Ambition smoulders everything in its vicinity akin to fireFire is often the epistemological crutch for purification and progress

Wisdom and fire are antonyms 

The kinetic force often renders obsolete, the paths ahead 

Relevant for the caravan of progress

Cities of the Gulf are made by migrants over the past fifty years. More than three generations have grown up here with a semi detached relationship with home passport countries. Malls articulate this complicated relationship status quite well; chole bature, coexists with shawarma, kahwa with karak chai. The fare from the motherland, with the material comforts of the late capitalism of the Persian Gulf, fuse seamlessly. 
Long distance nationalism fails/falters at the altar of enhanced livelihoods for the migrant from the global south. Identities are a work in progress. The migrant is respected because of the remittances back home, while meandering as a free electron in the host communities. The acceptance is something he deeply yearns. 
#migrantnotes

Airports are melting pots of aspirations, compulsions and an embodiment of ‘the journey’. Budget carriers are status symbols of ‘we have arrived’ and not arrived as well, as the air steward sells tea at thirty six thousand feet, while cringing while counting the change. 6E sells masala chai at three USD/RO 1, on international flights while it is 100 rupees on a domestic one. 
Liberalisation’s child has been the air transportation sector in India. While the charm has evaporated, air travel is still very pricey in India with many towns still unmapped.

Libraries are like personal collections, take eons of all matter of resources to curate an exhibition. Rather, the functional transforms into the aesthetic, as motive, meaning fuse into something bigger than previously unimaginable.

Write because they is a story to narrate Not because there is a deadline to meet 

Market evaluates the outcome, as per monetisation potential 

But at the heart of the story there is an idea

Arnab is back. A single man brand who is defining right wing media in his own image, as he always did. The firmament of right wing media with Rajat Sharma, WION, NewsX and Republic is tilting the liberal media to take a backstage. The right wing intelligentsia is shaping up too with Swapan Da, Hindol Da and Sanjeev Sanyal along with the India Foundation crew going beyond ‘cultural exclusivists and unrefined nationalists’ in the words of the OPEN Magazine editorial, the May 6th edition currently on the stands. 
Republic. with its decentralised non Delhi centric news model is a distinct brand differentiator. Other English News Channels will have a run for their money, although I would have preferred a better design appeal.

Contacts, not relationships 
Transaction, not emotion 

Add/Connect rather than nourish

Facetime/Facebook rather than catch ups

Sales rather than organisation building 

Egos rather than learning 

Listicles rather than long reads

Tweets rather than complex arguments 

Fleeting, rather than meaning 

Record and share, rather than feel

Experience Economy, rather than Experience 

Development rather than diversity 

Rationale, is secondary to Rhetoric 

Second Life, rather than life

Nationalist rather than Syncretic beliefs 

Instant Gratification rules 

This is the ‘New’ era

Isn’t it?

May Day in the Gig Economy 
Where labor laws are non existent 

Where pink slips are celebrated as graduation 

Where people are datafied

Where work life integration is made cool

Short hand for no family time 

Where valuations matter more than values

No not everyone should be an entrepreneur 

Where labor action is decried as anti progress

And branded as lazy and ineffective 

Where as the VC sips a 20 dollar coffee, while it’s a days wage for a worker

Philanthropy is celebrated, while rights are diluted

Happy May Day Workers in a Suit

Delhi, an ancient cityEver evolving, ever conservative 

With extremes, creating spaces for inclusion and exclusion 

A melting pot, or is it a salad? 

Provincial, National or Interstitial 

Power with all its hues, hardly global, with no ambition 

Defines the city

Many call home
MP, 30th April 2017
HKV, Dilli

Scholarship is not a popularity contest. It cannot be equated with Facebook shares and retweets.It takes real hard work to publish a top tier paper. We cannot bring in reality TV metrics into academic life. Outreach and Scholarship are both vital.