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.

Identity and Migration

Long before the refugee and the humanitarian crisis of the post Arab Spring countries demasking the so called empowered politics of the EU nations and the U.S.; the Indian Subcontinent had one in 1947, where millions died and mass migration occurred due to region based partition- Punjab and Bengal was severed. Identities were fortified into the refugee class ‘Bangal’ and the untouched landed ‘Ghoti’ in West Bengal.

This useless binary is still used to map ones antecedents. In short, migrants and their generations have to bear its scars long after the survival, as the identity affair is subconscious. Identity is used as a weapon to demoralize the migrant.

Ground Zero: Sacred Ground no more

Fifteen years back, the world as we know changed; in rhetoric and reality, binaries were created and institutionalized between ‘with us or against us’ Last one and a half decades of wars, revolutions, springs, summers and ultimately the winter of 2016 resulting in post truth Trump and War Hawk Hillary and millions of deaths. Refugee crisis is a symptom of that process. It all started on this fateful day. Ground Zero is now a memorial and a shopping mall plus office space once again, as sacred ground is not enough as there is money to be made from memorial tours and otherwise. Hope seems a sales pitch. #911

Ola Bola : A cool sports film

Ola Bola is a terrific sports film! Had to watch it after the film festival controversy and PM Najib’s mention during the Merdeka Day address. Saw elements of Chak De India including ego clashes, non enthusiastic parents towards sports and an inspiring pep talk before the end of the match. Some flights can be very cool as watched this film on the in flight entertainment system chewing on pandan cake at 36000 feet. #MH1091

AAP: A Political Project gone awry

In 2013, during my first stint in Delhi, I was surprised and delighted to observe a new urban politics in the AAP emerging from the India Against Corruption platform. Then, after a period of hibernation, they came back with a bang. AAP as an intellectual project floundered when Prof YY and Prashant Bhushan left. In the past few days, AAP as a political project is floundering in Punjab and Delhi. In politics as in life you cannot please all. I hope for the sake of left of centre politics in India, that it is not back to business as usual. Trinamool Congress took almost two decades to have its National Party Status yesterday. Even now, it’s grassroots are former left workers. It takes time to build institutions and processes. Do not be in a hurry.

Media Response and Labor action in a deregulated economy?

I am aware that labor strikes are contrary to middle class sensibilities in India, and take them as relics of a pre 1991 India which everyone in the media is keen to relegate to the confines of history as if Reliance Jio launch is the stuff of history rather than an archaic national strike. Welfare protection in a deregulated economy where credit card is cool rather than a non existent medical insurance.

In an era where labor bargaining and protection is akin to foul language in our media and every day discourse, we have something a miss. In the papers and on the TV, the strike was dismissed as a failure in which unions that are a relic of the past were defeated. If we do not get paid for three months, like Kingfisher, or if a TV channel shuts down, where will these corporate EMI slaves run to for redressal ? Understand the politics behind the discourse, do not buy it at face value.

On Writing well

Work the world, stories will flow. Travel, speak to communities, eat diverse fare, read a book per week. Curate communities of practice and invest in learning. Most importantly, create a unique value proposition in your writing. Simple, yet very sophisticated.

Langkawi Diaries: Nasi Lemak, Nepal and Migration

It was lovely speaking  earlier in the day to a Nepalese chef and staff from Pokhara in a restaurant in Langkawi who have worked in Mainland China/Punjabi by Nature in Cyber Hub\New Friends Colony in the National Capital Region, India. They spoke about remittances, fluctuating exchange rates and below par work with respect to their earlier work in India.

The Nepalese have a massive diasporic community in Malaysia, engaged in restaurant sector work. Migration phenomenon always intersects in a traveler’s life. Globalization which is necessary, and not necessarily evil.

The Speciality of Nothingness

In this age of platforms and pipelines, of scale and splendor, with modernity’s elaborate invisible structures making us their unwilling subjects, it’s time to reclaim the quietness, calmness, disconnectedness, the beauty of being oneself sans pretenses and appreciating the non universality of being small, special and having a voice which cannot be commoditized on an e commerce platform because not everything can be OLX par bech de. Because being oneself is the art which we have lost in our hyper connected world. Try to be no one for a day is also applauded: that’s seals the day, isn’t it?

Small Voices Matter: Social Change at the Margins

Small Voices aka Soloprenuers are an important pivot in making our communities more vibrant as group think is avoided and their risk appetite in curating a world towards normative ends is greater. Scale as a narrative is over hyped. We, in the private sector are driven by the animal spirits of growth ensconced in the ever evolving construct of modernity. The growth narrative is hinged on scale; big numbers and steep percentages and the media seems to be enchanted with them, rarely questioning the real impact in the ground.

Community activists are often a lone breed. They are driven by by a passion which chars them. The small, feeble voices which they echo, is often ridiculed by fellow members as spending personal resources on activist causes which might not bear fruit. The apt example is of the migration NGO’s in Singapore and Malaysia, or even the initiatives focused on transient domestic workers in India, who travel from one end of the country to the other to eek out a living.  These social ventures are focused on empowerment, advocacy and giving a voice which shatter mainstream media narratives such as Bangladeshi construction worker poets in Singapore. But, the focus population is transient, and help from these community activists might be a measure of last resort to the target community. These community activists are often hidden, silently toiling away at the margins helping these subaltern communities. Where does the impact assessment paradigm of grants based funding help in improving the ecosystem, as most soloprenuers  are self or crowd funded, and often do not have the bandwidth to even apply for grants such as a young Singaporean woman trying to help women Rohingya refugees with skills training in Malaysia or couple of friends trying to light up villages in North East India . Institution building takes resources, and a dedicated team. Small voices often work with volunteer consultants and well wishers who dedicate their time and money behind a cause in the form of an event or two, but a protracted conversation on social change needs a distinct fire in the belly which these small voices have, often banging their heads against a wall. But, they still continue working with every new member of their partner community such as Mr AKM Mohsin of Banglar Kantha-Dibashram in Singapore, working with Bangladeshi blue collared migrants for over two decades.

These community activists work in marginalized communities on specific issues, and depend on social media as a free loud speaker to bring these important voices whether the auto driver or the house help in Delhi or the Baul practitioner in rural Bengal. This however, does not discount the materiality of the requirements of running a program on social change, only that scale is often not the solution and that resources are an aid, not a silver bullet.

Impact is catalyzed one conversation at a time, and does not need a grant application to be written.