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ATA Celebrates Women's Day 2014

Women’s Day Celebrations in USA by ATA
American Telugu Association (ATA) was the first national Telugu Organization in USA to designate and celebrate the month of March as ‘ATA Women’s Day Month’ last year on the occasion of International women’s day.
 
This year, ATA planned to celebrate women’s day in 8 US cities and Hyderabad, India. The focus will be to inspire, celebrate achievement, appreciate and recognize women on their socio, economic and political achievements. There will be interactive sessions with successful women in corporate sector and various fields.  It is an occasion to meet and greet women from all around, to talk to eminent personalities, share views, opinions and also to network.
 
ATA Women’s day Celebration details for 2014:
 
Dallas, TX:    March 2, 2014
 
ATA Celebrated International Women’s Day in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX  
 
“Americalo Adapaduchulu”
 
 
Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX, Sunday March 02, 2014
 
American Telugu Association (ATA) celebrated “Americalo Adapaduchulu” to mark the occasion of International Women’s Day on Sunday March 02, 2014 at Mayuri Indian Restaurant, Irving, TX. The event was supported by TANTEX, a local DFW Telugu organization. ATA’s mission is to assist and promote literary, cultural, educational, religious, social, economic, health and community activities of the people of Telugu origin as well as to promote exchange programs for students, scientists, and professionals of Telugu origin between North America and India
 
Arvind Reddy Muppidi, ATA DFW Regional  Coordinator extended a warm welcome to over 100 attendees in spite of a busy weekend with various other events and bad weather in town. Arvind introduced ATA team who were present at the event; Ananth Reddy Pajjur, Secretary & Board of Trustee, Satish Reddy, Board of Trustee, Dheeraj Akula, Standing Committee Chair- By-Laws, Srikanth Konda Standing Committee Chair- Spiritual followed by introduction of TANTEX team by president Mr. Vijay Mohan Kakarla.
 
Smt. Sre laxmi Mandiga of TANTEX introduced the speakers. All speakers gave excellent presentations on relevant topics about women.  Mrs. Kavitha Akula, who is a practicing attorney in DFW area for past 7 years, gave a presentation on financial management for women in the community. She explained the importance of being financially independent and be aware of all aspects of finances.  She said it is also important to discuss financial matters with spouse periodically. Dr. Nirmala Vallurupalli, a practicing Ob-Gyn physician elaborated on women’s health issues and advised on how to maintain good health for women of all ages. She reiterated that women should never take their health for granted and make sure every woman spend some time to take care of her own health. Dr. Sandhya Gavva, past ATA president and advisory board member talked about Stress Management and said that managing stress is all about taking charge of one’s own thoughts, emotions and the way one deals with situations and circumstances. She also explained remedial measures including exercise and yoga. A question and answer session followed later where speakers gave clarity to audience questions.
 
The highlight of the event was a fun filled Jeopardy Game, a special woman version of America's favorite television game. Participants were divided into 4 groups which competed against each other.  Smt. Jyoti Jasti and Smt. Krishnaveni Seelam were the judges who kept the scores, identified the winning group and also the most enthusiastic participant.
 
The informative and fun filled event came to an end with vote of thanks by Dr. Sandhya Gavva to the distinguished speakers, the audience for their attendance, volunteers, Mayuri India Restaurant for providing tasty food, excellent facilities and great meeting ambiance, Satish Punnam for his help with the Jeopardy game and finally media sponsors; Desiplaza.us, 6TV, TV9, TV5, for providing great coverage of the event. DFW ATA team invited the Dallas community to the ATA Conference and Youth Convention to be held Philadelphia from July 3-5, 2014.
 
Photo
 
 
Atlanta, GA: March 8, 2014
What a night!!!Saturday night has been zubilient with an enourmous crowd of around 600 people supporting ATA Cultural day &International Womens day. Your support has boosted our energy a lot and had given much more confidence to ATA team and had already set our standards to a much higher level.

