Citizen Responsibility

Counting Blessings on Kojagiri Purnima

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on October 29, 2020 9

This 2020 is difficult for everyone. My mom was hospitalized recently and my daughter was very ill in the early part of 2020.

Through all this,what keeps me going is praying hard and trusting good doctors including my Pediatrician husband.

I realized how blessed we are to have a network of professionals whom we know and can vouch for.

That’s not easy for most people.That’s the reason I share about people and places which helped.

Shout out to Dr.Tirtha Pratim Purkait Physician for excellent care.

Ruby hospital Kolkata.

Medinova Kolkata and Sonoscan Malda for giving excellent help and support when we needed it.

Praying, counting blessings, is another thing that helps me when I have done everything I can ,then need to be patient.That’s where one of my favorite Goddess to pray to is Goddess Laxmi.

The Bengali Laxmi puja falls on Sharad poornima or Kojagari purnima which falls on the 30th of October this month.

That’s tomorrow and my daughter is excited to help out with all the puja preparations.

Whatever be your faith,having kids pray along with you, is the best way to give them the inner strength to stand strong even in troubled times.

A few days back I was telling my daughter a few tips for praying.Sharing them here.Maybe it help when you need it-

Pray continuously .It’s a part of life.Your relationship with your God is personal but praying will always help it.

It should be focused.You should concentrate.

It should be playing at the back of your mind like a prayer audio track.

Have faith .

Avoid negative self talk.Pick them up and throw them out of your brain.

I am a Doctor and believe that man can only do his best.Rest is in the hands of a higher power .

Always praying to God but rowing for the shore .

This Laxmi puja performed on SharadPurnima has a special story.My daughter wanted us to try dressing up as Maa Laxmi. #Blessed #Gratitude #Laxmipuja #sharadpurnima

The Maha Saptami Durga Pujo and the Bhog

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on October 24, 2020 4

Today is Maha Saptami when Devi Durga’s pran pratisthan is done.The Mother Goddess comes as a clay pratima and human faith and ceremonial rituals help to draw the universal life forces into her. It’s said that the Kala bou has a big role to play in this, before the real puja can start.

*The neighborhood Durga puja with the delicious Puja bhog*

I told you about Mahalaya and my Durga puja memories.

Today’s post is a little bit about the Kala bou,and my love for all things Prasad and bhog.

The Kala bou is the Young banana tree with leaves of the turmeric tree ,wood apple,pomegranate, jayanti,arum, ashoka,colocasia,paddy, all tied together,taken for a bath and then draped in a saree .

All these plants are also embodiments of various Gods and Godesses . Its also called naba patrika and Kala bou is dressed up in a red bordered white saree with vermillion and married with Lord Ganesha before Maa Durga can officially start battling Mahishasura.

The stories about the why and what behind Kala bou are many,but important thing to note is the female embodiment being crucial for the real fight to begin.

It’s on the seventh day of Navratri that Maa Durga’s epic battle against the buffalo headed demon king Mahishasura started.

Now because of the COVID 19 situation everything happened low key,but the puja made us happy.

But guess what made us even happier?The Bhog.

Growing up the neighborhood pujo had a system of bhog which somehow never reached those of us living a little farther away.

But by God’s grace for the last several years,having the blessed bhog is like a wish come true.

What’s not to love about the bhog?

It looks great,smells great,tastes sublime and always makes you happy

So what did the Maha Saptami bhog consist of?

Fragrant Basanti pulao with dried fruits and nuts.

Assortments of vegetables fried in ghee.There were pumpkin fried,sweet potatoes,potatoes,Pointed gourd and bitter gourd.

A mixed vegetable mash ,lightly spiced and delicious.

Payesh (fragrant rice cooked with creamy milk and cooked to a perfection.)

Sweets

Documenting Maa Durga’s blesseinga:The Maha Shaptami Puja Bhog

The beautiful part of the puja bhog has a lot to do with the sights , sounds and emotions than with the actual food.Even if you follow the recipes to a T ,they never taste the same when it’s not offered during Puja ,but just made at home.

So while every year I document a little bit about Durga pujo ,my love for the puja bhog is a recurring theme.

P.S The bhog was eaten at home after being heated for one minute in the microwave for safety concerns.

Square pegs and Round holes: Elearning Problems

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on October 9, 2020 3

Do you like free size dresses?Do you like the idea of one size fits all shoes?

Would you want custom options for your child’s education?

