My List of Favourites in KL

The places which i have come to love in KL are the following

1. Merdeka square in the evenings

2. China Town especially the noodle soup places

3. Lake Garden Nasi Lemak (the best Nasi Lemak ever)

4. Madam Kwan for it’s Curry Laksa

5. Batu Caves for the diaspora aesthetic

6. KLCC for its vibe and tourist friendly infrastructure

7. Bukit Bintang Crossing reminds one of Shibuya in Tokyo

8. Pak Punjab in Chow Kit for Pakistani fare and the mini Lahore feel

9. Lima Pulo for the Malaysian fare

10. Contour Cafe in PJ

11. Masjid India and it’s historic by lanes next to the Merdeka area (sheer diaspora culture, one of the three Little India enclaves in KL)

12. Museum of Islamic Art/ Masjid Negara

13. Halab in Bukit Bintang for the best Arabic fare in Malaysia

14. Jalan Alor Street Market for Chinese fare

15.Brickfields and it’s temples, especially Jalan Alor

16. Vishal Catering in Jalan Scott, Brickfields for the best banana leaf lunch

17. Riwayat Bookstore/ Gerakbudaya Bookstore

Resonant Histories Exhibition in Bombay by Barjeel Foundation

I had the honor to experience the ‘Resonant Histories’ Exhibition on Indian and Arab Art at the Nicholson Jahangir Art Gallery at the CSVSS Museum, Kala Ghoda, Bombay by Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah. Had all the masters in place and the framing was decolonial and enthused by the spirit of Bandung. The art work by a Shantiniketan trained Egyptian artist was special as both my parents are Visvabharti alumni.

I grew up in Oman and call Masqat, Bayt hence the art had a special resonance especially the painting on President Nasser. Art is a register of history of modernity, which in the digital era is often lost. Art is cultural anchoring, and is a space of taste and aesthetics.

The Barjeel Foundation team did a splendid job, with the local curators. Getting a Ganesh Payne to a Gaitonde to a Jamini Roy under one roof, and juxtaposing it with Arab masters especially Emirati artists is no mean feat.

The museum is near to the Gateway of India where the Dhows were anchored in British India, when Bombay, Karachi, Aden, Masqat, Kuwait and Basra were a part of the Western Indian Ocean Grid, a Bombay Islam as the title of the book by Historian Nile Green says.

Excellent references world be Monsoon Voyagers by Professor Fahad Bishara and Sam Dalrymple’s book, on multiple partitions of South Asia, Shattered Lands.

The Migrant’s Airport

This International Migrants Day, there is a hardly any attention to the ways that migrant reach their destinations, hence this reflection below:

The flutter of the non place in Auge’s words are a contradiction to what I notice as a second generation migrant every time i fly in any airport in SE Asia which are part of migration corridors. Countries which are both migrant receiving and sending countries as Malaysia has plenty of workers in Singapore and Australia, while it receives workers from Bangladesh, Nepal and Indonesia.

The chatter in the long corridor before the boarding security check in Singapore or KL or within the aircraft is a cacophony of tongues, a babel on the go where expectations of a better life, and the disappointments of a failed migration attempt linger heavily in the air.

These migrant Aeromobilities don’t make it to the literature, as it is not fancy enough, may be something to do with friction or platform works better.

The Year in Review 2025

This year is probably defined by the enjoyable but steep learning curve that I have gone through, as I have lived most of the year in Malaysia and travelled throughout the peninsula. I realised that Malaysia is more than the Klang Valley urban agglomeration, and it is so diverse and varied. Truly blessed to have researched and written academically in the second half of the year on a project scholarship.

Got the privilege to be at the UNDP+BHR Conference in Bangkok this year, which, as a BHR+Impact Professional, is a surreal experience. Very kind mentors made this possible, along with other workshop participations in a powerful thematic area of Due Diligence. I did very limited consulting this year, but each assignment was one where I could add value.

I had a publication in a prestigious Indian Ocean Journal on ‘Subaltern Migrant Foodscapes’, which was under work for a while, and it was deeply satisfying to say the least.

