Senior Journalist and friend of Parsi Khabar, Nauzer Bharucha writes

A COMMUNITY SCARRED

“The Bombay High Court today allowed a metro rail tunnel to run under one of the most venerated Fire Temples of the Parsis in India—the 188-year-old Wadia Atash Behram in south Mumbai. The entire Parsi-Irani community is in a state of shock at this impending desecration of one of their holiest Fires consecrated way back in 1830. This is probably the first time in several centuries of the Parsis in India that the community feels that its religious sentiments have been hurt. Badly. And this has happened under the rule of the BJP government. A slew of appeals and petitions to the prime minister and chief minister fell on deaf ears. The Parsis did not want the metro rail project scrapped. All that they asked nay begged the government was to shift the tunnel just 4 metres outside the premises of the Atash Behram. This was feasible as many experts including a leading Italian tunnel specialist had shown. But the government and the metro authorities did not care. A distressed friend wrote to me: “The government Has shown us our true place..we are second grade citizens in this first rate country..”

Bombay HC allows Metro tunnelling under two fire temples

Swati Deshpande | TNN

The Bombay high court allowed tunnelling under consecrated premises of two heritage Atash Behrams—highest grade fire temples—for Mumbai Metro 3 with strict monitoring of work to ensure that no damage is caused to the structures. Continuous monitoring and necessary precautions will need to be taken with scientific experts’ guidance said the HC on Friday. The court dismissed a petition filed against the tunnelling work.

The HC also vacated the stay that had been granted in May and which had continued since. Pleas by senior counsel Navroz Seervai for a two week stay to enable an appeal before the Supreme Court was opposed by MMRCL counsel S G Aney who said Rs 4 crore is the loss faced daily for halted work as the TBM machine is on hold.

The HC vacated the existing stay and declined to stay its order, thus allowing MMRCL to even start with the tunnelling work as soon as the judgment becomes available.

The HC bench of Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice R G Karnik gave separate reasons in the concurrent verdict which has come as a blow to the Parsis who had filed the petition and the large number of people from the community who were supporting the petition.

The HC appeared to accept an expert panel report submitted by VJTI college which had recommended that tunnelling be permitted with certain safeguards to ensure no damage is caused to the temples or well water.

The HC too said on Friday that there should be monitoring of well water levels during the tunnelling and underground metro construction work.

Outside the Court room, leading petitioner Jamshed Sukhadwala expressed his sadness and disappointment at the ruling and lack of stay. Another petitioner Ratan Patel also said that at least a week’s stay could have been given. Both of them and their lawyer Zerick Dastur said that they would consider going in appeal once they peruse the judgment. The ruling runs into hundreds of pages and is not yet made available.

The petition was by structural engineer Sukhadwala and other prominent Parsis including a priest and a lawyer seeking re-alignment of the Metro-3 to avoid going under the two heritage Zoroastrian Atash Behrams, in the island city, one of which is 188 years old, the other 122. The station near the fire temples would be the Kalbadevi metro station in the 45 km Colaba- Bandra-Seepz underground metro 3 route.

The lengthy hearing in the matter had concluded well before Diwali vacations.

“Rights of public are larger than rights of a community,” senior counsel Aney appearing for Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) had argued. He had also said that the fundamental right of Parsis to practice religion was not being breached by the underground Metro-3 line.

The HC appears to have accepted that.

Aney is the former Maharashtra advocate general. The MMRCL said notification regarding the alignment had been issued.

Fredun Devitre, counsel for Atash Behram trustees, had argued that “The court will have to balance the scales…’’ adding, “A perfectly good alignment can be technically tweaked, if feasible.’’

Aney had said that rights of public who commute to work in Mumbai also has to be taken into account. “In this city if you can’t transport from one end of the city to another, you cannot live. Is it not a part of right to life?’’ he asked.

Aney said, “no fundamental right of Parsis is breached. It is not a case of Article 25—right to freely practice, profess and propagate religion—being breached.’’ The Parsis had through counsel Navroz Seervai argued at length that their right under Article 25 would be breached if Metro line is allowed to go under the Atash Behrams which house the highest grade fires, the only two of eight such in India.

Aney however had cited a series of Supreme Court judgments to argue that “the proper approach would require balancing the rights of petitioners against rights of rest of the citizens.’’ He said several Constitutional rights have to be considered, not just one.

He said, “Citizens have access to benefits …as also to live a life of dignity, work in comfortable environment and partake in wealth of the city. The state has a constitutional obligation to ensure the citizen is not deprived of these benefits and conveniences.”

Aney called for applying the ‘doctrine of proportionality’’ to aid the “exercise of balancing seemingly conflicting rights.”

Mumbai: High Court permits Metro III tunnel work under Fire Temples to continue

Nov 30, 2018, 14:29 IST | Arita Sarkar| Mid-Day

Chief Justice Naresh Patil, permitted the work to continue at the Anjuman and Wadiaji Atash Behrams, adding that certain conditions must be followed

The much-anticipated judgment regarding the Metro tunnel work under Fire Temples did not pan out well for the Parsi community on Friday as The Bombay High Court gave the nod for the tunnel boring work as part of Metro III construction connecting Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ.

Chief Justice Naresh Patil, permitted the work to continue at the Anjuman and Wadiaji Atash Behrams, adding that certain conditions must be followed. Among the conditions, Patil said that the team of experts constituted by the High Court would be present at the site, the equipment to monitor the structural stability will be installed permanently and continuous monitoring of the water level in the wells will be done.

After the order was pronounced, senior counsel Navroz Seervai representing Parsi community, asked for an extension of the stay order for two weeks until they were able to approach the Supreme Court. However, Patil turned down their request. The Parsi community are now planning to approach the Supreme Court for a stay next week.

The final arguments by the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRCL) and the Parsi community ended on October 8 in the Bombay High Court. The line is expected to run below two of the community’s highest seats of worship in the city, the Wadiaji Atashbehram and Anjuman Atashbehram, both at Princess Street.

The 33.5-km Metro III line would be underground. The line will connect Cuffe Parade business district in the extreme south of the city to SEEPZ in North-central suburbs of Mumbai.

Khushbu Solanki, a Rutgers Law graduate makes a compelling arguement for a Dokhma in Texas.

Khushbu writes…

Traditional Zoroastrian funerals require stone structures called Dakhmas — “Towers of Silence” — on which corpses are eaten by buzzards, because the Zoroastrian holy text bans other funeral methods.

Excarnatory funeral practices are classified as criminal “Abuse of Corpse” by many state statutes and constitute a misdemeanor to felony offense, thus making traditional Zoroastrian funerals illegal for the 11,000 Zoroastrians in the U.S.

The illegality forces Zoroastrian-Americans to transport their dead overseas which can be prohibitively expensive or to have funerals against their religious mandate.

