Today, as I headed out as usual for Jumma Biryani Lunch at the Mamak Prata restaurant in the vicinity, the Chettiar chef from Sivaganga said hello, and when I headed out a few minutes later with my tapao packet, he met me outside the door asking whether I eat Pongal, as today is the harvest festival in Tamil Nadu.

We often discuss Biryani styles and his migration trajectories from Sivaganga to Batu Pahang to Clementi. All his brothers are mamak cooks in Singapore and Malaysia. He worked in Johor for over a decade.

I wished him Pongal Vazhuthakkal with folded hands, he was taken aback with surprise and came back with pongal, which is sweet and special.

He said Nandri in a huff as he rushed back during the peak lunch hour crowd, which reminds me of a time earlier to the pandemic.

This sudden generosity was touching and makes me wonder if these are what transnational spaces of solidarity and care are about.

#pongal

#everydaysingapore

There is a charm in having puri keema over lunch in a mamak prata place and listening to Aashiqui track on a Singaporean radio station during the afternoon hours. The milieu is palpably South Asian.

Migration and ESG are complementary themes; think labor welfare in global value chains and global production networks (ILO Forced Labour Standards, IFC Performance Standards 2, 5 and 8 & SA8000)

Dropping out and succeeding is an idiotic myth, bought by idiots by the privileged who have a trampoline net, to bounce back.
Even if one drops out, learning and relearning takes place as an entrepreneur everyday with no specific reading lists and curating real time learning as a response to profit and loss decision making is a lot harder than exams.

each academic/thinker/teacher is a writing brand aka Scott Galloway
#writing #brand

Enjoy the effort, the journey as the outcome is often sub-par or out of our reach. There has to some aspect of the process that is personal, and precious.

I liked the Sharma’s, Shetty’s and Singh’s in the VFX credits at the end of the latest Matrix Film, the most along with Purab Kohli. The film is deep as usual.

In the shamal winds

In the masa khair

In the sabkas

There is a silent noise

Of the moving

Of our breathing

Where the light is fading

But the winter stars are awaited.

MP.22.12.2021

Singapore (thinking of Bidiyah Sands)

Having been an entrepreneur minded hack for a decade plus, many have asked especially in recent times with mainstream jobs evaporating in many sectors driven by digitization and supply led recalibrations pandemic led that where do we find the cognitive resources to start up (everyone i know has been pushed to start a business as incomes evaporated overnight). If you are not from the salaried public sector elites in your country, with job security- then every job is gig work in the precarious platform economy. Your work can be offshored to the other part of the world at a fraction of the cost. The trampoline is often your own ability to reskill and pivot, often at a huge cost. With an unconventional, nonlinear resume- i operate at the fringes which has compelled me to figure out revenue streams, lead pipelines, invoicing, and the project pipelines. Fringes also mean that there is no core, and the core evolves as per the opportunity. This of course needs a mental frame shift- from an employee to a service provider. Start where one can find leverage, what can do right away that other people need.

Liberal arts folks ask- how can i do consulting is often a query which is put to me:

The answer is what language expertise that you can offer or editing skills (core competences). A 100-dollar article is all you need to start. I started with INR 1000.

#changethinker

Happy International Migrants Day. Second generation in a row- may we continue to support families in a transnational manner, and simultaneity is a way of life.

And stay healthy along the way.