contest like the year before, before the convention.

Dr. Radha J. Sarma, Dharma Reddy Gummai, Ravipudi subba Rao, Nageswara Rao Gangula, satish chilukuri, Venkatadri Bobba, Diwakar Reddy, Krishna Reddy M.,  Kanya Sonti, Sundari Sri Ganti, J.s. Sarma, Mukkamala Apparao, Peraiah Sudanagunta, Prem Chand Duggirala, Rajeswara Rao Gudipati, Ramakrishna Reddy Tadi, Rao Koneru, Sekhar Reddy Kallam, Viswanatha Achyutha Rayalu made the conference successful by sharing various responsibilities.

Jaipal Reddy Cabinet Minister from India was the Chief guest Akkineni Nageswara Rao gave away the awards. Nandamuri Balakrishna received award which was given for N.T. Rama Rao.

Jr. N.T.R. performed his dance in the presence of spell belled audience. Damaraju Murthy as Duryodhana in Maya sabha stunned the audience. Ravi Kumar Karna was another stage actor who exhibited his talent. Murali Mohan troupe performed the stage patriotic songs. Sridevi cine actor was specially honoured. Where as Balasubhramanyam, sailaja gave their special performance. Fashion show was conducted in a new way under the youth generation. A separate session was held for youth large number of women participated in women’s forum. The songs of L.R. Eswari, Pranay Kumar attracted the audience. Competitions were held to youth. Vemuri Venkateswara Rao conducted the computer course to encourage youth.

Awards were given to : Sri Rama Murthy Ankem (Science and Engineering), J. Lionard Bell (Special Humanist Award), Makineni Subbarao (famous social worker), Polavarapu Tulasidevi (Samaja Seva), Vridhdhula Krishna Murthy (Education) Srinivasa Rao Jammalamadaka (Education), Lilavathi Nallamothu (......) , Narisetti Innaiah (Journalist, writer), Prem N. Reddy (Management),  Akkaraju Sarma, Radha Krishna Bandaru, Ramaraja bhushanudu Yalavarhi, Yugandhar Yadlapati (Community services). Mohan Gandhi, Venkateswar Rao Kata, Krishna Polavarapu, Ramamohana Rao Vadlamudi, Vidyasagar Nuteri are in the awards committee.

TELUGU PALUKU - SOUVENIR

Editorial Board Members : Murali Chanduri, Satish Chilukuri, Bhogeswara Rao Prattipati, J.S.M. Sarma, Upadhyayula Venkata Satyanarayana

Cover page : Kondapalli Art

President : Ramamohana Rao

Convenor : Kottapalli Kondala Rao

Writers : Kanaka Prasad, Radhika Nori, Kovarthi Ramarao, Pucha Annapurna, Satyam Mandapati, Sudheshna, K. Bose, Vemuri Venkateswara Rao, Damaraju Lakshmi, Damaraju Sachidananda Murthy, G.V.R.K.Sarma, Bhavana, Upadhyayula Lakshmi Gowrangarao, Katragadda Venkateswarlu,  Puchcha Annapurna, Naag, Kaburu, Udayam, Nischalatvam, Tirupati Reddy Chandrupatla, Sunitha, Viswanatha Achyutha Devarayalu, Gade Venkata Madhusudana Rao, Sesham Suprasannacharyulu, Jakkampudi Subbarayudu, Vedula China Venkata Chayunulu, Penugonda Srinivasulu, Bapu, Karnakarni, Lingayattulu, Sanku, Vinjamuri Ansuyadevi, Vinjamuri Prabhakar, Jonnalagadda Venkatewara Sastry, Kalasapudi Srinivasa Rao, Vedula China Venkata Chayanulu, Vanguri Chitten raju, Mudigonda Srirama Arya, Paranandi Lakshmi Narasimha, Gavarasani Satyanarayana, Sikha Satyanarayana Murthy.

12th  TANA Conference

Cincinnati - 1999

12th TANA conference  was held in Cincinnati 1999 with Gorrepati Ranganatha Babu as convener and  Chalasani Mallikharjuna Rao as president. The Conference had a revenue of about $1.2 million and had a surplus of $270,000. $200,000 of this transferred to TANA treasury and $70,000 was transferred to local Telugu association. Highlight of the program is the local unity, business seminar and 3 hour cultural program by Akkineni Nagarjuna and his team of 40 members. Miss world Rita Faria from Hyderabad attended the convention. Movie play back singer Suseela received the life time achievement award at this conference. Folk art festival in India by name Chaitanya  Sravanthi was started at this time.

Tho co-ordinator for funds was chowdary Bobba, Treasurer Prof. V. Mannala, Coordinator of the Programmes Dr. Jampala Chowdary, various responsibilities were carried out by Savitri Chindu, Sarada Nagasetti, Anil Nalagatla, Sarada Purna Sonti, Prasada Raju, Hari K Maddali, Ananada Raju, Raghu Tadepalli, Anil Maddali, Swarana Kakani, Indira Gorrepati, Krishna Rao Kakani, Ranganath Babu Kakani, Gopi Krishna Pudatala, Hari Maddali, Patel V. Mannala, Rani Panangi, Balarama Raju, Devi Prasad Alapati, Rajasekhar Lakkaraju, Prasad Chandra, Girish Nagasetti, Patel V Mannava, Savitri Chinta, Madhavarao Dasari, Vasundhra dasari, Rani Bobba, Madhavi Kollu, Aruna Chowdary, Annapurna Chandra Malleswari reddy, Raghu Tadepalli.

Unity education and modernity are the main themes of the conference. Farmer prime minister P.V. Narasimharao was the chief guest. Member of Parliament M. Venkayya Naidu releasing the Souvenir. Ken Blackwell, Ohio. T.P. Srinivasan Indian embassy in America representative from U.s. Ferror Brown were the dignitaries attended the conference. Loksatta leader Jayaprakash Narayan delivered a special talk in the occasion. Kiran Narayan head of anthropology department in wisconsin University delivered the special talk Ramanaidu film producer, B.V. Parameswara Rao, P. Suseela Singer, Vemuri Balaram Editor swathi, Varaprasada Reddy, M.D., Santha Biotech, P. Hanumantha Rao, Manager Pragathi Arti Printers, Cine Director Bapu, Chalasani Prasada Rao Eenadu staff, Murali Mohan A.P. cine development corporation were specially honoured. Cine actor Nagarjuna Brahamanandam, Tabu, Ramya Krishna, Samanth, Rajendra Prasad, Ali, Music Director Vandemantaram Srinivas, Garikpati Narasimha Rao, Jayaprabha writer, Dayana Hedden Miss world took part in the deliberations.

Continuous Medical Education session was conducted Dr. Jampala Chowdary, Dr. Naveen Hemanth gave a video presentation talk on the problems of Children and depression.

TELUGU PALUKU - SOUVENIR

Editor : Chandra Sekhar Rao Kanneganti

Contributing Editor : Jampala Chowdary

Co-Editors - Udaya Bhaskar Nandivada, Madhava Rao Kuratila

Chairperson - Gopal Annam Raju

Vice-chairperson - Prasad Totakura

Cover page - Chandra

Writers : P.V.Narasimha Rao, Dr. Garikapati Narasimha Rao, Jayaprabha, Jayaprakash Narayana, V.R. Veluri, Paruchuri Srinivas, Sherrad brown, S. S. Murthy, Ravi, Savitri, Deepthi Chinta, Sobhanbabu Atluri, P. Venugopala Rao, Swarup Madduri, Machiraju Savitri, Chodavarapu Prasad, Turamella Madhava Kumar, Pappu Suryakantam, Utukuri Gopalarao, Dr. K.V.S. Rama Rao, Achaya Pippalla Surya Prakasa Rao, Yallapragada Janaki Rani, Sai Lakshmi, Sankara Narayana Swamy, Nori Radhika, Kanaka Prasad, Aari Sitaramaiah, Gurajada Suryakumari, Kolli Indira, Vikram, Palana, Dokka Rambhra, Kanneganti Chandrasekhara Rao, Madhukeela, Vinnakota Ravisankar, Machiraju Saavitri, Dr. Avasarala Ansuyadevi (Vinjamuri), Viswanatha Achyuta Devarayalu, Mutyala Seetha, Aravinda, Rachakonda Narasimha Sarma, Dokka Srinivasa Phanikumar, Udaya Bhaskar, Vasu, Dr. Papineni Siva Sankar, Indraganti Srikanth Sarma, Narisetti Innaiah, Kotturu S. Ratna, Indraganti Srikanth Sarma, Kotapati Sambasiva Rao, Jampala Chowdary, Aarudra, K.V. Ramana Reddy, Ajantha, Madhuranthakam Rajaram, Vakati Panduranga Rao.

Prize winners in the stories competition : Dr. K.V.S. Rama Rao, Palleti Balaji, Jonnalagadda Ramalakshmi, A.S.Mani, Dr. V. Chandrasekhara Rao, Vedaprabhas, Arnad.

13th TANA Conference

Philadelphia - 2001

13th TANA conference in Philadelphia 2001 had the distinction of having two conveners followed by one another. They are : Allada Janardhana Rao and Kosaraju Vijaya  Saradhi. Nadella Gangadhar was the president of TANA. In this conference the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh,  Chandra Babu Naidu’s speech from Hyderabad  was shown  live through  telecast to all the delegates. 7000 people attended the conference. $1.1 million was collected with expenditure of $1,03 million leaving a surplus of $70,000. Out of this $20,000 was transferred to TANA treasury.

Indraganti Srikanth Sarma played the special stage performance which depicted History and literature of the past glory. Akkineni Nageswara Rao, M. Vekaiah Naidu BJP Leader, Poet C. Narayana Reddy, Narla Tata rao, Ramanaidu specially attended the Programme.

Awards were given  in honour of the achievements made in different feels. They are : Murali Atluri (business), Murthy V. A. Bondada (Civil Engineering), Malavika Rao Kalapatapu, Adinarayana Murthy, Kautha, Achyut Paruchuri, Sai Rani Ravi, Prasad Totakura, Mahalakshmi Timmana (Community Services), K.S.Ramarao Pappu (Philosophy), J.N. Reddy (education) Sarada Purnasonti (arts and literature) Yugandhara Rao Vallabhaneni (social service), Venkata Ramanatham Vemuri. Dr Jampala Choudary( for medical services.

TELUGU PALUKU - SOUVENIR

Editor : Kidambi Raghunath

Cover Page : Krishna

In the youth division - Our beautiful state of Andhra Pradesh, Differences in work and family life between India and U.S., Rating India vs the US., Amara Chitrakatha crossword puzzle, Why Hindus worship deities, My thoughts exactly, why should know Telugu, Word scramble, Telugus surfing the net, Easy cooking tips, Vemana’s wisdom, Answer to puzzle.

Writers : Vanguri Chitten Raju, Satyam Mandapati, Uppala Anantha Sudhakar, Lalitha Pillalamarri, Diwakar Peri, Tadepalli Krishna, Radhika Nori, Mangala Kandur,  Challa Satyavathi, Srinivasa Prasad Peddu, Pattisapu Radha

14th TANA Conference

SAN JOSE - 2003

Komati Jairam was the convener and Muthyala Padma Sri was the president for this conference.  The post of chairman was created and Dr. Peraiah Sudanagunta took the role of the chairman.  The conference was attended by 7,000 people. Total collection was $1.1 million. The winning team was supposed to come to the conference, however due to problems with visa this did not materialize.

During the tenure of Dr. Navaneetha Krishna Gorrepati as president, he conducted children’s Cultural programs in Dallas, Detroit, New York, Washington Dc, and San Jose that selected child artists to perform in Detroit TANA Conference. He was also involved in arranging Tsunami disaster relief in Prakasam District near Chirala. A TANA Nagar was built at a cost $50,000 with 80 houses and given to fishermen there.

During the tenure of Padmasri  Muthyala as president TANA Backpack Program was initiated. This program is  currently held in Dallas, San Jose, Washington, DC, Boston and Detroit. Dr. Navaneeta Krishna, Chalasani Mallikharjuna Rao and Yetta Hanumantha Rao were actively involved in developing this  program in TANA.

In this conferences persons who shared responsibilities various committees

TELUGU PALUKU - SOUVENIR

Main Editor : Jampala Chowdary

Editors : Gunda Sivacharan, Nallamotu Prasad, Tiruveedhula Ramakrishna, Jampani Sashidhar

Coverpage Artist : Karunakar

Nasrim : Cover design

Writers : Foreword of Mutyala Padmasri,

Winners of the stories competition : Nandini, MIttava, V. Pratima, K. Varalakshmi, Peddinti Ashok Kumar,  Jatasri, Chandrasekhar Azad

Writers : Pasunuru Sridhar Babu, Mukunda Rama Rao, Srikanth Kodali Manchikanti, Bachchoti Sridhara Rao, Elchuri Vijaya Raghava Rao, Iranki Venkata Kameswar, Tatipamula Mrityunjayudu, Kalasapudi Srinivasa Rao, Nachaki, Chandra Kanneganti, Santi Nemani, S. Munisundaram, Vijayalakshmi Nadimpalli, Uma Ramanujam Eyyunni, Sanyasi, Vinnakota Ravisankar, Dr. N. Gopi, Mahajabeen, Dr. Boyina Venkateswara Rao, Jayaprabha, Kuchi, Satyam Mandapati, Sudera, Nadella Anuradha, Nisapathi, Dr. C. Narayana Reddy, Nidadavolu Malathi, Kanchi Seshagiri Rao, Ardial, Nikhileswar, Nagnamuni, Dr. Vasaprabhavathi, Mandarapu Hymavathi, Yarramsetti Papa, Jandhyala Venkata Rama Sastry. Vanguri Chittenraju, Vemuri Venkateswarulu, Tushara, Adusumalli Devendra Rao, Dr. S. V. Rama Rao, Aparna Munukutla, Marepalli Venkata Sastry, Saradapurna Sonti, Yandamuri Veerendranath, Pothukuchi Sambasiva Rao, Dr. Mudigonda Sivaprasad, Koduri Sriramamurthy, Dr. Poranki Dakshinamurthy, Pannala Subrahmanya Bhattu, Dr. K. Ramamohana Rai, Garikapati Pavan Kumar, Kotti Ramarao, C.S.Narayana, Vijaya Asuri, Gandham Yajnavalka Sarma, Saleem, K.V.Giridhara Rao, Katragadda Dayanand, Palepu Buchchiraju, Vanguri Chittenraju, Elactron, Pulikanti Krishna Reddy, Yaralgadda Kimira, Jalandhara, Vasundhara, Sailajarao, Boya Jangaiah, K.K.Meenan, Pattisapu Radha Mahalakshmi, Mudiganti Sujatha Reddy, D. Kameswari, Lavanya Mandalapu Vemsani, P. S. Narayana, Avasarala Ramakrishna Rao, Gorthi Brahmanandam, Binadevi, Srivirinchi, Tammineni Yadukula Bhushan, Kaasibhtla Venugopal, Suryakumari Upadhyayula, Aare Padmaja Chowdari, Alladi Mallesayya, Nemaluri Bhaskara Rao, Sri Subha, Gantikota Brahmaji Rao, Sitha Satya, Turaga Syamala.