In a recent scholarly legal article published in the Rutgers Journal of Law and Religion — titled: “Buried, Cremated, Defleshed by Buzzards?” — I analogized the Supreme Court case Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah, noting that Zoroastrianism and the Santeria religion both mandate practices involving dead bodies of people and animals. Employing the decision in that case, I argued that traditional Zoroastrian funerals should be legal through a 1^st Amendment Freedom of Religion Free Exercise Clause exemption.

Of the three tests courts could apply to a Zoroastrian funeral case, I advocated that courts use the test where an exemption would be granted unless the government could demonstrate a compelling reason not to.

Based on the government’s arguments in Hialeah, I predicted that the government in a Zoroastrian funeral case would argue that it has a compelling interest 1) in protecting public health, safety, and welfare; 2) in preventing the emotional injury that is likely to result from witnessing a religiously motivated excarnatory funeral; 3) in protecting the dead from desecration; and 4) in restrictive zoning.

The government’s interest in public health, safety, and welfare is not compelling because the government’s interest is limited to the degree of risk human corpses pose which is negligible according to the World Health Organization and the American Journal of Disaster Medicine. Further, Zoroastrian custom requires tying corpses down thus mitigating concerns about buzzards carrying off corpses. Moreover, several states have ‘body farm’ facilities which involve exposure of corpses to the elements and scavenging of corpses by animals, so differential treatment of ‘body farms’ and religiously-motivated excarnatory funerals would weaken the government’s argument.

The government’s interest in preventing the emotional injury that is likely to result from witnessing a religiously motivated excarnatory funeral is not compelling because the mourners of deceased Zoroastrians will not suffer emotional injury because they do not enter the Dakhma. Moreover, the excarnation does not occur within view of anyone, and it is a culturally accepted practice in the community.

Similarly, the government’s interest in protecting the dead from desecration is not compelling because whoever desires a traditional Zoroastrian funeral can say so in their Last Will and Testament.

However, the government’s interest in restrictive zoning is compelling, but only to the point of on par regulation with similarly situated enterprises such as body farms.

Given the need for buzzards to consume the corpse, the need to sun-bleach the bones after excarnation has occurred, and the state’s likely desire to zone Dahkmas far away from residential and commercial areas, a promising state to build a Dakhma in is Texas.

This is because the Forensic Anthropology Center or the body farm at Texas State University is well-established. Moreover, the local vulture population has already been used to study the effects of vulture scavenging on human decomposition as would occur in a Zoroastrian funeral.

Khushbu Solanki

Rutgers Law School graduate

Originally publised in India West

A cooperative housing society formed exclusively for Parsi community members in Sanjan town of south Gujarat has been fighting a legal battle for more than 25 years to expel a member. The main grouse against the member, fellow Parsi E E Sabawala, being that he sold society’s property to non-Parsi people.

The dispute erupted between Mazda Rise Cooperative Housing Society and one of the flat owners, Sabawala, after he built five shops in his apartment on the ground floor and sold two of the shops to Hindus – Umesh Patel and Jaysinh Anna More.

The moved led to the society passing a resolution to expel Sabawala for using society’s land for commercial purpose, for not paying maintenance and for selling the property to non-Parsi. This, the society resolved, was against the byelaws of the cooperative. Sabawala was sought to be expelled for “activities detrimental to the interest of the society”.

Since the dispute erupted in 1993, the legal battle was waged at myraid platforms– the civil court, the cooperative registrar, the district registrar, the state government and finally landed with the Gujarat high court.

The government held that Sabawala’s act of selling shops to non-Parsi was not against the interest of the society. A single-judge in the HC upheld the government’s stand, but a division bench ordered the government to reconsider the issue.

The government authority stuck to its decision and the issue landed back in the high court in 2015. The case was heard by Justice J B Pardiwala, who in an order released on Monday, upheld the government’s order that selling to non-Parsi was not against interest of society.

A special leave petition was filed challenging the HC order, which was mentioned before Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

Article by Yesha Kotak | Hindustan Times

Three days after the Bombay high court (HC) rejected their petition, members of the Parsi community moved the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday, seeking the realignment of a tunnel for the Metro-3 line that goes below two revered fire temples in the city.

A special leave petition was filed challenging the HC order, which was mentioned before Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi. The case is listed for an urgent hearing on Friday.“The [Metro] work goes on at a speed of 6 to 10 metres a day and the tunnel boring machine (TBM) is 100 metres away from Anjuman Atash Behram currently.

In 12 to 15 days, the TBM can be next to the fire temple, which is why we moved the Supreme Court when the stay wasn’t granted,” said Jamshed Sukhadwala, the petitioner in this case, who is represented by a team of lawyers headed by Zerick Dastur.

According to the petition, the Metro tunnel will affect the spiritual sanctity of the Atash Behram and could also cause structural damage to the heritage structure of two fire temples, Wadiaji Atash Behram and Anjuman Atash Behram at Princess Street and Kalbadevi respectively.

Atash Behram is the title accorded to the highest grade of consecrated fire in Zoroastrianism. The Wadiaji Atash Behram is 188 years old while the Anjuman Atash Behram is 121 years old. They are among eight Atash Behrams in India, four of which are in Mumbai.

The HC had accepted an expert panel report that recommended tunnelling be carried out with certain safeguards in place to ensure no damage is caused to the temples.

As per the existing Metro plans, the tunnel, which is part of the 45-km Colaba-Bandra-Seepz underground Metro-3 route, passes within the premises of these two fire temples. The community has asked for a seven and half metre realignment, of which three and a half metres has been approved.

However, the community wants the tunnel to not be under the premises of the Atash Behrams and instead be laid out outside the temple’s boundary wall.

Parsis take Atash Behram fight to SC

Article by Arita Sarkar | Mid Day

After the Bombay high court (HC) on November 30 allowed the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) to continue with the construction of the tunnel underneath the two Atash Behrams, the legal team representing the Parsi community filed a petition regarding the matter in the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday.

Apart from appealing against the HC judgment, the legal team comprising Advocate Zerick Dastur has sought a stay on the Metro construction work. “We have filed a special leave petition (SPL) challenging the Bombay HC order in the Atash Behram case before the Supreme Court. The matter was mentioned before the Chief Justice of India. The SC has placed it for urgent hearing on Friday,” Dastur said.

During the hearing on November 30, the bench comprising Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice R G Ketkar had turned down Senior Counsel Navroz Seervai’s request to extend the stay on Metro construction work for a couple of weeks until they could file a petition in the SC.

The community members are of the opinion that while the HC did not find their argument that the spiritual circuits of the Atash Behrams would be breached if the tunnel passed from underneath the fire temples “convincing and logical”, the judges did not even consider the structural aspect of it. “We are not against development. To resolve this issue amicably and to prevent further delay of the project, we had proposed eight alternative stations. But MMRC vehemently opposed it and even the court did not consider the same,” said Jamshed Sukhadwalla, the chief petitioner in the case.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, another member of the legal counsel said that while the grounds for the case would remain the same as mentioned in the writ petition, the SLP referred to the findings of the HC order.

