Conversation with Cabbie: Singapore Part II

Today I met a super smart Chinese decent Taxi Uncle whose geopolitical understanding is better than an International Relations expert. Spoke about Narendra Modi and his developmental agenda and his ideological convergence with east Asia. He said that ‘Development leads to peace’. He said he admired Narendra Modi as he was trying to clean up the Ganges by studying the Singapore model (Singapore River and Marina Barrage), and by beating lethargy out of the system on the same lines as Late Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.

He also noted that Development in Singapore is about taking down 20 year old buildings to build new structures with the latest technology such as replacing copper wires with fiber optic cables. He said that newer MRT lines impact taxi driver incomes, especially along the more affluent Bukit Timah Road.

A proud Singaporean who said that his first duty is to protect the country. Respect. ‪#‎Sg‬

A thought about Spectre

Spectre is a neat conclusion to Casino Royale, The Quantum of Solace and Skyfall series. The global canvas is impressive and the focus on information politics and surveillance (think Snowden, Assange and Foucault) is raw and contemporary. Sam Mendes has a slow method to story telling, which makes Bond human. Neat watch, better than Skyfall. ‪#‎changethinker‬ ‪#‎spectre‬‪#‎bond‬

Writing as a mode of Activism: Do the structures listen?

“I will tell you this, I may be dead, but my ideas will surely not die.”

– Saro-Wiwa, Ogoni-Nigerian Writer speaking to the tribunal that sent him to the gallows

I grew up in the milieu of post liberalization middle class India and the diaspora in the Gulf resembling a similar socio-economic sentiment, which held the socialist ideals in great contempt as the economic ideals then were of the emerging Asian Tigers. The downfall of Calcutta from an industrial powerhouse to a pale former shadow, due to the policies of Left Activism such as ‘Hartals’ (Public Strikes) and a poor work culture; framed activism, and speaking for the margins pretty passé. I grew up in a household filled with Marx and Engels and ‘Das Capital’ being a prominent feature in our house library in Navi Mumbai. We did not have fancy couture furniture, but we surely had Marx.

Activism was framed in the 1990’s Star News and India Today fed discourse as a relic of pasts economic sins. Activism was the forte of the chic ‘jholawala’ the well-heeled latte drinking intellectual usually a product of the famed Jawaharlal Nehru University, Presidency or a Tata Institute of Social Sciences with an Oxbridge or Ivy League degree. The other extreme was the grassroots activist working in the rural hinterland in India, with demonstrable sympathies towards the left. This was ‘India Unbound’ in the words of Philosopher-CEO Gurcharan Das, as the IT/Engineering Major-MBA combo educated urbane Indian was out to seek his pot of gold (Humanities Majors in India simply do not make the mention even). The Infosys-HCL success story was shamelessly circulated a number of times.

The poor, marginalised Indian was not sexy enough for primetime news. ‘India Shining’ failure ushered in Left supported socialist politics of the Congress for a decade. More than secular progressive politics, graft and slow development dominated the discourse. It was known as the ‘missed decade’ by the TV Studio commentators. This was the decade that supposedly would have brought India in touching distance of China. We had a ‘Harvard Man’ in office, in the words of the most influential global justice activist and writer of our generation Arundhati Roy. Yet, unbridled greed filled orgy of graft derailed a government which had some good social welfare programs on ground such as MNREGA and Public Health initiatives which this Modi regime is dismantling in favour of private sector involvement, as Dalal Street dons wield influence rather than the aganwadi worker in rural Ratnagiri. Activists of all color as represented by the corporate media as road blocks towards the utopia of late capitalism. People displaced and killed by riots or by mega projects are simply footnotes in a report, gathering dust in a ‘sarkari’ office.

No one will scream ‘The Nation Wants to Know’ for the invisible Indian who cannot buy a share for a blue chip. Activism is not aspirational, the 42 inch flat screen TV in the living room is.

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Activism and writing are connected with the common bond of language. The limitations of language is the limits of our imagination in the words of Wittgenstein.

