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.

Alas… I am ordinarily Human….

I am man of a few abilities; more frailties than one can count and makes a reasonable living to call himself middle class. Everyday in the media I am bombarded with visuals and text of folks who seem to be in the top 1% of their trade (the rest 99% are the aam aadmi or humble Samaritans trying to making a scraping living).  This does not imply that I am lacking confidence or aspirations. Just being realistic, taking stock of the everyday battle called life. Just like everyone, I have been through the grind; college, higher studies, first internship, first job and so on. But, this trail has been littered with debris too like grad school application rejections, failed job interviews, low scores in exams. It has taken me time to see what things I am adept and which areas in which I suck big time la. Sometimes, too many failures and missed opportunities have a bearing on ones mental frame of mind. But, I never forgot the F5 button: there is always a refresh mode to life. Starting off on a clean slate is the thing to do when pushed to the wall.  It is painful to leave an established set-up, and I have done it four times orready lor. There is nothing more emotionally over-bearing than to lose friends and a sense of community that one has invested dearly in. But looking behind too often, makes one lose vision of the future. Try and make the present a brilliant one, easier said than done but the present initiatives make the pathway for future success. Just be patient with the present.

Personal life is also life, which I have often lost track off. Parents matter and spending time with them is precious. Sometimes our parents need us more than our urge to have privacy to watch nonsense material and binge drink with pals. I have been turned down by women that I have held a torch for. I have gone into an emotional down ward spiral like most young men. But they have also inspired to look good, dress well, be responsible. Rejection by women can be amazing motivators.

These stories do not come out in Big Media. Only Zuckerburg suckers are around it seems. I like Sheryl Sandberg: She offers real advise to women like deny sex to your husband if he does not help you out in changing diapers of your baby. Amazing stuff I must say. Real People are not dead. 

Lets Get Real Guys : Hypocrisy about morals

We all know (especially who live in India) that this country is best described as organized chaos. Rahul Gandhi ji during his recent dialogue with Industry leaders at a FICCI summit compared India to a beehive, an apt analogy I must admit. India is not functioning at its periphery but resilient at its core. We know how to survive. We make sure that our houses are clean but we dump garbage outside our windows.  We commit sins in our personal spaces but act holy on the outside.  We watch Munni and Sheila on TV but we expect to marry a virgin. It is a sign of a deeply hypocritical polity.

As a nation India, is a civilizational state like China; very old but politically very new. Our cultural ethos and institutions are resilient and almost immune to political changes.  Politically we believe in shouting in response to Arnab on News Hour in the comfort of our air conditioned drawing rooms but do not go out to vote.  We feel good by signing an online petition at Change.Org rather than participating in an actual protest.  Most guys who drink in India have not informed their families that they do (my parents are cool) and feel uneasy to introduce their girlfriends to family. We believe in purity as a cultural virtue (remember Sita’s Agnipariksha?) but do all sins of the flesh (ask Nityanand ji :P). Incest in common, rapes is commonplace. These acts are dastardly and condemnatory. These guys deserve the harshest punishment in the shortest time.  Yet on the other Live-in relationships and single night stands are considered immoral. We are slowly turning into a nation of perverts. I am ashamed to be an Indian Man now days.

 The Indian Male has to learn to accept that woman can earn more than him, be smarter than him and can call the shots. She has a choice.  A severe attitudinal paradigm shift is needed. No amount of legislations can stop sexual crimes if the Indian ‘MCP’ does not change. If a girl rejects you, do not take the cowardly path; prove to her that you are worth her time.

Moral Duality, Sexual Perversion along with the inability to accept the weaknesses disintegrating our social fabric in the face of globalization is impairing our ability to deal with serious deep issues at a social as well as on a personal level.   The only way to start is by beginning to accept the flaws. There is a tendency to overhype sex as a sacred sacrament too. This attitude is the root of all evil.

