Category Archives: General

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.

Living garden

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One of the side effects of growing food in your backyard is that your garden becomes alive. If you are growing organic and do not use any industrial poison in way of insecticide, herbicide, fungicide or any other of the “cides”, you are helping to preserve the small creatures at the bottom of the food chain, from the soil microbes and worms to hordes of butterflies and insects that crawl, leap or fly about as your neighbours. And if you do not mow your lawn constantly to prevent wild flowers to bloom, and let the grass grow long before each mow, you allow a whole lot more of food for even larger animals such as rabbits and hares.

Along with all these creatures, come the creatures up the food chain that like to feast of these. You get a look-see and overhead flyby or perching on nearby tall trees by birds of prey like hawks and eagles that notice the frequency of rabbits and hares visiting your garden, primarily to eat the flowers and long leaves of the wild dandelions.

Meanwhile, the profusion of flowers – from large orange bright ones from the pumpkins and squash, to tiny ones on some cilantro plants that I am allowing to produce seeds for the next season growing season – attract a huge horde or insects, from crawling ants to all kinds of flying insects from multiple types of bee to various kinds of butterflies.

Then there are insects that also like to eat at the ripping fruits around the garden – from crab apples to cherries plums and figs. These fruits will also attract fruit eating birds.

This profusion of insects in turn attract an unbelievable variety of eight legged spiders that make their webs in critical locations, hoping to snack on the profusion of these flying meals. Most insects have six legs and two antenna, while spiders belong to a different group of joint legged invertebrates called arachnids, and are grouped with scorpions, ticks, and mites. They all have eight legs. The thing is, many of these spider like creatures are also in loose soil, and often come  appear when I dig into them with my fingers to check it. They come up, along with centipede and millipede, and immediately get busy trying to bury themselves back in dry loose soil. Worms on the other hand, will prefer wet or moist soil. All these, too, are meals for other creatures, such as birds.

Chickadee

And thus come the insect eating birds, who will go for both the flying insets as well as insect catchers like the spiders.

Most of us know of birds like chickadee and hummingbirds. We think chickadees eat seeds and hummingbirds feed on flower nectars. True. But these birds are also prolific insect eaters. Therefore, they are constantly on the move in the garden, often in large numbers, looking for a more mobile form of meals compared to honey.

Rufous hummingbird

Then there are the wrens, tiny group of perching birds that are insect eaters and known for taking a special liking to spiders. One of these shy birds, called Bewick’s wren, have been making nests in or near my garden and raising chicks successfully year upon year. That is one reason I have a few bird boxes placed in my backyard, often used by small birds to make their nests.

Bewick’s wren

Two hummingbirds are common sights in British Columbia. One is the resident one that has evolved to survive the high latitude winters. This is the Anna’s hummingbird. The other, also highly visible in the warmer months, is a summer visitor from south of the border. This one is the rufous hummingbird. In many ways, they look similar. Both are same size and more or less same shape, and look greenish from the back.

The main difference by which one can distinguish one from the other, is that the Anna’s hummingbird has absolutely no rufous – brick colour – anywhere on them, while the rufous hummingbird has on its sides and even belly. There are other subtle differences that one might miss – such as spots of white around the eyes of the Anna’s and the fact that, I think, the Anna’s hummingbird’s beak has the hint of a slightly downwards droop. The rufous, in my view, has a dead straight beak, like a fencing sword.

Anyhow, both of them will take insects. Also, there are many flowers that they like to poke at and sip from. Further, most of us have a few hummingbird feeders hanging around. So hummingbirds are here. They are usually not scared of humans. At times, one comes within a food of my face, hovers in the air for a second or two, to take a close look at the red coloured emblem on my cap, just to figure out if it is a flower or not. Convinced it is not a flower, it flies away. Usually they are too close and too sudden for me to click a picture so close to me. Perhaps one day I will get one.

Male Anna’s hummingbird displaying georgette

Hummingbirds have two kinds of coloured feathers. Some are fast colours and others have structural colour. What is fast colour and what is structural colour. Well, we all know what is fast colour. That is colour on our fabric or paper that are not water soluble and will not wash away. The colour is there to stay.

Structural colour is something else. They are largely made of feathers that have colourless transparent parts, which, when flexed at the correct fashion by the bird and the lighting is good, what happens is that sunlight refracts internally, splits up like when passing through a prism, and only some selective colours end up reaching the eyes of the observer. These are structural colours. They appear to have a hue, and in some cases the colours can even change depending on angle of view, giving the feathers appear iridescent.

The male hummingbirds, both Anna’s and Rufous, have special feathers at its throat that they can flare up in a way where they look like shimmering pink, for an Anna’s, or more brighter red for a Rufous hummingbird. These throat feathers for the males are display feathers, for impressing potential females. These are called Georgettes. The same feathers, when not flexed, and kept tucked in, appear blackish and dull. The bird can control the colours of their georgette as and when needed.

Violet Green Swallow

And we should not forget the swallows, such as the colourful violet green swallow, which is also an insect eater.

These are the creatures that make my garden a living garden, and part of the reason is that I grow food without poison, and let the grass grow taller and weeds make flowers instead of constantly mowing them. When the grass grows tall enough, I mow it in one shot and the huge amount of grass mulch is then used as bedding for some vegetable patch, to be composted and returned back to the soil by microbes. All this, in turn, helps to keep the garden alive.

Year of the Pumpkin

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This year I seem to have a huge success in growing the general Cucubrita family of food crops. Although the season is in its early phase and the produce are not yet ripe, it appears that I shall probably have a successful harvest of pumpkins, squash, zucchini, gourd and cucumbers than any previous year.

