The Asian Para Games 2026 was declared open on October 18. India will once again witness the full glory of its para-athletes, months after some inspiring performances at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Every time a para-sporting event comes around, it brings attention to incredible stories of athletes who have faced difficult circumstances and yet found a way to achieve extraordinary things in sport.
My colleague Saurabh Kumar recently compiled a piece on some of the most inspiring stories to emerge from the Commonwealth Games 2026. Jhandu Kumar, who once sold vegetables and drove an e-rickshaw, won India’s first medal at the Games. Dilip Mahatu Gavit, who was chastised for his inability to work in the fields, went on to win gold in the men’s 100m T47 event.
But perhaps the most incredible story of all was that of a woman, Sharmila Dhankar.
Born in Haryana, Dhankar contracted polio at an early age. She was married off young, and a few years later, her life unravelled. Stripped of her dignity, she was thrown out of her home with her two daughters.
At one point, Dhankar contemplated suicide. But she refused to give up. She rebuilt her life, remarried and found her biggest supporter in her husband, Ajit Singh. It was he who nudged her towards sport, something she had never considered before.
Dhankar did not take up para-athletics until she was 34. In 2026, at the age of 40, she won CWG gold in the women’s shot put F57 event.
Stories like these leave me amazed. But they also remind me of something that should not be so difficult to understand. Para-athletes are not asking for extraordinary privileges. They want the opportunity to live with the same dignity and independence that able-bodied people often take for granted. A ramp instead of stairs. Bathrooms they can actually use. And the dignity of not being looked at as a bechari.
That last word was used by para-badminton player Manasi Joshi when she spoke to me two years ago about the way people perceive persons with disabilities.
The sporting achievements are extraordinary. The basic demands of everyday life should not have to be.
But the Asian Para Games also bring back a different memory, one from 2024. It was not about a medal, a record or an athlete overcoming a physical barrier. It was about kindness.
India had just returned from the Paris Paralympics with a record 29 medals. Athletics, shooting and badminton had powered the campaign, with the contingent winning seven gold, nine silver and 13 bronze medals. The tally was nearly five times India’s six-medal haul at the Paris Olympics.
Javelin thrower Sumit Antil and high jumper Nishad Kumar were at an Adidas event at Gurgaon’s Ambience Mall. Both were part of the brand’s You Got This campaign, which celebrated the determination athletes need to overcome adversity, in sport and beyond.
After the usual brand presentation, facilitated by the PR team, the session was opened to questions from the audience. A few hands went up. The questions were fairly routine, revolving around Sumit and Nishad’s struggles and their journeys in sport.
Then, towards the end of the session, a young girl stood up. She wanted to speak to Sumit.
There was one difficulty. She struggled to get her words out, and it was hard to understand what she was trying to say. Her coach, seemingly embarrassed by the situation, asked her to sit down.
It took us a little while to understand that the girl had an intellectual disability, which made it difficult for her to express herself in a way that others could easily follow.
Sumit, however, was not bothered.
He asked the organisers to bring the girl up on stage. What followed was an engaging conversation that lasted around five minutes.
Among the several questions she asked him, one stood out. She told Sumit that she often felt underconfident because she could not speak properly. People, she explained, did not have the patience to listen to her thoughts.
Think about that for a moment. Here was a young girl who wanted to be heard, who had something to say but struggled to get the words out. She was used to people losing patience with her. Even in a room full of people gathered to celebrate athletes who had overcome adversity, she needed someone willing to stop and listen. Sumit, the Paralympic Champion, and the world record holder, did that.
He spoke to her patiently, answering her questions in detail. Their conversation ranged from training and inspiration to life in general. He did not rush her or make her feel that her questions were an inconvenience. He gave her the time and attention she was looking for.
It remains one of the most fascinating interviews I have ever watched. There was no complexity to it, no grand speech about overcoming adversity, no carefully constructed message about inclusion. Just a conversation between two people, one of whom wanted to be heard and another who was willing to listen.
Devoid of complexity, but full of life – perhaps that is how things should be.
I will attach an unedited clip of the video below for you to see.
I have often thought about that interaction since. It was a small moment, one that could easily have passed unnoticed amid the excitement surrounding India’s record Paralympic campaign. But it stayed with me because of how uncomplicated Sumit’s response was.
He was a Paralympic champion, a man who had just returned from an extraordinary campaign and was being celebrated for his achievements. The girl was struggling to express herself in a room full of people. Yet, for those five minutes, none of that mattered. Sumit gave her his time because she wanted to speak to him.
We live in an era of sporting superstars, where fame can sometimes distance the athletes from the people who admire them. Fans wait for photographs, autographs or a few seconds of their favourite athlete’s time. Some are turned away, sometimes because of genuine constraints, and sometimes because the person they admire no longer seems willing to stop.
That makes Sumit’s gesture all the more meaningful. He did not need to make a statement about kindness. He simply practised it.
That day taught me to be kinder.
For all the talk about sporting greatness, records and medals, we sometimes forget that, at the end of the day, we are all just people. Some of us have had to fight harder than others to be heard, to be accepted or to find our place in the world. A little patience, a little empathy and the willingness to listen can make a difference that we may never fully understand.
If we were kinder to one another, the world would undoubtedly be a better place.
As the Asian Para Games begin in Nagoya, I will be watching Sumit Antil and Nishad Kumar again, along with the rest of India’s contingent. I will be cheering for their performances. This time, too, they will have my unrelenting support, medal or no medal.
Because what these athletes give us is not measured only in podium finishes. Sometimes, they leave us with something far more valuable: a reminder of the kind of people we can choose to be.