15th  TANA Conference

Detroit - 2005

This conference was held with Dr. Kodali Srinivasa Rao  as the coordinator and Dr. Gorrepati Navaneetha Krishna as the president. Conference team developed some guidelines to go by through town hall meetings with local Telugu community. .  200 people attended each of these meetings,  assessed the needs  of the community.

Deliberations of these meetings were summarized thus:  (1) 70% of the performers in cultural program to be from USA. (2) Youth should have enough representation. (3) Tickets and honorariums should not be paid to any artists and  others from India. (4) Conference committee members  agreed not to get reimbursed  for travel  and  telephones  from  the  conference  funds.  (5) Transparency in accounts. (6) Surplus is the goal.  8000 people attended the conference. A Total of $1.5 million was collected, leaving a surplus of $340,000 that was divided between TANA and local association at 75% to 25% ratio.

Detroit Telugu association mainly took responsibility in helping the conference. Messages were received from Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy (c.m. ) renuka chowdary -  central minister, Nara Chandrababu Naidu Opp. leader. President Gorrepati Navaneetha Krishna, Krishna Prasad Chairman, secretary Boppana dwaraka Prasad, Treasurer Kakarla Mahipala Rao, various other responsibilities were shared by Bodepudi Shyambabu, Koneru Srinivas, Bandla Hanumaiah, Mandava Saranya, Vishnubhatla Ramanna, Sathi Mallikarjuna Reddy, Bikkena Sai Ramesh, Gutta ramakrishna.

Awards received : Lifetime achievement award were given Kalyampudi R. Rao, Velagapudi Datt. Technocrat Award for the decade given to B. Satyam Ramalingaraju

SOUVENIR - TELUGU PALUKU

Editor : Aari Sitharamaiah

Co-Editors : Maddipati Krishna Rao, Vasireddi Naveen

Writers : Bhadriraju Krishna Murthy, K. Ranganadh Acharyulu, Vasireddy Sithadevi, Atluri Srinivas, Jampala Chowdary, Vemuri Venkateswara Rao, Nandivada Udayabhaskar, Navodaya Ramamohana Rao, Kantragadda Dayanand, Yediganti Sujatha Reddy, Bachchoti Srihari Rao, Velaga Venkatappayya, Vittala Janakirama Sastry, Kandala Srinivasacharyulu, Afsar, J. Krishnamohana Rao, R.M. Umamaheswara Rao, Kochcharlakota Bapa Rao, Pappu Suryakantham, Katyayani Vidmahe, Paranandi Lakshmi Narasimham

16th TANA Conference

Washington DC - 2007   

Dr. Yadla Hema Prasad was the convener and  Bandla Hanumaiah was the president of TANA conference held in Washington DC in 2007. 14,000 people enjoyed the conference. Highlight of the conference was hour long speech of  President Bill Clinton  to the business seminar.

Former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh  Nara Chandrababu Naidu introduced and welcomed President Clinton.  

In the youth mixer, 200 youth met and resulted in 10 marriages after the conference.

Kakarala Prabhakara Chowdary was the TANA president During 2007-2009. During his tenure TANA along with Telugu communities across the globe fought for recognition of Telugu as “PRACHEENA BHASHA” and achieved it in the year 2009. TANA continued  it’s on ongoing programs, Telugu teaching at UT Austin, International Internship program, back pack program with school supplies and scholarship program for college students.  A new program called TEAM SQUARE was started to help Telugu families in USA  under distress.    During his term, there was an Internal Revenue Service audit of TANA, Inc-Foundation, Convention, Trust funds and General funds for the years 2004 and 2005. TANA successfully came out of this audit with the pro bono CPA services of Prabhakara Chowdary. He  obtained  Illinois Tax exempt status that saved several thousands in refunds to TANA for the conference expenditure.

Jampala Chowdary introduced President Bill Clinton

:  

“This is a historic day in our – in Telugu Association of  North America’s history. As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Tana organization, we are fortunate to have   a man that we all consider to be a friend of Indian Americans, the very first president to visit Andhra Pradesh, the state that we all came from, the president during whose leadership of this great country, there has been a tremendous opportunity created for literally thousands of fellow Americans to come and participate in the industrial – in the information technology revolution that has energized and transformed not just U.S., not just India but the entire world.

I know that you are all eager to hear the keynote address.  I now invite the president of our beloved organization TANA, Dr. Hanumaiah Bandla.  Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Hanumaiah Bandla will welcome Mr. Chandrababu Naidu (Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh).

Mr. Chandrababu Naidu said  “I’m thanking Sri Hanumaiah Bandla for asking me to introduce President Clinton.  Though I am privileged, it is very difficult to introduce a person who needs no introduction, that too in a span of few minutes.  Clinton, we are all aware, very charismatic statesmen, a humanitarian and perhaps the most popular American President that world ever has had.  A person…

…who gave the biggest example for all of us, a person born in rural Arkansas in a humble family was able to raise to the world’s most highest position is a testimony to the real strength of democracy.  He is a role model to emulate.  United States has seen the highest economic growth during his 8 years of governance.  He has balanced the federal budget and paid off $360 billion U.S. dollars of the national debt and converted the largest budget deficit in American history through the largest surplus..

During his presidency he created  of more than 22 million jobs. To achieved lowest rate of unemployment in 30 years and lowest for women in 40 years, highest homeownership in American history, lowest crime rate in 26 years, highest incomes at all levels with the equitable wealth distribution with the bottom 20 percent seeing the largest income growth at 16.3 percent, lowest poverty rate in 20 years, lowest infant mortality rate in American history.

He has nominated minorities and women as federal court judges, cabinet members and other government officials.  He has provided additional funds for the environment programs and tax credits for college education.  And he has left the office with the highest voter approval.  That is his credit, we are very happy for this.

All the Telugu people are here and also Indians are here.  We are all very happy after long span of time, 20 years gap, he has visited India.  He has stayed in India three days, even all of us remember his visit.  He has created tremendous impact on Indians and also those who are working abroad especially in America.

He has spent some wonderful time in Hyderabad, all Telugu people you remember that.  He has interacted very good interactions with self help groups.  And also he stayed with us for three to four hours.  Even now we are unable to forget about all remembrances.  When he visited back to America, he asked his governors and also politicians to go to India how technology, seva,  issue of driving licenses and how we handle other issues.

After his visit to India,  our people are doing extremely well.  For the last nine days, I toured the entire USA and observed the amount of confidence Indians are having and especially the Telugu people are having, nobody can imagine.  I am having total confidence today, even in future, Indians especially Telugu people will play very major role not only in employment and also in all walks of life.  All this credit goes to Bill Clinton.  He has motivated us.  He has inspired us in a big way.

After office also he is very popular.  In this TANA conference the crowd is 3,000 people.  That shows his charisma, that is his popularity.

Because of constitutional problems, he is unable to contest third time in the United States.  He is so popular now.  If he contest in India also, he will become the prime minister of India.  That is his popularity.

He is a leader, global leader.  At the same time, he is very popular all over the world across the boundaries.  Now it is his duty to work for the global benefit of the community.  I requested him to concentrate on peace mission.  Now we are seeing so many problems on religion.  Religion has become fanaticism under the process.  People are hating each other and there is a threat for global peace.  He has to take some organization, some platform so that we can concentrate on global peace.

We are all seeing global warming.  Environment problems are coming in a big way.  Because of environmental problems, there is a threat for survival or existence itself.  We are watching poverty.  There is poverty in India.  There is a clear division between haves and have nots.

Even in America there is poverty.  All of us have to fight poverty. All of us have to work to eradicate AIDS. This is also a big challenge for human survival.  These are all the four issues I mentioned with him.   

Bill Clinton speech : “Mr. Naidu gave me a very kind introduction, and also a very wonderful welcome to Andhra Pradesh when I was president.  You know, in America we have slightly different – a political traditions and when I got to Andhra Pradesh, there were these huge banners all over with his picture and my picture.  And I felt like a rock star instead of a politician.  And when you’re getting old and gray, to feel like a rock star is a very good thing.  So I thank you.

I would like to thank very much the officers, the executive committee, the president, the president elect of this fine organization.  I would like to thank Dr. Athera John, Krishna Katragadda and others who made my visit here possible today.

I would like to thank all the members of the Telugu Community who have made such a remarkable contribution to the United States.  And thank you for coming here to celebrate your art and culture including having the wonderful dancers here when I came on stage.  I wish they hadn’t left.  Then you could look at them and listen to me and it would be far more interesting.  And I would like to thank the ministers who have come here from a long way away from India to be here with me today and for the kind gifts and greetings they brought.

I believe one of the most important objectives that our administration achieved in foreign policy was the repairing of the long rift between United States and India and building a genuine partnership and friendship.  I welcomed former Prime Minister Rao to the White House in 1994, after long years in which we were separated over cold war issues which had not been relevant for some time.  I thought we had an opportunity to work on a number of issues and we did.

I was frankly a little jealous when both my wife and daughter got to go to India during my first term as president, they came home telling me what a wonderful opportunity I had missed.  In 2000, I was able to rectify that and…

That, of course, is when I had my great trip to Hyderabad but I was also honored to address the Indian Parliament, something which I will never forget.

I like the Parliament building but I must say it would be frightening for an American president to go and to address the United States Congress in an atmosphere in which the members of Congress were so close to the President.  Sometimes I think it would lead to encounters not altogether positive.

I was glad in 1999, eight years ago yesterday, on July 4th, our Indian – our Independence Day to meet with the then Prime Minister of Pakistan and do what I could to move the troops of the Pakistani Army back across the line of control and to avert a major political crisis and a potential military intervention.

And since I left office, I’ve had three great opportunities to continue to work in India for which I am very, very grateful.  After the earthquake in Gujarat in 2001, I was asked by the Prime Minister to try and help raise funds among Indians in the United States to help to rebuild the villages because hundreds of them had been destroyed.  It led to the establishment of something called the American India Foundation which is now raised almost $40 million for building thousands of homes and hospitals and schools, artisans workshop, marketing of Indian crafts in the United States.  It was really quite rewarding.

And, of course, after the tsunami, the president had asked his father and me to try to raise funds and work in that area.  And I wound up staying on for two years as United Nation’s coordinator for a tsunami redevelopment and reconstruction.  It was rewarding everywhere.  Of course the hardest hit part was Aceh, Indonesia.  We made a lot of progress there but – and they ended their civil conflict but they have a long way to go.  Now, the Thais were hard hit but they were able to quickly recover because it was a wealthy area.  The Maldives basically recovered on the strength of their tourism.  Sri Lanka did well until they began to fight with one another again, that always impedes recovery.  But the best job in restoring, in diversifying the economy away from the pre-tsunami economy to a new one was done by India and the [Indiscernible] [0:20:38].

It was amazing.  I watched women who had been widowed, their fishermen husband killed, making candles for Hindu Temples.  Something that seemed simple but it was something that had never been done before.  And the last time I visited, I visited family after family after family in new storm resistant housing, much more efficient with good sanitation for the first time ever, with schools that had libraries, and with early warning and rescue systems in place as sophisticated as anything you would find anywhere in the world.  So, I would say, in terms of overall rebuilding, so far, India wins the prize.  And it was a great honor for me to be there.

But perhaps the most important thing for me personally is the work that I’ve been able to do in India with HIV and AIDS.  In two senses, first of all, most of my major partners in providing lifesaving medication around the world are the manufacturers of generic drugs in India, the big ones like Cipla and Ranbaxy but also smaller companies.  We have one South African partner and increasingly others want to come.  But the Indian companies were producing state of the art, world-class quality medicine that when I started it cost on average about $500 a person a year.  We paid 10,000 a person a year in America.  The Europeans and Canadians pay 3,500 for the same drugs we pay 10,000 for which is why the American pharmaceutical companies oppose Americans as being able to re-import drugs from Canada.

Something terrible happens to American medicine when it goes to Canada – some virus infection.  And if you take it when it comes back across the border, you will drop dead immediately.  The Canadians have a remarkable resistance to this virus, they do very well with our drugs across the border.  But the point is, the world could not afford it, even in the poorest countries in the world, the discount price was about $1,000 or $1,500.

So, we went to the Indian companies and we said, you know, even at $500 a year are there bulk prices when if you bought by then what at that time was a big volume, you could get maybe $350 price.  It was still operating on the model of a small jewelry store.  Do you know how a jewelry store in America operates?  You have to have a whole lot of inventory and it cost a lot of money to maintain the inventory.  If you don’t sell much, so you have to have a big markup.  Also, some people who buy diamond rings may not be able to make all the payments, and then you have to undertake the expense of getting the ring back.

