Wednesday, January 18 2006 14:39 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Teaching continues to remain Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's first love, but he does not regret leaving it or even quitting a plum assignment at the UN to join the Indian Government when the country's economy was facing a crisis.

"My colleagues were shocked when I informed them of my decision to give up my UN job to return home and was called in by UNCTAD Secretary General who tried to persuade me to reconsider my decision," he said while taking a walk down memory lane at the Delhi School of Economics where he once taught.

"I told him (the UNCTAD Secretary General) that I sincerely believed that something exciting was happening in India and I wanted to be part of it," the Prime Minister said.

"It was not the Fifties, the years of great hope and excitement for economists. It was the sixties, when India was dealing with one crisis after another. Two wars, two drought years, a balance of payment crisis, a food crisis, social unrest and above all the troubled transition from the Nehru era to that of Indiraji," Singh recalled.

The Prime Minister said he got the offer to join the Government after he settled down at Delhi School of Economics.

"But when the call to move to Government came I took up that challenge as well. I was seized by the urge to try and make a difference. It was a difficult decision to make because Delhi school was a truly hospitable place," he said, adding, "Teaching is and remains my first love."

"But I do not regret making the decision," he said.