12.03.2026

S: You are surrounded by racists. That smile at you while they plot on keeping you down.

A: It is too true.

S: Nothing can be too true. To exist and survive with these racists, you must do a Hamlet.

A: How so?

S: Hamlet was done out of a throne and mother by the villain. He was oppressed. So, he had to act in a different way to everyone else. He had to become an original rather than a sheep.

A: Oppression forces individuality and personality, a change. An interesting thesis.

S: And it was perceived as madness.

A: Difference when it is radical cannot be understood.

S: The Oppressed stand counter to the strategy of cowardice, deception and usurpation. And because of this, they are perceived as mad. This is the reward of the genius of the Oppressed. This is the creativity of difference. The other path. The path that is counter. The path that contests the usurped throne.

A: You walk the path of fire.

S: It is the blessing of The Revolution, The Tiger and The Mother. Not all are blessed with this bounty.

A: Hamlet never wins.

S: But he achieves his revenge. That is enough. Justice, more precious than life. Honour more charming than the world.

11.03.2026

A: Why are you so angry?

S: They broke my heart.

A: They are telling you that they did nothing to you.

S: Yet they broke my heart.

A: This world? Work? Love?

S: Why say? Perhaps all, perhaps one.

A: How can you be angry?

S: Achilles was the greatest. His anger was such that he would not fight in the war where his exploits would become legendary, the war that is the destiny of the warrior.

A: He did fight.

S: Have you discovered why he fought though? It was also the anger of the broken heart, when they killed his lover.

A: The moral of this story?

S: The Greek myth makes him a slave for their fight through the anger of a broken heart. This is the journey of a broken heart in Greek culture, in Western culture.

A: You said you are Achilles. Will you not fight for the anger of the broken heart?

S: Not as the slave. Do you know why Achilles was the greatest? He had his mother’s protection. He fell where his mother could not protect him. The Mother protects me. I fight for her honour. They cannot have me as their slave. I am Punjab. I am India. I am The Tiger. I fight for The People as their prayer, The Oppressed. For the others, I will not fight. Their power cannot corrupt the son and the lover. This anger of the broken heart will remain directed at them. The ending of Achilles cannot be the ending of The Tiger.

A: Burning in anger will kill you.

S: Death before dishonour. Death is sweet. And anger? It is strength. It is the strength to carry on, to carry honour. Achilles is angry because he has honour. He is broken hearted because he has honour. This is why he can go against power and all, this is why he is exceptional and alone. This is why he is the greatest.

10.03.2026

S: In his stories about the detective, Doyle could not understand the insane anger of women or the natives.

A: You understand it?

S: I am it. I am rage.

A: Why?

S: When you are angry, you are angry for yourself. I am angry for the community. And that is a lot of anger.

A: How can you be angry for the community?

S: I have five degrees after this year, including a masters and a doctorate. Yet I do not work in a graduate role or use my education in any significant way. I am angry at the uselessness of education. My grandfather had a degree. When he came to this country, he had to work in non graduate roles because of his ethnicity. I am angry at the uselessness of education. My people, the low castes, they would not let them learn. They said education would improve our lot. It hasn’t. I am angry at the uselessness of education.

A: What then is the fruit of this anger? It is also useless.

S: You are wrong. The use of the education of anger is that it makes you stronger. It gives you the strength to go on despite them. The ones that have made education useless. That have made the life of the intellect an ordeal. This anger has unfolded the secrets of this world of ignorance and prejudice. This anger? It is what has created The Tiger.

A: Insane anger.

S: For an insane world.

10.03.2026

A: Is honour the same as status?

S: In many ways, yes.

A: But is it the same?

S: I will give a personal example. I have to work for others. That is status. I’m down on the scale. But honour? That is different. Because I have honour.

A: They don’t?

S: Who knows whether they do or not. I don’t concern myself with them. This honour that I have comes from protecting The Mother and improving the world around me, by protecting the planet, Our Earth Mother. By helping so many others.

A: No one gives you this honour except for yourself.

S: It is only my opinion that counts. I am the hero. The hero functions according to a code.

A: Have you lived up to the ideal of the hero?

S: Do you know what the hero is? Who The Tiger lives up to? It is my grandfather. He came to this country from nothing. He struggled against their hate. And despite that, he collected money and built the gurdwara (temple) for our guru, Guru Ravidas. The guru that they can’t accept because he comes from us, the low castes, the Dalits and The Oppressed. He made our community in this place. That is who I live up to. Them? Their hero is Hitler. And the heartless rich, whose skin colour they admire. That is why they have not honour but shame.

A: How does the egoist endure the status given?

S: With scorn for them and not for myself.

07.03.2026

A: You have a lot of stamina, spinning all these plates constantly.

S: I come from the poor. I come from farmer stock. We are superhuman and we are invincible. Nothing and no one can crush us.

A: You look well on it.

S: That is well. Because I am recovering from the night of joy.

A: Really? What was this night?

S: There was one who I was with and we explored the magic of this world together.

A: A fellow traveller?

S: One who holds my hands and meets my eyes.

A: And how do you recover from the dark night together?

S: The drug that enfolds the mind is strong. The heart is full but longs for more. Her picture comes to the eyes. The skin remembers her touch, this hand her hand. The words that she spoke still dance and I still learn the choreography of her face and body in every moment.

A: These nights of joy suit you.

S: Why not? I am the poet and the lover.

06.03.2026

S: Have you ever heard of Freud’s theory of the uncanny?

A: Go on.

S: The doubling of the homely and the unhomely, the familiar and the unfamiliar?

A: Why?

S: It seems to characterise my relationships with this world and its people.

A: In what way?

S: They come into your life. You feel that you know them. But you do not know them. It is the appearance of knowing and familiarity. When, in fact, it is unfamiliarity and unknowing.

A: How much do you need to know about someone?

S: Apparently not that much. Because most relationships are incredibly superficial.

A: You are living in the world of the unfamiliar?

S: Some people, I have known for almost four years or longer. And still, they are not friends. They do not share anything. You cannot share anything with them. You are surrounded in your life by strangers who you kind of know. You are surrounded by the unfamiliar which challenges the boundaries of what is familiar.

A: How does it feel to live in the uncanny?

S: I wonder if it is the predicament of the ethnic minority man. That is what I would imagine. But then, that is what you always have to wonder when you are an ethnic minority man. I wonder if it is because I am different. And I know that it is because I am different. Difference is unacceptable in this culture. You are consigned to look upon them as a different form of life removed from you. And they even have a problem with that, when it is what they have done to you when they made you the outsider.