Presenting my PhD work at ICONSEA 11 was an academic milestone of the year, along with the FinGeo Workshop and Conference at NUS in February. I also moderated a panel at Regen Asia at NUS in July, which was an incredible intellectual experience.

Hoping for 2026 to be one where the poly-crisis veers towards an equilibrium.

ICONSEA 11 at Universiti Malaya

Presenting a paper based on my WIP PhD Thesis at the most prestigious SE Asian Studies Conference at Universiti Malaya is site of intellectual pilgrimage every two years, where South east Asia comes together to chart the future of the field, the key notes by legendary scholars to young scholars who will drive the field in the future. ICONSEA 11 was a tour de force, and the department turns 50, one of the oldest South East Asian Studies Departments in the globe, where the field is undergoing a shift given the funding shifts globally.

This was my second ICONSEA, and this time around i found myself in an intellectual space that felt like home.

As a second generation peripheral academic, i take this honor to write and engage as an enormous honor, which i do not take lightly. I presented on the transition in Malaysia, and am grateful for the support i have – my supervisor, my PI of the research program i chip in and my academic parents.

Many thanks to Dr Mala and the team for the prestigious opportunity to engage with debates in this festival of ideas.

IOM work

Sometimes a hard copy of an IOM report, in which I played a minor part with a brave research team of migrant community researchers and activists is a reminder of policy evidence to push inconvenient questions.

The research was carried out during the pandemic, the worst of times and these serendipitous encounters with a past body of work is just the antidote one needs in these challenging times.

A tremendous thank you to Adrian Pereira ji and North South Initiative for the spaces to work and think through issues of migration in SE Asia.

Subaltern Foodscapes in a Journal

I am equally excited and grateful for my latest publication in The Monsoon- Journal of the Indian Ocean Rim published by the Africa Institute, Sharjah and Duke University Press.

The paper focuses on conceptualising the notion of subaltern foodscapes, across Muscat, Dubai and Singapore. Food places such as the Karak shop, the Mamak/Kopitiam and the chayya kada are spaces of care, everyday diaspora politics and cultural archives.

In Gratitude to Professor Crispin Bates for the esteemed opportunity, and the Dina Odeh for the generous editorial support.

The journey from fieldwork to writing to the workshop to the publication took a while, but it is a precious experience into the process of academic publication.

Sharing intellectual real estate with the best of Indian Ocean Tarikh and Ethnography such as Professor Uday Chandra and Rukmini, is a more than an honour for a peripheral academic at best.

As a second generation migrant, it is a calling to write our stories in our polyphonic ways in Bangla, Tamil, Urdu, Gujarati and Arabic, which I will whether there is a platform available or not.

Shukran Jazeelan in Omani Arabic!

Zhi Char Culinary Archives in KL

Zhi Char Places are a culinary gem, with the fiery wok spinning the spiciest kung pao chicken, and the unker drinking tiger juice as he reads his paper with abandon. The ang moh comes over to have a bite, at the end of the day in China Town (with more Bangla and Burmese dialects being heard) as it has many a budget hotel packed in as sardine tins. A heritage district performs and preserves in the same breath, as gentrification creeps in with new urban renewal laws on the anvil, the ROI on a Chinatown meal is priceless, as a cultural archive with many migrants picking these meal preparation in many a kopitiam across KL.

Job as a Subscription

AI is erasing the social escalator which was IT in India over the past 45 years. The effect on the middle classes is massive, moving many to the gig economy.

A jobless era is awaiting many, as the job in effect becomes a subscription.

Masterclass on Nepal-Malaysia Corridor

An annual catch up with Mr. Bed Kumar is a lesson in humility and a masterclass on Nepalese migration in Malaysia.

Migration is not about the h-index rather the humanity of the stories migrant community organising legends share in their struggle for rights and equity, as they build at home through remittances in the midst of political turmoil back home.

Let the research evidence be channelised in to good policy at various national and corridor scales.