I planted a lot of seeds in my starter pots. Most of them sprouted and were successfully transplanted outdoors. I had been careful to manually water the plants, both in raised beds and on portable fabric bags. The main difference in the raised beds were that the lower levels were fulled with wood, leaves and grass mulch, with the upper layer being soil – following the hugelkultur technique. Actually, I did not know of hugelcutur when I started doing it out of my own belief that this might work. And then, based on my pictures posted on social media, I got responses that showed that my efforts were already practiced long before and had a name – originating from Germany.

My raised wood walled vegetable beds
From hugelkultur.com.au

In more than one way, the Cucubrita family has contributed to my backyard turning into a food forest. The other major contributors are potato, tomato and the cabbage and cauliflower groups.

I am aware that the Cucubrita family of squash, gourd, zucchini and especially pumpkin are rich in vitamins, primarily vitamin-A. Also, the greens of these plants are great as food, either sautéed western style or cooked like saag Indian style.

I have not had any of these greens yet, but that is to come. As soon as a large pumpkin or two begin to grow on a vine, one can in effect cut off the remaining vine and leaves and cook them, while letting the pumpkins grow and the plant put more energy into them instead of into growing more vine.

Pumpkin on the ground
Pumpkin in the air
Pumpkin on the roof

I did not count how many plants I have put in the soil in my backyard, but there are perhaps a hundred vines, some are branches of the main, growing in all directions and are literally taking over the neighbourhood.

I can already count at least 8 pumpkin growing on the very roof of my garden shed, along with half as many squash. But these are merely preliminary figures. The vines are growing on the roof like crazy, and many more are claiming to the roof. Some are producing fruits hanging off the edge of the roof. So no telling how many will be linked to this one small garden shed roof alone. It is perhaps not an exaggerated expectation to state that I expect the total number of pumpkin, gourd and squash on my property this year might cross 50. In other words, if I was to eat one of them each week, it will cover the whole year.

At least half a dozen of the vines are happy to be climbing the red leaf cherry blossom tree nearby one of the hugelcultur raised beds.

Squash on a cherry blossom tree

As to the vines, there are perhaps a hundred of them growing everywhere. And this does not even include the cucumbers, which by themselves might produce almost 50 fruits.

I am kept busy daily, trying to help the vines find something to climb. I have criss cross the area is ropes and strings for these vines to climb, wrap around, or hand from.

About the pumpkins and squash, there is also a story to be told involving the front yard.

I had prepared part of the smaller front yard, removing the grass, covering the area with biodegradable cardboard to suppress the weeds, and brought some soil from my backyard, mixed with compost and placed it over the cardboards last year, to try to grow some food instead of just a toxic grass lawn that supports nothing. I wanted it to either go to weed which supports insects, bee, rabbits, birds and other wildlife, or grow food. For purpose of appearance, I chose to grow food. I had planted some beets last year.

This year, I added some wooden frames there to demarcate food zones for different crops and flowers there, and planted some Swiss chard and beets in one of the rectangles, and a dozen sunflowers on another. A large section was left for planting more food. I was thinking of putting some more turnips and perhaps carrots there.

However, a strange thing happened when I started watering the beets, Swiss chards and the sunflowers. The water droplets also fell a bit on the sup pounding area that had the good soil but where I had not yet put any seeds. Apparently, the soil transported from my backyard, from beds where I had grown stuff in previous years, carried some tiny potatoes the size of half a marble or so that often escapes attention, but are still viable, despite their small size. Also, somehow the soil contained a few pumpkin and swash seeds, no idea how.

So, in my front yard, suddenly some potato, squash and pumpkins sprouted, next to the planted beets and chard.

I was surprised, but did not uproot them. If they could be hardy enough to emerge in my front yard unplanned by me, they deserved to live, I thought.

And now they have taken over the vacant wood framed plot. One of the vines have grown on the soil and looking for something to climb. I am thinking of making them a ramp and scaffolding of wood. But I have to first do some wood work to provide support for the second tomato zone where the plants are outgrowing the bamboo support sticks.

Meanwhile, I am thrilled to watch my Cucubrita grow. This might just be the year of the Cucubrita, for me.

A violet green swallow starts off my day

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In the morning, just after the sun was out and striking the top of the tall cedar trees horizontally from the north-east, I took a mug of hot coffee and stepped out on my backyard garden for a few moments of quiet time, watching my vegetables and planning out a to-do list for the day.

But when I lifted the blinds and opened the glass door to the back patio, I knew I had to take my camera. Backyard was full of birds. As the sun had started warming the air, the insect population comes to life, and along with it, the insect eating birds and spider. Also, as the seed eating finches were about, since many of the wild and not so wild flowers were dropping mature seeds on the ground or floating in the air. A flash of yellow streaked by and I notice gold finches flitting about – not so common a site in my backyard.

By the time I got a camera with a long lens on it, the gold finch was nowhere to be found. However, there were a few hummingbirds flying wildly about, often chasing each other and even zipping my me, where I could hear the whirring of their wings. These experts of aerial acrobatics have been a daily and near constant visitor to my backyard, not just for the flowers, including some fuchsia in pots kept specifically for these birds.

Fuchsia flowers
Hummingbird investigating a feeder

Clicking on these birds were not easy since they were so fidgety. But I had gotten a few pictures of it hovering under a feeder a few days ago. It reminded me of the slow motion video I got of an Anna’s hummingbird weathering out a gentle snow fall, which looked even more gentle in the slow motion video.

Hummingbird during snowfall

Back to the present, I had a northern flicker sitting on a wooden power line post on my neighbour’s property. This guy, apart from drumming on wood and bark to pry out grubs inside the wood, had taken to drumming on metallic objects. It was not looking fr food, but rather, advertising itself for a potential mate. Since drumming on metal produced a far louder and ominous noise racket, it hope t convince a potential partner, that this was a male that would be more than able to provide for the family and should be considered a good catch.

