Through the Highways of Globalization
The best way to know a region is to walk it. Can’t know everything through the Internet. The chatter in Lucky Plaza in Tagalog is different to the atas/posh Takashimaya across the street in Singapore. That is just Orchard road in Singapore.
Nuance matters. Singapore is rich in texture.
Southeast Asia Matters.
So many stories of migration from Azamgarh to Mumbra to Johor Bahru; a barber shop next to Masjid India in Johor Bahru.
Happy Azaadi Day from the Diaspora; the diaspora banters, eats and discusses the in accuracy of Bollywood representations of SWAT Valley and Layaari. This Pakistani Naan Shop off Mersing Jetty in Johore, was a trip down memory lane as the Cheese Naan was the same one i have eaten in my Chacha Bakery in Al Khuwair, Masqat or anywhere in Dubai.
The cook-server from SWAT Valley wished me back Happy Independence Day, as i wished him Happy Azaadi Day. South Asia converges in the labour diaspora.
A special workshop on Indian Ocean History ended with a special panel with intense dialogue on what counts as a manuscript, or as the Persianate World or what constitutes an Indian Ocean Library?
Seeing Fahad Bishara, Eng Seng Ho, Mana Kia and Mahmood Kooria with Teren Sevea dialogue made for a heart and mind satiated with questions and further directions.
Was lovely to meet fellow peers and mentors in person.
My work was cited in this rather cool book by Dr Sanjaya Baru which reconfirmed by belief in the power of ideas.
Am turning into my fourth decade very soon (this is my birthday month technically) , and it has gotten me very somber and reflective. The past decade has been a rough ride, more losses than wins. Was it great living in five different countries, and cities that i have lost count off, the answer is yes.
What do i count or what does matter in the overall scheme of things ? That I coined two terms, Desi Khaleeji on the multi generational migrant in the Gulf, which was the framework for an exhibition in Bahrain by artist Khurram Saab, and ‘ Hindu Nationalist Intellectual Architecture’ as was cited by Veteran Journalist, Sanjaya Baru ji in his book, The Indian Power Elite. And published an article in the Monsoon Journal by Duke University Press on the Indian Ocean World being a non PhD. And a former supervisor mentioned once that i cannot write?
Just getting started, only this time with clarity and purpose doing things which matter such as writing a good PhD (it’s been slow with parental care support and other assignments) and writing more.
To more journeys, and thank you for reading !
Capturing time
Fleeting away
Capturing images
While they can be taken
And conversations while they can happen
Before the plea falls silent
And then one pleads for the nagging
Brickfields or Little India in Kuala Lumpur is a site of Malaysian Indian History with the Kuils along Jalan Scott to the Warisan-fication of Jalan Tun Sambanthan. The condos which are Indian expat magnates are sitting on histories of previous generations of Railway workers. Vivekananda Ashrama makes its presence felt amongst Menara Shell and Nu Sentral, the mixed mall and railway interchange. Blind schools and Chinese eateries jostle for the backstreets of Brickfields, with migrant worker eateries below the LRT.
A few pubs show cricket with diaspora supermarkets stocking up Amul products. My personal favourite of Vishal Mess stands along with the Norwegian owned MTR. As Badrul Hisham Ismail writes in his essay collection, Reluctant Capital- Kuala Lumpur is a space of negotiation and contestation, between ethnic quotas and speculative capital.
It has been a fun two years in the city. To many more banana leafs.
Life on the move
Is one of loss
A migrant is a metaphor
For erasure, silence and non belonging
Especially where one wants to belong
But we survival is belonging.
Migration is a Business and Human Rights matter, in turn is an ESG material topic, for industries such as Plantations, Rubber, Electronics, Construction and F&B (look at any server at a star hotel or a mamak in Malaysia). It is an Human Resources/Talent input, as the spine as wage debt is still a matter for the supply chain.
Change Thinker 