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.
Happy New Year is an exercise in cinematic excess and a Fan Girl tribute to SRK by Farah Khan. The Film is nether a thriller as its inspiration the Oceans Eleven Series, nor a complete comic spoof as Om Shanti Om nor a Dance Film as ‘Lets Dance’ or ABCD. A mashup that simply does not gel apart from stunning visuals of Dubai. Although SRK and Deepika are sincere, the film’s plot and editing could have been lean and sharp. The humor is purile and slapstick as Farah’s Brother Sajid has demonstrated in his rather elaborate cinemascape.
Vishal Dadlani and Anurag Kashyap have a gay comic scene exposing the hypocrisy of Reality Talent Shows that’s rather in very poor taste. The music for a dance based film could have been better.
The amateur attempt in evoking sentiments in Long Distance Nationalism during the film were targetted at NRI Riyals and Pounds at the Ticket Counter, and thoroughly reminded of Modi’s Madison Sqaure Garden Hysteria (there is even a Modi Look-alike in the film). SRK please head back to your Swades roots. Pun intended.
The Lahori Chole Puri and Chai with my Dad opposite my childhood theater in Ruwi after the movie really made my day.
Chetan Bhagat is a polarizing figure: an icon who democratized Indian Writing in English for the masses- made a first gen literate person to read ‘Inglis’ and make it cool to brag to your girlfriend or He is demeaned by the literati for being not writer enough as an Amitav Ghosh or Hari Kunzru. Chetan along with Amish have re-defined Indian Writing in English for the domestic audience and not for the Literature Festival circuit crowd. For an IIT-IIM Banker Quant Geek to express the story of his life through ‘Five Point Someone’ and ‘Two States’ were interesting, entertaining reads that had a genuine connect unlike ‘Revolution 2020’, which had the punch for a Phillum Script rather than a book. But, Chetan speaks for the educated post liberalization India who aspires for class, even if the person is not born into class. ‘Cattle-Class’ is the new Class Mr. Tharoor (a minor disclaimer- i am a Shashi Tharoor fan).
Chetan has the pulse of new India, even if his writing can improve in terms of style. His writing involves the polar paradox of a beautiful rich girl and a rural boy, with generous dollops of sex in it (a crucial ingredient for entertainment of the masses). His latest Half Girlfriend, a read which I took three hours flat is entertaining; a love story of a rich girl searching for her identity and well meaning driven rural Bihari boy divided into Elite Stephanian Delhi, NGO sector Bihar and United Nations New York has a contemporary narrative of aspiration, love and globalization. A story which is aptly fit for a Bollywood Film, but one that has a real connect with the new elite and the upcoming masses. Romance in the age of globalization as i would frame it in one sentence.
Chetan should be sent to Rajya Sabha by the BJP and PM Modi. He is a great observer of our times, as a writer should be.
Bang Bang has a certain thud to it, if not the proverbial explosive boom as anticipated. Hrithik and Kat have awesome chemistry and, are the soul of the rather thin story driven venture. Stylized to the T, should have had more substantial character actors weaving the narrative of an espionage drama. Inspired from a Hollywood Thriller (How inspiring is that Mr. Anand); Bang Bang’s strength is the exotic locales of Prague, Abu Dhabi Yas Marina F1 Track and South East Asia in which the incessant action scenes are shot. Hrithik’s dancing and six pack abs plus the oozing oomph of Katrina sizzles up the screen amongst rather mediocre performances of the supporting artistes. Enough eye candy for the raging hormones. Danny as the principal negative character with Javed Jaffery as his sidekick was an interesting villain choice. Danny has a presence on screen to face-off with Hrithik.
More importantly, it was my first movie watching experience in Muscat with my Dad in a Decade. Priceless.
Pic : Neo-Buddhist Imagery in Satpur Village, Nashik District, Maharashtra
Urban spaces are melting pots. These places are objects of survival; an aspiration for the future is nuanced in everyday existence. The sights, sounds and the stark reality is surreal is every way, that one might confront the naked brutality of these interstial voids amongst lattices looking down on them. Jean Braudillard’s ‘Simulacra and Simulation’ and its characterisation of the proverbial ‘Desert of The Real’ is the primary intellectual imagery which comes to my mind. The poverty and its depravation-destitution is numbing although there might be a satellite TV desktop box in the box. No clean water but a Dish TV, the reality of everyday living in subaltern urban India it’s paradoxical at best- aspiration and destitution co-exist on both sides of the page.
