Sushil increased his training time from three hours each in the morning and evening to four.
"He wakes up at three and starts training by five. In the evening, even after all the boys had gone to bed, he would stay up and do weights or some other solo training for one-and-a-half hours more than the others," Diwan Singh said.
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While Michael Phelps's breakfast of champions and his 12000-calorie diet are now the stuff of lore, what is Sushil's?
"He is a vegetarian," his father begins. "Milk and ghee is the mainstay of his diet. Other than that, it is sabzi roti, badam [vegetable-roti, almonds] and dry fruits."
Sushil consumes four litres of milk every day. And it is not just any milk, but the best. For the 14 years that he has been away from home, every morning his father has taken the 4:15 bus to reach Azadpur -- 27 kilometres away -- in time for his son's breakfast, four litres of milk from the buffalo at home in tow.
"I can't remember a single day when he has failed to do it," says Amarjeet, Sushil's younger brother, whose responsibility it was to take the milk on Sundays, Diwan Singh's weekly off.
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The one who has interacted most with Sushil during his time away from the family is Amarjeet. "His concentration and dedication is staggering. I can't remember seeing him do anything but train in all these years," he said.
Any hobbies?
"He doesn't watch movies. The only videos he watches are either of his own fights or his opponents and others from the same category.
"Bhaiyya [brother], however, likes to listen to Haryani Ragni. That is the only pastime if he has any. And like any wrestler, Hanuman-ji is his favourite god. Otherwise, he does not even talk much. And with elders he would seldom talk," Amarjeet said.
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