Monthly Archives: August 2021

খোলা হাওয়ার সন্ধানে

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রাণা প্রতাপকে,

আমি তাড়াতাড়ি কতগুলো কথা বলেদিই তোমাদের, রাণাপ্রতাপ। আমি ফেসবুক মোটামুটি বর্জন করেছি, যদিও আমার এখানে পাঁচ হাজার বন্ধু এবং কয়েক হাজার ফলোয়ার। আমাকে Facebook সারাক্ষণ সাবধান করছে যে আমার দরকার কিছু বন্ধুদের ছাঁটাই করে জায়গা বানাতে – নতুন বন্ধুদের আসার গেট খোলা রাখতে, কারণ ফেসবুক পাঁচ হাজারের বেশি বন্ধু মঁজুর করেনা। আগে আমি দিনে দশটা পোষ্ট করতাম এখানে নিজের দেওয়ালে – আজকাল তিনচার দিনে একটা করি। আমার YouTube’এ ৬০০  টা ভিডিও আছে এবং কয়েক হাজার ফলোয়ার ছিল। তা সত্বেও আমি দেড় বছরে একটাও ভিডিও তুলিনি ওখানে। কারণ আমি YouTube’কেও বয়কট করছি – বন্ধু বা ফলোয়ার থাক না থাক। আমি এখন বাইরের জগতবাসী – আমাকে পেতে গেলে, বা আমার  মত আরও অনেককে জানতে গেলে – এই jail’এর বাইরে বেরোতে শিখতে হবে।

আমার সঙ্গে তোমাদের যোগায়োগ রাখার কোনও প্রয়োজন নেই – কিন্তু যদি কোনও কারণে সম্পর্ক রাখতে চায় কেউ তবে এই ফেসবুক এবং ইউ-টিউবের নিয়ন্ত্রিত ভিড় ছেড়ে মাঝে মধ্যে বাইরের জগতে খোলা হাওয়ায় নি:শ্বাস নেওয়া অভ্যেস করতে হবে। এখানের বাইরেও যে একটা জগত আছে, তা দেখতে হবে, জানতে হবে। সেখানের বাসিন্দারাও কি মানুষ এবং কেন তারা এই ফেসবুকের মত নিয়ন্ত্রিত সুরক্ষিত সংগঠিত নির্মিত সীমাবদ্ধ জগত ছেড়ে বাইরের অনিয়ন্ত্রিত প্রাকৃতিক অরণ্যে, বনে বাঁদাড়ে ঘোরাঘুরি করছে, তার অনুসন্ধান করতে হবে।

আমি ফেসবুক, ‍ইউটিউব, টুইটার, ইনষ্টাগ্রাম ইত্যাদি পপুলার পল্যাটফর্ম এড়াচ্ছি আমার বাক স্বাধীনতাকে বাঁচিয়ে রাখতে। ফেসবুকে তোমার সব কিছু সমালোচনা করার অধিকার আছে – তুমি ভারতবর্ষকে, গান্ধীকে, সুভাস বোসকে, এমন কি রাম, লক্ষণ যিশু খৃষ্ট, ক্যাপিটালিজম, সোশালিজম, আকাশ পাতাল, ভগবান, শয়তান – সব কিছুকে ইচ্ছে মত সমালেচনা করতে পারবে – কেবল একটি বিষয় ছাড়া।

শুধু তুমি world health organisation, এবং তাদের প্রচারিত কোভিড কাহিনীকে, তার বিজ্ঞানকে, তার টিকা নিয়ে জোরাজুরিকে সমালেচনা করতে পারবে না। যদি তাদের সমালেচনা করা শুরু করো তখনই ওরা তোমার কমেণ্টে warning post লাগাবে, বা তোমাকে কিছু দিনের জন্য ফেসবুকে লিখতে দেবেনা, ফেসবুক jailয়ে পাঠাবে। ইউ টিউব তোমার সেই কোভিড-সমালোচনা-কাহিনীকে ডিলিট করবে। ভাড়াবাড়ি করলে তোমাকে পুরোপুরি তাড়াবে ‍ তোমার অ্যাকাউণ্ট িলিট করে দেবে। তোমাকে নতুন নামে ছদ্মবেশ আবার ঢোকার চেষ্টা করতে হবে।

