Colorfully powered clothes. Kites dancing in the sky. The smell of spices pulls people toward aromatic food. On March 30, 2025, the Telugu Association of Memphis (TAM) hosted a Holi celebration, in which people from the Telugu community, the larger Indian community and the overall Mid-South came to enjoy the festival of colors.
TAM is a non-profit organization that serves the Telugu community and the Mid-South through community service, organizing cultural events, bake sales, sports competitions and educational events. They frequently work with other organizations like White Station High School’s Key Club to expand the reach of their service.
“We are a Indian-based cultural non-profit, specifically centered around the Telugu heritage,” Jeshwant Vana (11) said. “Telugu is a language spoken in specifically Andhra Pradesh and Telangana of Southern India. If you go to India ever, you’ll notice that each region of India — though it’s one big country — is like a separate little country.”
Vana is the current President of the Telugu Youth Committee, which is a sub-organization of TAM that organizes various events under the purview of the adult Executive Committee. Previously, Vana served as a Charity Intern/Coordinator, and he has been involved with TAM in varying capacities ever since he was a child.
“My work — I would say that it’s very heavy,” Vana said. “TAM is mainly run by adults; there’s the EC (Executive Committee) team, which is basically adults who run the big events like Sankranti and Ugadi, and then there’s the youth team. We’re there to help too … but we want to branch out. My role basically looks like a lot of pre-planning beforehand.”
The TAM Youth Committee is organized into several sectors, including the Creative Team, the Food Team, the Web and Media Team, the Education Team and the Sports Team. Aashrita Marpagada (11) is the current Vice-President of TAM and works alongside Vana and Secretary Punarchithsaireddy Vanamareddy (11) to coordinate volunteer and cultural events.
“Within TAM, everyone has a specific role,” Marpagada said. “I believe we’re split into eight or nine teams … Each team is in charge of running a specific position during an event. I’m in charge of everyone, making sure that they know what their job is and making sure that they can execute that well and providing guidance.”
Furthermore, each of the different teams of the Youth Committee has responsibility for planning community events associated with the team’s sector. Some events they have organized include fundraisers, public speakers and concerts.
“The Educational Team is planning out an ACT/SAT prep club and tutorial courses during the summer — that’s going to be over a period of four to six weeks — where every week they’ll have seniors and different experts in the field to help … prep for ACT and SAT exams for the upcoming academic year,” Nikitha Nimmagadda said. “The Sports Team is planning for different fundraisers or events throughout the year, which is going to be like football [and] they’re planning tennis — they’re going to do like a tennis clinic, where they’re going to have two to three days of beginner lessons for young kids.”
The Executive Committee of TAM oversees both the entire organization and the Youth Committee and is primarily responsible for the higher-level logistical and administrative duties required to organize TAM’s various events. Nimmagadda is the Youth Committee Chairperson, meaning she directly supervises and supports the Youth Committee.
“I am part of the Executive Committee that plans all the events, so my role includes first setting up the youth selections where we enroll youth volunteers for the entire year and then planning out events, executing them, working with multiple teams,” Nimmagadda said. “Since the kids are involved in all the [teams], it’s my responsibility to ensure that they get volunteer opportunities in every area that they are signed up for … I think if it’s not peak event days or times, I spend around 20-30 hours [per week on TAM]. But if it’s peak time, I’m spending close to 30-40 hours a week.”
This year, the Youth Committee was given practically complete responsibility for planning the Holi celebration, which took place on March 30. Last year, TAM hosted a joint Holi-Easter event, and the idea of the youth team planning a Holi event by themselves gained popularity amongst the members.
“[The idea] for a Holi event definitely became a lot bigger last year when the idea came up [of] ‘What if the Youth Team had their own event that they could specifically plan?’” Marpadaga said. “I think because of the success from last year, the EC team really moved a lot of trust into the Youth Team to really coordinate and execute the event really well. I wouldn’t say there was any major reason why they moved [the responsibility] to the youth team; I think they just wanted to give us an opportunity to really see us coordinate and execute an event.”
Holi is a major cultural holiday in India, in which Hindu adherents throw colored dye powder into the air and at each other, symbolizing a vibrant, new future or beginning. Religiously, Holi represents the triumph of good over evil, in which the god Vishnu as Narasimha defeated the evil king Hiranyakashipu. Holi is also associated with the eternal love of the gods Radha and Krishna.
“Holi is a festival that happens every year across India,” Nimmagadda said. “It’s a festival of colors, [and] it has a religious meaning behind it in which Hindus celebrate love and growth and positivity and life; over the years it has become this big festival of color and fun activities [like] dance, music — it’s a wide spectrum.”
Planning the event presented several challenges, from the quick turnaround time because of another recently organized TAM event to the volume of logistical planning required to the highly unfavorable weather conditions on event day. However, the Youth Committee was ultimately able to resolve or circumvent many of the issues, allowing the celebration to go mostly as planned.
“The biggest challenge by far — no doubt about it — was the weather,” Vana said. “We got so unlucky with the weather. It was super windy that day. We had a lot of stuff flying away; they made a banner, [and] that wouldn’t stay put. You can’t really fly kites if it’s too windy. Another massive problem was … our local Hindu temple was supposed to be celebrating their Holi [a week before], but they had to reschedule that because of the weather, and they picked Saturday (the day before TAM’s Holi celebration) … so that took about half our crowd. Holi is something you don’t want to do twice.”
Despite the weather, TAM’s Holi celebration still had a fairly large showing. The Youth Committee primarily received positive feedback from both attendees and members of the Executive Committee after the event, though many Youth Committee members believed that there were areas for improvement.
“To be honest, I would think [the event] was an eight out of 10,” Marpadaga said. “I don’t think any event could go perfectly — there’s always a few setbacks and a few challenges. In the future, I definitely think that we should work on promotion … and [that we should] definitely try to work better around our weather conditions … I’m still really happy and proud that we got everything done.”
Though TAM focuses on the Telugu heritage and community, they hope to impact the entire Mid-South with their service. Membership and participation in TAM and its events are not limited to only Telugu people; anyone is able to and encouraged to participate and learn about Telugu culture.
“We aren’t just limited to the Indian community,” Vana said. “We want everybody to show up; we take pride in our heritage, our culture [and] the way we live … It doesn’t matter if you’re not Indian. You can still come to these events. You can still come help. You can still become a member of TAM.”