Spandana — September 2026
GMA SPANDANA
స్పందన
Global Munnurukapu Association
గ్లోబల్ మున్నూరుకాపు అసోసియేషన్
ఒక కుటుంబం, ఒక స్వరం
One family, one voice — and it carries further than any of us alone
Seven families, two countries,
one WhatsApp group
At two in the morning, a frightened family typed into a phone. Within twenty minutes, doctors they had never met were answering. Inside the quiet room where our community looks after its own.
అధ్యక్షుని మాటFROM THE PRESIDENT
మొదటి సంచిక, మొదటి సంవత్సరం
A first issue, and a first year
We begin this issue in mourning. Amrutha garu, mother of our Joint Treasurer Swapna Gollapally, passed away on 30 August. She belonged to the generation that raised ours, held our families together and asked for very little in return. Swapna has given this association her time through a difficult season, and the GMA family stands with her and with the Gollapallys, in grief and in gratitude both. Our heartfelt condolences.
What follows is a record of people showing up for one another. Last month a fifteen-year-old girl was in pain and her family did not know what to do. They typed into a WhatsApp group at an hour when no office is open anywhere. Within twenty minutes, doctors they had never met were answering.
Nobody scheduled that. No committee approved it. It happened because someone was awake and someone else needed help. That reflex has a name in our language: Spandana — the sound a thing gives back when it is struck.
My thanks go first to the hundreds of you who are never named — the coordinators who book halls, the doctors who answer at midnight, the women who make our cultural events happen, the ones who teach a Saturday class or quietly pay a student's fee. This issue will name perhaps twenty of you. There are more of you than a magazine can hold.
The next response is yours. We need volunteers who can build digital platforms — the tools that let two thousand families find each other. We need mentors to guide the community, in careers, in study, in the first difficult years after arriving. We need leaders to build the community, in the cities where no chapter has formed yet and in the ones that are only beginning. We need teachers, speakers, hands at every event, and someone in each chapter to send a photograph and two lines a month. An hour a month is enough. Write to me at president@gmaworld.org and tell me what you can do.
One last thing, and it is why this magazine exists. A community that does not write itself down disappears twice — once when the people go, and again when nobody can say what they did. So send us your news. It will feel too small to send. Send it anyway.
An association is only as strong as its instinct to answer. Ours is strong.
సేవ10 JUNE – 9 SEPTEMBER 2026
ఆపదలో అండగా
Neighbors picking up the phone
There is a particular loneliness in living far from where you grew up. It arrives at two in the morning, when something has gone wrong with someone you love and you realise you do not know a single person to call. This is what our community built so that no Munnurukapu family sits in that silence.
GMA Medical Services is a WhatsApp group, not a clinic. Members who happen to work in medicine sit in it and answer their neighbors — voluntarily, in their own time, as family rather than in any professional role. Nobody in the group is anyone's doctor. Nobody in it is a patient.
What gets exchanged is simple: a name, a phone number, a direction to go in. It sounds small — until you have stood in a hospital corridor in a country you did not grow up in, holding paperwork you cannot read.
Seven families, and what our neighbors did
A family shared their situation. One of our members in the United States phoned them the same afternoon and talked it through. Within days they had been introduced to a neurologist at a leading Hyderabad hospital.
A member forwarded a hospital estimate and a financial-assistance letter. The first question back set the pattern — financial help, or help finding the right doctor? The answer was both.
A member wrote in about his niece, home a month from India, in severe pain and losing weight fast. Within twenty minutes the group had told them the one thing that mattered: stop waiting, go today. When a scan came back three weeks out, a member worked out where they might be seen sooner. In forty-eight hours the family went from panic to a plan.
A member asked whether anyone knew someone at a major US cancer center; nobody did, and the group said so within a day rather than leaving the family on a maybe. A member in Delaware looking for a rheumatologist had a named practice and a phone number within three hours.
The thank-you this quarter, the volunteers we still need, and the terms this help is offered on — overleaf.
కృతజ్ఞతలుWITH THANKS
ఒక్క మనిషి, ఏడాది పొడవునా
One man, all year
Two more members who work in medicine, based in Telangana, joined this quarter — widening the hours in which a frightened family finds an answer.
