Sameer Bhargava

You may already belong to several professional networks. Perhaps a WhatsApp group from your MBA batch, a Chamber of Commerce membership renewed out of habit, or a BNI chapter you attend hoping to gain clients. Your LinkedIn connections might number in the hundreds or thousands. Yet, if someone asked how many of those contacts would show up for you during a real crisis—whether personal or professional—the honest answer might surprise you. Professional networks serve a purpose, but they are...

There is a kind of giving that asks nothing in return — not gratitude, not recognition, not even the knowledge that the giver was there. It is the most difficult kind of giving, and the most lasting. It is also, for more than three centuries, the Masonic way. Freemasonry's commitment to charity is not a modern marketing decision. It is embedded in the oldest obligations of the fraternity. From the moment a man is initiated into a lodge, he accepts a responsibility, not only to his brothers,...

Thereis a place in Jaipur that most of the city has never heard of. It has no signboard on a busy street, no advertisement in a newspaper, and no sponsored post in your social media feed. Yet it has been meeting, without interruption, since 27 February 1961. It has welcomed hundreds of men through its doors. It has marked births, mourned deaths, celebrated promotions, supported families through hardship, and quietly shaped some of the most principled professionals this city has produced. It...