When Khajan Singh Tokas stepped onto the starting block for the men’s 200m butterfly at the 1986 Seoul Asian Games, he carried the weight of a 35-year wait. Just over two minutes later he had rewritten Indian swimming history. For a brief moment, the arena seemed to fall away. He became the first Indian swimmer since 1951 and seventh overall to make the podium. “I remember after winning the medal I was so happy. After a gap of 35 years, I got a medal for India, a silver medal,” Khajan Singh told The Bridge on Wednesday. Putting his nostalgia into words, Khajan goes back to the quiet confidence that began building long before the final dive. A strong swim in the heats had already given him the confidence that a medal was possible. “When I swam my heat in the morning and qualified for lane 5, I was very sure in the evening that a medal was there. But whether it is gold, silver, or bronze that depends on the final swim,” the now 62-year-old …