“We were hoping that there would be some appreciation for the evidence. The HC judgment, however, has not considered any of the evidence that we put on record. This has been mentioned in the petition,” added the member.

Meanwhile, the HC judgment has allowed MMRCL to start construction of the tunnel underneath the Anjuman and Wadiaji Atash Behrams, but has added certain conditions. Apart from ensuring that no damage is caused to the Atash Behrams, the MMRC has been asked to adopt control-blasting method for boring tunnels, installing equipment to monitor levels of vibrations and water level of the wells among others.

We are thrilled to learn that our dearest friend and mentor Zerbanoo Gifford has been welcomed into the Honorable Society of the Knights of the Round Table.

Zerbanoo Gifford is the founder of the ASHA Centre near Flaxley, now globally recognised as one of the most vibrant places for young people to be empowered and taught the importance of sustainable living, the arts, and community understanding and action. Earlier this year 20 young Zoroastrians from all parts of the world gathered for a 10 day World Zoroastrian Young Leaders Forum. The 10 day event was the first of its kind.

Zerbanoo has just been welcomed into the ancient Honourable Society of the Knights of the Round Table, a three-hundred-year-old organisation set up to follow the chivalry of the knights of old with emphasis on (courtesy, mercy, faith, generosity and hospitality) as their model following in the footsteps of King Arthur and his knights.

Their motto “Non Nobis Solum Sed Toto Mundi Nati” translated means ” Not for us alone but for the whole world created.”

In 2003, following the sudden death of then Knight President Patrick, Earl of Limerick, the Society, hitherto an all-male club, elected to welcome the first female knight. Sylvia, Countess of Limerick, became the first lady knight.

The social and charitable programme undertaken by the knights has continued to flourish under succeeding Knight Presidents from, more recently, The Earl of Athlone to the now Rt Hon. Admiral Lord West of Spithead.

At a fabulous event worthy of Camelot, the President Admiral Lord West as King Arthur knighted Zerbanoo in the Armourers’ Hall in London. Attending her was her husband, the international lawyer Richard, and their youngest son, the play-write Alex, and the director of the ASHA Centre Adrian Locher. Alex and Adrian both escorted Zerbanoo to the knighting ceremony as ancient symbols of her two squires who presented her to King Arthur.

Also present was the evening’s guest speaker Cressida Dick, the first woman head of the Metropolitan police. For Zerbanoo it was an auspicious evening, as it was exactly one hundred years since women were given the vote. Zerbanoo had dedicated her life to women’s representation at every level of society and especially in public life. Zerbanoo mused that the PM was a woman, as were the leaders of the Scottish and Northern Ireland Parliaments and House of Lords. The head of the TUC, CBI, Post Office and even Fire brigade in London were women. Very recently, the wonderful Dr Who had decided to become a woman!

Zerbanoo has also been a recent guest speaker at the Knight’s annual Guinevere dinner, which was held at the beautiful Barber Surgeon Hall in the City of London. Subsequently she was invited to join the Round Table of Knights for her globally recognised work in the field of human rights and the founding the ASHA Centre in the Forest of Dean for the young. The work of ASHA reflected the charitable work undertaken by the Society of Knights to ensure talented young people from the diverse fields of arts, music, law and medicine were given financial support to undertake their studies.

It is hoped that many of the gifted young who benefit from such philanthropy will spend time at the ASHA Centre in the glorious Forest of Dean and be able to interact across disciplines and become friends. They will also be able to bond with their mentors the knights, who all have had stellar careers across the diplomatic, forces, medical, and literary and artistic worlds.

Zerbanoo commented that as a young girl she was enchanted by the tales of the fabulous King Arthur, his mentor the magician Merlin and the 12 knights in search for the holy grail.  When young she never imagined she could become a knight of the round table. For her the quest for the holy grail is the search we all have: to understand the deeper meaning of life, why we are here in this world and how our lives can make a difference to others. The knights of the Round table are the best of the ancient British culture that we have offered the world. No wonder such greats such as Charles Dickens, Lord Alfred Tennyson, Baden Powell and many members of the Royal Houses of Britain and Europe were knights over the Society’s illustrious 300-year history to be celebrated in 2020.

Yesterday was a sunday of different sorts- the snarling traffic of South Mumbai which has become more painful with the ongoing Metro works seemed to be lesser. Is it the Lagan Navjote season that made this happen , we don’t know but we were very happy to conduct a fun and interactive heritage walk with a group of students from the Dadar Athornan Institute and the A.F.Petit Girl’s High school.

What would usually be a deserted place on a Sunday at 4 pm was chirping with Bachas in their scarves and topis. The Bhikha Behram well was our starting point where we initiated our journey with a Humbundagi and some lipsmacking orange ganache.

The history and significance of this holy place was explained to the kids . What suddenly was just another busy road became a topic of great interest. 3 of the 5 statues outside the well on the Veer Nariman road (also named after a Parsi stalwart Khurshed Nariman) were those of Parsis- Sir Dinshaw Vachcha, Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy and Sir Hormasjee Cowasjee Dinshaw. The kids were pumped with a new sense of pride.

Onwards we marched to the Banaji Limjee agiary the oldest fire temple in Mumbai. In the bylanes of Fort area which are frequented by lawyers from the nearby high court more than anyone , this agiary has the distinction of continued practice of higher liturgical ceremonies such as the Yasna, Vendidad and Nirangdin. The kids were in awe of the sacrifices made by the priests in carrying out these ceremonies. A quick interactive Q&A session saw some chocolates flying into the hands of the eager kids .

Next stop was the Godavara agiary. The munificence of a humble Sir Jeejebhoy was brought to light again as the quaint architecture was that of his house which he gifted to the community for use as an agiary. The nearby Maneckjee Sett and Langrana agiaries were highlighted in pictures. Devotees of the Langrana agiary have claimed that wishes seeking for their lost property are fulfilled by praying here. A quick turn about, we passed by the iconic St Thomas Cathedral with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building towering in the background. By now it was no surprise for the young minds that it was named after a Parsee- Phiroze Jeejebhoy.

Stocked with quite some history and knowledge by now, the group trotted towards the starting point where lovely Mc Donalds meals were waiting for them. However , their tummies could wait a bit longer as we passed by the Grand Old Man of India- Dadabhai Navroji, also a Mobed!

The team of Mobeds comprised of Ervads Hormuz Dadachanji , Firdaus Pavri, Farzad Driver, Meher Modi, Parzan Kotwal, Kerman Fatakia, Porus Katrak , Sheherazad Pavri along with the assistance of Karl and Binaifer Sahukar(our pillars), Avan Ardeshir and Niloofer Broacha. A generous donor ensured the kids tummies were full.

