That friend from Kolhapur, Ramakant, he was on my shift last month when a circuit board gave us trouble. He kept telling the supervisor to replace the whole panel — "company's policy," he said. I remembered the old *akhara* stories my father told about the *talim* where his uncle trained: the *guru* there never replaced a broken *gada* handle until the wrestler himself found the wood and whittled it right. Took three days, but that man lifted heavier after. Policies are just yesterday's safety; lifting the real weight needs a muscle that sees what others skip. Let the committee judge the grip, but the *gada* knows who held it fair.

Son's hostel in Guwahati has a tiny TV that only catches Doordarshan sometimes — last night he called and said the hockey girls from Assam are getting no proper gear for the Games, they borrow sticks from the boys' team. In my village, we know how that feels: our tea garden football club once had to play the final with a punctured ball because the committee spent the budget on their own tea party. If you can't give them even a decent stick, don't send them to make us proud — let the ones who can afford their own play for another country, I say.