The English educated elite dominate structures of power. I am one of them. English is not a language in India, but a ‘Class’. English has the appeal of connecting the average middle class Indian to the global circuit of capitalism. The IIT’s and IIM’s have their content taught in English and not in the vernacular languages. English bequeathed by our former colonial masters, has helped the South Asian diaspora to be enormously successful. We have had a rich literary tradition of Indian writing in English. Chetan Bhagat, the enormously commercial writer in English, has brought ‘Ingris’ to the first generated educated in India. He has democratized reading in English to the masses, however pop culture it might be.

But, the chasm between India and ‘Bharat’ is accentuated by the access to the English Language as well. English perpetuates an elitism driven by language, and removes the Lutyens Delhi elite from the conversation on the ground in Satara or Purulia. There is a positive in knowing English as it gives the writer the access to engage the world.

How many vernacular translations do we read?

English has enabled us to converse with global commercial and political elite and sometimes challenge them. Access to the language has been us the cultural resources to challenge dominant thought processes of the times. Aruna Roy, Yogendra Yadav, Harsh Mander and Medha Patkar all speak in English to engage with the wider world with the stories of struggle and resistance and build solidarity with the movements of the global south. Many an underground Naxalite leader has been known to be well-versed in English. Power is reinforced and circulated through the language, and writers have used this weapon to challenge the present, in the hope of a better future.

Does the knowledge of English alienate the urban Indian from having the consciousness of the marginalised?

Lobbying for social change, unfortunately needs the lexicon of resistance, and English is unfortunately the Lingua Franca for achieving this end. Ambedkar encouraged his followers to learn English as a tool to beat caste oppression. The language of the ruling class is not oppressive and emancipatory at the same time as it depends on the context. The subaltern who are erased from the mainstream discourse, often are erased due to the inability of communicating in the language of power. Writers although guilty of the ‘politics of representation’ in text, lend a voice to the silenced and this is the essence of activism; speaking up when all others are muted.

*******

Writing as a form of activism enables the helpless soul to speak to the structures of power, even if it does not listen. Rob Nixon in his seminal environmental justice work ‘Slow Violence’ writes

“In one of his final letters from detention, Saro-Wiwa assured his friend, the novelist William Boyd: “There’s no doubt that my idea will succeed in time, but I’ll have to bear the pain of the moment. . . . the most important thing for me is that I’ve used my talents as a writer to enable the Ogoni people to confront their tormentors. I was not able to do it as a politician or a businessman. My writing did it. . . . I think I have the moral victory.” “

Saro-Wiwa used his writing as a strategic tool to voice out the oppression that his Ogoni micro minority faced in the oil rich delta region in Nigeria. The oppressors were the state and multinational companies in his words. He faced the gallows as he used his writing as a tool for activism. The gallows did not silence his ideas of fermenting resistance. Silencing a writers voice, amplifies his message, and this creates the resistance he ultimately wishes to generate against the military dictatorship and the transnational oil corporation bed fellows, which have laid the delta region polluted and bereft of its natural ecosystem. Saro-Wiwa utilized his writing to force the structures to listen to him. Activism needed guts, which he had in ample measure. His death brought the focus on the oppression, which was the ultimate oppression in it itself.

His writing succeeded. Arundhati Roy in our times speaks against the ‘Upper Caste Hindu Corporate State’ that is India and sometimes speaks to Ed Snowden in Moscow regarding the Anti Imperialism Project, which she has so successfully written and spoken earlier. Her voice brings the global lens on anti-minority and anti-poor projects in India in a space where it is a rare flicker of hope.

Writing becomes impactful with guts. Activism is all about guts and intellect, hence writing and activism are good bed fellows.

