Established in 1874, the first Dastoor Meherjirana Library in Navsari is named after the first Parsi high priest of India. The most priceless manuscript at the library is a framed original document deed that states 200 ‘vighas’ of land has been granted to Dastoor Meherji Rana by Emperor Akbar

Article by Ashleshaa Khurana, TNNThe history of Gujarat records that it was in Surat that Akbar first met Meherji. Having set up camp at Gopi Talav with an aim to siege the Surat Castle in 1573, the Emperor was intrigued by the Parsi people and their culture. To feed the Mughal’s natural curiosity to know more about the Iranian religion, his desire to learn the tenets and interpret their customs, the prominent high priest Dastoor Meherji Rana from the neighbouring town of Navsari was requested to have an audience with Akbar.

Historians write that the Emperor and the holy man met at Kankra Khadi at first, and then at the present day Rustompura area. The incident has found mention in the records of French writer and Avestic scholar M.Anquetil du Perron, who stayed in Surat during 1755-61 and gathered further information on the historic events of the earlier centuries.

Apparently, Dastoor Meherji’s discussions had left a deep impact on Akbar. Therefore, when the famous congress of religions was organized in Fatehpur Sikri during 1576-79, Meherji was invited at the Ibadat-I-Khana as an esteemed guest of the Emperor to participate in the religious debates and discussions. Mughal court historian Badayuni has stated, “Fire worshipers from Navsari came to the Mughal capital and proclaimed the religion of Zardusht as the true one.”

J J Modi’s ‘The Parsis in the Court of Akbar and Dastur Meherji Rana’ says, “The influence of the Parsis on the enlightened Emperor was such that Akbar incorporated Zoroastrian motifs, including the veneration of the fire and sun’, along with the visible symbols viz- the sacred shirt and thread. Akbar ordered his vizier Abul Fazl to ensure that the sacred fire be kept burning day and night at the palace and is said to have stated, ‘To light a candle is to commemorate the rising of the sun.'”

Legend goes that during Meherji’s stay at Sikri, a tantrik known as Jagatguru challenged all religious heads and claimed that he would make two suns shine in the sky. He levitated a huge silver plate into the sky and the sun’s reflection on it blinded all. Meherji is said to have performed the holy ‘paydab kusti’ and prayed Mathravani Avesta verses which caused the plate to come crashing down, exposing the sorcerer. Singer Tansen, the gem of Akbar’s court is then said to have composed and sung, “Elahi Parsi padhe so qubool, lambi, lambi dadhee Shah Meherji tere mukh pe barsat noor (The prayers of Parsis are accepted by God, O long bearded one Meherji, your face is blessed with radiance)”.

The post Emperor Akbar’s Parsi counsel: The First Dastur Meherji Rana appeared on Parsi Khabar.

Based on a letter from the under secretary of the Minority Department of Government of India regarding a complain filled by Parveen Jahangir, collector Akash Tripathi found mismanagement, after conducting an investigation, in the working of Mhow-Parsi   Zorostrian Anjuman Trust.

Collector asked for an audit report from the executive president of the trust. Taking a note on the situation, the collector has forbidden the selling of Parsi community property. The registrar public trust and sub divisional officer Vijay Agrawal had issued an order forbidding any kind of property related business based on a complaint of Parveen Jahangir. The property is approximately worth Rs 11.55 crore and now it cannot be sold or purchased.

A meeting will be held today expecting 30 members to be disowned from their membership. These are the members who used to live in Mhow but now have shifted to other cities.

The post Collector forbids Mhow Parsi community from selling property appeared on Parsi Khabar.

Mumbai: Soon after the demand for a “waqf-like” board by Parsis to manage their properties, members of the community have begun to prepare a list of properties that they want to be controlled by the Parsi Anjuman of India.

Members of the community met officials of the National Minority Commission (NMC) during their recent visit to the city and put forth their demand to have a waqf board-like body (that manages properties of the Muslim community) to regulate their properties across the country.

“It was a historic meeting of prominent community members with the NMC panel. All those present were satisfied with the proposals discussed with the NMC chairman. We are now preparing a list of the defunct Anjumans,” Dinshaw Mehta, chairman of Bombay Parsi Punchayet, told PTI from London.

He added that most of these properties are in the mofussil areas of Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.

“We are very positive that our community will be assisted to a large extent within the legal parameters,” Mehta said.

The NMC panel was on a two-day visit to Mumbai from March 27, where it met representatives of minority communities including Muslim, Parsi, Sikh, Christian, Jain and Buddhist.

About 50 eminent Parsis met the NMC panel on the day two at the office of Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), in presence of NCM chairman Naseem Ahmed and member Dadi E Mistry.

The other demands included five per cent reservation for the community in Parsi educational institutes and representation in the Parliament.

The community also wants the government to encourage universities to start courses on Zoroastrian studies that would cover the rich history and dying dialects of the community.

Incidentally, the BJP-Sena Maharashtra government has appointed a new chairman for the state minority commission, but relieved all other members from their posts. 

The post Parsis prepare list of defunct Anjumans, other properties appeared on Parsi Khabar.

Dear Prime Minister

Allow me as a citizen of the Republic which has the good fortune of having you at the helm of affairs, to thank you for the bold decision to create a memorial for the much-underrated P.V. Narasimha Rao, whose prime ministership not only ushered in economic reforms in 1991 that launched India on economic growth trajectory, but also conclusively demonstrated the dispensability of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty to provide leadership for governing India.

Article by H. N. Bali | The Statesman

As one who has over the last six and a half decades been witness to the goings-on of our polity, I crave your indulgence to set right another egregious wrong of our post-Independence history. And that is to show the nation’s gratitude to a great soldier who won a decisive war for the country, but was treated most shabbily because he refused to kowtow to his political masters. I’m referring to Field Marshal Manekshaw who did India proud by winning the Bangladesh war in 1971.

Soldiers live and die for izzat – their izzat as much as their country’s. This virtually untranslatable concept symbolizes at once a sense of pride in one’s calling, a resolve to uphold professional traditions built over decades by human sweat and blood, an unflinching determination to vanquish the aggressor and, above all, to live up to the exhortation of the Gita (IV:8): vinashaye cha dushkritam (for the extermination of evil deeds of the wicked).

And nothing symbolizes all this better than the repression and genocide in the then Eastern Pakistan in 1970 and 1971. This we successfully ended under the leadership of Gen. Sam Manekshaw. Not only that. The 1962 war had severely dented the izzat of the Indian fauj. It was given to Manekshaw to resurrect that most precious possession of the men he commanded. It is he who (almost singlehandedly) re-instilled the sense of confidence in the Indian jawan – the feeling of pride built on the foundation of decades of sacrifices.

The Government took the decision to honour the General who not only wiped off the stigma of 1962 reverses but won a decisive victory. Someone had repeated the feat after over two millennia. Chandragupta Maurya had done it in 300 BC when he drove the remnants of Greek armies that opened the gateway to the invasions of India. Only Maharaja Ranjit Singh thereafter not only repulsed attacks from the North West but actually ruled over the territories that the invaders hailed from. It was in the fitness of things that the Government decided to give, after the Bangladesh War, the Indian Army its first Field Marshal who achieved a decisive military victory over an adversary and thereby dismembered that country.

Since no Indian had held the rank earlier, neither the insignia nor a replica of the baton was available; Encyclopaedia Britannica was consulted and the insignia fabricated overnight in an Army workshop in Delhi. On 3 January 1973 Padma Vibhushan General SHFJ Manekshaw, Military Cross, smartly stepped up to the Presidential dais in Rashtrapati Bhavan and stiffly saluted President V V Giri, who ceremoniously handed Manekshaw an ornate silver-tipped baton to give the nation her first Indian Field Marshal. And soon began the Field Marshal’s troubles with politicians of the day. An interesting sidelight of the investiture concerns the baton, which is traditionally used by a Field Marshal for paying or accepting compliments.

After the ceremony, some politicians pointed out that Manekshaw had become swollen-headed and did not salute the President properly after investiture as Army officers normally do. The Service officers present on the occasion had to explain to know-all politicians and senior bureaucrats that a Field Marshal traditionally uses his baton to salute, instead of his hand. We created a Field Marshal but didn’t know how he conducts himself. Indira Gandhi had also decided after the Bangladesh War to appoint Gen. Manekshaw as Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).

However, the bureaucracy was not in favour of this. The CDS would become part of the Ministry of Defence and perform most of the tasks handled by babus of the jack-of-all-trades Indian Administrative Service. There was a hitch when Y.B. Chavan, as Defence Minister, recorded his opinion that the effect of Gen. Manekshaw’s promotion on the other two Services should also be considered. Eventually, the proposal to appoint the Chief of Defence Staff was torpedoed by the time honoured strategy of divide and rule that senior bureaucrats had learnt from their British masters.

Indira Gandhi was always apprehensive of Manekshaw. As a person she was deeply insecure. One day – so goes the story – Manekshaw was summoned by the Prime Minister to her office in Parliament House. When he entered, he found Indira Gandhi in very low spirits. She was sitting at her table, with her head in her hands. On being asked what was troubling her, she replied that she had problems. He asked her what the problem was and was surprised when she told him that he was the problem. When Manekshaw asked her to elaborate, the Prime Minister said that she had heard that he was going to take over. Sam was shocked. He assured her that he did not harbour any political ambition. He knew more than anyone else that military coups had not succeeded in the long run in any country in the world. India was, he firmly believed, a democratic country and would always remain so. He was quite happy commanding the Indian Army, and as long as he was allowed to do that, she could run the country the way she wanted. Indira Gandhi seemed to be relieved and, it is said, thanked him profusely. But Indira’s aides were always ready to see in the irrepressible Field Marshal a threat largely because of his unabated popularity.

The Prime Minister soon found a chance to cut him to size. A young lady reporter asked him for an interview and he agreed. She came to his house and during their conversation, Manekshaw mentioned that during Partition he had been asked to opt for Pakistan, but he had chosen to remain in India. When the reporter asked him what would have happened if he had opted for Pakistan, and been commanding the Pakistani Army instead of the Indian, he replied, “they would have won”.

Soon afterwards, he had to go to UK and while he was there, there was a question in Parliament based on the report which gave undue prominence to his remark. The Prime Minister was in the House but chose to remain silent. Manekshaw was branded an egotist, and soon became persona non grata. After her triumphal return from the Shimla Conference, Indira Gandhi, in a meeting with Manekshaw apprised him with the terms of the agreement with Bhutto. The irrepressible Manekshaw told her: “He (Bhutto) has made a monkey of you.” And that was the last nail in the coffin of the Field Marshal- Prime Minister equation.

Though the Government could not take away his rank, it did take away everything else and treated him shabbily indeed. He retired in January 1973. Field Marshals get full pay and allowances till death. Manekshaw never got even the pension of the rank he held nor a house or a car after retirement. It took the Government of India 36 years to decide his scale and entitlement. That’s how works, Sir, the system you preside over today.

When he was in Coonoor Military Hospital in June 2007 suffering from complications of pneumonia, a babu called on him in the hospital to hand over a cheque of Rs 1.60 crore towards arrears of his entitlement. I don’t have the heart to type what he told the august functionary of a heartless system that presides over our destinies. A few days later – on 27 June 2007, he passed away. None of the VVIPs of Delhi was present at his funeral.

The ruling sovereign in England – custom has it – attends the funeral of every Field Marshal with the Prime Minister and Service Chiefs in tow. The President of India, the Prime Minister, the Defense Minister and the three Service Chiefs (obviously, on orders from above) were too busy to attend the last rites of India’s first Field Marshal. Minister of State for Defense, Pallam Raju was the sole political representative.