We are also looking for members willing to speak at health-awareness sessions. Timings work around the speaker. Write to 855munnuru@gmail.com. You do not need to give much — only to be reachable.
Thank you
THE COMMUNITY'S DEEPEST GRATITUDEDr. Krishna Badhey, MD
Pulmonary Medicine · New York
If this group has a heart, it is Dr. Krishna Badhey.
Not for a month. Not for a season. All year. Nearly every request that reaches this group has been answered by him — often within minutes, at every hour, and never once needing to be asked twice. He picks up the phone to families he has never met and stays with them until someone is in good hands, asking nothing in return: no recognition, not even a mention. GMA cannot repay this. We can only name it.
Thank you, Dr. Badhey. Our community is stronger because of you.
PEOPLE · CULTURE · SERVICE · STRONGER TOGETHER
Please read. GMA Medical Services is a community WhatsApp group, not a medical practice, and GMA does not provide medical care. Volunteers respond in their personal capacity, not in any professional role, and no doctor–patient relationship is created by anything said there. Nothing here is medical advice or a substitute for examination by a qualified clinician. Names of families are withheld; volunteers are named only with consent. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.
హైదరాబాద్28 AUGUST 2026
సమాజం కలిసింది, పత్రికలు విన్నాయి
The community meets, and the press listens
A gathering of Munnurukapu families in Hyderabad became the month's largest story — carried the next morning by seven Telugu dailies, none of it bought and none of it arranged.
Munnurukapu families from across Telangana came together in Hyderabad on 28 August, alongside the Telangana Munnurukapu Journalists Forum. What was said from the stage was, at its heart, a single argument: that a community spread across many countries and many professions is only as strong as its willingness to act as one.
Speakers set out what GMA already provides without charge — matrimonial matching, employment help, doctors' and legal networks, and the website that ties them together. Coverage the next day picked out the association's support for young Munnurukapu people who have lost a parent, and the education assistance extended to them.
The most striking thing about the reporting was that nobody asked for it. Seven newspapers — Eenadu, Andhra Jyothy, Namasthe Telangana, Mana Telangana, Nava Telangana, Manam and Vision Andhra — sent reporters or ran the story from the hall. For an association that spends nothing on publicity, that is a measure of how much the room mattered.
Why it matters here. Every member reading this in Dallas or New Jersey has family in those districts. What GMA builds in America and what the community builds in Telangana are not two projects. This meeting was the moment that stopped being a slogan.
వలసWHAT CHANGED, AND WHAT IS ABOUT TO
మన కుటుంబాలను తాకే మార్పులు
Three weeks that change the rules
More has moved in American immigration this year than in the previous five, and almost all of it lands on Indian families. Three dates this month decide what happens next.
Students · the biggest change in thirty years
On 15 September, "duration of status" ends. Since 1991 an F-1 student was admitted for as long as their program lasted. From this month they are admitted to a fixed date — the program end on the I-20, capped at four years, plus thirty days either side. Anyone needing longer must file an extension with USCIS, with biometrics, and wait.
If your child is already here, transition rules cover them: they may stay to their I-20 end date or the end of an approved OPT, and no later than 14 November 2030. OPT filed on or before 18 March 2027 needs no separate extension.
The trap is travel. A student who re-enters on or after 15 September is readmitted on the new fixed I-94, and the grace period after graduation drops from sixty days to thirty. A Christmas trip home can cost a month of decision time.
H-1B · the lottery is no longer a lottery
The $100,000 fee is not being collected. A federal court vacated it on 8 June as an unconstitutional tax and the First Circuit refused to reinstate it on 24 July. It expires by its own terms on 20 September unless renewed.
The quieter change matters more. Since 27 February the cap lottery is weighted by wage level: Level 4 enters the pool four times, Level 3 three times, Level 2 twice, Level 1 once.
Wage level reflects seniority and job complexity for an occupation and location, not what you earn — many well-paid engineers still register at Level 1 or 2. For the March cap season it now matters more than anything else in the file.
Green cards · the queue that does not move
EB-2 India has been unavailable since the summer — not retrogressed, unavailable. India exhausted its annual allocation and for a second consecutive bulletin the category carries no date at all. EB-3 India sits at 1 January 2014, ahead of EB-2, an inversion now holding two months.
