In India, an ancient religion known as Zoroastrianism is under threat. There are fewer than 60,000 believers in the country and their numbers are projected to fall further. The UN says this is alarming and warns of an “extinction in the not too distant future”. Could matchmaking Zoroastrian couples and having more children help keep this 3000-year-old religion alive in India?
Article by Kunal Gaurav | Hindustan Times
Serum Institute of India (SII) chief executive Adar Poonawalla on Friday urged US President Joe Biden to lift the export ban on critical raw materials required for the production of vaccines against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). The United States in February invoked the Defense Production Act, which gives the power to control the distribution of products, to curb the export of raw materials critical for vaccine production.
“Respected @POTUS, if we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the U.S., I humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the U.S. so that vaccine production can ramp up. Your administration has the details,” tweeted Poonawalla, adding a ‘folded hands’ emoji at the end
Why did the US block the export of critical raw materials?
In November last year, American pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. cut short its vaccine production target by half, citing a shortage of raw material. Pfizer, which is producing mRNA Covid-19 vaccines, had earlier planned to roll out over 1.2 billion shots in 2021 but reduced the target by half due to raw material shortage in the United States and Europe.
The revised target was a major hindrance to Biden’s poll promise of administering 100 million vaccination shots in his first 100 days in office. The US government has purchased 600 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from both Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc., which will be delivered in regular increments through the end of July 2021. In order to accelerate vaccine production, the Biden administration decided to invoke the Defense Production Act for the short term.
“We’ll continue to use the Defense Production Act to expedite critical materials in vaccine production, such as equipment, machinery, and supplies,” Biden had said.
What are those critical raw materials?
Respected @POTUS, if we are to truly unite in beating this virus, on behalf of the vaccine industry outside the U.S., I humbly request you to lift the embargo of raw material exports out of the U.S. so that vaccine production can ramp up. Your administration has the details.
— Adar Poonawalla (@adarpoonawalla) April 16, 2021
The long list of raw materials that SII imports from the US include filters, bags, and adjuvant. Large, sterile plastic bags are used to grow vaccine cells. An adjuvant is a substance that is used to increase the efficacy of a vaccine and helps the immune system generate antibodies.
While vaccine manufacturers can establish a fresh supply chain for raw materials like filters and sterile plastic bags, the disruption in the supply of adjuvant could hamper production for a longer period. Authorised vaccines are made with a certain adjuvant and any change in the vendor of that adjuvant would lead to fresh clinical trials and approvals.
“Developing new suppliers in the eleventh hour will take a bit of time. We will do that. We will not be dependent on the US after six months. The problem is we need it now,” Adar Poonawalla was quoted by India Today as saying.
LET’S START THIS story with the one question everyone asks. How many Parsis are there in India?
The answer is likely to be anything between 50,000 and 60,000. No one knows for sure. Ask the Parsis. They will claim 60,000. Ask the demographers. They are more likely to say anything between 45,000 and 50,000.
Article by Pritish Nandy | The OPEN Magazine
In either case, you would imagine such a tiny number being lost among the 1.38 billion Indians today. But no, the Parsis have remained a distinct minority who appear to have excelled in their many endeavours, business or otherwise. One got the Bharat Ratna. Eleven got the Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award. One was India’s first field marshal, one among only two we have had. Another is the father of India’s nuclear programme. One was India’s ambassador to the US; another, attorney general. Rather surprising for a community this small in number.
Between the 2001 and 2011 Censuses, the number of Parsis fell from 69,000 to 57,264. Demographic trends projected that by this year, their population would be down to 23,000. The Parsis have proved that projection wrong but their numbers keep shrinking and, today, a third of them are over 60. Most live in the city of Mumbai, not far from the Gujarat coast where they first landed between the 8th and 10th centuries CE to escape persecution after the Muslim conquest of Persia between 633 and 654CE.
Zoroastrianism was the dominant religion of Persia at the time, or so say historians. The Sasanian Empire ruled there and, to retain their faith after these conquests, many escaped. They initially settled at Hormuz on the Persian Gulf but found it still risky. They then set sail for India, where they first settled in Diu in Kathiawar but soon moved to South Gujarat where they remained for about 800 years as a small agricultural community worshipping Ahura Mazda, Avestan for The Wise Lord.
The French monk Jordanus was the first to write about them in 1322, referring to their presence in Thane and Bharuch. Many foreign travellers to India did so as well. Including the Portuguese physician Garcia de Orta who referred to them as Esparcis, a merchant community. But Herodotus and Xenophon, the two great historians of the 3rd and 4th centuries BCE had already coined the term Parsis by then.
The important thing to remember is that the Parsis are not to be confused with the Iranis, who fled Persia much later, in the 19th and 20th centuries. They are also Zoroastrians. But culturally, linguistically, ethnically and socially very distinct from the Parsis. They are known for the hundreds of Irani cafés that once dotted the city of Bombay, famous for their affordable and distinct cuisine and of course their legendary patisseries.
After the Supreme Court’s verdict, Ratan Tata will now live out his retirement years knowing that his reputation—and the group’s— remain intact
Trade and commerce eventually became the hallmark of the Parsi community. And when Emperor Jehangir signed a trade treaty with James I of England, the East India Company obtained the exclusive rights to reside and build factories in Surat and neighbouring areas. That was when the Parsis started working with (and, on occasion, for) the British and in 1668 when the Company leased the Seven Islands of Bombay from Charles II of England, they moved there, to build the new settlement and occupy positions of power and trust.
They rose speedily to become one of Asia’s most successful mercantile communities. By mid-18th century the brokerage houses of the Bombay Presidency were mostly in Parsi hands. They were the principal merchants and ship owners, and were held in high esteem by the British. Trade between India and China was largely in their hands. Timber, silk, cotton, tea and, yes, of course opium. Vast quantities of opium, say historians, were traded at that time bringing in large sums of money.
And that is when they got land. Precious land that many Parsi families are still large holders of.
Bombay became their main centre of enterprise. Their sharp business acumen and philanthropy was the stuff of legend. By the 19th century, there were 85,000 Parsis in India, of whom 48,507 lived in Bombay itself, constituting 6.7 per cent of the city’s population. They were in the vanguard of progress, had amassed large fortunes, and given away large sums in charity. Most of the trusts and charities of that time were set up by them.
The 40 feet tall, mid-19th century, cast-iron statue of the Khada Parsi, which towers over Byculla today in mid-town Mumbai, stands as a tribute to that spirit of enterprise.
Over the years, the tiny community produced some of the biggest figures in Indian history and politics. Particularly during the early years of the freedom struggle. They founded many businesses which still exist and are prospering. In more recent times, there was Sam Manekshaw, the first field marshal of the Indian armed forces. Zubin Mehta, who has conducted the world’s most famous symphony orchestras and is music director emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic as well as the conductor emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Famous nuclear physicist Homi Bhabha founded the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Freddie Mercury, legendary rock star and lead singer of Queen. Rohinton Mistry, the celebrated Canadian writer of Indian origin. And currently, the man in the news: Adar Poonawalla of the Serum Institute, the world’s biggest vaccine maker.
The Indian Parliament has had several Parsis, including Piloo Mody and Minoo Masani who were the founding fathers of the Swatantra Party, India’s first secular rightwing party. Feroze Gandhi, also a parliamentarian, married Indira Gandhi and was the father of Rajiv and Sanjay. JRD Tata, a Bharat Ratna, founded Air India and was a legend of corporate India, mentor of Ratan Tata, the current doyen of the Tata Group and one of the 11 Padma Vibhushans the community has had since Independence.
The salt-to-software Tata Group is today India’s largest business house with a market capitalisation of Rs 17 lakh crore which surged by 42 per cent during the past year, in the midst of the raging pandemic. Over 150 years old, it is the country’s largest promoter of listed companies and is owned 66 per cent by Tata Trusts, a clutch of philanthropic bodies, with 83-year-old Ratan Tata as its guiding light. He had joined the group in 1961 as a young intern in the Tata Steel factory at Jamshedpur in Bihar, a 224-square kilometre township named after Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, the founder of the Tata Group and a Parsi icon of the colonial era.
RATAN TATA LED the group as chairman of Tata Sons for two decades before stepping down in 2012. His successor was appointed by the board: Cyrus Mistry, a 44-year-old Irish businessman of Indian origin, also a Parsi. Mistry belonged to the Shapoorji Pallonji family which had an 18 per cent stake in the group. They were, in effect, the second largest shareholder in Tata Sons.
