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Forewords for our non-Bangla speaking friends: This issue marking its fourth birthday, Palki has certainly come of age, and we unhesitatingly declare that this journey would not have been possible without the active participation of you, the loyal readers and contributors to our modest literary effort, as well as the tireless people – the editorial team – working behind the scenes as we get ready to bring out each issue. As Palki has evolved over the years, so has its mandate – and at present, we are endeavoring to focus on three specific aspects. First, our effort has been, and will always be, to bring our readers excellent quality, entertaining reading material. However, we don’t believe in censorship and Big-Brotheresque oversight, because it does not make for a conducive environment for the establishment of a dialog and free exchange of ideas. Therefore, each submission – prose, poetry, artwork, photography and so forth – uniquely reflects its author’s perspective. If you, the reader, have a positive experience with any of our items, or a concern or point of disgruntlement, please bring it to us via email or the website commenting option. We would love to hear from you. Secondly, the relatively minor oversight we practice is not to allow poorer quality material to slip in. We have a dedicated editorial team which watches over the submissions with a view to nurturing them, mostly in conjunction with the respective authors, to publication. We understand that even talent needs due diligence in order to shine, and at Palki, we strive to provide an appropriate platform for the amateur and the dilettante to polish their crafts, as well as for occasional maestros who have already made it into the limelight. Palki hopes to be a mutually learning experience. And lastly, we realize that in order to thrive, Palki needs to be a dynamic entity and keep with the times. How far we are successful in that, dear readers, is for you to judge and let us know. The literary webzine ‘Charcha’ has been our long standing friend towards those efforts. Recently, the Pentasect group – an online platform for contemporary documentation of culture, life and times of Bengal – has expressed interest in becoming an affiliate of Palki. Pentasect publishes and pays honorarium for original work on the theme of Bengal, compiled in English and/or Bengali. They also showcase e-books and printed books of authors through their Print-On-Demand facilities. We do know that the greatest force and motivation for continued success and goodwill of Palki must surely lie in its continued interaction with you all, and we thank you for your unfailing patronage and support. For our non-Bangla speaking readers, we have a host of literary contributions in English in this current issue.
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Peace, and happy reading. Shrabanti Basu, Kausik Datta, Kaustubh Adhikari October 2009
About Palki 9: Palki 9, the tentative release date being February 14, will be the first Themed Issue of Palki with the theme ‘Love.’ All submissions must be related to the theme. Submission dates for Palki 9 will be announced later. Statutory Disclaimers: • The views opinions and ideas expressed by the authors in their submissions are exclusively their own. • The copyright of the submissions rests with the authors, while Palki assumes publishing rights. It is understood that authors have the necessary permissions for their use of copyrighted materials in their work. • Submissions have been considered solely on the basis of their creative merit, not subject to any editorial censorship. • However, the acceptance of any particular submission for publication in Palki does not construe any express endorsement whatsoever of the author’s viewpoints by Palki, calcuttans.com, calcuttaglobalchat.net or any of their family of websites. Official Details for Palki 8 • Website Owner: Ankan Basu • Joint Editors: Shrabanti Basu, Kaustubh Adhikari, Kausik Datta • Email for Enquiry/submissions:
[email protected] • Rules for submissions: http://calcuttans.com/palki/submissions/ • Palki Time Zone: Eastern Standard Time
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Prose On a Tramcar Towards Infinity Decipher Closure A Day to Celebrate Trauma Me and my Durga Puja over Two Centuries Post-Tagore Bengali Poetry: Image of ‘God’ and Secularism Waste-to-Energy as a Tool for Sustainable Development Autumns and Eulogies The Dream Seller Spiti Valley Adventure The Motherly Touch in Protection of Forest Kobita
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Born in Kolkata, Amit Shankar Saha is a PhD researcher in English Literature at Calcutta University. His interests lie in academic research as well as creative writing. He has contributed his stories, poems, and essays to several e-journals like Muse India, Cerebration, DesiLit Magazine, Boloji, Pens On Fire, Palki, etc. He is also a blogger.