So I said to them, “This is too big a business.  There are six and a half million people who need this medicine.”  At that time in developing countries, only 70,000 people outside Brazil where the government purchased it all, we’re getting [AIDS] medicine.

So, I said, “Suppose we went to a grocery store model where we have high volume, low profit margins for sale and absolutely certain payment.  I’ll raise the money, guarantee the payment, but we got to get big volumes.”  They kept the prices to $139 a person a year.  You should be very proud of that.  Every Indian in the world should be proud of that.

Then, we did the same thing with children’s medicine which was $600 a person a year because the children’s volumes were so small.  But every year, over 500,000 children die of AIDS who could live if they had the medicine.   And the adult medicine doesn’t work so well.  It’s not like an Aspirin, you can’t just cut it in half and give the smaller portion to a child and expect it to work.  So, we went from $600 to $190.  Then, the French imposed a small airline tax to create a fund to buy medicines to combat serious illnesses of all kinds around the world called UNITAID.  And 19 other countries gave them some money.  So, they asked me to buy the medicine for children with HIV and AIDS.  The price is now $60, from $600 to $60.

Now, as a result of that, we have done – we have operated healthcare programs in 25 countries, my foundation has including India.  I’ll say more about that in a minute.  And we sell this medicine in 68 countries where the World Health Organization says the healthcare system will distribute the medicine and monitor it and test for its impact properly.

When we started, as I said, there were only 70,000 people in the world getting this medicine.  Today, there are about 2.4 million people getting the medicine.  And one full third of that – a third of all of the people in the world getting this medicine are getting it from these contracts made possible because Indian drug manufacturers changed their business model.  Seven hundred and fifty thousand people who will live including the overwhelming majority of all the children on earth getting AIDS medicine.  I hope that you are all very proud of that.

It’s been an honor for me also to work in India working on building networks for children’s health care, for care of adults.  We’re giving thousands upon thousands of people the medicine.  We have now trained 55,000 physicians in 13 states with 1,100 training sessions.  And we have a curriculum now we’ve developed with I-TECH for hospitals and ERT nurse training centers that, I believe, will eventually in the next year or so give us a nationwide coverage along with the funds, along with the medicine manufactured in India to make India the first developed country with a large AIDS population to in effect be able to treat everybody.  And they – I hope that will happen and I’m looking forward to it.

Now, why are you here and why do I do that?  That’s what I want to talk about for a few minutes.  What does all this mean?  How did all this happen?  Most people who lived at White House, as I did, go out and, you know, play golf and make a few speeches.  And I didn’t because I thought it would have been immoral given the life I’d had but also because I think this is more interesting and more important and more fulfilling.  But I see all of you here and I read in the press all the time about the stories about outsourcing which bothers me but what about all the insourcing.  Look at what you did for America.  Look at how many of you are here.  How many jobs you’ve created?  How many people work for you?

And I think – so I want you to think with me just for a few minutes about what all this means.  What is good about the globalized world of the 21st century and what are its major problems?  Because in different versions, you find every good and bad thing going on not only in India but in the United States.  The modern world is obviously full of opportunity.  It rewards intellect and imagination and vision and training and entrepreneurial skill with open borders, easy travel, easy immigration.  You see these things happening all over the world.  We are increasingly bound together.  And with more a trillion dollars crossing national borders every year, even if we repeat all the trade agreements in the world, you couldn’t stop a lot of these globalization and mobility.

So, the really important thing to do is to say what’s good about it and how do we accelerate it and what are the problems and how do we reduce them.  Well, what’s good about it is self-evident.  If there weren’t a lot of good things about it, you couldn’t have afforded the plane tickets to come here today.  Think about it.  The prosperity enjoyed by the Indian community in the United States is evidence of what is good about the global economy.   

The ability to cherish your traditions and your heritage to preserve your culture, your language, your faith and still be integrated into different societies all across the world is evidence of what’s good about the global economy and consistent with the vision Gandhi had when India was established in the first place.  That’s also true.

And many Americans have been a part of this, in ways large and small.  I once had – few years ago, I have a cousin who lives in the mountains of North Arkansas, in the middle of America, who played chess once a week on the internet with a man in Australia.  They took turns deciding who had to stay up all night long to conduct these chess matches.  And they quit after a couple of years because they were both sleep deprived.  But it’s an example of the kind of connections that can be used to bring the world together and to move the world to a better place.

Now, what are the problems with this world?  Essentially three, it is unequal and in many places growing more unequal, unequal in income, education and health outcomes.  It is insecure because acts of violence can quickly destabilize the kinds of information based on web-like economies that have generated so much publicity of so much prosperity, insecure in terms of terror, weapons and mass destruction, traditional conflicts.  How much more prosperous would India and Pakistan be if they didn’t have to maintain nuclear arsenals and increase defense spending every year.  How much better would it be?

You know, I think about how many poor people would there be?  You know, I could go before a group of Pakistanis living in America and see doctors and business people and high tech people and people who have Indian friends in their home communities and they’re doing very well here.  I tell everybody – I think of the Pales – these Palestinians, big story out of Palestine today, you know, is the Hamas and the Fatah are fighting each other.  And 90 people were killed so that Hamas could gain a great military victory in Gaza taking over the security headquarters of Fatah.

Does anybody here ever been to Gaza?  I’ve actually been there.  The military headquarters that they took over would fit in about 25 percent of this room.  And it’s not nearly as nice.  And you have a million people there packed into Gaza living in abject poverty.  On 43 kilometers of this most beautiful beachfront in the world, nothing in the south of France is better than the Gaza beach.  No beach facing the Mediterranean is better.  The only difference is they play war games in Gaza and they [Indiscernible] [0:33:54] in the south of France.

I know lots of Palestinians.  I do not know a single poor Palestinian outside the territories.  Every Palestinian I personally know is a college professor are a millionaire.  The Palestinians dominate the flower trade in Chile.  They have the highest per capita income in Ecuador.  They do well all over the world except at home.  Why?  Because they fight.  So, this is an insecure world.  And violence and insecurity undermines the opportunities of the integrated world of the 21st century.

And the third problem we have is it is an unsustainable world because of the undeniable realities of climate change and resource depletion.  Most everybody accepts the reality of climate change now and the only big fight is who should do what and when about it and how soon is it going to be bad?  And can a country grow rich, stay rich and get richer and reduce its greenhouse gases?  But before the worst impacts of climate change hit, I believe we will experience serious problems of resource depletion.  Already a billion people in the world never have access to clean water, two and a half billion no access to sanitation.  The tsunami was terrible, as I said, but one of the things that was built back better is that there were people in India and elsewhere and for the first time in their life had access to sanitary facilities because of the rebuilding efforts.

One of four of all the deaths on earth every year occurred from AIDS, TB, malaria, and infections related to dirty water.  Almost no one in America will die of any of those things this year.  This is an unequal world made worse by resource depletion.  The amount of clean water is drying up.  Topsoil is being blown away.

If you’ve been to Beijing lately, you know, it probably has the worst air quality of any major city in the world because it has localized air pollution and because the prevailing winds in China there blow from north to south.  And what used to be a breadbasket north of Beijing has been turned into a virtual desert by the destruction of the top soil.  So that the localized air pollution is like a big soccer net collecting billions of soccer balls of dust everyday making it difficult for people to breathe.  We’re looking topsoil.  We’re losing trees.

Ninety percent of the world’s fishing centers are under stocked today and only partly because they’ve been overfished.  Partly it’s because the ocean is trying bravely to absorb more greenhouse gases, more CO2 offensively as we cut down trees and put more CO2 in the air, the ocean tries to take up the slack to keep our planet in balance.  As it does so, it changes the chemical composition of the water, destroying sometimes barely microscopic elements in the food chain of fish.  All these things are happening together.  Meanwhile, because of new found prosperity, the world’s prosperity population is expected to grow between from now and 2015 in the next 43 years from its current level of six and a half billion to nine billion because we can keep babies alive better.  But most of that growth will occur in countries which can now not afford to give every member a good standard of living.

So I was – amused is the wrong word, I don’t want to trivialize this but I found a certain unreal quality to the debate in the Congress recently over what should be done about illegal immigration because the world took 150,000 years to go from one person standing up on the African Savanna to its current population of six and a half billion but will take only 43 years to go to nine billion.  So, if you believe that illegal immigration is a problem today, just take care of yourself, live another 20 years and you will see something that you couldn’t even imagine.

So this is an unsustainable world.  So in our relations with each other and within our own communities and nations, we have to go beyond an interdependence that is unequal, unstable and unsustainable.  We have to build integrated communities of shared opportunities, a shared sense of responsibility for success, a genuine sense of belonging so that we do something about these three problems.  The good news is we actually know how to do a lot of this.  We know what it would cost to put every child in school who is not in school.  And we know what if the wealthy countries of the world chose to pay for it, we know that it wouldn’t be an aid, it would be an investment in the world’s future.

We also know what it would cost to build effective health systems to deal with AIDS, TB, malaria, other tropical diseases, maternal and child health.  And it should be seen not as aid but as an investment in a common future.  When I was a young boy barely old enough to be aware in the late 1940s, there were still places in my home state in Arkansas which had a per capita income of only half the national average.  There were places in my home state that had no electricity that had only well water, no running water, that had no sanitation, even it had no telephones.  There were a few rural places that had no telephones in my lifetime.  Soon enough all those places were reached, those remote, rural villages that are quite poor.  No one thought of it as aid because we were all in one nation.  It was viewed as an investment.  That’s the way the world has to look at every place that needs income, education and healthcare.  It’s an investment because we’re all tied together.  We know how to do that.

In terms of the world becoming more unsustainable because of climate change, I happen to believe that dealing with the energy problem is the greatest opportunity we have to remove the tension about outsourcing.  And to – because the outsourcing tension – the root of the outsourcing tension in the United States is this, median wages in our country have been stagnant more or less since 1973 except for the last five years of my presidency when they rose and inequality went down.

Now, why did that happen?  I’d like to tell you it happened because I was an economic genius and had wonderful policies.  Yes, maybe a little bit.  But no, the real reason it happened is that in the late 1990s, and many of you were part of this, in the second half of that decade, information technology moved out of Silicon Valley into every aspect of the American economy.  Some of the most successful companies in Texas, for example, are video game companies.  Video game companies are nothing but sophisticated information technology companies.  And they created enormous economic opportunity so that it was only 8 percent of our jobs but 28 percent of our job growth in over a third of our income growth from one source rifling throughout the economy, changing all the averages and lifting the public at large.

No rich country, whatever its trade policies, can maintain a strong middle class unless every five to eight years, it has a source of new jobs.  Now, if you look at India, what’s the challenge there?  Why did Mr. Singh win an election in which the previous government, Mr. Vajpayee government was presiding over 9 percent growth?  Because the 9 percent growth was concentrated in 350 million Indian lives including the ones you led, sir, in Andhra Pradesh.  But the other 600 – the other 650 million Indians didn’t feel that they were part of it.  So the Congress party went out and organized them and got them all to come to vote.

But how do you take an engine like the IT revolution which has powered so much of India’s growth and move it from the one-third who can access it to the two-thirds who feel further and further and further away from a reality that many of you take for granted.  If you think about it, it’s your version of the outsourcing problem, your version of America’s problem where we have a 40-year high in corporate profits, an all time high in the stock market.  Our workers’ productivity is going up every year but wages are flat and poverty among working people is going up in America and so is the absence of health care among people who work.  So the inequality is getting greater even as the prosperity figures overall look good.  It is the great threat to democracies everywhere and a great challenge of all modern societies.

Think about energy.  In the industrial era, it was true that you could not grow rich, stay rich and get richer without putting more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.  It is now manifestly not true.  Look at tiny Denmark, in the last few years, Denmark has grown its economy by 50 percent, the whole country.  Wages are rising for everybody, inequality is going down, and they have a lot of immigrants in Denmark.

Why has that happened?  How did they grow their economy 50 percent and reduce inequality?  Because they created a lot of new jobs.  How did they do it?  How much has energy increased in Denmark while their economy grew 50 percent?  Answer, zero.  Not one extra watt of electricity.  How much have greenhouse gases increased?  Answer, they have gone down.  How?  Because now 22 percent of their electricity is generated from wind, highest percentage in the world.  You say, “Oh, well, they only have five million people.  It doesn’t apply to India.”  So we’ll go to the United Kingdom, the economy most like America’s.

The U.K.’s unemployment rate is about what America’s is.  And as we all know, they have lots of immigrants, right?  People from all over the world, they’re making a living.  Unlike America, however, their median incomes are going up and they have had no increase in inequality in this decade.  Why?  Because when the United States walked away from the Kiyoto climate change treaty, saying it would be the end of the world if we agree to limit greenhouse gas emissions, the British said, “We like this agreement but it’s too weak.  We will beat our targets by 25 to 50 percent.”  And they will.  As a result of which, they have created a huge number of new high skilled, high wage jobs which have kept inequality from increasing even as people have claimed their gains from the global economy there just as they have in India and the United States.

Now, consider what would happen among the 650,000 Indians living in rural India if India produced all of its own fuel?  And if you run every vehicle, everything in the world that runs in India but jet airplanes on biofuels, all generated in India.  More money for the farmers, food processing manufacturing, biofuel facilities every 50 or 100 miles because you can’t transport it long distances without using it – losing it, a new tax based to build decent roads and sewer systems and water systems.  What if you decided that India should become – should displace Japan as the number one producer of solar energy or should displace Germany as the number one producer of wind energy?  You wouldn’t hurt the Germans, they still need the wind.  They still manufacture a lot.  And these jobs are not easily outsourceable.

