the inimitability of the tiger

14.04.2026

Alfonso and I, we had both been to visit a friend again in the hospital. I had rushed there after work while completing several urgent errands on the way. We had spent about an hour with him, cheering him up and asking him how things were over there. Afterwards, Alfonso had taken me to his home and cooked me up beef enchaladas with a salad and sour cream. Then we had watched Sting performing on the television set in the bygone era.

I had been telling Alfonso of the useless attempts of an Ai system to duplicate my written efforts. ‘Did you know,’ I asked him, ‘that Dickens used to call himself the inimitable. And, certainly, according to the experiments today, The Tiger himself is also inimitable.’

‘What makes you think so?’

‘Well, I asked this Ai system to replicate my style. I typed in my name and told it to do it. To create a new story based on the way that I write.’

‘What were the results?’ asked Alfonso with a mockery of gravity.

‘The story was absolutely atrocious. It was about a pigeon watching me while the state created a duplicate identity of me and informed me of it by post.’

‘Ill-written?’

‘Precisely. There was not the least touch of my style or the sound of my mind. Basically, this Ai system had concocted a mixture of Kafka and Poe’s Raven, because that is what it understood my style to be. Not only that, but there had been an attempt at a philosophical conversation. I say an attempt because there was certainly no depth or original thinking involved at all.’

‘And how did this make you feel, watching the Ai perform you so badly? Were you reassured of your idiosyncracy and capriciousness?’

‘It certainly let me know that I was not a mindless and meaningless computer, a hunk of metal and minerals. It certainly let me know that this style that has developed through genius and a lifetime of suffering and practice cannot be so easily acquired.’

‘Do you think a mortal could write like you do?’

‘Of course they could not. Genius, although it is imitated, is always in the last analysis inimitable. I am sure that plenty will try to become The Tiger. However, as in the movie, there is is only one.’

what the genius writes

14.04.2026

A: So you have this claim, that you are a genius.

S: It is not a claim. It is a reality.

A: What then does the genius write?

S: Everything.

A: Come come. A little clarification. What differentiates your writing from that of others?

S: I see what no one else can see.

A: A claim for originality.

S: And then, the genius writes to shock, amaze, astound and confound. Contrarily to the herd who write to reassure, who write complacently about their herd mentality and all of the evils therein. Who write to soothe the conscience of the oppressors, to justify this tyrannical and inquitious world.

A: You claim awe?

S: Indeed, I claim awe. The genius shakes the foundations of this world.

A: If you are indeed a genius, where is the recognition?

S: Does genius ever get recognition in this world? The time of Da Vinci has been replaced with the time of cretins like Musk and Trump. Of social media influencers whose sole task is to peddle cosmetics and a pampered lifestyle. What can you expect of these people? They could not recognise their own arse in the dark. Let alone genius. All they see is the foreign name and the colour of the skin. That is what they judge upon. Not the argument. Not the reasoning. Not the writing. With the exception of the genuinely intelligent. Because however moronic society becomes, the genuinely intelligent do recognise talent. Unfortunately, they have no power to nurture it. Because the power? It belongs to the morons. And this is why I am a genius. Because I was born into powerlessness because of my caste, my working class origin, and my skin and culture. I was not born as a moron. We can see.

A: What is the use of genius if it does nothing?

S: Mother India has a saying. That in the end, only truth alone will triumph. Satyameva Jayate. It is a phrase that is thousands of years old. I am the truth. I am the truth. I am the truth that no one wants to see or to hear. I am truth that is thousands of years old that they cannot even see. Only I can see it. I am blessed because The Mother has placed her hand above my head. I am invincible. That is why I am a genius. They cannot think like me. I am the last generalist in an era of narrow specialisation. I can crack the codes, the meanings of the self. That is why I am a genius.

A: And, you have the ego.

S: Yes. I go for the jugular vein. The most important work falls to me because I have the ego for it. That is why I am a genius.

A: Either you have the delusion of grandeur. Or you are a charlatan. Or, you are in fact, a genius.

S: I know what you will conclude. It is a mixture of all three.

you or me

13.04.2026

S: It comes down to you or me.

A: What does?

S: The fight. Either we can be destroyed. Or them.

A: Why can you not live with difference?