That’s how, Prime Minister, the political establishment chose to honour the victor of the Bangladesh war. Indira Gandhi did an unpardonable injustice to the man, which Congress Party loyalists compounded. Will you, Prime Minister, be gracious enough to set the wrong right? If ever there was a soldier who deserved a Bharat Ratna it was Manekshaw — the man who did India proud by scoring a decisive military victory for his country in the Bangladesh war.

Sincerely yours An ordinary citizen who cares about his country.

The writer is a retired organisational development consultant.

Read more at http://www.thestatesman.com/news/opinion/will-you-undo-this-wrong-mr-modi/58538.html#y5lghvJWqS7PaF7f.99

The post Manekshaw for Bharat Ratna: Will you undo this wrong, Mr Modi? appeared on Parsi Khabar.

Lending a helping hand to the Nepalese population in this hour of crisis, a group of city youngsters from the Nagpur Parsi Gymkhana are collecting relief material for those affected by the earthquake.

The youngsters have started a drive asking citizens to contribute relief items for the quake survivors. The relief material will be handed over to Delhi-based NGO Goonj, which will further send the items to Nepal. The group members informed that till now they have collected about 5,000 kilograms of rice, 500 kilograms of milk powder, biscuits and some other items.

The members are collecting non-perishable food item, including rice, dal, biscuits, milk powder and other relief materials like five litre pressure cookers having ISI mark, ropes, old mobile phones with chargers, solar lamps, blankets and bed sheets.

IT consultant Cyrus Major, who is a member of Nagpur Parsi Gymkhana, informed that they are collecting materials which the affected people need. “The volunteers of Goonj are presently in the interiors of Nepal. They are guiding us about what to collect as per the present day requirement. We will be sending our first lot of collected material by May 15,” he said.

Another group member Danush Doongaji said that social media has proved to be of great help in spreading the word about this social cause. “We circulated the message on social networking sites and got a very good response form citizens. Till date, about 100 people have come forward and contributed whatever relief material they could. At the time of crisis, everybody must contribute whatever they are capable of,” he added.

Founder of Indianblooddonors.com Khushroo Poacha, who is also coordinating the initiative with Goonj, has appealed to citizens to come forward and help the Nepalese in whatever way they can. Those who wish to donate relief materials can contact Cyrus Major on 9890068108, Danush Doongaji on 9823079740 and Shezad Doongaji on 9823121259.

The post Nagpur Parsi youths collecting relief for Nepal victims appeared on Parsi Khabar.

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is likely to visit Gujarat in December.

He will be visiting Udvada in south Gujarat to attend a function of Parsi community.

District administration and local BJP cadres have started early preparations in this regard.

To develop Udvada as heritage place, the government has approved Rs 20 crore grant, of which Rs 10 crore allotment has been made already.

Modi had addressed Parsi community function in Udvada also when he was Gujarat Chief Minister.

Modi government has made allocation of crores of Rupees to show-case civilization and culture of the Parsis in year 2015-16 budget. An exhibition ‘The everlasting flame’ will be supported by the Ministry of Minority Affairs.

Parsis are integral part of culture and history of Gujarat as they arrived from Iran with holy fire at Gujarat coast and stayed here.

Udvada(200 km north of Mumbai) is a town in Gujarat, renowned for its Zoroastrian Atash Behram. This place of worship is the oldest still-functioning example of its kind, and has established Udvada as a pilgrimage center for Zoroastrians the world over.

The post Narendra Modi to Visit Udvada in December 2015 appeared on Parsi Khabar.

A mega festival, with exhibits being brought from world over, is being proposed by Minority Affairs Ministry for March next year

Article by Sobhana K Nair | Bangalore Mirror

New Delhi: In March next year, Delhi will be hosting, for the first time ever, a celebration of Parsi culture, with three exhibitions, one of them travelling from UK and a host of other events.
The festival is being organized by Ministry of Minority Affairs at a total budget of Rs 13.4 crore. It is expected to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 19 next year and will go on till May 29.

The exhibition – Everlasting Flames – which has antiquities loaned from 15 museums across the world including Syria and Iran will be coming from UK.

It traces the 3,000 years of Zoroastrian History through artefacts, silverware from imperial periods of Iranian Zoroastrian history, textiles, coins and manuscripts. This exhibition was first organized by SOAS (School of Oriental and Asian Studies) in UK in November-December 2013.
One of the main attractions is Gathas of Zarathustra, 17 hymns composed by Zarathustra, founder of Zoroastrianism, which will be presented in a series of large calligraphic panels accompanied with voice recordings of the text. The hymns of the Gathas, written in Old Avestan, belongs to the old Iranian language group.

“They have never loaned manuscripts to India. So it needed a bit of convincing and we went back forth bringing everyone on board,” Prof Shernaz Cama, of Parzor project of UNESCO, one of the key partners of the festival said. Cama says it is first time ever that Parsi culture is being celebrated at such a scale.

With a huge insurance premium for the exhibits, the Everlasting Flame, alone is costing nearly Rs 10 crore to the government. Apart from the exhibition at National Museum, ‘No Parsi is an Island’ an exhibition which was held in Mumbai’s NGMA in 2014 will also travel to Delhi. The exhibition shows Parsi trade with China and the rest of the world.

A third exhibition is being planned in IGNCA (Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts) ‘Threads of Continuity’. For which Google Culture is a partner. This will be a multi-media exhibition where Parsi life and stories will be told through various media. “For example, the Chinvat Bridge, a concept in of the road leading to heaven and hell in Zoroastrianism will be installed with help of multimedia tools to give the visitors an experience of the concept,” said Prof Cama.

Prof Cama says that apart from the academic exhibitions, all things Parsi will be available. “We are arranging for a Parsi food festival, Parsi humour, Parsi theatre and Parsi dances,” she said.

The festival and the exhibitions are important, says Feroza Godrej, who curated the Mumbai Exhibition ‘No Parsi is an Island’. “The Parsi community is shrinking, before we die and become museum pieces, we need to educate the world about this civilization,” Godrej said.

The post New Delhi To Host First Ever Large Scale Festival on Parsi Culture in 2016 appeared on Parsi Khabar.

“I’ll grow up to be a math teacher,” declares Delicia Billimoria. Looking at the ease with which she demolishes a complex multiplication assignment on a canvas blackboard hung in her living room at her Surat apartment, the seven-year-old with pigtails and a bucktooth smile appears to have a way with numbers.

Article by Aasheesh Sharma| Hindustan Times

That shouldn’t be surprising considering Billimoria is a Parsi. Perceived as a community of mostly affluent number-crunching entrepreneurs, ironically, the biggest anxiety gripping Parsis in India these days is their dwindling numbers.

“The birth rate of the Parsis has dropped dramatically to below replacement levels. In 2013, the last year we have data for, we had just 195 births in the entire country and 950 deaths. We are a community on the edge,” says Dr Shernaz Cama of the Parzor Foundation, Delhi, a community organization mandated by the UNESCO to preserve Parsi Zoroastrian heritage.

Cama isn’t painting an alarmist picture. In the last 60 years, even as the country’s population tripled from 318 million in 1941 to a billion in 2001, the number of Parsis fell 39 per cent over the same period — from 114,000 to 69000 in the 2001 census — the most recent to classify population by religion. “The population data of minorities in the 2011 census is still to be tabulated,” Census Commissioner C Chandramauli told HT Brunch.

When one puts together a Parsi map of India, one sees that a chunk of the population outside Maharashtra (which has the largest number at about 46,000 including affluent Mumbai and Pune) lives in Gujarat.

Illustration: Jayanto; Source: Parzor Foundation, Delhi

But the Parsis in Gujarat and other non-metropolis cities are significant not just because of their numerical strength. They also have a unique place in the cultural history of Parsis in India.

Not all Parsis are rich businessmen who obsess over automobiles. Which is why, to move away from the stereotype of Mumbai-based Parsis – affluent individuals who stay insulated in neighbourhoods such as Dadar Colony, so often caricatured in Hindi films – we’ve looked beyond Mumbai to explore the loves and lives of this fascinating community, in other parts of the country.

After landing in the town of Sanjan when they first arrived in the country, many Parsi families settled down in the port town of Surat, in the fifteenth century, to work in the trading factories that the Europeans (the Portuguese, the British and the Dutch) had established.

As of March 2014, according to the directory of the Surat Parsi Panchayat, the city’s Parsi population stood at 3,584. The number has shrunk further from 3616 in 2004 and 3696 in 2010.

To reverse the decline, community bodies are dangling the carrot of affordable housing – one of the factors that deter many Parsis from getting married – at the young and the aspirational. The Surat Parsi Panchayat, for instance, rents out homes to young Parsis who promise to marry other Parsis and start a family, at rock-bottom rentals.

With monthly earnings of Rs 16,000, Delicia’s parents, 37-year-old office executive Nariosong Billimoria and his wife Benaifer, 35, could not have dreamt of affording the spacious, sun-drenched, one bedroom-hall-kitchen apartment in Surat’s Zarthosti Building, for which they pay a princely rent of Rs 200 per month, but for the panchayat. The market value of each of the flats is around Rs 6 lakh.

“The community takes care of us if we think of the larger good,” reasons Nariosong. “Ever since we enter our teenage, our parents drill it in our heads that we should marry only a good Parsi boy,” adds Benaifer. “In many cases, the panchayat plays an active part in the marriage itself.”Marriage in a baug

About 40 kms southwest of Surat, in the bustling town of Navsari, the entire Parsi community seems to have turned out for a Sunday evening community feast at Jamshed Baug, a convention centre, to watch Sharmin Pithawalla tie the knot with Rayomand Gole.

Gole, 26, who works at a photocopying shop in Surat, sits opposite Pithawalla, 21, as a white cloth is placed between them. The bride and groom can’t look at each other but hold hands for a ceremony in which they tie threads to a chair.

In another ice-breaking ritual, the bride draws a huge applause when she throws rice higher than the groom. The couple is now made to sit together for the aashirward where the shlokas are read in Gujarati and Sanskrit.

“On an average in a year, affluent businessmen in Navsari sponsor close to 30 weddings and 10 Navjot ceremonies, where our holy thread called the kusti is tied to children to formally induct them into Zoroastrian faith,” says Kersi Mandviwalla, the dastur (priest), as revellers wait patiently in a queue before they can dig into a sumptuous spread of Patrani Matchi, daal, chicken and pulao.

“Surat and Navsari are among the most traditional Parsi townships in the country. This is where our history in India began,” says Yezdi Karanjia, 79, the seasoned Parsi theatre actor and director, sitting in the small, anachronistic office of the Surat Parsi Panchayat with yellowing wall paint, dusty ledgers and ornate furniture.

Three generations of Surat’s prominent Karanjia family get together for a Navroz feast.The sugar & milk theory

When they first arrived, escaping persecution in Iran, the refugees from Pars (Persia), the Zoroastrian fire worshipers, came by boat to Sanjan, a small town on the shores of Gujarat in the eight century (936 CE).

“Back then, they didn’t have any navigation systems. The sea winds brought us to these shores because God thought that if our community were to survive, Gujarat in India was the place where we could flourish,” says Karanjia, the avuncular patriarch of the last surviving family troupe of Parsi theatre in the country, performed in Gujarati. The veteran of more than 100 one-act plays and 42 full-fledged three-act productions says like everything Parsi, the popularity of their brand of theatre is also on the wane.

