February 15, 2008

Bay Area Telugu Association (BATA) in association with Indian Community Center (ICC) Karaoke Club hosted first ever Telugu karaoke in the Bay area that was held on February 8, 2008 at Indian Community Center, Milpitas, California. Several number of singers as well as music lovers attended this event. The event started around 8PM and went past 11PM with a lot of enthusiasm for each song. There were over 30 songs sung by both experienced and novice singers. This event served as a great platform for the local music lovers as entertaining.

Mrs. Sujata Mudumba (ICC) and Mrs. Vijaya Aasuri (BATA) served as the master of ceremonies for the event. With their excellent knowledge in the music, both Sujata and Vijaya described the songs excitingly when introducing the singers. Additionally, both Sujata and Vijaya were very connected with the audience through out the event by asking quiz questions on variety of topics such as recipes; name the popular food from different regions, movie names, etc.

The song selection was a feast to the audience as all of the songs were very popular ones from Telugu melodies. More specifically, majority of the songs were from 70's and 80's Telugu melodies, which are very well known to many of the audience. One could easily hear the chorus from the audience for a multitude of songs, as well as notice the audience deeply immersed in the musical melodies of the past and present. Another highlight of the evening was a mix of some Hindi songs. The event venue was totally filled with great enthusiasm and eagerness to listen to song after song. The program started with a devotional song "Maa Telugu Talliki" which is written by Sri.Sankarambaadi Sundaraachaari.

Highlight of the evening that include Telugu melodies going all the way back to 50’s (Ghantasala & P.Suseela hits) to 70’s (S.P. Balasubhramaniam, S.Janaki & Vani Jayaram hits) to 90’s (IlayaRaja, Rehman hits). There were over 30 singers who really did a wonderful job. BATA regular participants that include Venu Aasuri, Prasad Durvasula, Murali Chari, Sudha and ICC regulars Usha, Sujata, Narendra, Vidya & Anand mesmerized the audience to excellent songs. Rao Tallapragada’s telugu gazal was a variety to the show. Other singers include Padmaja, Hema Kota, Hari Murthy, Divya Hari, Himaja Movva, Babu Movva, Vijay Vemuri, Kamesh, Prasad Mangina, Ramesh Konda, Jaya, Mrudupani, Sujatha, Sailaja Arekalla, Usha, Jyothi Shekar, Sumukh Shekar, Murthy Hari, Divya Hari, GunGun, Dahya Mistry, Sanjay Saxena, Himaja, Almas, and Viswajeet.

Mr. Prasad Mangina, Secretary of BATA, put in a lot of effort in coordinating with ICC Karaoke Club, and pulling the local singers together to make this program a grand success. Several of BATA members actively participated as singers and audience. BATA executive committee, Yugandhar Karakala, Ravi Thiruveedhula, Prasad Mangina, Kalyan Kattamuri, Srinivas Kolli, Vijaya Aasuri, Sreedhar Chava, Ramesh Konda, Srinivas Mangipudi, Satheesh Pola, Karun Veligeti, Veeru Vuppala, and Ramesh Mandalapu, were acknowledged for their support for the event.

In addition, regulars at the karaoke club Jayamala Thatipamala, Sailaja, and Usha Pugalia were acknowledged for their support towards ensuring the success of the program.

On behalf of BATA, Prasad Mangina thanked ICC Karaoke team members Sharad Dabhawala, Narendra Lakshminarasimha, Sujata Mudumba, Jai.Pugalia & Dahya Mistry for providing this opportunity to have Telugu karaoke & also thanked all participants and audience for making this event a great success.