Thread

At five, I asked a cobbler why his son sat outside my school instead of inside. He folded his hands and said, "Babuji, you are born to go to school. We are born to work." I cried. I refused to accept it. That was my first spark of compassion. Nobody taught it to me. It was already there. It is in every one of us. But compassion is not a soft emotion. Kindness cannot free a child from slavery. Mercy cannot end caste. These injustices are built into systems, and they need a force. Compassion is that force: disruptive, dynamic, transformative. It is feeling another's problem as your own, and acting to solve it. That is what I shared today at SALA 2026 with my brother @VRFerose and the South Asian community of San Francisco. Thank you for your warmth and your questions. The spark is within you. Don't let it go out.