Lets change ourselves as a polity, one household at a time. And Sex Education does not work as my 9th grade Science Teacher skipped the section in the anatomy class about the reproductive organs.

Is the Secularism Question, really secular?

In India the reality is that the discourse on secularism boils down to trivial politics. As per the 42nd amendment (in 1976) to the constitution the politically contentious term ‘secular’ was added to the preamble. So it seems that Secularism is a relatively recent addition to our dictionary of political discourse.  A ton of writings has already been authored by intellectuals and scholars from the social sciences, so I would not mind adding my two cents to the burgeoning literature volumes with this post. This question about secularism is overbearing the entire national conversation in the run-up to the next national polls, hence it is vital that secularism as a notion is de-constructed to release its essence, to make meaning out of the term.

Secularism essentially calls for the separation of the Mandir and the Mantri-land, but India has been a state where religion has been a personal affair but at the level of the state, faith is not a guiding force as in the case of Islamic Theocracies in the Mashreq.  Secularism as a term is mis-construed as minority appeasement as it is equated with reservations and soft approach towards terrorism (which is highly debatable as left wing extremism has been in India since the late 1960’s and Mahatma Gandhi was killed by a right wing hindu fanatic). It has been intensely politicized to the extent that ‘Sickularism’ is a term imposed by the Indian Right on their left wing ideological cousins.  The Indian Right treats the Hindu community as a monolith, but as a 79% block it has many sub-divisions such as backward and schedule castes who do not align themselves very comfortably with the ideology of Upper Caste Dominated Right.  There are also states in India where Christians (North East), Sikhs (Punjab) and Muslims (Hyderabad City, J&K) are in the majority along with major minority populations in large states. In short, the whole secularism debate is a complex one. Minorities too have to shed the victim mentality mindset to be a part of the national conversation on growth. It is a two way traffic always. Give and Take; business and trade-off are the most important tool in ensuring secularism.

Power Politics is played out in the name of secularism.   We have the 2nd largest Muslim Population in the World and the right has no option but to accept it. The Left has to make peace with the fact that India has been culturally as a Civilization: ‘Hindu’. The Congress also has to offer India development along with minority protection which in 1984 it miserably failed in Delhi. The BJP has to make overtures to moderate Muslims to be the part of its growth story plan, which in Gujarat it has conveniently excluded.  Every major political party is guilty of a political sin in a mission to garner votes. And I have not started to even comment on linguistic politics in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu where Hindu from Samastipur is politically pitted against Hindu from Konkan.

The conversation on secularism has to be elevated on a practical platform. How do we embed secular ethos in policy design and planning?

The questions should address broader notions of secularism such as ecological and social justice, equity and economic efficiency in access to welfare rendered by the state. Petty Power Politics in the name of Faith and Identity is easy but regressive; can win one election but there are larger, critical matters at stake in governance.We need to raise above trivial definition based contests on secularism to one, on inclusive growth coupled with equity.

 

 

One Year@Maximum City, Maximum Experiences

Pretty much one year back, I dropped out of my second grad program in Sociology at NTU to rejoin the real world. I was not enjoying the program and knew intrinsically in my third semester in the last leg of my doctoral coursework that a course correction was needed. I love Singapore and everything about it and would like to move back if GOD presents me an opportunity. I took the leap of faith, and all thanks to the present organization I work for I moved back to the organized chaos of the city of my birth, janmabhoomi was to transform into my karmabhoomi. I have had a love-hate relationship with the city, never really felt comfortable here but knew that the city has had a valuable part to play in my manufactured psyche. The thing I appreciate about the place is the ‘Dhando-Wado’ spirit, a ‘can-do’ business type attitude, which makes this heart-less city function.

This city has made a man out of a boy. I have also had the opportunity to travel to some incredible places from Alwar to Anantapur thanks to work engagements.  These have been opportunities to re-explore India, meet some incredible people, make friends and mentors and this experience has enriched me totally.  But, somehow I feel, the time to explore is dwindling by the day and time to make a call for the long term has arrived.  

