To delve into Inderjeet’s educational and career paths is to enter a labyrinth. Inderjeet had an unusual but privileged childhood. He was born in India, a second son to an Indian diplomat father and teacher mother who had to flee her family home in Burma due to the Japanese invasion. Both his parents were multilingual, having more than a dozen languages at their disposal. From the age of just eleven Inderjeet attended an elite boarding school in the Himalayas, after having moved from location to location in his earlier years, based on his father’s posting. So, Inderjeet has lived in India, Germany, Sweden, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Mauritius (still his favourite place in the world), England and the US as well as Thailand.

His boarding school valued prowess on the sports field above academic endeavour and this was an area in which Inderjeet did not display significant talent despite many an hour on the cricket oval and tennis court.  Inderjeet was much more focused on academic pursuits, his mind always many steps ahead of his classmates and further ahead than most of his teachers imagined too, so much so that they questioned his ability to concentrate on set tasks. Inderjeet’s teachers did not always report on his efforts in glowing terms, commenting that he was prone to daydreaming. His brother did excel and this led to unfavourable comparisons which caused Inderjeet’s need to find his own pathways to achieving positive recognition. Luckily, Inderjeet was still the teachers’ pet and while sceptical of his efforts, they sensed that he did not really fit in well, and so sometimes took him aside for fireside chats or to the cinema to introduce him to new, innovative film offerings. Always happy to listen to a good raconteur, Inderjeet gathered ideas as they often reminisced about their days in colonial India, honing the listening skills which later served him well as a scientist, professor, research manager and writer.

One area in which Inderjeet has always excelled is writing. Whether it stories, essays, novels, scholarly books or translating poetry, Inderjeet has always wanted to capture and record the multitude of ideas that race around in his head, like Formula 1 cars on the track. It is no exaggeration to say that Inderjeet has mastered writing about almost any topic, for almost any audience, in a language that is not even his mother tongue. Communication, in all its forms, is integral to Inderjeet, whether it be sharing of scientific discoveries, authoring reports for government think-tanks or spinning creative narratives. While his working life has seen him participate in conversation in the classroom, lab and boardroom, Inderjeet’s personal favourite is conversing with friends in a quiet tea shop somewhere off the beaten track, many of which (both friends and tea shops) he has encountered on his wanderings all around Asia with his wife Asha, since his early retirement some sixteen years ago.

Refusing to be pigeon-holed, Inderjeet considers himself a multi-disciplinarian first and foremost, with specialised skills in computer science, linguistics and artificial intelligence and with broader interests in psychology, philosophy and comparative religion, the final one perhaps a little unusual for a man who self-describes as an atheist. He adheres to what he describes as a “very old idea”, the unity and convergence of all knowledge, and is on a quest, as a scientist and humanist, to understand the nature of experience and the human search for meaning. He spent many years of his career in the US engaged in refining practical knowledge, modelling aspects of human language and cognition and giving machines abilities in those areas. Since his early retirement, Inderjeet has ventured forth on a more personal exploration, both of the inner self and understanding human character and values through his writing. His role as a scientist and a writer were in conflict for many years, as it was viewed, especially among Indians, as a distraction from the competitive world of scientific studies and professional achievement.  He had to keep his attendance at literary workshops and such a secret, and it was only recently that he ‘came out’ and felt able to share his fiction, which tends to have many explicit descriptions, with some of his relatives. Having some renowned and highly awarded scientists in the family didn’t make it any easier.

Inderjeet’s personal history is undoubtedly a strong driver in his search for the unity of knowledge.  In many ways, he has always felt an outsider, somehow different from the people around him. Throughout his school life, his dark skin and Tamil ethnicity led to racial slurs, taunts and cruelty from other pupils, and in his boarding school even from some of the Indian staff members. It was as if Inderjeet’s personal intensity was somehow perceived as a threat which needed to be curtailed, when in actual fact, Inderjeet was an introspective young man, whose loner status and contemplative nature was no cause for alarm.

