August 2008 will go down in Indian history as the month when Indian Olympic sport finally came of age. At the Beijing Olympics, India - for the first time since Independence - had three individual medallists. And one Indian did what none had ever done. Abhinav Bindra did the seemingly impossible when he won the gold in shooting. On a special show Gold Finger, the understated Bindra gets candid about his achievement and his dream for Indian sport.

Rajdeep Sardesai: India's first ever individual gold medallist. Does that have a nice ring to it?

Abhinav Bindra: To an extent, but it also raises in me one question: Why didn't we do it before? That's the first thing I thought of.

Rajdeep Sardesai: This puts a lot of expectations on you? Has this changed your life in any way?

Abhinav Bindra: It does put a lot of expectations on me. I am in the public eye now, but for me life goes on and I am not going to change. I have to work towards a new goal now. And for that I need a new goal first.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Well, you are the shy retiring type, but now any place that you go to, you have lost your privacy. How does it feel?

Abhinav Bindra: Well it is flattering, but it is also embarrassing. It is a bit funny for me really. I feel embarrassed by all the public attention and people looking at me. Sometimes I feel awkward.

Rajdeep Sardesai: There were some who said that when Roger Federer wins he falls on the court. When Rafael Nadal wins, he cries. But when Abhinav Bindra won, you had a just slight smile on your face. We all thought you would cry or leap into someone's arms. Is that just the kind of person you are?

Abhinav Bindra: Yes to an extent that is the kind of person I am, but I also had belief in myself and that played a very important role to my reactions and emotions because I always believed that I could do this. I have dreamt of this everyday of my life. I dreamt of being on the Olympic podium. I never knew I would win gold but I dreamt of being on the Olympic podium everyday.

Rajdeep Sardesai: So did you ever get up in the mornings and say, 'hey I have become an Olympic champion'?

Abhinav Bindra: Well, it's been really exhausting after I won the medal and I have really not had the opportunity to sit back and enjoy the moment.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Is it more tiring after the medal or before the medal?

Abhinav Bindra: It's been more tiring after the medal. Twelve years of efforts suddenly seem very easy.

Rajdeep Sardesai: That particular moment when you knew you had won and when you got up on that podium, what was going through your mind? I heard that you first rang up your parents and first asked how is your dog? Is that true?

Abhinav Bindra: I got through to them only four or five hours after winning. Yes, I asked them about my dog because I have not been paying enough attention to him.

Moment Of Glory

Rajdeep Sardesai: That moment when you got up on to the podium, what was it like? Was there a sense of thank God, it's over? thank God, you've done it?

Abhinav Bindra: Yes to an extent it was a lot of relief because this is something I have worked towards for 13 years. There was nothing but train, train, train and I have dreamt of nothing else. There was a lot of relief it actually happened. A lot of relief.

Rajdeep Sardesai: During those 13 years, how would an average day for Abhinav Bindra start?

Abhinav Bindra: Well, I would wake up at 6:30 or 7 in the morning, go for a run for about an hour, have breakfast then head for the shooting range and train till about noon or 1 PM. Have lunch, then go back and train for another two-three hours, then head to the gym from the shooting range and then I would just go to sleep because I would be so tired by the end of the day. I did nothing else.

Rajdeep Sardesai: How old were you when you first decided you want to become an Olympic champion? When you say you have been training for 13 years, people don't realise that you are only 26 years old right now.

Abhinav Bindra: No I think I watched the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games on TV and that was very inspiring. Then I was introduced to my coach around that time and I went into training and I was addicted ever since. It is a very addictive sport.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Most people think that shooting is just about the mind, but what about the body? What about the physical exercise that you actually have to go through?

Abhinav Bindra: Well shooting is a sport where you require a lot of stability. You cannot move at all. That's very challenging and to be able to do that, you have to be in tune with your body. You have to be in tune with what's going on, how your muscles are working, how are you feeling. It is a very feeling-oriented sport so I had to pay a lot of attention to my physical training and that was very important.

Rajdeep Sardesai: I heard you even went and trained with some German commandos?

Abhinav Bindra: Not German commandos but I went on a high-rope challenge. You have to climb a 30-meter pole and that is very challenging. That for me is my biggest achievement in life.

Rajdeep Sardesai: And what is your eyesight like? Perfect?

Abhinav Bindra: No, it's minus 2.75.

Rajdeep Sardesai: What were your feelings before that last shot on which you got a 10.9? Did you even know you were in medal contention?

Abhinav Bindra: Yes I knew I was in medal contention. I did not know I was tied for gold, but I knew I was shooting very well and I was aware that I needed a good finish and the only thing in my mind was to go for it and to go after it aggressively. I was the first person to shoot that shot and I think I got that shot off in five or six seconds. I just went for it. You have to go for it, you have to take risks.

The Making of A Champion

Rajdeep Sardesai: In most cases, parents play a very important role in a young man's life, specially if he is sportsman, but you, Dr A S Bindra (Abhinav Bindra's father) have played a very special role. Dr Bindra, you almost ran his life like a business plan. Abhinav dreamt of being an Olympic champion, but it was you who nurtured the dream over the last 13 years. When did you first decide that Abhinav must become an Olympic champion?