To be really honest, I never had the faith that I will survive the rough and tumble of Mumbai after a decade overseas of learning and growing up.  I landed up into an empty apartment, with a very global mindset and also took time to bear the emotional distance of being away from friends who are as close as family to me.  This time here has made me realize how much of a ‘Singaporean’ I am ; inspite of not even having a PR.  Education in a particular ethos and culture certainly leaves it signature imprint on ones values.  I long to go back all the time, and I visit the place as often as I can lah. I miss my Kopio at the Food Court at Sunset Way, Clementi.

Time has just flown by, for good or for bad, made me mature for tackling the difficulties of life.  I thank all my friends and mentors for guiding me through this journey so far.

I have cultivated an acquired taste for cutting chai now days, call it Singaporean Pragmatism at work.

 

 

 

Development not Digital Democracy!

Public engagement on social media came of age with the 2008 US presidential polls with the Obama Campaign leveraging the various social media technologies when it was an upcoming medium to connect with the youth. By the time, the re-election bid in 2012 came up; Obama had a crack technology team using Social Media to engage the crowd, for fund raiser and use the power of data analytics to tailor the electoral strategy. In democracies, perception management is the name of the game. Politicians had it relatively easier in the Cable TV era, Web 2.0 time is a 24×7 beast where impression micro-management is a total strain. Every little action performed by a leader is dissected by millions of pairs of eyes. The term ‘Public-Figure’ has indeed taken on a new life. With Modi Bhai and his 3D act in December 2012 polls demonstrating how technology will be critical in transforming politics.

Technology changes every two decades and so does the manner political communication is delivered to the masses. As ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’ as was proved in the latter half of the 20th century, with the first presidential poll debate in 1960, brought about a sea change in how political leaders are held accountable.  Churchill would have never won a TV debate, because the fact is that he was not visually appealing enough;  Sarah Palin was a local beauty queen and Ronald Reagan, a former Hollywood actor and looking good is important for politicians now a days. Maharashtra Politician Raj Thackeray is known to use a vanity van before addressing major rallies. I have to add, he does have movie star looks as well.

Southern India has a track record of movie celebrities, making it big in politics. The era for show business entering politics is passé as politics is itself show business as the desi maxim ‘joh dikhta hain who bikhta hain’ or lossely translated from Hindi as whatever is seen, sells. The lines are blurred for good. Politicians in Urban India hire PR agencies to manage their social media outreach and over all image communication. Modi bhai is a leader in this domain, he hired APCO Worldwide to manage his Government’s lobbying efforts. PR man Dilip Cherian works with political parties, as does Congress leaning activist Sanjay Jha. Mr. Jha’s counter hash tag coinage of #Feku to blunt #CIIPappu ihas turned Twitter into a political battleground of trolls and visceral attacks. Social Media helped catalyze revolutions in the Arab World as well as mobilize the Shahbhag Phenomena, but it is in danger of getting hijacked from an honest platform for free conversation to one driven by manufactured consent.  

We do not caste our vote online yet and internet penetration is still fairly poor in India too. Technology especially Web 2.0 tools are awesome in terms of community engagement. Democracy is still fought in the heat and dust of Bundelkhand and not by the denizens of SoBo on their Galaxy Tabs. Communication is cool, but deliverable Development is the crux of hard democracy.

Tweets are not Counted as votes yet, Right?

Singapura: Field Notes from a personal journey ‘home’

Last week, I had travelled back on a break to the city, which really gave me an identity, a voice and played an in valuable part in shaping me through my two master degree programs. The place is Singapore and this city’s role in my consciousness was further intensified during my recent short break.