Meanwhile, above me, a violet green swallow sat on a wire and pruned itself leisurely. Looking at it from its underside, it is not easy to figure out what kind of a swallow it is, or why it is called violet green. However, the bird was constantly moving and twisting around, trying to clean out and rearrange its feathers, so I could spend time on on clicking it from different views. This bird has both violet on its rump and brilliant green on its back.

Violet Green Swallow above my garden

 

The swallow and hummingbirds were of course not the only visitors. I had the more reliable jackrabbit that was a near constant visitor to my backyard.

Then there were the constant whirring of bee population visiting the numerous yellow flowers of the Cucubrita family – that is pumpkin, various squash, gourd and cucumber.

Apart from the perennial chickadees, we also were having another bunch that had appeared of late – a few of the siskin family. I could see them sitting on a pine tree or even the roof of my garden shed. American robins kept watching out for early worms. House finches roamed by deck occasionally.

A collared dove sat on another part of the overhead wire, and watched me serenely while all this was going on.

Come to think of it, I had lost my bird watching group on account of covid vaccine. But thankfully, the birds had not abandoned me, In fact, they were coming home, right in my own backyard. Fancy that.

I finished my coffee, set the camera down on a chair, and opened the water to water the plants. Today I was going to sow late season seeds – turnips and beet, on a new bed that got a fresh layer of wood, twigs and mowed lawn grass and then a top layer of soil and compost. Some of the home made fertiliser came from powdered egg shells, while others came from worm compost castings and worm compost tea, as well as recycled organic matter.

Talking about worm composting, I lost my stock when I was in India for two years till 2019. Upon return back to Canada, I had to purchase a small batch for $20. That small batch, numbering abut a hundred or so two years ago, has now had a huge population explosion, expanding from my first bin to a second bin and numbering several thousand. These fast compost producing red wiggler worms are outnumbering themselves beyond my needs. So, should anyone wish to buy some of these wonder creatures at half price, let me know. I do not need the small cash, but giving it free often results in insincere people grabbing some and letting them go to waste.

Anyhow, time to head back indoor, watch the final soccer match between Italy and England for the Euro2020 cup, and then fish out my turnip and beet seeds, and perhaps a bit of the carrots too, and head back out again once the sun has passed its hottest daily phase and begun to lose some of its sting.

That was my todays story, of backyard visitors, mostly birds. Like I said – grow food, not lawns. You will be amazed how the life around you begins to change. It is good for the soul and for the health. Good for the pocket too. Growing your own food is like printing your own money. Think about that.

Farewell to my birding group

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I had been away from the local birdwatching group I used to hang out with. Firstly, the leader, a good friend, died suddenly. He was suffering from cancer, but somehow I did not know, and during the covid restrictions, going out together had been restricted. That Tom died suddenly, came as a big shock to me. I really liked the guy, and had dropped him off a time or two at his place when he did not bring his own big vehicle. He had been the leader for as long as I was with them, which is almost ten years. It felt as it the heart had gone out of the group.

Tom Bearss

Meanwhile, time went by under the gathering clouds of covid. I did not get the feel that the flu was dangerous enough for the world to stand on its head, and smelled a rat – but I had no idea how large this rodent was going to be.

Anyhow, getting together was now a chore with social distancing and restrictions to numbers and many other more or less outlandish requirements that had no basis to scientific facts far as I could see. Unfortunately, the public bought it hook like and sinker. Even the guy at the auto service centre where I went to tune up my car, told me if I did not believe in covid, I must not be watching the TV. Well, I did by then believed that the best way to rid yourself of covid was to throw the damned tv out of the window, after unplugging it first.

Life was not going to be the same again, I gathered. As it is, the bird population in North America was plummeting in a free fall. Many of the birds we saw would not be around for the next generation. Everything was going up in smoke, and not just from covid.

Local birding trips with the old gang came to an abrupt halt for now. I went birding alone, or with neutral friends. I managed to meet up a few of the old gang here and there, often pairing up in small groups that I would meet up by chance. I would on occasion go birding with my wife, who took the morning walks along the Boundary Bay dyke by the 72nd St, next to the Boundary Bay airport. We would sometimes come across new folks in the lonely dyke road, like a couple riding their horse. It used to be nice.

We did see the usual birds. A short eared owl sitting on a fence post would be a treat. This was one of the few owls found in these lands that hunted in the day. Although never too numerous and usually hard to find, the dyke was a good place to find one, especially in the winter and early in the morning. You might even chance upon an even more rare barn owl, at the fringe of its range up north hereabouts in British Columbia.

My time and interest incrementally shifted to the ongoing covid drama across the planet, as well as on the need to grow much of my food in my own backyard. These two, in my mind, were not unconnected. From a bird watcher, I was turning into a lockdown protester on the streets on Surrey and Vancouver, as well as a dogged home gardener with the message – Grow Food, Not Lawns.

I would occasionally meet up with some of the people from the old birding group, but without Tom and without a good crowd, it was not the same.

Thankfully, his Highness Bill gates had not yet declared that an unvaccinated person without a mask trying to take a picture of an equally unvaccinated and maskless wild bird would trigger and end of all existence. So I could still click at birds without fear of triggering a reversal of the big bang.

But the dark clouds of covid, getting darker by the day, much preoccupied me. I was slowly waking up to the conclusion that life as we knew it before covid, was never going to come back again. Also, protesting on the streets were symbolic but not producing much meaningful result. The vast majority of the population either wholly believed the propaganda, or were mortally afraid of losing their jobs, or influenced by peer pressure, and simply replaced their prophet by the TV. It came to me that when the chips are down, the only people that might survive, for a bit, might be those that can grow their own food.

