I was born in India the contradiction I Grew up with is Imagine now you're a Four-year-old kid if you can close your Eyes you can imagine that and you have a Really good friend of yours and you play Soccer with them and you play all Different games with him and he's your Friend one day your friend says oh come On over to my house it's a very hot day Maybe 100 plus degrees in the Indian Summer you're sweating you have no water You played and your friend invites you Over to his home and you're going to his Home with your soccer ball on your hand This crazy woman his mother comes out And starts calling you the n-word the Equivalent in Indian language and you're A child you don't understand why she's So mad at you doesn't want you to even Come into her home spits at the ground At you and says you stand here brings Her son in and gives you water in a Dirty cup a filthy cup because you are a Human being that is treated worse than a Street dog that cannot come into her Home that's the experience I experience As a four-year-old child that's Injustice that I had to unwind this Story this very powerful set of Indignities asking my mother why did This woman do this than hearing from Your mother that you are considered what They called a low-caste shudra which is Like the n-word my mother proceeded to
Tell me as four year old now that when She used to go to the well to get water They would chase her way like a pig my Mother said we have a caste system and We are the lowest of the low we were Supposed to just pick coconuts the rest Of our life other people over here are Supposed to wash toilets the rest of Their life over here these people are Just supposed to milk cows the rest of Their life and so on this is called a Caste system I can see right Correlations of why you're doing what You're doing now that caste system was Imposed in India when it was going away And I had to figure all this out many Years later what was his caste system What is this system I was fascinated by This like deeply hurt but wanted to Understand this as a kid I started Wanting to read books of great Heroes be It Jesus Christ or Rama the great Warrior or books I could get on great Revolutionaries I started to study from The time was eight nine ten I had Studied left right wing all these people Who fought against this Injustice that's What motivated me that's what fired me Up because no one should suffer that Kind of indignity ever why did a system Exist that was enumerated in the Government laws is actually you are this Cast you'll be treated like this my Parents were quite extraordinary people
Because my mother grew up in a household Where the father ran away which never Occurs ran away with a woman nine kids She was left essentially homeless as an Eight-year-old my mother had to figure Out that she had to stand up for herself Women talk about women's Liberation my Mom became liberated she had to get Educated on her own got a mathematics Degree as a woman in fact a masters in Statistics unheard of wow extraordinary Woman fighter fierce fighter my father Grew up in war-torn Burma as a child Never saw a book World War II Burma was The center point of the fight between The Japanese and the so-called allies my Father grew up in this environment where His grandfather my great-grandfather I Knew was an indentured servant a slave Who had left on a small indentured slave Ship as a 12 year old to make his Fortune and Burma in the late 1800s he Lived up to 100 something my Great-grandfather left there to make his Fortune he started with nothing he Worked so hard on that slave ship the Captain of that ship said I can't hold You in bondage I remember seeing anyone Work this hard and he left him out of His bonds my great grandfather made his Fortune in Burma when World War II came It was his Devastation everywhere my Great-grandfather they had to leave back To India it was quite an extraordinary
Person very deeply spiritual person my Great grandfather what he did was he saw All these refugees and he took all of His land he had hundreds of acres of Land and he built homes for all the Refugees he gave it away and he left he Left with nothing from India went to Burma made a fortune and came back with Nothing my great-grandfather said you Could judge a person by how they are With money without money and then with Money my dad's family literally walked Back to India because it was wartime Yeah my dad said as a child you would Live in foxholes you would see bombs Coming people would in their pants That's how dangerous it was but my Great-grandfather is a deep deep Believer in God he would go out as bombs Were falling and he would said nothing Will harm you very connected when I grew Up as a child I'd experienced this Horrible caste system then my Grandparents lived in a very small Village imagine if you see those old Movies going to deep south Mississippi No running water no electricity dirt Roads no yeah trust me my family's from Vetiver Bulgaria she did that yeah it's A farm it's been there for Generations Right no running water yeah toilet in The ground in the back no even toilet in The ground you have to go out into the Woods it's a hole in the ground we'd
