Written by Dr Darpan Ahluwalia

Earning its macabre nickname, the “bloody court”, the basketball court at the alma mater of Indian Police Service (IPS) officers—the National Police Academy, Hyderabad —was notorious. By the fag end of training for my batch, the 73rd Regular Recruits, it had become a place where fractures were a rite of passage and pain a constant companion. I escaped unscathed, limbs intact, thanks partly to divine luck and largely to my disinterest in the game.

But the illusion that I was immune to harm soon broke, on a different field. One evening, during a high-octane practice for the Battle Obstacle Assault Course, I landed wrong. The twist was sharp, the pain insistent. I brushed it aside as a sprain. But the X-ray and MRI told another story—multiple fractures and a

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