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'When I saw the flag, I felt I was flying' - As India turns 70, Balbir Singh Sr recalls how the newly independent country won the hockey gold at the 1948 Olympics in London, helping to ease the pain of Partition.

"People asked me not to go to India. And I said why shouldn't I go, I have won three gold medals for my country. Nothing will happen to me there." Stuck at the New Delhi airport, a relative who served with the paramilitary forces picked him up in a military convoy. "They asked him to hide so people wouldn't see his turban. But he stood up and said, 'I wore a turban when I won the Olympics for India,'" says his daughter Sushbir.
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The Sudeva coaches have come off a run of pan-India trials. On a good day elsewhere, they say, between 100 and 150 aspirants show up. Aizawl's 800 leaves them benumbed. The boys are packed onto a single grandstand like spectators at a game. A third age-group has been hurriedly added because there are 6-year-olds staggering around as well. The final breakdown: 213 under-14s, 150 under-13s and 448 under-12s, total 811. "Crazy" says Vijay Hakari, one of Sudeva's co-founders. "This is crazy. We've seen nothing like it."
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