Who is Cleveland’s most prominent writer? Kevin Keating seems like a rising star. Paula McLain found success with The Paris Wife. Mystery writers would likely mention Les Roberts. Science fiction fans let Maureen McHugh slip away to a warmer climate in LA, but we’ve managed to hang on to genre-spanning Mary Doria Russell, Geoffrey Landis and others.

Article by Tom Jackson

Perhaps our best-regarded local writer is Thrity Umrigar. She’s a journalist, critic and college professor, but for readers, she’s most of all a novelist, the author of seven novels, including 2014’s well-reviewed “The Story Hour.”

It’s probably not a surprise that “The Story Hour” got a good review in the “Cleveland Plain Dealer” (“thoughtful and moving”), but she also got good reviews from “Library Journal,” “Kirkus Reviews” and the “Boston Globe” (“a taut, suspenseful page-turner with depth, heart, and psychological credibility.”)

Umrigar grew up in Bombay, in India, as she explained in an interview: “The Bombay that I grew up in was a very cosmopolitan, secular place. For instance, I was a Parsi kid who went to a Catholic school, in a pre-dominantly Hindu city. My classmates were Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Catholics. It never once occurred to us to even question each other’s religion, and to their credit, none of our parents seemed to make an issue out of it.” Asked in another interview about the writers she admires, she said, “I love Virginia Woolf for combining two difficult tasks-creating psychologically complicated characters and then writing about them in beautiful, lyrical language. I love Toni Morrison for the same reason. I love some of [Salman] Rushdie’s earlier novels for their sheer insanity, the pliable use of language.”

How she wound up in Ohio is an amusing story. “I was sitting in my living room in Bombay, checking off a list of American universities that offered a M.A. in journalism, when my eyes fell on ‘Ohio State University.’ There was a Joan Baez record playing on the turntable and right then, her song, Banks of the Ohio, came on. I looked up and thought, ‘It’s a sign,’ and decided to apply there.

As you can see, I could not resist asking about that when she agreed to take a few questions from me:

Sandusky Register: I thought “The Story Hour” was a really good book. Is it your favorite novel so far?

Thrity Umrigar: I think my favorite novel is always the one I’m currently writing.  And since I never have the nerve to re-read my books once they are published, it’s hard to know how I’d rate them.  But The Story Hour sure seems to be a reader favorite–the letters and emails I’m getting from readers seem to indicate this.  And I’m so grateful.

Sandusky Register: Many aspects of “The Story Hour” reminded me of one of my favorite novels, “Pride and Prejudice.” Lakshmi is the wise older sister, not as good looking as the younger ones, who looks out for everyone else; Laskshi’s husband is the “Darcy” figure who seems very unlikable at first, the reader wants to know if the couple that has been kept apart will come together, etc. Did you have Jane Austen in mind at all, or is that off the wall?

Thrity Umrigar: One of my deepest beliefs is that readers are smarter than writers.  And you just proved that.  I wish I could tell you that this is exactly what I was trying to do — rewrite P&P with a modern, multi-ethnic twist.  But that would be a lie.  But I do think it’s a brilliant observation on your part.

Sandusky Register: When you’ve finished another Ohio winter, do you ever curse Joan Baez, or wish she had sung a song about “the California” ? [That’s how Umrigar’s main character in “The Story Hour'” refers to California. See the intro if my question seems obscure — Tom.]

Thrity Umrigar: I could never curse Joan Baez, who I still love and admire.  But I do curse fate.  I mean, how hard would it have been to make “California Dreamin’ ” play on my stereo instead of “Banks of the Ohio”?  No, seriously, despite this last winter, Ohio has been very good to me.  It has given me a home, a family, great friends, a good job.  And California is going to run out of water pretty soon whereas we are sitting on a Great Lake. . .

Sandusky Register: Was it really a good idea to allow “The Story Hour” to be made into an audiobook? I’m not sure it’s safe for people to drive when they are crying. I thought it was a really emotional book.

Thrity Umrigar: Ha. Maybe they should’ve pasted a warning: Listen at your own risk.  Seriously, I thought the actress that they hired to read the novel was brilliant.  And she avoided the caricature of the sing-song Indian accent that so many people think is the way in which all Indians talk.  She didn’t take that cheap way out, for which I am grateful. [The book is read by Sneha Mathan – Tom].

Sandusky Register: What is your next novel going to be about?

Thrity Umrigar: I’m writing a novel about a young African-American boy who is adopted by a white politician after he is locked up in his apartment by his mom who is a drug addict.  The story plays with our notions of morality, and deals with issues of racial appropriation.  It is a story about competing claims of love, betrayal and forgiveness.

Other author interviews also are available.

The post Thrity Umrigar on her latest novel, and living in chilly Ohio appeared on Parsi Khabar.

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.

A Parsi couple from Hong Kong has donated Rs 135 crore to south Mumbai’s Bomanjee Dinshaw Petit Parsee General Hospital, hoping to halt its decline. The endowment has been made with the intention to supplement the existing facility with a new 200-bed multispecialty healthcare unit that caters to Parsis as well as patients from other communities.

Article by Jyoti Shelar | Mumbai Mirror

The managing committee of Parsee General Hospital and the couple – Jal, a former Managing Director of the multi-brand retail major Fossil (East) Limited and its Director, and his wife Pervin Shroff – signed documents formalising the endowment on Wednesday. Work on the new hospital is scheduled to commence soon.

General Manager of PGH, Jal Adajania, confirmed the development. “Yes the agreement has been signed, but I cannot comment on particulars,” he said.

The existing facility will continue to serve the Parsi Zoroastrian community – it is situated on a 5-acre parcel of land. The PGH has tended specifically to this sect for the past 102 years. Half of the 220 hospital beds were set aside for impoverished members of the community (for free or at subsidised rates). “It has been evident for some time that the rising cost of medical services and the need to keep up with advances in medical technology has put a heavy strain on PGH’s financial resources, making it virtually impossible for the management to continue providing the necessary level of diagnostic and medical care for the much-needed, absolutely-free or subsidised section of the Parsi Zoroastrian patients,” a statement from the hospital said.

Impelled by these concerns, the management decided to build a separate 200-bed multi specialty unit with an oncology department for “secular use without any discrimination of caste, creed or religion”. “The idea is to do some income management. Sustaining the existing hospital is difficult as the population of Parsis has gone down and its costs are subsidised. By allowing non-Parsis in the new hospital, there will be inflow of some profits through which the existing facility can be sustained too,” said an official from the hospital who did not wish to be named for attribution.

“The new facility will be housed in a sevenstorey building with the same facade as the existing PGH hospital,” a member of the hospital’s board said.

Mumbai Mirror made several calls to PGH’s president Homa Petit and sent him an email, but he was unavailable for comment.

An analysis of PGH’s annual general report for 2013-2014 carried in the community magazine Parsiana stated that the number of patients being treated at the facility had fallen drastically. “A total of 2,533 in-patients were treated at the hospital during the period of which 48.22 per cent were free and subsidised cases. The hospital suffered from an operating deficit of Rs 836.18 lakhs,” the report stated.

The Shroff’s have made the donation on the condition that they retain exclusive rights to name the new hospital and oncology department (they have consented to a request that the name of the new hospital include a reference to PGH). Architects Somaya and Kalappa Pvt. Ltd have been appointed to design the building. The hospital will be operated and managed by Dr. Ardheshir Jehangirshaw Kohiyar Memorial Trust.

From Hindustan Times:

The management of the Bomanji Dinshaw Petit Parsee General Hospital (PGH), which provides subsidised treatment to Parsi-Zoroastrians, will soon open a new facility next to it.

The new 200-bed multi-disciplinary hospital in Kemps Corner will be open to general public, while providing subsidised diagnostic facilities to Parsi patients at the campus of PGH itself.

A senior community member said that the new facility is planned as a profitable venture and will help the community at the same time. “The PGH is running at a loss of Rs10 crore a year, and is struggling for donations to keep it going,” he said.

According to a press statement by the PGH management, posted on the website of community magazine Parsiana, the rising cost of medical services and rapid development in technology have put a heavy strain on PGH’s finances.