Before the refugees could make Gujarat their home, Jaditya Rana, the local monarch, quizzed the Parsis. The story goes that Rana questioned the head priest on how they planned to reside in an already overpopulated place.

Nairyosang Dhawal, the leader of the refugees, called for a bowl of milk filled to the brim and a spoonful of sugar. He carefully blended the sugar into the milk, without spilling a drop. Like sugar in the milk, Parsis will blend with the population and sweeten society, said Dhawal. “Pleased with the answer, Rana promised them a home but imposed certain conditions,” adds Jamshed Dotivala, president of the Surat Parsi Panchayat.

“We adopted Gujarati as our mother tongue and our women began to dress in saris. We were asked to surrender all weapons and to hold Parsi wedding processions after sunset. These traditions are followed in Surat and other parts of Gujarat even today,” adds Dotivala.

Once they found their feet, the industrious and business-minded Parsis flourished in the state. They installed the holy fire called the Iranshah and inhabited the towns and villages of Gujarat making their living as farmers, weavers, carpenters and bakers.

At a typically crowded traffic crossing on a manic summer afternoon the aroma of freshly baked bread and cakes draws us to the door of Surat’s legendary Dotivala Bakery.

Jamshed Dotivala’s son Cyrus, sixth in a generation of entrepreneurs who’ve been running the business, founded after the Dutch left India in 1825, says his two school-going sons are under no pressure to carry the family legacy forward. “We’ve stayed traditional in our religious beliefs but have always kept our minds open to progressive thoughts and lifestyles,” adds Cyrus.

“These sweet contradictions — between modernity and convention — are what make the annual Navroz celebrations so interesting,” says Cyrus, as he invites us to witness Jamshedi Navroz celebrations at a few homes in the city.Navroz Mubarak!

The origins of Jamshedi Navroz, date back to more than 3000 years when Jamshed, the king of Persia, ascended the throne on the day of the vernal equinox, when the length of the day equals that of the night.

The Parsi community of Surat turns out in large numbers at its fire temples for the festival. In the religious pecking order, the most revered fire temple is called the Atash Behram. On the second rung is an Agyari fire temple and on the third, the Daadgah.

At the Atash Behram in Sayyadpura – one of the four traditional Parsi neighbourhoods in Surat along with Shahpur, Nanpura and Rustampura – a steady lot of worshippers wearing shiny new clothes and cheerful dispositions, keeps streaming in through the day to offer prayers.

“Being a Saturday this year, many more people can accompany their loved ones,” says Porus Icchaporia, 40, a financial consultant, as he cradles his one-year-old son Vivaan. His wife Kashmira is busy browsing through a cart brimming with trinkets, diyas, framed photos of Lord Zoroaster, bangles and other assorted Navroz memorabilia that an enterprising Parsi lady is peddling outside the fire temple.

“Every year on March 21, I visit Surat from Mumbai to set up this stall. I’ve been doing it for 22 years and it still makes for brisk business,” says Zarin Sapal as she hands over a dainty little necklace to a girl.Table manners

One of the most colourful parts of Navroze celebrations at Parsi homes is setting up the ‘Haft-Seen’ table. In Persian ‘Haft’ means the number seven and ‘Seen’ signifies the letter S. So, the Haft-Seen is a table-ful of seven articles that start with the letter S or Sh.

At the Chichgar household, the honour of decorating the table is given to Maharukh Chichgar 47, a teacher, mom and actor. The first two objects to be placed, she says, are a silver bowl and coin. Then a pomegranate, around which there are flowers. There is a diya lit in the tradition of fire worship and the photograph of Zoroaster the prophet.

Mahrukh continues placing the Sharab, Shakar (sugar), Shir (milk), Shirni (sweetmeat), Shir Berenj (Sweets), Sheera (syrup) and Shahad (honey) on the table. She then adds Sirka (vinegar), Sumac (spice), Samanu (halwa), Sib (apple), Sir (garlic), Senjed (berries) and Sabzi (herbs).

Traditionally, Parsis invite family and friends over on Navroz. There are prayers earmarked for the morning, afternoon and evening. In the evening, everyone prays at the Navroz table and eats from it. “Navroz Mubarak,” they greet each other before embracing them.

A mirror is placed in such a way that you can see the reflection of the pomegranate, a diya and the photograph of Zoroaster in a straight line. “You wish for good fortune when you look at all three in alignment and then look at yourself,” explains Mahrukh Chichgar.

“At the time of the equinox, the earth turns a little. We believe that this movement is caught in the mirror and the pomegranate moves at the same moment. The mirror catches that lucky moment in the reflection. That is why looking into the mirror on Navroz brings you good luck,” she adds.

Considering the manner in which their numbers are depleting, the community will need more than just good fortune to keep their flock growing.

The numbers game

Reversing the population decline won’t be easy for the community. It will involve a change in social attitudes for sure, says Dinyar Patel, a historian and PhD candidate at Harvard University. Over the past few decades, many Parsis chose to have fewer or no children, rues Patel.

“There was little family pressure to marry. There is a strong body of data to show that the Parsi population in India is declining owing to low fertility. This isn’t because of any biological or medical problems; rather, it is because so many Parsis choose to not marry, or marry late, or have few or no children. As a result, the community’s total fertility rate may now be as low as 0.88, whereas a total fertility rate of 2.1 is needed for replacement,” says Patel.

According to Villoo Morawala Patell, managing director of Avesthagen, Bangalore, which is conducting a genomic studies of India’s Parsis, the appallingly low birth rate has been driven by the a cocktail of cultural issues within the community.

“The tradition of marrying only within the community resulted in large numbers of people remaining unmarried in the 70s and 80s. That was when the decline began. At that time it was taboo to even think of marrying outside the community,” says Morawala Patell.

The Parsi community’s self-imposed exclusiveness isn’t helping matters. Conversions are taboo, intermarriage with members of other faiths is frowned upon and non-Parsis are not allowed inside fire temples.

In the last few decades, many clusters of Parsis, particularly in larger cities of western India, began staying in secluded gated communities called Baugs, insulated from other ethnicities.

“They were living in baugs and had their little house and a car and didn’t really bother about getting married. A kind of mediocrity had crept in. The comfort zone created in a Baug lifestyle led to an obsession with creature comforts more than raising children,” explains Morawala Patell.

Kulpreet Freddy Vesuna, 41, a Sikh married to a Parsi IT professional based in Pune, says it is time the community began displaying more flexibility towards spouses from other communities and religions. “While they allow their sons to marry non-Parsi girls, they don’t accept them entirely and don’t allow them to visit fire temples. This is one thing I long for in this otherwise affectionate and energetic community.”Breaking out

In the 1990s, many highly educated Parsi women realised there were few options within the community when they wanted to marry or start a family. “The women were far more qualified, progressive and smarter than the mama’s boys who stayed entrenched in baugs and couldn’t break away from the influence of their mothers,” says Villoo Morawala Patell. “These boys were not interested in getting an education. All they wanted was to inherit their parents’ wealth and buy cars. This led to in highly qualified women marrying outside the community,” she says.

Intermarriages within the community have become far more common, says Dinyar Patel. According to an estimate, close to 30 per cent of Parsis in the bigger cities such as Mumbai, Delhi and Pune are marrying outside the community.

It doesn’t only have to do with educational qualifications or money, it also emerges from a dearth of like-minded people within the community, says Morawalla Patell. “When people in the 13-19 age group look at people to mingle with within their community, there are hardly any teenagers. Bangalore, for instance, where I am based, would have a maximum of 20-25 teenagers and Hyderabad would have about 30,” she says. “Today’s teenagers are not weighed down by the stigma that was attached to marrying outside the community in the 70s and the 80s.”

Many young Parsis are not content toeing the conventional line. Travel agency executive Pirzad Kerman Gandhi is one of these. “Let us not bring our religious faith into matters of the heart. I will play the field and eventually marry the girl I love, irrespective of her religious or ethnic affiliations. I am sure my parents, too, will respect my decision. We are not living in the 18th century any longer,” says the exuberant 22-year-old.

The Parsis of Surat are ready to move with the times, affirms Jaosh Tata, 41, brand manager with IDBI Federal Insurance. “I don’t want my children to grow up in a Parsi ghetto with its dingy bylanes and lack of open space. That’s why even if my parents, both retired finance executives may be a little reluctant, we are ready to move into a condominium on the outskirts of the city.”

A whole new world: The Tata family – daughter Shanaya, mother Queenie, son Pakzad, husband Jaosh and grandparents Jai Nariman Tata and Amy Tata – is looking forward to moving out of the old Surat Parsi neighbourhood of Sayyadpura.

Jaosh’s homemaker wife Queenie says the attitudes of women have changed since the time she was in her teens. “Many of my friends resisted parental pressure and married outside the community. Today’s woman has a mind of her own. When her expectations grow with education, she wants a boy who earns more than her and understands her sensibilities. If they don’t find the men they desire within the community, they look outside. Ultimately, the parents too will come around and support their children’s decisions.”

Desperate measures

The Mumbai-based organisation Zoroastrian Youth For the Next Generation (ZYNG) hosts youth meets where Parsi boys and girls get to know each other. The programmes are designed with the ostensible purpose of breaking the ice between the sexes, so that eventually one of them takes the initiative and they get married.

Critics say many such programmes have degenerated into non-serious speed-dating exercises. Apart from workshops that focus on the tenets of Zoroastrianism and light-hearted entertainment, they also have cheesy sessions such as Love, Sex Aur Dhokha.

Recently, a series of provocative ads designed for the Jiyo Parsi campaign came under fire for its depiction of members of the community as a species which should procreate as a strategy of survival. Some of the taglines for the ads included: “Who will be snooty about being superior if you don’t have kids?” and “Be responsible, don’t use a condom tonight.”

The Parsi of 2015 doesn’t quite know whether to break free, or conform for the sake of the community. Yezdi Karanjia sums up the dilemma dramatically: “How can we forget our past? Our elders have ensured that we’ve kept the connection with our traditions alive. If we keep marrying non-Parsis, our community will become extinct.”

Photos: Gurinder Osan

aasheesh.sharma@hindustantimes.com

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Sweet sustenance

In Dahanu, Maharashtra, the 180-people strong Parsi community is surviving in the face of industrial encroachment and rising land rates, while trying to revive their chikoo farms

If it weren’t for one Parsi man’s obsession with botany, we’d consider the chikoo as exotic a fruit as the kiwi. But fortunately for India, in the late 1890s, Sir Dinshaw Petit insisted on trying to grow this South American rainforest plant in India, so thank him for your chikoo milkshake.

Thank the Parsis of Dahanu-Gholvad too. Because there, about 80kms from Mumbai, four generations of Parsi farmers have put their sweat, blood and knowledge into their chikoo vaadis, making the region one of the highest producers of the fruit in the world.Fruit of Labour

“The Parsis of Dahanu are the latest batch of Iranian immigrants to have settled in India,” says Farzan Mazda, a 29-year-old former professor from the region, and our host for the Navroz feast.

“The old Parsis of Bombay and other regions had started to blend in with Indians and were forgetting our customs. We restarted the traditions of setting up the Navroz table, visiting each other’s houses and celebrating the festival.”

Mazda’s ancestors started another Navroz ritual that has become a trademark for Dahanu’s Parsi community. “All the chikoo farmers of the region had guns to protect their fields from predatory birds,” says Farzan’s father, Dr Beheramshah Mazda. “So we fire blank shots at equinox on every Navroz day. That has become a tradition for us here.”

