6th America Sahiti Sadassu - A Report by Mr. Vanguri Chitten Raju

6^th America Telugu Sahithi Sadassu, organized by Vanguri Foundation of America, in association with Koumudi.net and SiliconAndhra for two days on July 19-20, 2008 in Fremont, CA was a remarkable success. These Symposia are held bi-annually at various cities in USA since 1998 and have become the only forum of its kind for creative writers and literary enthusiasts in North America to meet, exchange ideas and present their literary work. The two day event attracted over 150 Telugu writers and literary enthusiasts from various cities as far as Boston, Chicago and New Jersey.

The Chief Guest for this program was the legendary writer, intellectual and movie actor Sri Gollapudi Maruthi Rao (Chennai). Smt. Balabhadrapatruni Ramani, well known novelist, multi media story and screen play writer for movies and TV delivered the Inaugural Address highlighting the differences in writing techniques for the each of the media. Sri Gollapudi Maruthi Rao gave a passionate speech on the importance of all literary enthusiasts and Telugu writers working together to preserve and promote Telugu language and creative writing. He gave several interesting anecdotes from his five decades of experience as creative writer in all the media including print media, stage, radio, TV and movies, in addition to being a great character actor with over 300 movies to his credit. Sri Satyam Mandapati, well known Telugu writer based in Austin, Texas gave a very impressive summary of Telugu creative writing in North America as a Keynote Speaker. Chitten Raju Vanguri conducted the Inaugural Session which was presided over by Dr. Pemmaraju Venugopala Rao.  Kiran Prabha, Editor of the internationally reputed web magazine, Koumuid.net introduced the Guests of Honor. Winners of 13^th Ugadi Telugu Creative Writing Contest were presented with the awards by Sri Gollapudi. SiliconAndhra volunteers provided the audio-video facilities in addition to participating in most of the literary events.

Five new Telugu publications including the flagship publication of Vanguri Foundation,  “Amerika Telugu KathAnika- Volume 10” & “amerikaamedy naatikalu” written by Vanguri Chitten Raju, “Avadhana Saurabham” by Dr. R. Anantha Padmanabha Rao, “Bhaava geetaalu” & Jaanapada geyaalu” by “Kalaprapoorna” Dr. Avasarala Anasuya Devi and the prestegeous special publication “Amma Kadupu Challaga”—An autobiography by Sri Gollapudi Maruthi Rao are released on this occasion.

Several distinguished speakers from India including Dr. R. Anatha Padmanabha Rao (Director of Bhakti TV Channel, Tirupathi), Dr. Attaluri Vijayalakshmi (Hyderabad), Sri Vaddepalli Krishna (Lyricist, Hyderabad), Smt. Aripirala Suvarna (Bangalore) and Sri P. Vijaya Babu (Chief Editor, Andhra Prabha, Hyderabad) attended this unique gathering.  About 40 writers presented their poetry essays and short stories in two separate sessions of Sweeya Rachana Pathanam. About 30 authors spoke on specific literary topics in eight literary sessions such as “Creative Writing for movies & TV”, and “Katha Rachana –Techniques”. Two friendly literary contests including classical poetry writing and story writing were conducted by Rao Tallapragada. The literary sessions were chaired by Dr. Lakireddy Hanimi Reddy, Raghu Malladi, Gorthi Brahmanandam, Kumar Kalagara, Kiran Prabha, Radha Sarma, Siva Charan, Tatipamula Mrutyunjayudu and others. Prof. Rao Vemuri conducted a special “Thank you” program and dinner in honor of those who supported the Telugu Initiative of University of California, Berkeley on Saturday (July 19, 2008) evening, followed by a hilarious stand-up comedy by Surendra Dara.

The Event concluded with a very effective summary of the two day proceedings by Dr. Pemmaraju Venugopala Rao.

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