The track, to him, was like an open book in which Milkha Singh found the "meaning and purpose of life". And what a life he made for himself. Before his 91-year-old body lost to Covid-19 on Friday after fighting it for a month, Milkha won the kind of battles that not many would have survived, forget about living long enough to tell the world about them. "Don't worry, I am in good spirits...I am surprised, How could I get this infection?...I hope to get over it soon," Milkha had said in his last interaction with PTI before being hospitalised, sounding his usual jovial self, supremely confident of his legendary fitness.

One of independent India's biggest sporting icons was a tormented man but refused to let that come in the way of accomplishments which were unheard of in his era. He saw his parents being butchered during partition, indulged in petty crimes to survive in the refugee camps of Delhi, went to jail for those and failed three attempts at joining the Army. Who could have thought a man like that would get the sobriquet of 'The Flying Sikh'? But Milkha earned it and earned it with a master-class on how to be bigger and better than one's circumstances.