Long before the refugee and the humanitarian crisis of the post Arab Spring countries demasking the so called empowered politics of the EU nations and the U.S.; the Indian Subcontinent had one in 1947, where millions died and mass migration occurred due to region based partition- Punjab and Bengal was severed. Identities were fortified into … More Identity and Migration
In this age of platforms and pipelines, of scale and splendor, with modernity’s elaborate invisible structures making us their unwilling subjects, it’s time to reclaim the quietness, calmness, disconnectedness, the beauty of being oneself sans pretenses and appreciating the non universality of being small, special and having a voice which cannot be commoditized on an … More The Speciality of Nothingness
Just met a super courteous elderly Sikh man Sukhdev Singhji in Nehru Place after our biannual health screening, who drove us home. He broke bread with Sir Ben Kingsley during the making of Gandhi and Satyajit Ray during ‘Shatranj ke Khiladi’ as he worked for the producer of these films. He drove for 8.5 years … More Conversations with Cabbies: Delhi Edition
Kabali is a film that tries to engage the minority Tamil diaspora issues in Malaysia, especially the former plantation worker community who are disenfranchised from the mainstream racial politics in Malaysia as they are the subaltern without education and jobs, driving them to the underbelly of crime in Malaysia. Rajnikanth acting as the gangster messiah … More An unlikely Social Justice Narrative : ‘Kabali’ Tales
In January 2015, I went on from being a petroleum industry consultant in Oman and India to a migration and health research lead position driving mini projects within a research program to bring issues of food security and migration experience issues with the Bangladeshi community in Singapore. This was my first formal brush with social … More Why Social Justice work matters
Cultural Conversations at Dibashram Poet Dr Gwee Sui Li opening a May Day photo exhibition Singapore is a hub of economic activity in this region, with one of the highest Gross Domestic Product in Asia. Migrant workers from South Asia have been attracted to Singapore for its proximity to home geographically and due its higher … More Migrant Workers as Cultural Practitioners: Singapore’s new ‘in-thing’
I observe a lot of migrant related activity (if not activism) over the past one year in Singapore, with plenty of events, competitions and citizen centric engagements, which brings the migrant regularly back into the mainstream conversation. Most of these events are kind, create mini celebrities out of migrant brothers, who release books, music cds … More Artists as Migrants in Singapore
The JNU+FTII+HCU episode is an attempt to reduce students as ’employees’ and ‘consumers’ and not nurture citizens who should understand and aspire for a better polity. Anyone with activist leanings is labelled as ‘non-employable’ borrowing from Mr Ratan Tata as his/her spirit needs to be subjugated to the majoratarian narrative in order to work. The … More Why Mr Pai is Wrong?
Language is the first barrier for a migrant as soon one lands up and clears passport control in an alien land. For a migrant from the hinterland of South Asia, English is familiar but not a friend; and English becomes a cultural resource, and a tool for survival. The local variant of English makes the … More Navigating migration through language
It was a crowded Sunday evening (as usual) in Singapore’s Little India area at one of the major bus stops perpendicular to the iconic Mustafa Centre on Syed Alwi Lane, the retail cathedral of the South Asian Migrant, which is also an organizing node for social interactions on the weekly off for the migrant worker. … More Mobile, Mustafa and the Migrant in Singapore: Side-notes from the Globalization Narrative
