New Delhi, Aug. 10 -- MMA is not a sport I watch but what caught my eye on social media was the player's attire. Owais Yaqoob was in the ring with a black Kashmiri shawl with tilla (silver thread) embroidery draped around his neck. Over this, covering his shoulders, was the Tricolour, and a Karakul cap on his head. As he blustered. "I want belt, belt for India, let's go", it was ethnicity, nationality and sport fervour distilled into a moment. The elite athlete from south Kashmir's Pulwama district defeated world champion Delyan Georgiev in Bulgaria on 1 August. He returned home to a warm welcome, sporting a black shalwar-kameez, the same shawl and cap, proudly displaying his rootedness and identity-and also the centuries-old crafts of em...