About Palki 10:
Friends and well-wishers of Palki,

Owing to unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances, we, the Palki-bearers, got late in our journey this time. The publication of our magazine is now aimed at October 14th. We know, that is quite a long delay, and we are extremely sorry for it. But trust us – when we’ll deliver it to your e-doorstep, you will surely be pleased.

Our monsoon issue in on its way. For those who have sent us their contributions, don’t worry – they are safe with us. This issue will be one of the largest, and hopefully the best, of Palki. It will contain a host of exciting features and articles, many new varieties, and we will do our best to make it worth the wait. Your good wishes will take us through, once more.

———————————————————————————————————————–

Soutik Singha

Download Singha Family Puja Celebration by Soutik Singha

Rana Bhattacharya

Download Upay Thake Na by Rana Bhattacharya

Download English Story “The Portrait” by Aniruddha Sen

P6 is being overall editorially looked after by Shrabanti and Kausik.

The responsibility for other editorial duties, recommendations and suggestions is being shared by the following individuals, who have kindly agreed to spend some of their valuable time in order to be a part of the Palki Team-at-large. Palki remains grateful to them; Palki would not exist without their participation. Ankan, Kaustubh, Soumyasree, Roddur, Kakoli, Madhumita, Ujjwal and Mita.

Official Palki Webpage: http://calcuttans.com/palki

Palki 5 Award Winners: http://calcuttans.com/palki/palki-5-awards/  or http://www.calcuttaglobalchat.net/invboard/index.php?showtopic=20044

Palki Submission Guideline:

Palki 6 – estimated release date February 14th – The Valentines Day

Email address to send your contributions to Palki.

1. palki@calcuttaglobalchat.net
2. palkisubmissions@gmail.com

Please put your subject line in email as “For Palki 6“.

What to submit?

1. Your recent photograph (to be published with article).
2. A small write-up of maximum 3-4 lines about yourself (that we put up as author bio).
3. Your article (story/poems/paintings etc)
4. An alternative form of contact (another email ID and/or a phone number) where you can be reached at in case of any urgent pre-publication situation. We assure you that your phone number shall remain absolutely confidential.

Note: We may NOT consider your article for Palki if any of the above mentioned items are missing from your submission.
However, we do make some stipulations.
First, all contributions do go through a preliminary screening process.

Secondly, if you write in English, we ask you to
(i) use (a) Microsoft Word, or  an acceptable alternative, such as OpenOffice or StarOffice, to create a file in the .doc or docx format.
(ii) restrict your write-up to a maximum of 10 A4 or US letter size pages, with a margin of minimum 1 inch on all sides, and use Times New Roman or Arial font (or a similar sans serif font) at minimum size 12.

If you write in Bangla, we ask you to
(i) use a Bangla writing software such as Avro (www.omicronlab.com, recommended) or Shabdik (www.shabdik.com) along with a unicode compliant Bangla font such as Vrinda (comes natively with the Vista Operating System), Soleimanlipi or Bangla (recommended). We do NOT support unicode non-compliant fonts such as Amar Bangla Normal or Bangla Font Normal, nor can we use .bwd files created with the Banglaword software.
(ii) restrict your write up to a maximum of 14 A4 or US letter size pages, with a font size of 14, and a margin of 1 inch on all sides.

Limited support is available in case you run into problems getting these softwares and/or fonts, or if you have any kind of formatting questions.

Thirdly, we do accept a few handwritten write-ups from India under extenuating circumstances, but we actively discourage this practice. If you are absolutely unable to provide your write-up in an electronic format, kindly contact our editor at the email address given above or me at this address, and we shall try our best to help (though we cannot offer a guarantee of any kind).

Fourthly, while we encourage write-ups on any topic, that encourage discussion, promote awareness, speak to logic and reason, talk about experiences, or are just plain fun to read, we shy away from write-ups that are overtly, far-out political, or religious. If you wish to submit a write-up on any topic of the latter kind, kindly contact our editor or me beforehand in order to discuss its suitability for our e-magazine.

PDF DOWNLOAD – SINGLE FILE

Of course, mere talk (and wishful thought) is unstructured and anything such does not assist in motivating me – true motivation comes from ‘experiencing firsthand’, correct? (Actually, I would have switched my rear with yours if you had ever asked for experiencing firsthand my father’s spanking, but that discussion is for some other time.) So, here I was, only half interested in making MY money, but not motivated enough, because my imagination had not been tickled through concrete visualizations of ‘money’. Therefore, I made some ‘friends’, got some invitations to a few parties and finally had the opportunity (actually several) to ‘experience’ firsthand how the ‘stock’ money had transferred itself through magical transformation into pieces of expensive, tangible materials. These materials made their presences felt from every corner of the humble (i.e. huge) residence of the person (persons, actually). Several of these quality objects were in the garages, and consisted of various makes and models whose ‘worth’ could easily be calculated as higher than my annual salary.

And there I was – fully motivated. The quest had begun. I took several academic courses, attended many seminars, collected tons of documents, read (actually memorized) websites, watched TV, talked hours on end with like-minded folks and finally realized some ‘truths’ along the way. It took me several months and several wads of my cash to realize that ‘making money in stocks’ ain’t easy, folks. It requires more courage than you think. It requires more luck than you imagine. And most of all, it ain’t easy at all for a layman (such as me) to strike it big. Let me lay out some of my learning.