When contacted, a senior trustee of the PGH refused to make any comments beyond the press statement. The century-old 222-bed PGH hospital exclusively serves the community, making exceptions only for the family of the staff.

A community member involved with the new venture, but spoke on the condition of anonymity, said necessary applications had been applied for, construction was expected to begin by 2015 end and the hospital is expected to become operational in three years. “It will have facilities for MRI and Cat-scan, and units for oncology and cardiac that is not at PGH,” he said.

The project is being funded by a grant of US$22.5 million (Rs135 crore) from Parsi donors, Jal and Pervin Shroff, of Hong Kong, said the press statement. Of this, US$2.5 million (Rs15.6 crore) is for the oncology department alone. The Dr Ardeshir Jehangirshaw Kohiyar Memorial Trust will act as representatives of the donors.

Dr Sanjay Borude, obesity surgeon at Jaslok and Breach Candy hospitals, said these are currently only two hospitals serving the area. “If the new facility is open for all, it’s a welcome move. There is certainly a need for more facilities,” he said.

The post Shroff’s of Hong Kong Donate New Facility to Parsee General Hospital appeared on Parsi Khabar.

As Mumbai bids goodbye to Cafe Samovar this week, Adi Jehangir says he is simply making room for artists.

It’s a busy Thursday afternoon at Kala Ghoda’s Jehangir Art Gallery. A queue winds out of a narrow corridor leading to its resident eatery, Cafe Samovar, spilling into the foyer.

The visitors know it’s their last chance to savour kheema samosas and mint chai at the 50-year-old cafe that folds up two days from now, bringing a spun out legal tussle between its owner, Usha Khanna and the gallery to an end.

“This cafe,” says Jehangir Art Gallery (JAG) chairperson, Adi Jehangir, “is an institution. To deny it would be childish. But legally, it had to go.”

In June 2010 after repeated negotiations, concurrent with litigation, the cafe’s license was extended to a final five years by the JAG committee. “Mrs (Devieka) Bhojwani signed an undertaking in the Supreme Court to vacate on March 31, 2015. It wasn’t an overnight decision. We needed to think about the future of Samovar’s staff, too,” says the 58-year-old, about Khanna’s daughter.

Replacing the cafe-in-a-patio will be a sculpture gallery (fulfilling a demand made in 2007 by a section of artists who took a protest to the eatery’s door), and renovations will kick in after the monsoons.

For Jehangir, it’s a question of fulfilling his ancestors’ wishes. “Wouldn’t it be financially feasible to give all of the six licensee’s spaces out to a posh restaurant or private gallery, and charge them South Mumbai rentals, while keeping only three auditoriums for India’s young artists? But that’s not the objective with which my grandfather established the gallery,” he says, referring to Sir Cowasji Jehangir, who funded the public art institution for emerging artists that opened in 1952.

Unlike now, when a lengthy waiting list means it’s usually five years before an artist gets to exhibit his/her work, back in the early 1950s, says Jehangir, the galleries ran empty for weeks at a stretch. “So, in 1962, after my grandfather passed away, the management decided to lease out certain sections.”

Late gallerist Kekoo Gandhy was one of the first occupants, setting up Chemould Gallery along with wife Khorshed on the first floor. In 1964, Usha Khanna launched Samovar, “a cafe that bloomed beyond everyone’s imagination”. The two along with Natesan’s Antiqarts, Terrace Art Gallery, INTACH and Prabhakar Dhanraj Talari, made up for JAG’s six licensees, who signed a twoyear leave-and-license agreement.

Eleven years later, in 1973, the laws changed and the licensees, he explains, were regularised as sub-tenants. “All of them took protection under the Rent Act, and that’s when the problems began.”

The committee, then chaired by his father Hirji, was compelled to file a suit of eviction against the licensees in 1979 in the Small Causes Court.

It was only in early 2000s, when JAG’s lawyer and lover of art, Sohrab Chiniwala passed away, “and new lawyers KK Nariman and Suraj Shah were appointed, that a fresh suit was filed against the licensees under the Government Public Premises’ Act, and things began moving.”

The Terrace Art Gallery fought a bitter battle in mid 2000s, and even moved High Court. “But they lost the case, and the others saw the writing on the wall. Unfortunately, it led to acrimony with Kekoo Gandhy and Usha Khanna, with whom we enjoyed a long-standing working association. It wasn’t pleasant. The Samovar litigation in the Supreme Court ate up millions from our corpus, upsetting the Committee. But I, as a neutral member, could do very little,” Jehangir says.

The more-space-for-art argument, he backs with statistics. JAG receives 2,500 applications annually, of which only 450 can be accommodated at a nominal rent of Rs 3,500 per day (exhibition hall). “Recently, we handed out forms for exhibitions that will be held in 2021. But majority of entrees will have to be rejected due to lack of space. Journalists tell me, 80 per cent of our shows aren’t worthy of display. That’s an elitist statement. For young artists, it’s their only chance to show in Bombay, and we won’t deny them that.”

The post Adi Jehangir on the Closing of Café Samovar appeared on Parsi Khabar.

Valsad Nagarpalika has decided to honour Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, architect of the country’s victory in the 1971 war with Pakistan, by naming a road after him in the town on his 100th birth anniversary that falls on April 3.

The stretch of road where the former Indian army chief’s ancestral house – Manekshaw House – is located will be called Manekshaw Road, Valsad nagarpalika recently decided, acceding to the request of Vivekanand Vichar Manch.

Article in the Times of India

The road would be named on April 3 at a function being organized by VVM, a local group, in association with Valsad Nagarpalika. The function will be attended by youth belonging to Valsad and a few retired officers from the Indian armed forces. Colonel (retd) Vinod Falnikar, 70, will be one of the speakers.

Manekshaw House, the ancestral home of the field marshal, is in Parsi Vad locality of Valsad. Field Marshal’s father Hormusji used to live with his parents in Manekshaw House. Hormusji, who was an army doctor, later moved to Punjab with his wife Heerabai. Sam Manekshaw was born in Amritsar on April 3, 1914.

“Valsad Nagarpalika has taken the decision to name the road where Manekshaw’s ancestral house is located after him. The name will be given on April 3, which happens to the veteran soldier’s birth anniversary,” Valsad nagarpalika president Sonal Solanki said.

“Manekshaw had visited Valsad a few times. However, he never stayed in this house as it was sold off by his father. The house is still called Manekshaw House,” said Snehal Joshi, head of the department of computer science of Dolat Usha Institute, Valsad.

“It is a matter of honour for Valsad and also for those in Gujarat that the field marshal’s family belonged to this town. The residents of Valsad are proud of the fact that Manekshaw’s House is located here and want to honour him by naming a road after him. His memory will always inspire the youth of the country,” Joshi added.

Falnikar, who stays in Vadodara, said, “It was an honour to work with a leader like Manekshaw in the 1971 War. It is good initiative by the people of Valsad to name the area after the legend.”

Remembering Sam Manekshaw, India’s greatest general, on his birth centenary

Article by Nitin Gokhale | NDTV

Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, one of India’s greatest generals, would have turned hundred today. “Sam Bahadur” to most, he passed away in Wellington near Ooty in 2008.

Like a good officer, he was blunt and gentleman to the core.

In April 1971, as India’s Army Chief, he refused to be rushed into a war with Pakistan since the time wasn’t right. Despite pressure from the cabinet, he stuck to his guns. The Indian Army launched the assault in December that year and won the war that led to the birth of Bangladesh.

Sam Manekshaw, already a famous man, became an icon. He was first honoured with the Padma Vibhushan, the nation’s second highest civilian award. Then in 1973, he became the first Indian army officer to be promoted to the highest military rank of Field Marshal.

A quintessential soldier, he once told the cadets at the Indian Military Academy, “You will not have wealth, you will not be rich but you will have respect, you will be the soldier of this great Army.”

Field Marshal Manekshaw travelled the world, led the Indian Army, witnessed and participated in five different wars but in the end he settled down in serene town of Coonoor, in the Nilgiri Hills, and built a house with his wife Seelu. It is here that he spent the last three decades of his life.

His personal staff, notably Manbahadur and his family, adored Sam. Manbhadur, who served in the Army for 15 years before coming to live with the Field Marshal, became family.