If you answer no,no, and yes,then you are exactly like me.An advertising magnet for all things expensive .Online education has just reached a new level of crazy .Edutech companies are falling over themselves trying to run to the bank first.Their advertising budgets are limitless. It’s a billion dollar business, having no ethical responsibility and misrepresentation seems to be the only rule.

Are you tired of those ads?You know the ones I am talking about ,right ?Atleast if you are reading this in India ,you will.

The brand advertising’s are boring,unsubtle and reeks of manipulation,low authority and insincerity. Shocking considering the clout used and money they are spending.

In India we are trying to go digital with educational resources. The problem is it’s a big country with a very big population.

The resources of Mother Earth are limited.So are the resources of the Government. Since free is unsustainable, the quality suffers.

The lower economic strata have limited options and I am clueless about how the super rich decide.What I do know is what a parent like me thinks.

You are a typical parent if you are constantly worrying about the possibility of your child missing out due to COVID.Your peers have thousand and one online options lined up as study/extracurricular /Genius level activities.

You will spend all your hard earned money to give your kids that extra chance to shine.

Then comes the targeted advertising everywhere. They use random celebrities who have never used their educational qualifications to earn a living promoting all sorts of stuff,guaranteed to make your child a certified genius.

Trying to fit a square pegs in a round hole ,again and again!Using your aspirations.Use it,manipulate it ,make money from selling dreams.

The question about education being about learning gets lost in the wind.

So how are we coping?

I fell for one of the platforms.But luckily sense returned mid way.Read about it here.

We are now teaching her school curriculum and as much fun stuff we can find in extra curricular books,free online resources.

Since schools are online,no other screen time other than school and a twenty minute fun cartoon watch with me.The biggest benefit of this is the little one is reading more.She is reading her story books and revising them too.That’s the cute part.She also finished the entire Famous Five series and is constantly talking about Timmy the dog.

We draw together every day.

We have nature walks in our balcony garden.

I tell her about history and we explore the globe.

We do yoga,play tennis (a version of ot),walk on the treadmill,have storytelling sessions too.

All this happens without stress .I choose to believe that wellbeing is crucial.

What do I want my daughter to be ?

I want her to be healthy, happy to learn and create.I can take care of that now,rest we can do later.As for those advertising , I always switch channels.

What do you think about advertising misrepresentation? Have you ever fallen for them? Let me know in the comments below.

Google Camp 2020 read all about it here.

About square pegs and Round holes

This post is also part of my CauseAchatter initiative with Blogchatter to spread the cause of quality Digital education. Equal opportunity for a better world.

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Remembering Vidyasagar and eLearning

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on September 27, 2020 2

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was a famous Bengali scholar, humanitarian, social reformer, and teacher. He was born on 26th September 1820.

Today on Creating cornerstone content I had to write about evergreen content. Stories are evergreen and stories about inspiring men and women more so. Today I will tell you about “Vidyasagar“.A man without whom, women in India may have never started on the road to literacy.

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar: Inspiring generations

His story is told to children far and wide in India. Growing up he struggled to get educated. Despite many hardships he stuck to it.He had started studying in the small village school of Birsingha where he was born to Mother Bhagavati Devi and father Thakurdas Bandyopadhyay. At the age of eight, he traveled to Kolkata with his father to study. He was very studious and intelligent.

There is a popular story that he used to sit studying under a street lamp, because come evening the light at his home was too feeble to read in. He came first on completion of his studies at Sanskrit college and was given the title of Vidyasagar meaning an ocean of knowledge.

Vidyasagar believed in the power of education and tried his best to promote the cause of female education. He wrote the book Barnaparichay,to teach the Bengali letters to those who wanted to learn.

His famous books include Barnoparichay, Bodhoday, Kathamala,Shakuntala Sitar banobas etc.

He established the Metropolitan Institution which is now known as the Vidyasagar College. He started several Girls school in the small villages and started a charitable hospital. He also started his own publishing press to promote the power of education. He was also a vocal supporter of widow remarriage and social upliftment of women in Hindu society.

The reason I am telling you all this is simple. He was a man who believed in the power of education. That words have power. He believed education could lift the girl child out of poverty and pain.

When you remember him, you remember how hard he worked to get educated. You remember that all over the world equal opportunity and the right to education are still not a reality.

You also remember that COVID 19 did one good thing. It pushed the cause of eLearning faster than you, me or anyone had ever imagined and for that I am grateful.(But companies like Byjus showed us what shouldn’t be done.)

Every cloud has a silver lining and eLearning the right way can open gates of opportunities like nothing else can. Access to teachers, courses, and books from across the seven seas. With access to the internet, anyone can access them. But even here you need to choose to learn. Because that’s something no one can gift you, teach you, or donate. You alone can.