Climate Change as a livelihood narrative

As a trained environmental engineer, am inspired by Amitav Ghosh and Arundhati Roy as writers who frame climate change in the language of humanities with an intense soul, rather than speaking about the 2 degree temperature rise as a dry statistical chart. Stories are the data of the soul. In Climate Politics season, it is time to engage to make a dent. Read of the Sundarbans in Amitav Ghosh’s writing in backdrop of climate change. Communicate better. Climate Change is a livability matter. ‪#‎COP21‬

India-Singapore Relations: Time to move beyond Infrastructure and Finance?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits Singapore on the 23^rd November for a State Visit to Singapore in a longer follow up visit to earlier on this year when he visited the island city state to join other world leaders after the founding father of Singapore, Mr. Lee Kuan Yew passed away. The general discourse around India-Singapore relations is a prosperous Singapore as an investor in a booming BRIC country market. This narrative driven by the business media is however under-nourished. The Singapore Model of Development pioneered by the late Mr. Lee Kuan Yew which brought the city state global fame in transforming itself from ‘The Third World to First World’ has undoubtedly inspired the 100 Smart City program of the Modi Government. The new Greenfield capital of Andhra Pradesh: Amravati is being designed by Singaporean Urban Planners and has cemented the relationship of Singapore as a symbol of urban excellence¹. Singapore is the largest source of Foreign Direct Investment in India² and testament to this unique fact is the recent visit of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and a team of bankers including the Managing Director of the State Bank of India to lure institutional investors in to India. The commercial relationship is a deeply symbiotic one. State Bank of India and ICICI Bank along with others have retail banking licences in Singapore.

Many Indian Start Ups move to Singapore for easier access to capital and regulatory clarity. In the past Spice Group moved base to Singapore. Singaporean Water Technology Major Hyflux has picked up Desalination Projects in Modi’s Gujarat; Singaporean Banks and Sovereign Wealth Funds are increasing their investment footprint in India. Hyderabad based Environmental Infrastructure group Ramky maintains parking lots as a Facilities Management firm all over Singapore.

These examples are however fleeting reflection of the Singapore-India Relationship which shares a deep historical diasporic bond. Singapore is home to a large minority of people of Indian Decent with Deepawali a public holiday and Tamil an official language. There is a significant presence of minsters of Indian decent in the Singaporean Cabinet including Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanamugaratnam. The Indian expatriate community makes its presence felt from blue collared work to the heads of Multinational Corporations including the CEO of DBS Bank, Piyush Gupta, a former Indian National.

The truth is India does not give Singapore the same diplomatic attention as the USA, UK or Canada where there are similar large Indian diaspora communities. Singapore was the first country to embrace enthusiastically India’s ‘Look East Policy’ in the early 1990’s with then Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong visiting Narsimha Rao and his ministerial team.

Last week, the Chinese President visited Singapore to mark 25 years of diplomatic relations and signed a range of agreements including the third joint industrial park in western China and macroeconomic agreements³. Singapore is majority ethnic Chinese but its relationship with China is layered. Singapore has been an ally of the USA from the Cold War era and has hosted American Military Ships in the past. Pragmatic Singaporean policy has nurtured a close relationship with China from the 1970’s since Chairman Deng Xiaoping visited Singapore and opened up the economy after visiting it. The writer does not sense the same intensity in the relationship between India and Singapore at the diplomatic level. The gap however is more than adequately filled up by Indian community organizations and people to people contact. The same story is repeated in Oman, where I grew up.

The Narendra Modi visit has generated a lot of buzz among the Indian Community in Singapore, with community organizers taking the lead to arrange for the logistics for his ‘Madison Square Garden’ style address at the Singapore Expo⁴. However, only Indian Nationals are encouraged to attend the event as per media reports.

The major language in the Indian diaspora here in Singapore is Tamil and with Narendra Modi’s predisposition with Hindi, how much of it cut will ice with the same community that he is attempting to touch base with, is of question at the present juncture. There has also been a contradictory voice in the Singaporean media in the run up to the visit when Indian American Academic at the National University of Singapore Prof Mohan Jyoti Dutta wrote an opinion piece in the Straits Times on the contemporary politics of identity based on beef and the crackdown on activism in India in the present Modi regime⁵.