এই জন্য, আমার মত অনেক লোক বাক স্বাধীনতার মূল্য বোঝে, তারা এই বেড়ির বাইরে সময় কাটাতে শিখছে – ওখানের মানুষদের সঙ্গে বসে আলাপ আলেচনা করতে শিখছে। আমি তাদের সঙ্গে সময় কাটানোটা খুব পছন্দ করি। আমার সোশাল মিডিয়ার গজত এখন মোটামুটি ওখানেই। রবীন্দ্রনাথের একটা গান এখানে দিলাম – প্রাসঙ্গিকতার জন্যঃ

—-

তোমার খোলা হাওয়া লাগিয়ে পালে
টুকরো করে কাছি, আমি ডুবতে রাজি আছি
সকাল আমার গেল মিছে
বিকেল যে যায় তারি পিছে ;
রেখো না আর, বেঁধো না আর, এই কূলের কাছাকাছি।
আমি ডুবতে রাজি আছি।
 
মাঝির লাগি আছি জাগি, সকল রাত্রিবেলা,
ঢেউগুলো যে আমায় নিয়ে করে কেবল খেলা।
ঝড়কে আমি করব মিতে
ডরব না তার ভ্রূকুটিতে ;
দাও ছেড়ে দাও ওগো, আমি তুফান পেলে বাঁচি।
আমি ডুবতে রাজি আছি।
—-

রবীন্দ্রনাথের তখনকার রাজনৈতিক পরাধীনতার ও সামাজিক সীমাবদ্ধতার সুসংগঠিত গণ্ডীর নিরাপদ শান্ত সুপরিকল্পিত জগতে থেকে নিজেকে দম বন্ধ লাগতো,  তাই এই অবরুদ্ধতার থেকে বেরোবার আশায় লিখেছিলেন ‍ ভগবান যেন তাঁকে আর এই দম আটকানো নিরাপদ কিনারায় না বেঁধে রেখে তাঁকে মুক্তি যেন দেয়, যাতে তিনি তাঁর ভাঙ্গা তরীতে পাল তুলে সেই খোলা হাওয়ায় খোলা সমুদ্রের ঢেউয়ে দুলতে পারেন। তুফান আসে – আসুক। তরী উল্টে যায় – যাক। এই সীমাবদ্ধতার থেকে মুক্তি পেতে, সেই খোলা হাওয়ায় নিঃশ্বাস নিতে পারলে, বিনিময়ে তিনি ডুবে মরতে ওবদি রাজি ছিলেন।

আজ আমরা সেই খোলা হাওয়ার সন্ধানে বেরিয়েছি, এবং একবার সেই মুক্ত আকাশের নিচে নিঃশ্বাস নিয়ে সেই লাগাম ছাড়া অনিয়ন্ত্রিত জগতকে দেখে আর এই ফেসবুকিস্থানে থাকতে ভাল লাগেনা। তাতে যদি ডুবতেও হয়, তাও গ্রহণীয়।

শেষে আরেক বাঙালির কথা সংযুক্ত করলাম এখানে – এটা আমি শুনি ঔ বাইরের খোলা জগতে। এটা কে বলেছিল তার নাম উল্লেখিত ছিল না- তা জানার উৎসাহ দেখাতে বাংলারই স্বাধীনচেতা নবযুবকরা, যারা এই সীমাবদ্ধ জগতে চোখের আড়ালে হাজারে হাজারে বাইরে বেরিয়ে এসেছে – তারা জানালো আমাকে, যে এটা নাকি রামকৃষ্ণ মিশনের এক জয়দীপ মহারাজ বলেছেন। আমি জয়দীপ মহারাজোর নামই শুনিনি আগে – কিন্তু ওনার কথা শুনে বুঝলাম, শ্বাধীন চিন্তা করার ক্ষমতা এবং কোভিডের পেছনের মহা ষড়যন্ত্রকে সাধারণ লোককে ঠাণ্ডা গলায় কি করে বোঝাতে হয় তিনি জানেন। পারলে এটা শুনো।

আমাকে এখানে বেশি ডেকোনা – আমি ফেসবুকিস্থানের নারগিকত্ব ছেড়েছি – দূরত্ব বাড়াচ্ছি এখান থেকে। তোমরা সবাই ভাল থেকো।

জয়দীপ মহারাজ – কোভিড হাহিনী

Covid warriors of India

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Grassroots India is leading the world in a novel way to counter the fear mongering on covid and the creation of fake panic and a medical emergency that is perhaps not warranted.

