Non profit and business start up founders often sabotage their vision of the organisation by turning into to mutual admiration club rather than a mission driven organisation. Having worked with a committed Mohsin Malhar Da and a few others and also a award winning tent maker who did not bother to remunerate, the activist and social good space has a bunch of interesting ideas to munch on!

Social good is like any other profession. Making it a vanity trip defeats the cause.

Ultimately it is the everyday politics with a small p that is the proof of the seewaiyaan, the grand theories of Geopolitics, Race, Faith and Class does not cut any sand if it’s translation to the institutions such as family, workplace and the retail sphere is half cooked.

Too much grand theoretical noise. The activists depend on foundations run by business people for money and academia also needs the same grants.

I am just looking back at the detritus of dreams

The scars are not seen

Gleaned by fancy restaurant selfies

The delta of unrealised dreams

Is Deep

The Question

However is whether to fight on

Or change course

But those are the dreams which shaped the inside of me

The fights, the joys

The meals, the laughs

Those are the screenshots

Of dreams

Of life itself

Today at a cooked food counter at a supermarket in Muscat, this Malayali spread reminds me of Indian Restaurants/Restoran in Singapore and Malaysia where cooked food is displayed. The cultural commonalities are obvious, southern India.

#migrantscholars

Life is strange

One leaves being Middle Class

In Kanyakumari and Komilla

To be marginal, in Karama

Positions vary, material reality dominates

Life is then expressed in exchange rates

Meaning is searched in the falling rupee

As the hurt ego, is soothed by jumping values

JNU is an elite university election in south Delhi. It’s student elections are not the central polls. The BMC Polls in Mumbai are far more significant. Having a powerful alumni base with a grip on media, does amplify the narrow outlook, but does not scale up its significance. Media should be covering more grounded issues, but Khan Market for a cuppa is nearer.

It’s a good start up incubator for emerging politicians though, and look forward to Dr Kanhaiya Kumar and Miss Rashid contest the 2019 polls.

I have discovered that podcasts accelerate my learning journey apart from the 50 plus books I read a year, mostly on soft copy, and numerous business press reads (HBR/Monocle every month).

These are my favourite so far this year:

– Polis Project

– Inside the Strategy Room by Mc Kinsey

– Monocle Daily and other Monocle Radio podcasts (The Entrepreneurs especially)

– Recode by Kara Swisher

– Outliers by Pankaj Mishra

– Ezra Klein

– NPR

TV/ Web Shows:

– Anuradha Sengupta’s Off Centre

– Film Companion by Anuradha Chopra

– Rajeev Masand as usual

When one is not born with a high enough IQ, one has to be a hard trier 😊

Please feel free to suggest others.

Ambition leaves detritus

Friends lost, families scarred

Bank statements reflect the state of life

Often healed by chemical broths

From one vision statement to the next

KPIs leave the being hollow

And the celebration lasts an evening

The next moment, the google calendar

Schedules the next contact

As ambition reduces

And power replaces the North Star

Rachid Taha, passed away today. The North African Rai Music Pioneer who sung with Khaled and Cheb Mami. I grew up listening to him, when I did not understand enough Arabic nor French in Muscat, but felt the loss in the melody, of a land lost. Ya Rayeh was my favourite.

Wish to visit Oran, Rabat and Tunis. And Marseille.

There is too much importance on paper qualifications. In the 4IR era, learning, relearning and applying the knowledge is critical. The keyword is application, and clear thinking is paramount for this act. All the data is available, how are we processing the data is the literacy of this paradigm, not knowing.

Interest, curiosity and grit with a vision is all that it takes to win.