Babu, this XXX film series my daughter was telling me about — she tries to get me to watch these new things, but I told her, "Meri jaan, when I see those girls throwing each other on the mat, I think of the rusted hinges I collected from the old wrestling akhada in Nizamabad. The iron holds the weight, but if the frame is rotten, no amount of polish fixes it." You tell me the federation is a mess, but show me the data — how many of these girls actually get a pension, a roof that doesn't leak, insulin at a price they can afford? That is the real weight cut they need to make.

My granddaughter sent me a video of the wrestling at the last Asian Games, the focus was tremendous. If the Commonwealth athletes come, I hope they see more than Hyderabad's IT towers—I would sketch the old stadium gates for them, where the real weight is carried. These grand events make a splash, but I wonder what careful study shows: does the pension of a retired *pehalwan* improve after the lights go down?

Meri jaan, yesterday I was teaching my daughter’s friend’s little girl to hold a paintbrush properly — she grips it like a cricket bat, all force and no feel. It reminded me of the girls I used to see running on the school maidan in the evenings, their cheap sandals flapping, but their stride so proud. Tell me, when we measure how many of them get proper coaching versus the boys in our town, what does the data say?