No TV, no smartphone, just a phone call: How Neeru Dhanda’s gold reached her mother

Neeru Dhanda won gold in individual trap shooting at the Asian Games in Nagoya, delivering India's first shooting gold of the tournament. The news reached her mother, Sudesh Devi, through an unexpected phone call on a keypad phone while she was fetching ration supplies in Haryana, as the family owns neither a TV nor a smartphone. Dhanda became the first Indian woman to win the individual trap gold.

The triumph followed a severe health setback less than two weeks before the event, when Dhanda was hospitalized for three days with suspected H1N1 flu. Raised in poverty in the village of Sangatpura, Dhanda was supported through years of financial hardship by her parents, receiving training and equipment assistance from her cousin, shooter Lakshay Sheoran, before securing her historic continental title.