Fiddling with bee hives, stealing mangoes and fighting with friends - boyhood was a playbook of hinterland pranks for Neeraj Chopra. Food was the problem. It had too many calories and too much love. Dollops of fresh cream and choorma, a fat-friendly mix of roti, ghee and sugar, fed by a doting grandmother meant Neeraj stepped into his teens chubby and flabby. The family elders had a simple solution: hit the gym.
When the gym at a nearby village shut down, Neeraj was forced to move to another fitness centre in Panipat, about 15 km from his village Khandra in east-central Haryana. Little did he know then that the town would change his life's direction much the same way it had altered the course of history centuries ago.