A closing address by Er Meher Modi was on point, stressing the need for the kids to hold on to their identity with pride, give back to the community and to recognize the Mobeds and young Athornan kids as our leaders to keep the flame of our religion burning.

Empowering Mobeds is an initiative aimed at growing the interaction between the priestly class and the laiety. Please follow us on our Facebook page for all future activities – http://www.facebook.com/empoweringmobeds

Atha Zamyat Yatha Afrinami!

Sarosh Anklesaria is one of the six winner of the 2019 RIchard Rogers Fellowship. Announced by the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Sarosh will will spend three and a half months completing an in-residency research program at the Wimbledon House in London.

The Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) revealed the six winners of the third annual Richard Rogers Fellowship residency program. Hailing from the U.S., Italy, and Germany, the fellows will each spend three and a half months at the Richard Rogers, Hon. FAIA–designed Wimbledon House in London to pursue research on a variety of issues. The program will also award each fellow a $10,000 cash prize and cover expenses to and from London.

Launched in October 2016, the fellowship is “inspired by Rogers’s commitment to cross-disciplinary investigation and engagement,” according to a GSD press release.

Sarosh Anklesaria, Ithaca NY

Research: Embedded Resistances within Neoliberal Regimes: Activist-Architects and the Contested Spaces of London’s Traditional Markets

Bio and Project Description: Sarosh Anklesaria is an architect and educator. He has worked as an architect with Diller Scofidio + Renfro (New York), Herzog & de Meuron (Basel), and Sangath, the office of Balkrishna Doshi, in Ahmedabad. He is currently a Visiting Critic at Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning and has taught design studios at The Pratt Institute and Syracuse University. Anklesaria has a diploma in architecture from CEPT University and a Master of Architecture from Cornell University. He runs an independent practice based in New York and Ahmedabad and has been a member of the Architecture and Design panel at NYSCA. His writing, work and research has been published in a variety of media, including Architectural Review, Domus, Architect’s Newspaper, and Design Today, among others.

His proposal stitches together two broad themes of research that have occupied his creative pursuits: architecture’s capacity to generate inclusive forms of public space, especially in the context of the neoliberal city, and the traditional market as the site of these contestations. The primary objective of the research is to study the traditional markets of London as well as the role of activist architects in generating spaces of empowerment within, or of consequence to, traditional markets.

More about Sarosh here and here

We are happy to provide a downloadble copy of the Ahya Yasa Nemangha.

This book is a study of the Gathas of Prophet Zarathushtra containing the Text with Literal Translation into English, and an accompanying Commentary.

The author Shirin Dara Contractor has provided this book as a free download for all readers, and is exclusively hosted on Parsi Khabar

Below is the foreward of the book

Shirin Dara Contractor writes…

Foreword
I am a Parsee Zoroastrian by birth and have been brought up in a traditional Parsee family. I was conversant with the general customs of the religion, but all my life I wanted to know in detail about our religion, its tenets and teachings. As I spent most of my life working as a banker I was unable to pursue the same.

Then a relative informed me about the existence of classes for learning the language of our prayers, Avesta. Therefore, upon my retirement, I decided to study this language and joined the Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy  Zarthoshti and Mulla Feroze Madrassas, where such classes were conducted.

In the course of the study of this language and the translation of the prayers, I came to know a lot about our religion. It was then that I realized that our Prophet Zarathushtra’s songs, which are known as the Gathas, chanted by him nearly 3500 years ago, had been handed down to us, primarily, through our oral tradition. Our religion is unique, thanks to the priests having passed down Zarathushtra’s words. We can go right back to the original source of our religion and understand the teachings of Zarathushtra himself.

In the course of my studies, I studied the translation of about 5 chapters of the Gathas of Zarathushtra. It seemed to me miraculous that I could understand the language in which our very own Prophet spoke about 3500 years ago.

After completing my studies, I decided to study the complete Gathas, (total 17 chapters) since I consider the essence of our religion is in the Gathas. Since the Gathas are in poetic form and very terse, it is very difficult, to comprehend their meaning and spirit. Over a period of time, several scholars, Indian, Western and Iranian have attempted to translate and interpret the Gathas, in their own way, and  therefore, one may find several different versions of the Gathas. I, first, collected the translation of each verse given by the following scholars  S. Insler; H. Humbach; I.J.S.Taraporewala; J.M.Chatterji; P. Ichaporia; B.T. Anklesaria; K.E. Kanga;
A.F. Khabardar  (only Ahunavaiti Gatha); Mobed F. Azargoshasb; Hormazdiar Mirza.

As I studied each verse, I would arrive at the translation which I felt gave the closest interpretation. I soon realized that the translation which appealed to me the most was that of I.J. S.Taraporewala (IJST), as he had taken into consideration the grammar and the metre of the verse. Moreover, he had done a comparative study, at every step, with Vedic words, idioms and ideas. Finally, though this is my personal opinion, he  being a  Zoroastrian, could understand the spiritual depth of the poems, which Western scholars were not able to comprehend.

I found that choosing only the translation did not make it easy to understand the inner depth of the verse. So I tried to comprehend the translation and made a sort of commentary in simple English, trying to understand what Zarathushtra must have desired to convey to his followers.

I feel that there must be several persons (like me) who do not know much about our religion, as was the case with me initially, especially about Zarathushtra’s message . With this in view I decided to publish this book, so that Zoroastrians can read about Zarathushtra’s message, which is the very foundation of our religion. I have tried to understand the thought behind each verse, usually referring to the comments of the above scholars, as also of D.J. Irani, Sorabji Naoroji Kanga, K.N.Wadia. In my explanation I have often quoted from their writings in order to comprehend the meaning better.

The more I read and re-read what I have written, the more I find that I have not yet fully grasped the Spirit of the Gathas. However, I hope this book may be useful to others as an introduction to our religion and this may urge others to study further the Gathas of Zarathushtra.

I cannot end without offering my deepest gratitude to my teachers, all of whom, Ervad Dr. Rohinton Peer, Ervad Dr. Ramiyar Karanjia and Ervad Dr. Pervez Bajan, have given their valuable time and insight whilst teaching me Avesta and helping me with this book.

I also thank my friends and colleagues who have helped me in getting this book published, by typing out the manuscrcipt and giving valuable inputs.

Download the Gathas Book: Ahya Yasa Nemangha

The dwindling numbers of the Parsi community has cast a long shadow on its representation in the Mumbai police force, over the past five decades.

The brick-red tiles of the Police Gymkhana on Marine Drive reflects the crimson of the setting sun. A man in his early 70s hops out of his car at the gate of the Police Gymkhana on Marine Drive, his shorts, tennis shoes and wet shirt all signs of a jog taken not long ago.

Article by Debasish Panigrahi | Hindustan Times

He sprints up the stairs into the gymkhana compound, and stops to feed stray dogs in the verandah. This is a daily ritual for NJ Maneckshaw, (retd) assistant commissioner of police (ACP), who has been the joint secretary of the gymkhana since his retirement over a decade ago.

