11.10.2026
S: This world makes what you want impossible. It could be the simplest of wishes and it will not be granted. This world is the reverse of a genie in a bottle. If you rub its bottle, then you have the denial of a wish.
A: That is not true. You have achieved many of your wishes. You hold a doctorate, five degrees in total with First Class honours and so on. You’ve been a teacher, worked in museums and art galleries, been a curator, got promotions at work, been published everywhere…
S: But the greatest wishes? Denied every time. Despite having all the qualifications, skills and characteristics required each time.
A: The competition…
S: I was the best. In a meritocracy, it should have been me. And, what about a family and children?
A: Let’s not broach that topic. You hate this world. This world is your enemy. I get it.
S: You see this world as a friend? To us? To the working class men? To the ethnic minority men? To the Untouchables, the low castes, to the men of The Oppressed? You delude yourself.
A: You always bring it down to what you are.
S: Because this is what they have done. They have made it about who you are. Not what you do. Not what you can add. Not your qualifications or your experience. But whether or not they think that you ‘fit in’. In other words, the only thing that matters is your identity and your background.
A: Why do you not try to fit in?
S: Why? I am good as I am. Better than them. I am not going to disrespect myself and my people for anyone. Everything I have done, I have done as myself. I have never played a part.
A: This dissatisfaction, this anger…
S: It is the just recognition of what this world is. The killing of a wish. Our wish.
A: But is it healthy to be so angry and dissatisfied? What would you have, a crown? A throne? You see the world as denial?
S: Look how they will keep things from you. Look at how they will keep love from you.
A: You want this world to love you?
S: But it cannot love a Punjabi man. Its love is organised to be against us. And can you argue someone into love? Can you reason someone into love? No. Because hate is constructed on the irrational. Hate is constructed on the illicit, on lies. On what should have been excluded from thought. And love is the same. It is constructed also on the irrational, on the illicit, on lies.
A: And because you believe in a love constructed on the rational, on the legal and on the truth, then you will never get love in this world?
S: That is why the genie in the bottle denies the wish.