1 October resets the clock. FY2027 opens with fresh numbers and EB-2 India should return; State's July notes suggested at least 15 July 2014. Prepare the adjustment package now.
EB-1 India is also at risk of going unavailable before 30 September. Students finishing a program after 15 September cannot start another at the same or a lower level.
H-4 spouses · the right to work
On 14 August DHS published its 2026 regulatory agenda carrying Removing H-4 Dependent Spouses From the Classes of Noncitizens Eligible for Employment Authorization, RIN 1615-AD14 — reversing the 2015 rule under which the spouse of an H-1B worker with an approved I-140 may apply for a work permit.
Nothing has changed yet. This is an agenda entry, not a regulation; the proposed rule is dated "to be determined." Valid cards stay valid to their expiry and USCIS is still deciding applications. Rescission by rulemaking needs six months at minimum; the sharper risk is the standing lawsuit, since a court can vacate a rule with no transition.
Why it lands hardest on us. With India's queue past a decade, a spouse who cannot work is not inconvenienced for a season — a household lives on one income for ten or fifteen years while a qualified professional sits at home. If you hold a card: keep working, file renewals early, and ask an attorney about an independent status now.
A summary, not legal advice. Every item here has moved at least once in the past twelve months and may have moved again before this reached you. Verify your own case with a qualified immigration attorney. GMA's Immigration Education Call is free to all members — page 10. Sources: USCIS, the Federal Register, the State Department visa bulletins for August and September 2026, and published court decisions.
ఉద్యోగ విపణిJOB MARKET
ఒకే విపణి, రెండు దారులు
One market, pulling in two directions
Ask two members how hiring is going and you will get opposite answers. Both are telling the truth. The tech market did not shrink this year — it split, and which half you are standing in decides everything.
The split, in one chart
Year on year to August 2026, AI and machine-learning postings grew more than five times faster than tech postings overall. In the same market, roughly 52,000 tech workers were laid off in the first quarter, nearly half of those cuts attributed to AI. Both numbers are real. Companies are cutting the roles AI absorbs and opening the roles AI requires.
The squeeze is sharpest at the bottom. QA and test automation are being absorbed fastest; teams that ran three to five QA engineers now run one person overseeing generated test coverage. Boilerplate backend work — CRUD APIs, admin tooling, basic data transformation — needs fewer junior hires than it did. New computer science graduates faced around 6.1% unemployment this year even while specialized roles went unfilled.
What it means for our members
If you are senior and specialized, this is a strong market. Engineers with LLM integration or cloud infrastructure experience report several times the callback rate of generalist applicants.
If you are early career, the door is narrower and the path from junior to senior is faster and less forgiving. Assume a longer search — two months to an offer is now normal, not a bad sign.
If you are between roles, hiring runs on an annual budget cycle. Most net hiring happens between March and June; the second half of the year is quieter, and layoffs have clustered in August to October three years running.
Pay is where the split shows hardest. Software engineering nationally runs roughly $109,000 to $175,000; AI and ML engineering roughly $134,000 to $193,000 — a floor premium of about $25,000 for the same years of experience.
- Members review each other's resumes, without charge
- Referrals into companies where members already work
- Mentors for anyone in their first years here
Figures drawn from published industry hiring reports for 2026 — Dice monthly tech job reports, Indeed Hiring Lab, CompTIA, Robert Half's 2026 salary guide and Levels.fyi. Ranges are national and vary widely by metro; treat them as a shape, not a quote. Are you hiring, or looking? Write to 855munnuru@gmail.com and we will run a members' board in the next issue.
వనభోజనాలుSUNDAY 30 AUGUST 2026
ఒకే మధ్యాహ్నం, రెండు చోట్ల
Two parks, six hundred miles, one afternoon
DC booked Reservoir Park in Ashburn. Atlanta booked Eagle's Beak Park in Ball Ground. Neither chapter knew the other had picked the same Sunday — which is the most encouraging thing in this issue. A community that no longer has to be told when to gather.
Food from a dozen kitchens, children loose on the grass by noon, and the pleasure of speaking Telugu at full volume without explaining yourself to anyone. Then somebody produced a cake reading FIRST YEAR ANNIVERSARY, with the Mahasabha crest on it.
