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.

06121992:25

25 years back, when I was rushed home from school in Navi Mumbai because of the tectonic event. I remember the streets in sector 10 vashi was eerily empty. The Day when we became no different than our south Asian neighbors. We created a subliminal tiered citizenship, and hundreds died in its aftermath in Mumbai. My father missed the Air India building by a whisker.

Identity politics crystallised in many an election in Amdavad including the 2002 genocide. 2014, the fervour of Hindutva+ reached its zenith and the political project reached theoretical completion. The Juniads and the Pehlu’s are precipitates of that fateful day. The hate pill is venomous. I wish, for a polity and politics to be inclusive. I wish for Indian Muslims to get a place for rent in India’s cities without getting intrusive questions asked. This day is a poignant inflection point for contemporary Indian history, with wounds still raw. Words can feel incomplete. Everyday violence with a small v in actions makes activism ring hollow.

Pride in ones history baked in to History is manifesting in non issues in banning a film to making an outward religious performance necessary, in order to navigate the everyday. This is certainly the New India in the making.

Environmentalists as Bridge Builders

Environmentalists and Social Development Professionals are interlocutors of conversations between science, economics and law. The challenge would be in reframing the conversation towards solution building. Environmentalists are often perceived as advocacy and research professionals who raise issues, bring them in to the limelight but are limited upto suggesting alternatives. The disconnect with the market is evident with the chasm in the language used by the two communities of practitioners; the environmentalists and the business community. The focus on the bottom line and the long term focus on conservation clash.

The consulting community also tries to bridge the gap, but are often facilitators in the regulatory sphere; rendering services to the project owners. The challenge is however to be conversant with a lingo which understands ecosystem issues and the costs with the regulatory drivers. It’s time for Environmentalists to move beyond being rubble rousers and give practical solutions to industry and policy makers regarding the environmental issues of the day.

Digital Breaks the Mainstream

In recent times, I enjoy reading independent, progressive boutique platforms rather than mainstream media which carry mainly syndicated news feeds. The exception is Wade Shepard’s writing as a Forbes contributor where he travels the world covering the impulses from the ground.

The main issues of the day get invariably lost in the cacophony of news, instead of covering real change makers and the issues which make an impact. Padmavati, Love Yudh and some leaders belief system are not issues to grab national mind space, nor does CNN’s obsession with the Trump Presidency.

Narratives covered by platforms such as Riot, Cafe Dissensus edited by Bhaswati Ghosh and Mosarrap Hossain Khan as well as The Polis Project Founders Asim Rafiqui and Suchitra Vijayan are doing amazing work, and captures by imagination with Indian Cultural Forum and Kafila.

Swarajya of Amar Govindarajan share a different perspective. The questions raised are relevant and pointed/focused by these different voices. Scale of these voices for me is not a deal breaker, the quality of the data and the analysis is certainly.

Ofcourse the New Yorker and the Paris Review and its tribe is classy. The digital era has made mainstream problematic and questionable. What is exactly mainstream? Is a blogger with credibility not mainstream enough, if he/she writes well, only because it’s reach is not wide enough?

The business model might be broken (FT and Monocle make money though), but the canvas is larger. I would like more meat (carbon light certainly) in the Sustainability thought leadership space.

Limits of Theory

Equity as rhetoric (in the democratic left context) is the yeast to knead the neoliberal dough. The academics of the card carrying Global Left do enjoy the wine and cheese after the pricey conferences (which they should and rather privilege should not be limited to bankers and tech VC’s)

Money makes the world go around, even the pro market NITI Aayog Vice Chair went back to his secure job in New York while he supported neoliberal policies.

Real world activism has a price. Nifty theory is just incredible intellectual stimulation. Just limited to that.

Hyperlocal.

Vashi, Al Khuwair and Clementi

Areas, in three cities

Three countries, rather

We belong to places

Memories, images, nostalgia

Globalisation does not meaning a thing

Hyper local, is the identity

The tapri, The kopitiam and the tea corner

Cutting chai, Tea Halia and Karak Chai

Zoom in on the human experience

The consciousnesses is a tapestry

Of sounds, attachments and flavours