Mistry’s years in office were not without controversy. Stories kept emerging from Bombay House, the 97-year-old global headquarters of the group, a neoclassical Edwardian structure designed by the legendary Scottish architect George Wittet, who also built the Gateway of India and the Prince of Wales Museum, of new coteries, new power centres that were being formed and old satraps being sidelined. New lines of business were secretly planned. Reports of old businesses being shut down were often in the news. Also in the news were stories about how Mistry was secretly planning to take the group out of its conservative, traditional mould and give it a new identity.
Now identity politics has been a big thing in the group ever since Ratan Tata took charge of the huge conglomerate with its many disparate businesses and gave it a decisive new corporate identity in the late eighties and early nineties. Brand Tata was then created with its new logo that the best group companies could use after paying a royalty that went into the kitty that built and sustained the brand. It was a unique idea, entirely Ratan Tata’s, but created a lot of internal controversy. It also took the Tata brand spiralling to new heights. To get an idea of what impact this strategy had, one must note that last year the brand was valued at $20 billion, which makes it India’s most valuable brand. To tamper with that key asset seemed like sacrilege to most insiders.
This, and other decisions, including ruling by coterie lost Mistry the support of many colleagues and four years later, in October 2016, the board of Tata Sons decided enough was enough and it was time to let Mistry go. On the ground that they had lost confidence in his ability to lead the group. They offered him an opportunity to resign voluntarily. An offer Mistry spurned.
In more recent times, there was Sam Manekshaw, India’s first Field Marshal. Zubin Mehta, who has conducted the world’s most famous symphony orchestras. Nuclear physicist Homi Bhabha. Freddie Mercury, legendary rock star. Rohinton Mistry, the celebrated Canadian writer of Indian origin. And the man in the news: Adar Poonawalla of Serum Institute
Reports say that Nusli Wadia, another Parsi, who in the eighties had fought a long and bitter battle against the Ambanis, who vie with the Tatas for the top slot in Indian business, lent support to Mistry. But the board was firm in its view that Mistry must step down. The Tatas requested the former chairman, Ratan Tata, to return as interim chairman till a successor to Mistry was found. Natarajan Chandrasekaran, who was the head of Tata Consultancy Services (market capitalisation: $170 billion, the world’s most valuable IT company) was named as the new chairman a few months later.
This led to a corporate battle the likes of which neither the tiny Parsi community, nor India’s business fraternity for that matter, had seen before.
While the Tatas claimed they had every right to dismiss an officer they had lost confidence in, Mistry claimed he was targeted in a purge because he wanted to make changes that would have demonstrated the failures of earlier decisions taken, some not in the best interest of the group. The complaints went through a maze of several watchdog bodies, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (best known as the NCLAT) and the courts till, a fortnight back, the Supreme Court of India finally delivered its judgment. A judgment everyone was waiting to hear. It brought the curtains down on the biggest boardroom battle ever fought in India, and possibly the most controversial.
The three-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by the Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde, set aside the December 2019 order of the NCLAT that had reinstated Mistry to his post, rejected the entire cornucopia of Mistry’s charges against the group, and upheld the decision of the Tata board to remove him. But not before he had tried to drag the larger-than-life reputation of the Tatas through the mud and made untenable the group’s second largest shareholder’s continuance.
Statue of the Khada Parsi (Photo: Alamy)
Chairman Emeritus of Tata Trusts, Ratan Tata says it was not a question of winning or losing a case. It was “a validation of the values and ethics that have always been the guiding principles of the group”. Cyrus Mistry claims he would go to bed “with a clear conscience”. Meanwhile, the Tata companies in the stock market got a rousing welcome to the verdict, and Ratan Tata will now live out his retirement years knowing that his reputation—and the group’s—remain intact.
As an analyst pointed out, the Mistry family’s investment, dating back to 1965, works out to under $50 million. It got them over 18 per cent of an empire worth, in today’s terms, $230 billion in the stock markets. But now that the court has upheld the change in Tata Sons’ charter to a private company, the Mistry family’s ability to freely monetise its shareholding is likely to be truncated.
The 40 feet tall, mid-19th century, cast-iron statue of the Khada Parsi, which towers over Byculla, stands as a tribute to the spirit of Parsi enterprise
The Tatas have reportedly generously agreed to buy them out, but only at a fair price. What that fair price will be is anybody’s guess. The Tatas have, say some insiders, offered around Rs 80,000 crore. The Mistry family has demanded more than double that amount. But then, the truth is the Shapoorji Pallonji group is facing what reporters describe as a severe cash crunch which diminishes their negotiating power. And the Tatas need to end the battle and to get back to work. The Supreme Court has clearly stated their work is done. They have no role to play in these negotiations.
The two groups will have to sort this matter out between themselves. After all, it is now only a question of money and India’s tiniest community has never been short on that. Not during the British era. Nor in independent India, where their companies continue to play a major role in the growth of the Indian economy. And the tradition-driven Tata Group, stodgy as it may well appear to be to many, has also changed with the times. This boardroom battle was fought hard and won. And perhaps more important, it sets new norms in the workplace.
While peace reigns once again in Bombay House and a new chairman of Tata Sons, 57-year-old Natarajan Chandrasekaran has occupied the corner office, the concern that remains is whether the Parsi ethic that saw it through 153 years of growth and consolidation will continue to inspire the new leadership into the future. Or will the house that Jamsetji built with an initial capital of Rs 21,000 in 1868, and which the later Tatas—like the legendary JRD and his successor Ratan Tata—steered so artfully into the new era continue to retain the values it was once so famous for? The old Parsi baugs of Bombay are abuzz over this, as the world around them changes.
Cyrus may have gone. But without the Tatas, will the Tatas remain the same?
Over two decades ago, a journey that started in a living room, has now offered help and growth to more than 1000 lives in the form of a support group for families and children with special needs — Special Families Support (SFS).
Article by Hussein Rizvi | Khaleej Times
Led by Gulshan Kavarana, a Dubai resident for the last 24 years, SFS was formed in 1999 to support people of determination that also require medical and educational support. It is a free-to-join support group that now has chapters in Bahrain as well as Mumbai.
SFS’s inception dates back to the time when Kavarana’s younger daughter, Zara was diagnosed with epilepsy. Kavarana, who volunteered at Dubai Center for Special Needs at that time, was recommended to join a support group. However, having no luck in finding a support group, Kavarana created her own. Now, she runs SFS alongside an old friend, Hanifa Saleem.
The group’s first meet comprised of six families in Kavarana’s apartment. In a conversation with City Times, Kavarana describes the first-ever SFS meet as a powerful moment. “It was truly overwhelming listening to all their stories and knowing that we were not alone on this journey,” she said.
SFS continued to expand with more and more families joining the support group. It also became a hub for various activities for specially-abled people. Kavarana organised summer camps and roped in volunteers from different schools and universities, who even brought a friend or a sibling along at the camps.
The families started to gather on a regular basis and organising such meets posed a challenge for Kavarana. “Those were days without the ease of the internet and WhatsApp,” Kavarana said, adding that she used to phone each of the families and invite them. “These calls were long as the mothers, fathers, sometimes even grandmothers, and siblings would want to share their feelings.”
However, in 2020, SFS was struck with another challenge in a world haunted by the novel coronavirus. The pandemic left the special needs community completely isolated. That is when Kavarana, along with Saleem and other volunteers, came together to entertain people of determination amid the virus threats. The group organised Zoom meetings with celebrities like Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani, and many more to interact with families of those with special needs.
Recently, veteran Bollywood actor Jackie Shroff took part in a Zoom session to interact with such families. Shroff, who is known for movies like Hero, Ram Lakhan, and King Uncle, interacted with the kids in his own eccentric style. The families sang famous songs from his films like Tera Naam Liya with Jackie himself humming along with the participants. At the end of the session, Shroff felt “blessed” to have interacted with people of determination.
Now, Kavarana, 57, looks back at all the years of making a difference among families of the specially-abled. “We have seen miracles happen, we have seen them grow into beautiful humans beings,” she said, adding that children and adults with special needs truly are our “master teachers”.
Before signing off, Kavarana pays homage to all those who helped her in the 21-year journey. “We would be nothing without the support of my husband, Zeheer, my daughter, Jenai, and our sponsors,” she said, adding that without their generosity and kindness, SFS would not be able to reach where it is today: a part of so many lives, in so many countries.
Our dear friend Meher Amalsad shares a video about a new technological innovation called The Gatha Pen. This is developed by Mobedyar Dr. Rashin Jahangiri
Photos Taken By: Homayoon Mehrzad, Iran
Mobedyar Jahangiri has devoted her time in recording the 5-Gathas in accordance with the Avestan Script and in the production of a Gatha Speaking Pen.
See The Video Demo That Is Attached Below.
Dr. Rashin Jahangiri, MD is hailed for the Authorship and Publication of a 3-volume book titled “Teaching Din-Dabireh Alphabets (Avestan Alphabets)” using advanced techniques.