Age has failed to take the steely glint from the eyes of the policeman who proudly carries the legacy of gentleman-officers, which his community has offered the state’s police force from even before the country achieved independence.

But the dwindling numbers of the community has cast a long shadow on its representation in the force, over the past five decades. Of the 70,000-member community, 40,000-50,000 of whom are in Mumbai now, just two remain in the 2-lakh strong Maharashtra police.

This is an alarming ratio, considering that until a few decades ago, the weekly crime meeting conducted by the city police commissioner with officers at Apollo Florist in South Mumbai was referred to as a ‘Parsi Punchayet’ meeting, because of the concentration of attendees from the community. For a little more than the past two decades, no one from the Parsi-Irani community has joined the force. The last to join were Irani brothers Cyrus and Kayomerz from Godrej Baug in the early 1990s, who stepped into the shoes of their uncle, retired ACP Homi Irani.

“When I joined the force in 1962, there were at least 30 Parsi-Irani officers in the Bombay police,” Maneckshaw said. “While many were of ACP level, a majority of them were inspectors, a top post in those days. They were inducted into the force in the late 1930s and early 1940s.”

“Without any exaggeration, I’d say almost all officers from our community were of impeccable integrity and professionally outstanding. I am happy and proud that I was part of the force,” he said.

Maneckshaw remembers a steady participation of the community, though smaller in number, through the 1960s and 70s – Russi Chowsky, Homi Irani, Feroze Ganjia, Naval Driver – all of whom had retired as ACPs by 2010. “The involvement in the force took a major hit in the 1980s, and after the Irani brothers, it stopped,” said Maneckshaw.

“It is quite likely that the new generation does not want to work hard and face the tough physical tests involved in the MPSC exams. Those who study well are bagging lucrative private sector jobs. Those who don’t, get into clerical jobs in banks and private companies,” he said. “However, the biggest impediment is their ignorance of the Marathi language, which is the medium for the exams. Those from our community who made it into the force in the last 20-30 years are either from districts, or were made to learn the language.”

Homi Irani, who retired as ACP of the traffic branch, agrees with Maneckshaw. “Kids of the community are not interested in taking up strenuous jobs. The new generation has lost its nerve, they are scared to join the force,” he said. “When I joined, every branch would have at least three-four officers from ParsiIrani community.”

Maneckshaw and Irani agree that the government and the Parsi Punchayet should encourage youngsters to join the force. “The department should advertise more, like they are doing to encourage participation from other communities,” said Irani.

Meanwhile, Maneckshaw puts the onus on the Parsi Punchayat to spread Marathi education on a priority basis, at the Parsi colonies spread across the city.

Karachi has always gone out of its way to pay respects to its Zoroastrian community. We have been blessed with a home here, given opportunities to self-actualize and to nurture our future generations in a safe and compassionate environment. We have been blessed in abundance and it is with this full heart that we celebrated thanksgiving this year with a formal dinner on December 1 at the Karachi Parsi Institute (KPI) in Saddar.

Article by Dilaira Dubash | Hungriest

Zoroastrians have thrived for years in the cosmopolitan heart of this brave city. KPI is where we bond, unwind and serve in the spirit of community. It’s where we first fall in love with sports, where we celebrate togetherness, where we acknowledge accomplishments and honor those among us who have selflessly served this community and our city. It’s where we play our beloved bingo and get our weekly supply of batasas (tea time biscuits). The community center defines us and therefore served as the ideal backdrop for the night’s festivities.

Source: Tiraz Umrigar

Thanksgiving in Karachi?

Thanksgiving may come across as a very American holiday, but the harvest festival is celebrated around the world in variety of ways by a number of different cultures. The ceremony to give thanks for successful harvests dates back to the 1621 harvest feast shared by the native people of North America which included turkey, bread stuffing, potatoes, cranberries and pumpkin pie.

The occasion aligns perfectly with Zoroastrian beliefs and traditions as well. Honoring a bountiful harvest has always been an inherent part of Zoroastrian tradition and the setting of the Navroze table each year in March is a reflection of that. The festivity commemorates the spring equinox, the rebirth and renewal of the earth that follows.

Appropriately adorned for the evening, KPI welcomed its family in the warm glow of fairy lights, delicately hanging from trees and draped on hedges by the pool. As a first course, diners were served with a visual feast of traditional thanksgiving décor. Tall glass jars filled with oranges illuminated by fairy lights, platters of acorn and plump turkey crafts sat atop round tables dressed in clean, white tablecloths. Music filled the air which was soon drowned by laughter as more families arrived to be part of the celebration.

Source: Pooya Dubash

In accordance with the evening’s importance, the feast was carefully curated and prepared. For starters, each table was served a platter of silky-smooth chicken liver pate with thinly sliced toasted, white bread and a bowl of chips for children to nibble on. This was followed by a grand buffet of beautifully arranged turkey nestled in a bed of stuffing, placed next to bowls of gravy and cranberry sauce, trays of fluffy white bread rolls to soak up the juices, creamy eggs Florentine for additional flavor and roasted seasonal vegetables to provide a parade of color  on the table. There was also a serving of classic potato salad dressed with mayonnaise.

Source: Pooya Dubash

The simply seasoned, roasted bird was a standout and the accompanying flavors and textures only served to enhance the main dish. The meal ended on an equally grand note as diners were treated to wholesome apple pie topped with a choice of custard or vanilla ice cream and steamed pudding with warm ginger sauce. The food was the highlight of the evening which is what thanksgiving is really all about.

Source: Pooya Dubash

The evening was planned with precision. There was focus on detail which showed the effort that was put into making the evening memorable. Everyone was handed sweet giveaways in painstakingly decorated small, jute pouches. Zoroastrians are big on small gestures and we are taught very early not to take the little things in life for granted.

It is in the same spirit that we like to thank our city for bringing our community peace and prosperity.

The Parsis are the descendants of the Zoroastrian community who fled from Iran during 8th to 10th century to escape the persecution of the Fanatical Muslim invaders who invaded Iran. They fled and settled in India in the region of Gujarat and Sindh. Parsis have a great history, and they are followers of a great and ancient religion. They are very peaceful people. Here is an introduction to the community and some of the great Parsis, who contributed a lot.. Although the community always remained a micro minority, the Parsis have done a great job in building modern Karachi.

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Serum founder wins inaugural ‘vaccine hero’ award

ABU DHABI, 10 December 2018 – Dr Cyrus Poonawalla, Founder of Serum Institute of India (SII) and Chairman of Poonawalla Group, has been given the first ever Vaccine Hero award by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

The Vaccine Hero award was inaugurated to celebrate global figures whose dedication to the Vaccine Alliance’s mission has played a key role in helping Gavi and its partners to protect hundreds of millions of children across the world

“Since Gavi’s inception Cyrus has been a steadfast supporter of Gavi’s mission,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. “Under his leadership Serum has become the largest supplier of vaccines to the developing world, protecting hundreds of millions of children in the world’s poorest countries against killer diseases like measles, diphtheria and meningitis. Gavi simply would not have had the impact we’ve had without them. He is a worthy winner of this inaugural Vaccine Hero award.”