Thus, I turned from a long term anti-glyphosate food security activist and  a lifelong birder, to a lockdown and c-vaccine protester, freedom fighter, to a more focussed backyard organic farmer.

Time went by, and I am fast forwarding to the present. I had lapsed in my annual membership payment for the birding group, mainly because I used to pay cash by hand earlier during meetings. But since physical meeting was more or less shelved and I was not seeing these guys, payment in person could not be made.

And then, just today, I got an email posted to their group email – in which I was still a recipient. It talked about birding trips in the next few days. That brought back memories.

My gardening was now stable and I could spare a few hours in the morning after watering my plants, to go birding and return back in the afternoon. So I sent a reply, explaining my situation, that I had not kept my membership valid was was wiling to pay up if there was a convenient way to do so, and that I did not want to wear a mask during birding and if that was OK.

The person in charge called back. I could pay online. Mask was unnecessary. But, I must be vaccinated.

That was a mega shocker. No vaccine had yet been approved by FDA. They were merely released under emergency and people could voluntarily take them if they liked, taking the risk that should they be harmed, they alone were to blame. I knew enough about the messenger RNA and DNA vaccines not to ever offer to take then voluntarily. I knew the reason behind the vaccines were goals other than safety of health. I had not taken any vaccine in sixty years and I had not gotten sick with any infective disease in that period. I was horrified that the group would even consider making  vaccination a mandatory requirement.

I told the person the same thing, and informed him that there was no way I was going to take a vaccine just to join this birding group. Birds will be there, and I will be there, without vaccine. That is all there is to it.

And thus, it was farewell to my birding group, drawing curtains over a long association. I wished Tom Bearss was still alive. But, what happened to me, is a small snapshot of what is happening around the world. Looting of public funds and destruction of liberty using the pretext of public safety.

Goodbye friends. Nice knowing you.

মোদী, ভারত, এবং বর্তমান সভ্যতা-সংকট

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ফেসবুকে আমার ছেলেবেলার এবং আজীবনের বন্ধুদের অন্যতম স্যমন্তকের একটি মোদী-বিচার লেখা পড়ে মনে হল যে আমার হয়তো উচিত নিজের বক্তব্যটা পেশ করা, যদিও আমি অন্য লোকের উঠোনে গিয়ে নিজের মন্তব্য জাহির করাটা একেবারেই পছন্দ করিনা।

কিন্তু বিষয়টা আমার কাছে খুবই সাম্প্রতিক ও গুরুত্বপূর্ণ। তাই তাতে আমার বক্তব্য রাখতে এবং অন্যের ঘাড়ে চেপে না চেঁচানোর সিদ্ধান্ত থেকে না সরতে গিয়ে, একটা ব্লগ লিখে ফেললুম বাংলাতে – ঔ উভয় সংকটের মুশকিল আসানের সন্ধানে।

স্যমন্তকের ফেসবুক পাতার শিরোনাম চিত্র

স্যমন্তক,

আমি সাধারণতঃ অন্য লোকের উঠোনে উচ্চারিত নিজস্ব বক্তব্যের ওপর খবরদারী করতে বা সমালেচনা করতে আসিনা। তবে এইবার তোর উক্তিটা চোখের সামনে এল এবং বিষয়টা গুরুত্বপূর্ণ মনে হল বলে ভাবলাম Facebook’এ আমার ব্যবহারে একটা ব্যতিক্রম হয়তো আনতে পারি এবং মনে করছি তুই অখুশি হবিনা। তাত্পর্যপূর্ণ বিষয়ে মতানৈক্য থাকতেই পারে, যদি তা সসম্ভ্রমে পেশ করা যায়।

স্যমন্তককে আমি আনন্দ পাঠশালা থেকে চিনি এবং একই ক্লাসে একই বছর ইস্কুল পাশ করেছি।

নরেন্দ্র মোদি আগামী নির্বাচন জিতবে কি জিতবে না জানি না – সন্দেহ করি জিতবে, কিন্তু জেতার অন্যতম মূল কারণ নিজগুনের চেয়ে বেশি হবে বিশ্বাসযোগ্য বিকল্পের অভাব।

মোদীর লোকপ্রীয়তার অন্যতম কারণ ছিল ভারতবাসীদের অনেকেরই ইংরেজদের দাক্ষিণ্যে পাওয়া ভণ্ড-ধর্মনিরপেক্ষতার নামে মুসলমান-পোষণ ও হিন্দু-বিভাগ নীতির ধারাবাহিক সম্প্রসারণের ওপর অরূচি। তাই, দেশের একটি বৃহত গোষ্ঠীর অনেকদিনের জমানো ক্ষোভকে স্বীকৃতি দিয়ে ভাজপা দল ক্ষমতায় এসেছিল। ছোটবেলায় বিজ্ঞান পাঠে শিখেছিলাম – প্রকৃতি শূন্য সহ্য করেনা, তাই শূন্যস্থানকে ভর্তি করে দেয় পূর্ণতা রক্ষা করতে। জনতার বৃহদাংশ হিন্দুদের বঞ্চিত থাকার অনুভূতিটা একরকম রাজনৈতিক শূন্যতা – যা রাজনৈতিক ক্ষেত্রে পুরণ করার সময় এসেছিল এবং ভাজপা তা বুঝতে পারে এবং তাকে ভর করে এক রাজনৈতিক আন্দোলন শুরু করে, যার আধুনিক ফল হল নরেন্দ্র মোদীর কত লোকেদের উত্থান। তবে ক্ষমতায় আসা, আর ক্ষমতায় টিকে থাকা – দুটো দুরকম সমস্যা – এবং সমাধানও সবসময় একই পরিকল্পনা থেকে আসে না।