S: We can. But they have decided to eliminate difference. And therefore, it becomes us against them. You or me. And I choose me. I choose difference.

A: You will not accept destruction?

S: Six thousand years of the reign of The Tiger. That is what we are talking about. The loss to the world if we were gone would be immense. Selfishness and greed would choke this world. There would be no love left in the universe. There would be no men left. You would accept the destruction of all that is good in this world? The counter to oppression is freedom. The counter to tyranny and the narrow mind is the limitless.

A: How do you know that they are not right about you? That you are toxic?

S: If a real man is regarded as toxic, then the non-toxic is nothing good.

A: They see you as outdated.

S: They are a petty interruption to the larger history of man. Their opinion is of no consequence.

A: They hold the reins. They have the power.

S: That is not true. Only the warrior holds the power. We shape the world according to our will.

A: How do you know that you are the warrior?

S: This fight, this hard and long fight, I have been fighting it my whole adult life. We will never bend. We will never kneel. If to be us is sin, then we are sinners. If loving The Mother is a test, then we will past the test. We remain undefeated. However much they hate us, we survive. We prosper despite their hate. This territory, it is ours.

A: They say that an enemy knows an enemy.

S: What they should know is that I live for revenge.

A: What is this revenge?

S: In our culture, revenge is what transforms this world. My blood is in this world. They are our future. And for them, and for the ones that come after them, they cannot be subjected to what I was subjected to. I love them too much for that. The revenge is success. We will force our success down their throats. We will hold the reins.

A: How is your revenge going?

S: I am prosperous. My name and my writing is everywhere. I am already a role model. I have achieved what other people only dream of. I have five degrees and a doctorate. I am a doctor. A published author. A published poet. A published photographer. A published artist. I am the pride of Punjab.

A: Yet you are not satisfied with your revenge.

S: The older an enmity, the more dangerous it becomes. This is a line from a Hindi film. Yes, I am still not satisfied. The success has not choked them yet.

the game

13.04.2026

S: If you want to see the absolute stupidity of the human race exposed, all you have to look at is the conformist pressure to get a date.

A: What do you mean?

S: Look at these boys who are obsessed with becoming rich and successful because society has told them it is the surest way of impressing. Look at the beauty industry making billions of pounds off boys and girls wanting to impress. It’s where all the gyms, attractions and restaurants and bars and clubs make all their money, the need to buy love, to prove love with resources, looks, time and money.

A: What is so stupid about it?

S: Because all you need from someone else is to be happy hanging out. To look forward to seeing them. To plan things together. You don’t need much. Why should you have to perform a role? Why can’t you just be yourself? Yet, for this herd, you have to perform these stupid and meaningless roles. While all the while, they are saying that we are in a modern and enlightened era. That we are enlightened and intelligent.

A: You always love to mock.

S: You want to see stupidity, look at what passes for love here.

A: You are not the only one that loves.

S: Love, like everything else, is a social construct. And can these that are here build anything worthy or substantial, anything meaningful? I disagree because I have seen their love. Or the lack thereof. I have seen how they treated me because I was not one with the herd.

A: As they say, play the game.

S: They also say don’t hate the player, hate the game. But the player is just as contemptible as the game.

the characteristics of the arrogant

12.04.2026

S: What do you think of arrogance?

A: What do you mean? Does not everyone hate it?

S: Not at all. The leaders that the people vote in are all arrogant. There is right wing fascism taking over the world right now. The incapable are in power with just bluster and bullshit. How can you say that the people hate arrogance? They love it.

A: The typical jaded view.

S: Do you know the ones? They were and are and will be self-absorbed narcissists, arrogant and preening bastards. Without much to offer. And yet, they find that they have love, adulation, relationships, money, everything.

A: Why not become like them?

S: Don’t you always tell me that I am one of them? That I always boast and strut around?

A: You are not arrogant. You never talk down to anyone. You merely change the canter of the horse for each individual.

S: At the same time, I believe I am the best. That there is no one better. What do you think of that?

A: It comes down to the distinction that they make between confidence and arrogance. A woman will like confidence she says. But not arrogance.

S: The thin line. The line of discretion.

A: Tell me the characteristics of the arrogant.