Bhimnagar-Bhatpada is urban slum areas in Mumbai; nested between Saki Naka and Ghatkoper East in Mumbai. On top of a hill, easily visible to the airplane landing at the international terminal via its characteristic blue tarpaulins. These communities are characterised by its neo Buddhist symbolism- the shrine dedicated to Ambedkar and Buddha as differentiators from their marginalised history. The motor-cycle is as much taken care of as the sacred cow. Capitalism is a great social leveller as caste melts away in the face of cash, as Dalit Scholar Chandrabhan would quip. Public Toilets are social intersecting areas for building social capital. The early morning loo call is a social event as much as an intimate one. The mainstream political parties such as the Republican Party of India and the Bahujan Samaj Party; who claim to represent subaltern voices in the power structures of democracy have made their presence felt by the signages. I am not very sure if representation in democratic structures makes for real empowerment on the ground. It does on the other hand certainly present an opportunity as a social insurance against caste based discrimination. Often as the case in democracy it’s often the choice between the devil and the deep sea.
The Satpur Village adjacent to Satpur MIDC (an Industrial Zone) in the Nashik District of Maharashtra State in India is another example of the subaltern, social have-nots being collectivized and forging an alternate identity as a tool of resistance. Again out here Neo-Buddhist Imagery dominates the social mindscape. Subaltern communities are a crucial underbelly of urban capitalism as a manpower provider and a ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ consumer base. That is the salvation of the market as when the politics does not deliver, the invisible hand does.
In response to a suggestion by a Good Friend; Here are my 10 favorite reads (not necessarily in any order)
1.A Great Clamour: Encounters with China and Its Neighbours- Pankaj Mishra 2. From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia – Pankaj Mishra 3. The Man in my Head : Pico Iyer 4. This Divided Island: Samanth Subramanian 5. My Friend, The Fundamentalist : Sadanand Dhume 6. The Elephant Catchers: Subroto Bagchi 7. The Professional : Subroto Bagchi 8. The New Asian Hemisphere : Prof Kishore Mahbubani 9. The Malayan Breeze : Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh 10. India Unbound : Gurcharan Das
The Authors above have shaped the way i think, hence the way i write; being a self-trained writer, a owe a virtual debt to them.
In this age of Web 2.0 and democratized information on the smart phone, everyone is a citizen journalist. Take a pic, tweet an event and you are contributing to the discourse, a position previously mandated to the career journalist and the academic. The 140 character brevity does not help all the time as the messy, complex reality of our existence needs nuanced understanding of issues which are often tangled and inter-twined beyond any recourse. Facebook is more of an intimate platform with a Billion plus users, bringing out the narcissistic side in us. I must admit, Selfies are fun 🙂
Some friends on Social Media seem to voice opinion on every single data point from dog food to drones. The essence of research and writing of essays seems to a lost art, exclusive to the academic community and obscure journals which are seldom read. Culture Journals such as The New Yorker, Paris Review or The Caravan are rare breeds. We have limited attention spans, and a 2500 word essay written by Pankaj Mishra may render aesthetic pleasure but it is honestly cumbersome to read such art-pieces on a sub-way side.The audience is niche, not suited to social media blabbering. The 24×7 information machine makes it impossible for a thought leader or a public intellectual to remain consistent, Fareed Zakaria can surely attest.
In depth understanding of a policy matter is mandatory to make an informed call. TV Punditry is sexy and I have been on international TV personally but experts are experts. Hard Work has no substitute.
Let us pass a statement when one knows something substantial. Democratising information is one aspect but information pollution overload is another.