স্যমন্তক বলেছে ছোটখাটো ছাপোষাদের ঘুষ ও চুরিচামারির রাস্তা বন্ধ হয়েছে। আগের মনমোহন সরকারও একটু একটু করে সেই রাস্তা বন্ধ করার পথে নেমেছিল – মোদী সরকার সেই রাস্তাকে আরও প্রশস্ত করেছে। এক ঝলকে দেখলে তাতে লোকেদের খুশি হবারই কথা, এবং মোদী সরকার তাকে সবার দৃষ্টিগোচরও করেছে নানা প্রকার ঢাক পিটিয়ে। আরও নানা যায়গায় সরকার দেশকে স্বাবলম্বী করার নামে নানা রকম উদ্যোগও নিয়েছে – মানছি।

কিন্তু, দূর থেকে নিরপেক্ষভাবে বিচার করলে মনে হয় যে – ছোটখাটো লোকেদের চুরি চামারি, দুর্নীতি এবং আমলাতন্ত্র থামিয়ে মোদী সরকার বৃহত কর্পোরেশন এবং ধনকুবেরদের রাষ্ট্র লুঠ করার পথ খুলে দিয়েছে এবং রাষ্ট্রকে দেশী বিদেশী অতিধনী গোষ্ঠীশাসনের অধীনে আনার জন্য কাজ করে যাচ্ছে। চুরি এখনও হচ্ছে এবং মনে হয় আগের চেয়ে আরও ভয়াবহ রুপ নিচ্ছে সেই দূরাচার – এবং তাতে লাভবান হবে মিচকে চোরেরা বা সাধারণ প্রজারা নয়, অন্য এক শ্রেনীর অতিক্ষমতাশীল প্রভুদের দল, যাদের পকেটে সব রাজনীতিবিদরা থাকে এবং মনে হচ্ছে মোদীর জন্যেও এক বিশেষ পকেট তৈরি ছিল শুরু থেকেই।

নানা দেশী এবং আন্তর্জাতিক কারণে ভারতীয় এবং পৃথিবীর জনগন আজ এক নজিরহীন মহাসংকটের সামনে দাঁড়িয়ে – সব দেশের সব রাজণৈতিক দলই এই মানবতালুণ্ঠনে অংশীদার ও ঠিকাদার  মনে হয় – তফাতটা খালি কে কিরকম লিপস্টিক লাগাচ্ছে এবং কিরকম পাউডার মাখছে গালে – ততটুকুই।

আমার নিজস্ব মতে দোষটা জনতার। রাজা হল জনতার প্রতিফলন। জনতা যদি দূরদৃষ্টিহীন, স্বার্থপর, কাপুরুষ বা মেরুদণ্ডহীন, ভীরু হয়, তবে তাদের প্রাপ্য মুখোশপরা সরকারই তারা পাবে।

এতে সবচেয়ে শিক্ষণীয় পাঠ হল – স্বাধীনতা, ন্যায় ও সুবিচার আকাশ থেকে পড়ে না – তাকে অর্জন করতে হয় – তার জন্য মাথার ঘাম ফেলতে হয়, এমনকি রক্তও দিতে হয়।

দুঃখের বিষয় – সুভাসবাবুও জনরক্তস্বল্পতায় কাবু হলেন এবং রবীন্দ্রনাথের বর্ণিত হালের কাছের মাঝি  ঔ ভীরু জনতার অবহেলায় আজ সুদূরে বিলীন।

বেশি বলে ফেলেছি মনে করলে নিজগুনে মাফ করে দিস বাবুয়া।

সবাই ভাল থাকবেন।

বিশ্বভারতীর সংকট এবং আমার কর্তব্য

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মনে করি বিশ্বভারতী কালের মহাসংকটের সামনে আসছে – তার নানা কারণের মধ্যে তিনটি উল্লেখযোগ্য যুক্তি হলঃ

১) ভাজপা সরকার
২) বঙ্গসংস্কৃতির ভবিষ্যত এবং তাতে রবীন্দ্রপ্রভাবের সম্পর্ক
৩) দেশবিদেশের নানা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে বামপন্থী radical’দের প্রভাব ও তার ফল

তা নিয়ে আমার নিজের মতানুযাধী বিশ্বভারতীর কপালে আরও নানা দুর্যোগ আসছে মনে করি। পশ্চিম বঙ্গে ভাজপা সরকার গঠবে কিনা তার অনেকটা প্রতিফলন পড়বে ওখানে। এই বিষয়ে নতুন করে চিন্তা করে নতুন এক চিঠির কাঠামো তৈরি করেছি সরকারকে জানানোর। নির্বাচনের ফল কি হয় তার অপেক্ষায় আছি – এবং সেই নির্বাচনের পরিণাম দেখে চিঠিটা দরকার মত সংশোধন করে পাঠাবো – শেয়ার করব। বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়কে রক্ষা করতে গেলে একে পুরোপুরি বন্ধ করা উচিত কিছু বছরের জন্য – এই মতামতে পরিবর্তন আসেনি। বন্ধ করা ছাড়াও, নতুন সংবিধান লেখা ইত্যাদি নানা সংযুক্ত সমস্যার ওপর মনোযোগ দেওয়া হবে।

আমার নাগরিকের কর্তব্য আমি পালন করব – অন্যরা তাঁদের কর্তব্য পালন করবেন যদি চান।

এ নিয়ে কেউ যদি গুরুত্ব সহকারে আমার সঙ্গে কথা বলতে চান – tonu@mac.com’এ লিখুন। সাধারণের মন্তব্য সব সময় দেখার সময় পাই না।

