Bayt is a place in the past

Shrapnel in the Soul

Slipping Away Like Sand in my Palms

Time is memory

Sediments as a scaffold

Makes it easy to carry then

Public transport buses become a migrant sonic scape with bangla, tamil and punjabi music leaking out of earphones as these spaces map aspirations as much as heartache. Some of these bus rides from the little india district to the dorms take up to 90 minutes.

The last row of seats are often the preferred choice where video calls to back home are made, maximising time on an off day where each minute is valued.

#everydaysingapore

Objects such as this tissue paper box couched in a glitzy decorative cover brings me back to my childhood in Muscat where restaurants such as Omar Khayyam in Ruwi or Golden Spoon in Al Khuwair used to have such tissue boxes.

This particular artefact was found at Tabbouleh, a Lebanese place at Arab St in Singapore on Eid Eve. The coffee and Kunefe brought me back to the aromas of Turkish House in Al Khuwair in my home town.

Bayt and Watan is sometimes a bite of kunafa, which is my favorite dessert of a time which was dear.

Exile is a state of mind for a Desi Khaleeji. The azaan post iftar, the last one before Eid in Singapore is always special, twice in two years.

This place was at Muscat St, a geographical irony, with a mural of a dhow and the Omani Flag.

#AsliOmani

Identity for a migrant is an archipelago of fragments, paperwork as patchwork, languages as outfits, food as survival but the bayt and the watan is a place in the soul as shrapnel.

Presented in the Hong Kong Baptist University Graduate Students Conference today morning on Precarity and Platform Work in Jakarta along with my PhD colleague Anders Kirstein Møller, with the on the ground research support of Pak Alfian A Pelu, Labour Activist Researcher with LIPS, Jakarta.

Zoom is a democratizing tool in the words of Prof Debjani Bhattacharya, historian at the University of Zurich; as there were presenters from Singapore, Hong Kong, Yunan and Dhaka in the Pandemic New Normal session.

#research#thefutureofwork

Its really hilarious how folks associate their sense of the self to a brand, in particular the optics on Linkedin, as once the firm finds a cheaper resource, the person will be replaced as a cog. There is a probation to clear, right. Find the value in ones skills and the ability to deliver rather than the rhetoric.

Before talking about ‘The Future of Work’, how about understanding the present pandemic related disruptions and discontinuities where communities of practice were divided into remote and precarious front-liner, creating a work-based caste system of the present.

The Hindu Nationalist Firmament has a new member in the AAP. The alternative is here along with Shiv Sena.

There are three buckets in any knowledge sector work i.e. Subject Matter Expertise, Program Delivery Expertise and Rain Making. If one brings in revenue and solves vexed problems, then the market will hire you. Stop blaming neoliberal capitalism, and ‘upgrade’.

#futureofwork

There are two ways to process feedback, one to sulk, the other to treat it as radical candor and grow with it.

I have grown the most from the worst feedback i have received.