I just agreed to work with 40 of the biggest cities in the world including Mumbai and Delhi to prove that we could reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a way that creates jobs not cost jobs.  And we started…

We started with the program we announced last month in New York to retrofit buildings with solar power, with wind power, with new glass, with new lighting.  And to do this all over the world, we can finance such things in New York but not every city can.  So I went to five banks and got them each to commit $1 billion.  That more than doubled – what’s this, this is how little.  You know, $5 billion is not much money in Hyderabad anymore.  You know, that’s not much money.  That’s not a great deal of money on the global scheme of things but this is how pitifully developed we are in this fight.  That more than doubled the amount of capital available for retrofitting buildings and making them energy efficient in the entire developing world – the entire world.

Now, what can we do with that?  Well suppose you decided that you were going to abolish incandescent light bulbs in India?  Then you could set up factories to make compact fluorescent ones or light emitting diode bulbs and creating more jobs and jobs for people who don’t necessarily have university degrees.  Then someone has to go and install them, someone has to sell them, someone has to transport them from one place to the next.  This is a huge deal.  There’s a bill in the United States Congress today to ban incandescent light bulbs in the next 10 years.  Do you know what impact it would have in America?  It would reduce the need, eliminate the need for 80, 8-0, 80 coal-fired power plants – just changing the light bulbs.

And instead of hurting people’s jobs, it would create more jobs, huge numbers of jobs.  So, I would like to modestly propose that what we really need in India is an economic strategy to bring the benefits of the one-third to the other two-thirds.  In America, we need a strategy to create enough jobs so that outsourcing is not a problem.  If we retrofitted every building in New York City where I live, there are 950,000 buildings in New York City.  And let’s say we wanted to green the roofs, that’s a big strategy.  In any hot climate, you should put something besides a tar surface on the roof.  Put any kind of living vegetation on the roof, you can cut the temperature on a hot day drastically.

Like in New York, on a 90-degree day, every one of our old roofs with a tar surface will reach a temperature of 150 degrees at the surface point.  If you green it, you seal it, so it doesn’t leak and then you put sod down, the maximum temperature drops from 150 to 80.  That drastically changes the energy realities requirements in that building.  And for our people, it cuts the utility bills dramatically of residence and small businesses and others accessing these buildings.

Now, I tell all my friends in New York, “You can’t outsource those jobs.  Don’t worry about India, someone has to be standing on the roof.”  And there are jobs like that everywhere.  So think about all the things that can be done in India for the 650 million that the 350 million can’t do because a physical presence is required.  This is the way the world should be thinking on this and so many other issues.  We have to find win-win solutions.  We had to deal with inequality, we have to deal with instability, we have to deal with insecurity.  And it just happens that in this decade, the answer should be energy.  In the next decade, there will be another answer.  And the young people here will figure out what it is.

And this brings me to my last point, I think the most important challenge of the world is how we think and feel and teach our children to think and feel.  The biggest – the biggest external challenges we face today are all related to resource allocation, inequality, climate change, conflicts.  But a lot of them are rooted in how we think and feel.  America has been following a foreign policy in the last few years that basically says we will act alone when we can and cooperate when we have to.  In an interdependent world, you have to cooperate whenever you can and act alone only when you’re forced to.  It’s the way you think, it’s a thinking pattern.  It’s also an emotional preference.

Let me give you another example.  There was just exceedingly traumatic event in London when I was there.  You know, where they found all these car bombs.  And it appears that the bombs were implanted by a coalition of people who met through medical contacts.  Doctors who were supposed to be spending their lives making people well or keeping them from getting sick decided that they should become instruments of death.  Now, these people were apparently British citizens or at least several of them were even though their homes where somewhere else.  When the London subway and bus bombings occurred, all the people who perpetrated that were British citizens, not people who came from somewhere else as what we experienced on 9/11.

You have it in India when the Muslims and Hindus fight in the western part of the country when the beautiful mosque was blown up and where should the temple to Rama be established, all these things.  All this is about one thing, it is the central challenge of the 21st century world.  More important, I would argue, even in dealing with climate change, identity.  Identity.  How do you define your life in relation to others?  How do you do it intellectually?  How do you do it emotionally?

Most of you are incredibly prosperous in part because of your phenomenal capacity to make distinctions.  And for all, we all know that the – what we call in America the Arabic number system is the Indian number system.  We know that sort of legendary facility of Indians going to the beginning of mathematics, to the triumph in information technology.  All of that is about the ability to imagine distinctions.  Sometimes my [Indiscernible] [0:56:13] that fill gaps, that solve problems or create opportunities.

You come here to celebrate the language and culture of your people.  And it’s important to you and it should be.  The question is when you make all these distinctions, at what point for that distinction to matter do you have to make a negative reference to someone else?  Why do people need not only – need to think worst of someone else, to think well of themselves?  Why do people believe that their success requires someone else’s defeat?  How hardwired are our brains over millennia of development to create emotional reactions as well as intellectual ones that are territorial and that see all life’s distinctions as zero sum games?

Look, throughout most of history, there have been absolutely good reasons for seeing some people as threats and the enemies.  The whole history of humanity is basically the story of wider and wider and wider and wider circles of interdependence.  But when you first meet the other in the next circle, there is conflict.  And we like all these differences.  We would certainly don’t want to homogenize the world, America is so much more interesting a place today than it was 30 years ago because we have people from everywhere here.  And we know that all these distinctions and these differences add the search for truth and help us to push back the barriers of all the problems we have.

But when we believe that our distinctions are so important that they obliterate the significance of our common humanity, in an interdependent world, we are bound for constant trouble because we cannot escape each other.  So, just think about it.  Think of what Sri Lanka could become, India’s neighbor.  If the Hindu Tamils and the Sinhalese Buddhist did not believe their differences were irreconcilable.  And so they fight on.  How crazy is it that Gaza and the West Bank, a tiny place?  Now, they don’t even have time to fight the Israelis anymore, they’re too busy fighting themselves.  How plagued is the Middle East by the Salafisuni ideology which says we have to kill the near enemy before we can get around to the far enemy?  And the near enemy are the Shiyah and the weak Sunnis who don’t understand how morally superior we are and don’t agree with every last ritual and lifestyle choice we made.   So we want to wipe all of them out and then we get around the Israelis and then we’ll come after the Americans and the Europeans and anybody else.

And there are people who seriously believe this, people die every day.  And they’re not stupid people.  It’s not easy to, you know, you put these little roadside bombs together and then you have to time them and you want to make sure you hit them right when the vehicles are going over so you just blow the limbs of, people now older than your own children.  And it’s always more expensive in going to war.  This is a huge deal everywhere, identity.  I want you to think about it.

Gandhi understood this.  He had this vision of India which was heartbreaking in the beginning when Pakistan separated.  But now, we know something we didn’t know when Gandhi was there.  Gandhi knew from the depths of his soul about our common humanity.  So none of us were that great but we don’t have to be that great anymore.  We are on this little bitty planet.  There are – and we now know there are hundreds of billions of planets in the universe.  We just learned that the conditions that we have – they have [indiscernible] [1:01:09] conditions may be mirrored in a planet orbiting one of the 20 solar systems closest to us.  It’s – at last it’s 20 million light-years away so we’ll never know if there’s life on that planet.  Lest, we got a family or two willing to commit four generations to space travel.  We have to wait for them to come to us.

But the whole world’s future comes down to this.  How do we identify ourselves?  How did we learn to make distinctions without which we couldn’t navigate – I couldn’t get off this stage if I didn’t know the difference high and low.  Our whole man, our whole being is wired toward making distinctions that make all progress possible, that make all learning possible, that make all relationships possible, and [Indiscernible] [1:02:14] between men and women and tall and short, old and young.  That’s how our brains work.  But if we lose the sense that our common humanity matters more in a world where everything is related, then all the things I have said today about climate change, health care, education, everything else is totally irrelevant.  And every little feeble effort I’ve made in my life to bring people together while others are trying to tear them apart will be a pathetic failure.

That is what I ask you to think about.  India can take the prosperity of the 350 million to the other 650 million.  America can heal the gaps caused by the globalization of the economy.  We can deal with all these challenges.  They’re easily solvable intellectually.  The resources are there.  What is keeping us from it is an inadequate sense of identity, a sense of belonging that we belong together.

In Africa, where I do a lot of my AIDS work, one of the countries where we work, the typical tribal greeting goes something like this, someone says, “Hello, how are you, good morning.”  Instead of saying, “I’m fine, how are you?”  The answer is, “I see you.”  Think of that.  Think of that.  Think about all the people we never see, all of us, not just terrorists, all of us.  And we all leave here today, someone is going to have to come in and clean this up.  And I promise you a lot of the people who will fold these chairs feel – or carry them off and fold the tables up and feel it.  People don’t see them.

When I made my last trip to Indonesia, my next to last trip, I went to one of these camps where 40,000 people were still living in tent camps.  And you know how hot it is, it was so hot.  They were living in these awful tents.  So there were few thousand of people in this little tent camp.  And every camp had an elected leader.  So – with the U.N. envoy and I had to go and listen to them tell me their problems and trying to solve them, I was met by the leader and his wife and his son.  And my little – my interpreter was there, a nice young Indonesian woman who had been a television personality and had been in this camp before.  So I looked at this family and I looked down at this boy and I just gasped.  He was so beautiful.  The child was beautiful.  These luminous dark eyes, this beautiful smile.  And I said to the lady, I said, “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a more beautiful child.”  My interpreter said, “Oh, he’s a very beautiful boy.”  Before the tsunami, he had nine brothers and sisters, they’re all gone.

So, the lady and the boy take [relief] [01:05:38].  The husband who lost nine of his children takes me through the camp, never one word about his loss, only about the needs of the people in the camp and what can be done – only.  Then, at the end of the tour, we finished at the health clinic which was very important to me.  We’d work hard to reinstate health systems.  And I look up and the leader was there, his wife comes up who had lost nine of her children holding this baby, a two-day old baby.  In the Indonesian culture, when a woman has a baby, she gets to go to bed for 40 days, waited on hand and foot.  And then at 40 – on the 41st day she gets up and then name the baby.  Interesting tradition.

But here was this woman who’d lost nine of her children holding this baby with a smile on her face.  She said, “This is our newest baby.  And we want you to name him.”  So I said to her, I said, “Well, do you have a word that means new beginning?”  She said – so they talk to the interpreter the lady and she said, “Yes, lucky for you, in our language the word Dawn, the coming of the morning, is a boy’s name, not a girl’s.  We will name this boy Dawn and he will symbolize our new beginning.”

Now, I thought to myself, first of all, it was one of the most wonderful moments of my life.  I thought I never have had a problem.  I hate it every time I had ever felt sorry for myself.  What I really thought is why do we had to be confronted with someone who’s lost nine of their 10 children, had the courage to go on and cherish the one they had left, had the heart to name a newborn baby Dawn?  Why do we have to hear a story like that to feel our common humanity?  Why can’t we rewire ourselves so that we live this way every day and we see this all the time?

So I leave you with this.  Sometime in the 21st century, the Indian economy and the Chinese economies and if they continue to grow together, the European economies will all be bigger than the American economy.  Sometime in the 21st century, we will face crunch time with climate change and resource depletion.  Sometime in the 21st century, we’ll have to figure out what in the wild world are we going to do with nine billion people or if we finally start educating women properly, it will be less, maybe seven and a half billion.  We’re going to have to figure out what to do with all this.

Why do we do any of it and whether our grandchildren can be in a meeting like this 50 years from now depends on identity?  And whether we think our interesting differences are not nearly as important as our common humanity.  It’s interesting, isn’t it, that the smarter we get, the simpler our choices become.  Dr. Hema Prasad Yadla  :  “Mr. President, you indeed made our dreams come true today.  We have been working on this for the past one year with the help of Telugu brothers Krishna Prasad and David Prasad.  And it made – the day is made true and this is one of the days we can write in the history of the annals of Telugu pride.

Mr. President, there will be volumes written to describe the achievements of your presidency, your compassion for the underdogs is only imagined by your remarkable ability to help them while dealing with all the odds and harnessing all the strengths in the most creative way.  Your presence in our time has been a stabilizing factor and a blessing for humanity.

Mr. President, we the Telugu people now gathered here in the land of great American people do realize the dreams what every human being desires.  For this, we thank our ancestral homeland which enabled us to participate in the struggle for life shoulder-to-shoulder with great American people.

Mr. President, I have to tell a story from your book so everybody will buy that book and read it.  In this struggle, our stories are not much different than your stories especially one I would like to mention, we know your encounter with a burglar and how you wrote him a letter.  One night one of our colleagues was sleeping at night in his still unfinished home with no doors and no assets when a burglar came in the dark and was leaving the scene quite disappointed after sifting through some empty boxes.  The poor owner commented to the burglar, “Man, I don’t find anything here in the daylight and you expect to find it in the dark.”

Thank you all.  Thanks for making our day, Mr. President.”

There is a check for Clinton Foundation for $1 million from Katragadda Krishna Prasad and David Prasad.  

T ELUGU PALUKU - SOUVENIR

Editor : Jakkampudi Subbaraidu

Important article : History of TANA by Dr. Guttikonda Ravindranath

Writers : Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, T. Gowrishankar, Jayanthi Ramaiah Panthulu, K. K. Ranganatha Charyulu, Ansuya Reddy, Buddiga Subbarayan, Kolichala Suresh, Avula Manjulatha, C. Dharma Rao, A.B.K. Prasad, Ramesh, Chekuri Ramarao, Tadikonda Sivakumara Sarma, Induru Niranjan, Kalalapudi Manjusha, Tirumala Krishnadesikacharyulu, K. Sivareddy, Sailajamitra, Kandukuri Sriramulu, Meka Ramarao, Sonti Saradapurna, Seemanapalli Vijayalakshmi, Vamdluri Sudhakar, Chakalakonda Ramakantharao, Kalluri Siva Raju, Kolagotla Suryaprakasa Rao, Perugu Ramakrishna, Avaala Damodara Reddy, Vedula China Venkata Chayamalu, Nannapaneni Aakineedu, Jandhyala Jayakrishna Bapuji, Battula Subrahmanyam, Tallapragada Purna, Yalamanchili Gandhiji, Katari Nehru, Puligandla Ramakrishna, Konduri Ramasarma, Sahavasi, Inganti Venkata Rao, Vajhjhu Babu Rao, Tripuraneni Venkateswara Rao, Yarlagadda Balagangadhara Rao, Vaddemgunta Ankaiah, Kommineni Venkataramaiah, Acharya N.G. Ranga, Tummala Sitharamamurthy Chowdary, Jakkampudi Sitha Rama Rao, Volga, Nadella Guruprasada Rao, Papineni Sivasankar, Totakura Satyanarayana Raju, Narisetti Innaiah, Parunam Srinivasa Rao, Battula Subrahmanyam, Nagnath, Sonti Saradapurna, Mukkamala Appa Rao, M. Ramamurthy, Damarla Priyanka, Swamy Chidatmananda, Yarlagadda Kimira.