“The violence on the margins of Indian society is accompanied by the quick spread of a chilling climate, with a number of prominent rationalists being attacked and/or murdered, allegedly by right-wing religious groups.”

Increase the Soft Power Lens

Singapore is a major mercantile port hub in Asia and a few months back an Indian Coast Guard Vessel on a South East Asia goodwill tour docked at Changi Naval Base, with many of the young sailors in white seen shopping in the Little India Area in Singapore. India competes for influence in the South East Asia region with Asia, where China has a natural advantage with influential diaspora communities who are better connected to structures of power. India’s engagement with Singapore and the region is more effective at an informal business and community level. The overseas Indian Intelligentsia is based here in Singapore with plenty of think tanks at the National University of Singapore and the Nanyang Technological University focused on research themes based on India such as Institute of South Asian Studies. Thousands of Indian Students study in Singapore, and some of them will head back to India to work with the knowledge imbibed in Singapore. Indian Films and TV series have been shot in Singapore since the 1960’s including the Hrithik Roshan starrer ‘Krrish’ which had frames shot in the Business District in Singapore. Indian films both Tamil and Hindi are screened in theatres here as soon as they are released in India, and run to packed houses. The extent of cultural inter-weaving is dense, and the key pillar in the Singapore-India relationship.

The writer hopes that this state visit by Prime Minister Narendrabhai Damodardas Modi would take the Singapore-India Relationship deeper by engaging the non-elite diaspora who send back remittances and leveraging common areas of strength such as a shared understanding of culture missing from the realpolitik world of diplomacy.

References:

‘Singapore: A Portrait in Diversity Photo Book Launch’ – a Slice of Multiculturalism in Singapore

Tom Soper and Ethos Books Publisher

AKM Mohsin, Tom Soper and Manishankar (Right to Left)

In keeping with the ongoing SG50 Spirit, a Photo Book by British Photographer Tom Soper was released last evening at the National Library Building on Level 16 at The Pod, with glitz and glamour. The Photo Book features 50 distinct portraits of expatriates from 50 distinct countries who call Singapore home. The contributors featured were as diverse from a Danish Triathlete cum Lawyer to a Kazakh Harpist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. The expatriates were from very small countries to India. The photo book was alphabetically nomenclature from A to Z and neatly packed in 50 amazing human narratives. The spectrum of profiles was rich and effort was put by the author was intense in order to capture stories, not easily seen or heard in the mainstream media. One such story was my friend Mr. AKM Mohsin, the Editor and Publisher of Banglar Kantha, representing Bangladesh. Banglar Kantha is the only Bengali Language Newspaper in South East Asia and serves as a platform for migrant literature and culture tucked away at a prominent intersection in the Little India area.

The evening was rainy and humid in Bugis when the evening kicked off as we moved in the elevator to Level 16 escorted by a Ethos Book Staff (the publishing company) who was rather curious to know in which language I was chatting away. I was speaking in Bengali. We entered The Pod and to our surprise,welcomed with a goody bag, and some bruschetta and white wine, which confirmed the comfy, high society milieu of the book launch.

Tom Soper, the author was smartly dressed in a suit despite his jet lag from London, having landed in Singapore the same afternoon. He seemed to be chatty, trying his best not to show nerves. A few of the guests, purchased copies and I was delighted to have it autographed by Tom addressed to my wife and me.

There were a few contributors of the book present at the Book launch, making the setting for this rarified evening rather cozy affair. After a few rounds of drinks, the packed seminar room aggregated to fill the seats as the formal event kicked off with the Publisher of Ethos Books introducing the concept and the struggles of printing such a novel work. Tom spoke after that thanking everyone behind the book and explaining his side of the creative challenges and the vision behind the book. He thanked his house help for helping out his family so that he could have the time to dedicate to the book project. A rare moment of humility in the rather narcissistic world of competitive art.

The Q&A session was lively as it touched upon issues of artistic dissonance.

One of the audience was pertinent; Why are all the portraits of the same socioeconomic strata?

Tom, acknowledged that there is a paucity in the diversity as far as the socioeconomic strata in general in the book, but he had featured a domestic help from the Philippines.