ক্রমশঃ

রবিঠাকুর পরিচিতি

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সবাইকে নমস্কার।



আমি শান্তিনিকেতনে জন্মিত এক সুদূর কানাডা বাসী বিশ্বনাগরিক যে মনে করি আমার সর্বজনীন সচেতনতাতে বাবা মাকে বাদ দিলে সবচেয়ে বেশি প্রভাব আছে রবীন্দ্রনাথের বিশ্বমানবতাবাদের। আমার দাদামশাই কালীমোহন ঘোষ সতেরো-আঠার বছর বয়স থেকে রবীন্দ্রনাথের সঙ্গে কর্মযুক্ত হন প্রধানতঃ পল্লী উন্নয়নের কাজে, প্রথমে বর্তমান বাংলাদেশে শিলাইদহ ও পতিসরে এবং পরজীবনে নিশান্তিনিকেতন-শ্রীনিকেতনে এসে এল্মহার্ষ্ট সাহেবের সঙ্গে। তার পুত্র এবং আমার বড়মামা শান্তিদেব সঙ্গীতভবনে ছিলেন। আমার বাবা কলাভবনের অধ্যাপক ও মা শিল্পসদনে কাজ করেছেন।
আমি অনেক বছর আগে ২০০৯’এ অনেক নথিপত্র ঘেঁটে এবং বিশেষ করে প্রশান্ত পালের রবিজীবনী অবলম্বন করে, তেইশ স্তবকের একটি কবিগান রচনা করি, রবীন্দ্রনাথের বারো পুরুষের বংশতালিকার পরিচয় দিয়ে।

কবিগান করার পেছনে কয়েকটি উদ্দেশ্য ছিল – প্রথমত, কবিগান আজ বাংলা থেকে অনেকটা উঠে গেছে। শহরের লোকেরা একে ভুলে গেছে এবং গ্রাম গঞ্জে হিন্দি সিনেমা, আর টেলিভিশন ঢুকে গিয়ে কবিগাননকে ঠেলে প্রায় নির্বাসনে পাঠিয়েছে। সুতরাং যদি আমার ক্ষুদ্র ক্ষমতায় লুপ্তপ্রায় বাংলা কবিগানে আবার একটু প্রাণ সঞ্চার করা যায় তবে সেটা ভাল চেষ্টা হবে মনে করে। আর দ্বিতীয় কারণ ছিল – যারা পড়া লেখা জানেনা বা বই পড়ার সময় পায়না, বা ছোট শিশু, এরাও কবিগান মারফত নানা তথ্য জেনে মনে রাখতে পারে -যা কবিগানের অন্যতম প্রধান গুন। সুতরাং এর মধ্য দিয়ে গ্রাম গঞ্জের মানুষ রবি ঠাকুরের পূর্বপুরুষরা কিরকম লোক ছিলেন, কোথা থেকে এসেছেন এবং কেমন করে তিনি শান্তিনিকেতনে পৌঁছলেন, তাও জানতে পারবে।

যাই হোক, এই কবিগানে দুচারজন সুর দেবার চেষ্টা করলেও পুরোটা করা সম্ভব হয়নি – যদিও অনেকে সাহাজ্য করতে এগিয়ে এসেছিল। বাংলাদেশের কিছু লোক এটা নিয়ে গিয়ে বলেছিল ওখানে চেষ্টা করবে বলে, তারও কোনও ফল এখনও আসেনি। আমি সুরকার নই, গায়কও নই – নয়তো নিজেই চেষ্টা করতাম।
 
আজ এখানে আপনাদের সঙ্গে শেয়ার করলাম। হয়তো কারুর ভাল লাগবে।
কেমন লাগলো জানাবেন।
 
শান্তনু মিত্র

পাঠভবনের প্রাক্তন ছাত্র, বিশ্বজিত রায়ের পুত্র, বাঙ্গালুরু বাসী তমোজিত রায় (টুকুল) কবিগানটির প্রথম অংশটিতে সুর প্রয়োগ করে গেয়েছিল, সেটা এখানে তোলা হল। কবিগানে সুর রচনার একটা সমস্যা হল যে এতে অনেক স্তবক থাকে বলে একই সুরে পুরোটা গাইলে সেটা একঘেয়ে, repetitive হয়ে যায়, কবিগান কিছুটা রস হারায়। তাই কবিগান রচনায় সুরের ও গাওয়ার রচনাশৈলীতে নানা রকম পরিবর্তন, বৈচিত্র আনতে হয়। সেই কথা মনে রেখে টুকুল প্রথম অংশটাই শুধু সূর করে গেয়েছিল।

শুনুন

 

Future of Visva Bharati University

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There has been apparently conflicting news coming up regarding the future of Visva Bharati University.

One one side, there is the current vice Chancellor Bidyut Chakraborti, who reportedly stated that before he leaves (the university) steps would be taken to close it down.

On the other side, the central home minister Amit Shah has just announced details of their Bengal policy manifesto, which mentions effort to revive languishing Visva Bharati University.

Personally, I do not consider these two statements to be contradictory. In order to save Santiniketan from itself, the comatose institution needs to be operated upon, akin to an open heart surgery.

I had written a petter to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015 about my views, a copy of which is included here.

To: Sri Narendra Modi,
Prime Minister of India, Chancellor of Visva Bharati University
New Delhi
September 2nd, 2015


Subject : Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, India

Honourable prime minister and chancellor of Visva Bharati University.

I an an India born and raised engineer and a citizen of Canada that has multi-generational link with Santiniketan. I was born there and I am an ex-student, and a life member of Santiniketan Asramit Sangha International (SASI) an NGO registered in the US.

