Public Spaces are rare in Mumbai, are a previous leveller for citizens who wish to walk and exercise, young couples to snatch an odd moment of intimacy in an atrociously pricey city as well as for home makers to catch up on gossip calls back to the maika while walking.

The argumentative Indian is on display as there is a constant chatter of sociopolitical commentary while people engage in loud discussions.

Mangroves are natural climate adaptation mechanisms and am grateful for this particular one in my vicinity.

Climate adaptation is often not seen as social spaces of dialogue, as GHG Scope 3 emissions do not capture the social cost of carbon. This is where carbon markets fail to animate the public imagination, as if the capital markets are greatly enthusiastic.

Mumbai has a robust climate adaptation plan and has integrated disaster management into the equation. Mumbai needs to gear up for a heavy monsoon this year after a warm summer and a non winter.

After years of being a good Singapore- phile following the tiny red dot for two decades, and having researched and studied there for a good part of decade, I can see three people whom I have been fortunate to meet, speak and follow make an entry into the mainstream of electoral politics for this #GE2025 , Prof Elmie from my researcher days at NUS CNM, Cai from my migrant work days and Harish from when i was doing engineering at NUS! All three of them are the wonderful minds and compassionate people.

This will be my third election that I would be following, having covered the last election for the Indian media as well.

Always good to meet folks who are the future of the sustainability profession in India. Taufiq started his career with me as an intern and happy to have tracked his amazing developments in the sustainability in the supply chain space. He has interests in air quality and climate risk domain having published research papers at his young age. And the best part, always willing to reach out learn.

Glad to have met him to convey my Eid Greetings in the month of Syawal over Arabic fare in Mumbai.

The last month through Bombay has been fantastic from Ghatkopar to Juhu, from Fort to Versova. This city has many sides to it. Such a tremendous joy to travel within, as Bombay has many cities as fractals in it. A city of opportunities, a melting pot. Bombay also is a hard place, for each cafe chat is peppered with deals, upcoming opportunities for the struggling actor and the threat of the outsider, always looming to dislodge the incumbent.

A city which welcomes a SRK and a Kartik Aryan, as well as gives space to a Vicky Kaushal.

Growing up in Muscat, the presence of the Al Barwani’s, Al Rawahy’s and Al Kindi’s were pronounced who spoke Swahili with many Omani’s of Zanzibari descent, given the Omani Maritime presence until 1964, when violence drove Omanis and Banian’s to find new homes back in Muscat, Dubai, Bombay, Portsmouth.

These wonderful transnational histories have been brought to the fore by books by Nathaniel Matthews and Anne K Bang.

This book is a powerful work of cultural archiving by British Omani-Zanzibari author and chef Dina Macki which is equal parts Omani food history and culture.

I have been following the authors work for years and this book was a trip back home as an Al Khuwair boy, who grew up next to the Al Maha Petrol Pump and ate Shwarma’s in Istanboly.

Looking forward to the fare in Mutrah later this year.

Couple of evenings back i took an uber to the bustle of Bhendi Bazaar, as I walked between Saifi Masjid in Bohra Mohalla to Minara Masjid on Mohammad Ali Road, in the post Maghrib prayers to the Tarawih, the bustle of a Muslim Bombay overwhelms the senses with the sounds and food sights. Bombay as a melting pot was on display as the wealthy Bohra’s had impeccable facilities to the Sunni Masjids down the road which were more earthy.

Different Gujarati Muslim mercantile communities have long made these mohallas home, on the way to East Africa and Aden/ Basra where long duree communities still come over to Bombay for the Jamaat Khana’s in particular the Bohra’s, Khoja’s and Ismailis.

I saw a Shiva Sena poster in the Bohra Mohalla, proclaiming Ramadan wishes, as i am not surprised as the Bohra community has a fondness for the Prime Minister who has often hugged the community members in his forays from New York to Cairo. My uber driver, a Bhendi Bazaar Native and a Muslim Gujarati from Palanpur, quipped about the closeness.

The sweets at Tawakkal were amazing as were the kebabs in front of Minara Masjid. Abaya stores brought me back to the Gulf, especially the souks that are near the old ports such as Bur Dubai or Mutrah/Ruwi.

The Ramadan stalls reminded of Pasar Ramadan’s in Malaysia and Singapore, where the spirit of community over a food plate of Iftar/ Buka Puasa fare unite friends and families. The Ummah unites over faith during the sacred month of Ramadan.

Absolute honor to meet my BHR icon and Public Intellectual Salil Tripathi ji in Mumbai.

I have been privileged to read and follow his writings and activist work in the realm of BHR for many years. I had written an article for IHRB a couple of years back as well in the Dhaka Principle series with Adrian Pereira Sir.

The conversation was piercing and eclectic with the great Ratna Pathak Shah, who quipped that one can find Gujarati signage’s in Wembley in England rather than in Mumbai which is a Gujarati speaking city. Bombay or South Bombay Gujarati is different from the one spoken in Amdavad or Surat.

The linguistic competition to Gujarati is from Hindi rather than English as Czech faces encroachment from Russian. The short time was nothing short of a masterclass. The audience comprised of the culture elite of Bombay, I think I saw Dolly Thakore and a few popular faces.

One of the inherent weaknesses of how the sustainability paradigm or the erstwhile ESG variant, now politically retired in the DJT era has been the carbon tunnel overemphasis on indicators and frameworks rather than solutions. Depoliticising ESG did not work as it entailed a particular worldview.

Mining communities left behind in the rust belts in North America and Australia, or in Indonesia caught in the cross hair of transition politics, would have rebelled. ESG meant risk to companies, but the biggest black swan event was missed- the geopolitics or the politics of pen risk is hardly mapped in KPIs.

With AI, traditional consulting is under threat, though deep expertise which solves problems and creates value. Reporting is compliance and impact does more than that, it creates more fundamental ripples.

For my consulting peers, lets get back to research basics- AI is already creating level one reports.