Indeed it has been success to the ATA team. All of the seats got occupied even before our scheduled timeon Saturdayevening and the event kicked off to START
by our beloved ATA Founding member Mr.Hanmanth Reddy, Mr Karunakar Madhavaram(President), Mr. Karunakar Asireddy(Past Convenor & BOT), Mr Jaganmohan Rao(Past conference coordinator), Mr Narender Chemarla(Treasurer), Mr. Kiran Pasham(BOT), Mr Kalyan Anandula(BOT), Mrs Prashanthi Asireddy(Chair-Womens committee) lighting the candle supported with Gana Nayaka song performed by local singers.
 
It is so fortunate to celebrate International Womens days on Saturday focusing the celebration ranged from celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women, and the celebration were just not limited to expression of love towards women. To mention, ATA has been one of the first of its kind of organazations to celebrate, recognize the efforts & importance of the role that our women play in building our society. 
This is indeed depicted in ATA' President Mr. Karunakar Madhavaram speech. Ms Prashanthi Asireddy is the queenpin to celebrate International Womens day.
 
President  had shown his expression of THANKS towards donors for donating a whooping 200K Dollars showing donors support towards next conevention to be held at Philadelphia on July 3rd,4th&5th of 2014. ATA team has been so grateful to the donors, in particular to be mentioned are Murali Sajja, Kiran Pasham, Karunakar Asireddy, Murali Reddy and others. Donors had valued our work and supported us a lot. So it follows that the results are the best way to show our appreciation towards your contributions.
 
Cultural events are another huge success for the ATA team to brag about. Events ranged from classical, semi classical, western & folk. Kids had shown their share of 
energy and made this event more sightful. Once again women had dominated the event with thier skills & confidence depicted during the fashion show coordinated by
Suresh Karothu. It was an amazing show.

Everyone present at the event have been mesmarized by the presence and voice of Ms. Anjana Soumya accompanied by male singers Sandeep, Nihar, Srinivas Durgam & Janardhan Pannela. Anjana has been supportive through out the event, knew what everyone wants and has been succesfull in getting the crowd to dance to her tunes. 

Coverage has been done by TV5 letting everyone knew about the event back in India.
This event wouldn't have been success without the support of ATA Executive Committe & board - Karunkar Madavaram(President), Narendar Rao Chemarla(Treasurer), Hanumanth Reddy(Founding member), Kalyan Anandula(BOT), Karunakar Asireddy(BOT), Kiran Reddy Pasham(BOT). ATA is greatful to ATA' media partner TV5, TV9 and all print media, Audio Visual support provided by Srinivas Durgam and regional coordinators Anil Boddireddy(RC), Raghu Banda(RC), Nanda Chatla(RC), Vikram Sudhini(RC) & Venkat Veeraneni(RC). ATA thanks Taste of India for the great food.
 
Once again ATA thanks to the Committee members, great volunteers, each and every member & participant who had made this event a grand success.
 



Minneapolis, MN:   March 8, 2014
 
 
Brigham Young Quote says “You educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation”

American Telugu Association (www.ataworld.org) of Minnesota Chapter celebrated International women’s day on March 8th, 2014 at Hamel Community Center. ATA MN called nominations for eminent personalities from twin cities. The Achievement Award is intended to recognize women individuals and organizations run by women for achieving excellence in their fields, promoting the interests of the American-Asian-Indian community in Minnesota, and advancing understanding between the Indian community and  the community at large. ATA-Minnesota Chapter received nominations for outstanding work by Indian-Americans in the following categories:  Charitable Work/Volunteering, Business excellence, Public Service/Government, Dedicated service to the women development, Excellence or innovation in their chosen field (like Arts... example Music), dedicated service to the community, Special contribution in leadership and mentoring.  Huge nominations were received and event committee identified distinguished women power from twin cities for ATA IWD Achievement Award considering their exceptional service.

