Telangana Association of New Zealand has been active on every front of community activities and events in New Zealand.

The community organisation hosted a small cultural event to celebrate Christmas for the community on Sunday, December 3. The event was held at Mt Roskill War Memorial Community Hall in the presence of more than 100 community members.

The programme started with Telangana official state song by Greeshma Kasuganti. A band of singers and musicians presented the two-hour programme and entertained the audience. The event included the singing of hymns, carols, the importance of Christmas, the celebration of this festival back in Telangana, India etc.

The Christmas carols were sung by Pastor Paul, and his team and community member Madhu Yerra coordinated the event.

“We hosted this event for our community members, especially children who do not miss the fun of Xmas celebrations as we do back in our home state,” President of TANZ, Kalyan Rao Kasuganti said.

The event also had the presence of parliamentarians such as Labour Party MP for Roskill Michael Wood, List MP for Maungakeikei Priyanca Radhakrishnan, and National Party List MP Kanwaljit Bakshi.

Other community leaders such as Ravindran Vai from Auckland Tamil Association, Bhaskar Reddy from Saibaba Sansthan, Onehunga, Dharmender Alle from NZ Telugu Association, Vijay Kosna from Telangana Rashtriya Samiti, Aruna Jyothi from Telangana Jagruthi, and Pastor Paul also graced the event.

Telangana association Vice President Uma Salvaji welcomed all guests, and Kalyan Rao Kasuganti gave his message of love and brotherhood at the event.

“We celebrate every Indian festival and event irrespective of any religion. Our organisation here follows the principle laid by our Telangana State Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, to celebrate every Indian festival with equal devotion and enthusiasm,” Mr Kasunganti added.

“Earlier this year we hosted Ramadan Iftar for the community, Eid celebrations, Diwali, Telangana State Formation Day, blood donation camps, other community initiatives and now Xmas and New Year,” Mr Kasunganti concluded.

The event ended with a traditional Hyderabadi biryani prepared by community members for the guests at the event.