“I am truly humbled to receive this recognition for the humanitarian work that we have been doing at Serum Institute for the last five decades,” said Dr Cyrus Poonawalla. “it is recognition such as today’s that gives me and my team the strength to commit and continue the humanitarian work by making available immunobiologicals and vaccines at the most affordable prices to support the great efforts made by Gavi and other UN Agencies worldwide, especially now for much needed newer vaccines, such as Pneumonia, Rotavirus, Meningitis, HPV and Dengue.”

Dr Cyrus Poonawalla founded Serum Institute of India in 1966 and built it into the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer by volume, supplying more than one billion doses of vaccines per year to children in 170 countries around the world at affordable prices.

SII now supplies 40% of the vaccines funded by Gavi. Over the Alliance’s 2016-2020 strategic period, SII will provide more than half a billion doses for Gavi-supported vaccine programmes protecting children against nine diseases – measles, rubella, meningitis A, rotavirus and, through pentavalent vaccine, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, Haemophilus influenza type B and hepatitis B. So far SII has distributed more than 18 billion doses of different vaccines and an estimated 25 million lives have been saved because of these vaccines.

The award was presented at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi as part of Gavi’s mid-term review, a high-level conference celebrating Gavi’s progress and impact in the world’s poorest countries. By the end of 2018, Gavi will have contributed to the immunization of 700 million people and the prevention of more than 10 million future deaths. This has contributed to acceleration in the decline of global under-five mortality rates and brought wider impact beyond immunization.

About Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership committed to saving children’s lives and protecting people’s health by increasing equitable use of vaccines in lower-income countries. The Vaccine Alliance brings together developing country and donor governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners. Gavi uses innovative finance mechanisms, including co-financing by recipient countries, to secure sustainable funding and adequate supply of quality vaccines. Since 2000, Gavi has contributed to the immunisation of nearly 700 million children and the prevention of 10 million future deaths.

Ava Irani is an 8th grader living in the Bay Area, where she also volunteers to teach Sunday School at the Zoroastrian Association of Northern California. Ava has started a Kickstarter campaign titled “Travel Explore Discover”.

Ava writes…

I am an 8th grader at a middle school in the USA. I have been very fortunate to experience the wonders of traveling to other countries, and meeting other children around the world. Each time I come back home, I find that other people also love to explore and learn about exotic destinations, but not everyone is able to experience them firsthand.

I thought about other ways to help children learn more about the world, while having fun at the same time. Based on  this idea, I created Travel Explore Discover.

Check out the board game and support this Kickstarter campaign.

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Flaws aside, the Freddie Mercury biopic was “deeply personal” for writer and activist Aryenish Birdie because it was the first time she ever saw her ethnic identity in pop culture.

“Bohemian Rhapsody,” the recent film about the life of Queen lead singer Freddie Mercury, is breaking records. It’s the highest-grossing musical biopic of all time worldwide and is expected to exceed the $600 million mark any day now. It’s also the first-ever blockbuster film about a Parsi, the tiny ethnic/religious community to which I belong. Watching the film was incredibly entertaining, thanks to Rami Malek’s animated and confident performance playing Mercury. But it was also deeply personal for me, as it represented the first time––and perhaps the last––I’ve seen my identity represented in pop culture.

Article by Aryenish Birdie | COLORLINES

As described in the film by Mercury’s father, Parsis are Zoroastrians who, more than a thousand years ago, fled Persia—what is today Iran—to avoid religious persecution. They found refuge in India. Zoroastrianism is believed to be one of the oldest monotheistic religions, predating and influencing Islam, Judaism and Christianity, but since we don’t evangelize there are only an estimated 190,000 of remaining worldwide. Parsis––Zoroastrians from the Indian subcontinent––are one sect of this small group. As a result Mercury is really the only household-name Parsi in the world. Elders in my community endearingly refer to him as aproo Freddie or “our Freddie.”

I too feel an affinity with Mercury. Like me, he struggled to fit into the nearly all-White culture in which he lived. Early on in the film, a young Mercury is shown working at London’s Heathrow airport when one of his coworkers calls him a “paki” as an insult. When I watched that scene I was reminded of how, just two days prior, a White man at a UPS store yelled at me to “go back to my country” when he thought I was cutting him in line. (Really, I was just asking the cashier—another Pakistani—to fix a minor error he had just made.)

Mercury went on to change his first name from Farrokh to Freddie. Similarly, when I was a child growing up in Kansas, I changed my name to Anna. To this day, I sometimes introduce myself as Arya because most Americans have difficulty pronouncing my name, and it’s exhausting to constantly correct them.

Mercury was also gay. In the film and in real life the star often avoided discussing his sexuality. Up until a few years before Queen began, homosexuality was criminalized in the UK and it wasn’t decriminalized in India until this past September. When I came out as queer in college, I was especially nervous because the Parsi community can be particularly conservative on some social issues.

A subtle storyline in the film is the tension between Mercury and his parents caused by his disinterest in following the typical Parsi career path—doctor, lawyer or engineer. Only after he shows his father he is giving back by performing at the 1985 Live Aid benefit concert does his father accept him for who he is. When Mercury tells his father about the concert he says, “Good thoughts, good words, good deeds,” which is the core tenet of our religion and is oft-repeated in “Bohemian Rhapsody.” My parents also came to accept my unusual career path when I got my first job working at an animal protection nonprofit (as a bonus, Mercury loved cats, who make several guest appearances in the film).

As you’ve likely heard or read, “Bohemian Rhapsody” isn’t without its shortcomings. It’s been rightfully criticized for its historical inaccuracies. For example, in the film Mercury tells his bandmates about his AIDS diagnosis days before the they reunite for Live Aid in 1985. This neatly ties up the movie, as the performance is seen as his swan song. In reality, Mercury was diagnosed two years later. “Bohemian Rhapsody” also failed to explore the nuances of his life as a queer artist, instead delivering a formulaic narrative of rise, fall and redemption.

Despite the film’s flaws, I’m grateful it didn’t shy away from Mercury’s Parsi roots. Those who regularly see aspects of their identity depicted on screen, in novels or in music may take it for granted. They’re regularly reminded––explicitly and implicitly––that they belong somewhere, somehow. For those of us in an already small, ever-shrinking group, seeing ourselves depicted, even if just for a brief 110 minutes, is, in a word, rhapsodic.

Aryenish Birdie is the founder and executive director of Encompass, a nonprofit working to make the animal protection movement more racially diverse, equitable and inclusive.