17th TANA Conference

Chicago - 2009

17th Conference was held in Chicago on July 2,3,4 -2009 with Yadlapati Yugandhar as the co-ordinator and Kakarala Prabhakara Chowdary as President of TANA. The venue: Donald Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Illinois.

6800 people attended the conference. $1million was collected with expenditure of $1.35 million leaving a deficit of $350,000.  

Guests and Dignitaries

Dr. Y.V. Reddy, eminent economist and former Governor of Reserve Bank, Reserve Bank of India was the chief guest. Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois  Arne Duncan were the chief participants in the conference

The Secretary of Education, Ambassador (Ms) Meera Shankar, Consul General Ashok Kumar Atri. The famous poet Sri Sirivennela Seetarama Sastri, and the Industrialist and Philanthropist Sri Galla Ramachandra  Naidu are the other Guests of Honor.  Dignitaries from India include Padmasri S.P. Balasubrahmanyam, the recipient of TANA Lifetime Achievement Award, and literary stalwarts  Medasani Mohan and  Rallabandi Kavita, Ramarao (NTR Jr), who were  accompanied by charming stars Swati, Prasad. The star of the show is the young heartthrob Nandamuri , Charmi, Naresh, Rajeev and Suma Kanakala, Uttej, Raghubabu, and AVS along with classical dancers, melodious folk singers, top-notch musicians, famous writers and distinguished scholars.

North American Super Singer Contest

17th TANA Conference  hosted the first ever North American Super Singer Contest, in

collaboration with MAA TV. TANA conducted a three stage competition for gifted Telugu singers.  Mano, Suddala Ashok Teja, Chandrabose and Goreti Venkanna as the judges.

Awards Banquet

The festivities  began on July 2, celebrating the illustrious achievers of our community from various walks of life with TANA Awards for Excellence. The Awards Banquet was held in the spacious and elegant ambience of the Grand Ballroom at the Donald A Stephens Convention Center. Chicago, the venue for the first ever TANA Awards Banquet,  a memorable event with the Banquet Committee  designed a dignified awards ceremony, a delectable, multi-course, sit-down dinner, and special entertainment fitting the occasion.

Inaugural Ceremony

Inaugural Ceremonies , the harbinger of the quality of the program made great impact.  The Cultural Committee  produced an innovative inaugural program .. A special dance ballet to commemorate the Conference theme, Technological Innovation and Cultural Celebration, is composed specially for the occasion by the immensely talented and highly popular poet, Sri ‘Sirivennela’ Sitarama Sastry. More than 100 young Telugu dancers of Chicago, under the guidance of the artistically creative local choreographers  enthralled  the audience.

Cultural program

The 17th TANA Conference Cultural Committee strived hard to put together a uniquely entertaining cultural program that was ‘most entertaining to most of the audience of all the time”.  The TANA-MAA TV Super Singers   lifted  spirits with the best of the Indo-American musical talents. The glittering film stars led by NTR Jr, along with Charmi, Swati, Naresh and Rajeev Kanakala  presented exciting entertainment under the expert stewardship of Sri Murali Mohan, Paruchuri Gopala Krishna and EVV Satyanarayana. There were  laughs galore led by Nandi award winning Uttej, AVS, Maharshi and Raghubabu, accompanied by mimicry artists and folk and parody singers. The legendary SP Balasubrahmanyam, accompanied by S. P. Sailaja, Ranjith Kalpana and Vishnubhotla Srikrishna, presented a gala concert in his inimitable style befitting the Grand Finale.

Literary program

Several noted scholars and poets including the much celebrated stalwarts like Akkiraju Sundara Ramakrishna, Tirumala Desikacharya, Gollapudi Maruti Rao, Sri Ramana, Vasireddy Naveen, Cherukuri Ramadevi, Vanguri Chitten Raju, Veluri Venkateswara Rao, and Malladi Venkata Krishna Murthy participated in several interactive programs. In addition to the ever popular avadhanam, spearheaded by two avadhanis of  distinction, Sri Medasani Mohan, and Sri Rallabandi Kavita Prasad, a program with unique, new event, Netraavadhaanam (avadhanam while communicating nonverbally) by two gifted and talented women, Nidamarti Lalita Kameswari, and Kasibhotla Rama Kumari was main attraction. Renowned poets Sirivennela Sitarama Sastri, Suddala Ashok Teja, Chandrabose, Goreti Venkanna, Papineni Sivasankar, and Vinnakota Ravisankar  recited their distinct styles of writings and discussed  nuances of poetry.

Competitions in Telugu vocabulary and extempore speaking kept the youngsters excited.

There was also a religious session.

Youth

The 1995 Chicago TANA Conference conducted youth events like- cruise, fashion show, talk-shows and prime-time participation.  The Youth Committee reinvented the youth program with plenty of exciting events to expand the social horizons of youngsters of all age groups. Events included a banquet at the bustling Navy Pier featuring a Telugu rapper and comedians of Indian origin and a nationwide

Youth Talent Show.  In addition to the seminars, the ever attractive tantalizing Fashion Show, invigorating Basketball and Volleyball, stimulating Chess and Video tournaments, social Mixers and thrilling Club Nights were conducted.

Business Seminars

This conference featured two days of Business Seminars. Dr. Y.V. Reddy, who led the banking reforms as Governor of Reserve Bank of India,  delivered the keynote address. Leading entrepreneurs from many walks of business including Health and Pharmaceuticals, Clean and Green Technologies and Infrastructure Development shared their experiences and expertise. Special panels addressed the needs of Women and Young Entrepreneurs.

Forums

Forums offered Socio-economic, Film Making, Science and Superstition, Entertaining in an Ethnic Kitchen, Rural Development, Women’s Issues. Face-To-Face meetings with film stars was held.

Continuing Medical Education

To catch up with the latest Technological Innovations in Medicine  CME discussed where leading luminaries from the Second Generation Telugu physicians was the highlight of the discussion.

Arts & Crafts

Padma Sri, S.V. Ramarao conducted Arts and Crafts Exhibition with artwork created by Telugu people. Artists in various media, both from North America and India displayed their works in the exhibition. Special exhibition of paintings by artists from Andhra Pradesh was organized by TANA in cooperation with the Potti Sreeramulu Telugu University., Hyderabad.

Commercial Exhibits

TANA Conference had commercial exhibition with enticing jewelry and saree shops with  vintage videos,  latest music and upscale real estate to non-profit services.

Mohan Nannapaneni elaborated the help extended to the victims of accidents in USA.Thotakura Prasad gave details of International scholarships through TANA.

Dilip Kuchipudi narrated the useful work done by Tana foundation.

Dr Jampala Choudary introduced the judges of talent singers which was central show in the cultural program.

Jandhyala`s MADHYA TARAGATI MANDAHASAM WAS ENACTED AS STAGE PLAY.

Super mogudu  Super Pellam play put the audience in hilarious mood.

The political session Mr I V Subbarao in chair contributed to the contemporary thinking.

Krishna Rayabaram stage play was quite impressive.Musical session of Sanjay put the audience in aesthetic mood.

Sundar Dittakavi and Krishna Sarada acted as anchors for cultural programs.

Two troops Detroit were center of attraction in the function through their bollywood stage performance and pop songs.

AVS humour made all audience into laughing mood.

The conference incidentally congratulated Yugandhar Yadlapati since july 4th the American independence day happened to be his birthday too.He thanks the 200 volunteers who worked for the success of conference.

Balasubrahmanyam music concert  was quite turning point in the program. After that he was honored on the stage.

Suneeta`s song performance made audience into musical mood.Yugala Astaavadhanam was another gravity of attraction for literary lovers.Youth had their talent test and awards were given to the best performance.

The audience witnessed the services of TANA to the blind people in in Andhra. through special video. There was Veena concert with youngsters expert musical talent.

Shobha Rani choreographed the program.Rama Gurupalli conducted variety of folk music.Chintakayala Ravi group dance made mark in the cultural programs.Undavalli  Anuradha conducted marriage Vedukalu with young girls. Kuchipudi dance performance with Krishna Leelalu is another master performance in the cultural show.

Yugandhar Yadlapati was the Coordinator of the Conference.  He was the Convenor of the very successful

10th TANA Conference held in Chicago in 1995 at the same venue.

Welcoming the gathering, Prabhakar Chowdary Kakarala, President of TANA, expressed happiness for grand success of Chicago conference.

SOUVENIR - TELUGU PALUKU

Editors : V. S. R. Chowdary, Jampala

Co-Editor : Vasireddi Naveen

Cover Design : Chandra & N. Krishna Reddy

President : Vuppuluri Venkata Subbarao

Vice-President : Ramaraja Bhushanudu Yalavarthi

Writers : Papineni Siva Shankar, Kompalle Ravichandran, Rasmi Balasubrahmanyam, Potturi Venkateswara Rao, Vemuri Balaram, N. Innaiah, S.V. Rama Rao, Volga, Mahammad Khadir Babu, Mrunalini, Saichand, Pappu Suryakantham, Vanguri Chittenraju, Kadregula Nageswara Rao, Sivaji, Kandukuri Ramesh Babu, V. Srinivas, Narasimha Rao, K. R. Chowdari, Chukka Ramaiah, Rentala Jayadeva, Tankasala Ashok, K. Ramachandra Murthy, A.K. Prabhakar, Dr. Anil K. Jampala, Nirmaladitya, Videhi Sashidhar, Narayanaswamy, Chandra Kannelaganti, Machiraju Savitri, Vinnakota  Ravisankar, Satyam Mandapathi, Narayana Swamy, Ala, Pudipeddi Seshusarma, S.V. rama Rao, Machaki, J.U.V.B. Prasad, Vemuri Venkateswara Rao, Krishna Konduri, Raghavendra Ichchada, Sai Brahmanandam Gorthi, Rahul Pavuluri, Ramakrishna Velamati, Sarada Purna Sonti.

18th TANA Conference

Santa Clara - 2011

18th Conference of Tana was held with Chilukuri Satish as the coordinator and Komati Jairam as  president and with numerous Tana volunteers from local area who worked day and night to make the conference success.  It  resulted in a surplus of $400,000 that fortunately wiped out the deficit from the Chicago conference. Komati Jairam put lot of effort for this surplus to materialize.

18th TANA Conference was held in santa clara, california state during July 1-3, 2011.  8000 thousand people enjoyed the conference programmes. Several politicians, Industrialists, and artists came from Andhra. Jayaram Komati was the president and Chilukuri Satish is the co-ordinator, who conducted the conference most successfully with the co-operation of hundreds of TANA volunteers. Deputy defence minister from the central Pallam Raju was the chief guest. State minister Galla Aruna Kumari and Pitani Satyanarayana. Members from Parliament Rayapati Sambasivarao, Madhuyashki Goud, M. Venugopala Reddy, Leaders of the Communist Parties Raghavulu, Narayana, Andhra Jyothi Managing Director Radha Krishna, T.V.9 CEO Raviprakash, Praja Paksham with Paruchuri Gopala Krishna, Sekhar Kammula, Cine actor Nandamuri Balakrishna were the luminaries in the conference. Dr. Jampala Chowdary introduced the programmes. A Photography session with local professional photographer was  well attended.

Mr. Pallam Raju the defence minister in his speech reminded that  India attained world fame in the cricket. He requested the Telugu people in america to extend their help to their country.

Galla Aruna Kumari the minister said that Telugu people in should contribute for the development of Andhra Pradesh.

Vijaya Aasuri conducted the cultural programmes. Overall programmes were directed by Satish chilukuri and Nadella Jaya Prasad.

The three day conference was conducted with full of cultural programmes, economic seminar, women’s forum,  film and photography meet, peoples representatives forum, business seminar, open heart with R.K., encounter with Raviprakash engaged all the participants. audience enjoyed the music performance of Sriramchandra, Kausalya, Pranavi, Beepula, Nandamuri Balakrishna acted as Raraja Narendra in Historical Play along with him Paruchuri Gopala Krishna, Gummadi Gopala Krishna, AVS, Murali mohan, Surekha Rani, Sana, Jyothi, Ganesh, and Jonnavittula participated. AVS humourous play Hasyavallari engaged the audience. The guys who acted in the dances got appreciation from the audience.

The business exhibition was main attraction in the conference.

Jayaram Komati President TANA paid various tributes to volunteers for their effort to motive conference to success.  

TELUGU PALUKU - SOUVENIR

Editor : K.V.Giridhara Rao

Co-editor : Naveena Vasireddy

Cover design : Anwar

Writers : Katyayani Vidyanmahe, Mrunalini, Bhairavabhatla Kameswara Rao, Tammineni Yadukula Bhushan, Palaparthi Indrani, Vinnakota Ravishankar, Dr. Videhi Sashidhar, K. Geetha, Chandra Kanneganti, Pudipedi Seshusharma, M.B.S.Prasad, Laila Yerneni, Ketu Viswanatha Reddy, Vamsi, Mandapati Satyam, Akkiraju Bhattiprolu, Tatipamula Mrityunjayudu, Dr. Narayana Garimella, G.K. Anantha Suresh Kanaka Prasad.

