Raghuram Rajan has returned to the University of Chicago after serving as the governor of India’s Central Bank for the last three years.

CHICAGO (Diya TV) — Raghuram Rajan, India’s former central banker, has returned to his academic post at the University of Chicago after a brief, but much needed sabbatical.

“This has been my home for 25 years. It’s a great city. I have great colleagues. And it’s a wonderful school. It’s different every time you come back. If it wasn’t different, it wouldn’t be doing its job,” said during an interview with the university’s Booth School of Business.

Rajan served as the governor of the Reserve Bank of India from 2013 through 2016, but announced in September of last year that he would not seek a second term. His exit was a heavily debated topic, particularly because of the signs of friction between Rajan and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

Now back in the world of academia, Rajan is looking most forward to being able to sit down and think.

One of the difficulties of a job in the quote “real world” is you don’t really get time to shut yourself off in a room and think. Now in academia, if you’re not too careful, you get really dragged into the real world and you don’t have that time. But if you are careful, you can spend four days in a room, sit looking at a piece of paper and struggling with a thought that refuses to come out. At the end of those four days, sometimes, you say, “Oh my God, how did I miss this?”—and it dawns on you. And that’s as close to bliss as you can get.

His current focus lies on liquidity in financial markets, Rajan recently co-authored a paper with the Cambridge-based National Bureau of Economic Research about industrial liquidity and financial cycles. He plans to teach the International Corporate Finance course in the winter term. “I hope it introduces the nuances in other countries to our students. Clearly we can’t go to every country in the world and see what’s different. But what I do want them to understand is not every country works like the United States,” he said.

Meanwhile, he’s ready to resume one of his most cherished traditions: riding his bicycle.

“Taking my bike out and riding the bike path along Lake Shore Drive, that’s one of the great experiences in my life. And I hope to do it as long as I can. It’s great to be back.”