Commonwealth Games: Jhandu balm gives India some relief!

India’s Jhandu Kumar celebrates with his bronze medal in Glasgow on Friday. Pic/PTI

After two days of unfortunate news for India, where weightlifter Dilbag Singh was withdrawn along with judokas Arun Kumar and Tulika Maan due to dope-related violations, bringing the contingent of 126 down to 123, Jhandu Kumar's bronze medal in the heavyweight para powerlifting final comes as a massive relief as he opened India's account at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

Jhandu is 29 years old, son of a vegetable vendor in the small town of Harnaut in Nalanda district of Bihar. Needless to say, Jhandu comes from humble beginnings as his family has always been financially constrained. Successful lifts of 181 kg and 190 kg in the first two attempts, was enough to earn him a podium finish on Friday night.

However, life has been a daze ever since he stood atop the podium. In an interaction with select media, the Jhandu said, "Bohot achcha lag raha hai [I'm feeling very good]. I am so happy, I can't believe I have won a medal. Since last night, I'm finding it difficult even to sleep."

Asked how he planned to ensure a medal for India, Jhandu said, "In the first lift, we played it safe - if the first lift goes wrong, the confidence falls. Our main aim was to reach the final and get into the medal tally. The third lift was to aim for gold, but I couldn't do it."

However, Jhandu denied feeling any pressure going into CWG. "No, there was never any pressure. The most important thing is that I have a lot of self-belief," he added, going on to reveal how polio afflicted both his legs at a young age. "I got polio at the age of five. People would say, ‘he has become disabled, what will he do in life?' One doesn't like it when they hear these things but it's true. It [polio] is more in one leg and less in the other."

Interestingly, there's a story behind his name too because Jhandu means useless in North Indian dialect. "Papa and mummy took me to a doctor when I got afflicted, and our financial health wasn't good. They spent most of their money to get me better. So, people would say to my dad, ‘your son has bankrupted you [jhandu kar diya],' " the athlete explained.

Jhandu is a Sports Authority of India trainee in Gandhinagar. Paralympic bronze medallist Rajinder Singh Rahelu identified his potential and invited him to train at the National Centre of Excellence (NCOE), Gandhinagar.