Twenty years ago very few aspiring journalists came from villages and small towns. At Newstrack, we hired them because, with their swift Hindi and rooted as they were in their communities and regions, they got the best stories. They understood. They ‘got it’. When they were hesitant about their fluency in English, I told them, “You bring the stories and I will write them in English.” I would not want them to ignore their ancestral sensibilities. It would bring extraordinary richness and depth to their stories. Today, many of them are successful anchors and correspondents in news organisations. Although they have thanked me publicly for the start I gave them, saying no one would hire reporters not fluent in English, it is I who must thank them for educating me about areas that I knew about but could not feel. With and through them, I got to experience that my background did not let me access.