This small but rising group of people are dealing with covid in a most unusual way. They are offering to treat patients of chronic illnesses including those reportedly suffering from covid, in ways that bypasses allopathic medication altogether, using either alternative methods based on Ayurveda, or Homeopathy, or pure naturopathy that uses no purchased medication whatsoever, but using food, exercise and lifestyle changes as the means to cure illness. Covid patients are being treated by these selfless street warriors and curing them without allopathy, without failure and without charging a dime. I have not seen a similar effort or example anywhere else on the face of earth. To me, this is one critical area where India stands apart in showing a way out of this madness.

A lot of people and groups are worth mentioning here – but two names come first. One is Dr. Biswaroop Roychoudhury’s institutions that simultaneously offers naturopathic cure of ailments including covid, and same time offers to train an ever increasing army of naturopathic paramedics that will fan out across the nation to freely treat covid patients.

Then there are groups like Kheti Virasat Mission of Punjab, promoting organic, pesticide free farming, that has taken initiative in forming a new group – NISA – that stands for Natural Immunisation Support Alliance. It has roped in a lot of stalwarts in alternative medicine and natural health sphere, promoters of Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Naturopathy and regional variations such as Kabiraji etc. The group also includes a sizable number of allopathic doctors with a standing, and controllers of a few chain of hospitals that will treat covid patients.

One of the group leaders – Mr. Umendra Dutt, had invited me into this group. As a result, I have come to learn of a lot of their workings too.

Then comes there is a nascent grassroots movement under the banner of Awaken india Movement – a leaderless synthesis of grassroots organisation across India that overlaps with various other groups in resisting the lockdowns and personal restrictions imposed on people based on test results or vaccine certificate status. Many of these protesting volunteers also overlap as Naturopathic paramedics trained by Biswaroop RoyChoudhury’s institution or another similar one.

But that is only part of the story. There is another part – about the Indian Bar Association joining hands with the AIM members and filing charges at state level and Supreme Court challenges to the government against its arbitrary, anti-people and treasonous laws to ruin India economically and psychologically, to benefit a handful of overseas corporations and crooks.

I myself started interviewing some of these change makers on the streets of India, away from the westernised media limelight and away from the popular social media hashtag threads. I am including a few samples here

Prem Upadhyay of North Bengal, India.

These paramedics, or street warriors of India, are countering the fear of covid in a novel an unique way not matched anywhere else on earth, far as I can see. These people are treating covid patients:

  • Without allopathic medication
  • Without failure
  • Without charging a dime

Their success story is spreading, through word of mouth, bypassing all mainstream media that suppress them, bypassing government channels and bypassing the TV. This is going into rural India even as upwardly mobile urban India remains largely unaware of or blind to, this rising tide.

 

Jagadish Chanda of West Bengal, India.

The first person I interviewed this way was Saurav Bysac of West Bengal, India.

Saurav Bysak, West Bengal, India

I have myself made a few videos, speaking into a camera, announcing this hitherto invisible, near silent India, unknown even to the urban, internet savvy social media travelling upwardly mobile westernised India, which is a national tragedy, in my view.

https://www.bitchute.com/video/DrFUa6EQDWp9/

This is an evolving story.

Tomorrow, Monday Morning India time, I hope to interview another such street warrior, Amber Koiri of Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Watch this space.

Who is stealing my seeds?

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 Radish, also called Chinese Moolah in India, is a prized root vegetable for many of us.

I have been saving some seeds of this plant from my garden. But same time, someone or something was eating up parts of the seeds. I did not know who or what it was, till I managed to catch the thief in my camera. It was a bunch of purple finches.

I did not mind too much, since I had already saved quite a few of them and did not need many more.

Back to the finches – it is not unusual to mix up purple finches with house finches, since the two look so similar.

Points to remember are – house finches are not normally fund near houses per se, and purple finches are not purple. In fact, the best way to distinguish them is to remember that house finches are present all across North America while purple finches nest only in Canada. Also, purple finches have far more read on their body and far deeper red too.

