Games and sports were always part of the school tradition. Especially in a Salesian school. All the more in a formation house. However, not so long ago, games were considered a luxury by most rural folk in India. Only those who were wealthy would indulge in such pastime activities.
I distinctly remember a pioneer of the seminary at Kondadaba narrating the surprise and the bewilderment of the local population when the first seminarians (under the guidance of the Salesians) would spend every evening an hour, playing. So to warm up they'd run around the seminary, do a bit of stretching in front and then start the game, mostly football or volleyball. Initially the villagers would stop on their way back home from their fields and watch this whole 'amusing' phenomenon. Being a totally rural setting, and literally slogging all day long in the fields, the notion of organised games, that too daily, was something too much for them to take in. Slowly they understood the game part of it, but they never really understood the logic of the warm up sessions. One of the early seminarians once told me, that he once overheard a conversation of farmers working in the field as the Brothers were doing the warm up. One of the farmers asked the other, what these youngsters were up to and one replied, "తిన్నది ఆరగడానికి !" (They're running around to digest what they've eaten!)
Was reminded of this comment about warm up when we were doing our stretching exercises before and after the walks to Walsingham.
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