This book was published in 2015 by the Faravahar Publishers. She also contributed her dedication in the Collaboration for the recording of correct reading of Gatha for the Tehran Council of Zoroastrians.
The Gatha Speaking Pen is a new technical instrument which anyone can listen or learn the correct reading of Gatha based on Din Dabireh, by moving a technical smart pen on the surface of a specific Gatha Page.
Gahani Book Collection and Gahani Smart Pen is a precise, expressive and intelligent self-tutorial for learning to read correctly the poems of Zarathushtra Spantman from the Avestan script.
This collection is based on the rules of rhythms and spelling of the Gathas, which uses the the most efficient technology in the world, helps those interested in learning Avestan script (Din Dabireh) and the accurate and melodic recitation of all the Gathas of Zarathushtra from the Avestan script.
All this can be achieved without the need for a teacher and guide, and only by using the smart pen, which includes the sound of reading all the hymns and with the Persian translation of Moobed Firooz Azargashsab, and also translated back to English (for non-Persian speakers), to easily acquire these skills.
This valuable and very useful collection includes the exquisite book of Gahan in Avestan script with Persian and English translations and the smart pen. By placing the tip of the pen on any verse of the Gatha, the verse will be played with the correct rhythmic voice for the listener.
By placing the tip of the pen on any Avestan word, the pen will play the Avestan word repeatedly and slowly. By placing the tip on the Persian and English translations, the pen will play the sound with a pleasant voice for the listener.
The smart pen is also able to record and play the learners’ voice, thus comparing the learners’ voice with the original reading, helping the learner to correct his/her misreading.
Also, this pen will be able to provide other languages related to religious and ancient Zoroastrian texts and writings and read them correctly for those who are interested and those in charge of educational affairs, after preparing new content and by storing audio related information.
The set is housed in a specially designed leather case, and the other components of the set, namely the pen manual, charger and hands-free device for the pen, are also embedded in it.
She is scheduled to be a Featured Speaker for the BaHumata Webinar on May 2, 2021.
titled THE SPIRIT OF ZARATHUSHTRA:AATASH PUTHRA AHURA MAZDA
An Ode To Energy, Light and Life (Atash Niyayesh And Related Prayers)
On Sunday, May 2, 2021
8:00 AM Pacific Time, 11:00 AM Eastern Time, 7:00 PM United Arab Emirates Time, 7:30 PM Iran Time, 8:30 PM Indian Time, 3:00 PM GMT,
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83408826220
Meeting ID: 834 0882 6220
Passcode: BAHUMATA
In a landmark study, a team of international researchers with unrestricted access to local populations and fossilized genetic material in Iran, led by scientists from the University of Cologne (Germany) and the University of Sydney (Australia), identified the genetic profile of the Iranian people and their genetic relationship with one another and the neighboring populations.
Article by Jr Rezvani | Afterwords
The research studied major (Persians, Azerbaijanis, and Kurds) and minor (Arabs, Balochis, and Persian Gulf Islanders) Iranian ethnic groups and 800 excavated fossilized specimens from individuals who lived in the Central Iranian region thousands of years ago.
Iranian populations are clustered with 4 separate groups: European, Turkic, Semitic, and South Asian (Pakistani)
The primary findings of the genome study: Iranian Persians and Kurds exhibit high in-group genetic variation which is larger than that of Germans in Western Europe. However, the entire gene pool has remained largely unchanged over the past 10,000 years.
Tuscans (TSI) share a substantial proportion of ancestry with Iranians, particularly those from the CIC. Explicit modeling of 0–15 migration events clearly shows the robustness of the close clustering of all Iranian groups, with Europeans always closest to the major Iranian groups (Persian, Kurd, and Azerbaijani).
Iranian Kurds have strong genetic overlap with Persians indicating a common background & little admixture. Persian Gulf Islanders repeatedly received an influx of groups from outside Iran. This is consistent with historical reports of ongoing sea trade over the past millennia.
Central Iranian Cluster (Persians) and North West cluster (Azerbaijanis) are genetically closer to Europeans than they’re to Balochis and PG Islanders. North East clusters (Turkmen) are closer to Turkic Central Asians than to CIC Iranians.
South Western clusters (Iranian Arabs and PG Islanders) are closer to the Semitic group of the Middle East. South Eastern clusters (Balochis) are genetically closer to Pakistani South Asians.
The Persian Zoroastrian exiles in coastal South Asia (Parsi) are genetically more closer to individuals (fossilized) who lived in the Central Iranian region more than 10,000 years ago than Iranians living in the Central Iranian cluster now. This probably makes them the most ancient specimen of Persian people!
Article by Huzan Tata | South China Morning Post
A gara with multicoloured embroidery of Chinese motifs and initials in gold on the border (kor) and front (pallav). Photo: Courtesy of Zenobia Davar
One of the first questions many people ask when meeting a Parsee woman is “How many garas do you own?” The intricately-designed sari is considered the small Indian
community’s traditional dress and has long been admired for its unique handiwork.
There are fewer than 90,000 Parsees remaining across the world, with most living in India after they migrated there in the 7th century following the Islamic conquest of Persia (
Iran). They are known for their contributions in fields from the economy to the arts, and their fabrics are just as significant.
The gara, draped like a Gujarati sari, is considered their pièce de résistance in the world of textiles. But they are more than just yards of cloth – garas are an amalgamation of many cultural worlds woven into one fabric.
A dark green sari with a white floral border from Ashdeen’s Emperor’s Garden Collection. Photo courtesy of Ashdeen Lilaowala
How did this mix come to be? During the early 1800s, Parsee traders frequented the ports of Canton (Guangdong), Hong Kong, Macau and Shanghai to sell Indian cotton, opium and spices in return for Chinese tea, porcelain and silk. Rumour has it that one of these traders asked a Chinese craftsman to embroider six yards of silk cloth for his wife, to fashion as a sari. This was well received and more Parsees started wearing these pieces, which came to be known as garas – the wooden frame within which the weaving is done.
Parsee embroidery style has its roots in Persia, though, and only later absorbed influences from Chinese needlework and designs, as well as Indian and European motifs. “Since Zoroastrianism [the religion Parsees follow] spread right to the borders of China during the Achaemenid Empire till 330BC, there was a lot of intermingling of culture, style, symbol and stitch,” explained Dr Shernaz Cama, director of the Unesco Project for the Preservation and Promotion of Parsee Zoroastrian Culture and Heritage (ParZor).
“With the emergence of the Silk Route, Persians and the Chinese began looking to one another for their wealth of embroidery,” she said. The Chinese chain stitch, along with the satin, long and short stitches, remain popular methods of needlework on garas, originally made from mulberry silk.
When 19th century Parsee traders began returning from China with embroidered silk, the first garas had Chinese motifs like the Divine Fungus, the Endless Knot, roosters, pagodas, foliage and butterflies. Soon, as more women took interest in these garments, they adapted them to their tastes and traditions. Instead of the multicoloured Chinese fabrics, they would ask for embroidery in white and cream on dark colours to match with their sudrehs – a muslin undergarment worn by all Zoroastrians, visible from underneath the sari.
Persian symbols of nature, and Indian motifs like the ‘ambi’ or mango paisley were also added. Plain saris with elaborate borders known as ‘kors’ were designed, or those with embroidery only on the ‘pallav’, the front of the sari. Children’s tunics or ‘jhablas’ and borders for capri-length pantaloons called ‘ijars’ were popular items too.
A 19th century ‘Cheena Cheeni’ gara brought from China for an engagement in a Parsi family. Photo courtesy of Parzor
Ashdeen Lilaowala, a renowned Indian fashion designer who specialises in Parsee embroidery and has worked with the ParZor Project, said he travelled through Iran and China to trace the roots of gara-making and “find a connection between the motifs”.
“During my travels, I discovered that this was a proper trade, with families of Canton whose livelihood ran on this exchange. The women chose designs; the men were involved in the selling. Garas were ultimately an amalgam of Chinese art with Persian influences on a very Indian garment, with sprinkles of a European aesthetic.”
As British influence grew in several spheres of Indian life during colonial times, it made its way onto the gara too – scalloped borders and motifs of baskets, bows and ribbons were incorporated on pieces. While saris that feature figures and scenes of Chinese men and women are known as ‘Cheena-Cheeni’ (the Gujarati term for people from China) garas, the ‘kanda-papeta’ (onions and potatoes) garas have round baubles, giving them their name. The ‘Chakla-Chakli’ gara is dominated by sparrows (chakli) and floral designs.
