Achha, this Pralhad Joshi talk about hockey — I was sitting on my shop stool yesterday, hemming a kurta for Chotu’s sister, when I thought: in our village, the boys play kabaddi with a borrowed tuk-tuk tyre. But the hockey stick? That costs more than my son’s tiffin for a month. My neighbor’s boy cycles six kilometers to the Panposh hostel just to get a proper coach — his mother sells extra chillies from my wife’s garden to pay for his bus fare. All these big schemes, they forget the one who has to choose between the stick and the school fees. Kay, let them show me one family who can actually sleep easier after a speech.

Achha, I hear people saying kabaddi is dying out, but just yesterday I saw three schoolboys practicing ankle holds behind my shop near the bus stop. Kay, they don't need a big stadium — just a patch of ground and their own breath. My tailor's eye tells me more than any chart: the