The military victory in East Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh were seen as Sam Manekshaw’s triumph as much as then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s. He was at the apogee of his fame.

But Sam’s larger-than-life image also earned him some enemies. For long, he was denied the benefits and status due to a Field Marshal. It was not until 2006-07 that President Abdul Kalam took the initiative and made sure the general got his full dues. But perhaps, it was too late by then. Sam was already in hospital. His wife’s loss had left him weaker.

Shockingly, Sam Manekshaw was treated shabbily in his death too. Defence Minister AK Antony did not go for his funeral and neither did any of the military chiefs.

As Lt Gen SK Sinha, who worked with Sam for over 40 years after Independence, said: “The Army chief at that time was in Moscow so he had some reason, but the Navy and the Air Force were represented by officers of two-star rank and of course no one from government. The minister didn’t go either.”

Family members, however, have kept a dignified silence. His daughter, Maja Daruwala, says, “It is not for us to say.”

The government may have forgotten the man who led India to its greatest military victory but for lakhs of soldiers and military enthusiasts, Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw will continue to remain an inspiration.

The post Remembering Sam Manekshaw, India’s greatest general, on his 100th birth centenary appeared on Parsi Khabar.

This year, the World Theater Day was celebrated at Vadodara by Triveni in a unique way, as they invited Yazdi Karanjia, the doyen of Parsi Theater, who delivered a humorous talk about his theater journey. The artists of Triveni then presented about seven humorous songs from old Parsi Theater plays under the direction of P S Chari.

The songs presented were created in exact replica of the bygone era, full of wit, humor and satire, along with the particular character accents of the plays of notable legendry directors like Adi Marzban, Phiroze Antia, and others.

The post Yazdi Karanjia Felicitated in Baroda appeared on Parsi Khabar.

Can a woman be prohibited from practising her religion if she marries a man from a different religion? Is she bound to follow her husband’s religion? Can her religious places bar her from offering prayers if she marries outside the community?

Article by Dhananjay Mahapatra | Times of India

These are some of the questions 46-year-old Goolrookh M Gupta, nee Contractor, has asked the Supreme Court. She has challenged the rationale behind a “misogynistic” judgment by Gujarat High Court, which had upheld Valsad Parsi Anjuman Trust’s decision to bar her from offering prayers at the Agiyari after she married a Hindu. The apex court agreed to hear the plea on April 28.

Goolrookh, who has old parents, had moved the HC after learning that another Parsi woman, Dilbar Valvi, also married to a Hindu, was not allowed to attend the funeral of her father and mother by the Valsad Parsi Anjuman on the ground that she was no longer a Parsi.

The HC, by a two to one majority, upheld the Anjuman’s view. “The HC judgment is a grave affront to India’s constitutional order which mandates adherence to basic human rights, dignity, religious freedom, gender equality and a uniform civil code,” Goolrookh said in her petition.

What was the use of making women’s right and empowerment the most talked about point when even an HC gave a judgment which was based on “the ancient feudal notion of women being regarded as chattels, an expression essentially reflecting the position of dominion over women by men”, she said.

“There is no law in India which says that a woman must adopt her husband’s name or religion upon marriage, she said. On the contrary, Parliament had enacted Special Marriage Act in 1954 to enable two persons belonging to different religions to enter into marriage without either having to renounce his or her religion and/or convert into the religion of the other,” she argued.

Despite the law being in force for more than 60 years, the HC “concluded that by virtue of her marriage to a non-Parsi, she ceases to be a Parsi”.

Goolrookh said though the judgment was on a petition filed by her, its effect would be used against all those women who marry outside their religion.

“The HC proceeds on a principle, stated to be ‘generally accepted throughout the world’, that until her marriage, a woman’s decision as to which religion she follows is dependent upon the religion of her father and after her marriage, it is dependent on that of her husband,” she said.

Goolrookh added that renunciation and acceptance of a religion was always preceded by a ceremony. While she was initiated into Zoroastrianism, she had never been initiated into Hindusim, she said.

Goolrookh said different Parsi denominations across the world (including India) applied different rules of conduct on Parsi women married to non-Parsi men.

“Agiyaris/trusts situated in Delhi, Pardi, Kanpur, Chennai, Kolkata, Jabalpur, Allahabad, Daman, Chikhli, Jamshedpur, Vadodara, London, Ontario (Canada), Florida and Chicago (US) do not prohibit Parsi women married to non-Parsi men from entering or offering prayers at the Agiyaris or participating in Parsi religious ceremonies,” she said.

The post Can marriage deprive women of their religion? Parsi woman asks Supreme Court of India 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.

The following book review was recently published in the FEZANA Journal. The FEZANA Journal is the leading publication of FEZANA and over the last two decades and more has become the leading publication in the Zoroastrian diaspora. Currently headed by dear friend and Chief Editor Dr. Dolly Dastoor it is a labour of love printed four times a year. We would urge all our readers to subscribe to the FEZANA Journal

The review was forwarded to us by regular reader Kersi Shroff and printed with permission from Dolly Dastoor.

Zara Green (age 12 years; granddaughter of Zoroastrian Association of Metropolitan Washington’s Founding-President, Mr. Adi Davar) published the following frank book review of Jhangir Kerawala’s ‘The Phoenix of Persia,’ in the FEZANA JOURNAL, Fall 2014, Vol. 28, No 3. the Journal:

The Phoenix of Persia

Author: Jhangir Kerawala

Published by Unicorn Books 2014 pp 239 Indian Rs 295

ISBN 978-81-7806-347-8

BOOK REVIEW by Zara Green, Falls Church, Virginia, USA

The Phoenix of Persia is a good book about Zoroastrian history. It is about a young boy named Jamshid and how he, and a group of Zoroastrians, find a way to practice Zoroastrianism freely and safely, because the Arabs and the Islamists did not allow it after they conquered the Persian Empire. Jamshid and the group of Zoroastrians travel for a long time, trying to escape the Arabs so they can practice their religion. During this time, Jamshid matures from a young boy to an adult, and learns more about what it means to be a Zoroastrian.

There are some things I liked about this book, and some that I did not. I liked how the author described Zoroastrian history. Instead of just writing about what happened to these Zoroastrians, he wrote about what happened to them through a person, so I could understand what it must have felt like to be in their place. Another thing that I liked was that it described things uniquely and in detail, so I could visualize clearly in my mind what was happening and why.

The things I didn’t like about this book were probably because this book is meant for adults, and I am only 12. I disliked that the print was small, because it made it difficult to read. There were also many words I did not know the meaning of.

The beginning of the book was a little slow for me. But once I got into it, the plot was very gripping; I kept wondering what would happen next. I also think that I was a little young to read it. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Zoroastrian history, from the age 14 and up. I think that in a few years I would like to read this book again, and I am sure that I will enjoy it even more than I did this time. “

FEZANA JOURNAL’S EDITORIAL NOTE: Mr. Kerawala’s is probably the first novel set in any period of Zoroastrian history. Despite taking a “novelist’s licence” relating to the time period of events and the intensity of persecution inflicted on Zoroastrians after the Arab conquest of Iran, as noted in its Foreword, the book will give a feel to our young and old of our history in that period that led to the exodus to India. It certainly has, to a 12 year old Zarathusti in Falls Church, Virginia, USA, whose review of that book is published above.

Available on amazon.com

Subscribe to the FEZANA Journal

The post The Phoenix of Persia: A Book Review 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.

The below interview was carried by the August 10, 1974 issue of Swarajya

In the course of a 45-minute interview the author had with him in a Calcutta hotel on July 5, the retired Field Marshal H. F. J. Manekshaw, former Chief of the Indian Army, pooh-poohed the idea of Army rule in India, the all-pervading crisis of leadership notwithstanding. Atom bomb or not, he feels India must become powerful if she does not want “to be kicked about”. Besides, he expressed interesting opinions on such topics as the ensuing Presidential election, J.P.’s movement, Naga-Mizo problem, DIR and demobbed Jawans.

