from punjab in india, you were taught very little about the connections between your family and your new country. yeah, i guess on paper, i had quite a bad start. my dad, totally illiterate and has schizophrenia. i arrived at school not being able to speak english. i was working in a factory myself throughout my schooling for 50p an hour, but i'm now a bestselling author. and i think i say that not to boast, but because i think my story is typical of many immigrants, and this is what immigrant families do. they arrive, they face adversity and they do well. they enhance the culture and the economy of this country. but the only narrative you hear is that immigrants are a burden. right. but if your contention is that your story is very typical of the immigrant story, then it raises a fundamental question about the sort of overarching theme of much of your work, which is that empire and the legacy of empire maintains a sort of grip on britain which makes britain still a fundamentally racist country. yet yours is a story of,