Hey Srinivas, here’s a WhatsApp group exclusively for you!

A WhatsApp group for just one person, you might ask. But no, this is for all people with the name Srinivas

Karimnagar: We have heard of social media groups, WhatsApp groups to be precise, for old classmates, for those from the same caste, community, and several for topics like information on drunk driving checks by the police, news alerts and so on. But this WhatsApp group in Karimnagar promises to be different. This is exclusively for Srinivas.

A WhatsApp group for just one person, you might ask. But no, this is for all people with the name Srinivas, and before you ask how many Srinivases could be there, allow us to tell you that the initiative now has been forced to have three ‘sub-groups’, with the three WhatsApp groups together having a whopping 2,300 persons with the name Srinivas, all of them from the erstwhile Karimnagar district.

---

Titled ‘Manamantha Srinivasulame’ (All of us are Srinivas’), the group even had a get-together on Saturday, with about 150 Srinivases gathering on the premises of the Vidhyanagar Venkateshwara temple here.

Even as the thought of 150 persons at a single venue addressing each other with the same name of Srinivas amuses you, let us introduce you to the brain behind the unique Srinivas idea – Acharya Srinivasa Daivagna, a native of Kaleshwaram of Mahadevpur mandal. Srinivasa Daivagna says that ever since the idea of bringing together all the people with the name of Srinivas on a single platform dawned upon him late last year, he had formed the WhatsApp group and got 2,300 members. With the number of members for WhatsApp groups having limits, he is now operating three groups. While the first and second groups have 1024 members each, the third group has already ‘enrolled’ 300 Srinivases.

That is not all. One of the members, Utkur Srinivas Reddy from Karimnagar, has created a separate Srinivas blood donation group as well! And this group now has 512 persons registering their names, of course, all Srinivases, to donate blood. Besides planning to convert this into a trust, they are planning to organize a State-level meeting which will be called ‘Srinivasla Maha Sabalu’.

Speaking to Telangana Today, Srinivas Reddy said though they had formed the group with a view to bring all Srinivases together, they were now planning to conduct various charity programmes by converting the group into a trust. They were also planning to work for children suffering from Thalassemia. They want to conduct three blood donation camps for them every year. An ‘annadanam’ programme will also be conducted in all Venkateshwara Swamy temples on a Saturday every month. They also have plans to visit Tirupathi together once in a year by engaging a train either from Warangal or Karimnagar.

“The entire train will be filled with people named Srinivas,” he said.