The invitation promised fun games, food and great memories, and for once a flyer told the exact truth. Names attached to faces; children who had only ever met on a video call running about together.
Parents discovered that the family four exits down the highway had been there the whole time.
Send one group photograph and two lines within a week of the day — 855munnuru@gmail.com. Every chapter that sends something gets space on this page. Chapters that do not send anything simply are not here, and members notice.
కొత్త బాధ్యతలుAPPOINTMENTS
జాతీయ బృందంలోకి తొమ్మిది మంది
Nine join the national team
Announced through August and early September. Each director leads a national program and reports to the Executive Committee.
Ravikumar NethiNational Immigration Director
Vinay PatelollaBusiness Forum Director
Mohan AkulaWall Street Director
Tejaswini SirivoluNational Cultural Director
Meena TondurNational Cultural Co-Director
Renuka KatakamNational Matrimonial Director
Naresh TondurNational Matrimonial Co-Director
Akshara VihaariGlobal Connect Member
Suresh PuramGlobal Connect Co-DirectorGMA is looking for members to build a mobile app for the Apple App Store and Google Play — events, news, directory, services, gallery, donations and notifications. Experience wanted in app development, UI/UX, backend, testing or store deployment. Write to 855munnuru@gmail.com.
Joining takes about a minute at gmaworld.org/signup — scan the code on page 16. Members receive event invitations, and access to the matrimonial service, the careers hub and community news.
Achievements, chapter events, photographs and notices. Submissions close on the 25th. Email 855munnuru@gmail.com with the event name, date and location, and confirm that everyone pictured has agreed to publication.
The GMA help line reaches SEVA support, including funeral assistance in the USA and India, and domestic violence resources. Printed in every issue.
సమావేశాలుSEPTEMBER SESSIONS
జూమ్లో మూడు సాయంత్రాలు
Three evenings on Zoom
Three evenings this month, with the joining details below — and a look back at what the community has already run this quarter.
Global Connect: Meet & Greet with the Chairman
Guest: Sri Bomma Sriram Chakravarthy, Chairman, Telangana State Munnurukapu Corporation. Moderated by Rajanikanth Sangani.
10:30 AM EST / 8:00 PM IST
tinyurl.com/GMAGobalConnectService
Roadmap to Financial Independence & Retire Early
Raghu Thota, financial advisor. Moderated by Archana Penchala.
5:00 PM EST · Meeting ID 933 384 7154 · Passcode GMAMEETING
GMA Immigration Education Call
OM Prakash Nakka, entrepreneur, investor and lawyer. Moderated by Ravikumar Nethi.
8:00 PM EST · Meeting ID 933 384 7154 · Passcode GMAMEETING
Also conducted this quarter
Two sessions already held, with no recording page of their own. The three above are detailed in full at the top of this page.
Sessions are announced first in the GMA WhatsApp groups — join us live, and bring your questions. Every session ends with an open Q&A.
మనం ఎక్కడ ఉన్నాంTHE EIGHT REGIONS
అమెరికా అంతటా స్పందన
Spandana across America
Article V of the bylaws divides GMA into eight named regions. Here is what that looks like on a map — including the states nobody has claimed yet.
California is cut in half
Deliberately. Northern California and the Bay Area sit in the Northwest region; Southern California sits in the Southwest. It is the only state the bylaws split, which is why its tile carries two colors.
The grey squares
Nine states and territories appear in no region at all — among them Michigan, Indiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Connecticut, Vermont and Hawaii. Members living there belong to GMA, but to no region. Worth fixing at the next bylaws review.
ఇంటి చిట్కాలుFROM GMA ACADEMY
అమ్మమ్మ చిట్కాలు
Inti Chitkalu
Every Telugu household runs on a handful of these. GMA Academy has now written them down properly — twenty-nine topics, with preparation, quantities, and an honest note on which ones the evidence actually supports. A few from the guide each month.
