Having taken over from Premanand the responsibility of continuing the Indian Sceptic, I wish
to put forward in this very first editorial, points for consideration
by all the members of the Indian chapter of the CSICOP (committee for
the scientific investigation of claims of the paranormal). This committee
has a membership consisting of the life subscribers of the Indian skeptic
and we are all its members by default.
This magazine
is the official organ of the organization and due to ill health of Premanand,
I am taking over the task of editing, publishing and the responsibility
of seeing that the magazine reaches all of you as of before. As we all
know, the magazine was priced at Rs.5 when it was started and the rate
has not been changed for the past two decades. Premanand had also taken
on the commitment of supplying the magazine free of cost for life time
subscribers who had then paid a subscription of Rs.500 or US$150. He
has been standing by that so far despite of all the increases in prices
of the raw materials and services. Last year, January 2007 when Premanand
was ill, he was not expected to survive from his ordeal due to a large
malignant tumour of the stomach. But, by his own resistance and the
persistent efforts of his surgeon Dr. Vijaya Kumar he survived and had
been running our official organ so far. It has been a bonus for all
of us that we have had him with us all this time.
Now, he
has expressed a desire that he be relieved of all the work connected
with the IS and wants to devote the rest of his life towards completing
the task of recording 1500 miracles. You may all recall that the task
had been taken up by him quite some time ago and he has completed only
one volume with 150 of them. He has to complete 9 more volumes and has
thought of doing that work full time free of all other responsibilities.
So, in the interest of all of us and with the hope of recording all
his knowledge, I have decided to take up the job of taking care of our
magazine.
A commendable
job has been done by Premanand who has sacrificed his whole life, family
and all comforts for the sake of the rationalist movement. I have to
express my immense gratitude to him for all the work he has done and
for bringing our movement to this stage where we may loved or hated-
but definitely cannot be ignored. To continue with this heavy load I
have been promised help and co-operation by many of our friends and
comrades. The modalities of the working will be decided later but on
an ad hoc basis I will be doing the job of editing. In the meanwhile
we shall try to make our magazine more interesting, easier to read and
will welcome more participation from all of you.
Premanand
has made many commitments about the way in which our magazine is run.
I have to stand by all those commitments. He has for one, agreed to
supply the journal without any additional cost to those
who have a life time subscription. The amount had been fixed at Rs.500
for Indians and US $ 150 with a promise to refund it if the magazine
closes down. Now, I feel that that amount is not sufficient to keep
our magazine afloat. So, I would request you to kindly offer suggestions
for keeping it alive and kicking. The amounts collected so far have
been utilized for investing in a printing machine and building which
functions as a press and the office of our committee. These involve
a recurring expenditure of about Rs.15,000 per month. The shortfall
was being made up by the sale of the sceptic club books. The sale was
enough to sustain the activities as long as Premanand was traveling
with the books in bags slung over his frail shoulders. As all of you
who have personally met him recall, he used to force the books on us!
I am not
in a position to all those things which Premanand was doing as I have
many other responsibilities too. So, we need to generate income to keep
our activities going. To do that I invite suggestions from all of you
and some loud thinking on my part has been on these lines:
1.
Increase the amount payable as life subscription to all new
members and also for existing ones who are willing.
2.
Take advertisements from patrons who wish to help us without
any compromise or interference in the editorial policy.
3.
Invite donations so that a corpus can be built up to keep the
magazine running in the future.
4.
Request all our members to generously purchase books of the
skeptic book club.
5. Launch a life membership drive to increase funds.
6.
Enhance the price of single copy to Rs.10 and the annual
subscription rates to Rs.100.
I request
all of you to kindly give us suggestions to keep this magazine devoted
to our cause alive and also make efforts to see that our collective
decisions are implemented.
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