I think George must have been southern Africa correspondent when I saw him on air for the first time, in the 1990s. I was just starting out in journalism and there he was on TV one day; filling the screen, telling a story with his unique combination of sensitivity and authority. What story it was, or even what country he was in, I cannot recall, but I remember looking at him and thinking – there is someone from a background like mine, a south Asian, who is a foreign correspondent. It was a huge deal; this was surely the most glamorous and exciting job in the world, and all of a sudden I saw a person who looked like me doing it.