Mr. AKM Mohsin was specially mentioned for his activism with the Bangladeshi Migrant Community in Singapore.

Tom has since moved back to the UK where is exploring a similar work in England celebrating the diversity of his forty thousand strong town in this zeitgeist of anti-migrant sentiment. As he said “Watch the Space”

An initiative which commends diversity in Singapore is simply worth acknowledging as Singapore has been a migration magnet over the centuries with people coming to this island to find their fortunes.As a migrant myself I can second the sentiment as Singapore has given me a voice, an identity to vouch for.

Photos Courtesy : Lopamudra Chakraborty Prasad

Conversations with Cabbies: Social Policy Insights

Cabbies or Auto rickshaw drivers from Mumbai to Singapore are the most politically aware and erudite socio-political commentators that one can find as they truly have their ears to the heartbeat of the communities they drive in and unfortunately they are the most undervalued group in the urban ecosystem.

The point of contact/interface between infrastructure and transport policy, local law and order and the community, the entrepreneurial cabbie is a business on wheels. The chatty cabbie is usually interested in a good conversation and passing on his contact details (old school business development ) at least in India and the Gulf, in order to source for a long term ‘Bhada’ or a ride-rent in Mumbai Taxi wala lingo so that he does not have to seek out the retail costumer.

The well informed cabbie with tabs on the pulse on the ground is usually the person with the accurate grapevine regarding illicit activities, election trends or everyday activities in an area. I wonder sometimes, why does not the transport and urban planners of the world, not elicit feedback from these smart men regarding traffic density and other cues while designing, evaluating and planning urban infrastructure. Well, they are a tribe that are highly adaptable as any transport policy change and business model disruption (Think Uber and Radio Cabs) impacts these folks the hardest. The radio cabs have crippled the traditional Black and Yellow Cab (the legendary Kala-Peela) service that is unionized to a former shadow of past, a past where they ruled the roads of Mumbai. Or maybe the Mumbai Taxi wala did not change to the wind of the times. The newer radio cabs are more comfortable than the older ones.

About two years back, I had written two inspiring conversations with two cabbies and one auto rickshaw driver in Mumbai, regarding developmental politics and education as a social elevator. One of the Taxi Uncles I interviewed had a son who went to IIT Kanpur and then IIM Ahmedabad, and ran a private cab service, in addition to driving one himself.

Entrepreneurial cabbies cab earn more than hand to mouth as one Taxi Uncle in Singapore quipped because of the various peak hour, midnight and city area surcharges, but for that a cabbie has to drive for twelve to fourteen hours a day. Older cabbies can’t earn that much as it does not physically permit them to drive that long hours. In Singapore, driving a cab is often a post retirement job (or when you are out of work to pay the bills), and it takes time for the Uncle to learn the ropes, as I recently met a Taxi Uncle who retired a few months back. Recently, a wise 62 year old ex-business owner Taxi Uncle a few days back discussed Singaporean resilience over the next 50 years in the ride back to Clementi from the central part of the island city:

“Singapore money very strong; Hospitals also run like company. All Indonesian Chinese go to Mount Elizabeth Hospital. Got lot of money. Mount Elizabeth Hospital aka MEH is also called the ‘Most Expensive Hospital’. Singapore General Hospital or Super Good Hospital and Tan Tock Seng Hospital as ‘Ticket to Heaven’ Hospital.”

The cost of Healthcare and Living is an undercurrent in the conversations here. A lot of educated folks drive cabs in both cities, which give an insight in to the kind of elitism which excludes people from white collared work. A similar emotion is articulated even in Mumbai. Human experiences have a universal connect concerning survival and aspirations. The same socio-economic strata often migrate overseas to do blue collared labour in the Middle East and South East Asia. A fortunate few drive cabs in Dubai and New York, if they can find visa sponsorship.

I have had the most interesting conversations about the September 11^th Singapore Elections with Taxi Uncles. I am always asked where I am from and what do I do here, and do I plan to settle down here. An important concern of the times we reside in, I understand.