Here is an adequate summary in the form of questions and answers of the scintillating interview: “We must become powerful”

Q. Is atom bomb necessary for India?

A. Whether an atom bomb is necessary or not, in this world if you want to be recognized, if you don’t want to be kicked about, you have to be powerful both militarily and economically. A great deal of envy and fear follows from such might. When Russia got the bomb, it came to be feared. Then came China with 700 million people. Now after her nuclear explosion (of May 18) everyone fears India with her 560 million population. It speaks a great deal of technological evolution that each country has to go through to achieve the explosion.

I honestly don’t know if our country is going to have the bomb. I was never consulted. But as a thinker, I would say you had one explosion and that is not enough. But India has no doubt the capacity to produce the bomb if the Prime Minister wants it. The greatest thing that has happened in the Rajasthan explosion is its secrecy. I doubt if anybody other than the P.M. knew about it. She kept it very close. And you know how difficult it is to keep anything secret in this country.

Army Rule is nowhere a success

Q. You made some observations at a recent Rotary meeting about shortages in food, fuel, steel, cement, etc., and remarked that these were all due to a crisis of leadership in every walk of life. Do you think Army rule can save the situation?

A. Where has Army rule been a success? What is the difference between you and me, except one of alignment and fear? When an Army officer commits a crime, he is court-martialled and given, say, two years’ jail. But when two officers are involved, it becomes a mutiny and they may get 14 years. A Police officer, on the other hand, when caught on the wrong foot, is suspended first and then produced before a court. It may take anything up to 20 years in the process, and even then nothing perhaps happens. In the Army, therefore, once this fear is removed, I am exposed to all the temptations to which civilians are prone. What makes you believe I would do better than you? Also remember, we are not trained for this job. We are trained to fight, to kill, to protect others from being killed. If otherwise, we might fail to do our primary duty. Recall what happened to Pakistan (in similar circumstances). There has been chaos in the UK, in the USA. They did not think of Army rule. Why should you think about it? I am absolutely convinced that individuals selected by the people can deliver the goods. An additional point: We are a very large country, more populous than Europe.

Makes no difference who is elected

Q. Any opinion on the next Presidential election?

A. The Congress Parliamentary Board representing the vast majority of the people has selected in its wisdom Mr F. A. Ahmed. I’ve worked with him as the Chief of Staff when he was a member of the Cabinet’s Political Affairs Committee. He is a sound, sincere man. What difference does it make to me, as a citizen, whether it is he or the existing President, Mr. V. V. Giri? As the Supreme Commander, Mr Giri had been kind to me. He is a dignified person, so is Mr Ahmed.

J.P., a genuine person

Q. What is your reaction to Mr Jaya Prakash Narayan’s movement for dissolution of the Assembly in Bihar and elsewhere?

A. Knowing J.P. as I do, I feel he is a genuine person. Genuine people have certain ideas, they feel they are right. Also it is all very well when you have no responsibility. But given actual responsibility, they have to act in a different way. I don’t blame him.

Naga rebels can be liquidated

Q. What do you think of the rebel Nagas and Mizos?

A. When my Chief of Staff, General J. N. Chaudhuri, asked me to come over to the Eastern Command as the GOC-in-C in 1964 from the Western, I was initially not keen. But when he said my services were needed to tackle, among other things, the old insurgency of the underground Nagas and the unrest of the Bengalis, I accepted the assignment. The eastern theatre was very lucky for me. With Gen. Rawley, then Divisional Commander, Nagaland (now GOC-in-C, Eastern Command), between us we broke the back of Naga insurrection. The situation there is now steadying, I believe. May be a handful of people never want to surrender. But they will get liquidated in time. Nagaland administration is progressing extremely well.

The Mizo insurgency started while I was here. Like all guerrilla warfare, it is extremely difficult to know who a guerrilla is and who is not.

Arms for Naxalites

Q. How about Pakistan supplying arms, etc., to the rebels?

A. Very little possibility indeed because any supply will have to come by ship in a roundabout detour. They got supplies from the Chinese in the past. But that also involves long haul.

Q. Are Naxalites in any event a very small group compared to the Nagas or Mizos?

A. A hundred or 200 guerillas can effectively tie down a vast number of the Army, especially when the terrain is extremely difficult as in Nagaland or Mizoram. And the rebel Mizos would not be more numerous than 400 or 500. Honestly, I have no knowledge of the existing strength of underground Nagas.

Q. What about the Mizoram Chief Minister, Mr Chhunga’s reported support to the rebel demand for direct negotiation with the Government of India?

A. It is bound to happen. Naturally everyone wants to talk to the people at the top. Natural, again, for Delhi to uphold the prestige of the local administration. The dispute has, however, to be sorted out by the people of the area among themselves.

Don’t trust politicians!

Q. Have you anything to say on the Nagaland and Mizoram Chief Ministers’ reported suggestion to suspend Army operation and withdraw Army pickets?

A. I am not sure if those suggestions were really made. Troops have to be posted at international borders. Army operation started in Nagaland and Mizoram when there had been disturbances. For that matter, Army presence was also needed to meet the dacoit menace in Madhya Pradesh. The Army have in any case to be located somewhere in the country. They are called out in times of need but remain within barracks at other times. In both Nagaland and Mizoram, Army pickets had to be posted for protecting roads, convoys of essential supply, etc. Even in the North-West Frontier Province of undivided India and the Jammu and Kashmir State, Army units stand by (to come to the assistance of the civil administration). Don’t read too much in the statement of a Chief Minister. He is a politician and has often to say things for his own party. His views are not always that of the administration.

Q. What are your views about prolonging Emergency which empowers the Government to detain people without trial under the Defence of India Rules?

A. Emergency was declared, if I remember correctly, during the Bangladesh trouble in 1971. Like all taxes, Emergency once imposed is difficult for the authorities to take off. Now, you must also agree that certain people owe allegiance to outside forces, say, some to Pakistan, some to China, still others to Russia. The Government naturally takes upon itself the duty of guarding the country’s interests.

Rehabilitate demobbed (demobilised) jawans

Q. You warned the country in your Rotary talk against neglecting the resettlement of demobbed Jawans. Do you have any specific scheme?

A. These Jawans are very innocent, live a sheltered life. Most of the jobs are in cities but they are not used to city life by and large. To obtain jobs after they are demobbed fairly early in life because the Army must be kept young, these Jawans are required to knock about the employment exchanges. More often than not, they are cold-shouldered and rarely they land any job. Returning home in the villages, they grumble and fall into bad company. I wonder whether concerted efforts can be made jointly by the administration and the industry to provide employment to nearly 50,000 educated, mentally alert, physically fit and disciplined Jawans struck off the Army rolls every year. The need for employing them should be of mutual interest because unlike the labour force of the day, they are not likely to give trouble. The Army authorities have tried several schemes but the response from the industry had been poor so far. If this excellent material gets frustrated, in ten years, society may be threatened with half-a-million potential killers.

Unquestioned loyalty to India

Q. What did you actually say at Sandhurst last year about your preferring UK to India as the place for your permanent settlement after retirement?

A. Nothing of the kind. I made no Press statement like that in the UK where I had stayed for about three months from April 1973. I never gave a talk on the subject either. In the course of informal, friendly discussions, I remember, I was asked about my intentions to settle after retirement. Without a moment’s hesitation, I replied it would be India, the Nilgiris to be precise where my wife had built a beautiful house. To the hypothetical question where outside India I would like to stay, I said: Naturally UK. I know the British, know their language, whereas elsewhere I will have to get myself familiar with the people and learn their language refresh.

(In this context, the Field Marshal himself referred to another controversial Press report from Delhi about the same time. The report had alleged that the F.M. had been invited by the late Mr M. A. Jinnah to go over to Pakistan at the time of Partition and also that if he had been the Chief of the Army there during Bangladesh conflict, he would have defeated the Indian Army.)

I was horrified, he remarked, when I saw the news item. People raised much dust on the subject in Parliament and outside. Actually, an 18-year old girl representing some magazine interviewed me and asked me personal questions in addition to examining my residence. Seeing my wife’s and my beds in two separate rooms, she expressed surprise and I had to explain that my wife would not sleep in the same room with me because I snore.