Crates of happiness: Farzan and Beheramshah Mazda (left) are fourth and fifth generation Parsi chikoo farmers in Dahanu, near Mumbai.

Unfortunately, the tradition may soon die out, because the chikoo farms, once the main business of 90 per cent of the Parsi population in Dahanu, are no longer viable. “The thermal power plant that started functioning in Dahanu in the late ’90s caused so much air pollution that the trees started yielding less and less,” says Dr Mazda.

His son adds: “We’ve dragged them to court over and over again, and made sure that their machines are updated and there’s no harm to our ecosystem. The harvest has been better in the last couple of years.”

Constantly rising land prices, the growing of chikoos in other regions (in Gujarat) and labour costs are also affecting chikoo farming in Dahanu. “A century ago, the adivasis [tribals] of the area teamed up with Parsi land owners. They made for inexpensive labour and knew the soil and the techniques,” says Mazda. “But nowadays, their services have become very expensive.”To promised lands

As a result, the community are doctors and bakers and teachers now. Dahanu resident Manijeh Minoo Irani runs the Shapoor Merwan Nursery School. Many have gone into the restaurant business, running famous joints such as Crazy Crab, Pecoline, Goolkhush and Tapovan.

Gholvad resident Farhad Mubaraki, an interior designer by profession, says the chikoo yield gives them “enough to get by”. He believes that the quiet county is ideal for retired people, but no place for the young and ambitious.

“Earlier, children from Dahanu and Gholvad relocated to Bombay and Pune for education,” says his wife Kermez. “But nowadays, no one comes back. Our son is in America, and most people migrate to bigger cities for a better life.”

Mubaraki also believes that the community’s orthodox way of life is to blame for their declining numbers. “If we’re going to be so strict about marrying within the community,” he says, laughing, “You’ll soon come to see Parsi people in a zoo.”

Mazda remembers that Dahanu’s population of Parsis was about 650 when he was young. It’s now less than 200. But those that remain have learnt to cope with challenges, and take every day with a pinch of salt and a glass

of falooda.

nihit.bhave@hindustantimes.com

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Hyderabad Blues

The Parsi community in Telangana is small but enterprising

With a population of just 1,136 people in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad, Parsis are barely visible. But then, in 1803, it took the community just 15 people to give it its southern beginning in the first place.

That happened when a group of Parsis, mainly the Chenoys, arrived from Jalna in Maharashtra on bullock-carts to settle in Secunderabad, part of the Nizam of Hyderabad’s territory. At that time Secunderabad was developing as a British cantonment and the Parsis, courtesy the Nizam, set up businesses there.

Today, the Parsis of the twin cities are lawyers, doctors, academicians and business people, owning popular brands like Chermas. They are also entrepreneur-politicians, such as the NRI Lord Karan Bilimoria.

“The initial generation of Parsis who worked in the dominion of the Nizam spoke in Turkish which was the language of the courts,” says Dr Shernaz Cama of the Parzor Foundation, Delhi. Now, the Parsis speak Gujarati with a Persian touch at home, but converse in Hyderabadi lingo (a mix of Hindi, Urdu and Telugu) outside. The younger generation is also becoming conversant in Telugu.

“We are more cosmopolitan than our community elsewhere, thanks to the Nizam and the aristocracy then, and the outward looking, mixed culture city Hyderabad has become in recent times,” says Parvez Baria, a businessman who manufactures non-vegetarian pickles with Parsi flavours. “Even our meals are a blend of Parsi, Hyderabadi and continental dishes whereas on the west coast they are more Gujarati.”

The Navroz feast at home includes haleem and Hyderbadi style kebabs, and the biryani is spicy, just like the dum biryani of Hyderabad.

(Photos: HT Photo)

Every year, 85-year-old Gulbanoo Chenoy (above), president of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjuman of Secunderabad and Hyderabad, hosts a Navroz feast. This time, her guests included Lord Karan Bilimoria, 53, the brain behind the UK’s Cobra Beer, celebrating Navroz in his hometown after almost 20 years although the Navjot ceremonies for all his four children were held here.

The Parsis may hang on to their traditions, but their numbers are dwindling fast. Between 2005 and 2014, only 43 births were recorded, though there were 176 deaths. The first 50 days of 2015 recorded two deaths and no birth.

But Chenoy is not worried. “Our numbers were always a concern. But we’ve survived the 1,300 years since we set foot in the country and I am confident we’ll live for another 1,000 years,” she says.

Her optimism may be misleading. At the Bai Ratanbai J Chinoy Parsi School, established in 1919 to provide education to underprivileged Parsi kids, only seven children out of 1,180 are Parsis.

“In 1933, it had to be converted into a secular minority institution taking kids from all religions with preference to Christians, Muslims and Jains,” says Ketayoun Chinoy, administrator of the school.

In any case, most Parsi children these days are sent to private schools, where some make their city and community proud. Tushna Baria (16), for instance, was awarded a silver medal in the Royal Commonwealth Society’s essay competition in 2013 and represented her school in a model UN conference in Beijing in 2014.

A directory of Zoroastrian families mentions every Parsi in detail, right down to blood group. It even cautions against the G6PD deficiency, common among Parsis, that causes jaundice in new-borns.

The community has a number of welfare measures in place: medical equipment for emergency use is provided free of charge and the less well-off are entitled to affordable housing – that’s about 40 per cent of the twin cities’ total Parsi population.

As 34-year-old Anita Ichhaporia, who pays R1,600 as rent for a one bedroom-hall-kitchen flat in the heart of the city, says, “Our business is not always profitable. Besides, we like to be close to our community.”

The Parsi Anjuman helps families earning less than Rs 25,000 per month, and the 50-year-old Zoroastrian Stree Mandal provides groceries and clothing when needed.

“We are a small community and rescue each other in times of need,” says Aspi Debara, secretary the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjuman, Hyderabad. “One thing is assured – there will never be a Parsi beggar.

– Prasad Nichenametla

Prasad.N@hindustantimes.com

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The post The curious case of the vanishing Parsis appeared on Parsi Khabar.

“Though very small in number comprising a minuscule fraction of India’s total population, the Parsi community has consistently and remarkably enriched the Indian society over the years”. This was stated here today by Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances,Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh while interacting with a delegation of “Parzor Foundation”, a UNESCO associated registered organization devoted to the cause of co-existence of different cultures in India with special focus on Parsi-Zoroastrians and their culture.

Article Source: Daily Excelsior

Dr Jitendra Singh observed that the Parsi community has made a major contribution in all walks of life and has thrown up several legendary icons in different fields, some of whom like Sam Manekshaw, Nani Palkhivala, Homi Bhabha, Piloo Mody, Zubin Mehta,Farokh Engineer, R.K.Karanjia, Sohrab Modi and Bejan Daruwalla have become an inseparable part of contemporary India’s bibliography. He expressed concern that even though around the time of independence in 1947, the population of the community stood at around 1-1.5 lakh, in the last six decades ironically, while the country’s population went up to 125 crore, the population of Parsi community declined to just about 60-70 thousand and that too mostly confined to Maharashtra, Gujarat and some other parts of the country. It is, therefore, the responsibility of all of us to recognize the greatness of Zoroastrian culture and help in its protection and resurgence, he added.

Dr Jitendra Singh appreciated the fact that even as the Parzor Foundation facilitates social and scientific research with special focus on Parsi culture, it does not confine itself only to the Parsi and Zoroastrian community but has also taken upon itself the wider objective of creating awareness about India’s age old tradition of coexistence of diverse cultures. He assured all possible support from the government to encourage the work done by the Parzor Foundation, which is associated with UNESCO.

The Director of UNESCO-Parzor Foundation Project, Dr (Ms) Shernaz Cama explained to Dr Jitendra Singh the organization’s plan to organize a mega event in the union capital of Delhi, which will include three exhibitions titled “Everlasting Flame”, “Threads of Continuity” and “Across Oceans…..” in addition to an international conference on “India’s pluralistic heritage”. Considering that India has emerged as the cultural capital of Asia, she said, the proposed programme will also offer an opportunity for India to link with the rest of the countries.

Dr Jitendra Singh assured full cooperation from the government to make the event successful which, he said, would be a commendable effort showcasing India’s multicultural character. Well known personalities of the community Dr (Ms) Nilofer Shroff and Ms Monaz were also part of the delegation.

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Parsis from across the country and globe will participate in the first ever ‘Iranshah Udvada Utsav’, beginning December 25 in Udvada, Navasari.

The Iranshah Udvada Utsav is jointly organised by the recently formed Foundation for Development of Udvada (FDU) and the Udvada Samast Anjuman (USA), which have eminent Parsi leaders its members.

Dastoor Khurshed, the Vada Dasturji of Udvada told TOI, “Iranshah Utsav will be a benchmark event to establish Udvada as the pilgrim centre for the Paris. Though it is already a pilgrim centre, but we need to take this at a much bigger level.”

He said that eminent Parsis from across the globe have been invited for the three-day event. Leading present day icon of the community Ratan N. Tata will be felicitated on December 27. Tata has already accepted the invitation. Dastoor added. “Iranshah Udvada Utsav being brainchild of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an invitation has been extended to him as well and we have requested him to participate in the celebration on December 27,” he said.

Couple of weeks after Modi became Prime Minister in 2014, a delegation of Parsi leaders including Dastoorji, Homai Engineer, late Jehangir Cama and Dinshaw Tamboly met him and briefed him on the plans to develop Udvada as a pilgrim centre. This plan will be undertaken by the Udvada Area Development Authority (UADA), set up by the Gujarat government.

“The PM mentioned that Udvada showcases the glorious history of Parsi community and he was very keen to project Udvada as a place of harmony, religious tolerance and opportunities provided to a small community,” said Dastoorji.

“We have developed a tentative plan that will be finalised shortly, after which the same will be announced to the community at large,” he added.

The post Prime Minister Modi and Ratan Tata set to grace International Udvada Utsav in December 2015 appeared on Parsi Khabar.

Are patients being given an adequate say in the treatment they receive?

Almost one year ago, Jehangir Cama, a respected hotelier, who was the former President of the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India, and the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce, walked into a multi-speciality cardiac care corporate hospital in Ahmedabad with a patch of pneumonia. He never walked out.

Article by Mehroo Cama | The Hindu BusinessLine

While the loss is irreplaceable, the hospital experience has urged me to think about whether we should handle procedures differently. For instance, in my husband’s case, could a specialist (cardiologist) have been brought much earlier into the treatment?

It is my opinion that resident staff and doctors in many parts of the country are perhaps not sufficiently qualified to handle complications. But unfortunately, hospitals often rule that only they can call the specialist or even the admitting doctor. Only affiliated doctors – even one’s family doctor or specialist (who knows and understands the patient better) is not allowed to participate in consultations on the ongoing treatment of the patient.

Corporate hospitals are mushrooming everywhere and have become a multi-crore business. But I do believe they need to bring in more regard for the sanctity of life.

For example, medical officers and nursing staff in some cases, we are told, are hired by an employment agency. But shouldn’t there be a professional assessment to ascertain their knowledge and skills and whether they have an MBBS, Ayurvedic or Homeopathic degree?

I witnessed some very disturbing hospital situations, including one where a nurse held the glucometer upside down reading 66 instead of 99! I am told that nurses and other staff are trained for about three months and learn the rest on the job. Sometimes, basic records like those of blood pressure are confused with pulse rate and nurses are seen struggling while administering intravenous injections.