19th TANA. Conference

DALLAS, Texas - 2013

19th Conference of Tana was held at Dallas,Texas state in May   24-26, 2013. Mr Prasad Thotakura was the president where as Mr Vennam Murali was co ordinator.Mr Justice Jasti Chalameswar, judge in Supreme court, India was the chief guest and spoke extensively. He was presented momentos to winners of various items during the conference.

Ms Nirupama Rao, ambassador of India in USA spoke extempore about the role of India in USA and excellence of various persons who are playing important positions in various walks of life.

Mr Chiranjeevi, minister for tourism in government of India and cine actor narrated the schemes taken up of to promote goodwill through various schemes.

Ministers from Andhra Pradesh Mr Ponnala Lakshmaiah, Pitani Satyanarayana, Ghanta Srinivasarao actively represented the government.Few legislators from Andhra pradesh took part in the conference actively.

Mr Ravi Prakash, chief of TV9 channel in India spoke emphatically with many suggestions to improve quality of life through scientific attitude.

Dr Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad, representative of Indian cultural affairs in Canada suggested several steps to promote Telugu language in India and abroad.

TANA gave 12 awards while the president of TANA gave 5 awards to various persons who achieved eminence in their fields.

Special songs of Jonnavittula composed and sung for the occasion were released in the conference.

In a special session of youth Mr Mohan Nannapaneni narrated the steps to be taken for protection of students and young people from falling victims to road accidents and other dangers in USA.He also indicated to take care of academic fields and not to fall into the trap of cheating in educational institutions.

The literary forum was conducted by Mr Chandrahas Maddukuri where in Mr Mandali Buddha Prasad, Gollapudi Marutirao, Prof Afsar, Ms Kalpana, Innaiah Narisetti spoke about the actions to be taken to save Telugu language in future.

Chagarlamudi Pakeeraiah conducted business session wherein participants discussed various measures to improve trade and commerce.

Separate session was held to discuss the problems of women where in Ms Jaya Sudha, cine actress came out with good suggestions.

In the closing session Mr Mohan Babu, cine actor exhibited the educational schemes which are being implemented in Vidyaniketan, near Tirupati where discipline  is observed without any caste, creed, religion barriers. Ms Jayasudha spoke briefly about life experiences. Mr Brahmanandam, the actor narrated his experiences in cine field.

Mr Prasad Thotakura, in his presidential remarks narrated the schemes which are going to be implemented in USA for the promotion of arts, crafts, language courses with the help of Telugu University. Mr Nannapaneni elaborated the future schemes of Tana in USA.

In the closing ceremony the outgoing president Mr Thotakura Prasad thanks and handed over the responsibilities to the elected president Mr Mohan Nannapaneni.

The music session of Sailaja, Balasubrahmanyam is the highlight of the conference where audience enjoyed thoroughly.

There was special stalls with various items like Lok Satta services, different book stalls, arts, crafts, books, jewellery, sarees that attracted participants.

Tana conference under the presidentship of Mr Thotakura Prasad $450000 which put the organization on safe pedal and it the largest amount saved for Tana so far.

20 the conference of TANA

July 2-4 2015 Detroit

President elected: Dr Jampala Choudary

2015-17

TELUGU PALUKU - SOUVENIR

Editor : Chandra Kanneganti

Co-editor : Naveen Vasireddy

Cover Design : Vasu

Art : Raju Yepuri

Writers : R. V. Ramarao, Yarlagadda Balagangadhara Rao, Dr. Garikapati Narasimha Rao, Rentala Jayadev, Chowdary Jampala, S. V. Ramesh, Nagarajam Y, Sannidhanam Narasimha Sarma, Nannapaneni Mohan, Jampala Chowdary, Dr. Raghavendra Prasad, S. Prasad, Susmitha Kosuri, Kanneganti Manjulatha, Bhadriraju Krishna Murthy, C. Dharma Rao, Sai Brahmanandam Gorthi, S. Narayana Swamy, Peddinti Ashok Kumar, Laila Yerneni, Nani Krishnamurthy, Satyam Mandapati, G. Lakshmi, Potturi Vijayalakshmi, P. Chandrasekhara Azad, V. Raja Ramamohana Rao, Mannem Sindhumadhuri, Akkiraju Ramapathi Rao, Sri Ramana, Gollapudi Maruthi Rao, MVS Prasad, K.V.S. Rama Rao, Krishna mohana Rao, Mohan, Hasya Brahma Sankara Narayana, Dr. Garikapati Satyanarayana, Gayatri Bhogapalli, Rajesh Veerapaneni.

20. TANA Youth Conferences

TANA Youth Conference is a conference organised by TANA youth to discuss related to TANA youth. It is typically on a Memorial Day weekend on the even number year.

Here are the list of places where the conference was previously held.

Sr. Year Place Sr. Year Place Sr. Year Place

1. 1977 New York 9. 1993 New York 1. 1988 Detroit

2. 1979 Detroit 10. 1995 Chicago 2. 1990 Edwardsville, IL

3. 1981 Chicago 11. 1997 Los Angeles 3. 1992 Washington DC

4. 1983 Washington 12. 1999 CinCinnati 4. 1994 Cincinnati

5. 1985 Los Angeles 13. 2001 Philadelphia 5. 1996 New Jersey

6. 1987 St. Louis 14. 2003 San Jose 6. 1998 Austin

7. 1989 Houston 15. 2005 Detroit 7. 2000 Dallas

                             (Along with

                 TANA Regional

                Conference)

8. 1991 Atlanta 16. 2007 Washington DC 8. 2002 Conzume,    

                                           Mexico

Youth conferences are conducted alternate years. They are not conducted after 2000 year..

Board of Directors responsibilities

TANA Board of Directors: TANA Board of Directors are responsible for protecting the bylaws, providing oversight and establishing the goals and direction for TANA. They are also responsible for long-range planning and short term assistance on critical issues. They manage all the Trust funds of TANA including TANA life membership fund.

TANA Foundation

During July 1999 - June 2001, TANA Foundation has initiated carefully-selected development projects that are expected to improve the quality of life of the beneficiaries. Each of these projects was made possible by many generous donors in the North American Telugu community.

"To Share, To Care, And To Serve the Needy"

TANA Foundation is a perpetual autonomous body of Telugu Association of North America (TANA). The mission of the Foundation is to improve the quality of life of all needy people in North America and Andhra Pradesh.

First TANA Foundation Committee

Chairman -   Ravindranath Guthikonda

Secretary -   Prasad C Kakarala

Jt. Secretary - Tirumala Rao Tipirneni

Treasurer -   Sambasivarao Kotapati

Treasurer -   Rao Damodar Gedala

Trustees

Sai Ramesh

Bikkina Baburao

Doddapaneni Vara Prasad Rao

Gutti Sriharidas Kanuri

Venkama Naidu Motupalli

Lenin Pam

The monetary value of the charitable work that is carried out by TANA Foundation averages one million dollars a year. The charitable work falls into three broad categories:

1. Projects Facilitated By TANA Foundation:

These are projects  sponsored by philanthropists and well-wishers in North America. These projects  benefit the hometown or village that the sponsor originates from. The projects facilitated by the Foundation span a wide spectrum;  projects include protected drinking water, construction of permanent cyclone shelters, school and college buildings, community halls, senior citizen centers, places of worship, sanitary facilities, and model villages.

The projects are normally executed by a not-for-profit organization such as a Village Development Committee in India or, in some instances, by the State Government. Since the funds for the charitable project are sent through TANA Foundation, the sponsor in most instances will be able to treat the contribution, for tax purposes, as a charitable donation. The sponsor  does the spadework in terms of defining the project, arranging for matching funds from the Government.

2. Projects Executed by TANA Foundation:

These are projects that have a very broad scope and have the potential of helping the needy in the whole of Andhra Pradesh or the U.S. These projects have a leader designated by the Board of Trustees of the Foundation. The Board ensures that the benefits from the project are not limited to a particular region of Andhra Pradesh or the U.S.

Good examples of TANA Foundation Projects include - Hepatitis B vaccination, Child Rescue Shelter, Eyesight restoration, Nebuliser for Asthma Patients, Adopting bright Children to provide free higher Education (ACE), and Rural Sanitation. In most instances, TANA Foundation teams up with a local non-profit organization to execute the project. The Project Leader designated by the Board plays a strong role in raising the funds and executing the project. Eyesight Restoration, Nebuliser for Asthma Patients, and ACE are three projects that are currently very actively pursued by the Foundation. The status of these projects is highlighted in the following pages.

3. Funding of Scholarships and Calamity Alleviation from Endowment Income:

The Foundation has, over a period of time, accumulated funds generated internally as well as those received from donors. These are restricted funds that are invested for the long haul. The interest income from such investments is used to fund a limited number of scholarships as well as provide emergency relief in the event of a calamity.

Currently six named scholarships of $2000 each are being issued annually to students from India who is pursuing graduate studies in the US. Also, four scholarships of $750 each are issued annually to High School Seniors in the US who are pursuing higher education. Further, $500 is provided annually to North/South Foundation for conducting Spelling Bee Competitions. Several bright but poor ACE students in India are also funded through endowment income.

What has been accomplished to date has been no more than a small step towards improving the quality of life of the people in need.

TANA Foundation has been the top organization for doing charitable activities in Andhra Pradesh from USA.  Averages of a million dollars per year worth of projects have been implemented consistently for more than a decade.

Orphanages:

Many Orphanages have been identified which are being run very efficiently but not able to provide everything they want to due to paucity of funds.  An endowment of One Crore rupees will feed 1000 children for at least one month every year.

Eye Camps:

Operation Envision has been one of the most successful projects of TANA Foundation. TANA sponsored 500 eye camps in various parts of Andhra Pradesh and 35000 people are living a better productive life due to these camps.  

Cancer Camps:

Foundation started to sponsor cancer camps with the help of Basava Tharakam Cancer Hospital in Hyderabad.  A cancer camp can be conducted with $1500.   

TANA Foundation conducts many programs in Andhra Pradesh promoting preventive health care among the poor and disadvantaged. One such program is the Cancer Screening and Awareness program implemented in collaboration with the Indo-American Cancer Hospital One of the main objectives of this program is to create cancer awareness and conduct free cancer screening programs, specially aiming at women because of the high incidence of breast cancer and cancer of the cervix.

In the state of Andhra Pradesh where the population is more than 8 crores, the incidence of cancer is almost 1 lakh new cases every year. The incidence of breast cancer and cervical cancer are very high, especially in the age group of 30­-60 years old. In men, the cancer of mouth (especially in tobacco users), tongue, sound box, esophagus, stomach and colon are very common.

As a commitment towards society and to fulfill the above objectives, the Indo-American Cancer Hospital is conducting Cancer Awareness and Cancer Screening Programs at regular periodicity in the twin cities, districts and rural areas since inauguration. These programs were being organized with the kind co-operation of local authorities, NGOs and other philanthropic organizations.

Earlier the screening was limited to a thorough clinical examination and Pap smear for women. Fortunately with the help of Mobile Cancer Screening Unit which is equipped with Mammography, Ultrasound and X-ray units, we are in a position to do Ultrasound, Mammography, X-ray and give the reports on the spot.

Baseline Mammography is done in women above the age of 45-50 years for early detection of breast cancer and also in women with a strong family history of breast cancer every year. Mammography units are available only in a few centers in the cities. With the help of TANA, the Hospital is trying to bring awareness in the rural areas and provide free screening for better lives. Many donors to TANA Foundation Cancer Screening camps are enthu­siastically supporting this noble cause in their native places.

Unlike other health camps, the Cancer Screening Program involves a number of costly consumables like X-Ray Films for Chest X-Ray, 4 Films for Mammography, Developers, Print Rolls for U/S Scanning, Spatula, Brushes, Slides, Reagents, Cyto Fixtures for Pap smear and payment to the Screening Tent. Though Indo-Cancer Hospital absorbs the major portion of the expenses, they need the support of sponsors towards consumables and other expenditure of the Cancer Screening Program.

For a cost of $1,500, the hospital organizes a camp through TANA. The sponsorship covers the following expenditures:

• Transportation of 16-member team by rail or road
• Fuel for the Mobile Cancer Screening Unit equipped with X-ray, - Ultrasound and Mammography (@Rs. 30 per KM.)
• Medicines for 200 - 300 participants

Cleft Lip:

The face of a child can be with $300.  Cleft lip and unusual growth in the mouth and throat severely affect children with these deformities.  Moreover these happen in remote areas among poor people due probably of nutritional deficiencies.  This project has been just taken up and 10 surgeries have been sponsored till date.  It takes the hospital crew to convince the parents of these affected children to come to the hospital for a free surgery as they are scared of the costs and after effects of the surgery.

Libraries:

TANA Foundation with the help of BREAD society has been establishing libraries in Government schools.  For about $500 a library can be established which is administered by a teacher of the school.  There has been a 75% success rate of utilization of these libraries.  BREAD society regularly inspects these libraries and is starting to give prizes for students who use the libraries and submit write ups on the books they read.  

Activities

TANA members have contributed $1.9 million dollars to projects in USA and in Andhra Pradesh through TANA foundation.

TANA foundation has 150 projects sponsored by its members. All those projects are funded in last two years.

Projects:  Scholarships, Orphanages, Schools, Roads, Eye Camps, Dental Clinics, Temples, Safe Water Plants, Community Halls, Mahaprastanam, Old Age Homes, Free Article Limbs, Ekal Vidyalaya (www.ekaliindia.org).

- Backpack programs for needy children in USA

- 600 backpacks with supplies in Dallas.

- 1000 backpacks supplies with in Boston area.

Operation Envision

- 220 Donors in USA

- More than 20,000 Cataract Surgeries

- Camps conducted across Andhra Pradesh

- $90,000 in total funds.

- $30,000 in yahoo employee fund

- $10,000 in TANA foundation matching grants.