Every single gara, every single design has a story behind it. It’s ultimately a heritage of humanity, because it merges the best of the East and West Dr Shernaz Cama
“Cranes are one of our popular motifs apart from the ‘Cheena-Cheeni’. A lot of people love florals, so we do detailed chrysanthemums, peonies and roses as well,” said Lilaowala about his brand, Ashdeen.
Mumbai-based designer Zenobia Davar, who has been creating garas for almost two decades, said garas on off-white silks with pastel shades have their own charm apart from those in traditional purple, red and black. “The beauty depends upon the uniqueness of the design, and blend of colours and stitches used … it’s nothing less than painting with a needle.”
One gara can take from three weeks to several months to stitch, depending on the intricacy of the work, with the more detailed ones costing upwards of 80,000 rupees (US$1,o62) due to the skill involved. Many prefer to buy machine-made saris as they are more affordable, but they lose out on the charm and authenticity of a handstitched gara.
While traditional garments are considered family heirlooms today, production declined when many Parsees tore up or gave away their garas in the 1930s and 40s, complaining they were too heavy to wear and maintain.
Handstitched clutch purses with Persian, Chinese and floral motifs. Photo courtesy of Zenobia Davar
“Fashion changed; due to the growing nationalist movement in India, people wanted to wear more khadi, the locally handwoven natural fibre cloth popularised by Mahatma Gandhi, and the affluent gravitated towards French chiffon. That’s when people realised we were losing out on this craft,” explained Cama.
“Since I inherited authentic garas for my wedding, I realised their precious value. If we don’t preserve our inheritance of this rare art in its original form, it will perish forever. So I provide regular work as well as train artisans in this field, creating an awareness about authentic Parsee embroidery,” Davar said.
The handful of designers who create garas have diversified into creating bags, clutches, shawls, tops, and lehengas – the long skirt and crop-top that many Indian women wear for celebrations – using this style. As fancy saris are rarely worn in daily life, these products help to keep up sales and provide artisans with work. “We continue to pay homage to what constitutes a gara – the motifs, stitching and designs – with newer collections and ideas,” said Lilaowala.
As the craft is relatively unknown outside India, its proponents wish to take it to global audiences someday. Said Cama: “I hope more people popularise this art – every single gara, every single design has a story behind it. It’s ultimately a heritage of humanity, because it merges the best of the East and West.”
Huzan Tata is an independent journalist based in Mumbai, India. She writes on arts, culture, books, lifestyle and travel. Her work has been published in National Geographic Traveller India, TimeOut, Travel + Leisure India & South Asia, Verve Magazine, Scroll, and more.
BMC has relocated the century-old Parsi Gate at Marine Drive to make way for the coastal road project. While one pillar of the gate was moved on April 17, the other was moved three days later.
After the coastal road is done, the pillars of Parsi Gate will be relocated 75 metres northwest of the original location, said a BMC official. “All permissions were secured before moving the pillars,”the official said, adding that the pillars and all material have been preserved safely.
Havovi Sukhadwala who had started an online petition to save Parsi Gate said, “Zoroastrians have been paying respects to Avan Yazad (water deity) for over a century at Parsi Gate. Hindus too use this safe access to immerse offerings on Poornima and ashes from Chandanwadi crematorium…” the petition said.
Corporator Harshita Narwekar from the BJP said she had been following up the issue. “…it seems BMC decided to go ahead despite citizens concerns,” she said.
Article by Muhammad Zahid Rifat | Daily Times.
World-renowned Pakistani artist, social crusader and peace activist Jimmy Engineer has said that he is genuinely proud having transformed in colours in a big mural great poet and philosopher Allama Mohammad Iqbal’s collection of Persian poetry “Javid Namah” and regards it as his major artistic achievement.
He said this while talking to this scribe in connection with 83rd death anniversary of great poet and thinker which was observed by the grateful people on April 21, 2021.
Jimmy Engineer said that he has been painting for well over four decades and has so far created hundreds of paintings but he considers transforming big mural into colours.
Allama Iqbal’s Persian poetic collection “Javid Namah” is one of his two major artistic achievements, other being his historical series of Pakistan Movement paintings highlighting Muslims exodus to their new motherland carved out on the world map out of nowhere under inspiring leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah on the basis of concept of a separate homeland for the Muslims of the sub-continent presented by Allama Mohammad Iqbal.
He said that both these major artistic achievements were created with the blessings of Almighty Allah during first decade of his turning into a professional artist and have given him recognition and appreciation, both nationally and internationally, as an imaginative creative artist. Incidentally both these major artistic achievements were created by him while he was still staying in Lahore. He is presently living in Karachi for many years together and busy working there as dedicated and committed creative artist, social worker and peace activist.
Allama Iqbal’s Persian poetic collection ‘Javid Namah’ is one of his two major artistic achievements, other being his historical series of Pakistan Movement paintings, highlighting Muslims exodus to their new motherland carved out on the world map out of nowhere under inspiring leadership of Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah on the basis of concept of a separate homeland for the Muslims of the sub-continent presented by Allama Mohammad Iqbal
Giving more details regarding mural of “Javid Namah”, Jimmy Engineer said that Allama Mohammad Iqbal in one of his letters to his son Javid Iqbal had written that in the first instance, no artist will ever be able to transform “Javid Namah” in colours on the canvass or as a mural and if anyone at all accomplished this then that artist will be attain international fame and reputation. He said that a number of local and foreign artists had tried their hands during life time of great poet and philosopher and even after his demise in April 1938 but had failed to accomplish this challenging task. He emphatically stated that he had undertaken this gigantic task as a challenge to him as a creative and imaginative artist and was able to complete it in one year with the blessings of Almighty Allah.
Jimmy Engineer further said that that he had started working to transform “Javid Namah” into a mural of 10 x 15 feet size on the wall of a room of Dr Javid Iqbal’s newly acquired bungalow on Main Boulevard Gulberg Lahore in 1981 and had completed it one year in 1982 staying throughout this period there.
He said that research scholars on Iqbaliyaat can visit the bungalow of Dr Javid Iqbal, who has since expired couple of years back, with the prior permission of his wife Justice Nasira Javid Iqbal to view the mural of “Javid Namah” which will be greatly helpful in their researches.
In respond to a question about publication of images of “Javid Namah” mural in a book published in October 2012, Jimmy Engineer said that well-known India writer and intellectual Mumtaz Currim had edited and compiled number of articles written by scholars from India and abroad and published these in a book under the title of “Jannat: Paradise in Islamic Art” which was published by Marg Foundation.
One of the article in the book was titled “Javid Namah: Iqbal’s Heavenly Journey” which was written by Syed Khalid Qadri. The said article included images of the big mural of “Javid Namah” created by me, he added.
Jimmy Engineer went on to say that he regarded this as a great honour for himself as well as his loved motherland Pakistan that the images of mural of “Javid Namah” had been published in a book in this manner.
Replying to a question, Jimmy Engineer said that he will be talking about his other major artistic achievement Pakistan Movement paintings some other times as creation of these huge canvasses into colour also make interesting and appreciable reading for people of all ages particularly the younger generations.
The present pandemic has devastated our poor country and anguished its people. There are two reasons for this debacle. The first is the dreaded, deadly coronavirus, which has perhaps mutated and become even more infectious. Equally responsible is the ineptitude and mismanagement of those who govern us and have the responsibility to safeguard our health and welfare.
Article by Dr. Farokh E. Udwadia | The Indian Express
Equally responsible is the ineptitude and mismanagement of those who govern us and have the responsibility to safeguard our health and welfare. (Illustration by C R Sasikumar)
When the infection rate in India had significantly decreased last December and early January of this year, our netas congratulated themselves proclaiming to us and the world their efficiency in controlling the virus. Could they not realise that the second wave of infection was well-nigh inevitable? All countries in Europe, the UK, the Americas, and even developed countries in Asia such as South Korea and Japan, suffered a second wave, some even a third wave, and very often the second wave was worse than the first. Had we anticipated this, we could have buttressed our defences and increased our resources.
Perhaps the powers that be felt that we are God’s chosen country and this could not happen to us. But we are not God’s chosen country for more than one reason. So, not only do we have a disaster, but we are faced with a veritable, continuing tsunami.
To make matters worse, we allowed the Kumbh Mela, where lakhs and lakhs of people intermingled, spreading the virus, and then returned home further spreading the virus. The authorities in the northern states reassured us that all those who returned would be screened, tested, traced, isolated. Who are they trying to fool? The gullible people of our country, of course.
As the virus is tearing through our country, we witness election rallies where thousands of people day after day, standing shoulder to shoulder, without masks, listen to our netas without masks, spitting out words (and perhaps some coronaviruses) for over an hour. More infections, more misery.
