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.

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.

Departure, a Poem

Sometimes departure brings agony
Life before that was a speeding car

Life was all about the fast line

That we did not care about the debris by the wayside 

Now that we will be relegated to the bins of Memory 

We try to locate sorrow 

And make peace with it

The peace is elusive 

As we did not try to define peace prior to this

Hence the agony

Malls, A Poem

Malls are cathedrals of late capitalism
Symbolise a vague sameness
An unnecessary similarity
Whether Muscat, Mumbai or Medan
Same shops, Daiso here, Starbucks there
These sterilised structures of wasteful consumption
Refuge for the middle class during summer
These communal spaces of ‘brand brotherhood’
Often uproot disenfranchised communities of their land
Only, to offer them a watchman’s job

Anti Expat Nomenclatures 

Cities have their own nomenclature for expressing non welcoming behaviour against ‘expats’ and are quite creative at them. The acronym for the gulf should be as indicting as FILTH (Failed in London, Try Hong Kong) Singaporean version: Fallen Talent, Foreign Trash for FTs. There are various hierarchies amongst expats too, South Asian versus Western Passports etc.

Bangladeshi migrant takes his politics to ‘Probash’ 

Today, in the sweltering summer evening, as I frequent a favourite Turkish cafe, where three Bangladeshis from Pheni, Comilla and Brahmanbaria work as service staff. All three of them come from Bangladeshi districts adjoining Tripura and hence speak the dialect from the area. The time was in the heart of Iftar time, and my friend from Pheni was sipping away his black tea, while serving a constant stream of driving in costumers including a Filipino man, who was buying Shwarma dinner who was wondering, why is not beef available. 
In the fast few days, they were hesitant to speak with me, as they saw me as Indian speaking a Bangla unfamiliar to them in their daily lives. Language is reflective of socioeconomic privileges. The ice was broken when the man from Pheni was subtly overjoyed with India’s capitulation to Pakistan yesterday. He started today’s conversation with India’s defeat and emphasising how humiliating the 180 run was. He then moved to another south Asian passion, politics. A man who has spent the past two decades in Kuwait, Dubai and Muscat, certainly had a ferocious passion for politics of Begum Khaleda Zia’s kind. 
He was acerbic towards the League and was confident that the current administration had lost confidence of the masses. He was especially keen to stress that the BNP was not anti minority (assuming that I was of the same ilk) and that the Hindu community has been taken for a ride by the League, which the Hindus are realising. He also alleged that the players in the BD Cricket team were connected to the establishment politics, with a precise distaste for Saumya Sarkar. The BNP runs active cells all over the gulf through cultural clubs. 
Bangladeshi blue collar migrant diaspora is very involved in domestic politics unlike their Indian counterparts. As I have attended League meetings in Singapore, where these are not permitted and performed under the guise of ‘culture commemorations’. As the proverb goes, culture is politics and politics is culture’. 
Bengali culture has activism embedded in its DNA. The marginalisation of the migrant worker in ‘probash’ causes the migrant to find meaning in politics back home. BD allows for dual citizenship, unlike India although OCI card is a decent proxy although voting is not allowed under the scheme. Dual citizenship allows Bangladeshis to be invested in domestic politics. Indian Policy establishment must be keeping a tab on Bangladeshi politics as the tide seems to be turning with a Gaurdian editorial on it today.

Gulf Dreams

Dreams of Temporary People
Bags being packed
Reluctantly memories are being packed too

Uprooting from ones transient homes eons

They were not very transient after all

We accidentally invested too much

Transience became Permanant 

We became one with the place
******************************

Growing up, is after all

Piggy banking on our parents 

We hope to break out

But when we do

We figure out, that it’s our stories too
******************************^
The Gulf is borrowed time

But this extended time 

Unknowingly, becomes our lives

With memories, nostalgias and sorrows 

This time, we hope that we had made initially our own
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MP

17/06/2017

Muscat

Family Homes or not, Singapore comes first

As a person who has been involved with Singapore over the past decade, through education and work at the two premier public sector universities; i would say that the FamiLEE matter is rather trivial, and surely makes for excellent banter over Teh Halia in a Kopitiam lah. Singapore is a postcolonial success story, and in this VUCA world, where strong leadership is vital, some real estate tussle should not take the focus away from creating the future. The PAP Leadership is World Class, with no parallel for it in Asia. #Majulah