Ever since landing up in Singapore’s Changi Airport Terminal 2 I was warmly received by two old friends from my AIESEC Days in Grad School at NUS. We had a short chat over Peranakan Teh Tarik and Kueh at the Airport and then I made my way to my home for the next three days in Singapore. I was fortunate to have visited the Town Area of Raffles Place that afternoon for a meeting then headed to Arab Street for Iced Apple Tea Turkish Style and Beer later on at Blue Jazz Cafe.  Did I mention that I had the opportunity to partake in  authentic vegetarian Bengali fare for lunch too: P

Singapore for me is not about the place, but about the people. My trip was made special by my Singapore Family, two friends who are truly my family there lah. None of the places that i have been this time in Singapore, would be without the blessings of the Singapore Family.  I felt at home in Singapore right from the moment I landed to the moment I had to leave.  From the Idly and Masala Chai at Tekka Centre, Little India MRT Exit C to the Hummus at Arab Street all felt home.

Singapore is the microcosm of Globalization, where can meet a Bangladeshi and a Global German speaking  Chinese Singaporean at Little India for makan on a Saturday evening over a Russo-Uzbek meal and then walk down to a North Indian Restaurant for Indian tea post dinner for an extended conversation.  A lot of my friends in Singapore complain about the place being boring and about the country undergoing a churning regarding identity. Well, my answer to them as a person who wishes to make Singapore home again, is that safety and discipline can make a place seem uninteresting but there is no counter price to good governance and law and order. And regarding identity, every young immigrant nation takes time to find it’s ‘ethos’ and its ‘core’.

Singaporeans are a resilient people and have well-wishers like me all over the globe. And I will be back for my dumpling noodle soup at a food court nearby very soon.

Why Indian Foreign Policy needs to grow some balls?

Dear Rome,

 We are not Tripoli.

Thank you.

The Italian Marines case is a watershed moment for stand offish (read weak) doctrine of Indian Foreign Policy. A sovereign nation whose judicial goodwill is abused and folks who murdered our fishermen are let away with impunity as if the Nation would not be concerned about this latest ‘Italian Job’ after the Ottavio Quattrochi scandal. After severe media pressure and some last minute tough talking by our usually quiet Prime Minister has got the Italians rushing back their brethren to India. There were two sides to this crisis: violation of the faith of the Indian Judicial system which was considerate enough to let the Italian criminals out of jail for two occasions including once for Christmas (Sigh!). As if Indians who are jailed overseas are let out for Deepawali and Onam.  The second side to this story was the easy going attitude of the Italian Government, which it can get away with this nonsense. The sheer lack of respect which the Italians showed for the Indian State was jaw dropping. We are not some banana republic in Sub Saharan Africa for Christ’s Sake.

The Italian Marines issue demonstrates that the Indian State is taken lightly in international diplomatic circles. Our envoys like Pavan K Varma and Vikas Swaroop are simply busy writing books and preparing their ground to enter electoral politics post retirement. Dr. Shashi Tharoor is exempted from this charge because he was a career diplomat with the United Nations Ecosystem. He is aware of the shortcomings of the Indian Foreign Policy Establishment and has written extensively about these in his treatise on Indian Foreign Policy ‘Pax Indica’. One of the startling statistics Dr. Tharoor had stated in this book was that the Indian Foreign Service had less staffer than the Singaporean Foreign Service. Prof. Kishore Mahbubani is a fine metaphor for Singaporean Foreign Policy Excellence. The United States Desk at the Indian Foreign Ministry is a two man desk; compare this with the United States where the State Departments India Desk is manned by 30 old specialists.

We project our soft power through our diplomatic strength. Bollywood and Cricket can only go thus far. As a diaspora boy next door, I found Indian Embassies in the Persian Gulf to be lethargic where our diplomats were more interested in attending ‘Mushairahs’ or Urdu Poetry conclaves than furthering Indian Strategic Interest. Anyway Gulf Postings were considered punishment postings for seniors and the youth considered it a shade better than a posting in Africa. The position of an Ambassador to Riyadh is taken to be a political appointment for an Aligarh based Intellectual for minority appeasement purposes.  The Indian State is seen as a labor supplier to the Gulf incapable of taking a tough stand.

