About

When we read backstories they often sound like a succession of accomplishments and victories. Like a miraculously perfect curriculum vitae. However, most of us know that life simply doesn’t work that way for everyone. Many of us face numerous defeats, setbacks, and twists and turns along the way to wherever we’re going to in life. That’s definitely been my case. 

 

I was constantly in trouble in and out of school as a young kid growing up in a Punjabi-Sikh immigrant family in the UK, Birmingham. My parents were disappointed with my behaviour and academic performance, I was the proverbial black sheep of a very big extended family. I was seemingly not destined to get to university or achieve a lot. I was one of those young boys who preferred being outside, playing sports, getting into mischief and fights - education was a distraction. It took me a while to understand that some people, particularly boys, are just late bloomers: I certainly was. I feel blessed that somehow, I had the will not to give up. I think being surrounded with strong, resilient male authority figures in my life, my father, grandfather, uncles, really saved me, and of course my mother's constant mild and harsh encouragements to study and read, gave me the necessary latent foundation for life. Also coming from the Sikh culture, I constantly listened to my father's stories of the fortitude, sacrifice, and tenacity of the Sikh martyrs and gurus and have always identified with that nature and spirit.

 

An undeniable turning point was at 16, when thanks to an Irish teacher, a family friend, gave me two books to read, Animal Farm by George Orwell, and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. It was the first time I really read and understood and communed with what I was reading. From that moment I started to read voraciously and collect books and have never stopped. This turn to self education was one of the most important events in my life.

 

Luckily, I got to university (in the UK university admissions are highly competitive and selective) and that was thanks to meeting a life mentor at the perfect time who gave me a lot of invaluable support and guidance. For my degree and master’s degree, I did better than I had ever done at school! This fact alone is one of the reasons I am the teacher and guide I am today. Not everyone is ready for something when we expect them to be and they shouldn't be punished for that. I believe the most important thing in teaching and guiding people is a mixture of patience, understanding, and compassionate authority. This can make all the difference. It can help someone get where they might not otherwise get without that guidance and compassionate authority. 

 

My journey also took in a year of volunteering with the UK Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) in Kazakhstan. The project I was sent to participate in pretty much fell through. But I began training under an inspirational boxing trainer in Amangeldy Akhmetov — one of the most transformative experiences of my life. That has led me to becoming a boxing trainer myself. Thanks to that, I also ventured into sports massage therapy, doing my diploma at North London School of Massage (NLSSM) and working with both amateur and professional athletes, including the British Triathlon team. And to this day an active lifestyle fuels my energy and vitality as a teacher, trainer, and guide.

 

Answering the call to university, I continued my journey in philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, focusing on areas such as ancient Greek philosophy, logic, and philosophy of language. This experience was a continuation of a passion that had started from a young age thanks to my first philosophy teacher at college without whom I'm sure I would never have fallen in love with philosophy the way I did. This was around the same time I discovered reading at 16. This was followed by a master's in cognitive semiotics from Aarhus University, Denmark. This is a unique discipline centred on the nature of human meaning-making at the psychological, cognitive, and philosophical levels, by integrating approaches, methodologies, and evidence from cognitive science, linguistics, psychology, embodied cognition, and semiotics to deliver insights into how humans create meaning.

 

Through cognitive semiotics, I've learnt how language acquisition goes beyond the analytical mind, and encompasses embodied processes, gestures, movement, and interaction. Yet more than that, my studies in cognitive semiotics led to one of the deepest revisions of my understanding of philosophy from the Greeks 2,600 years ago to the present day. This is mostly down to the phenomenal work of George Lakoff and Mark Johnson. The latter personally advised and guided me through email correspondence in preparation for my master's thesis, for which I am forever grateful and honoured.

 

It was this fortunate discovery of cognitive semiotics and the reevaluation of my whole understanding of philosophy and language that led to one, a shift to the usage-based model of language acquisition, and two, to the embodied cognition paradigm of philosophy. This opened an unparalleled gateway to uncovering and confirming how philosophy is indeed not only a intellectual practice, but a physical, psycho-emotive practice that can be used to inform modalities of teaching, training, and guiding. 

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Thus, this background in both philosophy and cognitive semiotics, and sport, particularly boxing, has shaped me, and continues to shape me into the teacher, trainer, and guide I am today with an alchemical, holistic, yet evidence-backed approach. Despite my educational background, I still feel and behave as a student. I feel a deep sense of duty to continue learning. I invest hours on a weekly basis in extensive deep reading. But learning alone is never quite enough. I believe deeply in authority figures and guides, and I work hard to surround myself with the right people, who guide and support me, from respected elders to successful business owners with decades of experience, to parish priests, and professional psychologists and psychotherapists.

 

Without such people around me, I wouldn’t be sufficiently challenged. I would lack the awareness of my own ignorance and flaws. I strongly believe we need deeply reflective mirrors around us to reflect the deepest parts of our human nature and psyches, and to keep the indomitable will of our egos in check, while guiding us along the mysterious path that is life.  

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