A patient’s family needs to be alert as often medical equipment in the wards and even in the ICCU, do not always function properly. It is not uncommon to find doctors and nurses in the ICCU asleep on night duty. Patient’s families should not feel inhibited to point out such lapses to higher authorities and insist that they set it right. We feel reluctant to complain as the patient’s (our loved one’s) life is in their hands.

Take the other case of isolation wards meant to prevent cross-infection. It defeats its very purpose if the A/C does not function optimally and the patient cannot be isolated. Often, there are several medical procedures recommended to patients and families, raising questions on whether they were actually required.

Hospitals should revisit the unhealthy trend of having doctors meet “targets” as it could lead to pressure to ensure that ICCU beds are fully occupied and maximum ventilators used. And more worrisome, does all this equipment get adequately sterilised?

We advise family and friends to choose a hospital where your own family doctor and the specialist of your choice is attached, so as to monitor and check negligence. Get a second opinion on the hospital before deciding on admission. Be cautious before resorting to a ventilator as maximum fatal infections occur in ICCUs. It is your legal right to demand all daily medical records, in case of legal action for medical negligence, wrong billing or simply overcharging. From the reports, many acts of negligence and omission become clear. Be vigilant at all times. If you are forewarned, then you are forearmed.

The writer is the wife of Jehangir Cama, and Chairman, Cama Hotels Ltd, and MD, Cama Motors (P) Ltd. The views expressed are personal.

The post All is not well in the high corridors of hospitals appeared on Parsi Khabar.

Three acres of prime land in the heart of the city which has been used as a burial ground by the Parsis for 123 years has turned into a conflict zone. The community has filed a case against the cemetery’s caretaker, alleging he has trespassed into and defiled their prayer hall as well as starting illegally construction of a building on nearly half an acre of their land worth a few crores.

Article by By Praveen Kumar & Prakruti PK, Bangalore Mirror Bureau

The burial ground is located on 11th cross, Malleswaram, on land belonging to the government of Karnataka, which was reportedly granted to the Parsis in 1892 by the then Maharaja of Mysore.

The cemetery is divided into three parts – the old burial ground, the present burial ground, and the land housing the prayer hall and the caretaker’s quarters.

Forty-two-year-old Gopal, who has been taking care of the burial ground, has been accused of damaging the prayer hall by removing the foundation stone and even discarding the community’s religious books and photographs of their ancestors and their religious leader.

Gopal reportedly ‘moved’ into the prayer hall with his personal belongings like his television and bed. He allegedly began illegal construction of a structure inside the cemetery, near the caretaker’s quarters.

Officials of the Gathic Zoroastrian Anjuman Bangalore (GZAB) say the illegalities came to light when they paid a visit to the cemetery on May 29. They noticed the illegal construction as well as the trespassing into the prayer hall. Gopal was reportedly warned to stop all illicit activities; however, the caretaker and his family began claiming the land belonged to them.

The community then approached the Central division police and filed a complaint against Gopal, after which he was arrested and remanded in judicial custody before being released on bail.

“We are distressed by the fact that our prayer hall has been desecrated by someone we trusted. Gopal’s father took care of the cemetery, and after his death, Gopal took over. He soon brought his two brothers and sister plus their families to live in the quarters, and we didn’t object. However, he recently built a cowshed and brought in six cows which have dirtied our place of prayer. He has also used nearly half an acre to begin illegal construction of a building,” joint secretary of GZAB, Yasmin Master, told Mirror.

Gopal had been entrusted with a set of keys, which he allegedly used to break into the prayer hall and shift his personal belongings inside. He even began using the century-old teakwood furniture meant to be used by religious leaders of the community and also threw out religious paraphernalia. “Of the 300 Parsi families in Bengaluru, nearly 70-80 families use the burial ground, while the rest use the Tower of Silence in Hebbal. The Parsi New Year is coming up on August 18, and we normally hold a continuous five-day prayer meeting for the departed souls. Following our complaint, the police locked up the prayer hall with Gopal’s things inside. We are worried how we will observe this year’s rituals,” she added.

However, Gopal’s family has a different story. His older brother Mahalingappa told BM the land was rightfully theirs and that the Parsi community had ‘usurped’ more than what had been granted to them in 1892. “Four generations of my family have taken care of this land, and the building they claim is their prayer hall is actually a former bhajan room which was used exclusively by the Maharani of Mysore. The Maharaja would often come down and practise shooting on this land, and the burial ground only came into existence in 1892,” he said.

“Using the Anjuman community name, 22 plots of land were sold by the then presidents in 1963. They even seized our land and are now falsely claiming it as their own,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Central division police confirmed a case had been registered under sections 295 (defiling place of worship), 427 (mischief), and 448 (trespassing) of the IPC.

“The complainants submitted copies of relevant historical records and documents of the Parsi cemetery, including the judgment dated August 19, 1947 by the Chief Justice of the Mysore High Court. When we asked the accused to prove their claims of ownership, they said they did not have any papers and would have to go to Mysuru to meet the current Maharaja and obtain the documents,” said a senior investigating official.

The post Who really owns this Bangalore Parsi burial ground? appeared on Parsi Khabar.

First Ambitious Project Under New Scheme “Hamari Dharohar”, to Preserve Rich Heritage Of Parsi Community

Three Exhibitions to be Held at an Estimated Cost of Rs. 14 Crore

The Ministry of Minority Affairs in collaboration with UNESCO Parzor Foundation, has approved curation of three travelling iconic Exhibitions, ‘The Everlasting Flame’ along with academic and cultural programmes of international magnitude, to be held from March to May, 2016. Dr. Najma Heptulla, the Union Minister of Minority Affairs stated that the iconic exhibitions will be funded by the Government of India to show-case the civilization and culture of the Parsis. The exhibition will bring alive Parsi heritage so that all Indians can understand and be proud of India as the world’s finest exemplar of unity in diversity ,she elaborated. The Finance Minister has also announced support to the “Everlasting Flame” in the Union Budget 2015-16, keeping Government’s commitment to preserve rich heritage of minority communities of India, she said.

Dr. Heptulla said that This will be the first ambitious project of the Government under the new scheme “Hamari Dharohar”, to preserve the rich heritage of the Parsi minority community. The three exhibitions will be organized at the National Museum, National Gallery of Modern Arts and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, New Delhi. An estimated Rs. 14 Crore will be spent by the Government of India. She has expressed satisfaction on the progress at the national and international levels to make this festival of the Parsi-Zoroastrians an event for the world to remember. The inauguration of the Programme is scheduled for 19th March, 2016 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.

In this regard, on 14th July 2015, a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ has been signed by Mr. Sanjiv Mittal, Director General, National Museum and Prof. Paul Webley, Director, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (SOAS).

Professor Webley stated that ‘‘SOAS is tremendously proud to be working with the Ministry of Minority Affairs, National Museum, Delhi and Parzor to mount its first ever exhibition outside of the United Kingdom. This is taking place in SOAS’s Centenary year (SOAS received its Royal Charter in 1916) and in India (from which part of the impetus to found SOAS came, and with which we have been involved throughout our history) is the icing on the cake”.

Professor Nirmala Rao, Pro-Director, SOAS reiterates that ‘‘ The Exhibition represents so much of what we do in terms of teaching, research and outreach and gives us the chance to showcase Zoroastrianism – its history, culture and the Zoroastrian communities of Iran, India and the wider diaspora. The exhibition, the first of its kind, will also help to consolidate existing partnerships with academic institutions and organizations in India, as well as forge new ones for the future’’.

‘The Everlasting Flame – Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination’, will be curated by Sarah Stewart, Firoza Punthakey Mistree, Ursula Sims-Williams, Almut Hintze, Pheroza Godrej and Dr. Shernaz Cama. It will trace Zoroastrian culture in ten stories with objects loaned from the British Library, the British Museum and world-renowned collections from Russia, Uzbekistan, Iran as well as the CSMVS, Mumbai, the TATA Archives, Pune and the Alpaiwalla Museum, Mumbai. British Library will also be conducting an Iron-Gall Ink Conservation Workshop at the National Museum sharing the technological advances greatly needed to protect India’s immense manuscript collections.

The second exhibition namely, ‘Across Oceans and Flowing Silks from Canton to Bombay 18th-20th Centuries, will be curated by Dr. Pheroza Godrej and Ms. Firoza Punthakey Mistree, and held at the National Gallery of Modern Arts (NGMA), New Delhi. This will showcase Parsi trading encounters in China, their consequent alliance with the British East India Company and the material culture which developed from their trading forays.

The third exhibition ‘Threads of Continuity’ will be curated by Shernaz Cama, Dadi Pudimjee and Ashdeen Z. Lilaowala, and held at Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi. It will portray the philosophy and ideals of Zoroastrianism in practice today affirming both tangible and intangible cultural heritage and the need to preserve it. It will complete the panorama of Zoroastrianism from its roots in the philosophy of the Indo-Aryans to the present day post-modern diaspora. This exhibition highlights the promising collaboration of UNESCO Parzor with Google Culture Institute. Through the technological expertise of Google, the exhibition seeks to showcase the natural elements of Central Asia which created Zoroastrian philosophy, and its ecological way of life.

The exhibitions will be accompanied by several Outreach Programmes including an International Academic Conference to be held jointly with the Ministry of Minority Affairs, the National Museum and UNESCO Parzor.

Press Information Bureau

Government of India

Ministry of Minority Affairs

12-August-2015 18:35 IST

The post Government to Fund “The Everlasting Flame” to Preserve Parsi Culture And Heritage appeared on Parsi Khabar.

Only 17 births against 65 deaths registered in the last five years

Hyderabad: Forget the tiger, first save the Parsi, says Shapoor Toorkey a regular to the Zoroastrian Club in Secunderabad. Even the Jiyo Parsi scheme launched by the government to revive the dwindling Parsi community by way of medical assistance to young couples who go have children has not enthused the insular community. Only one family in Hyderabad opted for the scheme since its inception two years ago.

Article in the Hans India

Lt Col Sohrab Vakil (Retd) and Dhun Vakil (both 87-years), the oldest living Parsis in Hyderabad

With a majority of the population above the age of 50 and the youngsters not keen on marrying within the community, the elders feel a revival should do the trick for the community that landed in India around 10th century AD  to escape Arab persecution in Persia.

Emigration, infertility, late marriage, not finding compatible partners within the community are issues that the the Parsis face presently. Aspi S Debara, secretary, Parsi Zoroastrian Anjuman of Secunderabad and Hyderabad says, “The younger lot has moved on from doing business into IT and ITES sector.

They interact with a cross-section of people from diverse backgrounds and hop from one country to another. So marrying within the community is becoming difficult.” One out of every five Parsi men and one out of 10 Parsi women remain unmarried even at age of 50; the rate at which the population is declining is making people sit up.

In Hyderabad, the number of youngsters too is pretty low. Till July, 2015 nine people died and one birth was recorded in Hyderabad. Until 2012, the population in twin cities stood at 1,200 plus. Today, Parsi population in Hyderabad is 1,136 with 311 families residing in Secunderabad and 128 in Hyderabad. A majority of them about 408 people live in baugs or charitable blocks.

Beyniaz Eduljee, a travel writer and a mother of two says, “I would love to see my children get married to Parsis but these days they have a mind of their own and talk of individual freedom.” Another issue with the community is that once a girl marries out of the community her children are not included in the Parsi fold. 70-year-old Perviz Nalladaru says, “There is a change in the mindset and children from women who married non-Parsi men are now slowly going to the temple in Mumbai.”