To further confuse the issue, there is a third look alike – the Cassin’s finch, that is also tossed into the mix.

Anyhow, these are the birds, like sparrows, that belong to the finch group with specialised bills to cross seeds, their primary source of food. And a bunch of them have discovered by daikon radish finches in my garden.

Big cabbage – why did I get one?

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This is the first time I succeeded in germinating cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli from seeds in numbers, and same time managed to grow them to big size without pest attack. The pest attack issue was so serious that I had almost given up on them. But finally I  learned to rig taken copper wires along my raised beds, attached to a 9V battery, causing an electrical barrier to slugs, and same time designing giant mosquito nets to prevent moths from laying eggs on the leaves.

This resulted in me getting a great harvest as the vegetables got really big and strong. The bed itself has unique soil combination – wood at bottom, leaves and grass mulch above it, and finally a relatively thinner layer of soil and compost. No artificial chemical, no industrial fertiliser or pesticide.

Initially, I had a mosquito net that was smaller and hanging off ropes. Which I later modified to be taller, more robust with a wooden frame.

The experiment did give me great cauliflowers and cabbage.

I have harvested all the cauliflowers and one cabbage so far. I took a good look at them and investigated their leaves etc. I noted presence of small colonies of aphid eggs and pupae, but all dead. None were apparently able to penetrate the skin of the leaves or puncture the veins and suck the juice of of the leaves, weakening the plant, which would result in relatively stunted growth.

But that did not happen. The aphids and pupae were all dead, without being able to hurt the plant much.

The question was – why?

Some folks use spray solution of Neem oil and water, or detergent and water. I did not use any.

Some use insecticides. I never use them since these would not only kill the insect, the poison would get into the vegetable and eventually into us.

Some plant beneficial plants that either attract the aphids, thus sparing my vegetables, or are so repugnant that they keep aphids away from my plants. I have planted neither kind near or far from my vegetables.

So why did the aphids not manage to lay eggs in many places, and why did these few that did land up on the underside of a few cabbage leaves, did not succeed in causing much harm?

I do not know the answer, but I suspect I was helped by beneficial insects, that like to lunch on this aphid eggs and pupae. I know I have a huge colony of all kinds of insects in my garden, most of these are unknown species to me. I knew the greater ecosystem needs all these to exist and interact with each other, and some of them are harmful to some others. I was not interested in killing any of them unless I knew some where harming my vegetables.

It is my belief that this insect world in my garden did include some unidentified beneficial insects that kept the aphids in check. I now believe that insecticides etc cause more harm to the insect ecosystem, and harmful insects such as aphids learn to survive or sidestep these poisons better than other beneficial insects. Therefore not using poisons and keeping the garden healthy and organic, has a curious side benefit – indirectly keeping my vegetables protected – not unlike our own microbiome bolstering our own immunity.

At least, this is what I think is the reason why I managed to have giant cabbages and cauliflower without using any insect killer.

The curious case of K K Agarwal

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In the continued saga of vaccine safety in India, there is this curious case of Dr. K.K. Agarwal. He was noted as one of the more prominent doctors and spokespersons in India about heart ailments. He himself was a cardiologist, President of the Confederation of Medical Association of Asia and Oceania (CMAAO), President of the Heart Care Foundation of India and the Past National President of Indian Medical Association (IMA).

He was also the most notable doctor to be publicly supporting the idea that all living Indians should immediately opt to take a vaccine to protect themselves from covid-19.

He not only advised all people to get vaccinated, he also got the shots himself, and set an example by publicising it.

And then, shortly afterwards, in May this year (May 2021), he developed health complications reportedly from a covid infection, and had to be hospitalised. Apparently, the vaccination did not prevent him from covid infection. More over, Wikipedia report seems to indicate that his family declared that his death was linked to covid complications.

There is a lot of speculation and news is being carefully shrouded not to disclose too much on what is happening with this developing covid related health problems as a possible consequence of adverse reaction from some of the vaccines, pointing to the possibility that these vaccines, apart from not being approved, are potentially harmful for some people.

There are people that talk about the mRNA vaccine, by design, is causing unintended side effects such as blood clotting, which in turn can lead to cardiac issues for some. To further complicate matters, some doctors seem to suspect that the very treatment and drugs given to treat these conditions are themselves suspect and might lead to further deterioration of conditions.

