Hyderabad|India|December'2009: Freemasons who until recently very silently carrying out their activities, now break their silence and started talking openly about their activities. Most of their activities were confined to their members now come open and talk about their mission, activities etc. To liberalise Freemasonry, primary wing of Freemasonry Hyderabad based Lodge Keys No. 297 embarked on a novel initiative taking Freemasonry closer to society and bringing society closer to Freemasons activities. As part of this excercise they have undertaken Masons on Wheels, a 40,000kms All India road journy by cars spreading a message of Brotherhodd and Eye Donation. Enroute to various parts in North Inda, the three member team stopped it city.

The three member team comprised of Ramana Gudipati, an Architect; D.Ramchandram, a Media and Public Relations Consultant and J. Sampath Kumar, an Educationist, all members of Hyderabad based Primary Unit Lodge Keys No. 297, of 3000 years old Freemasonry.

Eyes are windows to the world. Loss of sight is a devastating experience. Corneal blindness affects mainly children and young adults who have a long life ahead of them. The number of Corneal Blind in India is estimated to be about 1.1 million and a majority of them are children. Sight can be restored by corneal transplantation, but only 13,000 corneal transplants are done in India every year. Hence, eye donations are the need of the hour as thousands of patients are waiting to be operated and recover their vision.

To address this issue members of Hyderabad’s Lodge Keys No.297, a primary unit of Freemasonry, a 3000 years old, one of the oldest secular fraternal society spread across the globe embarks on a mission to propagate the message of eye donation and urge people to come forward and pledge their eyes. ‘Masons on Wheels’ – an initiative taken up by them for the cause to travel 40,000 kms all over India.

Giving details, the three member Freemasons on Wheels team comprised of Ramana Gudipati, J. Sampath Kumar and D.Ramchandram said, “we have traveled 27,500 kms till date covering elevan states viz. Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Goa. Their journey started now from Hyderabad on December 13 and is travelling Nagpur, Bhopal, New Delhi, Nainital, Chandigarh, Shimla, Amritsar and others travelling 8000 kms for about 17 days.

During the journey, the members sporting white T-shirts and red hats with eye donation messages on their T-shirts stopped at various places interacting with the people, displaying banners, distributing information and spread the message of brotherhood and promoting eye donation.

‘Masons on Wheels’is an initiative connecting Masonry with society informed Ramana Gudipati member and advisor of Masons on Wheel. It was flagged-off in September 2007 at Hyderabad by Justice Devinder Gupta, Former Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court, who is also associated with Freemasonry and the then The Grand Master of Grand Lodge of India.

It’s a thrilling experience to travel so many states at a stretch promoting eye donation. It is a very satisfying trip. We have got overwhelming response wherever we went. People have appreciated our initiative, informed D.Ramchandram, Member of Masons on Wheels, during whose tenure as worshipful master, this initiative was conceptualised and launched.

Comenting on their novel project another member and Project Coordinator J. Sampath Kumar said though it is tough to travel so many kilometers by road, but, we enjoyed every bit of it. We will leave no stone unturned to finish the balance journey soon, he stated.

The promotion of Eye Donation is taken up in association with Mr. Satish Modi a philatropist and associated with Eye Banks Association of India who has been in forefront in promoting voluntary eye donation.

The incidence of blindness in India is one of the highest in the world and our country has nearly a third of the world’s blind. In contrast, our neighboring country Sri Lanka the number of eyes donated is ten times their national requirement.

“Sarvendriyanam nayanam pradhanam” goes the Sanskrit saying. Of all the handicaps, most of those with visual handicap have a way to overcome it and lead a normal life by way of corneal transplantation. Eye donation can bring light into the lives of the visually handicapped. Unfortunately, lack of awareness about eye donation, misconceptions and religious beliefs come in the way of eye donation.

Though India is the country with the second largest population in the world, the number of eye donations in India is abysmal. The incidence of blindness in India is one of the highest in the world and our country has nearly 1/4th of the world’s blind. A significant proportion of these persons can have their sight restored through corneal transplantation. Unfortunately, in India there is an acute shortage of donor eyes, as a result of which lakhs of blind persons registered with the eye banks have to wait for years before donor eyes become available. Crores die every year consigning their eyes to fire on a funeral pyre or earth in a grave and yet lakhs of blind are waiting to have cornea for vision. Why?

“Million are dying and lakhs are waiting for Cornea (Eye). But nobody donates eyes. One pair of eyes can give sight to two blind people. Corneal blindness affects mainly children and young adults who have a long life ahead of them. The number of Corneal Blinds in India are about 46 lakh out of which nearly 90% are below the age of 45 years of which about 60% are below the age of 12 years. Out of this 46 lakh, at least 30 lakh can benefit by corneal transplantation. But only 12,000 corneal transplants are done in India every year. One percent of population i.e one crore people die every year all over India. If 5% of the m donate their eyes the blindness will be totally eradicated in India. Because of this huge lack of donor eyes in India new patients are added each year to a long list of already waiting patients.

Late Dr. RES Muthiah started the very first eye bank in India and the first corneal transplantation took place successfully by him in India in 1948. From then on a movement started for donation of eyes. A vast propaganda throughout the country ha been going on. But, this is yet to yield good results.

Freemasons who until recently were stoic silence about their activities now want to shed that silence and start involving in such activities which will bring Freemasonry close to society and society close to Freemasonry. In other words the organisation is in the process of liberalisation of its activities. This is for the first time in India Freemasons ever embarked on such a massiv initiative, which is highly appreciated both within the fraternity and society.

Freemasons are deeply involved in helping other people. From its earliest days, charity has been the most visible Masonic activity, with Freemasons concerned with the care of underprivileged, he added.

About Freemasonry: Freemasonry is one of the world’s oldest secular fraternal societies. It is a worldwide organisation based on the principle of the ‘Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man’. It has existed in India for over 250 years and in Andhra Pradesh for 200 years. It has over one and half crore members globally across 150 countries, 18000 all over India and 1500 in Andhra Pradesh. Its primary unit of organisation is called a ‘Lodge.’ There are 364 lodges in India functioning under the Charter of Grand Lodge of India. In Andhra Pradesh there are around 30 number of lodges in places such as the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, Warangal, Kurnool, Vijayawada, Guntur, Rajahmundry, Kakinada, Anakapally, Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram.

Globally Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Benjamin Fraklin, Henry Ford, Clive Lloyd and All Presidents of United States of America were its member. In India Swami Vivekananda, C. Rajagopalachari, Motilal Nehru, Fakruddin Ali Ahmed, Madhavrao Scindia, Nawab of Pataudi, locally several Nawabs of Nizam, many judges, bureaucrats, officers and well-respected individuals and others are its members. Some of the members from Andhra Pradesh include Nawab Sir Salar Jung Bahadur and Maharaja Sir Kishen Pershad (both Prime Ministers of the state of Hyderabad), Sir Terrence Keys (The British Resident), Raja Venkat Ram Reddy, many High court judges, to name a few from the list of distinguished personalities.