Youth Festival of India Tour 2004 - Behind the Scenes

[Guest guest]

Youth Festival of India Tour 2004 – Behind the Scenes

By Manu Dasa

 

Summer is just around the corner and we’re mentally preparing for

the next big two-month Hare Krishna Youth Festival of India Tour

across North America. Over 40 youth from around the world will help

set up and take down and perform kirtanas and dramas at

Ratha-yatra festivals, including New York, Chicago, Washington

D.C., Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and

Vancouver. We’ll be visiting some 20 temples such as Gita Nagari,

New Vrindavan, Dallas, Laguna Beach, San Diego, Sharanagati

Farm… You’ve read the BTG article by now. 13,500 miles across a

continent, over 40 youth from all parts of the world, traveling in a tour

bus that says “Hare Krishna Youth Ministry” in large red letters along

both sides of the bus – a spiritual adventure summer

camp-on-wheels, Krishna conscious memories of a lifetime for

those youth who are able to attend.

 

Many people have asked me to take them behind the scenes of this

important project, show them how it all comes together. In

retrospect, it’s a simple story of volunteerism and ideals, of

enthusiasm reminiscent of the early days of the Hare Krishna

movement. A story of love, commitments, values and selfless

service by the dozens of devotees who make this tour happen every

year.

 

First there’s Madhuha Prabhu and Mother Bhagavati. For the past

26 years they have been, and continue to be, the backbone of

Festival of India. So too, right now, they are calling and encouraging

me to once again psyche myself up for the challenge of planning

and organizing the tenth annual Hare Krishna Youth Festival of India

Tour; a mission to embed our youth hands-on in the preaching work

of setting up the Festival of India in cities around the continent,

dancing on stage, singing kirtanas, bhajans, distributing books and

prasadam, and performing dramas of Krishna Lila for mesmerized

audiences from the golden prairies of the Midwest to the

snow-capped northern Rockies in Canada.

 

There are phone calls to make, a gazillion e-mails to write,

fund-raising, friend-raising and convincing to do, that this is a

wonderful opportunity to get involved and help give our young people

a taste for Srila Prabhupada’s mission to spread Krishna

consciousness through cultural presentations, far and wide.

 

We’re all volunteers. My wife Jaya Radhe and I both work full-time

jobs, she as a teacher, I as webmaster for two companies.

Organizing the summer tour takes a considerably chunk of time out

of our already busy schedules, personal lives, and finances which

we donate every year because we strongly believe in this cause. For

years we’ve taken the stance that something like this should exist for

our youth, isn’t happening, and so let’s do our best for Srila

Prabhupada and the youth to make it happen. A grass-roots

approach. And so we call on our friends and mother -in-laws to

make the phone calls, help write the e-mails, and help do the

convincing that this youth festival tour needs to happen again, this

summer of 2004, and that it will take some commitment and

volunteer time and financial contributions on many people’s part.

 

Tour dates. Scheduling the dates is always the first step. We find out

that Chicago Ratha-yatra is confirmed–we have a starting date. To

allow for a maximum number of youth to come, we consult the

academic calendars of the local colleges and universities. “Summer

A” course exams end June 24th. We shedule our departure date for

that evening, giving us just enough time to drive from Florida to

Chicago Ratha-yatra by the 26th. The other festival dates (with the

exception of Toronto and D.C.) are estimated at this time, but usually

fall in line one after the other, every consecutive Sunday from

Chicago to Vancouver Ratha-yatra. We go ahead and post a tentative

schedule on the bus tour website so the youth can begin

contemplating coming on the tour, and the rest of us can begin to let

our employers know when we are scheduling unpaid time off.

Curious? Take a look: http://www.krishna.com/bustour

 

Bus drivers. No tour can happen without them. Dravinaksa and

Janaka Rsi Prabhu drove for the entire tour last summer. My

repeated obeisances to them for taking the time off work, unpaid,

and driving the bus for two months, unpaid. Jaya Dasa and Mukunda

Prabhu also helped drive for a week each. Thank you, thank you,

thank you. We need at least two bus drivers at all times to take

alternating shifts, driving long distances. Three bus drivers would be

ideal. Anyone out there with a B-class commercial driver’s license?

