Vijender Kumar
Although he is a boxing champion, Vijender Kumar is an oddity in India, a virtual one-sport country where cricket is religion.
The son of a bus driver who worked overtime to pay for his coaching, Vijender is India's unsung champion boxer.
Vijender Kumar
One of five boxers representing India in Beijing
Realistic medal prospect, after win at Chemistry Cup
In action on Saturday 9 August from 0630
"My blood boils when everybody goes gaga over cricket," says the 22-year-old, one of five boxers in India's modest Olympics contingent to Beijing this summer.
Sparring in the 75kg category, the amateur boxer with rakish good looks has picked up medals at the Commonwealth and Asian Games, and tournaments in Germany, Baku, Karachi and Scotland.
Now, he is getting into peak fighting condition for Beijing - his second Olympics outing.
'Violent or mad'
It is not easy becoming a boxer in a cricket-crazy country. "People here think boxers are violent or mad," says Vijender
Three years later, in the next edition of the games in Melbourne, Vijender picked up a silver in his category.
It helps Vijender that cricket faces stiff competition in Bhiwani in northern Haryana state from where he hails.
This region of modestly well-to-do villages, lush farms, thriving liquor stalls, and a dusty, unkempt town, is also called India's "little Cuba".
The place spawns hundreds of young fighters who spar every evening at the five local boxing schools.
Here, learning to box is a passport to a secure government job and an opportunity to do something meaningful in life.
It also helps that there are some boxing idols. In the beginning it was the late Hawa Singh, who picked up two gold medals in the Asian Games and remained the national champion in his weight category for a staggering 11 consecutive years.
Three decades later, the idols are Vijender, Akhil, Jitender and Dinesh Kumar, all hailing from 'little Cuba' and headed for Beijing with stars in their eyes.
'No guts, no glory'
'No guts, no glory', 'No pain, no gain', and 'The more you sweat, the less you bleed' are some of the guiding principles of this school, painted on the walls around the single ring.
I want to play at the Madison Square Garden, I want to be promoted by Don King
Vijender (with his father)
And the boxer himself says that if he picks up a medal in Beijing, he will take a shot at becoming India's first professional boxer.
"A promoter like Don King, a ring inside Madison Square Garden, and millions of dollars per bout. That is my dream, that is where I want to be," says Vijender, sitting in his newly built two-storey house in Kaluwas village.
Boxing has begun to pay a little in India, thanks to the increased munificence of the authorities: Vijender received substantial cash bonuses from the government for winning the Commonwealth Games and the Asian games medals.
"That makes me believe that this Olympics is going to be a turning point in my life," he says.
That, he says, will make his story very much like his favourite film hero, Rocky Balboa, "who came from a modest background like me and boxed his way to stardom".
"But no, cricket isn't. It is just an overrated game".