Free Eye camps

TANA conducted free Eye camp in Mynampadu on 5-4-2009 (Late. Aggavenkata Subbayya, Tulsamma)

Eye camp at Hanuman Junction.

Free Eye Camps are conducted in Hanuman Junction, Krishna Dist.  and Shankara Eye Hospital and District Blind Education Society in Minampadu.  

Success story of Sankara Eye Hospital, Guntur with the help of TANA Foundation

TANA Foundation has been a great supporter of Sankara Eye Hospital, Guntur, during its construction and afterwards. TANA Foundation organized a successful fund raiser for the construction of this Eye Hospital in 2003 in Detroit. TANA promoted the Sankara's cause of "Eradicating Curable Blindness in India by year 2020" amongst their members through many TANA conferences - in particular 2003 and 2011 conferences held in San Jose and Santa Clara, California, respectively. TANA Foundation also sponsors eye camps regularly through Guntur hospital in and around Guntur and Krishna districts. To date, TANA Foundation sponsored more than 110 eye camps, helped perform more than 18000 free eye surgeries and contributed more than half a million dollars for prevention of blindness in Andhra Pradesh.

Sankara Eye Foundation (SEF) is fortunate to have TANA and TANA Foundation as partners-in-service in this noble mission and appreciates this valuable partnership. This partnership helped raise at least half-a-million dollars towards Sankara Eye Hospital, Guntur. SEF thanks leadership of TANA Foundation, TANA and TANA Members for their continued support and hope to continue this partnership in the years to come and help needlessly blind in Andhra Pradesh. Together let us eradicate curable blindness in India by 2020 if not sooner.

Giving training to children in Tailoring, Automobile, Binding, Carpentry and Electrical works.

TANA Foundation builds a Child rescue shelter in Vijayawada.

TANA Foundation maintaining Khaja Sitalakshmamma (wife of late Khaja Lakshmi Narayana) Memorial Old age home in Gudivada.

Sri Kakatiya Student Welfare Society conducted by Jasthi Venkateswarlu

- 334 scholarships during the year 2008.

- More than $70,000.

- Part of the Scholarships through TANA foundation.

Rangaraya Medical College, Liberty

- More than $200,000 raised by RMC alumni

- Funded through TANA foundation

- First year M.B.B.S. students are permitted to have complete access to the liberty facilities.

- Library operated by June 2009.

- Most RMC alumni are TANA members.

Nannapaneni Mohan Z.P.H. School, Bhadrachalam

Water Plants in A.P.

- Funds for Abbineni Guntapalem Water Plant have been donated by Kantheti Balakrishna and Avanthi.

- Funds for Konjedu Water project were donated by Obbayya Chenna Reddy Prakasam Dist.

- Adavikonlanu plant was established with the funds of Sitaramudu Ande.

- Funds for Pedapadu Plant were given by J.R. Kakarla.

- Donar of Kavutharam plant Rama Mohan Vadlamudi

Water Plants through TANA Foundation

- At Vunguturu by Mani Pathuri

- At Kolluru Village, Guntur Dist. by Dr. Lokeswara Rao Edara.

- At Palaparru by RamaraoPentela.

Water Plants

Reverse Osmosis Plant.

Plant Cost 3 to 4 lakhs

Land

Civil Project Cost 2 lakhs

Nandi Foundation

Water Plant at Addineni Gunta Palem - JMJ Social Service Society, Nallapadu and TANA Foundation, USA.

Best Water Health Care Welfare Society - Kolluru Village Panchayat.

TANA foundation arranged Water Plant Transportation Vehicle

Sai Oral Health Foundation

The Sai foundation has been conducting free dental clinics for school children and poor people throughout Hyderabad, Krishna, Ranga Reddy, Nalgonda Districts.

- 400 patients are being treated every week at these clinics.

- Provided de-fluoridation plants in Nalgonda District.

- Dr. Sairam Atluri and Dr. Pratha Atluri have generously contributed over $100,000 in past 2 years for this great cause.

- TANA foundation provides its helping hands to send funds and organize dental clinics in villages.

Community based de-fluoridation system in (CBDFLS) in Yadavalli village.

Skeletal Fluorosis patient able to walk after operation.

Director General of health Govt. of Thailand has visited community de-fluoridation project in Nalgonda Dist.

Burial Ground renovation in Bodipalem - Mahaprastanam.

Library cum community hall in Bodipalem

Yearly Graduate Scholarships

- Seven $2000 Graduate Scholarships for Telugu students.

- Kind hearted sponsors

Padmavathy and Ravindranath Guttikonda of Edison, New Jersey (one)

Swarjyalakshmi and Sudhirbabu Guttikonda of Fulton New York (3)

Satyavathi and Yungandha Rao Vallabhaneni (1)

Scholarships for youth

- Economic Need

- TANA foundation is pleased to announce that three $2000.00 scholarships will be provided for the high school seniors pursuing higher college education in North America.

- Selection Criteria

Economic Need

Academic Performance

One reference letter from teacher.

Scholarships for poor students

- More than 234 new scholarships for poor students across Andhra Pradesh every year.

- 150 scholarships being renewed every year till the completion of college education through BREAD society.

(The Basic Research Education and Development Society (BREAD) was established in 1989 with the purpose of extending assured financial support to brilliant, but very poor students to pursue higher education. However, higher education has been made free by Govt. of Andhra Pradesh to all students whose annual parental income is less than Rs. 1 lakh. Hence, BREAD Society has turned its attention towards school education.) http://breadsocietyindia.org/

- Scholarships for

B.Sc., B.com. B.Ed., Nursing, Polytechnic, B.Tech., M.B.B.S., D.Ed, D.Pharm.

ViswahithaSholarhsips

- $100,000 since 2003.

- Scholarships to 30 students during 2007-2008

- Scholarships range from 15,000 to 30,000

- Helping poor merit students.

- Please visit website for student history

(www.viswahita.org)

(Vishwahitha is a registered non-profit organization founded by a group of people endeavoring to provide moral and financial help to less fortunate children in Andhra Pradesh since 1999. They have helped more than 100 students in last 10 years. Their goal was to help students who need assistance at a critical time during their education, i.e. during Intermediate (11th and 12th). They believe intermediate is the most important time in their student life.

TANA foundation for helping Vishwahitha in raising donations for last 7 years.TANA for encouraging charitable organizations like Viswahita.)

TANA Foundation-B.R.E.A.D Society sponsors Children's Libraries in Government and Aided Schools:                 

TANA Foundation has coordinated with BREAD Society (Non-profit organization at Hyderabad) on Adopt a Child to Educate Program (ACE) for the last few years. They are doing an excellent job in providing education to college bound poor and meritorious 0 children. It is a well-recognized non-profit organization. In order to inculcate reading habits among children from an early stage, BREAD Society under the leadership of Sri Kakani Ramamohanrao and Smt. Ravi Saradagaru (Secretary of Andhra Pradesh Library Association) has recently established 12 Children's Libraries during Library Week (November 14- 20) in 2009. These are located in the high schools at Donepudi, Kuchipudi, Amruthalur, Govada, and Bodipalern in Guntur district; Durgapuram, Patamata, and GaniAtkur in Krishna district; and Mallaln, Velangi, Kaleru, and Chelluru in East Godavari District.

With a donation of $500 for a library, they provide bookshelves and 300 books to start with in the first year. They strengthen these libraries by adding about 100 new titles each year over the next three years. BREAD Society will take care of annual maintenance expenses like purchase of registers, replacement of hooks torn due to excessive usage or loss of books (in exceptional cases), and other incidental expenses. The response to establishing Children's Libraries in schools has been encouraging.

BREAD Society would like you to suggest the name of a local person who will monitor the progress of the Children's Library on an informal basis, at each and every place you propose to sponsor Libraries. Such a person should make casual enquiries from children as to what books they have read and should motivate them to read. He can also make friendly enquiries 6 from the teacher in-charge and I-lead Master without appearing to interfere in their work.

Proposals for new Libraries may be initially processed by Mentor-Coordinators and sent to the BREAD Society where a donor comes forward. Mentor-Coordinators should play a proactive role Lo encourage the Head Master and/or Teacher to take up the project. Mentor-Coordinators are key in making this program a success as regular visits to schools and interactions, especially with students, will lead to inculcating reading habits among them.

While BREAD Society has district level mentor-coordinators, they can only frequent Library Centers once in a while, whereas the local person can really make a significant impact in inculcating reading habits among school children.

The government also supplies library books to schools but they are not normally lent out to students for reading at home. In many schools, books remain in bundles, the way they were received because of lack a secure storage space (bookshelf with locking facility), and there is no teacher who will take responsibility to handle the job. When a Head Master nominates a teacher to look after the library, he/she has to render a complete account of the books through the process of stock verification on transfer/retirement, and shortages are debited to his/her account. Hence, they do not normally issue books to students to read at home. All 0 classes are supposed to have one library period a week; this is observed in the breach in most cases. Of course, there are also good Head Masters and teachers who appropriately utilize their resources.

Recently, TANA Foundation Board approved the noble concept to try to solicit Telugu brothers and sisters for CHILDREN'S LIBRARY PROJECT at least one for each village in Andhra Pradesh.

With a Tax -deductible Donation of $500 to TANA Foundation, you can sponsor one school library. The Donor name will be written on the bookshelves. We strongly urge you to donate.

Healthier Highways

Adopt-a-Highway: erecting billboards educating high risk groups like truck drivers about healthier and preventive projects. A small donation of about US $500 will help in erecting a billboard. $80,000 raised since 2007.

Sreyassu

Improving Quality of life of PSHA.

Improving Quality of life for those suffering from HIV/AIDs

Curb the spread of HIV/AIDs into general population.

Serving 27 villages over PSHAs in Jaggaiahpet Mandal, Krishna Dist.

Providing Nutritional Medical Counseling services, Foster care and educational support to HIV orphans.

Community outreach work organizing support and self-help groups.

Centre for Social Service, Nagole, Hyderabad.

Center for Social Service is a Voluntary Organization, with no monetary profit motive aimed at ensuring better opportunities economically and socially deprived girls in our society.

VR Sidhdhardha Scholarship

Funds support poor students of V.R. Sidhdhardha Engineering College in the form of Scholarships.

More than $90,000 has been raised during the academic year 2008-2009.

Funds raised by alumni of the college.

TANA FOUNDATION Projects

During the July 1999 - June 2001 period. TANA Foundation has initiated many carefully selected development projects that are expected to improve the quality of life of the beneficiaries. Each of these projects was made possible by many generous donors in North American Telugu community.

HUMANITARIAN PROJECTS IN NORTH AMERICA AND ANDHRA PRADESH

•      Helped ($2000) Pydipati Sabitha in Philadelphia to undergo emergency surgery for bleeding. She has recovered well.

• Helped ($6900) MuraliKrishnam Raju of East Godavari to undergo bone marrow transplant surgery for aplastic anemia at Vellore Hospital. He recovered well. TANA Foundation, compassionate donors and Telugu community were saddened by the shocking news that he has recently succumbed to sudden illness.

•    Provided ($2500) Hepatitis B vaccination was provided to about 480 street children in Hyderabad being cared for by CAP program. Following the success of this program, a number of sponsors came forward to extend this program to 5000 children in different parts of Andhra Pradesh in collaboration with local voluntary organizations.

RECOGNIZING THE ARTISTIC TALENTS OF TELUGUS

• TANA Foundation announced ARUN GUTHIKONDA MEMORIAL AWARDS the best artists selected from the participants in the I3" TANA Conference held in Philadelphia. The Endowment established in 1981 provided $1,300 for the Honorariums and Plaques distributed to the winning artists.

HELPING THE HEALTH INSTITUTIONS

• Arranged ($16,400) funds to supply desperately needed Ultrasound scanner, pulse oximeter, and operating table to Victoria hospital for women and children in Visakhapatnam,

HELPING TO BUILD INSTITUTIONS FOR DISABLED

• Vegesna Foundation in Hyderabad with donations of $10,500 is providing facilities to disabled.

PROMOTING TELUGU LANGUAGE IN NORTH AMERICA

• Awarded ($4,500) scholarships to doctoral candidates Christopher Chekuri, Aravinda Pillalamarri, and Rajagopal Vakulabharanain to promote Telugu language at the University of Wisconsin. Madison.

INVITING TELUGU STUDENTS FROM ANDHRA PRADESH WITH SCHOLARSHIPS

• During the 2000-200I academic year, TANA Foundation offered two ($2,000) scholarships to Lavanya Vallabhaneni of Hyderabad and P. Vamsee Gnanakan of Guntur for Graduate studies at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago respectively. During the 2001-2002 academic year, TANA Foundation offered six scholarships and two additional scholarships.

REWARDING TALENTED TELUGU YOUTH WITH SCHOLARSHIPS

•   During the academic year – 2000-2001, TANA Foundation awarded 5 named scholarships of $750 each and 5 TANA Foundation scholarships of $300 each to Telugu North America High School seminars :

School seniors

1. Sandhya Bondada (Lexington KY)

Vallabhaneni Sukundamma & La

2. VumsecChagaturu (W. Wind, NJ)

Chalusani Sitaravamma & Suryanaayana Scholar

3. Vasantha Kolavennu (Free mont, AL)

RASI Laboratories Scholarship

4. Mallika Mcndu (Barrington, RI)

Guthikonda Balamani & Ramabrahmam Schnlanh,l

5. Neilesh Mutyala (Monroeville, PA)

BikkinaTirapanna Scholarship

6. Rekha Gavini (Laytonsville, MD)

TANA Foundation Scholarship

7. Geeta Pamidimukkala (Paramus, NJ)

TANA Foundation Scholarship

8. Vijay Paruchuru (Edison, NJ)

TANA Foundation Scholarship

9. Anita Tipirneni (Fort Salonga, NY)

TANA Foundation Scholarship

10. HariTunuguntla (Ruston, LA)

TANA Foundation Scholarship

The recipients for the upcoming academic year 2014 will be announced during the thirteenth TAM Conference. Full details of the named scholarships are provided in the accompanying pages.