Dr A S Bindra: That was when he started taking shooting very seriously, when he first won the district championship. He was 13 years old then and this was in a place called Ropar. That was the day I decided that I am going to push him to excel to the highest possible level and at home I told him that I will take him as far as the Olympics and that he must work hard towards that. And slowly he rose from a district championship to a state championship to a national championship. And that is how the whole journey started.

Rajdeep Sardesai: It's usually thought that children who come from affluent families don't have the fire in them to make it big. But you have proved that wrong with Abhinav.

Dr A S Bindra: This is a question I have encountered many times. Coming from an affluent background has no co-relation as far as a sport or winning is concerned. The basic thing is how focussed and determined you are.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Where has he got it from Mrs Babli Bindra (Abhinav Bindra's mother)? From you? You were a national softball player. Or did he get it from his father?

Babli Bindra: I think he got it from me. I told him that he can pursue his sport but along with that he was told that he has to complete his basic education, which he did and he was able to balance his time very well.

School: The Old Days

Rajdeep Sardesai: I heard you were called Mr Chocolate in school. Did you get an award for that?

Abhinav Bindra: No, they gave me a Mr Talented award. I still have it.

Rajdeep Sardesai: I have heard that when he was seven years old, he made a domestic help in the house keep a bottle on her head and used an airgun to fire at it?

Babli Bindra: It was actually a water balloon, not a bottle and when we saw it, we forbid him to do it again. But I must say that the maid was brave who actually allowed him to shoot at a water balloon perched on her head.

Rajdeep Sardesai: How do you juggle academics - I believe you got over 80 per cent in your 12th class - with being a world class shooter?

Abhinav Bindra: It was hard. It was very diffcult, but I would give two hours everyday to my studies after school. I would try and concentrate, give it my best and that was more than enough. I mean you don't really need to study eight hours a day. I don't believe that.

The Coach Behind The Champion

Rajdeep Sardesai: Behind every great sportsman is a great coach. Lt Colonel (Retd) J S Dhillon is the man who made Abhinav Bindra at the age of 13, what he is today, an Olympic champion. Lots of young boys come to you wanting to be shooters? When did you notice something in Abhinav Bindra that was so differnt from everyone else that convinced you that you had a champion with you?

Lt Colonel (Retd) J S Dhillon: In July 1995, he wrote a letter to me promising me that he will do well. This was before coming to me for coaching. He wrote that I will work so hard that one day you will be proud of me. He asked me in the letter, can I come to you tomorrow? I was mighty impressed with a boy who was so keen at the tender age of 13. I just called him up and said you come to me from tomorrow. He came the next day and he was so regular in his practices. He put in so much hard work that I just can't describe it. He never complained about the conditions, the hardships even once to me.

Rajdeep Sardesai: What is one special quality that makes someone a great shooter? Is it discipline? Is it eyesight? What is it?

Lt Colonel (Retd) J S Dhillon: There are some important qualities. First a child has to be interested from the heart. Secondly, he or she should be hardworking and thirdly he or she should have full support of parents - which he got, they gave him the latest weapons and ammunition available. When he was supposed to go for Sydney Olympics, I told his father that he should now practice in an air-conditioned range for they have air-conditioned ranges there and his father provided him with one.

Rajdeep Sardesai: In a sense parental support is very important. But I want to ask you, you had the money for an air-conditioned range, but what about talented people who don't have the money? Can they still succeed in our system?

Abhinav Bindra: Well our system is nowhere near perfect. But the good thing for shooters is that infrastructure is coming up and we are getting good shooting ranges all across the country and that is very encouraging. It will still be a challenge for a middle-class boy to become a champion in India but it's not impossible anymore.

Rajdeep Sardesai: How about setting up an Abhinav Bindra shooting range for all the children in Chandigarh who want to learn shooting?

Abhinav Bindra: I will. I have all the plans to.

Rajdeep Sardesai: So who have you got the strength from for continuing with the sport? Because it is a lonely sport, being in a shooting range hour after hour.

Abhinav Bindra: I think for me it is the determination which I have got from my father and the guts to stand up when you fail.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Is it possible for Olympic sports to grow in this country? Is it actually possible to patronise sports other than cricket?

Abhinav Bindra: Well, we need the people who are responsible to have a vision and they need to have a dream as well for the athletes. Unfortunately according to me, that is missing and that needs to change. Being an athlete is very hard and athletes go through so much and they need a lot of motivation. This is a golden opportunity to change the face of Indian Olympic sport and we must not miss it. We must make it happen.

Abhinav: The Person

Rajdeep Sardesai: How are you going to handle all the adulation especially by girls?

Abhinav Bindra: Well I was told that I was the most eligible bachelor now and there would be a queue of girls waiting for me, but it didn't happen.

Babli Bindra: I think when the right time comes, he will have someone in his life.

Rajdeep Sardesai: What's your favourite car? I am told you have a dozen.

Abhinav Bindra: I don't really like cars, my father likes cars.

Rajdeep Sardesai: What's your favourite food?

Abhinav Bindra: Home food at the moment. It might change.

Rajdeep Sardesai: I believe you are into blogging in a big way?

Abhinav Bindra: Yes over the last few weeks I have really got into it.

Rajdeep Sardesai: Are you on Facebook?

Abhinav Bindra: Yes I am and I have a lot of friend requests suddenly.

Rajdeep Sardesai: If you were not a shooter, what would you be?

Abhinav Bindra: Something to do with sports definitely.

Rajdeep Sardesai: What do you do to relax?