T-minus one: Inside Indian quarters at the Village

Sleep pods, selfies with Nadal, athletes taking out their recliners and chilling next to the Seine River and up close and personal with an Olympic champion. Our daily takes in the sights and sounds at the Games Village a day before the Opening Ceremony...

- INDRANEEL DAS

THERE it was, next to the Serbian and Spanish quarters a few metres away from the great USA building. The Indian flag was flying. Outside, chef de mission Gagan Narang was speaking with Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president PT Usha and deputy chef de mission Shiva Keshavan.

The medical centre is the IOA's newest baby. There are four beds in one room. "These are for recovery," says Dinshaw Pardiwala, the contingent's chief medical officer. In the next room, there are two tubs, one each for hot (warm) and cold (ice). There are other paraphernalia peppered across the room that's used in various stages of recovery.

Pardiwala says there has been a positive response to the medical centre that the IOA has set up for the first time. He says some 12 or 13 athletes visit the medical team consisting but not limited to mental wellness experts (Samir Parikh and Divya Jain), physios (Chris Pedra, Sumansh Sivalanka), a sleep therapist (Monica Sharma) and masseurs (Matto and Vijay Kamboj).

"I have not seen anything like this before," says Sreejesh, a veteran of four Olympics (including this one). And there is no anxiety oversleeping on a cardboard bed. "They seem robust," he says just outside the India house.

Sreejesh does have a kind of inhibition to sleep inside a sleeping pod. Pardiwala shows the three pods inside the room. "This helps them sleep. It aids in recovery."