Inderjeet’s first visit to Hua Hin was in 2007, at the behest of his son, who had taken a working gap year to Thailand and saw it as a possible destination for his parents, post-retirement. He was aware that Inderjeet was juggling many roles; parent, husband and scientist, all the while writing fiction at night as the rest of the family slept. Inderjeet was also feeling tainted by his government consulting work which seemed to be sinking him, as a longtime anti-war activist, ever deeper into the bowels of the American military-industrial complex. Seeing the movie Blood Diamond more or less confirmed his predicament. The following year, finished paying for their children’s educations and so free to be more self-directed in their choices, the pair decided to move to Thailand from the chilly snows of Boston, USA. With just two duffel bags after divesting themselves of most of their possessions, including art and books, Inderjeet and Asha chose Chiang Mai as their Thai base, stimulated by the city’s atmospheric setting and the rich social and cultural lifestyle is offered. For the empty-nesters it was an opportunity for greater closeness as a couple as they immersed themselves into volunteering with hill-tribe children on a multi-year project. Inderjeet’s experiences during this time provided fertile material for his first novel Toxic Spirits. Their son meanwhile took up a job teaching English at an international school in Chiang Mai and then, in next to no time, their daughter took up one teaching piano at a university in Bangkok, so the empty nest became full again, for just a brief period. The children, now 40 and 38 years old, are living full, happy and independent lives.

A real bugbear for Inderjeet is the Thai habit of burning, originally field and forest matter but now also including plastics. The smell of roasting plastic is something that Inderjeet will never enjoy. Air pollution was certainly a factor in the pair’s decision to relocate just south of Hua Hin, to a beachside condominium. What Inderjeet likes most about Hua Hin is the biodiversity he encounters. He feels stimulated by the riot of tropical life surrounding him and is fascinated to watch the fishermen bring in their nets, the molluscs burrowing into the sand, the marches of the different species of crabs and the swooping and wading of the various sea birds near the shoreline, not to mention having to brake for peacocks and monkeys. Inderjeet has even spotted dolphins frolicking from his upper-floor balcony. With national parks within an easy drive, and many kilometres of beach closeby Inderjeet has relaxation venues aplenty to choose from. All these pleasures he can still enjoy, while acknowledging the current climate crisis created by humans. Inderjeet wonders whether people will ever become more ethical in the way we treat our wonderous planet and fellow creatures. In terms of drawbacks, Inderjeet would love to see a greater opportunity for cultural pursuits in Hua Hin, as live music, theatre, talks, and film festivals are something he still misses from his time in Chiang Mai.

Inderjeet’s debut fiction novel, Toxic Spirits was first published in 2019 and then went to second edition in 2023.  While it was inspired by his volunteer work in Thailand’s Golden Triangle, it was written entirely in Hua Hin, real people, places and events from Hua Hin and its environs playing a crucial role in the story. The novel opens with a lady singer modelled on one Inderjeet heard one evening in 2014 at Father Ted’s Irish pub.  The novel’s villain lives in a building called The Peak, a notable local edifice, while a motorcycle trip taken by the protagonist and a Thai friend is inspired by a scenic ride along the Royal Coastal Route south from Pak Nam Pram towards Dolphin Bay.  There is even reference to crossing the aircraft runway like one has to at Ao Manao, just south of Prachuap township. Inderjeet is not aware of any other English language novel using the Hua Hin locality as its setting.

Toxic Spirits is the first in a trilogy of novels Inderjeet is contracted to write. The second in the series, Ultimate Loot has been started, but was suspended when seven years ago, Inderjeet and Asha went on a Buddhist pilgrimage to India and Nepal, a life-changing experience for the pair, which inspired Inderjeet’s second novel. The Conquest of Kailash, which came out just this year, is a tale of cruelty and marginalisation, and the struggle to find meaning in a world of mounting prejudice and false belief.  Inderjeet has also published six other non-fiction books and nearly fifty shorter literary pieces, along with a hundred-odd well-cited scientific papers.