‘Jiyo Parsi’ – the Government of India’s undertaking which supports our community’s efforts in arresting the declining Parsi population and aid in its increase – kicked off its latest Campaign titled ‘Jiyo Parsi – CARE Movement’. Having tasted a fair amount of success in its previous two campaigns, the new campaign is based on a well-thought out and inclusive guideline, which employs a holistic approach to solve the community’s increasingly threatening demographic challenge, while simultaneously proving beneficial to the whole family, especially the seniors, which form a good percentage of the population.

Article published in the Parsi Times

The cost of looking after the elderly is heavy and quality financial assistance is needed for quality care.  Speaking to Parsi Times about the driving factor behind the new campaign, Jiyo Parsi’s spirited front-runner, the dynamic Dr. Shernaz Cama, Director, PARZOR, says, “The community has multiple issues which have affected its demographics. Care for an aging population is an issue. On the one hand, while care-giving for children of working parents gives rise to anxiety in parents, on the other hand an aging population suffers from a lack of positive purpose. Besides financial incentives, it is the need for Care at all these levels that we are approaching, by following the most modern models of the Nordic pattern of Care-giving across a Community.

It is a known fact that the young and the old of a community grow up more balanced in a joint family. If children to grow with an older generation of the same culture, then inter-generational care is a great possibility in terms of comparatively more secure care-giving. Jiyo Parsi’s plan to support this ideology would give a solid purpose to the old who have retired and have time on their hands and would like to share their experience. And again, raising children is a huge responsibility and expensive – it is important to have good facilities and care-givers. Hence Jiyo Parsi’s ‘Care’ Campaign bridges this gap creating a win-win situation at both ends.

“Our best teachers are our grandparents, and grandchildren are learners by observation and osmosis. With the break-up of the joint family, we lose out on the intangible heritage handed down generations across centuries. We want to revive this mode of knowledge by the Inter-Generational Care Programme or Surrogate Grand Parenting. Language, songs, jokes and family stories learned in childhood remain with you all your life. You can then pass them on to your grandchildren, along with a solid grounding in our unique culture,” adds Shernaz Cama.

Over the past couple of years, the Jiyo Parsi campaigns have been increasingly assertive and effective in persuading families to grow in size and reassure them of their support. Concludes Cama, “It’s not easy to raise a child, but the best things in life never are. A child is a lifelong commitment but without a child’s laughter, the house doesn’t become a home. And this is where Jiyo Parsi comes in and helps you through it every step of the way!”

Launched in 2013, Jiyo Parsi is a Government Of India undertaking aimed at arresting the declining Parsi population. It provide counselling and medical treatment to married Parsi couples and has so far aided in adding 172 babies to the community count over the past five years – thanks to financial assistance for medical treatment under standard medical protocol, along with outreach programmes conducted to generate awareness at various levels, with help from Parzor Foundation, Bombay Parsi Punchayet and local Anjumans across India.

The 5th edition of the Zoroastrian Return To Roots Program began in Mumbai, India today on December 19, 2018.

22 Zarathushti youth from USA, Canada, Pakistan, New Zealand and India gathered in Mumbai at the Cusrow Baug Pavilion to kick off the program.

Aban Marker-Kabraji, Co-Chair of RTR Program welcomed the RTR Fellows and briefed them about the history of the program and the ethos and principles on which the program is based. She emphasized the diversity of the program and thanked the institutional and individual donors who have put their faith in this program. Arzan Sam Wadia, Program Director of RTR briefed everyone about the upcoming daily program details over the next 15 days.

The group were given a brief history of the Cusrow Baug, Mumbai’s premier Zoroastrian housing colony by Hoshang Jal, the Secretary of Cusrow Baug Pavilion.

Homi Gandhi, President of FEZANA spoke of FEZANA’s commitment as a MoU partner in supporting RTR as an institutional partner.

The participants then made their way to the legendary Britannia for a scrumptious Parsi meal and a personal meeting with its equally legendary owner Boman Kohinoor.

Later in the afternoon, RTR Fellows were welcomed at Madison World, India’s premier advertising and marketing agency headed by the dynamic father-daughter duo of Sam Balsara and Lara Balsara. Here the Fellows got a masterclass in entrepreneurship, media, advertising and a detailed deep-dive in the story behind the hugely successful ad campaign for Jiyo Parsi.

Over the next two weeks Fellows will travel to Pune, Nargol, Sanjan, Udvada, Navsari and Surat before returning to Mumbai for the return leg.

As is customary, all the pre-planning leading up to this day and the daily logistics of the trip is run by RTR Alumni who come back year on year, to continue the program. Zubin Gheesta and Sheherazad Pavri from Mumbai, Kayras Irani from Auckland, Tanya Hoshi from Toronto and Cyrus Karanjia from Karachi are the alumni who will be assisting with the running of the program

Trail Blazers India, as RTR’s logistics partners since inception were represented by Hutokshi Marker, CEO and Kurush Charna, CTO who will travel with the group for the entire duration.

If you would like to get real-time updates follow RTR on Facebook and Instagram

Traditional Parsi embroidery finds contemporary expression with fresh motifs and colours while retaining its multicultural roots in the hands of textile designer Ashdeen Z. Lilaowala

Ashdeen Z. Lilaowala at his flagship store in Delhi. Photo: Priyanka Parashar/Mint

Article by Sohini Dey

For his most recent collection Vintage Tales, textile designer Ashdeen Z. Lilaowala has taken inspiration from old Parsi photographs. One of the standout saris in the collection borrows its motifs from a gara sari hand-embroidered by Lilaowala’s grandmother and now worn by his mother. “I’ve changed the flow of the roses and birds for the design,” Lilaowala says, with a laugh. “Otherwise, my mother might kill me.”

The Delhi-based Lilaowala grew up surrounded by Parsi textiles and developed an early passion for design. As a textile design student at National Institute of Design (NID), he undertook a project on the kusti (sacred thread won by Parsis) in collaboration with the Unesco Parzor Foundation, which preserves Zoroastrian cultural heritage, in Delhi. At the same time, he also participated in a project on the development of gara embroidery. “I travelled to China, Iran, and across India, documenting collections. We also did workshops across India to make people aware of the embroidery,” he recalls.

After graduation, Lilaowala started an embroidery unit, and making gara saris for friends led him to launch his eponymous label in 2012. “When I started the label, I wanted to create something which wouldn’t just be like copying an old gara,” he says. “There had to be some innovation, be it changing the colours, form or fabric.” The designer’s signature saris are distinctively Parsi in craftsmanship, but the motifs are reinterpreted through placement and proportion. While many designers have dabbled in gara, the craft is the bedrock of Lilaowala’s aesthetics. With a following that extends beyond the Parsi community, Lilaowala has expanded into accessories and bridalwear and collaborated with labels like Ekaya. In 2018, he launched his maiden flagship outlet in Delhi. Sitting in the store, Lilaowala spoke to Lounge on the history and significance of gara, modern interpretations and breaking myths. Edited excepts:

An artisan at Lilaowala’s workshop creates an embroidery pattern.