Dr. Aniruddha Sen, an Electrical Engineer from Jadavpur University, is currently a Senior Scientific Officer at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India. He has authored several international papers in speech science. Writing in Bengali and English is his serious hobby and he is associated with various Bengali organizations and periodicals in Mumbai. His story ‘A Win-win Game’ was highly commended in the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) Short Story Competition, 2007.
Barnali Saha (née Banerjee) is a creative writer currently living in Nashville, TN. Her writings have been featured in The Statesman, The Indian Express, and DNA-ME. She has also written for some leading American E-zines like Pens on Fire and Many Midnights. She recently published her first book, Figments of Imagination. Apart from creative writing, her hobbies include painting and photography.
Kausik of Baltimore in Maryland is an immunology researcher by profession. Although unwilling (and afraid) to quit his day job, Kausik privately admits (if you ask nicely) to his strange affliction – being occasionally struck by story plots or verses that persist stubbornly in his head until he jots them down on paper. That way it is much easier to throw them into the dustbin, but every once in a while, one of them manages to escape and find its way to some hallowed portal such as Palki. Left to himself, Kausik would rather be a couch potato in front of the telly.
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A resident of Lumding in the Nagaon District of Assam, Dr. Nabarun Moitra is a medical practitioner, engaged in private practice in the semi-urban, railway township of Lumding. He likes to write in his spare time, and his musings are often reflective of the fact that Lumding has its fair share of idiocies and idiosyncrasies, much like every other secluded pocket of people engaged in more or less similar professions. Dr. Moitra’s writings focus on those traits which make living in Lumding a unique experience.
Pamela is a software engineer working with Wipro Technologies and settled in Mumbai. A native of Calcutta, she is an avid reader and enjoys penning poems and short stories as a hobby. She is looking to hone her writing skills and hopes to publish her writings someday.
Prabir Ghose is a reputed blogger who found mention in the Limca Book of Records 2007; his blog is ‘Rediscovering India’ at Indiatimes Blogs. He is a Citizen Journalist of Merinews, New Delhi; writes in Bengali under the penname of Kali Kinkar Karmakar; published a Bengali quarterly magazine Naba Nalanda from Nashik; and participated in Kolkata Book Fairs in 1992, 1993 and 1995.
Ritam Mukhopadhyay is a young UGC Junior Research Fellow working towards a PhD in the Department of Bengali of the University of Calcutta. Ritam writes poems and essays, and he has published in various well-known little magazines in Kolkata including Krittibás, Mahádiganta, Jijñásá, Parichay, Kabitírtha, bhasánagar among others, as well as in a few e-magazines, such as Charcha, Vinnobasar and Palki.
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Educated in Chemical Engineering from Aligarh Muslim University, Salman Zafar is a Renewable Energy Advisor with expertise in biomass energy, waste-to-energy processes, solid waste management and sustainable energy systems. Apart from managing his advisory firm BioEnergy Consult, he has been actively collaborating on sustainable development around the world. He writes actively in journals, magazines, newsletters, websites and blogs on renewable energy and waste management.
Sangita Kalarickal is from Mumbai, India. She is a physicist, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA. In her free time, she also enjoys reading, writing, pottery, making jewelry and volunteering.
Having worked at Infosys in the past, Saptarshi Basu is now an IT consultant in TCS. Growing up in the literary atmosphere of Kolkata, his passion for writing started since the school days. Now he regularly contributes his prose and poems to various magazines, while working intently towards his dream novel depicting the faceless life of an IT programmer.
Subhobroto is a geologist by profession but has a passion of writing stories, especially with a line of subtle humor in them. Inspired by the works of Jerome K Jerome, Joseph Heller, and Ruskin Bond, he tries to write in the same vein. Conceived, born and brought up in Durgapur, he presently lives in Dehradun and dreams of seeing his works in the print media like those of his gurus.
