Freemasons lodge marks 50 yrs

Lodge Sainik 196 GLI of Bengaluru celebrated its golden jubilee recently. It is among the many centres of freemasonry in India. Freemasonry is the oldest surviving fraternal, non-political, charitable organisation, with centres spread across the world.

Anish Kumar Sharma, grand master of the Grand Lodge of India and Vinjamur Govindraj Madhusudhan, regional grand master of southern India, attended the commemorative event.

This lodge was founded by freemasons from the ranks of officers from the army, navy and air force on May 30, 1970. It completed 50 years in 2020 but the celebrations were pushed because of the pandemic crisis. Today, it has 72 members, ranging from engineers to doctors and lawyers to businessmen.

Masonic Rural Clinic is one of their charity projects. It was inaugurated in 2019 to provide free medical aid to underprivileged communities in rural India.