agra as the nation wrestles with issues of tolerance it needs only to look to the wrestlers of the mallaka chautra akhada at shahganj in agra to see how communal amity and togetherness can be a lived experience recently as a guru at the akhada lost his pet langoor many wrestlers who train at the akhada shaved their heads as a mark of sorrow among those with shaved heads were some muslims mohammad danish pahelwan it is a tradition here for the wrestler to add pehelwan as his last name and it does not matter whether one is muslim or hindu said his family was shocked to see his head bare i too shaved off my hair on the tehravi of the langoor my family was shocked they kept telling me that it was not islamic but i follow the traditions of my akhada on tuesday i whisper a prayer to hanuman so i too can get the strength and focus that he is renowned for danish told toi the hindu and muslim wrestlers have the same surname pehelwan and both start their day with a prayer to the mighty lord hanuman guardian deity of rural wrestling at the kushti tournament during the recent saifai event wrestlers from this akhada gained renown my boys have just defeated the well trained wrestlers from delhi and haryana in the dangal at saifai on monday mulayam singh yadav gave away the awards one of my boys is participating in the allindia university wrestling competition starting january 17 in mysore another has just won a statelevel championship in hathras said ramesh chandra pahelwan the khalifa or master at the akhada the coming together across religious divides is not restricted to wrestlers even those arriving to watch the contests are drawn from different religions there is a dangal or tournament organised at this agra akhada each morning and evening local people donate liberally to the akhada which has been running for 13 years on donated land as many as 35 wrestlers from different parts of agra and nearby villages practice at the akhada under the watchful eye of ramesh chandra it is the khalifa who also decides which of his boys will participate in tournaments across the country many of the youth at the akhara are collegegoing anees pahelwan is studying to be lawyer he also aids in the lessons of pushpendra pahelwan who is enrolled in a degree programme at agra university purushottam pahelwan talks of how the sport could do with a little more government support rural wrestling gets no government funding at all despite its wide following we travelled to saifai on our own spending about rs2000 each on the trip he said