Here are some guidelines for reporting your padayatra to the Padayatra Worldwide Ministry through articles, videos, photos, songs, etc. If you and the devotees doing this reporting study these guidelines, that will make your life, and mine also, much easier. That will also save us precious time, which could be used elsewhere in Guru and Gauranga’s service. You will not have to later answer the many questions that will come to you afterwards in order to make your article/report interesting, complete and publishable on the Padayatra website or in the Padayatra Worldwide Newsletter.
- GET READY BEFORE PADAYATRA STARTS
- During your organisational meetings, discuss the topic of reporting and find reliable devotees to do it.
- Since all the reports and articles have to be written in English, find someone who can write English decently. Do not worry if he/she makes mistakes, the texts will be corrected and edited.
- You can have more than one reporter. Two or three interested devotees can team up any way they want, combine their notes, compile a report together, etc
- I strongly recommend that one devotee keeps a Padayatra diary and makes daily entries. (BUY your notebook TODAY !)
- Choose one devotee (could be the reporter writing reports) to interview devotees on the walk and other people (Officials, hosts, mayors, priests, heads of other temples, etc.). It’s interesting to hear about personal experiences from the devotees and the public.
- Translate the Padayatra survey and use it profusely during your walk.
- ARTICLES AND REPORTS
– If you write daily in your diary : enter the following information for every day of your padayatra.
– If pressed for time, use the basic report, but it’s better to write a more complete global report , by using the following guidelines.
What to enter in your report or article ? (Also look at the Basic Padayatra Report)
– Give the total itinerary for your entire padayatra ( plus the day to day if you do a diary).
Indicate states, districts or areas, medium and large cities you walked through.
-Who was there ? Names of main devotees, sannyasis, senior devotees or other people involved ?
– What did these main devotees do ?
– Number of devotees walking ?
– Who were these devotees ? Members of the padayatra team, devotees from the local
ISKCON center, temple or nama-hatta , foreign devotees, visiting devotees, etc ?
– Proportion of grhasthas, brahmacaris, brahmacarinis, sannyasis, vanaprasthis, children,
families, teen-agers, senior devotees ?
– Where things happened ? Name of town and district, and exact location.
– Brief description of the holy places visited.
– Description of the procession (cart, animals, trolleys, vehicles, banners, loudspeakers, etc)
– Description of festivals, evening programs, visits to schools, members of the congregation, etc.
– Special stories: adventures, funny incidents, miracles, danger, etc.
– Total book scores (mentionning also which books and magazines were distributed )
– Number of brochures and pamphlets distributed (with brief description of the contents)
– Quantity of prasada distibuted ? (number of plates, popcorn packets, etc) with a
description of this prasada.
ALWAYS GIVE DETAILS, more DETAILS AND still MORE DETAILS to make your article interesting, so the reader can SEE what is happening.
To add variety, interview all kinds of people, starting with the padayatris and Padayatra organisers.
Whom to interview: young, old and in-between ; rich and poor ; Hindus, Muslims and others ; men and women ; children and teenagers, etc
–Those who see the procession
-Those who buy books
-Those who refuse the books
-The hosts who receive you
-The important people you meet
– The school principals, teachers and students
Samples of questions to ask during the interviews of the padayatris :
– Is that your first time on padayatra ?
– Which center/temple/city are you from ?
– What do you like the most on padayatra ?
– Which services to you render on padayatra ?
– Your realisations ?
– Tell us special things that happen to you on padayatra or some special people you met ?
– What could be improved on padayatra ?
Questions to ask during the interviews of the public : see the Padayatra survey and how to use it
WHERE TO SEND the articles (in attached files) ?
Gaurangi Dasi « gaurangi.lok@gmail.com »
Editing tip: Put capital letters for names and cities: Acarya das (not acarya) and Bihar (not bihar).