• Why?

They wanted me to come and settle down in Pune. They sent me 10,000 cards. Very creative people. I have never seen such a creative group of people. So each one, two or three of them joined together and organised a programme. Some were interested in how to educate those who cannot read or write. Some were interested in how to clean up riverbeds, some in how to remove people's pain. Very constructive work they were doing.

• All they have to arrange now is a bunch of peacocks and Dr Kalam will get to Pune as well.

Of course I have to go there as well. This was a new way in which they came to invite me, and I had a beautiful interaction with them yesterday. Today, of course, I went through my favourite task --   researching on mentally challenged children.

• But you were never confined to the Rashtrapati Bhavan. You were never confined by any ceremony as well. You always managed to reach out.

Yes.

• In fact, if I remember, the first trip you made after taking over as the Rashtrapati was to Gujarat (after the 2002 riots).

You remember that.

• You called the killings very gruesome. For a new president, this was a very significant decision. Tell us something more about the thought process (behind that decision). Tell us what happened.

I was thinking where they came from, the differences between people. One reason is economic weakness, which is why I'm always advocating economic prosperity. As economic prosperity comes in, you find that differences in society, value systems, differences in ways of thinking, differences in action will all converge on the positive side. This is the impression I got. You cannot have a society that has one side that's prosperous and another that's below the poverty line. The vision was: how do we lift up the 220 million people who are below the poverty line.

... contd.