My grand father was brought to Santiniketan more than a century ago by Rabindranath Tagore himself, to work on rural reconstruction and socio-economic development, seeking ways to cement caste-religion-ethnic harmony and cooperation among people of surrounding villages and self help work schemes to create firmer foundation for the nation over which a future India could erect its vistas and minarets. It is stated that Gandhi might have taken pointers from Santiniketan when creating his Asram in Gujarat .


I write this note to you with my observation that Visva Bharati today has been awash with people that do not share any of its original vision, do not contribute towards either creating a progressive society around the area or maintain a seat of learning of any calibre. The place is being used for all the wrong reasons, mainly for selfish job holders that cheat the tax payer and the nation by drawing a fat salary for doing nothing.  It is also awash in top to bottom corruption.

I believe the problems of Visva Bharati and Santiniketan may be rooted in a moral decay of the Bengali middle class itself, harsh though this might sound. Its think tank have lost its compass,  and has stopped being pathfinders for its people. This degradation started more or less with the end of Bengal’s golden age, in which Rabindranath Tagore may have been the last and among the brightest star.

It is my belief that the rot is so deep and wide that it would be near impossible to turn it around through any cosmetic facelift.

I would therefore request you to consider shutting down VBU for a decade or so, let everybody go home, protect the land and its property by the army, and take a decade before rebuilding it from scratch including creating a suitable constitution that could be a moral compass for Tagore’s views readjusted to the 21st century.

Harsh as this might sound, I feel it may be the only way one could preserve not just Tagore’s legacy, but in fact plant a fresh seed for a Bengal that has gone barren.


Thanking you
Santanu Mitra
10891 Cherry Lane, Delta, BC, V4E 3L7, Canada
email and phone.

Issues of Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, or vision of Tagore, unfortunately, are today on the sidelines of public dialog. Nobody cares any more, and Tagore’s world view has been on a steady decline for a long time. I believe the prime reason for this is that the Bengali diaspora, both local and international – never understood Tagore and were themselves incapable to absorbing Tagore beyond his songs and dances on a superficial meaningless way.

Therefore, since they themselves did not understand Rabindranath, they were ill-equipped to explain him to anybody else.

There are, however, a few marginal spaces on Facebook and elsewhere where a some people connected to Santiniketan and a notion of Tagore still hang around, and often parrot contemporary comments without too much substance. This is the general scene why Tagore does not generate any interest among outsiders. The discussions on Tagore are exceptionally stale, superficial and boring, instead of being groundbreaking, still universally relevant and dynamic.

I presented the following comment on one such platform, though I have no idea if it would be published, since not many actually have the stomach to digest criticism on themselves, while most are happy blaming the vice chancellor, whoever the unfortunate person at the time might be.

Tagore 1905

বিশ্বভারতীর ভবিষ্যত 

সম্প্রতি বিশ্বভারতী বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় সম্পর্কে দুরকম খবর শোনা যাচ্ছে দুই স্তরের মুখপাত্রদের থেকে।

একদিকে উপাচার্য বিদ্যুত বাবু নাকি বলেছেন যে তাঁর যাবার আগে তিনি বিশ্বভারতীকে বন্ধ করার ব্যবস্থা করে যাবেন।  অন্য দিকে দেশের স্বরাষ্ট্রমন্ত্রী অমিত বাবু ভাজপা দলের পশ্চিম বঙ্গের যে পরিকল্পিত কার্যসূচী ঘোষণা করেছেন, তাতে বিশ্বভারতীর উল্লেখ আছে এবং শান্তিনিকেতনে নতুন প্রাণসঞ্চার করার কথা বলা আছে। ইঙ্গিত আছে বিশ্বভারতীর ব্যক্তিত্বে আন্তর্জাতিক প্রাসঙ্গিকতা আবার ফিরিয়ে আনার চেষ্টার।

আমি বিদ্যুত বাবুর ও অমিত বাবুর এই দুটি উক্তিকে পরস্পরবিরোধী মনে করছি না। আমার নিরপেক্ষ বিচারে বিশ্বভারতীর ভিতে ঘুন ধরেছিল রবীন্দ্রনাথের শেষ জীবন থেকেই এবং তা রবীন্দ্রনাথ উপলব্ধি করেছিলেন। তাঁর সৃষ্ট প্রতিষ্ঠান যে বিশ্বজনীন স্বাধীনচিন্তাবিদদের নীড় থাকবেনা এবং একাধিক অন্তর্মুখী, অকর্মণ্য, স্বার্থপর গোষ্ঠিরা এখানে আধিপত্য প্রতিষ্ঠিত করবে – তা আশংকা করেছিলেন।

শান্তিনিকেতনের অবিচ্ছিন্ন পতনের গোড়ায় হয়তো বাঙালির রবীন্দ্রনাথকে বোঝার অক্ষমতা ছিল। তাদের সীমিত দৃষ্টিতে বিশ্বজনীন মানবতার অর্থোদ্ধার করা হয়তো তাদের সাধ্যাতীত ছিল, প্রদীপের তলার অন্ধকারের মত। কিন্তু জেনেশুনে ওখানে ভ্রষ্টাচরণ, নিষ্ক্রিয়তা, স্বজনপোষণ, এবং কর্মচারী-শিক্ষক নির্বিশেষে সর্বস্তরে দুর্নীতির প্রতিষ্ঠান – এগুলো স্থানীয় জনসাধারণের বহু প্রজন্মের শান্তিনিকেতনকে দেওয়া উপহার। 