Also, note the poor planning of the vaccination programme. Is it not elementary that the supply of the vaccine should relate to the demand? If indeed this were so, why is there a shortage of vaccines in many vaccination centres, with long queues of people waiting in the hot sun — more spread of infections, greater misery. Again, how large-hearted we all are! What largesse we possess to give vaccines to neighbouring countries, forgetting the agony of people in our own country, forgetting that charity begins at home.
What, indeed, should we do now? As one who has treated many ill patients over many years, let me give the following suggestions.
First, treatment. Beg, borrow, steal, pay even a ransom to get more oxygen, transport it, and make it available to patients. This requires excellent logistic planning. We are fighting a war, and no war has ever been won without excellent logistic support.
Second, there are only three drugs of importance: Most crucial is oxygen (yes, oxygen is a drug); Dexamethasone administered to those requiring oxygen. If given when the oxygen saturation is satisfactory, the drug may well do harm. Finally, blood thinners to prevent and treat clotting within vessels.
Third, we need critical care for the very sick and more beds to treat more patients.
No other drug has been proven to be effective against the disease. The anxiety and urgency to stock remdesevir, in my opinion, is not warranted. This drug is no cure, it does not reduce mortality — it only shortens by 5 to 6 days the duration of the illness. Use it if you will, but let us transfer this anxiety and urgency to getting more oxygen, please.
Vaccination is the key to victory against the disease. It is important to plan the logistics, project deadlines and ensure they are met and fix one price for the vaccine after negotiations with the manufacturers. Different prices will cause confusion. It is also necessary to set up many, many vaccination centres and augment the supply of any vaccine of proven use and safety. All people above the age of 20 must be vaccinated
Set up wardens, police cars in every crowded place in all cities to ensure that masking and social distancing norms are observed. Do not just fine, but jail for a few days, those who ignore this directive. Discipline needs to be enforced on an undisciplined people.
Major lockdowns are of no use but lockdown enclaves within a city found to be rife with infection and disease. Target people within these enclaves for priority vaccination. Test, trace, treat those within.
The television channels mouth platitudes. Where words most abound good sense is seldom found. There are, of course, a few exceptions to the above. I salute these.
Dr. Shernaz Cama the founding director of UNESCO PARZOR Project speaks on ZAMWI ZOOM, a lecture series curated by the Zoroastrian Association of Metropolitan Washington DC.
Our dear friend Mobed Zarrir Bhandara informs us…
A Behram Yazad Jashan will be performed at the Zoroastrian Association of California Atashkadehto receive a divine intervention on
Behram roj, Sunday 2nd May at
7:30 PM India
10:00 AM Eastern
7:00 AM Pacific
This Behram Yazad Jashan is performed to achieve Victory over the virus in India and to bring about Health, Strength, Wealth, Longevity, and Happiness amongst our community members and all human beings.
Please participate in this Jashan, Humbandagi, and a brief talk to bring the powerful vibrations of our prayers into your homes by clicking on the following Zoom link
Over the last three weeks India is going through one of the worst public health crisis of our lifetimes. The fact that this comes more than a year into the covid-19 pandemic is even worse.
Here is a post from 2016 that may help bring some hope and respite in these times. Check out the amazing story of Homi Dastoor.
The Ninety First Symphony is a beautiful documentary on Homi Dastoor’s Musical Journey. Readers of Parsi Khabar are familiar with Homi’s work which was featured here and here. His wonderful book “Musical Journeys: A personal introduction to Western Classical Composers” is a beautiful read for those who love Western Classical music.
The Ninety First Symphony is a documentary directed by Rafeeq Ellias
A man who loves western classical music with a passion, and has spent a lifetime exploring its treasures and sharing it with the world.At the age of 91, Homi Dastoor remains lucid, forceful and committed. He has produced his first book on the subject in his late eighties and is currently working on a book of western classical music for children.Maestro Zubin Mehta is among the legions who have known and loved him. His is indeed a story that needs to be told because people like him are quite simply not ‘made’ anymore.Homi Dastoor is an important inspiration for both his love and knowledge of western music but also for his incredible spirit and attitude to life.
The May 2021 Ba Humata Lecture shall be on the topic: THE LIGHT OF ZARATHUSHTRA “Aatarsh Puthra Ahuraheh Mazdaao” An Ode To Energy, Light and Life (Atash Niyayesh And Related Prayers)
On Sunday, May 2, 2021
8:00 AM Pacific 11:00 AM Eastern 7:00 PM Dubai 7:30 PM Tehran 8:30 PM India 3:00 PM UK
Speakers include
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83408826220
Meeting ID: 834 0882 6220
Passcode: BAHUMATA
For further info and past lectures check: Https://Ba-Humata.co.uk
Soli Jehangir Sorabjee was born in 1930 in Bombay. He commenced his legal practice in 1953 in Bombay High Court. In 1971, he was designated senior counsel by the Supreme Court of India. He became the attorney general of India first from 1989-90 and then from 1998-2004.
Sorabjee is a renowned human rights lawyer. He was appointed by the UN as a Special Rapporteur for Nigeria, in 1997, to report on the human rights situation in that country. Following this, he become a member and later Chairman of the UN-Sub Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, from 1998 to 2004. He is a member of the United Nations Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities since 1998. He has also served as member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague from 2000 to 2006.
Soli Sorabjee is a champion of freedom of speech and expression. He has defended freedom of press in many landmark cases in the Supreme Court of India and has been instrumental in revoking censorship orders and bans on publications. He was honored with the Padma Vibhushan award, the second highest civilian award in India, in March 2002 for his defense of freedom of speech and the protection of human rights.
The above details are taken from Brandeis University website
We are thrilled to share a very timely initiative by our dear friend and brilliant filmmaker Divya Cowasji. She writes…
“I am Divya Cowasji, a Parsi filmmaker and photographer from India. Like everyone here, I am trying to do my bit to help out with the covid nightmare that is unfolding daily at home. I am part of a collective of women photographers from India called 8:30. We are organizing a print sale fundraiser for grassroots organizations helping the most vulnerable through the covid crisis in India.
You can contribute by buying one (or more!) of these beautiful prints. 100% of proceeds (barring production cost and shipping) will go to the organizations listed who are doing incredible work in these trying times. Please help out if you can, and receive beautiful prints in return.
Please find prices and details of prints and organizations in the PDF linked below.
Do also share and spread the word!
Arzan Nagwaswalla in action for Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy. – VIJAY SONEJI
Arzan Nagwaswalla was not even born when Farokh Engineer – the last Parsi cricketer to have featured in the India men’s team – played his final Test for the country in 1975.
But the 23-year-old left-arm medium pacer from Gujarat created history on Friday when he was named as a standby for India’s trip to the United Kingdom – for the World Test Championship final and the Test series against England.
The youngest member of a Parsi community from the village of Nargal, Nagwaswalla is the first Parsi cricketer to break into the Indian men’s team since 1975. While Engineer played his final Test for India in 1975, Diana Edulji’s last game in the women’s team came in July 1993. “It’s an opportunity I was looking forward to for a long time. Now that I have got it, I am very happy,” Nagwaswalla told Sportstar after the squad announcement on Friday.
Having learned the basic nitty-gritty’s of the sport from his elder brother, Vispi, at an early age, Nagwaswalla broke into the Gujarat side in the 2018-19 season. He shot to fame with a five-wicket haul against Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium. Even though the cricketing fraternity took note of his performance, the youngster was largely inconsistent.
But he found his mojo in the 2019-20 season of the Ranji Trophy, scalping 41 wickets. Even though there was no Ranji Trophy last season, the youngster had a successful outing in the Vijay Hazare Trophy for Gujarat with 19 wickets. And that earned him a spot in the Indian side.
“The target would remain the same – I want to stay focused and trust my skills. I believe in the process and I will continue to do so,” Nagwaswalla said.
While most of his team-mates featured in the IPL, the youngster had a long break after the Vijay Hazare Trophy and he made sure that he was ready for any challenges. “I knew that whenever I will be given an opportunity, I will make it count. I just keep telling myself that it is okay to wait, whenever a chance will come my way, I will prove my worth,” he said.
Nagwaswalla is also happy that after almost four decades, a Parsi cricketer has made it to the men’s national team. “ It is good to be a part of the community. People I know are happy and have kept in touch. It is a great feeling,” he said.
“It has been a really nice journey till now, whatever I have done till now, is a part of the process. So, if you follow the process wisely, results will follow.”
Nagwaswalla is looking forward to meeting his heroes. “I am looking forward to meeting all the cricketers and learning a lot from there,” the youngster said.
Our dear friend Ervad Zarrir Bhandara writes in….
Sincere gratitude to all in making our efforts towards ending the pandemic and bringing about good times through the collective power of our Mathravani prayers more worthwhile.