FULL INDIAN SQUAD FOR ASIAN PARA GAMES
Blind Football
1. Boje Marbom
2. Klingson Marak
3. Pradeep Patel
4. Sahil
5. Shivam Singh
6. Sovendra Singh
7. Tushar Kumar
8. Vishnubhatejuba Vaghela
9. Aditya Sajwan
10. Sujith Puthankattunikarath Sasi
Boccia
1. Sachin Chamaria
2. Anjali Devi
Para Archery
1. Harvinder Singh
2. Vijay Sundi
3. Toman Kumar
4. Shyam Sunder Swami
5. Adil Mohamed Nazir Ansari
6. Vinayak Amol Breed
7. Sheetal Devi
8. Payal Nag
9. Bhawna
10. Pooja
11. Swati Chaudhary
Para Athletics
1. Ajay Kumar
2. Akira Nandan Banothu
3. Devender Kumar
4. Haney
5. Dilip Mahadu Gavit
6. Mahendra Gurjar
7. Manjeet
8. Mohammed Basil Morssinganakathi
9. Nishad Kumar
10. Parveen
11. Pranav Soorma
12. Rakeshbhai Bhatt
13. Ram Ratan Singh
14. Rinku
15. Sachin Sarjerao Khilari
16. Shailesh Kumar
17. Sharath Makanahalli Shankarappa
18. Sumit
19. Ajeet Singh
20. Ayush Verma
21. Dharambir
22. Hokato Hotozhe Sema
23. Mohd Yasser
24. Navdeep
25. Parmod
26. Pranav Prashant Desai
27. Praveen Kumar
28. Rakesh
29. Ravi Rongali
30. Solairaj Dharmaraj
31. Sujith Mandalamkunnath Sivadasan
32. Varun Singh Bhati
33. Vishesh
34. Amit Kumar
35. Anubhav Choudhary
36. Banti
37. Bhavikkumar Dineshbhai Bharwad
38. Pardeep Kumar
39. Pradeep Kumar
40. Rahul
41. Sandeep
42. Sandip Sanjay Sargar
43. Soman Rana
44. Sukhchain
45. Parveen Kumar
46. Praveen Sharma
47. Anjanaben Rohitbhai Bumbadiya
48. Deepthi Jeevanji
49. Nimisha Chakkungalparambil Suresh
50. Preeti Pal
51. Simran
52. Soumya
53. Jayanti Behera
54. Tejalben Amraji Damor
55. Radha Venkatesh
56. Amisha Rawat
57. Bhagyashri Madhavrao Jadhav
58. Karamjyoti
59. Rakshitha Raju
60. Suchitra Parida
61. Suvarna Raj
62. Ravanni Valasanaini
Para Badminton
1. Manisha Ramadass
2. Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan
3. Alphia James
4. Thulasimathi Murugesan
5. Mandeep Kaur
6. Neeraj
7. Shanthiya Vishwanathan
8. Kanak Singh Jadaun
9. Manasi Girishchandra Joshi
10. Pallavi Kaluvehalli Manjunathareddy
11. Sanjana Kumari
12. Naveen Sivakumar
13. Nitesh Kumar
14. Krishna Nagar
15. Pramod Bhagat
16. Sukant Kadam
17. Surya Kant Yadav
18. Ruthick Ragupathi
19. Sivarajan Solaimalai
20. Abu Hubaida
21. Prem Kumar Ale
22. Sudarsan Muthusamy Saravanakumar
23. Umesh Vikram Kumar
24. Haris Mythili Srikumar
25. Hardik Makkar
26. Abhijeet Sakhuja
27. Rakesh Pandey
28. Suhas Lalinakere Yathiraj
Para Cycling
1. Arshad Shaik
Para Judo
1. Kapil Parmar
2. Bijender
3. Renuka Narayan Salave
4. Kokila
5. Gulshan
6. Vrushali Ashok More
7. Dimple
Para Powerlifting
1. Ashok
2. Jhandu Kumar
3. Manish Kumar
4. Parmjeet Kumar
5. Suman Devi
6. Kasthuri Rajamani
7. Jaspreet Kaur
8. Seema Rani
Para Shooting
1. Anandha Krishnan H
2. Amir Ahmad Bhat
3. Manish Narwal
4. Nihal Singh
5. Rakesh Nidagundi
6. Rudransh Khandelwal
7. Swaroop Mahavir Unhalkar
8. Avani Lekhara
9. Mona Agarwal
10. Bhakti Sharma
11. Rubina Francis
12. Shrishti Arora
13. Sumedha Pathak
Para Swimming
1. Kapil Kumar
2. Ajay Hindurao Bhosale
3. Ravi Veera Venkata Bhavani Budigina
4. Abdul Quadir Indori
5. Suyash Narayan Jadhav
6. Chaitanya Vishwas Kulkarni
7. Rohit Kumar
8. Gopichand Linguta
9. Vanga Niranjan Mukundan
10. Tejas Nandakumar
11. Himanshu Nandal
12. Swatik Patil
13. Mohammad Shams Aalam Shaikh
14. Jahangir Molla
15. Vaishnavi Vinod Jagtap
16. Devanshi Satija
Para Table Tennis
1. Bhavinaben Hasmukhbhai Patel
2. Sonalben Manubhai Patel
3. Baby Sahana Ravi
4. Ekta Bhyan
5. Prachi Pandey
6. Savita Vittal Ajjanakatti
7. Dattaprasad Jotiram Chougule
8. Sandeep Dangi
9. Jehan Dorab Madan
10. Shubham Wadhwa
– Ends
