Did you ever have moments of doubt?
Yes, but not of Him, of myself. Yet I am not keen on speaking in the first person, in an autobiographical way. It is a form of self-aggrandisement. I find it arrogant and distasteful, even though politicians must live in the world of self-projection, and everyone tells me I do not do enough of it. But I cannot do which I am not. I would become so dry as a human being.

How come you are in the world of politics, of all worlds?
I won’t tell you it is “because I want to serve a great purpose”. Part of it is circumstantial, part of it is a search of one’s own self, and partly as an avenue of self-expression. I also write, I sketch a bit, I listen to music, I ride, I appreciate the fragrance of flowers, beauty and so on. Nothing is compartmentalized, it is all the flow of human personality into different channels.

So is there such a thing as a special purpose or mission to one’s life?
Of course there is. I am an instrument, chiselled for many different things. But none of it happened in a calculated way. I have not led a calculating life. My instinct has led me much more than has dry dull reasoning. Because you have to jump in order to find. Reason is quite often an impediment to instinct.

When I finished school, my father asked me what I wanted to do. I said I wished to go to university. But we had suddenly become very poor and he said he could not send me. So without telling anybody, I sought to be admitted if found fit in the military Academy. I just jumped into it. I did not serve though to be a pensioner. At some point, when in search of another avenue of self-expression, I resigned from the Army and joined politics.

... contd.