Have to walk into the woods yeah but Anyway you yeah I get the the point is That in that environment that I grew up In that Village my great-grandfather Learned a lot from me he'd get up at Four in the morning this guy was ripped At 90s would work in the fields 15 16 Hour days with my grandmother small Subsistence Farm my grandmother was a Village healer I mean she wasn't some Doctor she had tattoos all over her arms Chewed tobacco this woman on weekends 30 40 people would come to the home she Would observe their face there's an Ancient Indian technique called Samudrika lakshinam here as a young kid Five six years old I'm seeing my Grandmother observe people's faces Figure out what was their constitution What was wrong in their body just by Observing the face she would make Formulations for them it could be Meditation yeah it could be many things Mind Body people don't know sound Frequency I think is the future I mean It's the past it's one of the things Yeah it's not any one thing it's Multiple things I saw her kill people How was this woman with no degrees able To heal people in a small village with Dirt roads that fascinated me this Ancient system of medicine and here Doctors who would never come to these Villages there's another Injustice here
The true thing was this woman was Healing people helping people and she Was considered the shaman in the village My grandmother would go into trances in Our little small home she had if you Looked across on the walls or pictures Of Jesus Christ pictures of Rama Pictures of Buddha all these great Deities because the Hindu religion Believes that Jesus Christ is a messiah He was sent to the world he is a Son of God an avatar but Hinduism also believes These are many avatars in some ways it Generalizes that concept of the Messiah It is completely absorbing of Christ and Appreciating Christ completely believes Christ is the Son of God I grew up in That world seeing my grandmother go into Different states of conscience and start Channeling you would go into the home And there would be the smell of holy Ash Like you would see in ancient Eastern Orthodox Churches yeah it's a very Beautiful environment very primitive in Some ways and that's the world I grew up In in that world I started developing This appreciation of systems this love Of very Everyday People the love of my Mother who fought against this caste System the love of my grandmother who Was able to heal people the fact that my Dad who had never saw a book until he Was under a mango tree at the age of 12 And he ends up becoming a chemical
Engineer to one of the leading Industrialists of India that gentleman Was moved by my dad's intelligence my Dad is raw intelligence he could solve Any problem from basic fundamentals here Were these two extraordinary people who By any regard because of their cast Should just be picking coconuts they're Entire life that was their cast Destiny They broke that Destiny through sheer Will and fighting Injustice when my dad First came to the United States he got The opportunity to come here in fact he Was sent here as an engineer to get Training from a U.S company my dad was So good the United States company said We can't teach you anything they invited Him to come to the United States I think 1968-69 what's going on at that point is The Vietnam War you have the Civil Rights Movement taking place you have Sex drugs to rock and roll my dad comes Here at that time with 75 in his pocket And they wanted my dad to stay here my Dad is very loyal to his employer he Said I'm not going to backstab my Employer he went back and he said they Want me to come there they was trying to Recruit me I didn't think that was right My dad's employer said you should go Because it'll be good for your family And that's sort of this loyalty my dad Bred in us you know you're loyal to People who help you after that my dad
Came here 75 bucks in his pocket how old Are you at this time I think I was six 1969. my parents my sister myself and my Mom didn't see my dad for a year legal Immigration we have to wait in line then In 1970 literally we left India on December 2nd it was my seventh birthday I have this Theory things occur in Cycles of seven yeah numerology so we Left on my seventh birthday I left with Shorts right get on this TWA Air flight And I remember I'd never eaten this kind Of food I remember eating a ham sandwich I almost threw up I could still to this Day taste the chemicals in that food That's how deep it was it tasted like Garbage I couldn't eat any of the food Landed in John F Kennedy Airport Kennedy The irony the irony we landed snowing I've never seen snow in my life I have Shorts on and my dad meets us and I Asked my dad I remember this why did you Bring us here and one word he said Freedom that is why my parents came here Freedom you go back to getting off this Plane as a kid no coming from India with This caste system in India they said These little comic books not comic books Of stupid Marvel heroes but comic books Are great revolutionaries there's a guy Called Sebastian darbos who wanted Actually raise an army to violently kick The British out of India I thought that Was cool yeah yeah they deserved
Some violence upon them Christ put some Violence into those people right my Heroes were people like that I read Little comic books of people that were Just emerging on the scene great Fighters Freedom Fighters these guys are cool yeah they wanted to kick Some ass yeah and they weren't treated As oh well you should not beat the Out of your enemy no these were little Indian comic books very interesting Comic books yeah it's very cool they Influenced me yeah I come with that Story I come with my grandmother and After we land we settled in Patterson New Jersey still to this day one of the Poorest cities in the United States this Is the United States of sex drugs and Rock and roll Vietnam is taking place You turn on the TV black and white TV Yeah we got one from the Salvation Army You see soldiers being butchered on TV Every day body bags coming you see riots Police beating the out of Demonstrators you see pictures of people Protesting in the Civil Rights Movement That's what I grew up in I'm in Patterson New Jersey which is Predominantly all segregated blacks We're considered quote unquote brown Black I'm in second grade the school Systems are tough you have to learn how To fight because people want to start Fighting you're the outsider yeah coming
