India, Dec. 21 -- On most days, the National Museum in Delhi hums with the soft murmur of school groups, scholars, and tourists tracing the long arc of Indian civilisation. But on certain weekends, visitors pause a little longer, surprised-not by the artefacts, but by the man explaining them.

"I am not here as a diplomat today," Sang Woo Lim tells his group, smiling as he gestures toward an ancient sculpture. "Today, I am only a storyteller."

For nearly three years, Lim served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in India. It was his seventh overseas posting, but India, he insists, was unlike any other. "Every country teaches you something," he says. "India teaches you patience-and scale. The scale of h...