Last week, I had traveled to Goa and Belgaum in northern Karnataka for work. Well, my day job takes me to interesting places. The hilly drive to Belgaum and back to Goa in a day was simply enriching. Goa is very interesting place for an ad-hoc sociologist such as me who is fascinated by the evolution of culture and its associated norms and values. Goa is 65 percent Hindu, although its Portuguese Catholic Colonial Cultural Legacy is over-powering. North Goa along the Maharashtra Border is scattered with Hindu Shrines and Temples plus a few statues of Shivaji Maharaj- the great Maratha Hindu King dotted the landscape making its symbolic power very poignant. Northern Goa is very Maharashtra-wadi or Maharashtra Centric as the Konkan Culture pre-dominates the region. The Panaji bridge divides Goa geographically and metaphorically in many ways. Christian and significantly Muslim South Goa has the best touristy locales- beaches, churches and the casinos by the river like Deltin Royale. Economically prosperous yes, but it has been also at the receiving end of an exodus due to reverse migration to its former colonial master- Portugal and recently to Canada as a lot of Catholic Goans work in the Persian Gulf and they prefer to migrate to Toronto rather than return to sleepy Goa. The declining birth-rates in Portugal are to contribute for migration from former Lusophone colonies such as Macau and Goa. Globalization shows up another shade.
The BJP government lead by IIT educated technocrat politico Manohar Parrikar has emphasized the importance of improving road infrastructure but then been conservative in its approach in making it tourism friendly which is the economic staple of the Goan People. Upholding the Maharashtrian Konkanasta Sanskruti, is more vital than bringing in tourism dollars for Mr. Parrikar and his cabinet colleagues as our friend Mr. Rajesh who took us around Goa and Belgaum reiterated many a time the importance of the political economy of livelihood rather than the Sociology of Religion. No one including the author of this post is disputing the Hindu Fabric of this Nation and to not exclude Goa taking in to account its unique political history since 1961 when it ceded to the Indian Union, but to make Hindu Identity as the bedrock of governance is a bit far-fetched as about 1/3rd of Goa’s demography is Catholic. During the last Parrikar administration, Good Friday was made a restricted Public Holiday! No wonder Parrikar lost; this time thankfully he has been more accommodating as the Catholics of South Goa voted for him. This is incredibly surprising as Mr. Parrikar has cousins in Angola!
Dona Paula with its Singham memorabilia was noteworthy although Miramar Beach could be improved a bit. The commodification of Goan Cultural Symbols seems complete whenever one I met was out to over-sell Goa in which manner possible, although paradoxically, the place did not seem that way.
Goa as a theatre of Culture War is real, as two distinct cultures are vying for centrality in an area of pan Maharashtrian Regionalism. May the Best of the genteelness and gregarious character of Goan Ethos prevail?
A poster of a passport photo studio in central Panjim said it all about the post-colonial redux in present day Goa.
I rarely write book reviews although I read or attempt to read at least 4 full books a month. I rather distill the insights of different reads to analyse the complex messy reality around me. This approach helps me to write my book on urbanization and globalization and also helps to attract a regular readership on my blog.
This Divided Island by Samanth Subramanian, a Columbia educated India Correspondent of The National, an English Language Newspaper based out of Abu Dhabi is a Tour De Force of Indian Contemporary Writing based on the stark realities of the mess after the Sri Lankan Army’s demolition job of the Tamil Tigers and with it the complete subjugation of the minority Tamils in the East and the Northern Jaffna Peninsula in an aggressively Buddhist Sinhalese Sri Lanka. The Book is based on comprehensive fieldwork throughout the curvature of the Island the shape of a tear drop in two years after the Tigers were crushed with brutal thud of a hammer as if a mosquito is being squatted.
A first hand journalistic, but quasi-ethnographic account of personal accounts of survivors, stakeholders and civil society actors mainly commoners give this book a Pico-Iyereque Feel while the intellectual historiography of the Tamil Struggle in Sri Lanka is Pankaj Mishra-esque; both writers whom I deeply admire. The book reflects the churning of Sri Lankan Society and its new contours as a Buddhist Sinhalese Nation, where Muslims and Tamils of all faiths have to live by the dictate of the Buddhist Sangha and its radical advocates as the Sinhala Ravaya (or the Sinhalese Roar) where the Monks in Robes justify raw violence to squash any ideology other than the majoritarian narrative of the Aryan Sinhalese Race. The culture, politics, discourse and history is being recalibrated in accordance with the victors scale; this time is the Sinhalese Sri Lankan State. The 2000 year Tamil History in Sri Lanka is reduced to a footnote as signboards even in the Tamil North are in English and Sinhalese. The ‘Devala’ or Tamil in Sinhalese is treated as dispensable as can be read from the stories that the author shares in this narrative. The Book is divided into sections and sub-episodes and is aptly inter-linked to carve a smooth drive. The details of the book capture the war as a personal calamity rather than of cold political state-craft. The Terror, The North, The Faith, and Endgames aka the sections of the books are named with a specificity of a physicist gripping the essence of the write-up.
