“With this medal, we hope our needs are better looked after than before. Here, there are 20 people to a room with two people to a bed. Not all rooms have coolers like ours, and we have to share the space with rats and other animals. Here, there’s room for everybody,” laughs Arvind, another inmate cheerfully resigned to the conditions.

For their food and lodging, they pay a sum of Rs 1000-1500, depending on the size of the room. “This is how we’ve been living. We have to make do with what we have. It’s very tough, but what choice do we have?” says Sumit, before adding: “Perhaps now that Sushil had got a medal, more money will come into the sport. We have brought it to the attention of the authorities many times but it hasn’t made a difference, so we carry on.”

Sumit makes a hasty attempt to make the room presentable by pushing away a pile of clothes into a corner, but it doesn’t work. The lack of coolers means they have to leave the doors open while they sleep but all that it does is invite mosquitoes.

Surrounded by this gloom, a couple of framed pictures of Sushil, displayed in the only available space — a ledge near the exhaust fan high above the mess — provide a temporary distraction. “This is him with his 2005 Arjuna Award. And here’s another during the 1998 Asian Cadet junior meet where he won gold. Now he has an Olympic medal!” says another colleague, Rajendra. “We are all very proud of what he has achieved, and we can’t wait to meet him at the airport.”

... contd.