My father was not in power when I started my political career, or when I fought my first election in 1996. Starting like any ordinary person, I reached out to people everywhere.

But when I entered politics, I found that this was the space that could be used for making lives of people better.

Over last 30 odd years, Kashmir has seen many highs and lows when looked at from the perspective of the security scenario, infiltrations and militancy on the ground.

Jammu is part of the state but the people of Jammu do not face the same kind of difficulties that we face in Kashmir.

It's a democracy and if I am outvoted, I have to accept the majority decisions.

It was hard to figure out what were the good causes, the bad causes, even the good politics and the bad politics. So we started taking requests and figuring it out.

Our democracy, our constitutional framework is really a kind of software for harnessing the creativity and political imagination for all of our people. The American democratic system was an early political version of Napster.

I wish I was less good-looking and more unpopular. Then I could get into politics and use my pent-up resentment about being ugly and unpopular to systematically destroy the country.