ATA MN invited Indian renowned actress Mrs. Laya as a Special Guest for this event. The entire exclusive women event was effectively coordinated and lead by ATA MN cultural secretary Mrs. Jyothi Repala. At the event begin, Mrs Shambhavi recited the profile of Dr. Subhashini Mahipathi and invited Dr Subhashini on to the podium as a special guest for the event followed by Mrs Laya. Mrs. Jyothi invited distinct guests together of the event to light the lamp as an auspicious begins followed by two prayer songs and traditional dance.
Event committee arranged red carpet welcome to all the distinguished guests and they were asked to seat specially designated chairs in front row. As part of felicitation, Mrs. Shambhavi presented the dignitary profile to the audience and invited following distinguished women on to the dais;   
Ms. Apekshya Panda 
Mrs. Molu Mathew Thachil  
Ms. Carol Keers
Mrs. Suma Anaparthi
Mrs. Kamala V. Puram,
Mrs. Padmaja Dharnipragada
Dr. Kumud Sane
Mrs. Nirmala Rajasekar
Mrs. Madhavi Isanaka,
Mayor  Elizabeth Weir, Hamel City Mayor

Special guests of the IWD event,  Dr Subhashini and Mrs. Laya honored them with a flower bouquet and presented the IWD Achievement award to all the eminent women personalities.   All the Achievement award winners gave wonderful message to the gathering. Audience cherished with their striking, spellbound speeches. The event hall was excited with continuous applause for a while. This entire award ceremony went for about 100 minutes with awesome messages and discussions from women power.  Event committee arranged snacks for all and Cultural Secretary Jyothi made arrangements for cultural events. Twin cities local artists showed their talents in their own fascinated filed of interest and presented wonderful performances in the honor of dignitaries and achievement awardees.   During cultural event grand finale Mrs. Laya also participated on the request of cultural secretary and she was invited as a Maha AstaLakshmi of Astha Lakshmi concept. Thus the whole event went all very well and each participant and dignitaries expressed their happiness the way in which the event went on that evening.

As part of concluding remarks, event cultural secretary Mrs. Jyothi Repala, introduced the men power behind this entire event planning, execution.. On behalf of ATA event committee, Mahipathi Nagendar gave a nice and beautiful message delivering the following note as a conclusion:

 స్త్రీని గౌరవించి, పూజించడమే మన సంప్రదాయం . యత్ర నార్యస్తు పూజ్యంతే  రమంతే తత్ర దేవతా||   
''స్త్రీలు ఎక్కడ పూజించబడతారో అక్కడ దేవతలు ఆనందంతో నాట్యం చేస్తూ ఉంటారనేది'' ఆర్యోక్తి. 
మహిళకి భారతదేశంలో ఇచ్చిన ప్రాధాన్యత అలాంటిది. కలకంఠి కంట కన్నీరొలికిన ఇంట సిరి ఉండనొల్లదు
 అనే భావన కూడా మహిళకు ఆర్య సాంప్రదాయంలో ఉన్న విశిష్టతను తెలియజేస్తుంది. స్త్రీని గౌరవించని, 
ఆమెకు ప్రాధాన్యమివ్వని ఏ నాగరికత అయినా, సమాజం అయినా మనుగడ సాగించలేదు. 
ఆమె సహకారం లేకుండా ఏ క్లిష్టమైన పనీ సాధ్యపడదు.
 


Houston, TX:            March 8, 2014
 ATA and JET USA Celebrates  Women's Day in Houston On March 8th, 2014 


International Women's Day was celebrated by American Telugu Association (ATA) in association with Jeeyar Educational Trust (JET) USA and VT Seva at Sri Ahtalakshmj Temple, Houston on March 8th 2014. The Houston community had come together to celebrate Women's Day with great enthusiasm and good spirits. The program started with a Prayer by Chief priest Sriman Hanuman Swamy of Sri Ashtalaksmi Temple and followed by melodious classical keerthanas sung by Keerthana and Kriti sisters.

Our Chief Guest Smt. Nandita Parvataneni, wife of Hon. Harish Parvataneni, Consulate General of India, Houston presented Awards for the achievements of distinguished women in the areas of culture, literature, service and philanthropy. The temple surroundings added fervor to the event. The following distinguished Indo-American Women and one non-profit Organization (working for the Women cause) were honored from the Greater Houston Area.

