But Surjit isn't complaining. Far from it. On the contrary, he has been strutting around like a proud peacock ever since he watched his one-time fellowboarder at the orphanage lift the gold at Bangkok yesterday afternoon.

Material conditions aren't much better at Dingko's family home at Sekta village, about 20 km from here on the Imphal-Ukhrul road. His elder brother and youngest sister live there, eking out a hard existence as farm labourers. When Dingko's father died, his mother felt rudderless in the cruel sea of poverty with eight children -- four sons and four daughters. Then the mother went to live elsewhere and her elder sons died prematurely, victims of malnutrition and disease.

ButRaniton Chanu, Dingko's youngest sister, wasn't complaining either. On the contrary, she has overnight become the Rani (queen) of the village, thanks to her brother's Bangkok blaze. Tonight, she was the queen of hearts for the whole village as men and women, young and old, gathered at the village playground by the hillside to sing, drink and dance nightlong to celebrate the native's feet. ``We were so angry when they dropped him from the boxing squard,'' says a beaming Rani, ``we were so angry that we thought we will kill his coach if he is not included. But all that's forgotten and forgiven now.'' ``Very true,'' adds Ibobi, a youngman from the village, already quite inebriated, ``Dingko is great, may be greater than Mike Tyson.''

Dingko's coach for seven years at the Sports Authority of India's Special Games Area (SAG) complex here, Ibomcha too has forgotten and forgiven the wrong that nearly scuttled his inclusion in the Bangkok Asian Games Indian squad this time. ``It's a great moment that I knew wascoming when Dingko knocked out the Thai boxer in the run-up to the final,'' he says. When the moment came, hundreds of young boys raided his home and carried him on their shoulders around the main streets of this town yesterday evening.

Like at Sekta, athletes at the SAG complex arranged a camp fire tonight in Dingko's honour. Boys and girls sang and danced around the fire that Imbocha lit. Candles burned all around, giving the celebration almost a ritualistic air.

Candles burned all over the town at nightfall because Dingko's home State is plunged into darkness at sundown ever since the Power Department employees began an indefinite strike since last Wednesday, demanding implementation of the Pay Commission proposals.

But the absence of power has failed to dampen jubilant spirits. Even the Government joined in the celebration. After Dingko won the gold yesterday, coach Ibomcha appealed to the chief minister to declare it a public holiday. It didn't really matter because all work stopped and everyonebegan celebrating. ``Yu'', the local brew, flowed amidst much band music. The policeman, who otherwise swoops on smelling youngsters because both the government and the insurgent groups enforce prohibition strictly, looked the other way. Chief minister Nipamacha Singh promptly announced a state award of Rs 100,000 for Dingko. The public holiday and the bigger celebrations would come the day the native hero returns home, he told coach Ibomcha.

But Sekta could not wait that long. So the village rejoiced with music, drink and dance. And there the militants, for a change, looked the other way. For the village and its surrounding hills are also known to be hotbeds for Manipur's myriad militant outfits -- the People's Liberation Army, the United National Liberation Front, the Kangleipak Communist Party and so on. In fact, before Dingko, Sekta's hero was another native, the ``commander-in-chief'' of the KCP, Y. Ibohanbi Singh. But while the boxing hero won, the Communist hero failed and finally fell in 1996 tothe bullets of the security forces.