About

My journey on this planet begins in the capital of the most powerful nation in the world. I was born in a Women’s hospital in Washington DC that was built in the later half of the 19th century for the widows and wives of civil war soldiers. After four years I spent most years of my remaining childhood in another capital city, Delhi which has served as a political center of many empires, kingdoms and finally a nation free from colonial powers.

I survived a genocidal massacre on the streets of Delhi in November 1984 which consumed the lives of thousands of Sikhs across India. I gave a testimony about this experience at the US Capital briefing in 2018, ‘Religious Freedom in India’.

After high school I came back to the land of my birth. I finished my undergraduate studies at University of California, Santa Barbara. I went to graduate school for a masters in public health at University of California, Berkeley. 

I moved to the east coast in the year 2000 for a daytime career in software engineering for the next fifteen years. The tragedy of the attacks of 9/11 created a whole new fork in my life’s journey. I was a cartoonist by night from late 2002 onwards. I detailed this journey in an essay ‘My Life in a Turban’ in Salon. In 2016, I transitioned out of software technology to travel across the nation as a speaker, storyteller, artist and activist on a mission to represent the underrepresented. 

The mission continues armed with my turban, beard, humor, liberal doses of compassion & kindness and always trying to keep an open mind like a young kid.