Lying close by is Abhinav’s identity card from the 2004 Athens Olympics, where he finished seventh, and his father makes a reference to the heartbreak without any prompting. “We still remember how he missed his chance during the Athens Olympics. This win has washed away memories of that loss,” he says.
For much of the last two years, Abhinav was dogged by a severe back injury and critics had labelled him a lost wonder as his scores started to slip and the medals started to dry up. They were tough times, and Abhinav drew courage from a self-written poem in Hindi, tagged on the wall in his range, about the loneliness of his pursuit for excellence and about his support-system.
“Abhinav was five years old when he used to practice with his maid. He would put a water balloon on her head and aim with the small air-gun, ‘Diana’. I noticed it one day when I came home after practice and realised that Abhinav had talent. We straightaway stopped this habit of his and enrolled him with Col J S Dhillon,” says A S Bindra as he straightens a portrait of Abhinav’s.
The conversation veers towards the early struggle for sponsorship. “It was in 1995 that we came to Chandigarh from Dehradun and in the early days, Abhinav used to go to the Patiala Ki Rao range in Chandigarh and later practised at Dhillon’s home. But soon we realised that he needed a specialised range. I shifted all my export-import business from Dehradun to Chandigarh and, when we shifted to this farmhouse, we constructed an Olympic-standard range which has all the necessities,” says Bindra, a PhD in veterinary science who is the owner of Hi Tech Industries, a food processing and agriculture commodity firm.
“I always wanted Abhinav to train in the best facilities. We had some help in the form of Mittal Champions’ trust but apart from that all his expenses have been paid by us. The Government has never supported Abhinav and he is very particular about not begging for sponsorship,” says Abhinav’s mother Babli Bindra, who was a national softball player.
“I am delighted. But now I have a lot of work ahead,” she added only half-jokingly, “as he is the country’s most eligible bachelor.”
The poem he penned
Kamyabi ke baad jab palat kar dekha, Toh mere kadmo ke nishaan na the, Unki jagah jo dekha to dung reh gaya;
Weh the hathileyon ke nishan, Tab samjha woh sahare hain, Jin par chal kar yahan pahuncha, Mere mata pita ke pawan kar kamal