Someone should do an ethnographic study of the taxi driver community. It will surely lead to some interesting insights. I love the music they play in the cab. Once a taxi driver Punjabi aunty was playing the latest Bollywood tracks, and I felt emotionally transported as if I was in Delhi.

With the era of driverless cars dawning in the next few years, will a huge swathe of people already disenfranchised by the service economy lose their jobs? A point to ponder upon indeed.

Paris, Mumbai, New York….. : Lives Lost and Lessons not Learnt

People die, become heartbreaks

People mourn, the next tragedy occurs

the past incident, the casualties become statistics

Academics and analysts research it in to a case study

All the Parties, invisible or visible

‘Non State Actors’ or Terrorists, boils down to suffering on both sides

And the media waits for the next news cycle

The politicos for the next election

The kin of the deceased the next meal……

New York. Mumbai and now Paris; violence has no geography. Let us not vent our anger due to the fear of small numbers now. Peace, Empathy and Understanding is what we need now. Prayers with Paris. Violence spills from the Levant to the streets of Paris. Occupation of Grozny leads to massacres in Moscow, and similarly the Kashmir Valley leads to blood spilt in South Bombay. Destruction of Iraq and Syria led to the migration crisis. Facebook launches a empathy filter. Where was the filter for Beirut, Baghdad or Lagos?

Where is this heading to? Inevitably, to the next round of drone attacks.

The Subaltern speaks to the Cultural Elite: Migrant Poetry at SWF 2015

Yesterday (8th November 2015) was a watershed afternoon for migrant literature in Singapore and South East Asia. The afternoon kicked off by Banglar Kantha Poets practicing by reciting poetry at Dibashram-Banglar Kantha premises. Then, as a cavalcade the Banglar Kantha Poets and volunteers with the community pioneer Mr. AKM Mohsin, the panelist for the Migrant Poetry Event at the Singapore Writers Festival started for the Arts House. The man who started Banglar Kantha a decade back, is the catalyst for many cultural interventions in the Singaporean Literary Landscape. The crew took the 147 bus, alighted four steps later from Rowell Road next to the Parliament and the Supreme Court, walked in to the august environment of the Arts House, in to the seminar room where we settled in. Mr. Shivaji Das, travel literateur and co-panelist in the event and esteemed debate moderator Mr. Alvin Pang, made the seminar room a cultural space to contend with.

The Singapore Writers Festival lending a voice to the cultural aspirations of the Bangladeshi Migrant Worker Community, is a recognition that the marginalized are finally gaining a foothold in the mainstream. The event yesterday afternoon started with five migrant poets (nurtured with Banglar Kantha Literary Forum support and resources) reciting their poetry of migrant angst and experiences.

Babu Bhai, Shihab Bhai, Mohar, Liton and Mahbub performed their poetry to the applause of the over flowing seminar room. The theme resonated with the refined crowd of intellectuals. After the performances, there was a panel discussion probing myriad aspects on poetry written by the migrant community with Mohsin Da and Mr. Shivaji Das, moderated by Singaporean Poet Mr. Alvin Pang.

The panel discussion focused on the motivations of migration poetry of the workers and the Migrant Workers Poetry Competition last year and also the upcoming event on December 13th. Both Mohsin Da and Mr. Shivaji are co-organizers of the event, which has expanded its footprint to various languages this year.

The audience questions touched upon critical themes of the Little India Liquor Ban and who is defined as a migrant? The cross-sectional audience raised the bar of the conversation to a different level. Many uncomfortable issues were broached; due to which the space for holistic understanding expands. The privilege which poetry as an literary art form accords.

This event expanded the discursive space for the migrant in Singapore by bringing forth the migrant voice in the discourse on ideas. This initiative fosters greater understanding and integration with the Singaporean core, a term popularized with the recent elections . This is indeed

The Panel Discussion on Migrant Poetry with Mohsin Da and Mr. Shivaji Das on Migrant Poetry

Mohsin Da’s and Banglar Kantha’s contribution to the Singaporean core.