Call me. (If you have an A-class license and experience driving

tractor trailers, call too.)

 

Youth. We send out invitations, emails, phone calls to recruit

enthusiastic youth to come on the tour. (Any motivated youth age 16

or older please apply at Krishna.com/bustour.) Having 40 youth

literally run the show wherever we go adds a lot of life and energy to

the festivals, and gives the youth a real sense of purpose,

accomplishment, and pride in being a devotee. One parent asked

me after last summer’s tour why we didn’t bring four buses full of

youth to all the festivals, and how much more ecstatic this would be.

I told him that the tour (with one bus) costs about US $30,000 and

that we divide the costs equally among all tour participants. That’s

right, we PAY to come on the tour and do service. The senior devotee

was stunned, and it didn’t take long to convince him that if we could

find more sponsors to contribute to the tour, we could charge less,

and we would have more youth who could afford to come. In fact, it

would help us bring youth along who may be good examples for

others, but who don’t have the funds on their own.

 

Chaperones. Parents and older devotees who come to look after the

needs of the youth. Thanks to Mothers Gangagati, Yauvanananda,

Kirtida, Satyasara, Krsna Shakti, Saraswati, and to Purusartha and

Vidyananda Prabhus for their selfless service these past two

summers. Finding parents who will come along, manage the

austerities of traveling, and can put up with the youth for two months

is always a challenge. Thank you.

 

Inspiring association. Every year we invite swamis and senior

devotees to travel with us and inspire the youth. Thank you to the

many who have come with us over the years, including Jayadvaita

Swami, Bhakti Marg Swami, and Radhanatha Swami who spent

time with us last summer.

 

Temple Presidents. We rely on their kindness and cooperation. They

provide us with the opportunity to visit a holy place, serve the local

Deities and devotees, have spiritual association for the youth and

provide a safe haven to rest and rejuvenate in between festivals.

Every summer we are overwhelmed by the generosity that temple

presidents extend towards us when we pull up with 45 youth and

adult chaperones, and ask them to please host and facilitate us.

Thank you.

 

What to speak of individuals who open up their homes for us, and

feed us from their personal pantry. Last summer we visited

Sharanagati, Canada, for the first time. We were hosted by devotees

who had practically no income and recycled every piece of wood

around the house. They put us up in their own rooms, let all 45 of us

shower in their spring-fed shower, and fed us sumptuously from

their gardens. We felt loved and cared for, like family.

 

Well wishers, parents and donors. We thank them for sending their

precious youth on the tour, for trusting us, for giving the donations

that make the tour possible, and we especially thank Mathuresh and

Gangagati Prabhus for bailing us out with a new transmission

halfway through the tour last summer, when it seemed like all odds

were against us and we couldn’t go on.

 

A bus. No tour is complete without a means of transportation. We

made due with a used school bus for nine years, and broke down

so many times it was taking a toll on tour morale. Last year, with the

help of Madhuha Prabhu and Festival of India, we made a down

payment on a newer tour bus, as seen in BTG. This bus, Garuda II,

is faster, bigger, more reliable, and can accommodate luggage in

the bays beneath. As of this writing, Garuda II still belongs to the

bank, and we are paying about $990 a month towards the

outstanding $38,000 loan.

 

If you would like to share the responsibility for providing a Krishna

conscious summer program for Hare Krishna youth, this summer,

and in summers to come, we invite you to get involved in this very

worthy cause.

 

Come on the tour as a chaperone or bus driver, arrange for a

preaching program along the way, host us for a night, help with

donations, send encouraging emails, send us a bottle of olive oil for

the road, build an altar for our traveling deities… Even if you just

send one line of an email encouraging us to go on, it all will help

turn this summer 2004 tour from dream to reality. Think about it.

Then you too can sign your emails with a sense of accomplishment:

“Youth Festival of India Tour Facilitator.”

 

Behind the scenes, there’s a lot to do still to make the summer 2004

tour happen. We’re open to suggestions, help of any kind, and your

good will and encouragement.

 

Thank you for continuing to allow us the opportunity for service.

On behalf of the tour organizing team,

 

Manu dasa

Youth Festival of India Tour Facilitator

e-mail: manu (AT) krishna (DOT) com

phone: 386-418-3839

website: http://www.krishna.com/bustour