However, to her questions, I said Mr Jinnah had invited me to join the Pakistan Army. But I rejected the offer because I was born in Amritsar and married a beautiful girl from Bombay, my years of association with the Frontier Force notwithstanding. When she asked what would have happened in the Bangladesh conflict if I had gone over, I slapped her bottom and quipped: I would have smacked you like this. Strange stroke of ill-luck that some people should be so much wanting in a sense of humour.

I like Calcutta

Q. What is the object of your present Calcutta visit?

A. I was invited by the Rotary Club of Calcutta to be their chief guest at the installation ceremony on July 2. I readily accepted. I never miss an opportunity of visiting Calcutta, the wonderful city of charming Bengalis. Because I can meet a number of old friends, I am always nostalgic about Calcutta. The four and a half years I was in this city (as the GOC-in-C, Eastern Command from 1964) were my happiest years.

Q. What changes do you notice in Calcutta?

A. Very difficult to tell after a less than three days’ stay. I’ll say this much: This is the safest city in the country to live in. People here can walk about the streets any time without fear of molestation. I can’t say the city is cleaner but you must consider that it is thickly populated, if not more then (what I found) before. More beggars are also encountered any time your car pulls up at the red traffic light.

I am a keen gardener

Q. How do you keep yourself occupied now?

A. My wife has built a beautiful house in the Nilgiris. We have four Labrador dogs, a cow and a few chicken. I look after them. I am also a keen gardener. My garden has 200 rose plants, a number of gladioli, chrysanthemum and dahlias, for which some handsome bulbs have been sent by my Calcutta friends. Out of the 3.5 acre our house has been built on, I have grown 6,000 tea plants on 1.5 acre on the hill top. I have my hands full, therefore, with the usual domestic work. During my four years as Chief of Staff, I was so busy wlith my administrative job that my wife used to grouse and grumble. Now I try to make up for that neglect.

I remain out of my place for about seven to ten days in a month lecturing here, addressing groups of people there. Back home, I catch up with the correspondence.

Q. What are your future plans?

A. None. I have had my full quota. It’s a long time from 1932 to 1973 (in the Army). I am now 60. Physically fit. (He looked it every inch of his slim, upright figure). I am very fond of music, have an excellent Hi Fi equipment. But my wife often shouts at it.

Q. What has been your contribution to the country although no longer the Army Chief of Staff?

A. I go round where people want my advice as an elder statesman.

Q. Did the Government of India ask for your advice since your retirement?

A. No request of any kind from the GOI. I don’t think there is any need either, for there are younger but competent people.

The post An Interview With The Field Marshal appeared on Parsi Khabar.

Tata Sons, promoter of the major operating Tata companies, appointed top-ranked investment strategist Farida Khambata as the first woman independent director in the company’s 103-year history. With the appointment of Khambata, global strategist at emerging markets-focused investment firm Cartica Capital, Tata Sons’ board has expanded to seven members.

Cartica Capital, set up by former executives of International Finance Corporation (IFC), an arm of World Bank and that manages assets worth over $2.6 billion, has investments in TTK Prestige, Page Industries (the Indian franchise of Jockey International), Ratnakar Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services in India.

Khambata had joined Cartica from IFC where she last held the position of regional vice-president in charge of operations in East Asia and the Pacific, South Asia, Latin America and the Carribbean.

While Khambata is the first woman professional to be a part of the Tata Sons board, Navajbai Tata, wife of Sir Ratan Tata, the younger son of Tata Group founder Jamsetji Tata, was the first woman from the promoter family to join the Tata Sons board. In 1918, following the premature death of Sir Ratan Tata, Navajbai was appointed a director on the Tata Sons board and she held that position till her death in 1965.

Khambata’s appointment indicates Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry’s increased preference for new and external faces on the company’s board, a shift from the past where most of its directors were Tata Group executives. Earlier, Tata Sons directors were also part of the group executive council that provided strategic and operational support to then Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata. Now the Tata Sons board and the group executive council have separate members under Mistry.

At present, besides two Tata executives, Ishaat Hussain and R Gopalakrishnan, the rest on the Tata Sons board are external members__Khambata, Ronen Sen, Vijay Singh and Nitin Nohria.

While Nohria, dean of Harvard Business School and Singh, former defence secretary, were appointed as independent directors on Tata Sons board in 2013, Sen, former ambassador of India to the United States, was appointed along with Khambata. Sen had previously served as an independent director on the board of Tata Group’s flagship Tata Motors.

The post Farida Khambata Appointed as Tata & Sons’ first ever woman director appeared on Parsi Khabar.

Parsis were among the first settlers in Mumbai in the 17th century and they started consecrating their fire temples (Agiaries and Atash Behrams) over the next 200 years.

In the past decade, the minuscule community (barely over 40,000 in Mumbai) was relieved when most of these temples were notified under the city’s heritage rules, which protected their lands from the prying eyes of land sharks.

However, the controversial new development plan has failed to mark as many as 24 fire temples as Heritage Grade II A and Grade III A structures, thereby removing the protection that they enjoyed. This is yet another dubious move by the civic planners who prepared the development plan. Earlier, TOI had reported how the plan has shown roads cutting through heritage church properties.

A study done by the Urban Design Research Institute (UDRI) has shown that the two dozen fire temples not marked on the DP include Seth Hormasji Bomanji Wadia Atash Behram (Shehenshahi) at Dhobi Talao, Seth Jejeebhoy Dadabhoy Agiary at Colaba, Bai Phirozbai Dadabhoy Maneckji Wachha Agiary at Fort, Bai Pirojbai Dadabhoy Maneckji Vactha Agiary at Churchgate and Seth Nasemanji Ratanji Tata Agiary at Bandra.

Pankaj Joshi, executive director of UDRI, said, “The draft DP has deleted 24 Agiary sites from the 2002 notified list of Parsi fire temples in Mumbai. These deletions clubbed with reservations such as reserved open spaces and other amenities on heritage sites will sound the death knell of significant cultural and architectural heritage of Mumbai.”

Conservation architects say fire temples that have existed for centuries are known to form an integral part of the city’s social and cultural fabric.

Architect Vikas Dilawari said it is unclear whether it is an oversight or an omission. “These fire temples, however, were not a part of the existing heritage list of 1995 and were an addition to the notified list. Many a times, these religious places have a higher FSI and therefore it’s even more important that their heritage tag be protected. These places of worship are an integral part of the city,” said Dilawari.

Community members say fire temples have acted like a marker for the existence of the community, which has been in Mumbai for centuries. Author and Parsi historian Firoza Punthakey Mistree said, “These are heritage buildings and much more thought needs to go into the draft DP. These heritage structures have a unique combination of Indian and Iranian architecture and, therefore, add great value to a cosmopolitan city like ours.”

Other community members added that religious sites need to be tagged as they document a community’s growth.

“It forms a very important part of the community’s fabric, which then gets interwoven into the city’s fabric. As these structures are easy to identify, these should be marked,” said Pheroza Godrej.

DP department officials said most structures will be incorporated in the final list once the government notifies them.

The post Mumbai City Development Plan forgets to mark as many as 24 fire temples as heritage structures appeared on Parsi Khabar.

You’ve seen them at the peak of their careers — P Chidambaram, Dimple Kapadia, Rajdeep Sardesai, Shashi Tharoor and many more.

But what were they like when they were 25? What was India like when they were that young? And what can young India learn from their lives?

Shaili Chopra‘s book, When I was 25, traces the youth of these (among many other) successful personalities as they open up about the challenges they faced and the choices they made to reach where they are today.

In the following extract, Chopra narrates the steady and inspiring rise of Zia Mody:

Dealmaker or dealbreaker, Zia Mody is a quintessential workaholic, and thrives on long, busy days.

She is among India’s most prolific lawyers and a mascot for career women who pursue their passions despite familial responsibilities.

She believes nothing should come in the way of your ability to work and you should give it your best shot.

She is driven, honest, never ducks from hard work, and has to her credit some of the country’s top deals.

And this success has almost nothing to do with the house she was born in.

Former Attorney General Soli Sorabjee’s daughter may have chosen law inspired by her dad’s experience but Zia Mody is a woman after her own dreams and passions.