From nowhere it wasn't I was white and I Wasn't black I was brown yeah so Everyone picked on you yeah everyone Picked on us but you learned how to Fight and that's Patterson New Jersey When we came we didn't have any clothes We didn't prepare a wonderful African-American woman took us to the Salvation Army and got all your clothes Books and that's how our life started by These very loving people who helped us Interesting enough my dad when he had Arrived here in 69 he didn't have a Place to stay he was walking down the Street and met a guy called Jesse Jenkins who was a bass player old man He'd let my dad stay in his home which Is a Dusty home my dad describes music All around he was very close friends With the interracial couple the husband Was black and the woman was white he was A principal of a school we ended up Going to something called Thanksgiving To their homes so here's this very which An interracial couple was unheard of at That time in fact when he died they Named into school after it's called Carter High School I think it's in Wayne New Jersey I went for 30 40 years and They were deeply devout Christians People would pray before a meal this was This environment early formative years In this interracial World Vietnam Protests in the streets in some ways
Chaos but is no different than the chaos I grew up in Bombay so I felt at home And then my parents realized wow we came To America for our kids to get an Education Patterson they're never going To get educated except our son getting In fights all the time so we went to Move to Clifton New Jersey because in The United States my parents could never Afford private schools but my mother Hated private school she thought it was Like a segregation she never believed in This Bourgeois yet my parents moved to Another town called Clifton New Jersey More of an integrated town still very Poor town public school system I did Second to fourth grade there but I had Incredible teachers I had a third grade Teacher taught me how to write Expository writing in third grade I Would never forget that she gave a Writing assignment and she held up my Thing she goes Shiva did this writing Assignment beautifully because it was a Concept of a thesis statement the Concept of making points on your thesis System expanding by the way very few People today even learn expository Writing it's crazy I learned this at Third grade yeah so I know how to write I know how to make an argument but it Was Mrs Hall she taught me that at third Grade then in fourth grade of an amazing Teacher who was into eastern and western
Meditation when I left that school she Did a wonderful party for me and then we Moved to the next town called Lake Hiawatha New Jersey this is what age now I think I must be 12. my dear mom's Mother is dying so me and my mom take Off from school because she wanted me to Be with her we go back to India for Three months she was taking care of her Mother I went back to my Village or my Grandparents are that's when you see wow That's a huge difference yeah wait a Minute I had like cars yeah electricity Yeah paved roads right running water Where you have a toilet that you flush Yeah here I'm back there's no paved Roses freaking cobras out there but you Go up and you look up at the stars like You've never seen before you find God in Places like yeah and everyone you can Walk the streets at any time people love You yeah that that experience is when I Realize this massive difference in Wealth my grandparents have no shoes my Grandmother works in the fields he's got Leeches on her feet then that end of That trip my grandparents come to a Train station to see me off these are These old Caboose trains like you see Out of the Wild West I'm looking through The window and I see my grandparents my Grandfather I can still see them yeah my Grandfather and my grandmother crying Because deep love like I may never see
Me these people have very little but They give everything they have so you Realize this immense love for these People you realize that those same People whatever money they had they Educated my father like how little they Had but they had this deep deep love This deep sense of Honor when my uncle Came back to that Village he became a Doctor and he came to my grandmother for Blessings my grandmother asked him one Question she said if someone poor comes To you and they have no money will you Heal them are you going to charge them He goes no no I'll heal them because Medicine was supposed to be you never Charged yeah not one penny she gave him Her blessings but this was this ether so That life was very ephemeral that you Were here for service and it was a Direct connection to God right period It's a life that I think very few people Experienced I was very very fortunate to Get that but I remember looking for that Window and still I can see it and I'm Realizing if I don't do something with My life that helps these people and why Is it my aunt is living in a four foot By four foot Hut why is it they have so Little yet they have bigger Hearts than Anyone I've ever seen and it's that deep Connection I remember a chill went Through my spine you could call it from A crown shocker to my base yeah the
Decision was that I would become Something to destroy this Injustice period it's time to shatter The Swarm it's time for us it's time for One of us truth Freedom Health sheep of The president period
