Racing against time, high-jumper Tejaswin talks about ‘right timing’

Sometimes standing in long, unmoving queues can also have its benefits. And when it’s akin to a graveyard shift, all the better.

- Hindol Basu

Birmingham: Your correspondent, all of five-feet-11, mask on mouth, documents in hand, was hopping on either foot for the Delhi-Dubai-Birmingham check-in to move even one inch. It was well past midnight, yawns were being stifled when suddenly he was dwarfed by a good six-foot-plus frame who ambled up right behind. In the sudden discomfort of having to raise the head and look up to someone, it was difficult to recognize the face behind the mask. The India CWG jersey made one more curious.

A cursory glance towards his bag showed an embossed ‘Kansas NCAA’. The brain did the small math and the right hand was extended for a handshake: “Tejaswin Shankar?”