Telugu Community Meeting on 9/16/2000
(Excerpts from Babu Rao Mandava's speech)

1. Thanks to all the people attending this historic event for Telugu community in Hudson Valley. Especially those who came from out of this area. We are part of the bigger Indian community or the Hindu Samaj. We are not trying to start a new organization here today. But we want to invest and strengthen the fabric of our Indian community as a whole.

2. Acknowledgements: We have a great organization here already. The biggest achievements of this Samaj are this temple and the community center thus far. There are many people responsible for these achievements. One of them and the most important one is Dr. Sunil Khurana without whom we could not have been here today. He was able to pull all the people together and motivate them and provide leadership with passion and dedication. He continues to do that and for this we are all very grateful. We are very thankful to him and his wife Seema for their superb and selfless contributions. There are several others, however. I will quickly mention the names of the trustees in the past 5 to 6 years. We are honored to have some of them here today. Ras Seth, Manmohan Desai, Lakxman Parsar, Arvind Shah, Usha Mittal, Ashok Shah, Sushumna Iruvanti, Padma Soma, Uma Satyendra, Vijay Desai, Rohit Jani, and Vasanthi Mirchandani. One of our Telugu friends, Satya Akella started this activity along with others many years ago and put in relentless efforts in supporting this organization. We wish him well in California and thank him for his efforts in our Valley. I am sure that I did not cover all the names. But we want to thank all of them from the bottom of our hearts. There is one special person from our Telugu community who participated and supported relentlessly and represented all of us at Hindusamaj. This person is among us today. That is Padma Soma. We are very proud of her for her services and support to Hindu Samaj. We want to thank her and her husband Soma immensely for their contributions. There are several others like Madan Mohan Soma and Durga from our Telugus who donated a sizable real estate property to the Samaj and continue to provide support and help the Samaj silently. Some others like Anuradha who produced and directed today’s enjoyable events with the help of many are all big assets for us. 3. Community: There are many others like that among our community today. Dr. Sunil Khurana and Padma Soma initiated this gathering today. They both felt that there are so many Telugus here and that we need to encourage and inspire them to come and participate in the events and contribute to the management of this divine facility. I hope their wish is fulfilled and that we meet the intended purpose.

4. Purpose: We want to bring awareness of the temple and the Hindu Samaj. Bring enthusiasm among us just to meet often and know each other. Make friends, share knowledge and bring greater awareness of our diverse culture. Create community activities such as entertainment, educational, and other informative programs. Select some representatives to represent us and participate in the management and contribute our share, encourage the use of temple facilities, and continue some of our traditions from back home. This requires resources for the community, continuous funds, and our commitment.

5. Campaign and Fund drive: I urge everyone to be a member and enjoy the discounts, tax advantage, personal pride for the family, and participate in support and management of the Hindu Samaj. We want to make this our prime choice for donation or charities. It is so important to complete the inner sanctum of the temple, make the place debt free, support its maintenance and our reverend priest or priests in future. These are our short term goals and immediate needs.

6. Rich Community: If we look around we can figure out that we are a rich community of diverse culture. We need and can afford better facilities today and for our next generation. We want to select some representatives and charge them with these duties. Fortunately we have several volunteers. We all have to help them and support them so they can lead us to better future. These people are Padma Soma, Anuradha Chitta, Raj Bikkani, Srinivas Katta, Ramarao Chatlapalli, Pandit Nelavalli, Hanumantharao Nallamothu, Rammohan Munipalle, Madanmohan Soma, Narasimham Talukuntla, and Sivasankara Reddy. We want them to be our leaders. If any more people consider this position of leadership and want to channel their energies, please see Padma Soma. I would like to recognize one person who took enormous initiative and administered and followed up the many intricate details that went into organizing today’s function. That is SitaRam Balusu . We want to thank him and congratulate him and several other people who made this dream a successful and an enjoyable event for all of us. I hope he will continue supporting this group of the leaders. We have to move into a better future from here in long term.

7. Future: I would like our leaders consider two new goals for moving our community to a higher and more matured level. We need to prepare ourselves with a fund for helping the people among our society who may be under distress and anguish. Health and other ailments may drive any one of us into that state. We need a mechanism in our community to respond well. One mechanism is to have a fat bank account for this purpose at the disposal of our trustees of Hindu Samaj. The second one is to plan for a bigger and better cultural home for multi purposes. One that we all can be proud of and one that can be enjoyed by the next generation as well.

8. Behind all the diversities in our cultures, we are one divine family. We are a religion of tolerance without any problem in accepting other faiths and various approaches of people. All religions are based on faith in God and basic devotion. “Bhakti Yog”. We do not condemn any one because they look different, belong to different class, caste, or color. We love and cherish them all. We want to be united and be part of the bigger Indian group always through Hindu Samaj.

9. Thanks to all the people who came and made this a true success beyond our imagination. We want to request Dr Khurana to talk about the future plans and the progress on the Temple and tell us what we can do to speed up implementation of those plans.

Telugu Sadassu Invitation Letter The activities of the Hindu Samaj Temple have grown enormously in recent years. This Time of expansion has also brought about an increase in the TELUGU COMMUNITY within the Hindu Samaj Temple and we are sensitive to the challenges of growth. It is important for all of us to work closely with the communities we live in and try to be an integral part of the community by participating in its activities and work towards promoting a greater awareness of our diverse culture. With this mission in view, the Telugu-speaking members of the Hindu temple are appealing to all "Pravaasandhras" in Mid Hudson Valley and the surrounding areas to come forward, enroll as members and participate effectively in all its religious and cultural programs. This temple is built for all of us and it is up to us to reap the full benefits of this august institution. Telugu is the second largest spoken language in India and as such we make up the second largest denomination of any Indian community. Our participation and representation will greatly strengthen this community. We know that there are great thinkers, writers, philosophers and artists among us. Let us use these talents to develop this temple, so we may enrich our lives and increase religious and cultural awareness in our children.

Some of the ideas under consideration are (of special interest to Telugu people): Starting Telugu Classes
Celebrating some important Telugu functions like Ugadi and Sankranti Telugu Music and dance ( Kuchipudi) performances by well known artists.
Screening of Telugu movies

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