S: The arrogant cannot listen to anyone else. They are deaf. The arrogant cannot see anyone else. They are blind. The arrogant can only see their own perspective, no one else’s. The arrogant believe themselves to be morally superior to everyone else, that there can be no better way of doing things. The arrogant believe that they are entitled to all the good things in the world. They should be the writers, artists, singers, managers, lovers. The arrogant have had every privilege handed to them in life from birth. They are first born sons. They are born rich. They are born into the dominant culture, the culture of domination. They might be exceptional in some way, like looks for instance. Which have gone to their head.

A: This composite is based on what?

S: A lifetime of looking. Do you not remember that I have been to a grammar school and the London School of Economics? I have studied with the richest people in London and the country and the world. I have worked with many managers over a lifetime. I know exactly what they think – that everything is for them, that no one is better than them. And they will ruthlessly crush real talent when it rises from someone down the food chain that will not kow tow to them. The example is standing before you.

A: How can you fight them if you do not become them? You have to become an authority.

S: If to become an authority means to sell your soul and your identity, it is not worth it. If power comes to evil, then power has to be forsaken. Resistance is honesty, the honesty of humility.

A: You say that you are humble. You have never accepted anyone’s authority or claim to power above yourself.

S: I am named after god. I am god. I am named after The Tiger. I am The Tiger. I am absolute power on this earth. Only The Mother is above me and she dwells not on earth, but in heaven. I am the anarchist. I accept no one above me. I accept no greater earthly power.

A: Is this not arrogance?

S: We come to shades of thought. This is self-belief. This is confidence. I am the splendour of Punjab, of India. I am the son of the soil. I am the champion of the people. I am their ego. Yet, I listen to others. I try to understand others. I try to see through their eyes. I serve them. Because a king does not rule, he serves the people. I come from a Sikh background as well as a Hindu one. We serve the community. We protect the community. And that means putting their needs above our needs. Putting their wants above our wants. They have prayed for a hero to protect the honour of The Mother. And the hero has been born into humble conditions where he has learnt humility. The hero cannot be arrogance. As Gandhi remembered, the leader of the people has abject humility and embraces poverty. He rejects show for substance. And the sin of unjustified false pride for justified recognition of the splendour that is The Mother and her representative on earth, The Tiger.

the history book

11.04.2026

Alfonso and I had spent the day at another attraction, marvelling at the history of technology. We had been amused by one of the volunteers who had quite a quick turn for words and had been answering the questions of Alfonso in a droll and winsome manner. My friend was wearing his usually stunning arrangement of costly materials. This time, a blue blazer with cream trousers and a light flamingo pink shirt.

As we walked together home in the mild climes of April this year, Alfonso was asking me about my writing plans.

‘You don’t have any shortage of ideas, do you?’ he inquired of me.

‘I am the flood. It all comes. Too much altogether. I could write a novel every week. The trick is to have no censor and to let the explosion happen. I write without even thinking about anything. I tap into the unconscious.’

‘And what is the dream of a book that you have at the moment?’

‘Why not write a little heavy tome about history?’

‘What type of history?’ asked Alfonso, looking dreamily up at the clouds in the sky. One of which resembled the buttocks of a goat.

‘History books,’ I mused, ‘ don’t very often talk about how history has shaped a particular life of an ordinary man. How the personal is the acutely political. Look at me though. First, I have been shaped by the Partition, since my grandmother had to leave the newly created Pakistan for India and lost all of her belongings as a child. Second, my grandfather? He was a child when Independence happened in India. So he became the philosophy of Indian Independence. My mother? She escaped from the forced sterilisation of the poor as a schoolgirl and that is why I was even born in the first place. Then, add on the World War which caused the deaths of the young men and the labour shortage that meant my grandfather was invited to the United Kingdom to work. The new freedoms for women in the sixties meant that my grandmother worked to support the home. I have been brought up as a young man amidst the xenophobia and racism that erupted following 9/11, since everyone took me, with my brown skin, as a Muslim man. Then, look at the thousands of years of caste oppression in India that has made me what I am, as well as the military culture of Punjab, which has always fought against oppression and the tyrant.’

‘Why don’t you write this book and about how history has affected your life?’

