Gearing up for the Festival of India

[Guest guest]

Gearing up for the Festival of India

 

Two weeks from today (Sat.) we’ll host our biggest event of the

year, the Festival of India. It is really the celebration of

Dusshera, the story of Rama as told by Valmiki in the epic Ramayana.

In India this event is usually held in October. Originally, in the

mid 80’s we also tried to hold the event in October, but it is an

outdoor venue, and the weather in Utah can be inclement at that time.

 

The pageant of the Ramayana culminates in the burning of a 20 foot

high effigy of the demon Ravana. I remember in past years Ravana was

being buffeted by high winds and rain. An effigy that size is like a

sail that will be effected by any gusts. So many years back we

decided for practical reasons to hold the festival in Spanish Fork a

month early.

 

It used to take Vai up to three weeks to build and paint Ravana. Then

at the festival he’d be destroyed with flaming arrows and fireworks

in five minutes. I guess Vai has learned a lesson of detachment by

this, so this year she made Ravana in only two days.

 

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Before the festival day Ravana is bolted onto a metal superstructure,

and on the day of the festival, six strong men lift the effigy. Once

Ravana reaches about 45 degree angles of elevation the metal legs

slide into metal sleeves set into ground, and thus Ravana is mounted.

Throughout the day he towers over the festival area and is very

noticeable from the highway, a good day long advertisement for the

4:00 pm start time.

 

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A festival of this magnitude takes months to prepare. For 10 days now

myself, Alanath, Sandhya and Vaibhavi have been putting up color

posters in Utah and Salt Lake Valleys. Yesterday I mounted two

banners on the property each facing a different direction on the

highway. Other banners I’ll take out to spots today. In addition,

I’ve put up about three dozen plastic foam core signs (24’ X

36”) on chain link fences and step stakes along many heavily

traveled roads.

 

We have scheduled ads in several papers: BYU Daily Universe, Provo

Daily Herald, City Weekly, Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News.

 

I sent a press release by e-mail to the media. The papers locally are

quite good about including the information as calendar announcements.

I also sent the same message to about 5,000 people in our e-mail

database. The date of the festival, a poster, and information has

been posted prominently on our web site since last November. The web

site gets from 10,000 to 30,000 requests (whatever that means - I

think if a page is downloaded with two pictures, it counts as three

requests) daily, and is a prime means of communication.

 

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By this time, all the artists will have been confirmed and travel

arrangements made. There will have been ideally at least one Sunday

night rehearsal of the Ramayana. We are lucky to have many members of

the cast back year after year (Jai Krishna (Hanuman, Bharat), Vishnu

Priya (Surpanakha), Divya Drsti (Manthara), Rajiv and Gitanjali

Sharma (Ram and Sita), Prajapati (Ravan, Dasaratha), and Ganga

(Keikeyi). Still there is always a panic about filling at least one

part. This year it was the role of Lakshmana. Last night one of the

counselors from Journey, who come here every Thursday, agreed to

learn the part. Whew! His name is Jeremiah Cox. He is good looking,

and great actor. He came by last night to pick up a script and CD I

had burned for him.

 

Last Thursday on the same day, came sponsorship checks for the

festival of $ 5,000 from Bank of America and $ 2,500 from Zion’s

Bank. This last check was hand delivered by the local Zion’s Bank

Manager, Richard Roach. He spent about a half hour chatting and

touring with me. Dinesh Patel is key to these two contributions. He

is friends with the CEO of Zion’s, Scott Anderson, and always talks

to Scott about the temple. Dinesh also has large deposits with Bank

of America in Tampa. They will give certain amounts to the charities

of his choice. The single biggest check annually that he asks for is

$ 5,000 to Festival of India.

 

I have finished laying out the souvenir booklet. I’ll take it to the

printer next week. We pass out 1,000 copies at the gate.

 

At the beginning of the year KHQN Radio had a project grant from the

Utah Arts Council for $ 1,250.00, to be disbursed between Festival

of India, Holi, Himalayan Fest, Llama Fest, and Deewali.

 

That’s where we stand at two weeks out. Next week we’ll do a lot

of mowing in the amphitheater and get the grounds ship shape. There

may well be interviews with some of the major newspapers, and radio

stations which result in the best kind of pre-festival publicity.

 

Next week I’ll visit 12 high schools, Brigham Young University, and

Utah Valley State College. I shall, opportunity permitting, hand

deliver to teachers or arrange to place into their mailboxes flyers

to hand out to their students should they choose. Many teachers in

the following areas will encourage their students to come, and some

will even give extra credit for the course: World Religions (they all

study Hinduism in the beginning of September), Narrative Literature,

Mythology, Ancient Civilizations, World Civilizations, World

Literature, Sociology of Religion, Anthropology, Dance, Drama, etc.)

 

We’ll spend several hundred dollars at Sam’s Club for the raw

ingredients of cooking and the paper goods for serving out the

prasadam. We do not give away prasadam at our events. If people

benefit from taking plates of prasadam, they’ll benefit doubly by

giving a suggested donation ( $ 6.00 meal including drink). Next week

Akincana will start in on making curd from 30-40 galloons of milk,

fry and freeze the chunks. I’ll call Star of India restaurant and

ask them to make four trays of rice and four trays of channa to

supplement what we cook. Renu of India Unlimited always donates large

quantities of jallebis. Yogi may be able to pick up from both places

on his way to the festival the 16th.

 

There is more work to be done on the festival in the next two weeks

than has been done thus far, but at this point I am feeling

“chuffed’ because we are right on schedule.

 

 

 

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