The men arrived at the school one by one. They stood in attention and saluted the saffron-orange flag fluttering in the morning breeze, elbow bent 90 degrees, thumb touching the centre of the chest, and palm facing the ground.
Then they exchanged salutations and a few words with a man who looked like the leader of the group of mostly 50-plus men, and a game began.
The men, mostly with salt-and-pepper hair, scurried in all directions, their physiques considerably slowing them down.
The catcher chased them and, on touching a player, shouted, “Jai Shivaji.” The player who had been caught stopped running and flashed a lopsided grin to hide the embarrassment of being tagged.
These 13 men at a school at Ayodhya Nagar in Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada were warming up for the shakha — a regular meeting place — of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the world’s largest far-right organisation in terms of membership.
The games the men played were familiar but carried different names at the shakha. Kabaddi, kho-kho, or tag went by Shivaji, Durga, etc, in shakha parlance.
The shakha members came from different backgrounds: There were priests, journalists, a Sanskrit teacher, retired Circle Inspectors, bank employees, and auto drivers. They began the games after offering salutations to the flag tied to a pole, the Bhagwa Dhwaja (saffron flag).
The game stopped after about 45 minutes. In the next 15 minutes, they recited a new Sanskrit song from Dr Hedgewar Bhawan on Sangh Building Road — the RSS headquarters — for the month. Every month, a new song and fresh games come from Nagpur.
The proceedings went on in an orderly fashion, the flag pole standing mute like a stern leader who had already issued the orders.
The shakha concluded as it had begun, with salutations, and the men dispersed.
This story was originally published in thesouthfirst.com. Read the full story here .