When one passes through a road that houses the RSS headquarters in Nagpur’s Mahal area or takes a stroll around Smriti Bhavan, another RSS institute in neighbouring Reshimbagh, one can smell discipline in the air. And, if one manages to enter any of these buildings, one finds everything so structured and well organised that one falls in line and behaves accordingly. I have experienced that on my several visits to these places as a Nagpurian and as an unruly young reporter.

Friends in the RSS, some of whom I studied with in schools and colleges, helped me understand the concept of shakhas, which, I, as a schoolgoing kid, would take as a place for playing different games, learning martial arts, singing particular desh bhakti songs and occasionally, getting exposed to traditional weapons like swords and spears. Every Dussehra brought uniformed RSS volunteers onto the streets, marching majestically, playing drums, trumpets and flutes.