Rebecca MacKinnon is a co-founder of Global Voices, and a recovering TV reporter-turned blogger. Global Voices is a non-profit citizens' media sponsored by Berkman Center for Internet and Society of Harvard University. Currently, Global Voices averages about 10,000 visitors a day from all over the world.

Rebecca became interested in blogging about two years ago, when she first read Joi Ito's blog . Subsequently, while on a sabbatical at Harvard University Rebecca started her first blogging project called North Korea Zone .

Prior to entering the world of blogging, Rebecca worked at CNN for 12 years, and served as bureau chief at both Tokyo and Beijing.

I met with Rebecca in January, 2006, when she was in New York. In this podcast Rebecca shares with us on what it was like to spend her formative years in Asia, and how she came to develop an interest in covering international news. Disappointed with the way in which international news was being covered, Rebecca turned to blogging, where she finds that contributors are optimistic, enthusiastic, and want to listen to the on-going global coversations.

Disclosure: I am a Global Voices contributor.

On January 30, 1948, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) was shot dead. He was on his way to his evening prayer meeting at Birla Mandir in New Delhi. He was 78 years old.

Flower Silliman was a student at Lady Irwin College, New Delhi, during the mid-1940s. She was part of the choir that sang during Gandhiji's prayer meetings in Birla Mandir.

In this podcast Flower shares her memories of Gandhiji.

In our previous podcast Flower spoke to us growing up in India as part of a tight-knit Baghdadi Jewish community.

Flower Silliman, mother of Jael Silliman, is a third generation Baghdadi Jew, who was born and brought up in India. She currently lives in New York.

Flower talks about her experiences growing up in India before 1947. During World War II Flower lived in Delhi, where she studied at Lady Irwin College. The reason she was sent to study at Lady Irwin was because Hannah Sen , the principal of the college was of Jewish descent says Flower.

In our next segment we will be talking to Flower about her days at Lady Irwin and Mahatma Gandhi. Lady Irwin College was a hub of activity during the freedom movement says Flower.

Jael Silliman of "Jewish Portraits:Indian Frames" talks about the Baghdadi Jewish community of Calcutta. Once a thriving community in Calcutta, the Arab-speaking Jewish community has dwindled to a handful of people points out Jael.

In her book Jael chronicles the Baghdadi Jewish community of Calcutta through the lives of four generation of women in her family. Jael's great-grandmother Farah moved from Basra, now in Iraq, to Calcutta after her marriage; her grandmother Miriam lived in Calcutta, London and finally migrated to Israel; while her mother Flower lived in India, Israel and now lives in the USA.

According to Jael, the first Baghadadi Jew to arrive and settle in Calcutta was Obadiah Ha-Cohen. Cohen came from Aleppo, Syria to India in 1798, and Jael's family traces their roots to him. Over the next 250 years Baghdadi Jews continued to migrate to Calcutta, and by early 20th century had emerged as a tight-knit, prosperous community. But, today there are no more than a handful people that live in Calcutta, many of them have migrated to Australia, Israel, UK and USA.

In this podcast we speak to Jael about her book, the women in her family and the Baghdadi Jewish community of Calcutta.