This is the essay in which I coined the term ‘Desi Khaleeji’ in a Swalif Publishing Abu Dhabi Creative Critical Book Project published in 2021. The term ‘Desi Khaleeji’ is an analytical lens to view multigenerational south Asian belonging in the Gulf, where an emotional citizenship beyond PRs and Passports is at work, where upon turning 18 one finds creative avenues to procure visa status as the family dependent status especially for boys is at play.

Ofcourse one has to find intellectual spaces beyond the h index to theorise lived experiences.

On days like this one feels that years of writing on/with the Gulf is worth it. This Gulf Citizen of South Asian Decent, wrote to me on LinkedIn that he has read my work on being Desi Khaleeji, a term I coined on growing up multigenerational in the Gulf.

As a person who faces multiple rejections from the intellectual and ngo actors including deplatforming, cancelling and rejections- the writing from the global south has to continue, and that is one of the ways of being decolonizing.

Arianna Huffington in a podcast with the Daily of the CEO mentioned that culture is the immunity of an organisation. The S in the ESG focuses indirectly on culture, DEI, Labor, Talent, Human Rights is about Dignity.

Culture eats Strategy for Breakfast.

Conversations which are insightful and intimate about Art for Consumption as part of the KL Design Festival 2024 at the Malaysian Design Archive. The dialogue with a writer-public intellectual , artist and designer turned it into more than that and a brought about fresh thinking about AI, Amar Chitra Katha, Traditions and Cultural Sustainability.

How do we interrogate ideologies behind AI and Sustainability from Malaysia? Where is the deep thinking behind writing and design? Sustainability from the west is colonial power masked as egalitarianism.

The Malaysian Design Archive is critical cultural infrastructure which keeps records of a visual Tarikh of a Malayan Past, slowly being attenuated. KL is a deeply creative city, full of life while maintaining form and substance. A lot of learning during the past year has been through attending talks by Mr. Eddin Khoo and other civil society events and reading group sessions by Prof. Farid, Prof Farish amongst others.

Technology is an ideology and the politics behind it is hidden from plain sight, yet the values need to be thought through before art is created. Technology in the present form creates a version of mediocrity which is regurgitated in popular culture. An exit from technological determinism is much awaited as we trapped in heuristics rather than thinking in depth, which brings conversations forward.

ESG/Sustainability were ethical safeguards in a neoliberal capitalist society, which are at best risk mitigation factors, built into impact weighted accounting models.

It’s a data play, where everything is abstracted into a neat excel sheet. The problem is real risk is on the ground and lurking around the corner. Capitalism needs that to best avoid black swans. Risk needs to be captured in reporting for trust and transparency.

Vellaiyan, captures contemporary themes of Ed tech, NEET, foreign venture funding and human rights in a delicious rojak. The film hits home on a raw note with a RG Kar type of episode.

Watching Rajni Saar in the Tamizh Diaspora in Brickfields in KL is the ultimate pro max migrant worker moment, as I grew up on his films when I did not understand even a word of Tamizh.

Anirudh’s music is a character in the movie itself. Amit ji sharing screen space with Rajni Saar is the stuff of cinematic dreams. Good to catch the movie on the first evening of release on Amit ji’s birthday eve. It is festival season for the Hindu Diaspora with Navratri and it felt like it for a change, even for a short while.

The film has a high powered cast with Fahad and Rana in tow with the cinematic legends.

I watched Kabali in Delhi in 2016 in dubbing mode. Fortunately my understanding of Tamizh is far better as I can figure out the nuances now after years in Singapore.

Kabaali Daaaa!