Jhandu Kumar, ex-vegetable vendor and e-rickshaw driver, writes his own destiny with a bronze
The bar was loaded, the arena hushed, and somewhere inside Glasgow’s Armadillo Arena, a lifetime of hunger sharpened into a single thought for Jhandu Kumar. “I had only one thought going through my mind,” Jhandu, who hails from Harnaut in Bihar’s Nalanda district would later say. “I just have to lift it.” He not just lifted a 190kg, but went beyond. He opened India’s medal tally at the 2026 Commonwealth Games after two fourth-placed finishes in other events gave fans little to cheer for. Jhandu bagged a bronze in men’s heavyweight para-powerlifting, starting in Group B. For a man, who was disabled by polio at birth and spent his entire life being underestimated, the moment was too huge for words. “Today, it feels very good,” said, with the bronze medal firmly around his neck. “There is so much happiness that I cannot express it in words.” To understand why this medal means so much, you have to go back to the streets of Bihar, where Jhandu was, by turns, a vegetable seller and an e-rickshaw …
-1776235020091_d.png "Liquor vendor beaten to death in Faridabad; police launch probe")