When she is asked if the community would survive? She sounds optimistic, ““We were always a small community. Quality is what counts not quantity.” In 2015, two marriages took place within the community and in the last five years, 24 couples tied the knot. Zervan Lakdawalla, 26, who is a musician with the band Reverb and is getting married to a Parsi girl says, “I don’t get this idea of not allowing the children of a Parsi woman into the community.

The child is half Parsi anyway. Does not gender equality come into play here?” Amid the dismal tidings, there is hope as a few youngsters are getting married within the community. But will that number be enough? Only time will tell.

The post Parsi population slides in Twin Cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad appeared on Parsi Khabar.

In this episode of Talking Point, Exec Lifestyle chats up Cyrus Oshidar. Touted as one of the 10 most influential people from advertising world in India, Oshidar is credited for his inputs in giving MTV India its iconic brand image.

In this candid chat with our host Papri Das, Cyrus opens up on his new digital venture 101India.com  and how digital will give away for sharing unconventional stories.

The post In conversation with Cyrus Oshidar appeared on Parsi Khabar.

In spite of being wounded in battle, Lieutenant Colonel A B Tarapore fought for six days before meeting a hero’s death on the battlefield in the 1965 war.

A legend in the Indian Army, he is the highest ranking officer to be awarded the Param Vir Chakra.

His daughter Zarine M Boyce, who was 16 when her father died, remembers an extraordinary soldier and a father she lost too soon.

Archana Masih met the hero’s daughter at her Pune home.

“I remember so well the night they got their orders to move. I was 16. The Poona Horse (Lieutenant Colonel A B Tarapore’s regiment) had won an inter regimental tournament and there was a celebratory party in the Officer’s Mess.

It was the first time I was allowed into a party. I remember dancing with my father when his adjutant, Captain Surinder Singh, tapped him on the shoulder and my father went in.

Captain Jasbir Singh came and took his place. Unfortunately he too died in the same shell attack that killed my father.

Soon after, we were told that the party was over and we should go home. This must have happened at 10 pm. Around 2, 3 in the morning, we heard the tanks moving out.

They were given orders to load and leave, but there was a wall blocking the route to the road and if they circumvented it, they could have missed their boarding time.

So my dad gave instructions to go through the wall as the objective was to get to the station in time. Of course they reached on time.

The next day we went to the train station. Earlier, my mother had gathered all the women at the mess and told them ‘Don’t you cry!’

I can never forget the scene with the officers and their tanks on the station. My father came out to one of the flats (wagons in the train carrying the tanks) and Captain Ajai Singh, who later became general and then governor of Assam, was with him, along with Captains Jasbir Singh and Surinder Singh.

Just at the whistle blew, my father gave my mother a salute. And all the chappies saluted us. That’s my last memory. I never saw him again.”

Zarine Mahir Boyce breaks down as she remembers that day 50 years ago when her father left to fight a war, never to return.

A legendary tank commander who led from the front; he died in the tank that he loved, surrounded by men that adored him.

During our conversation, Mrs Boyce’s eyes well up several times as one tries to grasp the pain of a teenager’s loss that hasn’t ebbed in half a century.

Now in her mid 60s, she lives in her mother’s family home in Pune and says not a day passes when she hasn’t thought of her father.

Next week, she has been invited by the Poona Horse for a commemorative ceremony of the 1965 war. “The respect they have given me over the years is unsurpassable,” she says. “They treat me better than the Queen of England!”

She has also been invited for tea by the President for a felicitation of the 1965 veterans at Rashtrapati Bhavan on September 22.

IMAGE: The last time Zarine Boyce saw her father was at the railway station before he left for the battlefront. Photo: Archana Masih

“My father had not told anybody but on the night we were celebrating, he had got a message from the military secretary that as soon as his tenure was over, which would have been another couple of months, he would be posted as military attache to the USA, where he would pick up his brigadier pips.

I was excited as a young girl that I would do my college in America. Of course it never happened.

When my father was at the front we got news only through letters. We received his last letter after his death.

In that he wrote ‘I could not have had finer and better men to lead.’

They say that the command that my father had on the wireless in keeping the whole regiment together was unsurpassable. They destroyed 60 enemy tanks against our 9 and not only that — they were one regiment against a brigade which comprised three regiments with Patton tanks.

We had the old Centurions tanks that were heavier and not as fast, but he did it. He did it like they did it in the old cavalry charges. It was just sure, sheer guts. His courage was such that inspired his men.

One of the boys told me that all he said on the wireless was ‘Come on gentlemen, let’s go and get them’ — and he charged at full speed, followed by his men.

The young men who came to see my mother after my dad died, told us that after the battle started, the colonel opened the cupola of his tank and stood up courageously, in spite of all the firing.

They said seeing him do that gave them courage. General Ajai Singh (who was a captain then) always says that no matter what part of the battle it was, Colonel Tarapore was always there.

With no disrespect to anybody, it was the first real battle that we went into. China was bad, we couldn’t help it. But in ’65 even if we lacked in resources what we did not lack was courage.”

In 1965, the Pakistan army’s armour strength was superior to that of the Indian Army. Pakistan had 765 tanks against India’s 720, writes Nitin Gokhale in his book 1965 — Turning the Tide.

India was in no position to wage another war in 1965, having suffered a morale-shattering defeat in 1962. The three services were in the middle of a modernisation and expansion phase and therefore not fully trained or battle-ready.

“At some stage of the battle, my father’s tank was blasted. He jumped out, helped his wireless officer Captain Amarjit Bal, who eventually became a general.

After they were injured and they came out of the tank, my father realised that Captain Bal was still inside the tank, so he jumped in, pulled him to safety, gave him his morphine injection and asked him to be evacuated.

A little later in that operation a shrapnel riddled my father’s arm. He was told to evacuate but he didn’t want to leave his men. He said he would not leave his boys and continued to fight with his hand in a sling for the next two days.

Many of the officers say that if he had not taken that stance at that time, maybe we wouldn’t have been in Pakistan. And for that, the regiment treat him like God.

One of his jawans who had come to see my mother after my father passed away told my mom: ‘Colonel Tarapore was Arjun.’

He wanted to be cremated on the battlefield, so they did it. Even the enemy respected him. They called his regiment Fakhr-e-Hind, the Pride of India. This is unprecedented.

The biggest tank battle since World War II was fought in the Sialkot sector of Pakistan in 1965. Under Colonel Tarapore’s leadership, 60 enemy tanks were destroyed in fierce tank battles that are part of military folklore.

Leading from the front and unmindful of being wounded, the colonel continued to fight for six days before he died a hero’s death on the battlefield. The fearless commanding officer and his men had gone into Pakistan and captured Phillora, Chawinda, Wazirwali, Jassoran, Buttar Dograndi.

In the battle of Chawinda, he led the tanks twice into the middle of the enemy’s killing ground. In the battle of Phillora, 23 enemy tanks lay scattered, mauled and burning.

On the evening of September 16, his tank was hit by a shell. He and his intelligence officer Captain Jasbir Singh along with two jawans died in the attack.

Colonel A B Tarapore was cremated on the battlefield in Jassoran at 0930 on September 17, 1965. His ashes were brought back to Pune.

For his valour he was decorated with the highest war-time gallantry medal, the Param Vir Chakra posthumously. Among the places where his valour is remembered is in the Golden Temple in Amritsar where his name is etched on a plaque. His presence also graces two building complexes in Andheri, suburban Mumbai, named after him: Tarapore Gardens and Tarapore Towers.

“When my mother was dying of cancer, it was her wish that his Param Vir Chakra be given to his regiment.

Today it is in the Quarter Guard and every young officer who joins the regiment has to go to the portrait of my father and of Second Lieutenant Arun Khetrapal (the 21-year-old awarded the Param Vir Chakra in the 1971 war, also from Poona Horse) and then join the regiment.

When we went to give the Param Vir Chakra in 1982, there was a tank parade and my mother went up and gave the medal to General Hanut Singh, who was commanding the regiment. (Decorated with the Mahavir Chakra in the 1971 war, General Hanut Singh was a military legend and sadly passed away in April this year.)

I will never forget what General Hanut said. He said, ‘As long as there is a Poona Horse and as long as there is a Tarapore, we will be at their service.’

You don’t get this loyalty and respect anywhere. Jawans who fought under him brought their little grandchildren to my mom and said, ‘Mataji aap iske sir par haath rakh dengi toh yeh bhi veer ho jayega. (Mother, if you put your hand on his head, he too will become as brave as your husband).’

I am going to give the last jacket he wore in action to the regiment. They will put it up in the Quarter Guard with love and respect.”

Six days after Colonel Tarapore’s death, the United Nations called for a ceasefire by India and Pakistan. The war ended on September 23, 1965. India held 518 square kilometres of Pakistan territory in the Sialkot sector, that was returned in keeping with the Tashkent Treaty.

The Poona Horse, the regiment to which Colonel Tarapore belonged, is one of the most decorated regiments in the Indian Army. It has been awarded two Param Vir Chakras and two Victoria Crosses.

In the 1965 war, it was also awarded two Vir Chakras and five Sena Medals. In respect for the regiment’s achievement on the battlefield, the Pakistani army conferred it with the title ‘Fakhr-e-Hind.’

“There is never a day that goes by when I don’t think of him. I suppose all of us who have famous fathers are daddy’s girls. There are always people who take his name with a lot of respect.

His regiment was the be all and end all of his life. It was his family. His soldiers were his children. We were also rans. He loved us, he adored us, but he had one very, very strong trait which made his men adore him.

He was commanding his regiment in Babina, near Jhansi. His jeep had got stuck in a nullah and three of them — the wireless operator, my father and driver — tried to push the jeep out.

When he came home covered in slush, a civilian guest visiting us asked him why didn’t he get the men to push the jeep since he was the commanding officer.

I will never forget what my father said. He said, ‘I am not made of sugar or salt. I am not going to melt. I can do whatever my men can do.’

Zarine Boyce’s mother, Perin Tarapore, was only 40 when her husband died. Mrs Boyce herself lost her husband when she was 32. She has two daughters, one of whom will accompany her to the regiment’s commemorative function next week.

Mrs Tarapore received Rs 10,000 and a transistor set from Indira Gandhi, then the information and broadcasting minister.

When P V Cherian, then the governor of Maharashtra, discovered this when he visited Mrs Tarapore in Pune, he intervened with the defence minister until she was given a plot of land in Koregaon Park with the stipulation that she should build a house in two years.

Since Colonel Tarapore’s last pay was Rs 3,000 and his pension hardly amounted to around Rs 1,000, the Parsi community stepped in and built a house at no profit. Mrs Tarapore rented out this house and that’s where her main income came from.

“We managed because her father was comfortably off but we always wonder about people who aren’t,” says Mrs Boyce. “But now things have improved.”

“I don’t feel bitter. Mt father had a job to do and he did it. As much as he died, somebody else may have died too.

Students at the school he went to and was head boy don’t know about him. The road outside the school is named after him, but once when I was there, I asked the students about him, and they didn’t know.

What he did was for the country. In the north of India, people appreciate sacrifice and valour because they have been at the receiving end for a long time.

In Maharashtra and South India not so much because they have never had to face threats to their homes because the enemy has never come down that far.

“I do not expect people to appreciate it (a soldier’s sacrifice) when they themselves have not been through it. But awareness is creeping in now.

Anywhere in Punjab, the name Tarapore or the name Abdul Hamid means a lot because they themselves have been through this trauma of invasion.

