Voice of America does a nice little story on the most accessible source of news in America’s number one media market: South Asian newsstands in New York.

New Yorkers love to read the news, and there are hundreds of mainstream and specialized newspapers to satisfy their needs. But the men and women behind the counters at the thousands of city newsstands and magazine stores are not nearly as diverse. These days, most New York news dealers are South Asian immigrants from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Enterprising émigrés from the region can also be seen running restaurants and other small businesses throughout the Big Apple. But the experience of Mombai-born Mohammed Khali is typical of the many South Asian immigrants who sell newspapers and magazines. Despite his old-fashioned smock and the calm, easygoing manner that many associate with India, Mr. Khali has been a New York newsagent for 27 years. He says most of the city’s newsstands are run by South Asians “because they get the jobs right away and we newsagents always need help.” Mr. Khali adds that although “there are a lot of people who are engineers and doctors and most of them are very well educated people, it’s the easiest work that they can find.”

Still, his own family is perplexed that he has not left the newsstand business to become a professional. “Mostly all my family is right here,” says Mr. Khali, “in Atlanta, Boston, California, Arizona [and] Detroit. They are engineers and everything. And I am the only [one] playing around here in the newsstand. They wonder why. I tell them I really enjoy it!”

I can relate to how Mr. Khali feels. Unlike other successful Indians who become mostly doctors and lawyers, I have shunned the life of wealth and beautiful women so that I can blog and bring the people the news that they want, dare I say need, to hear. It is a noble profession. Right? [crickets chirp in the background]

Alas, the life of a newsstand owner isn’t as glamorous as it may seem:

Not all of the dealers are quite as experienced in the ways of New York. Rajeena Patel emigrated only recently from his village in Gujarat State in western India. For him, adjusting to city life, the English language and Western ways has been hard. “Good life in India, but no money,” he says. “Here is always money, but no life.” Mr. Patel notes that gender roles are unfamiliar. “In India, [the] woman is always home, [and has] no job,” he says. “And here, I go home, [and] my wife is going to [her] job.”

The transcript of this audio story can be read here.