ENCOURAGING THE YOUTH IN COLLABORATION WITH NORTH-SOUTH FOUNDATION

• RASI Laboratories Endowment. TANA Foundation is able to encourage our youth participate actively in Spelling Bee competition conducted annually by North South Foundation by giving them an opportunity to excel challenging themselves.

IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF PEOPLE IN ANDHRA PRADESH

• Successfully completed a ($47000i 20 villa ERADICATION OF OPEN DEFECATIC PROGRAM in Andhra Pradesh in collaboration with enthusiastic individual sponsors of the native places, NAANDI Foundation and the A. Government. With Naandi Foundation embarking on another (-54700) 20 village chalien originally proposed by TANA Foundation. A total of 4000 individual toilets will reduce the up defecation in these villages substantial improving the health and quality of life of these villagers.

Helping the Poor Needy & Homeless in North America

• Contributed matching funds to Inter Church coalition for soup kitchen and holiday gifts to the homeless and the poor in Tiffin, OH.
• Arranged matching funds to provide doctor’s visits, screening, treatment and prescriptions to uninsured poor in Lansdale, Hatfield, Montgomeryville, Upper Gwynedd and Towamacin townships in Pennsylvania.
• Joined hands with Hindu Temple and Cultural Society of Bridgewater, NJ to arrange soup kitchen in Edison, NJ for the homeless and poor.
• Perpetual Scholarship Endowment for Graduate Students from A.P., India.
• How to set up a permanent named scholarship, in honor of loved ones, for Graduate students from Andhra Pradesh? Donate a currently determined minimum annual amount of $2,000 perpetually or donate currently determined minimum amount of $ 25,000 in three years as endowment, the annual interest from which will be perpetually used to provide for the scholarships. The following generous sponsors have set up the endowments in 2000 and 2001.

1. TANA Foundation Endowment of 15000 and increasing for Scholarships for Graduate students from Andhra Pradesh.

Sponsor: TANA Foundation

2.  Cherreddi Narayana Rao & Radhamanohari Endowment of $25,000, and Chereddi Narayana Rao & Radhamanohari Scholarships ($2,000, mainly from annual interest from $25,000 endowment)

   Sponsor: Smt. Padmavathy & Sri Ravindra Nath Guthikonda

(Edison,  New Jersey)

3. GaddeSitaravamma & Tirupataiah Endowment of $25,000 and GaddeSitaravamma & Tirupataiah Scholarships ($2,000, mainly from annual interest from $25,000 endowment).

Ekal Vidyalaya

Prasad Yalamanchi, Trustee and Joint Secretary of the TANA Foundation, speaks to us about his favorite charity:

"If you were to make only one charitable contribution this year, I recommend that you put the Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation on the top of your list. For only a dollar a day per school in rural parts of Andhra Pradesh, you can make a significant difference in a child's life. $365 will fund an entire school in rural Andhra Pradesh for an entire year. Giving the gift of education is giving the GIFT OF A LIFETIME."

What is Ekal Vidyalaya?

The Ekal Vidyalaya movement aims to help eradicate illiteracy from rural and tribal India by 2015, in line with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. To date, Ekal \/idyalaya is a movement of over 20,000 teachers, 5,000 volunteers, 20 field organizations throughout 20 Indian states and 8 support agencies. This tremendous force strives to create a network of non-formal schools that will educate and empower children in rural and tribal India through advanced developmental techniques like multi-grade teaching.

Board of Trustees

1. Janaki Rao (Chairperson)

2. SateeshChilukuri

3. Prasad Chukkapalli

4. AmmaniDasari (Treasurer)

5. ChowdaryJampala

6. PrabhakarChoudary

7. Kakarala (TANA President)

8. Ravi Koneru

9. VenkatraoMulpuri

10. Hema Prasad Yadla (Secretary)

TANA Board of Directors: TANA Board of Directors are responsible for protecting the bylaws, providing oversight and establishing the goals and direction for TANA. They are also responsible for long-range planning and short term assistance on critical issues. They manage all the Trust funds of TANA including TANA life membership fund.

Board of Directors:

Dr Naren Kodali (Chairman)

Hemaprasad Yedla (Director)

Jayaram Komati (Director)

Brahmaji Valiveti (Director)

Sagar Malisetti (Director)

Ram Yelamanchili (Director)

Mohan Nannapaneni (President)

Prasad Totakura (Past President)

Jampala Chowdary (Vice-President)

Satish Vemana (Secretary, EC)

Madhu TATA (Tresurer EC)

Jayasekhar Talluri (Foundation Chairman)

Srinivas Gogineni (Foundation Secretary)

Prasad Nalluri (Foundation Jt. Secretary)

Manjulatha Kanneganti (Foundation Treasurer)

TANA FOUNDATION CHAIRPERSONS

1. 1981-1983 Boddupalli Chinababu

2. 1983-85 Lingamaneni Jaganmohana Rao

3. 1985-87 Chalasaani Vidyadhara Rao

4. 1987-89 Akkineni Sudarshana Rao

5. 1993-94 KaajaRamarao

6. 1994-95 Poalavarapu Jaganmohana Rao

7. 1995-97 Polavarapu Raghava Rao

8. 1997-99 DamaVenkaiah

9. 1999-2001 Guttikonda Ravindranath

10. 2001-2003 Kakarala Prasad Chowdari

11. 2003-2005 Vallabhaneni Yugandhara Rao

12. 2005-2007 Tripiraneni Tirumala Rao

13. 2007-2009 Chalasaani Mallikarjuna Rao (Detroit)

14. 2009-2011 Eedara Lokeswara Rao

15. 2011-2013 Dilip Kuchipudi

16. 2013-2014 Jayasekhar Talluri

17 2015-17 Srinivas Gogineni

TANA PATRIKA

TANA Monthly Magazine commenced from 1983-83 under the editorship of  Kidambi Raghunath at the outset it was in book size (8.5” x 11”) and mostly handwritten and xeroxed copy. The first editorial was written by kidambi Raghunath with aims and objectives of the journal. After Ravindranath Mr. Parinam Srinivasa Rao forward by Cherukupalli Nehru edited the journal for few years. Dr. Yelavarthi Ramaraja bhushanudu helped the editorial section for a long time. Then that Dr. Jampala Chowdary took up the editorial responsibilities for six years. Afterwards Vaguri Chittenraju was the editor then during that period Dr. Nallamothu Satyanarayana over viewed the journals publication and saw it could reach the readers on 25th of every month punctually.  The journal gave importance for literary matters. Kanneganti Chandrasekhar and later Kiran Prabha worked as editors. In 2003 Kiran Prabha took up the editorial responsibilities and brought out 25th year of Magazine with literary flavour. A special issue was published which was released by M. Venkaiah Naidu. Kiran Prabha looked after the journal as editor for some years. Between 2007 and 2009 print edition came out regularly. Then Dr. Jampala Choudary took over as chief editor Narayana Swamy Sankgiri as executive editor. Srinivasulu Basabarthi, Naveen Vasireddy are the joint editors.

TANA Marching towards 20th conference

TANA elected new committee with Mr. Nannapaneni Mohan as Chairman, as President for 2013-2015 other elected office bearers are :

Dr. Jampala Chowdary : Vice President; Prasad Totakura (Ex-Officio Member); Satish Vemana : Secretary; Subbrao Kolla : Joint Secretary; Madhu Tata : Treasurer; Anjayya Chowdary Lalu : Joint Treasurer; Jayasekhar Talluri, Naren Kodali, Regional representatives : Anil Lingamaneni; Bhakata Balla, Gowtham Kumar Gurram, Jogiswara Rao, Anil Lingamaneni, Prasad Kolli, Rajani Akurati, Rajesh Adusumilli, Rao Elamanchili, Ravi Potluri, Sekhar Kolla, Vijay G.. Under this committee vigorous activities are taken up etc.,. Hundreds of active volunteers are co-operating implementing new schemes and programs. 20th TANA conference will be held in 1st week of July 2015 in Detroit, MI with Mohan Nannapaneni as President and Nadella Gangadhar as Co ordinator. After that Dr. Jampala Chowdary the president elect and his elected team will take up the responsibilities.  

Teamsquare

In the two and a half short years since TANA established its Emergency Assistance Management Team (TEAM Square), a network of volunteers that can be contacted to aid Telugu families caught in a catastrophic situation, it has become the number one resource for Telugu people in North America. Not a week passes by without the TEAM Square volunteers assisting a fellow Telugu person in an emergency situation.

Whether it is an auto accident claiming lives of multiple Telugu youngsters in Missouri, a fire destroying the property of several students in Chicago, a senseless murder of a convenience store worker in Connecticut, or a Telugu student in California being deported, TEAM Square volunteers help in providing supplies, finding shelter, assisting financially and dealing with various government authorities. These volunteers spend a tremendous amount of time and effort to provide immediate psychological comfort to the victims and their families.

The Telugu community of North America stood behind TANA both by volunteering as well as donating generously. TANA tracks the donations received towards TEAM Square activities separately. We should aim for at least a reserve of $200,000 to be available immediately in a truly catastrophic situation.

TEAM Square takes a proactive role in educating the community on prevention. Safety guidelines have been developed in English and Telugu and are available at the TANA web site.

Because of TEAM Square, TANA has become more diversified than ever. TEAM Square's services are now so well known in Andhra Pradesh, that parents are asking their children to join TANA for safety, security and service.  Many other ethnic organizations in USA recognize TANA and TEAM Square.

Women and Youth Programs

TANA celebrated the International Women's Day with a special program for Telugu youth and women, Reaching for the Stars, on Saturday, March 8, 2014 at the Royal Alberts Palace in Edison, New Jersey.  The day-long event focused on the many achievements of Telugu youth and women in various fields and recognizing some of the STARS in the Telugu community.

Much celebrated youth icon Nina Davuluri, who stunned the world by winning the crown of Miss America, is the Chief Guest at this event. The first Telugu woman  elected to a state legislature (Maryland), Aruna Miller was the Guest of Honor.  Aravind Mahankali, the Telugu whiz-kid that won the 2013 National Spelling Bee was honored. Singing phenomenon Subha Vedula, a semifinalist in the American Idol 2012 competition  celebrated along with many other Telugu Young STARs, including aspiring space scientists Kavya Manyapu and Sirisha Bandla, the Youth Poet Laureate of New York City - Ramya Ramana, and the Commencement Speaker at University of Alabama- Swapna Kakani, Young Stars for Community Service Pranamya Suri and Pranhuti Suri . Several prominent Telugu Woman STARs from the Mid-Atlantic region, including Dr. Tulasi Polavarapu, Dr. Sunitha Kanumury, Dr. Meera Boppana, Dr. Shalini Patcha, Dr. Janani Krishna, Janaki Rao, Jayaprada Vallurupalli, Saroja Sagaram, Shobha Tummala and Pavana Polineni  recognized for their achievements and many contributions to the community.

TANA - TTA organized a Program with Sri. Sirivenniala Sitarama Sastry in Chicago.

TANA, in collaboration with the Tristate Telugu Association of Chicago, on Saturday June 21, conducted Sirivennela Antarangam, a literary and musical evening, featuring the celebrated poet Sri Sirivennela Seetarama Sastri accompanied by singers Parthu and Saahiti. The event was held in a packed auditorium at the Balaji Temple Auditorium in Aurora.

Sri Sirivennela talked about the inspirations for many of his songs -both in and out of movies and elaborated on his philosophy of life: loving life, living life, not accepting failure, keeping hope alive and fighting for future. He also talked about our cultural and spiritual heritage, development of the individual, the need to respect women, and the universality of man. Singers Parthu, Saahiti and Praveen Jaligama sang some of the famous songs written by Sri Sirivennela. The over-flowing crowd that attended the event despite the stormy weather was spellbound and stayed thru the very late hours.

Recalling his long association with TANA, Sri Sirivennela extolled praises on the volunteers of TANA TEAM Square for their extraordinary service to fellow Telugus in need. Dr. Chowdary Jampala, Executive Vice President of TANA, made a presentation about TANA's many activities with a special emphasis on TEAM Square. The audience responded generously with pledges and donations to TEAM Square.

Jagadish Kanuru of TTA welcomed the audience and Rajani Akurati, TANA Midwest Regional Representative, delivered the Vote of Thanks. Harish Kolasani, Padma Sonti and Hema Kanuru helped with the arrangements.

There are several other nonprofit organization across USA are helping people, particularly women in those issues.

List of persons who helped for writing History of TANA

1. Dr  Guttikonda Ravindranath  

2. Dr. Kakarla Subbarao

3. Prof. Yarlagadda  Lakshmi prasad

4. Dr. Raghavendra Prasad Sudanagunta

5. Tella Tirupataiah

6. Sambasivarao Kotapati

7. Madhavarao Tummala

8. Chalasani Mallikarjunarao

9. Mutyala Padma Sri

10. Yugandhar Yadlapati

11. Dr. Hema Prasad Yadla

12. Jakkampudi Subbarayudu

13. Dr. Dasaratharamreddi, G

14. Dr.  Chalasani Prasad

15. Kottapalli …Kondalarayudu……….

16. Vadlamudi Rammohan

17. Dr. Ramarajabhushanudu, Yelavarthi

18. Dr. Jampala choudary

19. Vasireddi Naveen

20. Dr. Bandla Hanumaiah

21. Nadella Gangadhar,

22. Thotakura Prasad  .

23.  Raja Karanam

24 Jay Talluri

25 Dr. Mangaraju  V

26  Sankagiri Narayanaswamy

27  Vidyadhararao

28 Dr. Kaza Ramarao

29 Modali Sarma

30 Ratnam Chitturi

31 Janaki Rao

32. Nageswara Rao .M

33. Rohit Joshua

34. Gudipoodi Srihari

35.  Nannapaneni Mohan (Initiated the history project of TANA at whose request the writing was undertaken)

•