“The Sikyong is tired,” the personal secretary of Lobsang Sangay, the political head or Prime Minister of the Tibetan government in exile, told me as he showed me in. It was a long Parliament session that had ended almost an hour after the scheduled time for our interview (I passed my time soaking in sights of rain-soaked mountains around, don’t worry) and Sangay indeed looked tired when we met. We both agreed to make the interview short.

He patiently answers all my questions, on India, China, Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration. The Darjeeling boy and I take a walk down the Mall Road of his childhood memories. He tells me of his Lamahatta days, of bunking classes, of aloodum and bhuja. What a charming Khampa!

When I went home and checked the audio clip, just the recorded interview was 58 minutes long. Keeping time is certainly not our strong point, Sikyong-La.

Click here to read the interview published on The Diplomat. Watch this space for more stories resulting from that interaction.