Dr. Chitra Divakaruni Writer and professor
Dr. Kalpalatha Guntupalli Pulmonologist and philanthropist
Smt. Leela Krishnamurthy Social worker and UNICEF board member
Dr. Rathna Kumar , Dancer, classical dancer( Kuchipudi, Bharatha Natyam) Anjali dance school director and Bharatha Sangeetha Nataka Academy award recepient)
DAYA (Non-Profit Organization for women in need)

Each of the honoree had given unique speech sharing their personal experiences that touched every one in the audience as they spoke. Smt Nandita Ji congratulated honorees and said how important it's for her to attend such an important occasion - the Women's Day.
 
Dr.Laitha Sunder MD, presented a "Medical Lecture and interactive session on cardiovascular diseases in women".
Dr. Ranga Kandala presented a short movie on prominent and powerful  women of the Century.
Sri Bangar Reddy ATA BOT introduced the ATA actvities to the audience.
Dr. Aparna Kandala directed the cultural segment supported by EMCEE's SMT Raja Rajeswari and Smt Vahni
Smt Neetha Chada of ATA talked about how ATA has been celebrating women's day and working for women's causes. She also enlightened about the impending !3th ATA conference and youth convention at Philadelphia fromJuly 3rd to 5th.
Sreedhar Reddy Kanchankuntla played a key role in organizing the event from the begining.
Shravan, Narender, Dayakar, Praveen,Baawa, Keerthi, Kranthi, Parimala, Vara and Raghu of ATA worked hard to make the event purposeful and successful.
 
Dr. Renu Tamirisa, Dr. Ranga and Dr. Aparna Kandala of VT sewa and Ashtalakshmi temple were responsible for the scripting, coordinating and directing the entire event with out whom it could not have materialized in this divine way of celebration of women's day.

The 5 hour non stop well organized, emotionally touched and yet fun filled program with cultural programs and interactive presentations had continuous applause from the attendees time to time.
The program was supported by Biryani Pot and Mayuri restaurants in Houston.

 
Washington D.C.:   March 8, 2014
International Women’s Day celebration was held in Washington DC Metro Region by ATA’s DC chapter on March 9th 2014, more than 400 women and men attended this grand event.  ATA celebrated women’s day with highly successful stalwart ladies in our society: Dr. Swetha Naroji (Surgeon), Mrs. Sheela Nayak (Philanthropist), Mrs. Nirathi Rao (Dance Teacher), Mrs. Neeraja Lingam (Buisness Woman), Miss Bindu Pamarthi, Miss Dristrict of Columbia. The theme for this year’s celebration was “Inspiring Change”.
The event began with a welcome note from ATA trustee Mrs. Soumya Kondapalli.  The students of 7NotesIsai School, Arya Ganesan andRamya Kurkul, under the guidance of their teacher Smt. Radhika Rajesh sang songs in praise of Mother Divine.
Our guest speakers Dr. Naroji, Miss Pamarthi and Mrs. Nirathi Rao spoke to the challenges faced by the second generation American girls of Indian origin. They shared fresh perspectives on growing up in America and spoke on how they balanced work, culture and family expectations.Mrs. Sheela Nayak, spoke on her experiences in community service and the opportunities in the US for generosity. Mrs. Neeraja Lingam, talked about her experiences as a business woman.  All guests graciously answered the questions from the audience.
On behalf of ATA Mrs. Janetha Kancharla, Mrs. Kavitha Challa and Mrs. Soumya Kondapalli honored the special guests for the event. 
The other attractions were the cultural performances: Medha Annam performed violin, Bharathi Kalvala performed Cello, Mrs. Jyothirmayi Chavali, performed Kuchipudi dance. A special mention should be made of the fusion style dance performed by the famed Rhythmaya group titled Raksha, The Arts will Save the World.  
A short feature on India first female police officer, Kiran Bedi, was presented.
Our special thanks to Mr Pulla Reddy and Mr. Vijay Reddy of Minerva Indian Cuisine (Swadesh Banquet Hall) for generously providing sumptuous snacks at a very marginal price.
The richness of this day highlighted the heritage of women around the world as well as the TELUGU women in the DC region. ATA DC Chapter celebrated WOMEN’S DAY for the second consecutive year and ATA leadership decided to support such events in future to celebrate women while assisting them when they set out to establish themselves.  Please visit the WOMEN FORUM on our ATA website: WWW.ATAWORLD.ORGfor more details regarding our events and celebrations.
The ATA and its Women Forum Committee are gearing up with full speed to celebrate ATA Conventions and Youth conference, July 3 - 5th2014.
ATA appreciates all the wonderful women who were actively involved in various tasks and carried out the event successfully, namely, Mrs. Kavitha Challa, Mrs.Nandini Yedula, Mrs. Srilekha Palle, Mrs.Jyothi Cherukupally and Mrs. Uthpala Rajan.
Once again, thank you all for participating as ONE BIG family – ATA.
ATA Board of Trustee’s:
Mrs. Soumya Kondapalli, Mrs. Janetha Reddy Kancharla and Mr. Rajesh Madireddy
ATA Regional Coordinators:
Mr. Ravi Bojja, Mr. Venkat Kondapolu and Mr. Sridhar Banala.
ATA Conference Coordinator:
Mr. Bhuvanesh Boojala
ATA Adhoc Committee:
Mr. Ram Mohan Konda
ATA Security Conference Committee:
Mr.Lokesh Reddy
ATA NRI Conference Committee:
Mr.Manohar Enugu
ATA Overseas Coordination Conference Committee:
Mr. Jayender Reddy Annam
Thank you one and all for sincerely dedicating your time, energy in celebrating ATA – Women’s Day.
 
