I feel at home

Everywhere, the warmth is present

More importantly

The cash in the bank

Is the warmest embrace

I can get

#spokenword

The anti NRC/CAA protests have turned in to some thing of pop culture, a mature college festival. Let all the anti Modi forces unite, is the rallying call. Shaheen Bagh being exalted, as Tahrir or Shahbag- we’re never Modi voters. Doesn’t matter to the anti Lutyens/India International Centre seminar circuit culture of the BJP. It worries more about Darbhanga than Dilshad Garden.

In chasing the future

We often miss the heartbeat

Where was I, I often wonder

A voice inside quipped

‘While your life was buffering’

Smell the decay

Of Dreams

Life is not

The bio we write

On our LinkedIn

#spokenword

BJP is AKP and UMNO, the Hindu version. If there can be political conservatism in other faith contexts, there is a legitimate space for a cultural nationalist Hindu political dispensation too. #BJP

Food is a national pastime for Singapore. Makan is culture, and as a former Singapore resident who studied and worked there- Singaporean/Malaysian cuisine is close to my heart, through the stomach. Where ever, I have lived in India or in the Gulf, i have always tried to search for food from the Nusantara. In Dubai- Streetary in Jumeirah Lake Towers area to the Asian Box at Lane 6 at Koregaon Park, Pune where the food is as authentic as it can get outside the region.

Nasi Lemak, Char Keow Tay to Dimsums made one feel in a good court in the Kopitiam in a cold Saturday evening here in Pune. The flavour palate and taste buds are a repository of memory. The engagement with Singapore is through food and CNA on YouTube as of now. Singapore educated me on a scholarship at NTU, gave work at NUS and made me the professional I am. My heart is still at the Block 708A Food Court in Clementi next to Sunset Way lah.

The Char Keow Tay as Bourdain mentioned is a meal originally meant for Chinese workers for breakfast as it is very heavy. The explosion of flavours which the flat noodle had brought out in my mouth transported me to a different reality sitting in an upmarket restaurant here in Pune. The dimsums were divine, the condiments were terrific. The Nasi Lemak was quite an ensemble, of flavours which was dense.

The meal for two was pocket friendly and left me emotional. Singapore is an emotion.

Where there are neon hoardings

A shadow lurks somewhere

What does the shadow say

Or is content with the obscure?

Is the neon shedding light to the street only

Or does it know the shadow too

The neon itself has a shadow inside no one knows

#spokenword

NRC is perceived by a particular community as targeting them and as seen from the Assam experience can be a tool for othering. The issue with NRC is not that it is a tool for documentation, which in all countries is a legit exercise for allocating public goods but can be an instrument for fear as many Bengalis in Assam have taken their lives. Already people asking for identity proof renewals are being asked questions which were not asked before. This can create panic. Documentation is a reality the world over, although people can fall through those gaps. CAA is a law to support the persecuted. The secularism lens is pretty bogus there.