There is a peculiar tendency we Indians have of considering people who aren't fluent in English infra dig. Blame it on the lasting remnants of a colonial hangover or a misplaced sense of superiority. But, we are prone to letting out a snort if someone pronounces "London" as "Lawn-don", for example. And it doesn't matter if the person's intellectual acumen in some other subject — say, mathematics — makes us seem as if we are bumbling two-year-olds in comparison.

Abhishek Pattnaik, too, was guilty of this prejudice in his formative years, by his own admission. The 27-year-old tells us, "I studied in a convent school in Mumbai in my childhood. But my father was from an Odiya-medium background. So I used to make fun of him for small things, like when he would say 'inteleegent' instead of 'intelligent'. But ultimately, today, I realise that I have gained maximum knowledge from my dad, who is a PhD in Economics and a professor, by the way. And once my understanding started changing, I started putting it across to people."