In other words, the vaccine itself might lead to cardiac problems. Hospitalisation might lead to treatment for cardiac arrest that are suspect. Result might be further deterioration leading to death from cardiac arrest, but recorded as covid death.

So, which came first – the vaccine or the covid ? And is going to the hospital a very bad idea if you have covid vaccine related heart condition?

Some doctors are whispering about K.K. Agarwal not being the only doctor that died from the vaccine, even if he is the most famous victim. Truth about this issue is being suppressed, but has leaked out already, in India.

Puzzling times. 

My world through a microscope

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I have a low powered microscope, or rather, an endoscope, that can be plugged into my hand phone, which can capture the electronic image output from the scope and save it in the phone itself.

So I decided to share some of these images here with the external world.

The surface of my MacBook laptop (Aluminum)
Himalayan pink salt
Velcro strip
Perennial wildflower seeds I am saving for future use
Potato seeds – no kidding
Daikon Radish (moolah – মূলা) seeds
Turnip seeds
Carrot seeds
Beet seed

So how you do like my world ?

Eating a giant mushroom from my garden

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I have been growing vegetable not just in my backyard, but also on my front yard. The message and motto has been – GROW FOOD, NOT LAWNS.

So, I had a patch of the front yard that was covered by cardboard to keep the grasses from coming up, and helping it to mulch and add organic compost to the soil, and then adding a small two inch layer of fresh soil and organic mushroom compost I already had, mostly all in my backyard.

Then, I made a small rectangular partition with wooden boundary, and stuck some seeds of Swiss chard, and beet and manually watered them with my garden hose. The seeds geminated readily and started growing. Their lovely green large leaves changed the look of my front yard.

I also stuck a series of sunflower seeds… to sort of brighten up the place a bit and also to attract birds for the seeds.

Something else started happening the same time. Some tiny seeds of my vegetables, of previous harvests, somehow ended up in the transport of the soil from backyard to to the front. These included a few tiny potatoes that I did not notice while harvesting last year, an also some seeds of squash and pumpkin.

All these started sprouting when they got some splashes of water from my garden hose as I watered the Swiss chard, beet and sunflowers.

Uninvited they more or less filled out the rest of the space in my font yard, including sprouting plenty of cucubrita flowers attracting a new group of bees, and also ending up creating some squash and pumpkins, which are growing even now. The potato plants got as high as my hip and are flowering. So I guess I shall get some potato too.

And then there came this giant mushroom.

It came out of nowhere, right beside the bed of chards and beet. And it grew massive. Its stem was around two inches thick and the head was well over six inches when ball shaped. But in a day, it opened up, like unfurling of a sail, into a gigantic umbrella almost a foot wide.

I was more than surprised. I was actually curious to know if this was edible. I knew many mushrooms are toxic and can make me sick. I was no expert. So I did a few things.

  1. I posted its pictures on Facebook, and asked if anybody could identify.
  2. I googled to look for mushroom ID for coastal North America.
  3. I ended up downloading an using a mushroom identification app.
  4. And finally, I pinched off a tiny, tiny section of the edge of the umbrella and put it straight in my mouth, to check if my tongue protested. It tasted sort of nice and not toxic at all. Then I ate that small piece up to see if my stomach might protest. It did not.

At the end of all these efforts and attempt to ID it, it turned out a common, popular and edible mushroom of these parts, called Agaricus augustus.

So I uprooted it, an brought it indoor to my kitchen.

My wife was not too fond of eating mushrooms. So I decided to cook it and have it myself. I had no clue how to cook a mushroom. So I just steamed it for 15 minutes. It was way too big to fit into the steamer in one piece. So I chopped it up in pieces first. The frilled umbrella on the underside turned from off white to pitch black while steamed. The rest of the mushroom remained off white.

I added nothing more than a pinch of salt and pepper and then tried it with a fork. It tasted vaguely like a medium rare beef steak, and quite filling. In fact, this mushroom by itself filled me up like a full meal for an adult.

Well, now I know how to identify an Agaricus augustus mushroom, and at least how to cook it by steaming, and that it is a great wild food. Next time I find another, I am going to be fancy in my cooking.