The past two years have been a generative space of writing on the cities of the Gulf from Showpiece City to Graveyard of Clerics to Archive Wars to Temporary City to Building Sharjah. Such scholarship in addition to ‘Temporary People’ by Deepak Unnikrishnan has been a sudden wave toward a renewed understanding of the Gulf. These are not merely urban histories but more layered than it meets the eye. Farah Al Nakib’s Kuwait Transformed is a game changer regarding the literature on Kuwait. Sinews of War and Trade by Laleh Khalili is an eye opener on the labor and maritime histories of the region in particular, Dubai infrastructural politics.

These books acknowledge the presence of migrants and minorities and differentiated lens on the Tarikh of the region. There are still narratives of Muscat, Sohar and Salalah to be written along with Abha and NEOM, may be a history in the making (a behind the scenes account).

Writing from the region is an attempt to produce knowledge from the region and with the region. Dubai gets the attention, that is a starting point on writing on other cities in the region too.

Few days can be so emotional as today. I am overwhelmed to get my hands on the absolutely gorgeous book (contributors copy) by @swalif_co aramexed to me from Abu Dhabi to Singapore where i am PhD-ing. It is an honour to contribute my two baizas on defining ‘Desi-Khaleeji’ as a conceptual category to articulate South Asian belonging in the Gulf

What a star cast with Gaith AbdullaNadeen Dakkak among others writing their thoughts and experiences in this amazing creative-critical intervention into understanding a Khaleej that we do not imagine in the news cycle.

Salem AlSuwaidi and team, Shukran Jazeelan!

Please order the book from :

#swalif#gulf#desikhaleeji#writing

Chatting with a veteran ex-cop of UP decent in the kopitiam in Hindi after six months and he quotes Mohd Rafi song in a jiffy, ‘log naheen par haalat bure hootein hain’

His presence lends a sense of continuity to my life in Singapore since 2009, albeit of an intermittent character.

#kopitiamkonversations

Two points not stated in the headline below:

1. Major Indian investment in Ad Duqm, on the Indian Ocean- one hour by flight from Mumbai

2. Hydrogen is the bed rock of the energy transition in the Gulf as existing infrastructure for Oil can be repurposed.

https://www.omanobserver.om/article/1105864/business/black-veatch-in-talks-for-role-in-omans-35bn-green-hydrogen-project

In an article for The Tilak Chronicle last year, i had written about the expansion of the Hindu Nationalist Political Space beyond the BJP, as the Sangh has a larger societal vision. AAP with the ‘Hindu-turn’ with Delhi and Uttarkhand is no surprise.
Shiv Sena is now with the opposition and very Hindu as well.

Climate Change as Automation will create Islands of Affluence, that essentially means those exclusive spaces will be an oasis of normalcy. The sub text is privilege.

PhD Anthropology wallahs don’t necessarily make good political leaders and technocrats, Dr Ghani can write more ‘theory’. He was anyway called by the New Yorker as the ‘Theorist in Chief’

Bovanto from Madurai, a local Tamil Nadu soft drink is popular in the diaspora from Dubai to Singapore in particular Chettinadu restaurant chains. Counter culture is needed for region centred brands which in the global era, is challenging as economies of scale play a role. Tamil Nadu has a strong regional culture, cash and a global diaspora which catapult’s them beyond the limitations of a local clientele. Transnational is often hyper local.

One of the reasons, green washing is prevalent is due to the number of marketing chaps leading sustainability functions of companies, rather than ecologists and engineers who know the science. Climate Change will be addressed by science not by #ESG hash tags. #greenwashing

Never over professionalise anything, it only means that you have created a SOP out of a thing which used to have a soul.