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.

Chinese Realpolitik again

India as usual is caught off guard by Chinese Realpolitik. We are too caught up by our internal chaos, petty politics from Kalimpong to Kasargod to give an apt retort. And the Prime time TV debates continue. We have learnt sifar in our capitulation from 1962. 
PayTM should stop taking Chinese VC money then? BMKJ

More Than Combustion, A Poem

The veins of global capitalism
Are Lubricated by a dense, smelly liquid
It has various names, all children of
fractional distillation
But, the concoctions of chemicals
it not aware that it is a metaphor for power
An innate need for control,
Yes, energy.It is something more than that
A shorthand, undergirding geopolitics
Engineers and Geologists are the factory line folks in the Empty Quarter
While the real operators are in Vienna
Effect much from Bandung to Berlin
While Berlin, gets all windy and renewable
The slimy fuel rules the game
The Godfather of Energy
The Phantom of Peak Oil, still distant

Home, a Poem

Homes are temporal spaces

Places come to a close

But, memories linger

Preferably nostalgic

Than ruminations

Memories have no geography

Geography transcends in to imagination

As we move cities, some places remain

MP
1/7/2017
Image Location : Our Al Khuwair Penthouse, Muscat (Photo taken by author)

#Canon700D

The Meaning of #notinmyname

#notinmyname protests today was a glimmer of a muted outrage brewing across India. India is not lynching-stan or a banana republic. Junaid or Pahlu are not names to be erased off history books or caches from the net, they are what can happen if things go to the extreme for an ideology, where anything minority is shorthand for not Indian or anti establishment. On today’s news hour on #HateNow channel, John Dayal and Poonawala were called to prove their Indian ness, which is puke worthy. A Pakistani student expressing solidarity is called names. Where have we as an educated polity regressed to? Is the metric of success for the right the strike rate in election victories and nothing else matters. Perennial electoral mode rather than governance is the prevailing sentiment of the Day. 
Ideologies are conceptual categories as well as a political practice borrowing Prof Bidyut Chakraborty’s work on Indian Communist movements. The Hindu Right, might just be extending its good luck a bit too far, by equating electoral victories as hegemonic support in the absence of an opposition of note. The nation asked for decisive leadership, and what we received was quite short of it. 
India is in Nagaland, Kerala, West Bengal too. The politics of Hindi heartland is infectious, from Raisina Hill to Davos. BMKJ.

Expanding Spaces of Discourse 

#Reflections 
In the past decade, more so in the past three years as I have taken social science research and writing more as a career, with quality writing for commercial consulting works a core activity as well, I have read across the board from engineering to creative writing to photography theory. The percolations are surprising as the cross pollination of ideas gravitate towards populating the interstices and create spaces which are enriching. I have been blessed to have mentors who are brave academic activists, have taught me that theory building comes with fronting the ‘body’ as a site of performance/resistance on the frontline. 
Corporate sector is not a sterile space as well, from start ups to Fortune 500, business is where everyday reality is lived, engine of economics. These neoliberal spaces, as per dominant academic literature is the ‘other’, the ‘impure’ the hegemony of capital, excellent as objects of analysis, when hardly these theories seep in to spaces that are potentially spaces for change, little is acted upon. Ask a CEO of a tech company facing diversity issues from Silicon Valley regarding Chandra Mohanty or Judith Butler, the answer will be quite obvious, leave alone an opaque Spivak.
The recent discourse about low flame lynchings all over the country, resulting in a #notinmynamecampaign especially among left liberal urbane friends and inherent critiques of not addressing caste based inequalities amongst the tribe is a minority with little purchase in the mainstream. 
As spaces of discourse shrink on the ground, they only move online.

The Blurring of focus

A large majority of India lives in Thanjavur, Kohima, Panaji, Reva, Kalimpong, Bastar, Gadchiroli where the K Issue and Jadhav’s abduction are disconnected with everyday living. Jobs, Farmer income, malignant urbanisation are issues which cripple lives. National security and identity politics are taking the focus away, as the new opium of the masses. The country’s security can get only stronger with an inclusive buy in. Look after better of your subaltern soldier class for a start. The beef of the matter lies elsewhere. BMKJ.