What does spirituality mean to you?
By nature I am not religious, so that word is more about a state of being. What is it that gives me a sense of calm, where do I find my peace? At the moment, my mind is so cluttered with work that I do not really find the spirituality I am looking for, apart from islands of calm when I get away from everything. In the urban environment, one gets so caught up in the momentum of the treadmill that it is hard to see within and question where one is. Of late though, I made for myself a house in the mountains, where I can switch off from everything with a sense of calm as there is no pressure to explore and go out as when visiting a new place. So I am discovering there the virtue of a place where I can go and just be.

Do you believe you are guided and protected by a superior force?
I believe in luck but I do not believe in chance. Everything I have achieved has come with hard work; I have slugged every single day of my life and never had an easy moment. That always got me to the next level of success but each one of them comes with its issues and pressures. When there is success, people watching from the outside only see the rosy picture, they do not understand that we all go through cycles and that there are dark periods as well. On the other hand, to succeed, one also needs luck. Being at the right place, at the right time. For instance, I have had the same factors available to me in the last thirty years but they did not work as well ten years ago. The country is now going through a boom so I am peaking at the right time. Had the country been booming when I was 25, I would not have known what to do with it. Now, who gives me that luck, who blesses me? I have never really given it a thought. I just know that neither talent or hard work nor luck alone are enough. You need both.

... contd.