BOOK DISTRIBUTION AT INDIA FESTIVAL, FREMONT (SF)

In the weekend of August 16 - 17, 2008 our Bayarea Sanga (Bhakti Center, San Francisco) participated in a 2 day annual event called 16TH INDIA FESTIVAL - 2008 organised by Federation of Indo-Americans of Northern California for past 16 years in rememberance of India Independence.
Some of the highlights of the festival were booths where vendors were selling clothing, jewelery, food, music, puja paraphernalia , literature and art & craft along with Free Health Fair, cutural programs and seminars. There were also non-profit booths from organisations around Bay Area. The foot traffic for 2 days was estimated to be around 15,000 to 20,000 people. This festival attracts not only Indian people but a mixed crowd who want to know more about different cultures, entertainment, just various respectful reasons.
Through Sri Guru and Vaisnavas causeless mercy our booth was well received. Lots of books were distributed and also Bhakti Art posters. Radha dd, Gopika dd and Hrdyagovinda Prabhu worked very hard.
There are many people there who want to know so much about just everything. Eg. a young man was going through books and he asked where do I start if I want to pursue on this path. And he took Jaiva Dharma. It is difficult to tell them about books when we don't know what it is about. We tried to get some emails for Harikatha Mailing List. For me, it was good experience to even try to talk to people only through Gurudev's causeless mercy. I'm praying at Sri Guru and Vaisnavas causeless mercy that they will allow us to do many many more such services. Lots of people are already aware about our Srila Prabhupada and were curious to know if we were Iskcon.

Radha dd and Gopika dd brought lots of books.. and she very nicely set 2 tables books stacked high. They nicely decorated the booth with beautiful sarees - very attractive. Hopefully we will do much better next year. It just naturally attracts people if you have a larger booth, books stacked high with one copy of each title placed upright in front of each stack, nicely decorated and when people see many people looking at everything. All these are very helpful. Radha dd said these are some of the marketing skills and yes, Radha dd is good about these things. Very inspiring for me. I learnt a lot. Lots of parents were requesting books for children, anything for children. Children are everywhere and if anything can be prepared for young childrens reading, it can definitely be distributed. We had Krsna books for distribution. Beautiful signs were made by Gopika dd. Parents were also asking about devotional cartoons. Coloring books - dasavatar was accepted well, we had few and it was sold out. People were quite receptive, very positive - especially younger people. I think overall our booth went well and praying that we will have many such opportunity to serve again. - Rangadevidasi