Mobile, Mustafa and the Migrant in Singapore: Side-notes from the Globalization Narrative

It was a crowded Sunday evening (as usual) in Singapore’s Little India area at one of the major bus stops perpendicular to the iconic Mustafa Centre on Syed Alwi Lane, the retail cathedral of the South Asian Migrant, which is also an organizing node for social interactions on the weekly off for the migrant worker. Evening was receding into the night, the bus stop was getting crowded by the minute with migrant workers from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh in India and Bangladesh as the sense that their precious Sunday has flown away and the early morning commute on Monday morning dawning on them. The motley cacophony of these different linguistic sounds define the ethos of the area, and which without any doubt is very South Asian. It is a lively part of the city, which may be too lively for my Singaporean friends who try to avoid the area on weekends due to the crowd and some taxi uncles have often complained to me regarding the sheer disregard that the migrants have of traffic regulations as the crowd often spills on the street. One taxi uncle of Indian decent once quipped: “This is not India, in Singapore you have to follow rules”. May be the impact of the Little India Riots a few years back is still fresh in the consciousness of people and hence there are (recently imposed) restrictions on drinking liquor across the Little India area in Singapore on weekends after a certain time in the evening in the interests of maintaining public order.

These hundreds of thousands of migrant workers build and maintain Singapore’s global infrastructure such as the Marina Bay Sands, Public Housing Estates, Hospitals and Universities. But these workers stay far away from the city centre where they live in dormitories on the outskirts of the city-state near the Malaysia border. These dormitories are on the lines of integrated, self-contained townships some with even a cinema hall, screening South Asian Films at a subsidized cost. Not all the dormitories are that fancy though, with cramped accommodation being a defining characteristic. But, the Sunday ritual of traveling to the Little India area for the South Asian Migrant is a sacrosanct affair, and no matter the distance and the time required, the migrant will make it the Little India area to catch up with friends and buy their weekly provisions. It takes almost two hours one way on public transport to reach the Little India area from Tuas Industrial area on the fringes where the dormitories are located.

I really enjoy the atmospherics and the cultural milieu of spending Sunday in the alleys of Little India perching my self next to Khana Basmati, a prominent Bangladeshi Restaurant frequented by migrants, as I observe deep fried and oily snacks (Bhajiyya in Hindi or Tele Bhaja in Bengali) being sold as hot cakes. The fried snacks however brutally unhealthy are lukewarm but remind me of street food in Mumbai/Kolkata. Hence, on a Sunday late evening a crowd of workers converged on the bus stop.

The Bus number 66 came; I was pushed and shoved without any regard for the orderly etiquette of the queue in Singapore, which reminded me of my days in a bus stop in South Asia certainly. The workers probably were panicking to grab a seat on the bus, as their journey back to the dormitory would take a while. The bus was theoretically a spacious, double decker one, but with hardly space to breathe, let alone breathe. In this rather limited space, my South Indian looking neighbor took out his android phone and started reading the news on Dina Malar website, a prominent Tamil News Paper in India. Within my eyesight as well, I saw a Bangladeshi man reading news on Prothom Alo Online, the premier Bengali Language Daily in Dhaka. I saw a few others too reading news on the phone during my thirty-minute bus ride with my South Asian compatriots. The migrant keeps in touch with the daily developments in his home country due the smart phone and the reasonably priced high-speed 4G data connectivity in Singapore. Almost every migrant carries a smart phone now a days, resonating with the actions of Syrian refugees in Europe who will hold on to their smart phones at any cost, as it is their last connection to their old lives.

Migration is a development resulting out of poor employment opportunities in their home markets and slightly better pay in manpower importing countries such as Singapore. The feeling on being connected with their families on Skype on their phones (such as one I saw on the bus) or reading the news of their native districts back home, surely make the burden of being a migrant more bearable. I am a second-generation economic migrant with my wife in India and parents in Oman, and do understand the sentiment very well.