The first truth is to either get solid advice on a stock from a proven advisor OR to know how to extract this ‘advice’ on your own. The easiest (and most profound) way is to discount advice from laymen. This includes the local gardener who suggests he knows someone, who knows someone and so the chain till someone who has inside information that a specific stock is terribly ‘undervalued’ and therefore (wonderfully) worth a fortune if you invested in it. Get over it – you are talking to a fortune teller. (Caution – If you like fortune tellers, read no further) There are several thousand professionals who are scouring the market for every stock available and giving their ‘advice’ on each of them. There are actually multiple analysts who are reviewing the same stock at the same time. These are trained people who have invested their money and careers into analyzing stocks and into understanding the hidden ‘value’ in each. You (and I) can do the same – the documents to analyze are public information and you (and I) can review these financial statements, review the same for competitors, understand economic forecasts and make smart decisions. Bottom line – there is a method employed by these professionals, and we can follow the same path. Fortune telling is not one of them.

Another truth is that for investing, one needs courage and mental strength if one is looking to make good money. I have heard the oft-repeated statement during my ‘research’ that the market balances risk with reward. In other words, the higher risk stock you invest in, the greater (potentially) the value that you may get out of it. Of course, it goes without saying that the ‘risk’ may manifest itself in terrible forms including loss of all investment. Some say that taking risky bets is fine if you know the market well enough to get out of it at the right time. (That is quite a feat to achieve.) The ‘market’ is nothing but your sentiments, my sentiments and those of all others taken together into a collective measure which soars or swoons based on events. Think 9/11. The terror attacks resulted in decimating airline stocks. I doubt anyone would have predicted such an event and therefore, if you (or I) were highly invested in a specific newly-launched super-duper (risky as well) airline stock, the ‘market’ would have thrown our plans down the drain (albeit temporarily). Also, how easy is it to quit when things are going for you? Imagine this scenario – you are half way eating the big steak on your plate and you know that you should not take the next bite. (Probably the wife told you) Can you quit right then? Can you simply give up right when you were about to gulp down one more juicy bite? Can you simply quit even when you are not close to your fill? That is exactly how I think ‘timing’ the market is, folks, and it is very difficult for me to do that.

The final truth as I understand is that it is better to have an advisor to handle some of your finances and to think about ‘diversifying’ your investment. Forget these awesome gains. Most people that I talked to have lost money in these get-rich quick result stocks. It is the loss of most that manifests into amazing stock market gains for some. The more I read and talked, the more apparent it became that I was potentially trying to gamble my savings away. It is better to have an advisor, and to invest your savings in ‘diversified’ portfolios. In other words, do not put all your money into airline stocks or steel or software. Put your money into different sectors of the market. And you will have the best insurance possible for rewards. I agree that these may not translate into superlative gains because one sector of the economy may pull you down. But as for me, folks, I had never guessed that Google would start under a hundred dollars and reach near seven hundred. And I had never guessed that Fannie Mae would drop from seventy five to seven within a year. So, there I am – still looking at my good looking workhorse Mazda in my two car garage and still figuring out how to ‘make money’. Anyone has better ideas, let me know and I will ‘research’, for free. Adios.

PDF READING

PDF DOWNLOAD – SINGLE ARTICLE

Palki - The Bengali/Bangla Magazine

Introduction

We are happy to announce our upcoming Palki fifth edition. From all who have been associated with Palki in the previous editions, we expect the same level of generous support, and we also need more contributions from new friends. However, owing to the tremendous response to the previous Palki editions, we have had a deluge of articles and submission requests, resulting in shortage of print space. This time, all submissions will be considered, but we will be publishing only “selected” articles; selection will be done by our experienced team. Here are all the information you need to know about Palki 5.

What is Palki?

Palki is the official e-magazine published bi-annually by Calcuttaglobalchat.net. We publish submissions in English and Bengali. With more than 6000 members in our community and thousands more guests everyday, PALKI gives you a chance to experiment with your creative mind.

Why Write in Palki?

6) Photo Features

7) Paintings
Audio Visual – Sing/recite, record, send!! We will host online

9) Specially for Children: Send Anything You can!!

• Like All other Palki Editions, we are happy to announce the following awards just as a token of love to our writers:
  • Golpo/Probondho Category: 1st Prize 1000 INR, 2nd Prize: 800 INR
  • Kobita Category: 1st Prize 600 INR, 2nd Prize: 500 INR
  • Art/Photography Category: 1st Prize 600 INR, 2nd Prize: 500 INR
• NOTE: There are other sections such as Online Audio Visual and Children Section. If you are interested in donating some award for those sections, let us know, we are constantly needing small donations to encourage young writers all over the globe. email at palki@calcuttaglobalchat.net
No. of articles/poems – Pay attention please - We will consider only ONE poem/article/photograph/painting for award. You may send us more than one poems/compositions/photographs; however, please mention which of them should go for award determination process.
• YOU MUST WRITE US IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE RATED FOR AWARD CONSIDERATIONS. WE NORMALLY DO NOT CONSIDER RENOWNED WRITERS FOR AWARDS UNLESS THEY INDICATE THEIR CHOICE TO BE INCLUDED IN OUR RATING SYSTEM.
Note: We will be using spelling as suggested by SAMSAD

1. Barota Peyechhi

2. O-Alor-Patho-Jatri