 
 
 
 
Philadelphia, PA:     March 14, 2014

American Telugu Association conducted International Women's Day event on Saturday, 15th March 2014 at 6.00 PM in Windsor Ridge Club, Chester Springs, PA. We had a overwhelming response from Telugu community around Philadelphia/Delaware (Delaware Valley) area. It was great privilege for our ATA team to provide the platform for Telugu aadapaduchulu to celebrate this occasion. Thank you all for your support and sincere thanks from bottom of my heart to all the team members of organizing committee who were committed and worked hard to make this event a grand success. Thanks to ATA leadership for their support and encouragement. Special thanks to all women who planned the activities of this event so well, it was simply amazing. Thanks to our guest speaker Dr. Jyothi Malireddy garu for joining us and saying few words that were inspiring and motivating for women. Thanks to all dads who took care of their kids while moms are away participating in this event. Thanks to our media partners TV5, 10TV. 

This exclusive women's event filled with discussions on current issues, games, dance floor, ramp walk, performances, skits, food etc. Venue was completely full including lobby, tremendous response.

Photos :

Chicago, IL:  March 15, 2014
 

Saturday March 15th, is a day to remember for Telugu women in Chicagoland area, as TAGC and ATA organized its 2nd annual Women’s Day celebrations.   Over 200 women attended this event, all dressed in festive colorful Indian attire, reminding everyone of the festival of Holi.   

The stage was decorated with two beautiful statues of goddesses, which gave a feminine look in line with the day’s activities.  The centerpiece at each table was colorfully decorated with marbles, pink petals and candles. 

The event started with team building activities- first an icebreaker, organized by Pavithra Karumuri, Kiran Vankayalapati, Sunitha Rachapalli, and Kiran Nuthulapaty.   The challenge was to build the tallest spaghetti tower using only 20 raw noodles, 2yards of string and 3 yards of tape.    All ladies used their creativity and skills to build, as they partnered with other new people at their tables.   The tallest tower was 46 inches tall, and the winning team was recognized by TAGC platinum sponsor Dr. Surekha Sakala, who is dentist from Aurora.   While enjoying homemade snacks made by Sujatha Appalaneni and Jyothi Chinthalapani and snacks from Indian Harvest restaurant of Naperville, a scavenger hunt was organized, where ladies had to be resourceful to find items on a list.   The winner was recognized by another TAGC platinum sponsor and John Greene real estate agent Dakshaini Anand.  