The South Asia Desk at South Block is served by a solitary joint secretary. No wonder, we are neither respected nor feared in our neighborhood. The Maldivians can cancel our contracts, the Bhutanese and Nepalese are welcoming Chinese Investment in their Hydel Power sector strategic to energy and water security in the Sub Continent. Even, the Bangladeshis have allowed for a swanky convention center in the heart of Dhaka City to be constructed by the Chinese.

India is being surrounded by a ‘string of pearls strategy’ of the Chinese Government from Gwadar in Pakistan to Hambantota in Sri Lanka. In the contest for natural resources, India is losing it big time in Africa where as in South Asia, the Chinese follow Cheque-Book oriented,  Value Neutral Diplomacy.

Hindus in Malaysia and Bangladesh are persecuted and the Indian State keeps mum in the name pseudo secularism. Let One Israeli be touched overseas and Mossad will hunt the perpetrators down from Buenos Aires to Beirut.  We need a muscular approach to our external affairs paradigm.  For that we need to amend rules for globally minded professionals to enter the Foreign Service laterally without the archaic UPSC exam format where the provision for a compulsory English Language proficiency paper was shot down earlier in the month by our visionary parliamentarians. Yeah, sure we will be a global power sans English knowing diplomats.

How about Arabic and a Malay speaking Indian guy who grew up in Oman interested to serve the nation in the Foreign Service express his interest to Dr. Tharoor on Twitter some months back and What does the answer come:

‘Write the UPSC Exam’

A very Imaginative answer Sir I thought in my head.

Environmental Governance as inclusive Developmental Architecture: Time for action

There are a few issues with the public discourse on Environmental issues.  Environment matters are essentially political as they are backward integrated in to public values. Environmental issues are livelihood concerns for native communities off the economic grid. The retinue of ‘Quality of Life’ Indicators is contingent upon the environment. Free Market Capitalism and Environmentalism since the days of Rachel Carson,  are always at odds. As the pioneering Environmental economist Herman Daly once quipped that what will a saw mill be worth without a forest captures the paradox of the relationship between the scent of money and the fresh breeze of the forest.  Robert Costanza’s 1997 paper on Valuation of Ecological Services was a watershed moment, in academic circles but incorporating these lessons in mainstream policy frameworks is all together a different cuppa. Valuing and taxing Greenhouse gases through CDM and other market oriented vehicles have resulted in a mixed bag. These instruments have been appropriated by neo-liberal forces to extract money out of multi-lateral institutions rather than catalyze foundational transformations which take longer timelines. My environmental policy professor at grad policy school at the National University of Singapore was right when he meant that it is only money that prompts people towards normative ends and not good intentions alone.

The real issues regarding the metastructure of Environmental Governance get drowned in the cacophony of the rhetoric between Growth Fundamentalists and Ecological Activists. The price here at stake is usually quite basic; clean air and water. Investment Bankers drinking beer on a Friday evening at a South Bombay Pub will like to breathe cleaner air, as a person cannot buy clean air in a can. The Bottom-line matters but the biosphere does count slightly too.

This seems very simple but political will backed by resources along with active community engagement is the key. I can visualize another pitfall. The policy community is good at theorizing problems, but activating those ideas in to concrete action is the chink in the Developmental Architecture.   There is a slip between the cup and the lip. Civil Society, Industry and Government all have their own agenda and there is no synergy in thought processes for concrete action.

The National Advisory Council of celebrity academics and activists are bent towards entitlement welfare legislations. Environmental and Social Justice go hand in hand, and the writer of this post would suggest the esteemed body to focus on incorporating Environmental issues while designing welfare mandates. The Environment Ministry has been tainted with the tag of being the fore-bearer of a new Green Tape License Raj regime. While the perception exists, statistically it’s in correct.

Our focus ultimately needs to be re-calibrated to solve real issues, and embedding environmental drivers in to policy design is a good way ahead.

