The Rio Olympics silver medal weighs half a kilo and is 85mm in diameter. It is really made from silver. And when you hold it you feel a twinge of guilt because an Olympic medal, you feel, should not be touched by random people.Around the time the medal was passing around some hands in a Mumbai hotel on Tuesday evening, its rightful owner was on stage, attending yet another felicitation since her return from Brazil. It was by the government of Maharashtra. But PV Sindhu is only 21 and ennui has not yet set in, at least not enough for it to show. Besides, the Maharashtra government also awarded her a purse of Rs 25 lakh. There was something to show for enduring speeches by politicians. When she actually gets the money, though, is another matter.Also present at the function was the man who trained her, P Gopichand , a great player, a legendary coach, fast becoming a Joe Paterno type of figure (pre-Jerry Sandusky) in Indian sport. A man who not only teaches how to play but how to live. Later, at the dinner following the felicitation, he would respond to an invitation, speaking painfully softly, “Why me? She (Sindhu) I can understand.” Why you? You moulded her, man. He raised his eyebrows, a bit embarrassed by the compliment.Gopichand has a Zen quality to him, more so after he shaved his head at Tirupati the other day. On Tuesday, he quoted Vivekananda in his speech. But Gopichand is not a monk. He gets angry. And one of the things that annoys him is lack of rudimentary athletic skills in people.“I once threw a shuttle at a girl and asked her to catch it, she couldn’t,” he said. “It irritated me.” The girl asked Gopichand to show her how to catch. And he realised, not for the first time, the long way India has to go to become a sporting nation. “We are alphabetically and numerically literate, but we also need to be physically literate,” Gopichand said. Not just kids but adults too. “It is proven that adults who play are happier,” Gopichand said. So physical literacy is important if we want to improve the nation’s happiness index.”Silver medal winner at Rio PV Sindhu, with coach Gopichand address the media at Hyderabad (Image: PTI)A sport is perhaps safe and strong when its leading figures have to be escorted off stage by bodyguards, which Sindhu and Gopichand were on Tuesday evening. Badminton, already in decent health, is poised to make a transformative leap, thanks to the efforts of people like Gopichand, Sindhu, Saina Nehwal Kidambi Srikanth and P Kashyap Physical literacy also needs a nourished body. Later in the evening, Sindhu, free of the hordes and selfie requests, surveyed the lavish dinner buffet alone. A hotel employee asked her if he could bring her something. No, she first wanted to see what was on offer in all the silver containers. A young girl enjoying an innocent freedom. Finally she chose a bit of rice and mutton curry and ate with a silver fork, which she was not born with but has earned.