Author: changethinker

Born and raised in Mumbai, India with an undergrad degree from Oman and a masters degree from the National University of Singapore. I am an Environmental Professional with a passion for Sustainability, Social Innovation and Governance related issues. A Change Agent in the making who believes that small is beautiful and that impact can be achieved -one soul at a time.

Soft Power.

Calcutta and Bengal’s greatest contemporary export is intellectual (wo)manpower as a talent pipeline to western liberal arts university campuses and in turn to the progressive media worldwide.
This is implicit and underrated. Just read through the surnames across the websites.

Karak.

Miss the karak chai, in a pakistani or malbari paratha tea shop in Bur Dubai or in Ruwi on the red and white tiled tables, where ARY or Asianet would be showing a cricket game or news on full blast. I would be at the corner table soaking in the chatter. Soon, Inshallah.

More Than Your Data.

There is a difference between a cultural insider and a ‘tourist-academic’. How can we contribute to our communities who are vulnerable, in a material sense which can remediate the sense of predatory mining of pathos ?

I personally abhor the notion of the access to the field site as extraction oriented one way street. For me the Khaleej is Bayt, and the stories are dialogic as these are my Sadiq- old and new whose pain and aspirations i feel as if my own. We are not data.