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.

A critical reading of ‘Beyond Bollywood’: The Musical

It was a nippy cold morning in Gurugram, near to the IFFCO Chowk Metro Station is an artificial and odd structure modelled after a grand Indian Palace functional as an Amusement Park. It is Traditional Indian Culture (a broad category) meets Disneyland or Universal Studios on a far more moderate scale called as Kingdom of Dreams. The Shah Rukh Khan promoted venture, is better known for its as unreal it can get ‘Culture Gully’ or Culture Lane which is a mega food court with counters of traditional food from all corners of the country, pretty much like a Singaporean Hawker Center, only far more fancier (reminded me of the Chinatown food street after it was sanitised for the tourist crowd).

This commoditization of culture, packaged for the MNC working Global Indian, short of time to connect with one’s traditions, in a systematic manner with fresh natural jaggery infused tea (Gur wali chai) and piping hot Jalebis available at astronomical prices as the musical ticket prices. Blingy over the top, very Bollywoodish take on Indian traditions.

In this context, the musical ‘Beyond Bollywood’ is set; a very over the top performance. Excellent dance sequences especially the Kathak by Aditi Mukherjee (Jasvir Shergill), is a stand out. The engagement with the audience, is rather refreshing with performances from the trampoline and the dholak from the middle of the auditorium.

The storyline is quite scripted and squared; the tension between a NRI Dance artiste (Shergill Junior) looking to rediscover the traditional in India, and a folk dancer turned urdu spewing choreographer (Raghu) who takes the NRI Dancer on a cultural tour of India. She wants to learn the traditional to restore and pay homage to her mother’s legacy at the Indian Dance Theatre of Munich (an obvious lift from the Great Indian Circus of Chicago from Dhoom3).

Demonetisation jibes at a musical: Beyond Bollywood at the Kingdom of Dreams, Gurugram. Politics is culture and culture is politics. Modi ji has captured the cultural imagination.

There is the not so funny gay joke angle of the theatre owner and the the titillating dance sequences from ‘Baby Doll’ and ‘Tip Tip Barsa Paani’. But the stand out is the exposure to the Chaw Santal Dance of Bengal and Lavni of Maharashtra. An entertaining two hours of non stop energy and amazing dance talent. It is reducing these dance forms to an accessible manner for the mainstreet audience. The mode of cultural production is commercial but it is indeed encouraging to find dance artistes finding the correct platforms. Now, have to attend a Navdhara Dance Theater performance soon.

Indian Media: Ask the right questions please? 

The Indian media is concerned about H1B visa crackdown by the incoming Trump Administration rather than questioning the rhetoric of growth spewed by the IT sector, where as the disruption is on the door. The cloud and automation chipping away at BPO jobs, data analytics and machine learning already mainstreamed, and 3D printing impacting manufacturing, the media surely has more important angles to cover.

Quoted in Forbes series on Demonetization again

Thanks to Wade Shepard, i was quoted in the Forbes series on Demonetization again.

As Monishankar Prasad, a New Delhi-based author who is currently traveling India researching the on-the-ground impact of the demonetization phenomenon pointed out:

The unbanked and informal economy is hard hit. The poor do not have the access to structural and cultural resources to adapt to shock doctrine economics. The poor were taken totally off guard and the banking infrastructure in the hinterland is rather limited. The tech class has poor exposure to critical social theory in order to understand the impact on the ground. There is an empathy deficit.

“In the long run, this is nothing short of a revolutionary measure in moving a traditional cash centric economy to a fourth industrial revolution era. It’s audacious, brash, and a future-centered decision, which has changed India, its people, politics, and money game forever,” Prasad declared. “India will be ‘before demonetization’ and ‘after demonetization,’ BD and AD.”

However, there are obviously still many cogs in the works before India can truly depend on its digital financial infrastructure, as Prasad discovered during his travels:

India is lived in the hinterland. Even when the card terminals are available, the telephone lines are not robust enough, as they are prone to weather centric disruption. The pharmacy today, in North Kolkata- Laketown, the card machine was out of order, the e-wallet application was working after four false attempts. The area has four pharmacies as it is around a prominent medical center, and only one had a non-cash option. In short, the transition is far from complete.

The link :

http://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2017/01/03/after-day-50-the-results-from-indias-demonetization-campaign-are-in/2/#5c0d2777412f

I am also working on a longer read on the lived experience of Demonetization and the frictions at the intersection of social justice, technology and governance.

Demonetisation in the popular imagination 

The authoritarian imagination is now pop culture: Stand Up Comics Bharti and Krishna, on Big Boss mimicking 500 and 1000 rupees notes themselves, quipping that the 2000 rupee note has chips in it that can report excess notes, shine in the dark and what else not! 
People on Big Boss being comically critical of demonetisation and PM Modi having a New Years Eve National Address. The discourse has indeed changed forever.