‘Because of the igorance of the reader. They would have a Dua Lipa tell them what to read and promote her as an expert, with her lack of any serious credentials or hard work in the subject of literature. Because she is famous and she fits into the majority culture. Whereas I am not included in the majority culture and I do not have fame or connections, and therefore my serious credentials would be absolutely ignored and no one would read or understand anything that I wrote because of their stupidity. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next thing was that Dua Lipa becomes, in their stunted eyes, a ‘literary novelist’ or a ‘poet’. Laughable.’

We walked on together in this life where there was no fair competition, no meritocracy, and no justice. Where the absolutely pedestrian rose to the heights of every endeavour and captured the shallow and undiscerning hearts of what was surely the worse audience in history.

endurance

09.04.2026

A: In your endeavours, when do you accept defeat?

S: I don’t give up. I keep on going. I have never been rewarded for being a genius. Yet, still, I write. I am the writer and the poet. I still orchestrate the dance of the letters.

A: How can you keep on going?

S: The Tiger had a grandfather. A scholar and an athlete. This grandfather who was the top of his class in his university, when he came to this country, he had to work in manual jobs beneath his qualifications because of their racism and hostility. Because he had a family to support and he came from absolute poverty. He had to build everything, the house, the stability. But this grandfather had a dream. The dream of learning. He worshipped the architect of the Indian constitution, one of us, the Untouchables, Dr. Ambedkar. This grandfather believed that we could change the world.

A: And then?

S: The flame did not pass to the son. It came to the grandson, the only one with the same colour eyes as the grandfather. All the talent of the grandfather went into nurturing this grandson. And this grandson? Everything was built for him. He had a stable home and family, unlike his grandfather whose father had left the family to struggle with poverty and malnutrition. This grandson did not have to worry about work or money. The grandfather and the father had built it. His mother cared for the home. After two generations, the Untouchable was free. There was a special duty and privilege for him.

A: And?

S: This grandson was born in special circumstances. Like a god. He is special. He went to the London School of Economics like Dr. Ambedkar. He is a doctor too. He is also a genius. There is a special duty on him for his people, The Oppressed. For The Mother, who they have dishonoured.

A: So?

S: This grandson is the dream of the grandfather, what he has created. He is the dream of India. Of the independence into which the grandfather was born. Do you think that with this history, that this grandson can ever give up? He is The Tiger. He is what the people have prayed for. The history gives The Tiger his endurance. When my grandfather worked as a child, fanning his master, the master took pity on him and sent him to be educated. The promise of education that the young one had has been realised in The Tiger. He is gifted. He sees what no one else can see. He is the guide of this world and the people. And that, my friend, is why he can never fail. Because he can never disappoint his grandfather. Because his grandfather is the independence of India. He is freedom.

giving

08.04.2026

S: You know, I was always taught when I was growing up that charity began at home. I have family that are poor in India. So the money always went to them, not to ‘causes’.

A: Seems to be a sensible thing to do, to send the money back to the family. After all, who else cares about them?

S: But yet, causes do exist. So, I cheated. Instead of volunteering money, I volunteered my time, which is free. I volunteered to help all the causes that I believed in. I volunteered in reading clubs for the socially isolated during Covid. I volunteered in after school homework clubs for underprivileged children. I taught English to refugees and migrants. I volunteered in arts organisations, to work on the exposure of Japanese art and art about plants and flowers. I volunteered in a charity for Hindi film music and to spread Indian culture. I volunteer at Kew Gardens, in the art gallery and as a tour guide giving tours in the gardens. I volunteered in the Witness Service in the courts. I volunteer with an organisation that lobbies governments to increase foreign aid spending.

A: You are a busy man and you are socially committed.

S: It counts for nothing. It is always worth saying that. But you know, all this volunteering is never enough. There is so much to do in this world. And yesterday, after considerable reluctance, I decided to give money to a charity. The WWF. To help the poor animals.

A: What was the basis of this decision?

S: I believe that we should all try to save the world in our own way. I am not trained in this field. I am studying Biology but I cannot do anything else much with all the work, study and volunteering that I am already committed to. But my money can do something. So I am giving to them every month. It is time to make all of that money work.

A: The next plan?

S: Investing in sustainable projects.

A: You are about to become a businessman?

S: I am already a businessman with my own business. I am a professional photographer and run a small photography business. But the thought of just making money for its own sake disgusts me. That is why everything has to have a social dimension.

