If you don’t see silver linings around dark clouds as a coping mechanism after missing gold, then silver can morph into several things. Like a needle stuck in the skin.

Nitesh Kumar had won gold at the Paris Paralympics. It should have counted as the ultimate achievement, the pinnacle. But it bothered him that he had finished with silver at the Hangzhou Asian Para Games in 2023, a year before Paris. That loss rankled, enough to beat the post-gold motivation crisis that strikes many champions. It made the 2026 Nagoya Asian Para Games a goal he lost sleep over.

Nitesh likes a good, proper roti with sabzi, but he gave up regular North Indian fare altogether for dinner, switching to salads in rice bowls.…