Tom Soper and Ethos Books Publisher

AKM Mohsin, Tom Soper and Manishankar (Right to Left)

In keeping with the ongoing SG50 Spirit, a Photo Book by British Photographer Tom Soper was released last evening at the National Library Building on Level 16 at The Pod, with glitz and glamour. The Photo Book features 50 distinct portraits of expatriates from 50 distinct countries who call Singapore home. The contributors featured were as diverse from a Danish Triathlete cum Lawyer to a Kazakh Harpist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. The expatriates were from very small countries to India. The photo book was alphabetically nomenclature from A to Z and neatly packed in 50 amazing human narratives. The spectrum of profiles was rich and effort was put by the author was intense in order to capture stories, not easily seen or heard in the mainstream media. One such story was my friend Mr. AKM Mohsin, the Editor and Publisher of Banglar Kantha, representing Bangladesh. Banglar Kantha is the only Bengali Language Newspaper in South East Asia and serves as a platform for migrant literature and culture tucked away at a prominent intersection in the Little India area.

The evening was rainy and humid in Bugis when the evening kicked off as we moved in the elevator to Level 16 escorted by a Ethos Book Staff (the publishing company) who was rather curious to know in which language I was chatting away. I was speaking in Bengali. We entered The Pod and to  our surprise,welcomed with a goody bag, and some bruschetta and white wine, which confirmed the comfy, high society milieu of the book launch.

Tom Soper, the author was smartly dressed in a suit despite his jet lag from London, having landed in Singapore the same afternoon. He seemed to be chatty, trying his best not to show nerves. A few of the guests, purchased copies and I was delighted to have it autographed by Tom addressed to my wife and me.

There were a few contributors of the book present at the Book launch, making the setting for this rarified evening rather cozy affair. After a few rounds of drinks, the packed seminar room aggregated to fill the seats as the formal event kicked off with the Publisher of Ethos Books introducing the concept and the struggles of printing such a novel work. Tom spoke after that thanking everyone behind the book and explaining his side of the creative challenges and the vision behind the book. He thanked his house help for helping out his family so that he could have the time to dedicate to the book project. A rare moment of humility in the rather narcissistic world of competitive art.

The Q&A session was lively as it touched upon issues of artistic dissonance.

One of the audience was pertinent; Why are all the portraits of the same socioeconomic strata?

Tom, acknowledged that there is a paucity in the diversity as far as the socioeconomic strata in general in the book, but he had featured a domestic help from the Philippines.

Mr. AKM Mohsin was specially mentioned for his activism with the Bangladeshi Migrant Community in Singapore.

Tom has since moved back to the UK where is exploring a similar work in England celebrating the diversity of his forty thousand strong town in this zeitgeist of anti-migrant sentiment. As he said “Watch the Space”

An initiative which commends diversity in Singapore is simply worth acknowledging as Singapore has been a migration magnet over the centuries with people coming to this island to find their fortunes.As a migrant myself I can second the sentiment as Singapore has given me a voice, an identity to vouch for.

Photos Courtesy : Lopamudra Chakraborty Prasad

People die, become heartbreaks

People mourn, the next tragedy occurs

the past incident, the casualties become statistics

Academics and analysts research it in to a case study

All the Parties, invisible or visible

‘Non State Actors’ or Terrorists, boils down to suffering on both sides

And the media waits for the next news cycle

The politicos for the next election

The kin of the deceased the next meal……

New York. Mumbai and now Paris; violence has no geography. Let us not vent our anger due to the fear of small numbers now. Peace, Empathy and Understanding is what we need now. Prayers with Paris. Violence spills from the Levant to the streets of Paris. Occupation of Grozny leads to massacres in Moscow, and similarly the Kashmir Valley leads to blood spilt in South Bombay. Destruction of Iraq and Syria led to the migration crisis. Facebook launches a empathy filter. Where was the filter for Beirut, Baghdad or Lagos?

Where is this heading to? Inevitably, to the next round of drone attacks.

Yesterday (8th November 2015) was a watershed afternoon for migrant literature in Singapore and South East Asia. The afternoon kicked off by Banglar Kantha Poets practicing by reciting poetry at Dibashram-Banglar Kantha premises. Then, as a cavalcade the Banglar Kantha Poets and volunteers with the community pioneer Mr. AKM Mohsin, the panelist for the Migrant Poetry Event at the Singapore Writers Festival started for the Arts House. The man who started Banglar Kantha a decade back, is the catalyst for many cultural interventions in the Singaporean Literary Landscape. The crew took the 147 bus, alighted four steps later from Rowell Road next to the Parliament and the Supreme Court, walked in to the august environment of the Arts House, in to the seminar room where we settled in.  Mr. Shivaji Das, travel literateur and co-panelist in the event and esteemed debate moderator Mr. Alvin Pang, made the seminar room a cultural space to contend with.

