I Was Just Interviewing Them… Or So I Thought

When I first started interviewing people, I thought I was just looking for stories. Something interesting. The right words. A line that would sound good when written down. But somewhere along the way, in those little silences between sentences, in the way someone’s eyes softened when they spoke about something that meant something to them, I realised I wasn’t just finding stories.

I was being let in.

And those moments, quiet and fleeting as they were, ended up teaching me more about being human than anything else ever has.

It started at home. With my mom. The woman who gave me my first words and my first stories and, without trying, my first lessons in strength. She was the first person I ever interviewed, and maybe that’s why it didn’t feel like work. It felt like something waking up in me.

From there, I started talking to more people. Mic in one hand, curiosity in the other, no idea what I was walking into most of the time.

I used to think interviewing was about asking clever questions. About sounding like I knew what I was doing. Getting quotes, framing thoughts, making things sound deep. But after a while, it stopped feeling like a project.

It started changing the way I see people.

Because it’s wild, honestly. You sit across from someone you barely know, and five minutes later they’re telling you something they’ve never said out loud. And all you can do is sit there and hold it like it’s something fragile.

One thing I’ve learnt is that everyone carries something. Quietly. Beautifully. And it’s not always the dramatic stuff. It’s small things. The way they talk about their childhood. The things they skip over. The way their voice changes when they’re being honest. These things never make headlines, but they matter.

I spoke to someone once who spends his life caring for animals that nobody else wants anymore. No camera crews, no social media. Just daily, quiet love. And I realised something that day. Purpose doesn’t always need to be loud.

Another time, I interviewed someone who runs a baking business. I thought we’d talk about recipes. We ended up talking about softness. About how she puts her whole heart into what she makes, knowing most people won’t even realise. And doing it anyway.

I spoke to a yoga therapist who made me rethink what healing even means. I always thought healing looked like big turning points and dramatic breakthroughs. She showed me it can be still. Gentle. Something that doesn’t look like healing at all from the outside.

I interviewed someone who’s been in education for more than two decades. She didn’t say anything wildly profound. But everything she said stayed with me. There was a quiet truth in her words. The kind that doesn’t need to be dressed up.

And then there was a woman building a platform for voices that usually go unheard. She told me about other people. But even in just listening to her, something inside me shifted. I started noticing the people I usually walk past. The stories I’d never thought to ask about.

All of this taught me how to really listen.

Not the way we usually do. Not half-there, thinking of what to say next. I mean actually being there. Letting the other person talk. Letting their words exist without needing to fix them or turn them into something poetic.

And that changed something in me.

I started seeing stories in people who weren’t even speaking. The boy who sits alone in class. The old woman who waits at the same bus stop every day. The security guard who knows everyone’s name.

I used to think being a journalist meant always having something to say. Now I think it starts with knowing when to just be quiet.

These interviews gave me more than recordings or transcripts. They gave me a different way of seeing. Slower. Softer.

A way that believes everyone has something to say.

And that sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is ask.

You’ll find the links to my early interviews below. I was quite young when I recorded them, and while they may not be perfect, they were the beginning of a journey that taught me more than I could have imagined.

Interview With Pradnya Punekar

Interview with Jaishree J Singh

Interview with Sangeetha Bhatt

Interview with Nidhi Jain

Interview with Megha Darda

And maybe someday, I’d love to interview you too—because I’ve come to believe that everyone has a story worth hearing, and maybe yours is the one I need to hear next.