Dangal: more than mere sport

It is the year of the sports film, Disney has another winner after Queen of Katwe in Dangal. A technically efficient film, is a study in to patriarchy and poor sports administration more than the wrestling sequences. The underdog comeback narrative stays on course as in Mira Nair’s Queen of Katwe, or in the Malaysian Soccer Film Ola Bola. Geeta and Babita inspired Sakshi,are true trailblazers. Aamir Khan stays on his ‘intolerant’ ways challenging cinema, bringing an international film to our screens. Two years of work, is reflected on every sequence in the film. Aamir Khan digs in as the middle aged Mahavir Phogat, and lends a character which makes him the spine of the film. The sport sequences feel like live sport, and not filmy. Must watch, Sultan is a pale shadow in front of this film.

 

Writing as Politics: Six years of questions and critical conversations

I started this e-platform as a online note pad cum thought repository after years of writing on social media, debating and curating platforms for change. I am a strongly opinionated person, and radical politics is something which i believe runs through the little small talk that we spew. The banter, the sexist jokes, the acceptance of decisions that are questionable. So writing for me is not mere text, but as access points into an alternative imagination, alternative discourse which makes us think, question and evaluate our choices. Change Thinker has since then evolved into a platform for driving conversations for social change through writing from Film to Public Policy. Films are grossly political as is text. I have gone on to write for other media platforms (Huff Post, Corporate Citizenship, Alochonna) and have been interviewed on crucial issues of the day (Food Security Bill, Demonetisation) on Al Jazeera International, BBC World and Forbes.

Digital space is far from radical although politics is embedded in to every search through skewed algorithms and automated propaganda on Twitter, leaving the corporate media machine aside. As the noted Journalist P Sainath quips, which i will paraphrase: Digital is reflective of the biases in real life. AirBnB and Uber are instituting anti discrimination policies to safeguard against biases. How many startups in India have grievance redressal mechanisms as per the Company Law 2013 and Women Harassment Act 2014. Questioning the rhetoric, is the beginning to create a better world. Call the Bluff. This platform is not a PR job. This is activist writing towards a normative politics. Thank you Friends for reading.

More Forbes Interview’s on Demonetisation

Its been lovely to speak with Forbes Contributor Wade Shepard, in his series on Demonetisation crisis in India. These are two more articles which came out earlier this month:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2016/12/14/inside-indias-cashless-revolution/#30de32e618c7

http://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2016/12/12/one-month-in-whats-the-impact-of-indias-demonetization-fiasco/#1e6f7d3e62eb

Excerpts of my interview from the above article:

“The unbanked and informal economy is hard hit,” explained Monishankar Prasad, the New Delhi-based author and editor for Alochonaa, an Australian current events publication. “The poor do not have the access to structural and cultural resources to adapt to shock doctrine economics. The poor were taken totally off guard and the banking infrastructure in the hinterland is rather limited. The tech class has poor exposure to critical social theory in order to understand the impact on the ground. There is an empathy deficit.”

“A lot more retail outlets are accepting e-wallets, including my laundry provider and my dabbawala,” commented Prasad. “This is revolutionary, and survival of the fittest.”

“This is a public sector innovation unthought of in history. A cultural-economic revolution in the making!” exclaimed Monishankar Prasad, a New Delhi-based author and editor, about India’s demonetization initiative and subsequent drive towards developing a cashless economy.

Travel Diaries

There is something beautiful about the good old Tarmac, the roar of the A320 engine and the chilly Delhi air on a Thursday evening just reaffirms the feel that I was made for travel and for jotting down the notes from journeys near and far. Fourth city in a week, Kolkata here we meet you after half a year, of turbulences in Rana Dasgupta’s Capital and the Start Up Life.

The Sustainability rhetoric does not work any more

Reimagined or Reimagining Sustainability is often a corporate jargon, as a green washing rhetorical device. Sustainability is social and environmental justice with teeth, and the normative politics is subsumed within the pragmatic instincts of neoliberal capitalism. I have heard always that sustainability is a cost centre than a profit centre and costly measures are taken to cover the compliance requirements as per home country legal architecture. Sustainability as a reputational risk management tool is again pragmatic and does not go far enough. Sustainability is ethics, and is contextual. In a start up or the ICT sector it might be gender diversity and grievance redressal mechanisms, while for a manufacturing stakeholder it might be waste management. Indicator building and Monitoring and Evaluation help, but in a post Truth Trump Era, Sustainability might just mean an ethical work environment.