“In 2001, when I began preparing for the UPSC examinations, it would take me nearly half an hour to read and comprehend one paragraph in an English newspaper,” she says, in impeccable English, in the midst of instructing her junior officers in Kannada. “However, even with such poor English I was better than numerous others from government schools who were preparing to give the civil service examination. Although I studied in a Telugu-medium government school throughout, I was fortunate to have a good English teacher. Several from government schools don’t have that luxury,” she says.