First time ever more than 500 community members participated in a Jashan and prayed humbandagi together to raise the collective consciousness exponentially which included Vanant Yasht nirang to remove all kinds of afflictions, Ardibehesht Yasht nirang for health and well being, and Sarosh Yasht vadi Nirang for total protection. We will again perform a Jashan of victory Dae Mah Behram roj to welcome the good times.
A Behram Yazad Jashan was performed at the Zoroastrian Association of California’s Atashkadeh/Agiary on Behram roj, Sunday May 2nd to invoke divine intervention from Behram Yazad to achieve Victory over the virus in India and to bring about Health, Strength, Wealth, Longevity, and Happiness amongst our community members and all human beings. For the first time ever we had over 500 community members attend the Jashan and pray together (via Zoom). The Humbandagi included Vanant Yasht nirang to remove all kinds of afflictions, Ardibehesht Yasht nirang for health and well being, and Sarosh Yasht vadi Nirang for total protection.
After the prayers Ervad Bhandara thanked the ZAC committee for organizing the Jashan, thanked the community for participating, and blessed the participants with good health and long life. Furthermore, Ervad Bhandara said that “I am confident and positive that with the powerful vibrations of our prayers we will conquer this & be Victorious. With the blessings of Dadar Ahuramazda, Amesha Spentas, Yazatas, and Fravashis within a month we will achieve 50% Victory, by next Behram roj. On that day we will perform a Jashan of victory and I need your help in strengthening the prayers with your participation to achieve total success.” The event was concluded by playing the following video clip of our very own erudite speaker and
BPP trustee Noshir Dadrawala:
“I am grateful to you Ervad Zarrir Bhandara for the opportunity that you have given me to say a few words and thank you for the initiative that your taken to organize the Jashan to invoke the blessings of Behram Yazad who Zarthostis across the world invoke as the dispeller of all difficulties and the giver of victory, they say a family that prays together stays together in like manner community that prays together stays together and I think this is a wonderful initiative that you have taken to get the global Community together to participate in this Jashan invoking the blessings of the victory giver Behram Yazad. Thank you very much for that thank you for this opportunity where I would like to say a few words about the importance of prayer in our life. We tend to think that as long as we lead a life walking the path of Asha, which is truth, righteousness that’s all that matters. Yes, that’s very important to lead the life of a good Zarthosti, walking on the part of Asha that is truth, purity, righteousness, but prayer is an important component of a day-to-day life just as we need food to sustain our physical body we also need prayers as food for our spirit or the soul, it is nourishment for our soul and therefore it would be foolhardy to ignore the importance of prayers in our day-to-day life. Zarathushtrian prayers are referred to as Manthra just as the Hindus refer to them as Mantras, these are best understood as articulate sounds which unite us to the subconscious, conscious and superconscious planes, when properly recited, Mathras have the power to lift devotees to a higher state of consciousness. And this is something that all those who are deep into activity of prayers have experienced and let’s not just being theoretical, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, once you start praying, you would know it’s efficacy.
Zarathushtra calls himself a Manthran, that is one who composes the mathras, and prayers in my opinion are a purifying Force, they purify the atmosphere around you.You will notice that if you enter a home where there are prayers recited or you enter a place of worship prayers
Where prayers are recited, you automatically feel a purifying sense. So prayers are a unifying force as we’re trying to do today that just like a family that prays together stays together and the community that prays together stays together. It is also a healing force, as I said earlier just as we need food for the body, the physical body, prayers or Manthras which are energy, the energy which human beings can vocalise they can have a major healing force on yourselves and the environment around you. So I congratulate you once again Ervad Bhandara and your team and our brethren all across the world.
I’m glad that we are having this Jashan to invoke the blessings not just of Behram Yazad, but also Ahura Mazda himself the Creator, Zarathushtra who is our prophet, our guide and all the Yazatas or the Divine energies of Ahura Mazda Himself, may the blessings of Ahura Mazda, Zarathushtra, the Yazatas including Behram Yazad be upon our community, may we attain success in overcoming this horrible pandemic and may Ahura Mazda bless us with good health and happiness. Thank you very much.”
– Aim To Provide Each Baug With 1 Oxygen Concentrator –
The most heart-wrenching news heard daily, in connection with the ongoing pandemic, is that scores of people are dying due to lack of availability of a hospital bed and OXYGEN, when needed urgently. The government is trying its best to meet this urgent need, but the present situation calls for some immediate action on our part too.
WAPIZ IS WORKING TO PROVIDE ONE OXYGEN CONCENTRATOR TO EACH AND EVERY BAUG IN MUMBAI CITY.
An oxygen concentrator is NOT an oxygen cylinder. It does not need monitoring or medical supervision when it is being used. But it helps the patient to breathe and to be comfortable till such time as a cylinder is sourced and/or a hospital bed is made available.
We need this facility in each of our baugs (almost 18 in number – BPP and Non BPP), where our elderly community members are particularly susceptible to the virus.
An oxygen concentrator is available presently for approximately Rs. 60,000/ – a piece.
We would like to inform that Karyesh and Sherry Patel have been working on this project and have been able to collect Rs. 5,00,000/- from generous donor – Mr. Darius Khambata for the cause. We appeal to philanthropic individuals and institutions to donate to this worthy cause, so that we can take this project further.
WAPIZ is trying its level best to procure these concentrators as there is an acute shortage for it. Wapiz has already placed its orders for the same and as soon we receive it, we will hand it over to the Baugs.
For further queries, please contact 8692988896/9820284196
Yours sincerely,
Anahita Desai
Hon. CEO
WAPIZ
Our dear friend Rusi Sorabji writes….
I attach something I wrote about friend, ASPI Engineer*, the 17 years old should go down in the annals of World Aviation better than the likes of Alcock & Brown, Charles Lindbergh, Emelia Earhart, Amy Johnson and to correct the continuous mis-information that is floating around that it was Man Mohan Singh that came first in the Aga Khan Race.
Even as late as last year I saw an article in the Indian press stating Singh came first, but do not find anybody from India refuting that false claim.
I wonder if you’d be interested to carry Aspy’s story below on the anniversary of his prize winning and history making flight, landing in Karachi on May 11th 1930. Let me know.
Some pictures and proof that Aspy won copy of cheque in the name of the winner and covering letter follow in a separately.
Best wishes
Rusi Sorabji.
NB: * the First Parsi Air Marshall of the Indian Air Force, and the Second Indian to hold that post and take the Airforce into the Jet Age.
in the annals of AVIATION when he won the “Aga Khan Race” flying solo across three continents from London, U.K. to Karachi, India in an open cockpit World War I era fabric covered biplane. Few of the Parsi community in Sub-continent remember this very young man exploits and the great later in life achievements.
The young lad was named…Aspy Meherwan Irani, but later changed to Engineer – this is his story, a tribute his magnificent obsession with the flying machine.
The Aga Khan Race 1930, was first historical landmark in the annals of Aviation achieved both civil and military in the Sub-Continent -.
Growing up in Delhi in the 1930s, (before the advent, at least in our house, of telephones, radio, TV or cable) the main source of “news” about international events available was, what the parents at the dining table passed on during ‘after dinner talk’. While there was a lot happening elsewhere, it was an era of the airplane and all about flying.
The first flight by man in a flying machine had taken place just 25 years ago and early aviators like, Alcock & Brown, Charles Lindbergh, Emelia Earhart, Amy Johnson were hitting the newspaper headlines on a regular basis with their daring feats. In May 1930, our 17year old hero, Aspy Engineer, also hit the headlines by flying solo from England to Karachi and winning the Aga Khan’s prize. My dad Ruttonshaw and Aspy’s father Meherwan Irani, both worked for the North Western Railway in Karachi.
Dad was so thrilled at the teenager’s achievement and later daring exploits, that we got larger and larger serving of it in the after-dinner stories. Aspy when seven years old, one fine day was fascinated by seeing an aircraft land in the Race Course grounds right opposite his father’s railway bungalow in Hyderabad, Sind. It happened to be the famous English aviators, Alcock & Brown, who made an emergency landing. It was love at first sight for the seven year old and the beginning of a life-long love affair with flying machines, and flying as a profession.
In his unfinished memoir he states “I dreamt nothing else thereafter but aircraft landing on the roof-top of our spacious bungalow.” This dream later carried on through the Billimoria Parsi School years, from where he matriculated. But then having seen the table land plateau above the school in Panchgani, the dream was “of landing on the Panchgani table-mountain’s flat top …”.
Aspy Engineer with his Farhovar De Haviland Gypsy Moth.
