A small anecdote from a major geography conference in a global Asian City, a distinguished Professor of Development Geography at Oxbridge said during one of the many side conversations over the rich week, that her Father served The Sultan’s Armed Forces during the Dhufar insurgency/ monsoon revolution from 1975-83 after he retired as a regular from the British Army. Prof Emma as a young girl went to the frontlines in Salalah in 1977 on a military helicopter as her Father wanted to ‘check’ on the front lines.

Stories from the long shadow of the empire, as her experiences prompted her to study development aid in India from Britain during the 1990s. She learnt to speak Hindi and lived in Delhi for two years. She chatted in Hindi as well, and discussed Shiva Sena, India’s aid policy in Africa and Oman 🇴🇲 ❤️

Typologies of the ‘Global’

As the world order is being remade as we live through a ‘reset’ and a creative destruction, the global with a small ‘g’ will jostle for space with the massive reordering.

Global city states such as Singapore will only get more precious in these headwinds, as science and sense prevails here.

Majulah 🇸🇬

My mentor in migration, Mr AKM Mohsin, the editor of SE Asia’s only Bengali language paper in SE Asia. A life in service.

I have learn the practice of migration through my own lived experience and with volunteering with him for a decade as a researcher and confidant.

This visit and dinner marked a decade since I first met him. He turned 60 this year. I plan to write an oral history of the paper, the cultural platform and his life in service to the community in Singapore as an act of archiving.

Phase One of the FinGeo week in Singapore.

An honour to participate in a highly selective two day workshop with 40 other global scholars from Cambridge to Cologne to KL on issues of theory, methods and impact in the vibrant but heterodox sub discipline of Financial Geography.

It was an honour to speak about the role of research in impact beyond academia among scholars who straddle praxis and theory with ease.

Ma.

A pioneer who rebelled in her teens to leave a tony south Bombay life to attend Shantiniketan in the early 1970’s.

Became the President of a leading civil society organisation in the early 90’s before heading to the mountains of Dhufar on the Oman-Al Mahra, Yemen Border to teach English.

Taught two generations of Omanis, became a fluent Arabic speaker and knew the practical linguistics of the craft of teaching English as a second language. A star ustaza, loved the classroom, so much that even after she fell ill continued to teach in a law school in Mumbai.

A Mumbaikar who made Salalah and then Masqat, her home. She is misses Oman dearly as her mobility is restricted due to medical reasons compounded by age.

An inspiration for my very own non linear journey.

On the craft of writing.

Many do not take a writing class throughout their education and are expected to write technical reports for their careers.

I am fortunate to have had graduate school critical social sciences training after my engineering masters at the best universities in Asia under the tutelage of some fierce supervisors.

Writing is a way of thought making.

It’s a rarity to watch anything beyond the standard podcast-scape Information diet being an entrepreneurial hack currently. Being a Mumbaikar and a Bollywood buff, it is therapeutic to watch a phillum on the big screen. Chhava, an ode to the historical memory of Chhatrapati Shambhaji Maharaj, was a power packed statement on both history and politics alike as cinema is a political medium.

A brilliant performance by Vicky Kaushal as the Maratha King who bore a gruesome end at the hands of the Mughals, was a point made about the bravery of the Marathas to keep Aurangzeb, who does not have a good memory in the Marathi speaking regions given his stance on Jazia tax, on the non Muslim subjects of this rule, and his cruelty on Hindus apart from an Princeton Historian of note.

Akshaye Khanna as Aurangzeb was outstanding as the aging emperor, Machiavellian and Menacing. The narrative arc moves in action set pieces and flashback which is effective. The war sequences are gladiatorial in grammar, and give the Marathas due credit for its clandestine warfare. The ethic of Hind Swaraj as inclusive with the King in Battle saving a Muslim child in the midst of warfare is a loud metaphor.

The movie speaks to the contemporary politics of Maharashtra and the Cultural Nationalist Zeitgeist of the times. Bollywood has made plenty of films on historical figures which were not popular pre 2014.

The food lived up to its reputation, it’s truly zananat Saoji!