(Company Quarter Master Havildar Abdul Hamid was decorated with the Param Vir Chakra for his remarkable courage in the other famous battle of 1965, the Battle of Assal Uttar (Befitting Reply) In a superhuman effort, he destroyed seven tanks before sacrificing his life on the battlefield.

(‘He had blown up a total of seven enemy tanks, even more than an armoured formation can hope for. For the first time in military history, a battalion with only recoilless guns at its disposal fought off an armoured division,’ Rachna Rawat Bisht wrote in The Brave: Param Vir Chakra Stories).

‘My mother was in this house when we got news of his passing. Those days after his passing were terrible. My mother’s younger brother became like a surrogate dad. Nothing can tidy over for your loss.

Not only was my father an astounding soldier, he was also a kind human being. He did not have any shades of grey. For him it was this or that, never a maybe. He would have been a failure in civilian life.

He was always very brave. It was in his DNA.

There is a book in Pakistan by a soldier who was fighting in the same sector and he mentions my father’s courage. His courage came for the love of his men.

He would often say to me, ‘If only god would give me the privilege of leading them into battle, I will think my life is worth it.’ And it did happen.”

The post My father, the Param Vir Chakra Hero: Lt. Colonel A. B. Tarapore appeared on Parsi Khabar.

The International Everlasting Flame Programme is to be held, from 19^th March to 29^th May 2016, by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, MOMA, in collaboration with Parzor Foundation and the Culture Ministry of India. We are deeply grateful to the Government of India particularly MOMA for enabling the largest ever Festival of the Zoroastrians in the world. UNESCO has gladly endorsed the project.

This Programme will include three exhibitions, namely “The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination”, “Painted Encounters — Parsi Traders and the Community”, and “Threads of Continuity, at the National Museum, NGMA and IGNCA, Delhi.

Dr. Shernaz Cama, Director of UNESCO Parzor writes

Dear Friends,

There have been many developments since the Hon’ble Finance Minister of India announced the Everlasting Flame Programme 2016, in his Budget Speech. We are delighted that with the support of the Government of India, the world will come to recognize the importance of Zoroastrian civilization and culture as well as its contribution to world history.

Our EF Programme is the culmination of many years of hard work, possible only because of the support of people like you from many parts of the world. We are indebted to MOMA, Ministry of Minority Affairs, our Platinum Sponsor Mr. Cyrus Poonawalla, SOAS, Google Cultural Institute, the National Museum, Delhi for helping us create an event of such magnitude. I enclose a Schedule of Events, so that you can make your own Programme to be with us on this occasion.

Today, we are happy to share with you that Google Cultural Institute will help us make the Parzor Exhibition Threads of Continuity an Interactive Exhibition covering Zoroastrianism in philosophy and practice.

It is with immense pleasure that I also wish to share with you the Online Exhibitions that have been recently curated by the team at Parzor Foundation for Google Cultural Institute –to enable a virtual experience of Zoroastrian Heritage.

Having launched Parsi Zoroastrians: From Persia to Akbar’s Court – https://goo.gl/pMb058 last year, we now share with you a Series of three Exhibitions on the Kusti – the sacred girdle worn by Zoroastrians on their waist. To do justice to this complex living tradition, we have divided our Research into three exhibitions.

The First Exhibition Kusti-The Sacred Cord – https://goo.gl/0HSJkz explains the significance of the girdle in Zoroastrian worldview and the ritual ceremony of the Navjote, in which a young Zoroastrian makes an active choice to be a ‘Hamkar’ – the agent of Ahura Mazda in this world.

The Second and Third Exhibition explain the coming together of the extraordinary in the everyday as Spinning the Kusti – https://goo.gl/gRG7eT and Weaving the Kusti – https://goo.gl/ODLZ9b give a detailed explanation of the craft of weaving, where religion, culture and technique blend in making the Sacred cord.

The Exhibitions, we hope, will engage you using photographs, video and textual descriptions. We would be most happy to see your further interest in knowing about the Kusti, for which we may kindly recommend our book titled Threads of Continuity available for ordering on Parzor’s website www.unescoparzor.com .

Lastly, we also share a Fourth exhibition – Jamshed-i-Navroze – https://goo.gl/0bsblW , way in advance of March 2016, hoping that it tempts you to turn up for the Everlasting Flame Programme 2016.

Warm Regards,

Dr. Shernaz Cama

Director UNESCO Parzor

Parzor Foundation

The Everlasting Flame Programme

The International Everlasting Flame Programme is to be held, from 19th March to 29th May 2016, by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, MOMA, in collaboration with Parzor Foundation and the Culture Ministry of India. We are deeply grateful to the Government of India particularly MOMA for enabling the largest ever Festival of the Zoroastrians in the world. UNESCO has gladly endorsed the project.

This Programme will include three exhibitions, namely “The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination”, “Painted Encounters — Parsi Traders and the Community”, and “Threads of Continuity, at the National Museum, NGMA and IGNCA, Delhi.
The following is a brief overview of the events planned.

Opening Event at Vigyan Bhavan, Forenoon, on 19th March 2016, by Invitation only. All Conference Speakers will be invited.

Programme

• Penaz Masani, Ghazal Singer, singing Parsi prayer song (Monajat) 3 minutes.
• Parzor-Google Film Experience: 10 minutes.
• Inauguration of National Museum exhibition Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination, 4pm on 19th March.
• Inauguration of NGMA exhibition “Painted Encounters — Parsi Traders and the Community” on 20th March.
• Inauguration of Threads of Continuity at IGNCA at 11am on 21st March by Minister of Minority Affairs.
• All Cultural Programmes are courtesy Parzor Platinum Sponsor, Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, who is also the Host subsidizing The Navroze Festival and Feast.
• Navroze celebrations on 21st March, begin from 4pm, with Navroze Tables from India and Central Asian Countries who are partners of the UNESCO Parzor ICH (Intangible Cultural Heritage) Programme.

On 21st March the Parzor Programme at IGNCA will include:

• Bringing in the New Year, 4 pm – with Traditional Navroze Tables.
• Dance performance by renowned Artiste Astaad Deboo.
• Parsi Feast hosted by Platinum Sponsor at IGNCA Lawns. Sponsored tickets will be available. All Delhi Parsi Anjuman Members will be provided a special rate.
• A two-day Academic Conference, Zoroastrianism in the New Millennium, MoMA- Parzor-NMI collaboration on the 22nd and 23rd March.

This will bring together academicians and audience from East and West sharing views with Panel discussions on 22nd and 23rd March.

Workshops, Cultural Performances, and a Film Festival will run through the period of the Programme to reiterate the support India has always provided to a micro-minority.

Glimpses into the Programme:

• A Puppet Theatre Performance by Ishara Founder, Dadi Pudumjee ( Early April).
• Yazdi Karanjia’s Troupe from Surat gives a Parsi Theatre Performance (Early April).
• Fashion Show by India’s famous Designer, Wendell Rodericks and our own Parzor Member Ashdeeen Z. Lilaowala on Zoroastrian themes and symbols. (Early April).
• Google – Parzor Art Talks coming for the first time to India. (April to end May).
• To Participate and get further details please contact Kritika Mudgal or Vanshika Singh, Parzor at mudgal.kritika@gmail.com and vanshikaa.singh91@gmail.com .
• Conservation Workshop at National Museum with participants from INTACH and Meherjirana Library, Navsari, etc. For bookings of Organizations please contact Joyoti Roy at museumreforms@gmail.com , nationalmuseumoutreach@gmail.com or Ruchira at ruchira.verma86@gmail.com.
• Stained Glass Workshop by Katayun Saklat of Calcutta. Two paid sessions with a Certificate of Participation to be awarded. (25th March to 30th March and 1st to 5th April). For enrollment contact Kritika Mudgal.
• Shahnameh Exhibition for one week with display of models by Silloo P. Mehta of USA. (End March to 7th April )
• Film Festival: Inaugural Session on 23rd March at IIC, India International Centre with David Adams Screening and discussing his 11 hour Epic ‘Alexander’s Lost Kingdom’.
• Film Festival from 1st April to 20th May. Chaired by Shernaz Italia and Dushyant Mehta to run every Friday for 8 weeks along with Photographic Exhibition by and on the community. It will screen both Classics of Zoroastrian Cinema while a Competition, to be announced shortly, will encourage young Film Makers and photographers. Contact Mahtabb Irani for details at mahtabb@gmail.com.
• Puppetry Workshop, Dadi Pudumjee and Ishara. IGNCA. Contact Kritika and Vanshika for Registration.
• SOAS Centenary Day. Further details will be available shortly.
• Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune Centenary Day with Public Programme explaining the importance of this great institution for Oriental Research, its Collections and contributions. (May ) Further details will be available shortly. (May)
• CDAC Day, (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Pune) Modern Technology preserving Heritage, texts in ancient languages, and Cultural revival (Avestan, Sanskrit etc.) ( May).
• Toran and Kusti Weaving Workshops. IGNCA. Participation and Registration on first come first served basis. (April).
• Learning Parsi Embroidery from the Masters. IGNCA. Participation and Registration on first come first served basis. (April).
• Iranian Choir Performance. (To be confirmed).
• Regular Evening Presentations every week on aspects ranging from Zoroastrian Seminary Training of Young Priests to Book discussions etc.
• Planned Tours for Children with Trained Professionals.
• Friday Muskil-e-Asan participative Story Telling at IGNCA.
• Parsi and Irani Food Courts at all Venues.
• Books and Craft and Audio Visual material available at stalls in all Venues. Specially commissioned illustrated story books on sale at unbelievable prices.
• Reading Section at IGNCA as well as Film Screening on loops.
• Bookings and Stays can be arranged at Central locations; the Delhi Parsi Anjuman Guest House, IIC, IHC, Delhi Gymkhana Club, USI Club and Home Stays at Parsi Residences. Please contact Vanshika and Kritika.

The Government of India and UNESCO have only ONE request.

That the Everlasting Flame Programme attracts Zoroastrians from every part of the world and makes them understand the need to foster their civilizational heritage.

We need YOUR HELP:

• To bring Trains from Gujarat villages with School Children and Youth.
• Youth Associations from each part and each community of India.
• Parsi Schools of Bombay and Gujarat.
• Encourage all those from India, Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Central Asia as well as the Zoroastrian Diaspora in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK, US, Canada and Europe to participate in large numbers.
• The EFP has been created with a Long Term Aim of Fostering Educational, Cultural and Social Links between Zoroastrians and all those interested in The Heritage of Humanity.

THANK YOU AND USHTA TE

The post The International Everlasting Flame Programme India 2016 appeared on Parsi Khabar.

“There was a time,” says Adi Nariman Mogrelia wryly, “when most of the divorces were caused by triangles.”

“I mean there was another man or woman in the picture. Now it is different. The media, novels, TV, these things have made women more aware of their rights. So we are now seeing more divorces in my community.”

Article by Soutik Biswas | BBC

Mr Mogrelia knows a thing about marriages and divorces. For more than three-and-a-half decades, the amiable and agile 75-year-old retired Parsi salesman has been serving as a juror, ruling on matrimonial disputes in the community. He’s part of a 150-year-old tradition where a jury of co-religionists decides matrimonial disputes in the fast-dwindling, but influential, community.

Five-member juries, usually comprising retired men and women, spend six hours in the Bombay high court for up to 10 days during a single session, granting or refusing divorces to disaffected Parsi couples. They are drawn from a pool of 20 jurors nominated for a decade by the community council.

