So there is such a thing as a purpose in life?
Each person has to find his own purpose. And it keeps evolving. When I was 22 years old, my purpose was to get a posting where I could find a girlfriend. That obviously can’t be the case today. But the essence of the purpose is the same --- it is about facing challenges. Like for instance now it is about recovering from an electoral defeat. So long as there is a challenge and you meet it, you have secured the purpose of your life.

But why would you want to overcome this electoral defeat unless there was a larger purpose?
I want to overcome it in order to win again and continue to realize my political ambitions.

But why those political ambitions?
At the end of the day, it is only about vulgar ambition.

What for?
That is basically what gives me a kick. The sense of achievement coming with recognition. There is no point rising to lonely spiritual heights. I want an audience for that.
And I want it, even though I know that “every political life ends in failure, except that which is cut-off in mid-flight”. Look at Napoleon, maybe the most heroic of all, and his miserable lonely end, with only his jailor to talk to; look at Churchill --- such a hero on victory day, and two months later rejected by his people.

So why did you pick politics in the first place?
For two reasons. One is public service, the second is being personally recognised for that public service. It is not a selfless choice.
In politics I have had an ideology not in accord with the present ideology, which is one of the reasons I have been so much on the margins. I should have been born 30 years earlier.

... contd.