Barefoot Vegan Mag Jan_Feb 2017

you know behind and you have to change the way that you
behave once you come to this new soil. Nothing is familiar
to you so you try to change your lifestyle. You no longer eat
those organic fresh fruits and vegetables. You're eating
these convenience foods and they're using ingredients
totally alien to you and your ancestors. I think those are
the things that really affect the South Asian community.
Heart disease is something that comes along, obviously
because of food, but also because of stress levels. Being an
immigrant is a very, very stressful thing in itself. I think all
of that combined - changing the food, changing the
environment - really takes its toll on the body. I can't even
imagine being a first generation immigrant, it must be
really difficult.
You learned Punjabi to connect and
learn from your grandparents and they
have really encouraged you to embrace
a simple lifestyle. What are some of the
most important lessons that you've
learned from them?
My granddad’s literally the coolest guy on the planet. He’s
got a huge beard and he's a Sikh, so he carries around a
sword with him all the time. How can you not be a cool
guy looking like that, right? He's awesome. There are a few
things I've learned, but the first one would be the
importance of growing organic fruit and vegetables
yourself. He has his own garden and it's not a big
garden, just a couple of metres, but he's got so
much. He’s got his garlic, his kale, his spinach, his
beetroot, his carrots. And he's grown so much in
abundance. And he stresses so much that we don't need
to add chemicals to our produce because it's from
Mother Earth. From God. We don't need to tamper with
it because it's perfect the way it is. He's a firm believer
that there is a Creator and we are the created. We
should be looking after ourselves with that kind of
respect.
They also taught me how to embrace being
Punjabi and that we have come from a small village. I
used to think it was the most un-cool thing in the world
when I was younger. I remember one of my earliest
thoughts was I wished that I was white because of where
I grew up. I look at that now and I see that was so
messed up. Having dialogue with my grandparents
makes me realise that being who I am is really cool and
there's so much to learn about from the ways back
home.
At the Vevolution Festival that was
held in London in November last
year, you were on a discussion panel -
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