Make no mistake. Abhinav Bindra has lived the last four years for this moment. But once India’s first ever individual gold was his, he appeared reluctant to clasp the medal too firmly. When the demands of the photo-op were made, he held it gingerly, fielding it away from himself.

The gesture said it all. There is somewhere a law of attraction waiting to be quantified. What we crave with single-minded application, upon success we find ourselves, at first, staggering away from it.

Maybe Bindra has known all along what he’s done by taking gold in the 10 m air rifle. Maybe he needs time to get a measure of it. Maybe he just wants to move on. Maybe that is why his first casually overheard words were to his friend and teammate, Mansher Singh. Find me, he said, a way to go back home today.

His home, that is, in Chandigarh where seven guard dogs keep his privacy. Where, he said today, he has for the past ten years been punching holes in a black paper for a living.

That’s the loneliness of Bindra’s pursuit. And this is what he’s managed. No longer will India come to the Olympics without commanding the simple courtesy of expectations placed on them. No longer will a gold medal surprise us. Never again will we plead with the constellations to allow luck to go our way.

Because Bindra claimed success on merit. After the penultimate round he was tied with Henri Hakkinen of Finland, at 689.7. In the last round of shots, he pulled out a 10.8, the closest one gets to a perfect 10.9 to shoot a speck on that paper he’s been staring at for a decade. Hakkinen hit 9.7, and settled for bronze, with the defending champion, China’s Zhu Qinan, left with the silver and a disappointment so touchingly acute that he sniffled through the press conference later.

... contd.