Committed member!!

Following what seemed to me to be a hectic whirlwind campaign, my husband Raman was elected to the Committee of the Madras Gymkhana Club three years ago. The importance of being part of the MGC Committee did not dawn on me until after the election was over and the results announced. Congratulatory messages kept pouring in, as did pleasant acknowledgements from well-wishers who felt Raman was a value addition to the Committee and bound to make a difference to the club. The staff right from the Reception desk to stewards, bearers and Trainers in the Gymnasium smiled at me and sheepishly declared that they knew all along that ‘Ayya’ would win!

My husband is a Freemason. The word may be misleading to the uninformed but let me explain… ‘freemasons frequently attend lodge meetings that scrupulously leave out the wife leaving very little free time that may be spent with the family’ (the definition is entirely mine). As a newly-wed, naïve teenager, I believed every word my husband told me of his role as a Freemason. ‘Very simple, I will be away on the evening of the 4^th Saturday of every month for a lodge meeting… the rest of the evenings are ours.’ He did make it clear though, that Freemasonry was a strictly male bastion and women could never be part of their closely guarded secrets. I realized very soon that it was not as simple as it sounds and lodge meetings were certainly not spaced out as infrequently as once a month! And when you are a member of more than one lodge,  the Treasurer of the main lodge and the Editor of a couple of newsletters, get invited to numerous installations and God knows what by fellow Brethren, there aren’t many evenings left to be ‘ours’. Lodge ‘regular’ meetings, Committee meetings (as in Lodge Committee meetings), meetings to felicitate old-timers who had put in 25 years or more (in the Lodge of course!), rehearsals for competitions (again Lodge, please...) usually happened 4 times a week and invariably coincided with family weddings, functions, visits, get-togethers, parties.

When my husband decided to contest the MGC election, I was therefore not exactly thrilled. I made no attempt to conceal my disapproval, even secretly wished he would lose (!) and confess to mentally reproving members who had goaded him to go for it!!  But life is all about acceptance, is it not? Even as he was basking in the glory of his success, I gingerly asked him what it meant to be a Committee member of MGC? ‘Very simple… meetings on two Monday evenings of every month… you are welcome to join me at the Club later for dinner’. How wonderful! I felt a tad guilty for not extending my whole hearted support to the man who wished to share his evenings in the club with me!

Sometimes we (I mean I) never learn lessons that life hands out to us (I mean Me). These days, if I want to see my husband it sure is very simple. I just hop into the car and head straight to Madras Gymkhana Club. I am warmly greeted by the friendly Receptionists at the desk who seem to know my husband’s whereabouts more than I can ever hope to know! ‘Sir is in the Billiards room… Island Lounge… Mixed bar….’

‘Oh…thank you very much’. And I join my husband for dinner.