The presiding judge picks up the five members through a draw of lots, although the lawyers for the plaintiff and the defendant can veto the juror, citing familiarity with the client. In the court room, the jurors, armed with the case papers, sit in a separate enclosure, listen to the proceedings and convey their verdict to the judge.

Unique courts

The jurors – retired bank officers, teachers, doctors, policemen, insurance agents, salesmen – get a daily travel and lunch allowance of 500 rupees ($7.57; £4.93) from the council for attending the court. The Mumbai court usually sits a few times a year – the last session in July was the third this year and heard 26 cases of divorces over 10 days. There’s a considerable backlog of cases.

India abolished jury trials in 1959 after the Bombay high court overturned a jury verdict in a sensational murder of a man by a naval officer. “The Parsi matrimonial courts are unique in India – no other body of personal law uses a jury,” says US-based legal historian Mitra Sharafi, who has written a book on Parsi legal culture.

Prof Sharafi says that in the early days, the nine-member jury, aged between 21 and 60, comprised “almost exclusively senior Parsi men, drawn from Bombay’s mercantile, professional and intellectual elites”. Remarkably, in a country like India, the plaintiffs were “disproportionately women”. In divorce suits, “female plaintiffs outnumbered male by a factor of two to three”. Many of these women were poor and working-class, and they usually won their suits.

Things may not have changed very much after a century and a half.

“Half of the divorce cases these days are initiated by the women,” says Mr Mogrelia. “They have become more assertive. But one of my memorable cases was when a man said he wanted out of a marriage because of mental cruelty by his wife. He said his wife nagged him too much, and that he couldn’t concentrate on his work. We granted divorce.”

The jurors recount some of the more memorable cases: divorces granted to women because the husband was not taking the family on a vacation, not giving time to his wife, was too obsessive, and in one case, was too religious, praying at some two dozen community temples every day. “I remember the judge explained to the husband that he could pray at home or stick to a single temple. There was no need for excess. The man agreed and we didn’t have to give them a divorce, ” says Jasmine Bastani, a cheerful 65-year-old retired bank officer who has served on the jury for more than a decade.

‘Westernised community’

Adultery, bigamy and desertion were some of the major reasons for divorce in the early days. “But now lack of compatibility with the spouse is becoming common. It’s the women who have become more confident, well-read and independent,” says Ms Bastani.

Harvard University historian Dinyar Patel, who is a Parsi himself, says that being a “very Westernised community from early in the last century, we popularly adopted Western notions of love marriage, and this of course raises the bar in what we expect out of a marriage”.

“In the past few decades, we seem to have adopted a far more casual attitude towards marriage itself. A few years ago, a young Parsi woman told me very matter-of-factly that she and her husband had ‘grown apart’ and that she had therefore filed for divorce. This took me aback because I’d never heard this from a Parsi before – prior to this, I’d only heard of far more serious infractions, such as infidelity, as grounds for divorce. I think a lot more Parsis are willing to call it quits than try to repair their marriages,” says Mr Patel.

India’s Parsis are a unique community – there are an estimated 70,000 of them, mostly in the city of Mumbai. They possibly have the highest average age of marriage in India, and one of the lowest rates of marriage and childbirth in the world. For every Parsi born, three die.

Cultural differences

Also, in a space-starved and expensive Mumbai, housing is a problem – most Parsis live in subsidised council homes in 18 designated colonies.

The council has built some 4,500 apartments which provide cheap housing to married Parsi couples who earn less than 80,000 rupees ($1,210; £788) a month. Some 500 couples are waiting for free housing – living in joint families often leads to marital strife. The community is dispersed and spouses are often unwilling to relocate. Also, increasingly Parsis are marrying out of the community – some 40% in Mumbai and higher elsewhere – and that is leading to cultural differences and tension between the couple.

The Parsi matrimonial courts have come under criticism. The main one is that Parsis wanting a divorce have to just wait longer than others because the courts convene only a few times every year.

“But on the whole it serves the community well. The jurors are pragmatic and do not prolong the agony of couples,” says Armaity Khushrushahi, a Parsi lawyer. Also, as a character in a novel by Indo-Canadian writer Rohinton Mistry – himself a Parsi from Mumbai – quips: “No use washing Parsi linen in public.”

The post Parsi matrimonial courts: India’s only surviving jury trials appeared on Parsi Khabar.

Regular readers of Parsi Khabar will remember Noshir Mistry and his amazing video motorcycling in Ladakh.

This month Nosh and his dad are on an epic motorcycle ride through North India, on two different motorcycles. Below is his first post.

Nosh writes

I was born in the Indian state of Bihar. Today it is one of the poorest states in India, yet in terms of a concentration of mineral resources is one of the richest in the world.

It is a state that saw the birth of ‘The Buddha’ where he travelled by foot delivering his sermons and teachings. It was also home to The Nalanda University in the 6th century BC which was the centre of world learning at its time. The town I was born in was Jamshedpur. It is where the famous Tata family built India’s first Iron and steel plant. Today they have journeyed worldwide to own brands like Landrover, Jaguar, Tetleys and many more.

Keen to understand how and why these seeming contradictions coexist in the same state, I undertook frequent motorbike trips with my father for outings into the surrounding villages to photograph life as it existed. The seeds were sown. These trips were on a 1956 Norton dominator motorbike which was also the family vehicle where I would ride on the fuel tank at the front, followed by my father riding the bike, my mother sitting sideways with my sister on her lap. Being India, ofcourse none of us wore helmets. Even a commute was an adventure. Once I learned to ride my bicycle at 4, my father encouraged and allowed me to steer the bike for short periods when the roads were clear. Weekend trips into nature were a highlight and we would happily wash the family mule in exchange for a ride. Watching the Smiths Chronometer jump from 40 to 65 miles an hour under acceleration and feel the literal wind on our faces was exhilarating, until a bug splattered against your face. Relative velocity is a powerful force.

In 1995, my father and I rode across India on a restored 1956 Triumph speed twin. The old technology was reliable, but had its glitches. On our first attempt, we had to push the bike back only a few km from home, the engine had semi-seized. Back to the garage, engine opened and examined, a faulty oil pressure spring was to blame. That fixed, we ran the bike stationary with pedestal fans pointing at the air cooled engine. 3 days later, we were off. 1800 km across India, trying to read a flapping paper map at 90 kmph, dodging dogs, cattle, traffic, people and even birds, finding and asking our way across innumerable villages and towns in India – probably the best way to make contact with locals who had no idea of left from right – we had crossed India from the right to the left.

20 years later it is now 2015. Dad has turned 70 this year and we are both travelling on our own motorbikes into the Himalayas for over 7 weeks. Just mates doing something we have both always wanted to do. We will be covering over 5000 km and I will also be taking part in the world’s highest motorsport event – The Raid de Himalaya – a 6 day – 2000 km rally across the Himalayas. Not on heavy old British bikes which ooze character, we have chosen smaller bikes. Dad a 160cc Honda and me a Yamaha WR250R. Perhaps the right bike for me as Yama means Mountain and Ha means leaf in Japanese. The logo for Yamaha – 3 tuning forks – comes from the heritage of its origins in making musical instruments. Ironically the first instrument was harshly criticized for its poor tuning. Undaunted, and starting from zero, its founder Torakusu Yamaha began his journey studying music theory and tuning. After four months of seemingly endless struggles from early morning to late at night, he was finally able to complete the organ. It is easy to see how he came up with the concept of the tuning fork mark.

I will then be riding across from the North of India towards the East. My wife joins me here and we ride into Mynmar, entering Thailand where our 10 year old daughter joins us, then through to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and finally Singapore from where I will ship my bike to Darwin and ride back to Sydney. I will still be using paper maps and asking for directions for the most part, but unlike riding on the fuel tank from days of old, I will be on a seat and also have my helmet on.

In Basho’s haiku – Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.

From trying to understand life and its challenges to simply observing and accepting things in their entirety, on my travels, I follow a simple code – say ‘Yes’ to everything. It is a time to leave your old self aside. You are in a new environment, with new people, in new places, interacting with new cultures, engaging new ways of thinking, why experience it in an old way? Why not drop yourself and explore where it leads to.

We want our ventures and adventures to be life changing? Yet we want that change to be predictable, we hanker for that change to be predictable. Change by its very nature is unpredictable. Life with its everyday intricacies is every changing. We want to be renewed without losing our old selves. Is that even possible? Rephrasing Basho, Life is a journey and the journey is life. As we all know – motorbikes move the body and sometimes the soul. In my experience, the greatest ‘outward’ journeys are the ones which take you deepest ‘inwards’.

I would love to share this adventure here. The journey starts 5th September.

You can continue reading and follow the journey on ADVRider

The post An adventure 40 years in the making: Noshir Mistry appeared on Parsi Khabar.

A 35-foot road has been planned along the stretch that has the sanatorium

A 90-year-old structure which is part of the Parsi heritage in the city is in the middle of a raging controversy. Located on the Sabarmati Riverfront, the Parsi Sanatorium Compound is likely to be destroyed if the civic body implements its revised city development plan. As per Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority’s Second Revised Draft Development Plan 2021, a 35-foot road has been planned as part of the road alignment scheme in the area. It is likely to pass through the sanatorium premises for which the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation will be required to demolish the structure.

Article by Kruti Naik | Ahmedabad Mirror

The Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat has received a notice from AMC and plans to take legal recourse in the matter. Built in 1920, the Parsi Sanatorium Compound houses the sanatorium itself, part of which is used as a dharamshala. “The compound also has four residential blocks, known as ‘charity blocks’,” said Brigadier Jahangir Anklesaria, president of the Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat. As of now, 18 families reside in these blocks. The Parsi Panchayat constructs and allots heavily subsided or free charity flats to poor and middle-class Parsis as per their income.

“The Second Revised Draft Development Plan 2021 has included several new projects, including a Central Business District (CBD), a Transit-Oriented Zone and Residential Affordable Housing Zone for which the Local Area Plans are already underway. As part of the CBD’s road alignment scheme, a 35-foot road has been planned along the area that has the sanatorium. This will affect the charity blocks as well as the main buildings as AMC will need to demolish the buildings to construct the road,” said Anklesaria. The Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat reportedly received a notice from the AMC regarding the matter in June.

“We approached AMC officials for clarity, and were told that the local body has sent a proposal to the state government. So we are waiting for the state to respond to this proposal,” said the brigadier, who said the community is willing to take legal recourse to fight for their heritage structure. Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Urban Planning) Ranjit Barad told Mirror, “This is just the proposed plan which is yet to be approved by the government. As per the new rules, Floor Space Index (FSI) proposed for CBD is 5.4 so a high-rise building will be constructed in the area if it is approved by the government. If a community’s property falls in the selected area, then the civic body will negotiate with them.”

Caught in this tussle, meanwhile, are the 18 families that live in the charity blocks. A resident, on condition of anonymity, told Mirror, “We’ve been living here for 30 years now. It will be extremely painful if the AMC takes away this land and razes the buildings for a new road. The land is owned by the Parsi Panchayat and we are sure they try their best to save this plot.” Meanwhile, the Parsi Panchayat is in talks with AMC as they have sought land near the Sanatorium Compound for Vakil Adariyan Agiyari fire temple. At present, the fire temple is located in Bukhara Mohalla at Khamasa Crossroads in the Walled City. As per Anklesaria, the encroachments on the premises have made it tough for community members to visit the temple. “We want to shift out the agiyari at the earliest. We have written to the state government and AMC to provide us land where we can shift the temple but are yet to hear from them,” he said.

The post Ahmedabad Parsi Sanatorium Likely to be Destroyed appeared on Parsi Khabar.