April 24, 2008
Hyderabad

Telugu Association of Memphis celebrated the Ugadi festival welcoming Telugu new year, ‘Sarvadhari’ on April 12th,2008, at White Station High School in a grandeur fashion. It turned out to be the most successful event that TAM has organized this year with close to 100 on-stage participants and with over 700 attendees. This event also proved to be a testament to the loads of talent the mid-south Telugu community has.

The event kicked off with a dinner served in a very socially conducive ambience in the school’s cafeteria. The dinner tables were covered in blue and yellow sheets and with a center piece gracefully decorated using candles, flowers and rangoli designs. The menu was based on traditional Andhra dishes reminding the nostalgic moments of festivals back home. The food was catered by Mayuri Restaurant of Memphis. Along with the dinner, the attendees got a taste of the traditional “Ugadi Pachadi” – a mixture of six different tastes (sweet, sour, tangy, bitter, hot & salt) that symbolizes the different experiences of life.

The cultural program started around 7:30pm and was a visual treat for the audience. The stage was colorfully decorated with Ugadi theme backdrop that included a life size mango tree made out of felt. The program started with a classical dance for Ganesha prayer song. With an intention to encourage the children, the committee has organized a 30 min talent show where children were allowed to showcase their respective talents. There were kids of various ages displaying their talents by singing songs, bhajans and playing musical instruments. The cultural program continued with a mixture of classical, folk, film based dances along with a hilarious skit. All programs were highly applauded by the audience.

TAM Committee recognizes the countless hours of effort put in by the participants and their parents over the last two months which made the event a grand success. TAM committee also extends their thanks to IAM president Smt. Archana Agrawal and to the IAM board of Trustees for helping us in securing the venue for the event.

This is the first time ever TAM had effectively capitalized on using online channel for selling tickets. Our volunteers have worked really hard in putting together a very professional website that featured eCommerce functionality where the community could buy tickets online using their credit cards. Out of the 700 total tickets 110 were sold online.

As part of the yearly tradition TAM committee distributed the Annual Telephone directory to all of its members. 2008 Telephone Directory has contact information of TAM members and other individuals of Telugu origin residing in the mid-south area. The directory also features other goodies related to Andhra Pradesh and Telugu Culture. Traditionally this initiative has been a significant fund raiser for TAM and it has been the same this year. The volunteers who worked on the directory project have had good luck in getting support from the local business owners and other prominent individuals in the community. TAM sincerely thanks all the business owners and other sponsors who supported this initiative by advertizing about their businesses. The organizers worked hard in delivering this event and it was very evident in the quality of the arrangements and the cultural programs. The committee has received raving reviews on the overall event and it definitely boosted the enthusiasm to deliver bigger and better events in the years to come.