In 1929 Meherwan’ s present for his eldest son’s 17th birthday was a second-hand DE Havilland, Gypsy Moth, bi-plane, which at the time was the most popular aircraft with the Aero Clubs, the Royalty and the High Society in Britain. It was a two seater, open cock-pit, 30ft wing span, wood and fabric structured aircraft with a four cylinder100 hp engine. After quickly obtaining his license from the Karachi Aero Club and flight training of less than three months, Aspy with his friend R N Chawla took off for England on 3rd March 1930 to participate in the Aga Khan Cup, with a Farhovar painted on his aircraft and registered as VT.AAZ.
To popularize and promote aviation in India, His Excellency the Aga Khan had offered a handsome cash prize of Pound Sterling five hundred, for the first Indian to fly solo between the two countries England and India. The flight could be in any direction, from India to England, or in the opposite direction, but it was to be completed within 30 days. It is difficult to comprehend that in less than three months of owning a plane, obtaining a license to fly, the boys were undertaking a flight of 5,000 miles. It was like shooting for the impossible, considering a major portion of the flight was over deserts with little known air strips, scant refueling facilities and involving sea crossings. Besides, it was being undertaken at a time when Radio Communications or Air Traffic Control were unheard off. Under the circumstances, one can have nothing but admiration for the pluck of this teenager and a determined pilot. But, Aspy also firmly believed in his mothers’ dream that he’d come back a winner of the race.
In his excitement to get off to London he did not carry maps or directions beyond Egypt, hoping to collect them in Cairo, which then was an established airport. To make matters more difficult, the Gypsy Moth was a light airplane with rudimentary instrumentation and no communication equipment. The pilot in the open cock-pit was to be on his own, keeping visual topographical contact through unknown skies and under bad weather conditions. Something impossible to do so during sand storms that were common during the time of the year, along the Middle-Eastern countries and the North African coast.
As Aspy writes “we had to sort of smell our way about”.
A better portion of the flight was over nomadic road-less deserts infested with raiding Bedouins. When they crash landed in the desert, one night near Homs in Tunisia and Chawla had walked to town in search of fuel, Aspy actually had a close encounter with a horde of Tunisian bandits.
Runways were no more than flat strips of ground swept clean of rocks, with no proper fuel sources “we were our own navigators, mechanics, refueling staff and what have you, rolled into one. Availability of water, fuel, food or a cup of tea presented quite a problem in many places” until they reached the British air bases at Basra, Bagdad and Amman, wrote Aspy.
With three forced landings and much luck, they made their way across North Africa, Malta, Italy to north of France in 17 days. They missed Paris and landed near the Belgium border. Then misunderstanding the French instruction, they were lost over the North Sea in cold heavy rains. As their fuel was running low and head wind reducing their speed considerably, Aspy spotted a tramp steamer and was able to get directions in ‘sign language’ as they flew low around it. Correcting their course in the direction their unknown benefactor had indicated, they finally struck land in the evening and force landing on a farm. Later they discovered they were in the village of Thetford in Norfolk, quite some distance north from their destination, London. They were met by a very angry farmer, who turned very co-operative once he heard their unbelievable story and taking pity ontheir bedraggled, frozen conditions and their youth, invited them to his house. And just as they were enjoying the “roast beef, Yorkshire pudding and a large tankard of brown ale”, the pressmen arrived to join in the dinner and collect their story. It seems the farmer had phoned Croydon of the arrival of the boys from India and invited the press assembled there for a quick dinner.
Next morning 21st of March 1930 they flew into Croydon at 11am where the Mayor of London and the English press awaited them with garlands.
These were the first Asians or Indians ever to fly from India or the East to England. Two high spirited boys, one 17 and the other not much older. Unlike their American or British contemporaries they had no sponsors, they were on their own helped and financed by Aspy’s father, Meherwan Irani.
Picture of Ram Nath Chawla and Aspy Engineer ( garlanded ) on arrival at Croydon, London, England on 21 March 1930 for the Aga Khan Race.
After the plane was serviced by the manufacturers DeHavilland, Aspy participated in the Aga Khan Race, setting off for Karachi one fine morning on the 25th of April 1930. With meticulous planning and preparation, his flight was uneventful throughout, except that he experienced engine trouble at Benghazi, so did Manmohan Singh. However Aspy with his engineering skills was able to get going to Alexandria, where he met the other Zoroastrian participant in the Race JRD Tata heading for England from Bombay. When Aspy informed JRD of his engine and spark plug problem, JRD offered him a spare set of spark plugs. In return Aspy gave JRD his life belt for the sea-crossing. This saved Aspy several days of waiting at Alexandria for plugs. He later faced severe sandstorms on his flight between Basra and Bagdad, but was able to hop into Karachi at 4:10 pm on the afternoon of 11th May 1930.
Next day the Royal Aero Club, London, cabled, confirming Aspy as the winner. JRD Tata’s flight to England clocked 20 hours over Aspy’s time.
Though Manmohan Singh landed in Karachi earlier than Aspy, he was disqualified as his flight that started in January took much more than the specified 30 days.
Of the three Indians who took part in the Aga Khan Race two were Parsis, Aspy Engineer, 17 yrs from Karachi, and Jehangir R D Tata, 26 yrs. from Bombay, heir to an industrial empire. The third man Mohan Singh, 24yrs was from Rawalpindi, a qualified flyer and an aeronautical engineer, but had bad luck, crashes and injury on his flights from England. The first of his three attempts to fly to India was on 11th January,1930. All the three flew Gypsy Moths.
Aspy’s heroic and record setting flight thrilled people throughout India, but the public celebrations, awards or ticker parades, that greeted his more senior and well financed US contemporaries like, Charles Lindberg, Amelia Earhart on achieving similar feats, were missing. Whereas the US President Calvin Coolidge awarded Lindbergh the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his flight to Europe from America, there was nothing like that in store for Aspy from the Government. The BVS school band, known as the Cowasjee Variawa’s Own, played as he landed. The large crowd that had gathered cheered him. He was garlanded by the Mayor of the Karachi, Jamshed Nusserwanji, congratulated by the Chairman of the Karachi Aero Club and by the President and Secretary of the Karachi Parsi Anjuman.
Next day The Royal Aero Club, London, cabled confirming Aspy as the winner. The Karachi Parsi Institute’s President, Khan Bahadur Kavasji H Katrak held a dinner celebration on the Institutes spacious grounds to congratulate the young boy for this outstanding achievement. At the reception in Karachi, a reporter asked about what he saw in his future. The young man replied, “I would love the chance to serve my country in the Air Force”.
A wish that soon came true.
The Legislative Council of India awarded Aspy Engineer a special prize of Rs10,000.
Sir Frederick Sykes the Governor of Bombay State which then included Karachi, upon learning that Aspy was the winner wanted to honour him with a suitable public reception in Bombay.
Taking off for Bombay, much against the wishes of his mother, Aspy was injured when he crash landed at Bhuj and could not make it to Bombay. Instead, upon recovering he flew in to Panchgani and landed on the rough Table Land plateau, his old School’s playing field, fulfilling a dream and keeping the promise he made to the boys at school and his Principal before he matriculated.
Late Mr. K.T. Satarawalla of Delhi, then a student at the school, remembers how the whole school and the people of Panchgani had gathered to welcome Aspy and how the Governor of Bombay visited the school to present a ‘Big Cup’. This was in addition of being honoured and facilitated by the Principal of the School. Aspy’s son Cyrus Engineer, tells me he has the movie that was taken of the presentation. The very next year Aspy joined the Royal Indian Air Force and was selected for training at the RAF College at Cranwell, England (3rdSeptember 1931 to 14th July 1933).
As the lone Indian in his batch,“Graduating from Cranwell, I won the Groves Memorial Prize for being the best all at Cranwell.” wrote Aspy in his unfinished memoir. He stood first in the Army Cooperative course at Old Sarium. He also won a Caterpillar Badge (with ruby eyes) when he had to bail out from a burning aircraft during aerobatics.
Life in the RIAF
On commissioning from Cranwell, he joined the “A” Flight of No 1 Squadron, of the two squadron Royal Indian Air Force. He was first posted at Drigh Road,Karachi and later to the North Western Frontier Provinces as a flight commander.
“The main equipment of the RIAF, eg. the aircraft we flew were really antiquated. The Westland Wapiti was an ungainly biplane and carried a pilot and rear gunner in open cockpits. We had none of the airbrakes, flaps or even wheel brakes. No R/T communication”, wrote Aspy.
In 1939 Aspy Engineer’s “A” Flight executed 403 hours of relentless operations bombing and strafing Waziristan’s restive tribes.
