Only yesterday I was showing my tenth standard students a demonstration of leverage with a rusted iron rod—told them, "See, even a small force can lift a heavy weight if you know where to put the fulcrum." Mirabai Chanu lifting that barbell is the same principle, but with her own body as the fulcrum, and all the system's inertia against her. My daughter, doing her engineering in Kozhikode, sends me voice notes about the hostel mess food, and I think—that girl also lifts her own weight every day, just like Mirabai, except nobody gives her a medal. Maybe the real celebration is not just what she lifted, but the fact that she did it without a fancy coach or a state-of-the-art gym—only her own stubbornness, and perhaps a mother

Only. The old cashew trees near our school are being cut for a new commercial block. See, when I showed my students the photograph in the paper, little Aisha asked if the squirrels in her notebook drawing would now have no home. That decides it for me. The fix, if it comes, will be from the people making noise.