Having had a respite for one issue, The 19 is back to the distasteful task of commencing with a necrology. Bro Manoj Pant joined the long list of the departed. Bro Nauzer Batlivala has this epitaph about the man who regaled  with his mesmeric sleight of hand at every festive board he attended:

“It is said that bad luck appears in threes. If that be true, then definitely it would apply to The Darius Lodge, which has lost three beloved and active brethren to the Grand Lodge above in the span of just 10 months. 

Starting with Bro. Navzar Dotivala in late September 2020, Bro. Michael René Bose too gave us a rude shock in early May 2021. The third bolt from the blue came with the passing of our popular and enthusiastic serving Master, Wor. Bro. Manoj Kumar Pant, on 29th July 2021 after a brief hospitalisation. His advanced years belied his love and enthusiasm for his Mother Lodge. Like his persona of a magician which he was by profession, he appeared one day out of the blue. He had been an Initiate in The Darius Lodge, way back in 1972. He resigned due to out-station work commitments but reappeared magically as  from thin air, as it were, in 2018 expressing a desire to rejoin his Mother Lodge. The brethren of the Lodge were glad to have him return to the Darius family and welcomed him. It proved to be a good decision as his unfailing, regular attendance and enthusiastic participation in Lodge rituals and proceedings were a treat to observe. His natural progression to rejoining the Darius Chapter too was welcomed by the Companions. 

He had observed the ways of the Lodge way back and was convinced it could again recover its halcyon days. To this end he undertook the initiative to equip and ‘clothe’ the brethren with coat pins, P. M. medallions, and as late as July 2021, with customised Darius neckties and tie pins. On his to-do list were cuff links, and gloves,  once again for his Lodge, but alas, that was not meant to be. 

He was Installed as Master in March ‘21, in an Installation which the Lodge had not seen the likes of for many a year. He had great plans and was keen on implementing them. Alas, that was not to be as he was then summoned to the Grand Lodge above from his subluminary  abode barely a few months into his Mastership. 

He had looked forward to his stewardship of the Lodge with the seriousness and gravitas it deserved being full of ideas for the impending Centenary of the Lodge in 3 years. 

He had spanned the generations being at home with both the older and not-so-old brethren. His ‘good morning’ messages with unfailing regularity to brethren and his circle of friends will be remembered fondly as will he, a man with an ever smiling face and a positive attitude, an inspiration for men half his age. 

We at Darius will definitely miss our Master’s presence. It is indeed a rare occasion where the incumbent Master has joined the Grand Lodge above.

We beseech the GAOTU to grant his soul eternal peace and for his family to come to terms with his loss. 

Amen.”

Confounding the ardour with which the DBGP and the Lodge Secretaries had  been discussing the resumption of  Masonic activities,  the Government extended the pandemic restrictions till the 15^th of June. A curate’s egg, if ever there was one. Propitious, because it helped stem the spread of the pathogen, — wildfires no longer lay claim to the blitzy, uncontained diffusion they are notorious for —  it at once dashed the hopes of the brethren of the transports of meeting once again. The shuttered Temples continued to lend the saturnine gloom shrouding 19 through the earlier month. The collective sigh, that involuntary expression of disappointment, that the brethren suspired when the restrictions were extended by yet another fortnight, travelled down Park Street to shatter the silence of the eponymous cemetery a mile away. The subterranean denizens of the precincts expressed their displeasure in no uncertain terms at this unwarranted invasion of their eternal slumber, reported a brother who stays not far from the necropolis and is known for his predilection for understatements.

A faint flicker of hope was lit by the Advance Notice that the Annual Communication and Convocation of the District would be held a month later on the 28^th of August. Subject, of course, to government directives at the material time. Something to look forward to.

The pall could not, however, water down the Masonic fervour one bit, — evident in Lodge TISCO’s 10th of July event. Read more about it, dear reader, in Bro Arun Raisurana’s feature below. He has more to say about Masonic attributes in his remark on Bro Sudip Datta’s experience which featured in these columns a couple of months earlier. It is best portrayed in his – Bro Raisurana’s, not Sudip Datta’s – own words: “I specially liked the article, A CORONA SURVIVOR’S TALE. Written by W Bro Sudip Datta in the June 2021 newsletter, it was a candid and a graphic expression of his experience as a Corona victim. While I always admired Sudip da for his qualities and appreciated how wonderful and unforgettable a Secretary of the District Grand Lodge he had been, I did not have the faintest inkling of his prowess with the pen. Very well written, indeed, but what I found most noteworthy was his conscientious and ethical thinking when  he mentioned that he regretted exercising his influence and contacts to secure a bed for himself and his wife in the hospital. This, brethren, I feel is the hallmark of a true, just and upright Mason. For a Mason he, indeed, is and a very refined one at that. Hats off and kudos to Bro Datta.”  Bro Raisurana goes on to add  that the dictionary remains ever grateful to the Editor for having disinterred it from disuse to an active tool to comprehend his, the Editor’s, abstruse expressions. A backhanded compliment?

The 19, nay the entire fraternity here, remains grateful to Bro Vipul Madeka for his interesting essay on the two upcountry Lodges, Pioneer and St Andrew and the exhumation of the photographs that had long been consigned to the cobwebbed archives. His modesty prevents him from claiming the authorship of the feature; he puts it as a compilation by the members.  Settle down then, brethren, for an hour of interesting read.