A: Why does just making money disgust you?

S: Because I am Punjabi. I come from the Sikh community. We are heroes. The world looks up to us. And therefore, we cannot become greedy. We are not a Trump who only has greed, selfishness, arrogance and hate. We have altruism, community spirit, humility and love. That is who we are.

A: Give and keep on giving.

S: I am endless. I can keep on giving and giving. And I am generous at heart. Because wealth is not what you have in your pocket. It is wealth of the heart that makes us prosperous in this world. I tell myself one thing: you have to put your money where your mouth is. All that training in thrift has to give way to philanthropy because now I am settled in life and it is the right thing to do. Charity begins at home but it continues out into the world. Money is badly needed to build the future. And I have money. Nothing is worth more than one’s own conscience.

the heaviness of thought

08.04.2026

S: Have you ever wondered, how heavy is a thought?

A: Can you weigh a thought?

S: Sadness is when the thoughts become too heavy. They take on the aspect of concrete. You feel low because you are bowed down because of the heaviness of thought. You feel exhausted with sadness because you are bearing the load of the heavy thought. They say that when you are sad, that you are bearing the load of the world upon your shoulders. That is the heaviness of thought.

A: You are confusing metaphors and language with the reality of an experience.

S: But metaphors, as Nietzsche said, are what make up our reality. Language is what makes up our reality.

A: You are trying to say that the reality of the space time continuum and the very fabric of the cosmos shift when you are sad and emotional?

S: This is precisely what I am saying. Gravity only becomes real when you are sad. Gravity only becomes a factor when you have the heaviness of thought in your head. The mental and the physical planes align in sadness.

A: And when you are happy?

S: Then, gravity disappears. You have the lightness of being.

A: But surely, you have the lightness of being in sadness? Being is so light that the heaviness of thought can wear it down.

S: You have a point. What is this cheap and flimsy, insubstantial life and this mind that is prey to sadness and suffering?

A: Do you make a metaphysical claim about emotions and reality, that emotions shape the reception of the cosmos in the body?

S: It is perception that makes the world what it is, this physical world. This is what the theories in science are at the moment.

A: Your perception is that of the sad man, of the cynic, the pessimist and the realist, of the minority, of the marginalised.

S: Nonetheless, it is a factor in perception. And you have to also remember the power of The Tiger. We are the truth. Reality comes to us in another way, to the community of Tigers.

A: India says be not sad, life is beautiful.

S: The world gives us sorrow. The world straps the load of sadness onto us. In the morning, we struggle to rise with this load. But still we stand on our feet. This world burdens us with cares and the lack of love. Life is heaviness. Still, still, the ambition of the community asks us to work. While we carry this unfair load. The ambition of the community, its hope, they ask us to live. Amidst this death.

the intrusion of sorrow amidst celebration

07.04.2026

S: There we were, celebrating together. It was what was the most momentous time of the day, the cutting of the cake. And then, from the TV blaring in the next room, came the sound. The song about heartbreak from the film ‘Dil’ (Heart).

A: A mere coincidence.

S: I think not. The other day, by mere coincidence, the film was about heartbreak. Today, the song was about heartbreak.

A: There are many songs about heartbreak. It is just a coincidence.

S: How do you know? How do you know that heartbreak doesn’t just follow me around?

A: Why would it?

S: That is what you would say. You don’t live this life of pain and sorrow.

A: You can find happiness in this life. Right now you are with someone.

S: How can you be sure of love in a life like this? Everything is hard and complicated.

A: Do you think anything easy is worth it?

S: Possibly not.

A: Tell me about this song from this film.

S: The man thinks that the woman has betrayed him. He sings the song of pain. Before his eyes, there flash the key moments of his love with this woman. The moments when he believed that she loved him.

A: Is he trying to relive those moments?

S: Perhaps he is seeing them through pain.

A: What does it feel like to be betrayed by someone?

S: You do not know? It has never happened to you? It is pain upon pain. It is disbelief and shock. It is trauma. It is an open wound.

A: And this wound has crept into your happiness?

S: In this life, all around us there is darkness and pain. For a moment, you think that you have forgotten it. It does not forget you. The past haunts us.