Through the Highways of Globalization
This is the most important development for me personally from Modi ji’s visit to Malaysia, as a long time advocate of transnational social protection for migrant workers. Linking social security in the host and destination countries in the labour migration corridor is needed.
The Bombay Book Store Crawl.
Prithvi Theatre Book Store- great for art and cinema books
Granth Book Store, Juhu – global magazine and book collection
White Crow, Jio World Drive – strong food book collection
Modi ji in Kuala Lumpur in his address to the diaspora ticked all the right boxes, roti canai, teh tarik, Netaji, Azad Hind Fauj, Tiruvalluvar chair at UM, movies, heritage etc. Modi ji in my rather deep interactions in Malaysia is popular with the Hindu Diaspora, and he paid homage to this very community in the address.
Modi ji called for more Malaysians to visit India in particular the Malay Muslim community, for greater people to people ties. India has a definite cache thanks to its large diaspora, but more needs to be done with larger investments in watering the goodwill.
Entering a space is often an invitation to an exhibition of photography, a sensory attempt at learning the visual language. The exhibition on Ustaad Zakir Hussain photos by the legendary documentary photographer and artist Dayanita Singh was an education on how an archive to remember an icon, which captured the public imagination for decades, is done. The photos tell a story, of the artist, of the photographer and the act of taking the photo, and when to not take one is a story is itself. The editing of the photos and the sequencing of it, with the music of Zakir Hussain in the background is a way to remember the icon of ‘Wah Taj’ in a particular way.
The writer, Geoff Dyer who is an erudite commentator on the world of photography over many books and essays, led the dialogue with a deftness which only an acute observer of the realm of art and music can facilitate. An hour of conversation, was equal to a deep lesson on the art of taking the image. I had met, Mr. Dyer in Kuala Lumpur where Seni Pusaka had organised a dialogue at the tony Cult Gallery with the Malaysian public intellectual, Mr. Eddin Khoo. The tuak had nicely watered the conversational setting.
I am a compulsive photographer and writer, and do it in the spirit of documentation, in the same vain as Dayanita Singh. It gives me great joy that documentation itself is an art, or a means to it. The role that access and social capital plays in the art was a significant acknowledgement in the dialogue. As the final moments literally before the exhibition closes, it was a moment of celebration for the work of Dayanita Singh and the memory of Ustaad Saab, who was ‘charm personified’. These archives are what remain of an icon, as the photo returns the person from death, paraphrasing Barthes.
We write all the time, for work and regular communication in daily life, but we hardly take a class in writing ever. I am an engineer who always wrote but never ever took a class in writing. An MFA was never on the radar, so one made a reading list, such as this one. An important reference on the tactics of writing.
At the Infosys Science Foundation’s event at the majestic Asiatic Society in Mumbai with Harvard PhD Candidate, Mohit. Professor Kooria speaks of stories as indigenous sources. Dr. Amitav Ghosh generously cites Professor Bishara’s work, Sea of Debt and Monsoon Voyagers as examples of innovative histories. He provokes Indian Ocean historians to work with other miracle stories, especially from Indonesia. Sparkling and Imaginative, beyond the h-index hegemony.
The trouble with ESG compliance and real problems (read air pollution, waste management etc) is the detachment with the politics of public health and the disclosure which is risk based, but risk for whom? The investor, community or the government?
Unless environmental issues matter at the ballot box, what will corporates, disclose? Zilch.
Such a brilliant book, swallowed this read on professional services venture building in two days. As a consulting venture builder who has gone from minus one to one, this book spoke to me loud and clear. I wish i had read this a decade ago.
Trilegal: The Making of a Modern Indian Law Firm by Akshay Jaitly is a must read for any professional in the professional services space, the why, the how and the what of building through innovation and integrity.
The ‘End of History’ has clearly not ended. The Great Power Games have returned, and how we structure purchases in an era of great volatility, which is the act of inducing deliberate disorder and chaos, will be a reality.
We are in year two of the age of hot wars: Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza and now Caracas show that wars are a tool of necro-capitalism, as Klein and Zizek had written many years back. With Taiwan and Greenland (read AI and Critical Mineral Value Chains) joining the proverbial war zone, the global economy is up for turbulent headwinds.
We are in the Age of Entropy. The playbooks since 1991 have been torn.
The hot war environment continues, with a Trumpian Eye-Raan on the anvil. Oil and Gas prices will spike and eventually reduce, giving renewables a tough run. Power Geopolitics is back for good, will be the case even after the mid terms. Geopolitical consultants will laugh their way to the bank while sustainable buys will struggle unless it is a resilience play, and where it structures financing to the places, capital is needed the most.
Great power struggles will frame how we think about transaction risk.
Change Thinker 