What are you going to choose?

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Is China Snooping on the World?Shocking revelations

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on September 15, 2020 5

Is China Snooping?

Yes according to an interview given by Christopher Balding.

You will find the link to the interview and his paper in the reference section.

Did China hack us?

Oh it’s even better this time.They are data scraping from social media sites which may or may not include hacked data.

They are doing this to every one,they feel are important. Not surprising. though.

Who is the source of the #Chinasnoopgate info?

The data was provided to Christopher Balding by a China based source connected to the company China Revival.

The Overseas Key Information Database (OKIDB) was created by a company called China Revival based in Shenzhen, China. Their client include the PLA and CCP.

Whose data are in these data base?(Source link)

China Revival claims on their website to have records of more than 2.4 million individuals, 650 thousand organizations, 2.3 billion news articles, and 2.1 billion social media posts.

It targets Politicians ,thought leaders with influence. But intellectual property targeting cannot be ruled out.

Political figures,tech figures, influential in all walks of life are in the database

The PM,President, leaders of Political parties of India ,top people in the army, Chief Justice and many People with influence, who sway public opinion.Even crime lords are on their watch lists.Probably not with charitable intentions !

To manipulate public opinion, Zhenhua used open source data.The company mined over 10,000 Indian, 50000 British, 54000 American 2.4 million account worldwide misinformation warfare.

China targets people all over the world for various reasons.It can range from political influence to intellectual property targeting. The data appears used to support Chinese intelligence, military, security, and state operations in information warfare and influence targetting.

What is the possible open source data?

90%Intelligence data is collected from,Twitter,Facebook, LinkedIn,for hybrid war.

What is collected?

What you share publicly.

Australian Finance review in a post talks about how Facebook was the largest intelligence gatherer before Tiktok entered the game

Like location, travel,likes, followers, friends can be anything. What you share on social media publicly. Twitter,Facebook Linkedin media platforms are popular. China by using these data is creating data banks to use for information warfare.

OKIDB has photographs of individuals taken from public sites the targets maintained accounts on such as Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. These photos from public sources of the targets appeared crawled and subsequently stored on publicly available Chinese servers with links in the database for each individual.

The information warfare being touted by Zhenhua targets key people in democracies and their such as the children of politicians, universities,and key industrial sectors. Open democracies need to wake up and scale up data privacy, security and understand the CCP plan.

You will ask,who cares about data like ,birth dates,names right?

It is not only the data contained in a single dataset.But imagine similar data contained in the 200 or so other datasets.When these are combined, the information garnered is powerful.

How can this Data be misused?

It is used try and influence people and institutions and decisions. Manipulate,politics,ground situations,public opinion and policy decisions .It also gains by creating unrest.

Data is power.There can be enormous benefit in forming opinion from the assembled data, craft messaging or target intelligence agencies.

However, the OKIDB is known to engage in influenced decision making processes in China .The Chinese have a unique blend of civil and military power associations. How they will use it is a conspiracy theory Grim Brother’s Scary tales.

China is not a democracy. It recognizes only the state power.Its own.No others.It is not a team player and considers everyone an enemy. It treats its enemies badly and friends worse.

There’s no upside to China getting anyone’s personal data.Their complete lack of respect for personal choice ,freedom and Humanitarian rules.They will use non-traditional warfare techniques. Like Zhenhua targets key leaders and influencers in various sectors.

Open liberal societies cannot grasp the threats embodied in Chinese authoritarian communism.They are sneaky.They use non-traditional warfare and influence operations. Misinformation campaigns are classic weapons .Its tricky to fight.But not impossible.

China is building a techno-surveillance authoritarian state.But they also have expansionist,imperialistic and totalitarian agendas,since forever.

The banning of Chinese apps in India seem to be timely.

What you can do?

Know about protection against data mining.Avoid filling in data in open surveys .

Be careful about what you share online.Avoid sharing personal data, children’s information,healthcare information publicly .

Teach your children about data privacy.

Check ,the browsers and their settings.Check the apps you use.Read the terms and conditions,privacy policy before signing up anywhere.

