“At the 1948 victory ceremony, as the Tricolour was going up, I felt as if I was going up, too,” Balbir Singh Sr said about India beating Great Britain 4-0 in England a year after gaining independence.

Balbir Singh Sr on 1948 Olympics hockey gold: I felt as if I was flying

Ayan Acharya


Balbir Singh scored thrice against Great Britain in the final on August 12, 1948.   -  The Hindu Photo Library

Fragments of historic achievements meld with a bittersweet taste, like an impromptu playground of memories cleaved together from a salvage yard. For an outsider, it is an intriguing dream landscape, with stories of heroic feats, all brought together under the roof of house No. 1067 at Sector 36 in Chandigarh.