Post Shahbhag Bangladesh: what’s next?

Bangladesh is currently undergoing a churning unprecedented in its recent modern history, in terms of the ideological struggle for identity at stake. The Shahbhag Square phenomenon has catalyzed the youth untouched by the politics of the ‘Mukti Juddho’ or the Liberation War of 1971, to carve a new discourse concerning where can Bangladesh head in the forthcoming time. An independent movement fermented by bloggers by channelizing popular unrest regarding the lack of punishment for the ‘razakars’ or the war criminals of the independence era  has been kidnapped by the very divisive forces that it is trying to counter. A clean ‘snatch and jerk’ break with the past does have to overcome the historical inertia of the prevalent status quo of the decadent political system. 

Initially, the youthful exuberance of the Shahbhag movement was appropriated by the governing regime of the Awami League to impose its will as far as the sentences to the convicted Jamaat leader’s matters. The loud cries of ‘Phashi Chai’ or we want hanging from the youth of the Dhaka Art College at Shahbhag added to the feel of the revolution. With leading Bangladeshi music bands and poets entertaining the protestors with tracks; it seemed that it was the epitome of cultural ethos which Bangladesh stood for. Even Kolkata artists such as MP Kabir Suman joined in the festival atmosphere of the protests.

Most Bangladeshis adhere to a secular, inclusive version of Cultural Islam which is tolerant of other faiths. I grew up in Muscat where my household cook was from Dhaka and we had friends from both sides of the Padma River, with whom we discussed Nazrul Geeti and other forms of culture. Sadly in Bangladesh currently the Shahbhag agitation has been tainted with a ‘clash of civilizations’ color; a western secular school of thought versus an orientalist Islamic vision of the nation. The Jamaat, being pushed in to a corner has racked up the perennial issue of the religion being under threat, is in sighting violence against minorities and others whom it feels is not Islamic enough.

The entire agitation has been diverted from a secular movement asking for punishment for the war criminals to a violent political project with various parties seeking to extract its pound of flesh from it.  Whichever way this agitation is heading, is immaterial as it has sowed the seeds for a more egalitarian Bangladesh.

Why Brand Modi needs to be Team Modi in order to win?

Narendra Bhai Modi has already started his campaign towards 7, RCR. He has lead Gujarat with a confidence rarely seen on the Indian political canvas. Excellent Orator, a macho image and a development czar almost in the mold of the initial years of Lee Kuan Yew, all make him a hit ticket entity for the urban youth. The recent fracas with the Wharton School withdrawing an invite, has transformed him into a sociological totem of nationalist prestige. Whenever we watch Narendra Modi, we feel the strong leadership we have missed with our current technocratic Prime Minister. He seems connected with the pulse of the nation, unlike a NGO leadership style-esque of Team Rahul. May be the National Advisory Council bug seems to have inflicted the mainstream congress too. ‘Five Star Activists’ do not win elections. Kejriwal is understanding the difference only too well.

But unfortunately for Modi Bhai, India is a parliamentary democracy unlike the United States where he is denied a visa. APCO Worldwide PR Strategy is effective but he needs more regional leaders and grassroots Sangh Parivar cadre to spread the word in Rural India. Modi needs to be a consensus man, get more allies on board apart from the Akalis and the Sena twins. Selvi Jaya Madam is sitting on the fence, characteristic of the national game plan of Dravidian parties. Nitish is blowing his own developmental trumpet with a trip to Pakistan to spruce up his minority credentials. Indian Politics is all about tokenism. That is the problem with it.

Modi needs a Shivraj Singh Chauhan and a Manohar Parrikar in his team to win comprehensively. A Rahul has a Diggi Raja and Jairam with a ‘PC’ as his henchmen. A leader from the South would help Modi.

Electoral Politics in Coalition Politics is a team sport. It is time that a ‘Team Modi’ complements the brand. Even Atal ji had a LK Advani and Jawant Singh to supplement his leadership. History holds important pointers.