Lodge Star of Agra No 36

Star of Agra Lodge No 36
Originally uploaded by kden604.

Lodge Star of Agra No. 36
Consecrated 27th July, 1881 as Bengal Jr. No. 51
Founded 8th August 1881 as No 1936 E.C.
Website: LodgeStarOfAgra.org
Address:
Freemasons Hall
112, Taj Road, Agra Cantt.
Agra, India

Last night I had the very distinct pleasure of visiting the Lodge Star of Agra for the Passing of two Brethren. My Congratulations go out to Bro. Col. NF Chand and Bro Manoj Jain JR on being passed to the 2nd degree.

This was a very special meeting for me, not only was it the first "normal" lodge meeting (the grand lodge festival is such a different structure from normal lodge meets), but it was the first time that the international traveling gavel was used in India by WM Col. Edmond Macarius.

As I type this post you might be wondering to yourself why I've been adding in military ranks, professional degrees etc, but in India it is the acepted standard of addressing a Brother. It varies from country to country where this is done.

The FC degree was quite interesting to me; as with most countries, the language of the ritual varies but the underlying meaning remains the same. The major differences that I noted was the name of the RHP of KST which is both spelled differently than my own ritual. I inquired about this later and was told that they use the Hebrew version of the RHP.

After the meeting we had a festive board which was simply wonderful and I had the honour of sitting at the right hand of the WM for this feast.

Out of interest the meal was: Mutter Paneer, Gobhi Aloo, Arhar Ki Dal, Chicken Masala, Curd, Pea Pulao, Gulbi Rasogulla.

After the meal it was time for speeches and WBro Debara gave a very heart warming toast to me and spoke briefly about my travles. I hadn't really prepared a speech and felt woefully inadequate in my response and toast back to the Brethren in attendance. Rest assured in the future I will be more prepared with notes!

WBro Debara has been such an upstanding Brother since the very moment I met him in New Delhi at the Regional Grand Master of Northern India Installation. Within moments of finding out that I was passing through his town he offered to arrange accomodations for me, when I arrived there was someone waiting at the station for me, he took me on a tour of the lodge, and helped me workout the details of the next leg of my adventure through India.

WBro Debara comes from a line of Masons, in-fact he is a fourth generation Mason and boastfully introduced me to his son which will be the fifth! He is the 23rd Freemason in his family and the 13th to occupy the Eastern Chair. I also had the great pleasure of meeting his Father VW Bro HR Debara who is the lodge Chaplain.

One final thing thing I would like to mention about the Lodge Star of Agra is about their summons. I like the very straight forward approach they have to encouraging attendance. An actual by-law they have states they will send an apology to the WM prior to the meeting if they are unable to attend or have their name noted for non-attedance in the minutes. There is about three other parts on the summons including an Antient Charge which is reiterates the importance of attendance.

I left Agra this morning by train and transfered to a bus in a city called Jhansi. When I got off the train I was greeted by WBro Col. Dubey whom I had also had the pleasure of meeting in New Delhi! I really enjoyed our chats in Delhi a great deal as he has travelled to Canada repeatedly and attended lodge in the Ottawa area on over 20 occasions. He actually was wearing a Canada flag hat to greet me!

When I return to Jhansi on Monday Wbro Col. Dubey has said he will work out accomodations and a tour of the lodge and possibly a meeting if its within a day or two!

It's a whirl-wind masonic adventure in India, let me tell you!

I also have just one more final thing to mention, I know this post is getting quite long! I received a kind comment on the blog the other day and I'd like to quote it here:

"Hi Ken,
I'm very interested in your Masonic travels. I'm a TV producer and Mason and I've just finished a series of docs on Freemasonry. They starting airing in the USA last week and will start on Vision TV in Canada next week.

Your name came up in a Yahoo group discussion about the documentaries and people contributing in interesting way sto the craft."

I've left a comment on his blog with my e-mail address so we can speak more, I'd love to share with you the times/title of his documentary on Masonry. But watch the channels mentioned if you can! I also had to giggle a little bit when I read the part about my name in a Yahoo Discussion Group because I would guess that it is almost certainly WBro Uwe Riches group. You might recall that while I stayed in Hannover Wbro Riches invited me in to his home with open arms! It was some of the fondest memories of the trip!