To complement Inderjeet’s continually racing mind is the list of projects currently in various stages of completion. Along with Ultimate Loot, there is a new technical book on Artificial Intelligence, which although it may seem relatively new to many, has been a long-term field of study for Inderjeet. He is researching, organising and collating a memoir of his father’s experiences during the 1930s and 40s, leading up to World War II, and concurrently working on translating a 12th century love poem into English from its original Sanskrit. Yet another labour of love is a collection of a dozen or so science-fiction short stories that involve complex mathematical concepts such as tessellations and fractals.

The mere thought of all these projects would give many retirees a headache, but Inderjeet has plenty of intellectual bandwidth to spare. The racing and sometimes circular nature of his thoughts could invite a comparison of Inderjeet’s brain and the Sargasso Sea, a region of the North Atlantic Ocean where four ocean currents coalesce to form an ocean gyre. It is an ideal habitat for a genus of seaweed which floats en masse on the surface. An unfortunate impact of humanity in more recent times has been the accumulation of a high concentration of non-biodegradable plastic waste, the so-called North Atlantic garbage patch. The Sargasso Sea has been depicted in literature as an area of mystery and a place of danger to sailors, who might be becalmed and so perish at sea. It could indeed be that Inderjeet’s need to explore, research and understand the world begins with a deep dive into the Sargasso Sea of his own mind, with its own amassed flotsam and jetsam.

Yet, despite Inderjeet’s intellectual preoccupations, he is still remarkably grounded and humble in his approach to his life. Each day, he is thankful to awake, alive and ready to embrace the world. Loving both the world and oneself is essential, he thinks, for happiness. Sometimes Inderjeet contemplates whether he will live long enough to finalise all his projects, acknowledging the difficulties of living with the bodily changes of age and the precariousness of making too many plans. Still, he and Asha retain bucket-list items including further travel in China and an exploration of the ancient Hellenic and Ottoman worlds including Greece and Türkiye, a trip already in the planning stages. Although Inderjeet is eternally optimistic, he has had to scrap the idea of further ideas of travel in the Himalayas, including a visit to Mount Kailash, altitude and age having become incompatible.

Inderjeet’s initial approaches to publishers were in his late teens, yet it has taken nearly half a century, and surviving many deeply-felt setbacks, for his writing to come to full fruition. But despite all his acclaim and success, Inderjeet still believes his greatest achievement has been raising his two children, and perhaps even successfully parenting his beloved dogs.  The saddest things in his life have been losing his pets and having to give up a significant portion of his library when he downsized to move to Thailand.

Inderjeet lives by the maxim of “Love makes the world go round” and believes that living harmoniously requires empathy and a love for all fellow beings, human or otherwise. The living people he most admires would be members of his own family and the Thai working people he meets daily. But he also holds public figures including young, passionate and outspoken women like Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafzai in high esteem.

Inclined with advancing age to be more self-indulgent than ever before, Inderjeet hopes to devote limitless hours to his writing while scoffing liqueur chocolates to his heart’s content. A good cup of tea is an indispensable start to his morning, as is the company of Samantha, his shih tzu/pomeranian cross. Inderjeet makes a point of getting out of the house for part of every fine day, whether to walk, swim, do Pilates and yoga, have a coffee with friends in a favourite café, or even a pleasant drive along the byways with the windows down. For relaxation, effective tools include listening to music as well as meditation. Meditation has been a huge influence on Inderjeet. It renews him, calms his spirit, and helps awaken him, encouraging him to cherish the very spark of life.

One of Inderjeet’s most profound learnings has been in the area of patience. As a young man, Inderjeet wanted to all his questions answered, now! His present self would counsel that young man to take it easy, since there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven, it taking decades to learn some things. Although his mind is unlikely to slow significantly, Inderjeet seems to be at least contemplating tapping the indicator to move just the one lane to the left.