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Try, Before You Buy

by Subhranil Mondal
(Calgery, Canada)

I am associated with the people's science movement for the last 20 years. One of our fellow members got an invitation from the NASA to read his research papers on the Sun and its spots. With a 10-inch refracting telescope he did an excellent job regarding the Sun spot. To present his research more comprehensively he needed a 15-inch telescope which cost around $400-450. This was an impossible amount for him at that time. All the members of our association was worried about how to manage this much amount within very short period back in the year 1993.

A very unique plan came into my mind at this juncture. I told him to write periodically in our association's magazine about the sun, the solar system and about some interesting astronomical phenomena in such a manner and language that every common man would find interest to know them. He started to write as I wanted him to. Still the magazine was not being sold in good numbers. We all had wrinkles on our forehead about what to do next.

This time also I came out with a master plan. I suggested that we should arrange street corner meetings everyday in different places where a large number of commuters passed by. There, he himself would read one or two of his articles and would make the common people understand them. After he would finish his reading we would request the listeners to buy one copy of our magazine to help us promoting this sort of programs. This could benefit us simultaneously to collect the necessary amount of money and to spread the activities of our organization among the masses.

At first I also had doubts if this plan would become successful or not. But to our utter surprise, this idea was a hit like anything. People vastly accepted his speech and explanation and collected the book with keen interest. This program ran for only 3 weeks and we could accumulate more than $650 apart from the printing cost of the magazine and the expanses of the street corner meetings.