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.

Mamdani- The Political Start Up

Su Vaat Che/Daruun/Wagid Zain/Badhiya, Zohran Bhai

The win is a play book of digital global working class politics, where the subaltern sphere was mobilised, through the digital realm through a language of the underdog, a language of hope- something similar to the Yes We Can, the Obama moment which eclipsed many others in the dreary long shadow of the War on Terror.

Campaigning in Spanish, Urdu, Bangla, and Arabic especially was a brave move, calling for dignity in a global moment where the right is marching ahead. The campaigning was about possibilities, rather than delivery. The Obama play book was refreshed for the Gen Z era, where costs of living have skyrocketed and with AI eating away while collar jobs, a vast majority of the educated majority being pushed into precarious gig work, which offers survival but no future. The Gen Z protests have an organic rationale as when the youth see no hope for a better life, and influencers flaunt Dubai bling lifestyles, the frustration can result in a Mamdani at best and Farage at worst.

Retail politics seems to speak to the needs of the subaltern. The need for welfare, or social redistribution is there from CDC vouchers in wealthy Singapore to cash transfers in Maharashtra in the form of Ladki Bahin Yogna. So the rent freeze and the free bus rides have examples from all over the world.

Kejriwal was successful in Delhi, but niche experiments don’t scale well as can be read from the AAP example. The Obama presidency was a case study which taught the centrist way.

The Khoja Entrepreneurial nature was evident in the campaign, and Mamdani at 34 has a few decades left in politics. The start up called Zohran has clearly raised Series A Funding.

Whether he is able to deliver an ROI which is greater than the pitch deck, needs more than creative communication.

Loss.

Loss is not only material in the post truth world, where the flux is a feature and not a bug, as naïveté suggests. As flux is a feature in capitalism as chaos is an ingrained trait, finding an anchoring in this precarious platform era is a challenge, and it not in narratives of resilience or learning where the anchoring imbues itself, it is in the things which matter to us, as anomie and alienation is real, and meaning itself is the fuel to restoration. The glitz is hollow, as the shimmer stays for a while.

Cinematic Geopolitics in Kuala Lumpur

Bollywood as Soft Power

A generation of SE Asians grew up on Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Mohabbatein, and a swathe of Malaysians singing along Bollywood tracks in the most happening public intersection in Kuala Lumpur on a Saturday night fills the soul.

Yash Raj Films and Dharma Productions havre tremendously add of Indian Soft Power. Cinematic Geopolitics in the times of great flux. The musical performance next to an entrance of the Bukit Bintang LRT, neighbouring a cluster of Chinese brands on the Main Street including the Chagee Flagship Store, yet the tunes of Mohabatein persist through the air and in the hearts of Malaysians. SRK was given a Dato-ship from Melaka after the resounding popularity of the Don Franchise, which was filmed in Malaysia.

Deepawali in the Diaspora

Selamat Hari Deepawali/ Deepawali Nal Valthukkhal

As a child of the Indian Ocean Diaspora, it fascinates me to read/observe festivities as a cultural register of resilience and resistance, as many Malaysian Indians whether Tamizh or Sikh are fourth generation, have never been to Madurai or Amritsar for Pilgrimage and yet are rooted in an Indian-ness which is seen on Deepawali, which is my third in a row here.

The Mukukku or Mysore Pak on Deepawali takes on a salience in spaces which are a negotiation of a diaspora identity in a post colonial sense.

1st India-ASEAN Strategic Dialogue

An absolute honor to have attended the 1st India-ASEAN Strategic Dialogue in Kuala Lumpur organised by the International Institute of Strategic Studies and the India Foundation.

As a Southeast Asianist, it gives me great joy to see India engage with the ASEAN, where i have invested a quarter of my life so far.

Thank you to Dr Yanitha Meena Louis, PhD for the kind invitation!

A truly outstanding level of discourse, with the best minds in the business of diplomacy.

#ASEANIndiaStrategicDialogue