EP.148 - Kelly Kaur - "Be A Tiger"

Be A Tiger is an episode about what it really means to grow up as a South Asian girl who’s told to be strong… while also being told to stay quiet, stay small, and don’t make anyone uncomfortable.

In this conversation with award-winning author Kelly Kaur, we step into the world of Letters to Singapore through Simran — this young brown girl who is trying to hold herself together as an immigrant student from Singapore to Calgary in the 80's. As if the adjustment as a new comer isn't enough, Simran is also juggling carrying family expectations, culture, patriarchy, and a kind of freedom she wasn’t prepared for.

We talk about that early line her father gives her — “Be a tiger” — and how that message changes as we grow up. What it means to be a tiger as a girl, what it means as a woman, and what it means when you finally start choosing yourself.

And we go into the things we all know but rarely say out loud:
• What it meant in the ’80s to “stand out in front of white people” — and the survival skills coded into that
• What happens when you suddenly have freedom after being raised with none
• How our older women — who were once the bullied ones — can become the gatekeepers
• How patriarchy follows us from our parents’ homes straight into our marriages
• And what today’s immigrant students are actually facing — the racism, the headlines, the sound bites that blame them for everything while erasing the systems exploiting them

This episode is for every woman who grew up in-between… shapeshifting,
for the ones who learned to roar quietly…
and the ones who are setting the example to roar out loud. This episode is also for the brave man who wants to address his misogyny and set an example for the next generation. (We know you are out there )

Follow Kelly on Instagram: @kellykaur3