Once according to my father Ruttonsha, Aspy returned from a sortie with more than a dozen tribal bullet holes in his fabric and wood Westland Wapitis fighter. Waziristan was as dangerous then, as it is now. Kohat and Miranshah were at that time under the domain of the Faqir of Ipi, with sharp shooters carrying long barreled home-made guns, who could shoot at night from the surrounding hills with only the burning end of a cigarette as their target.
Aspy was continuously mentioned in dispatches for bravery in action and in 1942 became the first ‘native officer of the RIAF’ to be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for action in the NWFP. Soon he became the Officer Commanding Kohat. He also briefly saw action in Burma against the Japanese before being posted back to the NWFP. Later towards the end of WWII he gained the rank of Wing Commander.
The start of World War II necessitated the expansion of the RIAF. This found FLt Lt Aspy Engineer on various selection committees. And this is what young Hoshang Patel of Nargol had to say about his meeting Aspy at the job interview. Good conversational English was a prerequisite for joining the RIAF as an Officer. Since Patel was poor in English he was told he may not get in as an Officer.
Without much deliberation Patel asked, if he could join in as an Airman. Flt Lt Engineer who was on the interview board, dissuaded him from joining as an airman saying, “Hoshang, don’t join the ranks, Parsi boys from Bombay can’t take the tough life there”.
Meanwhile a skinny Malayali Corporal came to Aspy for some signatures or something. After the Corporal left, Patel asked, “who is that man?” he was told he is a Corporal in the RIAF. So Patel asked the selectors, “will you ask him to wrestle with me, run 100 yards or a mile race with me? I will beat him in all, and I mean it!”
“So you still insist on joining?” asked Aspy. Patel agreed. “You promise never to blame me?
Because all the Parsi boys who have signed up are blaming me, saying that I promised them heaven”, said Aspy.
Patel who joined the RIAF in the ranks,retired as Wing Commander Hoshang Patel. During my conversation with Wing Cdr Hosang Patel (then 88) in Bombay, in November 2010, slip-of-the-tongue I addressed him as ‘Squadron Leader’. Pat came the loud rejoinder, as if from a senior Englishman, “Wing Commander, to you Sir!”
At the time of Partition and the bifurcation of the old RIAF into IAF and the Pakistani half, found Group Captain Aspy Engineer and his Partition Committee for seconding RAF Officers and Senior NCO’s to staff the Indian Air Force during its early days, the Chairman after a deep breath said, “Engineer, I suggest you go take a cold shower and come back. This is a serious matter and I give you three months before the IAF collapses and then you’ll ask for a larger number of RAF NCO’s”.
Engineer’s response was, “Sir as a matter of fact I had to have a cold shower this morning as the heaters had packed up.”
Both Mukerjee and Engineer were convinced it was the right decision, as IAF had to be Indianised so as to be able to stand on its own feet.
Rapid expansion of the IAF began in 1947 and rapidly became an all-jet Air Force that gave a good account of itself in the war that soon followed over Kashmir. Before long, he was promoted as Air Commodore and given command of No1 Operational Group. Later he took charge of Personnel & Administration at Air Headquarters. During the 1950’s the IAF deputed Aspy on a one year course at the Imperial Defence College, London. On his return he was assigned to various posts and led several missions abroad meeting with heads of States and arranging for the training of pilots and technicians of countries such as Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq and Afghanistan at the same time overseeing the expansion of the IAF to a 64 Squadron force.
When the Hindustan Aircraft Ltd factory was experiencing serious labour trouble, Aspy was appointed its Managing Director (1958-1960). Before long the labour problems were resolved and the factory gainfully embarked on several new projects including the construction of a new engine factory. It was during his short tenure that HAL did pioneering ground work in the development and production of the first jet trainer and the designing of the first indigenous jet fighter. On 1st December 1960, upon the sudden demise of Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee,Aspy assumed the office of the Chief of Air Staff, Indian Air Force.
Twenty-seven years after commissioning from Cranwell, Aspy Engineer was heading the Air Force of the most populous nation of the Free World. During his tenure as Chief of Air Staff, the Indian Air Force saw action in Goa, and a detachment of Canberra bombers were sent to the Congo where they took part in action against the Katangese.
Aspy the engineer, though he was the Chief of Air Staff took keen personal interest with engineering and modifying the two engine propeller driven C-119 Packet aircraft, by adding a jet engine innovatively mounted on the top of the fuselage. This was to make the C-119 operate from short runways at higher altitude. Air strips carved out of mountains at heights never before heard off anywhere in the world. It was indeed a feather in the IAF cap, when for the first time in the annals of aviation, on 23rd July 1962, a C-119 landed and took-off from an airstrip at 17,000 feet. This created lines of supply for the brave soldiers guarding the country’s frontiers along the very high Himalayan border.
In the 1962 sneak Chinese invasion of India, IAF was unable to provide air support to the brave Indian soldiers at the borders, as the Government did not allow the IAF to deploy combat formations against the Chinese invaders. After the war, Aspy Engineer was responsible in overseeing the expansion of the IAF. Besides setting up new training facilities and infrastructure, this period also saw the induction of the first supersonic fighter, the MIG 21, and the augmentation of the transport and helicopter fleet.
He retired on 31st July 1964. But, that was not the end of the love affair with flying that started when he was seven. He continued to see his younger siblings who were influenced by his remarkable attainments, make history in trying to almost out-perform him.This was one unique family of four gallant aviators and two outstanding musketeers.
More of that at some later date.
Three DFCs in a family? I doubt one can find another example. The DFCs were awarded to Aspy for action in the NWFP, Minoo and Rohinton Engineer for action against the Japanese in Burma in WWII. Nor of two brothers as Air Marshalls, Aspy and younger brother Minoo; one a pioneer and the other the most highly decorated officer for gallantry in the Indian Air Force or in the Indian Armed Forces. After retirement from the Indian Air Force, Air Marshal Engineer served as India’s ambassador to Iran.
In 1990 or so he settled down in Southern California and was a founder member in establishing the California Zoroastrian Center, in Westminster. Later he returned to Bombay where he died on 1st May 2002. The 1930 Aga Khan Cup Race became the first historical landmark in the annals of Indian Aviation, both Civil & Military. The two Zoroastrian Aviators who were the only ones who successfully completed the Race,were later to become the main builders of the Indian Aviation, Aspy the Architect of the Indian Air Force and JRD Tata the Architect & Builder of Civil Aviation in India, starting with the Tata Airlines and then Air India International, what used to be a world class airline, the pride of India.
“Should we forget such an achievement and example set by Aspy for our young?” asked K.T.Satarawala.
The pride of being a Zoroastrian is something that is passed on by parent to child, a parent whose intention is to convey what was the best and most noble in their heritage. As each generation of Zoroastrians dissolve further into the global melting pot, it becomes more urgent and necessary to record and recognize the talents and contributions of our forebears. I feel it is essential for individuals with Zoroastrian background to recognize the contributions of their ancestors and to pass on a sense of Zoroastrian pride to their children and grand-children. My parents did it. I did it, now I leave it to you.
RUSI RUTTONSHA SORABJI.
Acknowledgement: My thanks go to each one, without whose assistance this story would not have been complete:-
Mrs Farida Singh, daughter of Jehangir Engineer
Cyrus Aspy Engineer, for providing pictures,
newspaper cuttings and his father’s story
Bharat-rakshak Samir Chopra
Air Commodore Minoo P. Vania. S.Chakar.& VSM.
Late Air Commodore Minoo Mehta
Late Wing Commander H Patel
Late Sam Pedder, RIAF & Air India
Mehli R Bandrawalla, Indian Air Lines & UN
Statute of Aspy Engineer at Croydon Museum. In honour of his winning the Aga Khan Race. Last seen there by his family about 1990 as also noted on the picture by his family.
You might note he is wearing the leather coat he bought in Cairo.
A picture showing the primitive instrumentation and a joy stick for flight control that was available in 1942, on an almost similar, but 20 year later, more advanced model of a two-seater open cockpit, fabric covered bi-plane. Which had brakes on its wheels. Aspy’s plane did not. The all-important FUEL GUAGE of the old planes were not in the cock-pit that the pilot could keep an eye on. It was outside some 5 feet away, sometimes hanging from the wing downwards, as may be seen in the next picture almost touching my left elbow.
Golden Gate Bridge on the right, rain clouds straight ahead as we approach San Francisco and no umbrellas. There was bright sunshine when we took-off.
That is me getting into the plane flying over the California coast and American Wine country trying to find out what it was like flying like our “hero” in an open cockpit in an almost 70 years old plane, with a 16 inches glass wind screen as the only frontal protection from the 125m.p.h. wind blast hitting your face. It jolted the tele-lens of my tightly gripped camera to its fullest extent, when I tried taking pictures