This month: digestion, acidity and cough
| Chitka | How | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Ajwain with black salt | ½ tsp ajwain chewed with a pinch of black salt, then warm water | The classic. Fast for gas and heaviness |
| Jeera water | 1 tsp cumin boiled in 2 cups water, sipped warm | Mild enough for daily use |
| Saunf after meals | ½–1 tsp fennel, chewed | The reason it sits at every restaurant counter |
| Coriander seed water | 1 tsp dhania soaked overnight in a cup of water; strained and drunk in the morning | For acidity. Skip the warming remedies here — no ginger, pepper or clove |
| Soaked almonds | 5–6 soaked overnight, peeled, eaten in the morning | The old daily habit, and a reasonable one |
| Honey for cough | A spoon, for anyone over one year | Performs at least as well as common cough syrups. Never before the first birthday |
- Chest pain or tightness, especially with sweating or pain in the arm or jaw. Chest discomfort dismissed as gas is a common and dangerous mistake in heart attacks.
- Any fever in an infant under three months
- Sudden weakness, facial droop or slurred speech
- Fever beyond two or three days, or anything getting worse rather than better
- Blood in stool or urine, black stool, or unexplained weight loss
Chitka or myth?
Cover the right-hand column. Four that Indian households still believe — one holds up, three are dangerous.
1 Traps heat and deepens the burn — cool running water for twenty minutes. 3 Many preparations contain lead; the harm is irreversible. 5 Dengue needs monitoring, not a remedy.
Educational only — not medical advice. These are for mild, self-limiting complaints that would settle anyway. Always see a doctor for infants, children, the elderly, anyone pregnant or breastfeeding, anyone on prescription medication, or anyone with diabetes, heart, liver, kidney, thyroid or bleeding conditions. The most common harm from home remedies is not the remedy — it is the treatment that got delayed. Never stop prescribed medication in favor of one. Read the full guide at gmaworld.org under Health & Wellbeing.
బాల స్పందనFOR THE YOUNGEST MEMBERS
ఈ పేజీ మీది
This page belongs to you
Half the faces in this magazine are under twelve. Here is a page that is actually yours — a puzzle to solve now, and a space we are keeping empty until you fill it.
Find the fourteen words
| M | A | H | A | S | A | B | H | A | M | C | G | G | R |
| I | S | P | A | N | D | A | N | A | F | A | R | Y | T |
| B | T | F | A | T | L | A | N | T | A | H | I | L | M |
| T | S | E | S | A | L | L | A | D | M | S | S | I | V |
| F | N | H | L | C | O | N | E | P | M | P | A | M | G |
| Y | A | H | O | U | S | T | O | N | A | N | N | A | T |
| U | Y | S | L | P | G | L | Y | G | K | D | K | F | Y |
| U | P | A | K | U | R | U | N | N | U | M | R | U | D |
| G | H | N | C | K | T | L | I | A | H | M | A | P | S |
| C | B | P | L | T | O | I | R | A | T | G | N | A | C |
| O | T | E | L | A | N | G | A | N | A | B | T | K | F |
| T | U | G | A | D | I | L | E | R | B | E | I | S | S |
| P | R | U | C | H | P | S | T | K | T | Y | F | S | S |
| S | E | V | A | T | I | K | N | V | G | K | E | T | S |
Words run across, down, diagonally, and backwards. Ask a grandparent what any of them mean — that part is the real puzzle.
Draw what your family does together and send it in. The best ones run on this page next month, with your name and your chapter.
ఒక కుటుంబం, ఒక స్వరం
Oka kutumbam, oka swaram.
One family, one voice — the line on the cover of this magazine.
Send drawings, poems and puzzle answers to 855munnuru@gmail.com with your first name, your age and your chapter.
మన కార్యక్రమాలుWHAT GMA RUNS
సభ్యులందరికీ ఉచితం
Every program, free to members
Twelve programs, none of which costs a member anything. Most people use one and never discover the rest.
204 curated free courses from top universities, tech and AI companies, plus GMA's own programs.
Verified, member-only matchmaking. Privacy-first and family-friendly.
Jobs, mentors and career growth, connecting members with opportunities.
Start, buy or invest in a business — mentorship and funding introductions.
Financial education, market sessions and investing fundamentals.
Women leaders driving culture, wellbeing and professional growth.
Leadership workshops, competitions and annual scholarships for students.