In a career spanning three decades, she has built a formidable reputation in corporate law and is known to clinch deals for clients when seemingly all hope is lost.

She is heard.

Her experience brings gravitas.

She engages with the young and the greyed with equal elan.

I am slated to meet Zia Mody in her office at Nariman Point in Mumbai and Zia arrives in an elegant pink outfit.

She is carrying a tiny box, which she unclips to reveal a lovely string of big pearls.

These are her permanent baubles, her fashion statement that India Inc has come to identify her with.

Her elegant dressing, razor sharp mind, and pertinent questions — these are the defining features of our meeting.

We are chatting over a cup of tea with jaggery, as she avoids processed sugar for health reasons.

The last decade, one can say, has been Zia’s.

She has occupied headlines for cracking big deals.

And behind the success is a story of remarkable grit and intuitive learning in India’s courts which can disillusion and dissuade any hot shot lawyer in a single day.

Dirty courtrooms, a male-dominated profession, tough colleagues and more.

‘Women were regarded as a mysterious exception, especially in litigation.

‘But things have certainly changed for the better,’ she recalls with amusement.

For someone who wanted to be an airhostess as a young girl, Zia’s twenties redefined her life and her career.

‘I have had an overriding passion and I loved the law.’

Mody’s early education was at Elphinstone College, Mumbai.

She went on to study law at Selwyn College, Cambridge University, followed by a Master’s degree from Harvard Law School in 1979.

She passed the New York State Bar examination, and qualified as an attorney in the State of New York.

As a dynamic leader, Zia has always encouraged young talent around her. She believes it brings her an added advantage, improves her team, and helps her connect and learn with the new generation.

‘There is a bounce in my step when a youngster wins an argument against me of a legal nature. I see it on a legal point, I learn.’

Zia Mody arrived back in India at 23 by when she had already spent time working with Baker & McKenzie in New York City.

‘There I was, one of many, getting honed and figuring out the skill sets needed to grow into a lawyer,’ she remembers.

‘My understanding was getting sharpened and I was doing great corporate work.’

But when she returned to India, Zia stepped into the real courts, in her black band and gown, dealing with cases on a daily basis compared with more research and case studies of corporate houses across deal tables as was her experience as a junior in the US.

The post The steady, inspiring rise of Zia Mody appeared on Parsi Khabar.

Rattana Pestonji  was a Thai Indian film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer and is regarded as the father of contemporary Thai film. Although his filmography was brief, his films placed Thai cinema on the world stage. He also pushed for innovations, and was one of the first Thai directors to use 35-mm film. He died just as he was giving a speech to government officials to call for support of a domestic industry he saw as coming under threat from Hollywood films.

Born     Rattan Pestonji (1908-05-22)May 22, 1908 Bangkok, Thailand

Died     August 17, 1970(1970-08-17) (aged 62) Bangkok, Thailand

Other names     R. D. Pestonji

Occupation     Film director, cinematographer, screenwriter

Years active     1930s–1970

Awards     Asia Pacific Film Festival

Best cinematography 1954, Santi-Weena

Early life

He was born Rattan Pestonji (also sometimes referred to as R. D. Pestonji or Ratt Pestonji) in Bangkok, to a family of Parsis (Indian Zoroastrians).[2][3][4][5] At an early age, he showed an avid interest in photography. He was so adept at dismantling and reassembling his camera, that it was decided he should study engineering at the University of London.

Between studies in London, he was able to take photos and he picked up several awards in photographic competitions.

He returned to Thailand with an engineering degree, but continued to pursue his interest in photography and found a job as a film salesman. It was then he began to explore an art form that was still in its infancy – cinematography.

His first films

In 1937, Rattana shot his first film, a short called Tang, about a young Thai girl. Tang won the Amateur Cine Competition in Glasgow, Scotland and Rattana was given the Alfred Hitchcock award. He made another short called White Boat in 1939 and it was shown at the New York World Festival.

Rattana continued his work in film sales, but he was given his big break into filmmaking in 1949 when he was asked by Prince Bhanu Yugala to act as a cameraman on the film Phanthaay Norasingh (Oarsman Norasingh). Rattana showed great talent as a cinematographer.

Around this time, Rattana formed his own studio, Hanuman Films Company. He directed his first feature film, Dear Dolly in 1951.

Pushing for innovations

In each of his films, Rattana sought to experiment and raise the standard of production. At a time when post-dubbed 16 mm films were the industry standard in Thailand, Rattana wanted to use 35 mm stock, which was more expensive and technically difficult to work with, but it allowed for the sound to be recorded along with the image.

His first 35-mm film was the drama, Santi-Weena, on which he worked as cinematographer only. It was directed by Tawee na Bangchang (better known as “Kru Marut”) with a screenplay by Vichit Kounavudhi.

Santi-Weena was among the first Thai films to be sent to an overseas competition, the 1954 Asia Pacific Film Festival in Tokyo. It was a sensation, sweeping the awards for best cinematography, art direction and the Golden Harvest Award for best Asian cultural presentation.[1]

Still, Rattana would run afoul of the Thai government, and upon his return from the festival, he was charged $5,000 tax for the $16,000 Mitchell Camera he won, and was fined 1,000 baht for failing to clear his film with the Thai censor.

Career as director

Undaunted, Rattana continued his work, working as cinematographer on the romantic drama Chuafah Din Salai (Dying Forever) and then taking the director’s chair for Rongraem Nark.

For Rongraem Narok, (literally hotel hell, but entitled Country Hotel in English), he employed the use of one camera on a single set, similar to Hitchcock’s 1948 film, Rope. The film had a bit of everything – rustic comedy, music (including a full ballad by a Filipina singer), rough-and-tumble action and dark, thrilling drama.

His first color film was 1958’s Sawan Mued (Dark Heaven), which featured songs and some dramatic battlefield scenes.

Next was Prae Dum (Black Silk), which is regarded as Thailand’s first film noir (though Country Hotel had film noir elements as well). It is regarded as Rattana’s best work. He performed almost all the major tasks himself, acting as writer, producer, director, cinematographer and editor. For his efforts, Prae Dum was included in competition at the 11th Berlin International Film Festival in 1961.

His final film was made in 1965, Nahmtaan Mai Waan (Sugar Is Not Sweet). A romantic farce, it is a vibrant film that takes visual cues from the pop-art style of Western films of the time.

Death while giving a speech

While Rattana was artistically respected, his films – featuring unhappy endings – were mostly commercial failures.

Frustrated, he retired from filmmaking. However, he continued to be involved with the industry and was a tireless lobbyist. He co-founded and headed the Thai Film Producers Association.

On the night of August 17, 1970, at the Montien Hotel in Bangkok, Rattana was set to address film producers and Thai government officials in a meeting called to discuss ways of supporting the film industry.

Finally, at 9 pm, after an address by Economics Minister Bunchana Atthakorn and speeches by numerous other filmmakers and officials, Rattana’s time to speak came. Here is an accounting of his speech:

“     When I first started out in the movie business … Sadet Ong Chai Yai [Prince Bhanu Yugala] had just hired me as a cameraman for a film he wanted to shoot called Phanthaay Norasingh. I’ve spent every baht I ever earned on my productions and now I have to make adverts just to survive. The foreign film distributors have been preying on Thai cinemas …     ”

Rattana faltered then collapsed to the floor. He was rushed to nearby Chulalongkorn Hospital, but he died three hours later of a massive coronary.[1]

Legacy

Rattana’s death was the first of two tough blows for the burgeoning Thai industry in 1970, for later in the year, it would lose its biggest star, Mitr Chaibancha, in a fatal accident during the filming of a stunt.

A few days after Rattana’s death, the government did set up the Thai Film Promotion Board, which would be responsible for promoting and encouraging investment in Thai films. But to this day there is still no direct government support for the Thai film industry and foreign films continue to dominate the domestic cinema landscape.

Movies made in the Thai studio system, such as Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior, fare better in local cinemas, while indie directors such as Apichatpong Weerasethakul are left to seek funding from overseas backers.