The main program started with the host Kiran Mattey requesting the lighting of the lamps by ATA president Karunakar Madhavaram and his wife Jyothi, along with TAGC president Srinivas Pedamallu and his wife Malleswari.  ATA President Karunakar and TAGC President Srinivas spoke a few words to start the Women’s Day celebration.   Along with several TAGC BoDs Ram Ade, Ramesh Garapaty, Narendar Chemarla, Pradeep Kandimalla, Jagan Bukkaraju, Sujatha Appalaneni, Vandana Reddy, Malathi Damaraju and other ATA Executives, they asked the audience to relax and enjoy the celebration as they took leave.   A beautiful Sanskrit prayer was sung by Kiran Mattey, Dr. Bhargavi Nettam  and Padma Maddireddy.

This was followed by an inspiring speech by Nandhini Kondapalli, who quoted ‘If your Eyes are Positive, you will Love the World.  But if your tongue is positive, the world will Love you,’  in her speech about loving the world.

The program continued with several speakers discussing variety of topics.   The speakers were honored by Kiran Mattey and Dr. Bhargavi Nettem.   Some of the highlights of the speakers:

Manju Goel-  Republican nominee for Congress spoke eloquently stating the importance of  women being first to be represented.  She spoke of the issues she will address such as L1, and H1 visas, and minority contracts.  One of her visions is to be able bring more funding for organizations like TAGC from the government. 

Dr. Bharathi Marri- Psychiatrist, spoke of the mental health issues for women such as post-partum depression, coping with stress and strain.  One of the points she made was for women to relax.  She also emphasized that these types of awareness and education are important.

Deepali Aul, a nutritionist, was very captivating and engaged the audience with her talk.   She gave tips on what is healthy to eat and what type of snacks and oils are better; she also showed how to read the labels on boxes.  The crowd could not get enough of the information from her, as they kept asking questions. 

Suma Rajashankar, professor at NIU spoke about the STEM program.  She mentioned that the Indian community is already aware of the STEM programs and she insisted that the kids should participate in these programs from elementary school onwards.  She gave information on several summer clubs and resourceful websites.

While the crowd enjoyed the scrumptious dinner from Indian Harvest restaurant co-ordinated by Raghav Jatla, the final speaker of the evening Nupur Sharma, fashion designer, spoke about the differences between Business Casual and Business Professional clothing.   She gave tips on where these kinds of clothes can be bought. 

Dinner continued to be enjoyed while Sai Kalpana sang melodiously and Vani Dittakavi garu engaged the crowd with Telugu proverbs.   Finally Kiran Mattey thanked everyone for attending and making the event a grand success.   Just when one thought the program is ending, DJ Mythri Adhanki led the crowd for some dhamka on the dance floor, bringing the program to an end at 10PM.

One of the other main highlights of the event was the Food Drive conducted by Padma Madireddy.  Over 16 boxes of food were collected for Greater Chicago Food Depository to be distributed to the local food pantries.

This event was sponsored by TAGC Platinum sponsors such as Krishna Rangaraju from New York Life Insurance, Ashok Lakshmanan from PMSI Mortgage Solutions, Dentist Surekha Sakala, and real estate agent Dhakshini Anand.   At the end, TAGC Secretary Hari Raini thanked all the ATA and TAGC team, Sponsors, Holiday Inn and staff, Volunteers, and youth committee volunteers for making this a very successful event. And of course without the audience, none of this would have been successful.   TAGC and ATA hopes to plan more similar events in the future.

Many of the women who attended mentioned, that they would like to see more programs geared towards women in the future and that this program was well organized.

This event was photographed by DesiMediaUSA as well as by professional photographer Ashley Hamm.    Any feedback is welcome, please send an email to women@tagc.org  

 

 
The following cities are scheduled, and report will be available after the event completion.
 
Austin, TX:    March 30, 2014

Hyderabad, India:  March 29th, 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

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