Has some particular experience shaped that conviction?
I have had a number of uncanny experiences or intuitions, which showed me there is such a thing. For instance, one day as I was doing my puja, I suddenly felt the presence of my mother, just next to me. She had never come in the five or six years since her demise. And she was weeping. I was wondering why she had come, and why she was so sad. Immediately after, my father announced his second marriage. Such an uncanny experience definitely reinforced my belief in such an unseen guiding force.

What have been your main inspirations?
Of course my parents, and the values we saw in them. Having such a father means two things: I know fairly well I may never reach the pinnacles he reached, but at least I can aspire to it, and I derive commitment and dedication from him. I can see how some of his ideas are completely relevant today --- look at how the two rupees kilo rice program or the farmers’ power concessions programs are being implemented by the current government in Andhra. But on the other hand, people’s expectations are extremely high, which is a tremendous pressure, and a very difficult one to bear. Those expectations can wear you down. So I keep telling people that he was who he was, and that I am who I am, that we should not be compared.
Besides, voters are now much more mature, more aware, we cannot hogwash them anymore and it calls for constant true work.

... contd.