Still, Rattana’s legacy is recognizable. His films are cited as a major influence by Wisit Sasanatieng, a Thai film director whose acclaimed Tears of the Black Tiger (Fah Talai Jone) was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000.[8]

The studio that Rattana started, Hanuman Films Company, is still operated by his family. It is now called Santa International Film Productions and it provides technical support and equipment to foreign film productions. Santa Pestonji directed a remake of Santi-Weena in 1976. The original version of Santi-Weena has become a lost film.

Rattana’s films are periodically shown in retrospectives at film festivals. The 10th Pusan International Film Festival screened Sugar Is Not Sweet, Black Silk, Country Hotel and Dark Heaven.[7] He was posthumously awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2004 Bangkok International Film Festival.

The R. D. Pestonji Award, the top prize of the Thai Short Film and Video Festival, is named in his honor.

Filmography

Tang (short) (1937) – (Thai: แตง)

White Boat (short) (1939)

Phanthaay Norasingh (Oarman Norasingh) (cinematographer) (1949) – (Thai: พันท้ายนรสิงห์)

Tukkata Jaa (Dear Dolly) (1951) – (Thai: ตุ๊กตาจ๋า)

Santi-Weena (cinematographer) (1954) – (Thai: สันติ-วีณา)

Chuafah Din Salai (Forever Yours) (cinematographer) (1955) – (Thai: ชั่วฟ้าดินสลาย)

Rongraem Narok (Country Hotel) (1957) – (Thai: โรงแรมนรก)

Sawan Mued (Dark Heaven) (1958) – (Thai: สวรรค์มืด)

Phrae Dum (Black Silk) (1961) – (Thai: แพรดำ)

Namtarn Mai Warn (Sugar Is Not Sweet) (1964) – (Thai: น้ำตาลไม่หวาน)

Further reading: http://www.thaicinema.org/Essays_05The-Man-Who-Died.php

Original source: Wikipedia

The post Rattana Pestonji: Pioneering Thai film director appeared on Parsi Khabar.

JRD Tata was a visionary who established civil aviation in India for the benefit of its people, Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata said on Saturday after unveiling an AirAsia India aircraft with JRD Tata livery.

The livery of AirAsia India’s fourth aircraft, unveiled at a function Hyderabad on Saturday and dedicated to the founder of civil aviation in the country, dons an image of JRD Tata with a Puss Moth, the aircraft he flew on October 15, 1932, leading to the birth of Tata Airlines and launch of civil aviation in the subcontinent.

Tata Sons holds 30 per cent stake in AirAsia India in the domestic arm of the Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia. While AirAsia holds 49 per cent in the joint venture, the rest 21 per cent stake are with Arun Bhatia of Telestra TardePlace.

“JRD Tata was a visionary. He established civil aviation in India because he believed that the country and its people must benefit from what the rest of the world did. I am happy that AirAsia India is paying tribute to him,” Tata said.

The aircraft has been christened as ‘The Pioneer.” Besides Tata, the unveiling was done by Tony Fernandes, Group Chief Executive Officer of AirAsia, Mittu Chandilya, CEO, AirAsia and S Ramadorai, non-executive chairman of AirAsia India, at GMR Aero Technic MRO Hanger.

Stating that AirAsia India’s special livery pays tribute to the man who pioneered aviation in India, Fernandes said AirAsia shares the same passion and zeal JRD Tata had towards setting up an airline in India. “We will continue the legacy,” he said.

“AirAsia is all about daring to dream and our dream is to further elevate Indian aviation by introducing lower fares, providing more choice and creating jobs. This is the perfect homage to honour the Tatas and celebrate our partnership,” Fernandes said.

In an obvious criticism of domestic players who are opposing government’s new proposed norms for international operations by the Indian airlines, Fernandes said competition should prevail over other things as that would benefit the public.

“AirAsia will fight those who try to protect the status quo by lobbying for antiquated rules. Indian people must be put first before those who just lobby to protect their own bottom line as opposed to competing,” he said.

The current rules allow only those domestic airlines to fly abroad who have flown for five years on local routes and have 20 aircraft fleet. The proposed norms, however, which are being opposed by the domestic airlines lobby Federation of Indian Airlines, would make an start-up Indian carrier fly on overseas routes in two to two-and-a-half years time.

Besides, proposing to reduce the 20 aircraft requirement to five, the draft rules have also linked the international operations to domestic flying credits (DFCs).

Describing JRD Tata as the man without whom flying in India would not have been possible, Chandliya said, “We wanted to celebrate the growth of AirAsia India by honouring the man without whom flying would have been impossible in India. The Tata group has shaped Indian aviation to a great extent and has been a huge support to the AirAsia India team as well.”

AirAsia India takes pride in launching its fourth aircraft by reliving the magic of JRD Tata, he said adding, “with another addition to our fleet, we will soon make flying, a possibility for every Indian.”

“Today is a landmark occasion for us as we take great pride in unveiling this special aircraft to honour Mr JRD Tata for his contribution to our nation. The JRD- Tata livery, dedicated to him will mark the journey of his contribution and legacy as a token of our gratitude. Today, we celebrate the courage of a pioneer and his undying spirit,” Ramadorai said.

AirAsia India at present operates from its base Bengaluru to Chennai, Kochi, Goa, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Pune with a fleet of three Airbus A320s.

Photographs, courtesy: AirAsia

The post AirAsia unveils aircraft with JRD Tata livery appeared on Parsi Khabar.

In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a law made in Maharashtra in 1977, which requires that before courts get into the facts of a case, they should decide on jurisdiction when questions are raised on issues, including that of delay beyond a legally set bar of three years.

The verdict, by a bench of Justices M Y Eqbal and Kurian Joseph, comes on a bunch of appeals against separate orders passed by the Bombay high court in disputes mostly over property development.The court has held that section 9A of the Maharashtra Amendment Act, 1977, is a law by itself and deters litigants from filing suits beyond a three-year limitation. The law was intended to end “frivolous, belated suits“ against the government. The SC was asked to decide on the section’s constitutional validity in 2012. Wednesday’s verdict is a setback to industrialist Nusli Wadia, who had dragged to court Ferani Hotels, a group company of the late real estate baron G L Raheja and now managed by his son Sandeep, over development of vast tracts of land in Malad. Wadia had based his plea on a 2008 cancellation of a 1995 agreement between the two where he was the sole administrator of the land and had given development rights to Ferani in lieu of a 12% return on sale proceeds.

Justice Eqbal, writing the judgment, said section 9A mandates a court to decide its jurisdiction before proceeding with a case and granting interim relief by way of injunction.The term “jurisdiction“ has a wide connotation, the SC said.

The SC did not accept Wadia’s counsel Fali Nariman’s contention that the question of law and facts were to be decided together and only those of law cannot be decided first.

Nariman and Wadia’s solicitor Shrikant Doijode had argued in the HC that the Raheja company had committed fraud and had thus ended the deal disentitling any further development on the land by Raheja. Ferani had denied the fraud allegations and said Wa dia knew since 2000 that all transactions were genuine, thus making his suit timebarred.

The SC accepted the contentions of Ferani’s legal team, including Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid, Abhishek Singhvi, Ashwani Kumar and advocate Vivek Vashi that a court’s jurisdiction must mandatorily be decided first before going into the merits of a case. The SC ruling may be challenged in a review, said a lawyer. But if it isn’t, it may mean that Wadia will have to testify and be crossexamined in the HC to prove why his suit against Raheja is not barred by limitation.

The post Setback to Wadia in land battle as Supreme Court upholds old Act appeared on Parsi Khabar.

Rohinton Erach Kadva writes in

Appeal to preview and purchase my book entitled ‘Enlarged Compendium of Zoroastrian Calendars’.

I am a civil engineer settled with my wife in Bangalore for the past 36 years. I have authored a book entitled ‘Enlarged Compendium of Zoroastrian Calendars – 1384 Yz (2014 CE) through 1500 Yz (2132 CE) under Kadmi, Shenshai & Fasli Systems’ which is available for preview and purchase on Pothi.com’s store at http://pothi.com/pothi/node/185445

In this oeuvre, I have attempted to present the Gregorian dates for all days (Roj’s) and months (Mah’s) for each month of 118 Yazdegerdi years from 1384 Yz (2014 CE) through 1500 Yz (2132 CE) in such a manner that this information is available on the same page under all three systems, viz. Kadmi, Shenshai & Fasli, currently in use for Zoroastrian Calendars.

