“Life has changed both on and off the court after the Rio Olympics medal. I have a lot of confidence on the court now and feel anything is possible. I also feel that I have improved my game. Off the court, I do get recognised more now.”

What hurts most is whenever I am leading, and then I lose the match, it is disappointing, and there are so many such matches.

It is hard to lose for everybody.

I love dressing up, and I’m aware that people do say that it can take your attention away from the game. But I disagree with this notion!

I was lucky to get good coaches and infrastructure that I needed. To become a champion, it is not just a few months’ practice: it takes years to make a champion.

It takes years of practice to become a World No. 1 or 2.

Every tournament is important for me.

I was at the Gopichand Academy since I was 10.

My long-term goal is to become the world number one player.

I didn’t think I would have an Olympic medal at 21, but I knew I would give my best and play my game. I just viewed it as my first Olympics and that I would take it one match at a time, but to bring a silver home made me very, very happy.

If it makes me happy, it definitely adds to my well-being.

There were many struggles, but my parents supported me a lot. Whenever I wanted anything, wherever I wanted to go, practice session etc., they were there for me.

Since I’m the youngest in the family, I sulk when my parents deny me something, although I come around when they explain why it was denied.

Injuries are part of life. We can’t decide on that.

Against each player, I will give 100 per cent. I give my best in every game.

I prepare the same for every opponent.

Talking about world-class player, no player is easy to play at this level. Each player has a different style of play.

Now people think it’s cool to have a baby, but it ain’t cool to take care of it. We have to change that. You make your life for that baby. That’s the future.

I have won on Honda and Yamaha so maybe it is interesting to win with a third team, Ducati, who are Italian.

Clairvoyants can see flashes of colour, constantly changing, in the aura that surrounds every person: each thought, each feeling, thus translating itself in the astral world, visible to the astral sight.

Either way, change will come. It could be bloody, or it could be beautiful. It depends on us.

If you’re old, don’t try to change yourself, change your environment.

If we’re so smart and so much better than all the animals, and man rules the world, why can’t we just change all the time from, like, a caterpillar to a butterfly?

It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime.

Love is a travel. All travelers whether they want or not are changed. No one can travel into love and remain the same.