‘I did not take any money—that I am 100 per cent sure of. For the rest I cannot say, but I would have found out’

• My guest today is perhaps India's most famous recluse, Arun Singh. Thank you for agreeing to this interview.

I must confess I'm both surprised and a little flattered that you remembered me after so many years. Let me say this, this is the first and the last time that I am making an appearance of this kind. My reasons for doing this have nothing to do with Walk the talk but because I remember you from your days as a defence correspondent. I remember how keenly interested you were in the subject at that time and how you've continued being interested in it since then. And that bond between us has brought me here.

• Tell us why you've chosen to live so far away here in Binsar. I know it is a beautiful place and you have your lovely cottage here. But even when you were in Delhi there were people who believed you lived in a mud hut or a large colonial bungalow. Why this silence, and how Binsar?

When my wife Ramola and I decided to move out, we had this basic idea that it would be the mountains. I then had a choice, as it were, of the range of Himalayas. But my mother was a Kumaoni, and I felt this urge to go back to her land. Why Binsar? It was purely by chance. We didn't know anybody here, had never been here.

In Binsar we found a beautiful location at a very affordable price. I'm not a rich man but I had enough to support this existence. The seclusion, from my and Ramola's point of view, is an advantage and not a disadvantage. And it has been that way for the last 18 years.

• You were always a gregarious person. In politics you were a gregarious person. Why this sudden urge for solitude, and that too in a place like this?

... contd.

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