Moreover, I have included information pertaining to formation of the three systems of Zoroastrian calendars as well as evolution of names of Roj’s and Mah’s from the Pre-Gathic to Post-Pahalvi Eras. A schedule of Zoroastrian Festivals has been included, too.

I hope that this book will be immensely useful to all practising Zoroastrians, both the clergy and the laity. I also hope that this book will help students of Zoroastrianism.

I shall thank you to kindly visit the web-store, preview and purchase the book; and also pass-on the information to your friends, relatives and acquaintances, too.

Best regards,

Rohinton Erach Kadva

Bangalore

The post Enlarged Compendium of Zoroastrian Calendars appeared on Parsi Khabar.

A quaint heritage Parsi hospital property built in 1895 and lying defunct for several decades in the prime Fort area of south Mumbai will be redeveloped into an orthopaedic and neurosurgery centre.

Article by Nauzar Bharucha | TNN

Last week, six of the seven trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayat (BPP) finalized an agreement with the private healthcare group Krimson Health Venture. But Punchayat chairman Dinshaw Mehta has opposed the deal and challenged it in the Bombay high court. Mehta said the BPP should have invited bids by making a public announcement to get the best deal from other players in the healthcare sector. His co-trustees denied the allegation, stating that the Krimson offer was the best they had received.

The court is scheduled to decide the case by late April. The Dr Tehmulji’s Parsi Lying-in Hospital, near New Excelsior cinema off D N Road, has not been functioning for close to three decades now. The BPP, Mumbai’s largest private landlord, has unsuccessfully tried to either sell the property or redevelop it.

For generations, Parsi women delivered their babies in these high-ceilinged rooms and, as was the post-natal practice of the time, continued to stay on for as long as 40 days to recuperate.

But over time the hospital fell into disuse because mothers preferred to head home after delivery. The six trustees, Khojeste Mistree, Yazdi Desai, Jimmy Mistry, Arnavaz Mistry, Muncherji Cama and Armaity Tirandaz, who signed the consent terms with Krimson, claimed that the firm had offered the best deal to redevelop the property. Besides offering a lease rental of Rs 1 crore a year to the BPP, Krimson also agreed to treat for free 10% of inpatients and outpatients belonging to the Parsi Irani community. Under the agreement, Krimson will build a new hospital for an estimated Rs 46 crore and allot an area of up to 6,000 sq ft to the BPP (if FSI permits it) for its offices within the hospital premises.

“The consent terms will enable the hospital property, which has been lying unused and defunct for more than 20 years, to be put to good public use and will serve the interests of the Parsi community as well,” said the majority trustees. “It will not be a money-spinner for the BPP, but at least the property will be put to good use,” they said.

But Mehta maintained that no public advertisement was given for the alienation/lease of the 1,918 sq yard property. “Approval of the charity commissioner was obtained fraudulently… The undue haste in the office of the charity commissioner and conduct of the managing committee of the hospital clearly shows that there was a predetermined attempt to lease the land only to respondent no 18 (Krimson) for reasons which are not far to see,” said Mehta in his affidavit.

The property had received several offers in the past decade and a half. The neighbouring Cathedral and John Connon School had once offered to buy the property for Rs 35 crore. The Hinduja Group, which had plans to start a super-speciality hospital, also had put in its bid. The Ambanis and Shapoorji Pallonji, too, had shown interest in the hospital property.

The post Row over Parsi hospital’s pact with private firm goes to Bombay High Court appeared on Parsi Khabar.

Cemeteries as Historical Evidence

In Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia, Mitra Sharafi argues that rather than trying to maintain collective autonomy and integrity by avoiding interaction with the state, the Parsis sank deep into the colonial legal system itself. One way their unique identity was evident was in the cemeteries they dedicated for their dead.

Article By Mitra Sharafi

I didn’t expect to spend time in cemeteries when I began work on Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia: Parsi Legal Culture, 1772-1947. Quickly, though, cemetery trips became a personal tradition. At first, they did not seem to be an essential part of my research. They started as a way to while away my Sunday afternoons during solo research trips abroad, when my archives were closed. Soon, I was hooked. Cemetery visits across Eurasia added color and context to my historical subjects’ lawsuits and legal careers. From London to Rangoon, I came to see graveyards as a special kind of archive.

My book is about the Parsis, South Asian followers of the ancient Persian religion of Zoroastrianism. The community’s death rites are famous. Bodies are consigned to cylindrical stone structures known as Towers of Silence (in Gujarati, dakhma), where vultures consume the corpses. Picked clean, the bones are deposited in the hollow center of a tower, mixing with other Parsis’ now powdered bones. Religious sensitivities and Zoroastrian purity laws prevent anyone but hereditary corpse bearers (Guj. nasasalar) from getting too close. I am neither Parsi nor Zoroastrian, and kept a respectful distance from Mumbai’s Towers, which sit in the middle of a lush, tropical garden in the old colonial neighborhood of Malabar Hill.

In places where the Parsi population was too small to sustain towers, Parsis were buried in cemeteries instead of being exposed to vultures. Parsi cemeteries were (and are) varied and beautiful. One morning, I was jogging in the woods of Matheran, a favorite Parsi hill station outside of Mumbai. I followed a pack of friendly stray dogs to a tiny Parsi cemetery, tucked away on a shaded side-path. It contained small, tilted headstones from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, including some from the Lord family, the Parsi family that owned my colonial-era hotel.  By contrast, the Zoroastrian section of Brookwood Cemetery outside of London houses the grand white stone mausoleums of the Tata and Wadia families, reflecting the dazzling wealth and global mobility of colonial Bombay’s “merchant princes.” The Tata family also occupies a corner of Paris’ stunning Père Lachaise cemetery. There lies Sooni Tata, a French woman (née Suzanne Brière) whose marriage into the Tata family triggered a famous lawsuit in Bombay over the admission of ethnic outsiders (Guj. juddin) into the Parsi Zoroastrian fold. Had Petit v. Jijibhai (1906-9) been decided differently, Mrs. Tata’s bones would now rest in the towers of Malabar Hill.

From London to Rangoon, I came to see graveyards as a special kind of archive.

There was also the Parsi cemetery—or remnants of it—that I visited outside of Rangoon (now Yangon) in Burma in 2006. My guide was a young man claiming to be the last Parsi in Burma. He was also a descendant of litigants in another major conversion case in my book, the Privy Council case of Saklat v. Bella (1914-25). This man and his father had rescued Parsi tombstones when Myanmar’s military regime confiscated the community’s cemetery in 1995. Relocated to a new plot of land assigned to the Parsis by the government, this collection of headstones now sat in bits and pieces, piled in a storage shed. The barely legible English and Gujarati text reconstructed fragments of the history of the Parsis of Burma, a diaspora of a diaspora. Traveling later in Texas to speak to a Parsi organization, I showed my local hosts an image of the Rangoon tombstone of a long-lost member of their family, a young woman who had moved from India to Burma in the early twentieth century. Nobody had known what had become of her.

I also visited non-Parsi cemeteries. In London, I made one trip to Paddington Old Cemetery looking for F. C. O. Beaman, a blind British judge whose 1928 obituary identified this graveyard as final resting place. The tombstone had been removed, but I located a great-grandson through an address on file with local authorities. This descendant told me of the judge’s part-Jewish ancestry, a fascinating fact given Beaman’s comments from the Bombay High Court bench likening Parsis to Jews. In Mumbai, another Sunday trip took me to Sewree Christian Cemetery in search of the grave of J. D. Inverarity, colonial Bombay’s most celebrated European barrister. This grave too was now unmarked, but the cemetery attendant produced a huge, crumbling register, efficiently locating the grave site and providing me with details on the famous Scottish lawyer. Like Parsis consigned to the towers, these Europeans left no lasting, personal space marking their individual deaths.

Together, these trips revivified for me the story-telling element of the historian’s craft. They brought to life—through death—the stories I wanted to tell.

The post Death and Legal History on Sunday Afternoons appeared on Parsi Khabar.