আমার মতে শান্তিনিকেতন-বিশ্বভারতীকে ধাপে ধাপে ক্রমবর্ধমান সংশোধনী পরিমাপ দিয়ে ফিরিয়ে আনা যাবেনা । বিশ্বভারতী point-of-no-return পেরিয়ে গেছে। আবার জীবন্ত করতে গেলে, রবি ঠাকুরের কথা ‘আধমরাদের ঘা দিয়ে তুই বাঁচা’ মনে রেখে, একে কিছু বছরের জন্য পুরোপুরি বন্ধ করে সবাইকে ঝেঁটিয়ে বিদায় করা দরকার। ‍দরকার বর্তমান যুগের পরিপ্রেক্ষিতে রবীন্দ্রনাথের অঙ্কিত চিত্র অবলম্বন করে বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের পরিচয়, অনন্যতা ও গন্তব্যস্থল কি হওয়া উচিত তা বিশ্লেষণ করে তার জন্য এক নতুন সংবিধান লেখা।  তার পর দরকার একে এক ধারাবাহিক পরীক্ষাস্থল মনে করে চালানোর চেষ্টা করা। রবীন্দ্রনাথের নিজের ভাষায় – ‘এই ভারতের মহামানবের সাগরতীরে’ এমন এক নীড় তৈরি করা প্রয়োজন যেখানে  – ‘ নির্বারিত স্রোতে দেশে দেশে দিশে দিশে কর্মধারা ধায় অজস্র সহস্রবিধ চরিতার্থতায়’। স্থানীয়রা রবীন্দ্রনাথের সঙ্গে বিশ্বাসঘাতকতা করে জায়গাকে একদল নীতিভ্রষ্ট, দুর্নীতিগ্রস্ত নাগরিক তৈরির কারখানায় পরিনত করেছে।

আমার উপরোক্ত অভিমত আমি চিঠি লিখে প্রধান মন্ত্রী মোদিকে ও তৎকালীন ভারপ্রাপ্ত উপাচার্য সবুজকলিকে পাঠিয়েছিলাম কয়েক বছর আগে – বিদ্যুত বাবুর আগমনের আগে। আমি ঔ চিঠির উত্তর পাইনি – তবে সন্দেহ হচ্ছে যে ওটা হয়তো বা দিল্লির নজর এড়ায়নি এবং এই মতের আরও সমর্থকও হয়তো দিল্লি সরকারের সংস্পর্শে আছে।

বিদ্যুত বাবু এক অগ্রদূত মাত্র – তিনি নীতি নির্ধারক নন। যারা পাঁচিলে বসে বিদ্যুত বাবুকে লক্ষ্য করে ঢিল ছুঁড়তে ব্যস্ত, তারা যদি সত্যিকারের শান্তিনিকেতন দূষক ও ধ্বংসকারীদের সনাক্ত করতে চায়, তবে হিল্লি দিল্লি করতে হবেনা – হাতের কাছের আয়নায় তাকালেই চলবে।

শান্তনু মিত্র – ২১-৩-২০২১।

India and the covid vaccine

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Personally, I do not believe in vaccine science in general, and vaccines against viruses in particular, which includes vaccines against coronavirus. I also do not believe coronavirus is as dangerous as it is made out to be. I suspect most government leaders know that there is a controversy regarding it, but for reasons I have not yet managed to fathom properly, are going along with the narrative.

Consequently, I am not at all planning to get myself vaccinated, unless I am forced. If forced I shall consider it as a form of slavery where I do not any more have freedom over even my own body and soul. My immediate family has the same view, and I am kind of happy to note that they independently reached that decision without any discussion with me.

Meanwhile, India is in a peculiar place. Nationalism and pride mades many in India feel good that India has become the largest covid vaccine producer on earth, and that its vaccines are being sought by many countries around the world.

My understanding is that India produces and sells many kinds of covid vaccines, such as :

  1. Vaccines that are wholly home grown, of which there are two brands. I am told these are among the most economical of all available vaccines anywhere in the world. That needs to be confirmed by third party verification.

  2. Vaccines that are designed by others carrying other brand names, but are mass produced in India on behalf of the original brands, This is similar to iPhones being considered an US design but produced in China. India merely produces the vaccine at a fixed price to the patent holder, while the original patent holder then sells it according to whatever deal it makes with the end user countries.

  3. Some Big Pharma jointly researched and produced some vaccines using Indian technicians and pharmaceutical infrastructure, with an arrangement where the final product may be sold independently by both the overseas partner as well as by the Indian partner, sometimes under different brand names.

I am told that about 50% of the worlds covid vaccines are being produced in India alone.

A number of western nations have praised India for being the pharmacy of the world to battle covid19. Most Indians, like most people elsewhere, like being praised by outsiders. So social media is often filled with the proud Indians.

While I like the fact that Indian pharmaceutical capacity is almost matchless, I have mixed feelings about the vaccine issue and the covid vaccine story.

Here is a map I got from an Indian journalist Tanmay Shanker’s post on a local social media platform – Koo, about countries that are getting vaccines from India. You will note that in North America, Canada and Mexico are highlighted while USA is not.

I am a bit puzzled at the exclusion of Russia from this map. I have heard that the Russian Sputnic vaccine has been tested and approved by India, for local sale. Not only that, I read that India had agreed to produce this vaccine for Russia and send it back to Russia for their use, since Russia is unable to produce the numbers they need quickly enough. So, the absence of Russia from this map is a bit puzzling, for me.

Countries that received vaccines from India

Lastly, if I understand Bill Gates, this is only the beginning of the age of vaccines. There are likely to be unending streams of vaccines and other devices down the line, as more and more deadly diseases are planned to turn up as our nemesis that require unending streams of medication. I will not be surprised if India becomes one of the primary beneficiaries of the vaccine avalanche to rain down on the planet, while Bill Gates remains major share holder of almost all vaccine manufacturing plants inside and outside of India.

A new kind of Orwellian world awaits us. I wonder if anybody is actually discussing these issues.

Originally posted on MeWe, and later on this blog.