The most engaging elements of the book for me were the episodes narrating heart wrenching expulsions of the native Jaffna Tamil Muslims in 1990 on a summer afternoon and how the Buddhist Monks have justified War against Tamils on a racist/religion based rationale which renders a moral passport for state led so called anti-terror purges. Fanaticism of all shades it seems has the same colour. The racist justification it felt was the same as the Nazis had against the Jews and same fervour of medieval animosity of the Palestinian-Israeli Question. The Identity tangle brews bloodshed and similar non Buddhist activities such as riots against Muslims of the Arakan and Irrawaddy Delta in Myanmar by the neocon Buddhist Groups such as 969 have shown that extremism has no rationale.
I would recommend this travelogue thesis on post war Sri Lanka as an add to a serious readers personal library. A sure-shot contender for the South Asian Writing in English awards for 2014.
Recently, there were media reports last month criticizing the Greenpeace Executive who was flying between Brussels and another EU Capital for work every week whereas the commute could be done via a carbon effective route. So, much positive press for being environmentally aggressive on the high seas of the Arctic that Greenpeace is so known for. Last year, the esteemed UK based Charity Oxfam had advertised for an employment position for its Head of Communications with a price-tag of 75K Pounds. Staggering I would contend for a non-profit. But as the tribe of global, corporatized non-profits would retort they need to pay top pound for the best talent in the house. Partially true, but it would certainly not buy sympathy from a college going kid, donating his pocket money to satiate his green conscious. An industry executive whom I to spoke last week was point blank direct in labeling Greenpeace as ‘extortionist’ and questioned about the fuel bills and mobilization costs for the much publicized arctic expeditions. Genuine question indeed raised; which doubts the credibility of the moral entrepreneurship of Greenpeace.
Media Reports of Non Profit Training Seminars in Star Hotels where folks bleed their heart out on poverty while sipping chardonnay is simply not done. Well, one does not have to behave like an acetic, though this does not bring good press to the sector which depends on reputational capital and funder sympathy. Poverty porn creates cynicism and ultimately donor fatigue. In the effort to create ‘Shared-Value’, the non-profit movement has sold its soul to the devil that they so love to mock. The Social Entrepreneurship set-up is commercially not sustainable as there is too little real impact rather than fashionable fluff. They are good souls, but they tend to lose out in the crowd of wannabe do-gooders.
The lack of accountability and transparency in funding as informed by the leaked Indian Governments internal intelligence department report on foreign funding of Activist Non Profits that almost undermined so called developmental progress such as the nuclear power plant in power hungry Tamil Nadu. After Fukushima, the paradigm of risk and nuclear capitalism came to fore and a lot of activists rode the wave against nuclear power. A freshly churned MSF report on developmental interventions in crisis areas indicts non-profits as gunning for funding rather than concentrating on delivering the goods: creating an impact where state actors have failed.
It is time that Non Profits return to their core competence of creating impact, rather than rhetoric and function as true Force Du Resistance in empowering communities to realize their potential.
Every time i switch on to CNBC TV-18 or ET Now, there seems to be a common thread which the business media in India has picked up: portraying the amended Land Acquisition legislation as the demon strangling the animal spirits of Dalal Street Capitalism. Decade long job less growth and economic stagnation of the UPA has given the Modi Administration a free hand in terming every single device of the left of centre resistance as anti-growth. Growth-ism is a totem of our post liberalization culture. Well, there is a chasm between Dalal Street and Main Street. Let the bankers of SoBo visit the chawls of Virar first.
Transnational capitalism has a unique scripture and it has its zealots who preach the word on Bloomberg, Boardrooms and Business Schools. Anyone who has differing opinions is sidelined for un-natural profits at the alter of capitalism by marginalizing communities.
The priests of the bourgeoisie also get relegated to the proletariat of the middle class as was seen during the 2008 financial crisis. India needs manufacturing jobs and that is a reality which cannot be disputed.
Let the ambit of the conversation be broader and expand the boundaries of the discourse. That makes business sense and people are not statistics.
Change Thinker 