‘Did the Chinese beat you?’ A Tibetan writer has an answer to this old question in Dharamshala

There is a Tibetan saying that goes: it is better to keep an appropriate distance from fire and loved ones. The word 'appropriate' is crucial. If the distance is too far, the warmth does not reach you and the fire remains just an image as in a photograph. It has been over three decades since I saw my mother. She lives in her world, her thoughts and ideas shaped by circumstances that are beyond my imagination. I live in exile, my thoughts and value shaped and influenced by a different set of circumstances. Books and friends have played important roles…