Babu Bhai, Shihab Bhai, Mohar, Liton and Mahbub performed their poetry to the applause of the over flowing seminar room. The theme resonated with the refined crowd of intellectuals. After the performances, there was a panel discussion probing myriad aspects on poetry written by the migrant community with Mohsin Da and Mr. Shivaji Das, moderated by Singaporean Poet Mr. Alvin Pang.

This event expanded the discursive space for the migrant in Singapore by bringing forth the migrant voice in the discourse on ideas. This initiative fosters greater understanding and integration with the Singaporean core, a term popularized with the recent elections . This is indeed

Mohsin Da’s and Banglar Kantha’s contribution to the Singaporean core.

My Article got published on Huff Post India Blog. Please do read and share.

http://www.huffingtonpost.in/manishankar-prasad/post_9005_b_6650446.html?1424068814

I thought the Hindu Right, had finally changed its spots. I was understandably naive as RSS activists are ultimately running the PMO instead of technocrats. The branding communications win of the Modi Campaign infused the country with a ‘modern’ Nation Building spirit with the ‘Achche Din’ or ‘Better Days shall come’ electoral ethos.  BJP has had a series of electoral home runs from Srinagar to Ranchi. Excellent, in a way as the Secularism with systemic graft model of the Congress sunk big time. The country needed more jobs to be created as policy paralysis had been in place since many many months before the 2014 polls.  Development is the central totem of neo-liberal development and usually the Religious Right fuse Identity Politics with the rhetoric of  infrastructure development. Chicago School Economics is the preferred school of economic thought for leaders of the BJP such as the venerable Arun Jaitley and Yashwant Sinha . Jayant Sinha, a Harvard trained  former Mc Kinsey Consultant turned Politician is in the Finance Ministry with a Hindu Right Wing Ideologue Nitin Gadkari incharge of the infrastructure portfolios. The recent conversion conversation with the objective of polarization for votes is taking the BJP back on the Ram Mandir Movement pathway (read 2016 UP polls), and this will make the hot air of  good governance fizzle out.

Ghar Vapsi or reconversions back to the parent Hindu fold with the lure of money is a petty campaign of the Hindu Right to deflect attention from the pressing concerns of the tribals, minorities and the disenfranchised. A few thousand  minority brethren forcibly reconverted to the  Hindu Fold or calling December 25 as so called ‘Good Governance Day’ will not deter Christians in following ones Faith. The Staines Murder in Baripada, Odisha had shaken the collective conscious of the nation as the Gujarat progrom. The Assam, Dhule and Muzaffarnagar episodes do not auger well for  ‘Swachch Bharat’ or Clean India when some politicians are responsible for riots.

‘The Make In India’ Campaign is glitzy and creative as the ‘India Shining’ campaign (the death knell for the BJP in 2004 in fact), but has no relevance for the farmer suicides afflicted families in Vidarbha. Acchche Din does not mean dilute Environmental and Social Laws without taking in to account the marginalized or saffronize the Education System by trampling rational thought.

We need Inclusive thought, a balance somewhere between the Rabid Right and Extreme Leftist thinking as place for religion is vital but within the four walls of the home.  The separation of the Mandir and the Mantralaya is sacred although our public sector functions start with the lighting of the lamp. Is this the ‘Achche Din’ that you had offered Mr. Modi?

In response to a suggestion by a Good Friend; Here are my 10 favorite reads (not necessarily in any order)

1.A Great Clamour: Encounters with China and Its Neighbours- Pankaj Mishra
2. From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia – Pankaj Mishra
3. The Man in my Head : Pico Iyer
4. This Divided Island: Samanth Subramanian
5. My Friend, The Fundamentalist : Sadanand Dhume
6. The Elephant Catchers: Subroto Bagchi
7. The Professional : Subroto Bagchi
8. The New Asian Hemisphere : Prof Kishore Mahbubani
9. The Malayan Breeze : Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh
10. India Unbound : Gurcharan Das

The Authors above have shaped the way i think, hence the way i write; being a self-trained writer, a owe a virtual debt to them.