Health camps, awareness sessions and wellbeing programs.
The community marketplace — buy, sell and find services among members.
Members helping members, funeral assistance in the USA and India, and domestic violence resources. See page 3.
Adopt a Village, and giving that reaches families back home.
Linking members abroad with institutions and leaders in Telangana.
What they are worth if you use them
A referral from inside a company reaches a human being; a portal application usually does not. In a market where a generalist waits two months for a callback, that difference is the whole game. Members review each other's resumes and make introductions where they work.
Courses are everywhere and mostly free; knowing which one is worth your Saturdays is not. The Academy draws on what leading universities, technology companies and established institutes teach — cloud, AI, data, product, finance, communication — and puts them in an order a member can follow. The teaching is not ours; the choosing is. Someone with a real goal gets one clear next step instead of forty browser tabs.
The women's forum, the youth workshops and the health sessions do the same quiet work: they put someone in a room with people carrying the same week. Most of what members say they get from GMA came from who they met inside a program, not from its stated purpose.
Funeral assistance in two countries, the medical group on page 3, domestic violence resources. Members find it in the worst week of their lives. Read page 3 before you need it.
Using one? Say so. Volunteers keep going when they hear it worked. If a referral got you an interview, if a course changed your title, if a doctor answered at midnight — tell us at 855munnuru@gmail.com, and someone else will use the program because you did.
మన వాళ్ళుACHIEVEMENT
ఆదిత్య పడాల మైనర్ లీగ్కు ఎంపిక
Aditya Padala reaches Minor League T-20
Aditya Padala has been selected to play in Minor League T-20 for the 2026 season. Hard work, dedication and a long love of the game brought him here, and the whole GMA family is proud.
Congratulations too to his parents, Jyosna and Sridhar Padala, whose encouragement and support have been part of every step.
Know a member with news? Send it to 855munnuru@gmail.com — graduations, promotions, new businesses, awards, published work, sports and arts wins, and youth volunteering all belong on this page.
Send us the next one
This page runs on what members send. Anything on this list belongs here — and so does anything that is not.
Photograph, name, chapter, two sentences — 855munnuru@gmail.com.
In memoriam · శ్రద్ధాంజలి
Gollapally Amrutha garu
Passed away 30 August 2026
Mother of Srimati Swapna Gollapally, GMA Joint Treasurer. The National Executive Team and the wider GMA family extend heartfelt condolences to the Gollapally family in this moment of deep sorrow.
GMA SEVA provides funeral assistance in the USA and India. Call 855-686-6878.
చేయూతSUPPORT GMA
సభ్యత్వం ఉచితం, సేవ కాదు
Membership is free. The work is not.
Nobody pays to belong to GMA, and nobody ever will — a deliberate decision, so that no family is kept out by cost. It also means everything in these pages runs on volunteered hours and money given freely by members who can afford it.
Your donation pays for scholarships reaching students in India, for Adopt a Village, and for SEVA — the funeral assistance and family support most members never need until the day they suddenly do. A small recurring gift is worth more than a single large one, because it lets us commit to a student for a full year instead of hoping. GMA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and contributions are tax-deductible in the United States to the extent allowed by law.
This page is missing you
Everything in this first issue was written by the association about the association. That is the one thing wrong with it. From October, half of Spandana should be written by members. Send it rough; we will help.
president@gmaworld.org · submissions close the 25th
- Bathukamma and Dasara across the chapters — send photographs
- The first "How we came" — one family's story of arriving
- Where the H-1B proclamation stood after 20 September
JOIN — FREE
Become a memberScan to register. Takes about a minute. Open to all Munnurukapu families worldwide.
gmaworld.org/signup
GIVE
Donate to GMAScan to give once or monthly. Every contribution goes to scholarships, SEVA and the Foundation.
gmaworld.org/donateGMA Spandana
president@gmaworld.org
855munnuru@gmail.com
Help line: 855-686-6878
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Next issue: October 2026
Submissions close the 25th
GMA Spandana is the monthly newsletter of the Global Munnurukapu Association, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, EIN 99-0838356, registered in the State of New Jersey. Membership is free. Photographs are published only with the consent of everyone pictured. © 2026 Global Munnurukapu Association.