Congratulations to the Le Thinnai Kreyol Project Team, @banglarmeyeajk Prof Ananya and Ari Anna etc on one year of globally remote yet intimate conversation on Creole circulation. I have learnt so much over the past year from Pune and now Singapore. As a writer and now as a PhD scholar at NUS it does matter.

The project now has a holding page and journal- Thinnai Revi which will be a fascinating site for knowledge production and dissemination.

It is a fascinating online community of thinkers which is creative, critical and analytical. The founders I may add are very kind!

I plan to scribble on Kreyol Muscat\Khaleej soon! Creole is a concept which is interesting to frame the Gulf, often seen from a linear lens.

Thank you for the shout out, as a second-third generation migrant it means a lot to write about the places I write on from Dubai to Singapore which do not find a spot in the archive.

Congratulations once again ! Be ambitious, please!

There is a sense of valorisation of the Kerala Model among the secular, liberal community. However, there is an amnesia regarding a rather small positive externality; the decades of Gulf remittances that pads up the over all quality of life.

The hard work should not be erased of the Malayali who would do jobs which they would not do at home. There is a social cost as well. Having watched Asianet while growing up, Malayalam saturates the desert shamal of the littoral port city.

You will find a Kerala Kada in the middle of the desert with news playing in the background.

Follow your passion is a really good way to be poor. Work is meant to move the needle, as someone is paying your salary as there is a job to be done. More than any degree ‘How can the job be done’ should be the only metric in the post pandemic world.

AAP is a party built on NRI donations and talent, is hell bent on spoiling relations with Singapore- a dear friend to India.Many Singapore NRI’s also have worked with AAP. They should ask for accountability from AAP. Kejriwal should apologise to Singapore. This is just terrible. I still carry an Indian Passport having grown up in the Gulf, and am thankful for all the support the country and its people have given me over the past 12 years. I am sorry for all the stupidity. The Delhi NCR Government, a glorified municipality does not speak for India.

With the kind of anti Bengali venom spewed by the ‘Hindu Nationalist Intellectual Architecture’ (I coined the term) post Bengal Polls i am surprised how will the 75 odd legislators serve their constituents with such hatred of the idea of the Bengali.

The optics stopped on May 2.

Jumma Mubarak.

Eid Mubarak.

Dum Biryani is an edible ritual. This one is from southern Tamil Nadu style. No seewaiyan or payasam, so milkshake is a pale substitute.

And no Salman Khan Phillim in the theater.

As Singapore moves into a stricter lockdown Sunday onwards, grabbing a meal in a built environment should be noted. Be Safe.

Take care Guys.

#Eid2021

What does a Desi Khaleeji do on Eid in Singapore; head to Arab Street!

Eid Ul Fitr Mubarak/ Selamat Hari Raya Aidulfitri !

There is a sense of celebration of poverty in liberal arts and social sciences academia. There is no romanticism in being poor, only the privileged write on the subaltern while sipping chardonnay.

In academia one has to win grants, can a person with limited networks have the information or the cultural capital to break into funding circles.

Teach graduate students grant writing, and the value of networks.