A custodian of Telugu culture

Telugu Association of North America (TANA) is the oldest and biggest Indo-American organisation in North America. In the US, Indians are third largest immigrants with a population of 16 lakh. TANA was founded at a convention of Telugus in New York in 1977 as a not-for-profit organisation with a mission to identify and address social, cultural and educational needs of North American Telugu Community and the Telugu people in general. TANA aims to perpetuate, integrate, and assimilate the cultural heritage of the Telugu-speaking people into the mainstream of North America. Telugu and Indian ethnic organisations around the world look up to TANA as a pioneer and role model for its various innovations in promoting culture and serving the community at large.

Mohan Nannapaneni, president, TANA, who is presently in India on a vacation, said, “TANA in its 37 years history, has distinguished itself through its various activities in pursuit of its mission in North America and India. It plays an important role in developing, nurturing, preserving and propagating arts specific to the Telugu people. TANA invites eminent Telugu singers, musicians, dancers, actors, painters, sculptors, poets and other eminent artists so that Telugu people across North America as well as the local connoisseurs can savour the brilliance of Telugu culture and arts.

It conducts singing and dancing competitions for Telugu youngsters across North America and showcases their talents at the grand biannual conventions. TANA’s pioneering sponsorship of Telugu Folk Arts Festivals over the last 15 years helped revive and sustain the dying traditional art forms. TANA recognises and celebrates the achievements of Telugus in various fields through its Awards for Excellence and the Lifetime Achievement Awards.”

“TANA takes pride in its efforts to preserve and propagate Telugu language. TANA established and supported several teaching programmes in Telugu at various US universities and instituted educational scholarships for needy students. TANA’s biannual novel and short story competitions and sponsorship of publications have acted as a catalyst for new trends in Telugu literature.

In addition to publishing rare and important works in Telugu, TANA helped to introduce modern Telugu poetry as well as the Telugu classics like Kanyasulkam to non-Telugu speakers thru its subvention of English translations. It also recognises people striving to promote and preserve Telugu language by honouring them with the Gidugu Ramamurty Pantulu Award. TANA’s support was crucial in the development of important information technology tools for Telugu ranging from the first set of Telugu fonts placed in public domain in 1995 to the recent searchable Telugu dictionaries online,” he added.

“TANA founded and maintains a rehabilitation home for street children in Vijayawada. The many projects sponsored by TANA Foundation include building of libraries, schools, temples, roads and protected water supply systems. Recently the association donated $ 5 lakh (Rs 3 crore) towards relief for cyclone Hudhud which the AP government is going to give a matching grant of Rs 3 crore for the cyclone relief,” Mohan informed.

By:Ch Saibaba