Baba Ji

In 2019 I invited artist Charlie Evaristo-Boyce to create a new work from a passport photograph of my grandfather’s passport, from 1964. The above image is of the artwork, which I creatively directed. I wrote the text below to accompany it, which I shared on social media during the farmers’ protests in India in 2021: “Karam Singh Dhillon travelled to England on in 1964 on invitation of the British government, after (surviving) fighting in Burma for the British Army in the second world war.

This is a piece of art I commissioned two years ago of my greatest hero, Karam Singh Dhillon - my baba ji (grandad). Baba ji was a farmer, like his baba ji before him, and his baba ji before that...


He created life with his bare hands. The life he grew, and the sweat he lovingly gave to the soil, nourished many other lives. Giving us comforts, choices and experiences, he was never afforded himself.


It is a piece that honours his strength, the life he birthed through his love, and the simplest and most sacred of relationships - between humans and the earth.

From my first trip to India at the age of 8 he would tell me, 'this is your land', 'this is your country'.

I watched him work. In awe at how one man could grow sooooooo much. It was like magic to me.

He fed me fresh sugar cane in the fields, peeling it and cutting off the knuckles as i worked my way through it. He'd pick me the sweetest mangoes - teaching me how to eat them with just my hands under the tree.

He is the strongest, softest, bravest - most devoted, resilient, loving, witty, respected and charitable man I've ever known. His spirit unshakeable and his integrity unbreakable. 

His blood runs through my veins, and the roots of his love for our mother(land) are firmly set in the soil of my spirit and my soul.

The photo used to create the image is from the passport he traveled to England on in 1964 on invitation of the British government, after (surviving) fighting in Burma for the British Army in the second world war. Here he is proud and strong in the full glory of his Punjabi Sikh farming identity. A destiny changing moment for the journey of our family bloodline. The reason I write this as an independent woman, with a career, freedom and infinite choices.

In light of the current fight for justice for farmers in India, this artwork feels more poignant now than ever. The protests are fuelled by the spirit of our ancestors. And that should not be taken lightly.



Thank you @charlieevaristoboyce for working with me patiently to bring this vision to life.