While walking through the commercial heart of Ipoh town, as I turned into Jalan Merchant; I read a succession of signage’s which felt like the Indian Ocean- Patel, Karachi Trading and Kamdar which were textile shops. I crossed the street and heard ‘Dafali Wale, Dafali Baja’ the Rishi Kapoor starrer and met Mr. Rup, the Sindhi Hindu Gentleman who chatted with me. His father came to Malaya during the 2nd World War. He opens his shop in the morning with Bhajan’s and listens to old school Bollywood film music in the afternoon. He spoke fluent Hindi, and his wife is from Bangalore.

These oral histories are embedded in the Indian Ocean port cities where Kutchis and Sindhi’s had built a trading infrastructure from Gibraltar to Panama as Markowitz had written.

Malaysia on the ticker. The best way to know the body politic of a nation is to travel via road. From KL to northern Malaysia in the Peninsula, along a beautiful road network stopping by Warungs to get a sense of the country beyond touristy brochures and travel bloggers.

As one of a handful of Indian scholars who write on the Bahasa speaking universe, Malaysia is more than KLCC and Bukit Bintang.

When public transportation turns into migrant mobilities on a Sunday, as Bangla is heard in the air, both in whispers and in snatches. Bangla in the public sphere is both seen and not seen.

A Majestic Afternoon of Ideas with the global humanitarian leader, Bapak Adrian Pereira , a consistent mentor to me for many years. So much to learn from his rich legacy of social change as he runs his non profit, The North South Initiative for the past decade with areas of intervention in the refugee, migrant worker and platform worker space.

Usually at the cutting edge of advocacy backed by empirical research, Bapak Adrian does the slow work, by cutting across scales from the Kampung to the Dunia.

Till our next check in, Solidarity 👋👋👋

It was an honor to moderate a panel on the rights of nature, with three honchos of environmental law in Asia, with Dr Georgina of UNEP, Dr Linda of NUS APCEL and Ms. Abe of Client Earth. This technical panel had a full house with a non law background undergraduate audience had an intellectual feast of ideas regarding the rights of nature. @abe.1 had an incredible presentation with case studies from Perak!

Sometimes in a panel full of key insights, the job of a moderator is to allow space in a tight schedule, for the engagement to happen. The audience was engaged with questions from students from China and Thailand. Dr Linda’s insights regarding green courts in China was useful. Dr Georgina set up the panel with an excellent context driving conversation.

Regen Asia 2025 was a Grand Prix of a sustainability event of 600 participants from all over Asia and eighty speakers who were the brightest congregation of talent under one roof. Excellent work by the organising team of all enterprising students. Fabulous work by Bernise and Shaun as mentors. It was great to meet sustainability friends from the NUS ecosystem after years!

Learnt a great deal about the latest ideas on regeneration and resilience. Quite a paradigm shifting event.

Such an honor to be with the stalwarts at Regen Asia at the National University of Singapore. Day One was an intellectual treat for sustainability nerd, yes even after two decades sustainability as a conceptual paradigm evolves at rapid pace.

Regeneration is a key update to the sustainability vocabulary as healing the existing damage ecosystem is critical in addition to plain preservation, which is sustainability inter generation wide as per the Brundtland Report. Sustainability is like so 1990s, actually.

It was great to hear YB Yeo, the former Malaysian Environmental Minister on Rooftop Solar, and economic logic as well as Louis Ng, former Singaporean Member of Parliament on his journey from activism to politics to academia now where he is engaging ASEAN policymakers think climate action.

Learnt also about the tragedy of the commons through a workshop. President Tharman in a conversation panel was the most articulate about trade offs and innovation to reduce the delta regarding the trade offs was inspiring.

Sustainability is more than reporting, it is a lens to view future opportunities.

A spectacular ethnography of a special city, that is close to my heart- Dubai ❤️

Professor @rana_almutawa has gone under the bonnet of this global city, and it has been a joy to have the hard copy of this classic in my hands in Bombay. I have been mentioned in the acknowledgments with other senior scholars such as Professor @nehavora1 @sultanalqassemi among others in the book. So utterly generous.

Can’t wait for it to be signed by the good Professor herself!

Barber Shop conversations are much a reality check on middle and working class notions of masculinity and aesthetics. They are also spaces which offer work to migrants without any schooling, but with skill. No AI here.

Zohran ran his Democratic Party primary election campaign for mayor of the city of New York, in the most creative transnational way possible, reflecting of the global melting pot the Big Apple is. A city of capitalism is also a city which attracts the world for work, and the world arrived at Staten Island or JFK airport to chase the American dream. Zohran, a recent naturalised American citizen is of Gujarati Ugandan and Indian Punjabi heritage. A former rapper, he utilised his Bollywood roots to good use to record campaign reels in Hindi-Urdu and Bangla with Shahana Hanif. His Spanish and Mandarin Chinese campaigns are on point as well.

A template for global city working class politics, as Sadiq Khan in London had shown the way. Their politics might not be compatible with global capitalism, but capitalism needs the very workers that vote for Zohran, the taxi drivers and public housing residents for instance need the social protection and welfare under the precarious neoliberal conditions they serve in.

The November election will be interesting to follow.