Its never too late to take care

Resources :

Chinese Open Source Data Collection, Big Data and Private Enterprise Work For State Intelligence and Security:

The Case of Shenzhen Zhenhua

By:Christopher Balding and Robert Potter & Et.Al

Both authors contributed to the writing and research of this paper and names are only listed alphabetically. Et. Al. refers to others who contributed and we wish to acknowledge but whose names need to remain anonymous.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3691999

https://www.msn.com/en-in/video/news/china-snoop-gate-meet-cyber-warrior-christopher-balding-who-nailed-china-cnn-news18/vi-BB190D0c

https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/for-china-everyone-s-an-enemy-unless-proven-otherwise-20200910-p55ub5

https://www.afr.com/policy/foreign-affairs/china-s-social-media-warfare-database-lists-key-australians-20200910-p55u95

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6403524/#__ffn_sectitle

AatmaNirbhar Bharat: Independence Day 2020 #AatmaNirbharBharat

By Dr.Amrita Basu(MBBS,MS) on August 15, 2020 1

Aatmanirbhar -self-sufficient and independent.A strong message on this 74th Independence day by Prime minister Shri Narendra Modi.
Thats what I wanted to be, from the time I understood the meaning of the word. I have my mom to thank for this.

She drilled into me pretty early that financial independence is the stepping stone to personal independence in many ways. There are going to be haters and people who diss money. But ask any person who grew up with money trouble,

Do you appreciate having savings to fall back on these times,?

The answer will tell you what you need to know.

Enjoying the pleasures of life while not being attached to them. Being good and doing the hard work, for the peace of mind it affords you. When you are dependent on another person for your wellbeing, are you genuinely independent? Can you really be your best self?

What shines a new light through the Prime Ministers speech

India should export less raw material and import less finished products. Until we become producers at all levels, we can never become independent. If you are only a consumer and not a creator, the story changes when someone like China holds the strings.

Its like Yoga being born in India ,you learn it from childhood.Then you pay a foreign company to teach you yoga online!Its like validation happens only with the “foreign” tag.Made in India and Make in India for me .

In October 2020, we will complete two years of being self-employed as a couple. The first thing we did when we cashed in our ELs was, we prepaid our home loan. In 2020 being loan-free is something we sincerely appreciate. Thats always going to be my number one priority. Also, SBIMaxigain was the most hassle-free home loan experience ever. Pre-payment was a breeze.

Worrying about earning is one thing and the loan repayment is another cup of tea. Dal chawal(rice and dal) chalega , but I will be Aatmanirbhar monetarily. Does that make sense?

When I started my website, I didn’t know it will be one day an excellent way to offer preliminary health education and telehealth consultation too. That’s why the husband started his website (drabhijitmisra.com) in February. Validation, foresight, Blessings from the almighty? Whatever it is, we are thankful.

Having green plants around you makes your mental health more in your control than a few other things. I am so glad I started my balcony gardens long back so that even in lockdown I didn’t suffer from nature withdrawal
this independent day once again, I realized how dependent on nature and social connections we are when it comes to the feeling of wellbeing.

Digital Health Id for every Indian: This will be interesting and helpful for all Indians, to have. A digital record of your health in one place can help in preventive health care too.

Digital India :
In 1000 days, every village in this country will be connected by optical fiber. When this happens, it will be a game-changer. I am working and living in a small town in India for the last eight years. I can earn offline locally.But online from all over the world, because of digital access. Taking classes and courses is also easy. Imagine what can happen when access is given to the curious?

It will be a whole new world. I am in fact writing a series called Online education since January 2020 with the #Causechatter with Bogchatter.

Aatmanirbhar Bharat needs to find its lost treasures of education and wisdom. Its only functional knowledge and application that can help you be truly free. But you also need to love what you do, to live with freedom in your heart. That requires awareness, mindset shift, and understanding of the world around you. What do you think will make you more Aatmanirbhar?
Let’s all strive to be Aatmanirbhar in the real sene.

Read my post about India Independence Day:11 Reason to Thank my India in 2019

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Counting Blessings on Kojagiri Purnima

The Maha Saptami Durga Pujo and the Bhog

So what did the Maha Saptami bhog consist of?

Square pegs and Round holes: Elearning Problems

Google Camp 2020 read all about it here.

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Remembering Vidyasagar and eLearning

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar: Inspiring generations

Featured post

Is China Snooping on the World?Shocking revelations

What you can do?

Resources :

AatmaNirbhar Bharat: Independence Day 2020 #AatmaNirbharBharat

What shines a new light through the Prime Ministers speech

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Citizen Responsibility

Sharing is good Karma!

So what did the Maha Saptami bhog consist of?

Sharing is good Karma!

Google Camp 2020 read all about it here.

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Sharing is good Karma!

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar: Inspiring generations

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Sharing is good Karma!

What you can do?

Resources :

Sharing is good Karma!

What shines a new light through the Prime Ministers speech

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Sharing is good Karma!

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