India, Nov. 27 -- At 21, Hitesh Gulia stands on the podium with a gold medal, but he still remembers the day he first stepped into a boxing ring, simply to lose weight. "I went to the government stadium in my village (Jahangirpur) to get fitter, but coach Hitesh Deswal sir saw something in me and asked me to try boxing. From there, I never looked back," he recalls, adding, "Uss time pe bas fit hona tha, wohi goal tha. But taking that one step towards health changed everything. When you decide to improve your lifestyle, you realise your own potential."

Flashback to 2015 in a small village in Haryana's Jhajjar district: an 11-year-old Hitesh entering the ring while his father, a taxi driver, fought his own battles outside it. "Main ring ke...