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Getting some distance allowed me to develop a hunger for India and to come back and explore it in a way I wouldn't have had I been living here. And that probably made me more political as well.

And then a great thing in my life was going to India.

India somehow constantly rivets and inspires me, and I feel very relieved to have come from this country which has a very 'lifeist' approach to living fully, no matter what one has or doesn't have.

India profoundly changed my outlook on life because you see how people can be content and very happy with little or even no possessions. It's the reverse of the West.

Moving to India was challenging being a foreigner. I don't have any family here. I didn't have anyone to guide me. But I never felt for a second that I am not welcome here.

I went to India, lived, and studied.

Many years before I had left a beautiful country and a rich nation and I returned to that country six years later to find it fundamentally changed and in a state of upheaval, and in great spiritual and material need.

I returned to India because I believe in an India of honesty and hard work, not of corruption and crookedness. I believe in an India of openness and straightforwardness, not of hypocrisy and double-dealing. I believe in an India where opportunities are available to all, and not just to a chosen few.

I spent years overseas. I spent 11 years abroad.