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Multifaceted Susanta Biswas is at once a documentary Filmmaker, corporate writer, translator and Editor of the webzine, Charcha. A graduate in English Literature and post Graduate in Public Relations, Susanta was a newscaster with the Doordarshan Kendra Kolkata, and presently works with the multi-collaborative Regional Centre of the National Afforestation and Eco-Development Board. The article herein reflects a documentary directed by Susanta, titled ‘tribal women, afforestation and sustainability’, which has been submitted to the 15th Kolkata Film Festival and accepted for telecast in the national television network.
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Dr Deepa Vanjani is an Professor of English, working with PMB Gujarati Science College at Indore. Interested in English, and literature in particular, she also freelances for Hindustan Times apart from translating and script writing at times.
Gargi Mandal-Mukherjee is currently a resident of Somerville, New Jersey, USA. Hailing from Kolkata, India, Gargi, a young poetess and blogger, whiles away her leisure by arresting the mesmerizing moments of life in words and photographs.
Shreyasi, a 2nd year student of Shri Shikshayatan College in Kolkata, delving into the intricacies of Communicative English and obsessing over English grammar, was recently elected editor of her department’s journal. Shreyasi also freelances as a content writer and teaches English on the sly to unsuspecting kids taken in by her innocent countenance. She likes reading, writing poems, updating her blogs, participating at internet fora, making junk jewelry, and collecting pens – possibly in preparation for realizing her dream of becoming a novelist some day. Born and raised in west London, Sudakshina moved to Kolkata for further schooling. Following her Secondary examination and thereafter, the Indian School Certificate examination in Humanities, she pursued a BA Honors degree in New Media Journalism with Film & TV in London. Sudakshina is currently a visiting lecturer at various educational institutions in London, United Kingdom. In her spare time she writes for various publications and manages her website, journalismwithsudakshina.
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Dr. Sugata Sanyal, a professor at the School of Technology and Computer Sciences at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai, India, joined the Computer Group there in 1973 after completing his Engineering studies from Jadavpur University, and thereafter, the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. While working at the Tata Institute, he earned a doctorate. An acclaimed Information Technology expert, he likes dabbling in innovation, and likes more to think about new things. His wife and he have a son and two grand-children.
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Kalyan Banerjee is an IIT Roorkee alum and a Technology consultant for IP Litigations. He travels extensively on weekends and blogs on his weekend travels. Kalyan is a Web 2.0 geek and is the webmaster of a site on Bengali Cuisine.
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The Photographer in Sudeshna went through three phases - at first borrowing her father's camera, then a Sony digital camera, and at last a Nikon D60. She writes on Bengali food at her blog. Sudeshna is doing her masters in Biotech at Kolkata and likes clicking and writing about whatever she cooks.
Though without any systematic training in art, Abhinab learnt how to draw from his mother, and takes great interest in doing pencil sketches, watercolors and poster-colors, his favorite subjects being figures and scenery. His talents have been aptly nurtured in his entire household of amateur artists, and he has won several prizes at school and at the Nehru Children's Museum competitions. Currently pursuing his MBA studies in Bangalore, he also loves theater and debating.
Prabal Deb is from the beautiful village of Iswarpur in West Bengal, India. He is currently an IT professional in Accenture at Chennai, India. He likes human oriented art, art of feminism and women’s nature, and origami.
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Homemaker from Baroda, Supti Bhanja, was born and brought up in Bolpur, soaked in the arts and culture of Shantiniketan. She picked up various forms of arts and crafts, first from her mother, then at school and elsewhere, including watercoloring, oil painting, line drawing, Batik prints, tie-and-dye, designs and so forth. Her interests have also included recitation, theater, singing and sitar playing, interior designing, anchoring, glass painting among other things. When not engaged in pursuing her mulitude of interests, she loves collecting statuettes of Ganesh, adding to her current collection of 400 odd pieces of various shapes and materials.
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Sudeshna is currently pursuing her M.Tech in Biotechnology from Kolkata. While staying in Bangalore for two long years, she grew the habit of cooking, and gradually it turned to be her passion. She is the author of a very popular Bengali blog. She loves to write about the food she cooks at home, its history, the influence of culture on that particular recipe, and she loves food photography.
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