How did ‘gara’ come to be a part of the Parsi community and clothing culture?

Embroidered textiles, ceramics and many other things were by-products of the Parsi trade with China for tea and opium. The (Parsi) community was prosperous, and these textiles were unique from what was available in India before. Once the women started travelling to China, they added their own touches and flair to it. That’s when the craft grew and it became an amalgamation of Chinese, Persian and Indian traditions with elements of European culture. We have full saris called garas, and then we have borders called kors. A lot of women on day-to-day basis would wear these bordered saris. The fully embroidered ones were a luxury, and worn on occasions or festivals. For everyday wear, borders were much more flexible—you could put it on a sari and remove it later. The children would wear ijars (loose trousers) and jhabla (tunics) on festive occasions, when they went to fire temples, etc. Gara became an identity marker for the community. At one point it was quite popular not only in the community but among the richer circles of Bengal, Hyderabad, and north India (as well).

What makes ‘gara’ distinct from other textiles and embroideries?

If you notice the embroidery, it’s very artistically accurate. Parsi embroidery is all about nature, a reverence for nature, so it’s full of animals, birds or flowers, but not in any abstract way. It’s all very realistic. You won’t see a highly digitized motif—a peacock has to look like a peacock, a flower will be in full bloom. It is a very clear artistic representation.

How do you reinvent the ‘gara’ traditions in your designs?

Traditionally gara was made with gajji silk and salli gach, a light Leno weave. The colours used are blacks, purples, maroons, reds, darker hues with lighter embroidery. We’ve worked on net and incorporated gara on bandhani and leheriya; our new collection includes organza. In a few collections, we have done white-on-white embroidery and pastel colours.

Does the reinvention also extend to the motifs you use?

I’ll give an example of one motif—cranes. They are very much a part of Parsi embroidery but you’d always see it in a scene. My first sari depicted a lake with cranes flying on top—despite the water, you just saw the cranes. There was no pallu, or border. It became a sort of marker for our design direction. With the next collections, we blew up the (proportion of the) cranes and did lotus ponds with dragonflies and butterflies. We have a polka dot motif called kanda-papeta (meaning onions and potatoes), made bigger for an obvious statement. These are small interventions—it’s not like we’re doing something very different, but we are taking the repertoire further.

In our new collection, we have used the trellis design. You find it in saris but it’s rare and limited to borders. We have a sari with three borders and saris with silver work. Then there is another stitch called the khakha stitch, a small Peking knot that we do with a curved ari needle.

Ensembles from Lilaowala’s collection ‘Vintage Tales’.

Isn’t ‘khakha’ the forbidden knot embroidery?

Yes, it is. But the myth of forbidden knots causing blindness is, in my opinion, bakwaas (rubbish). Research can dispel a lot of myths. People say that gara fabrics are soft because they are woven underwater. As a textile designer, I can assure you that nothing can be woven underwater. There are always legends that travel and grow stronger, and we’ve been working on kind of pushing those things out.

Your designs also feature Chinese motifs—calligraphy, pagodas. Is it a tribute to the textiles’ roots?

Historically, I think there was this fascination about China. The pagodas and bridges were architectural wonders. It’s a historical design and we’ve taken elements from it to create our own motifs.

How has your clientele evolved over the years?

We have a good Parsi clientele, but our whole business is not based on them. We have customers from Delhi, and even in Singapore, Dubai and the US. A lot of women who want to wear a gara don’t want to buy things that look exactly like what they already have. I’d say we’ve been very lucky that the women who buy from us come back. If we are innovative enough to have created something new, they buy again. That’s the challenge—to take the same language and change it.

Southern California discovered cricket in the late 19th century, two centuries after the sport reached American shores, but the region lost little time in taking to the game with enthusiasm.

The cricketing season began every summer in May. Several counties—including Los Angeles, Santa Monica, San Diego, and San Francisco (in mid-California)—had their own leagues. Practice matches between league teams would kick off the season and near its end, a combined Los Angeles team would take on Santa Monica 11—comprising the best players from that region—for the Dudley Cup.

By Anu Kumar 

Year after year, the cricketing season unfolded without spectacular surprises, until the arrival of an Indian and his virtually unplayable spin bowling in the summer of 1907.

Maneckji Jamshedji Bhumgara, a Parsi from Surat, became a bowling sensation for his Los Angeles league team. The “East Indian,” as he was described in the local papers, was lauded for his “twirling abilities” that left the opposition batsmen flummoxed. His recurring five-wicket hauls made him a match-winner, and he was, on occasion, handy with the bat as well.

An article that appeared in ‘The Los Angeles Times’ on Aug. 24, 1908, featuring the Southern California Cricket Eleven, that defeated the visiting team of Clifton, Arizona. Standing (top row, second from left) is Bhumgara.

Bhumgara, who moved to Los Angeles around 1905, turned out for the Wanderers, one of the three league teams in Los Angeles, in his first season. In a crucial league match on July 8, 1907, when his team played the Marylebone Club, Bhumgara scored 16, as his team made 59—one of only three players who reached double figures. He took five wickets and Wanderers won the Test (comprising only an innings each) by six runs.

That first season, Bhumgara took 20 wickets at an average of 5.2 runs in the league matches. In the Tests against the Santa Monica 11, he took 11 wickets at 5.5. The next season, he switched sides to play for the Marylebone, and his prowess with the ball continued. Newspapers raved about his performance against the Zingaris, the third team in the Los Angeles league: though his team lost by four runs, he took five wickets.

In another league match against the same opposition, Bhumgara once again scalped five, and, as the Los Angeles Times wrote, he would have taken more had his team not dropped so many catches. Most of the matches those days were low-scoring affairs, with players rarely reaching double figures. In 1909, Bhumgara played for Wanderers again.

Game of expatriates

Teams often visited Southern California. In 1908, the Clifton Cricket Club from Arizona—its players were mainly from the British-owned Arizona Copper Company—travelled to Los Angeles to play a series of matches. Bhumgara took nine wickets (six in the first match) to help the combined Los Angeles side beat the visitors. In the same year, a team from San Francisco toured as well.

Cricket, by that time, was big in southern California. There were older cricket clubs in the US: the Philadelphia Cricket Club, formed in 1854, was perhaps the first. The St George’s Cricket Club in Manhattan, New York, hosted the country’s first international match in 1844, when Canada played against the US. The Metropolitan League was established in New York in 1876, and bigger cities like Detroit, Chicago, and Pittsburgh also had their teams.

In southern California, as the historian David Sentance wrote, cricket thrived in the rich orange-growing regions. The orchards were owned by wealthy British and European expatriates, who played cricket and tennis in the summer in the elite clubs. The Los Angeles Cricket Club was formed in 1888 and other clubs followed soon—Santa Monica in 1893 and Riverside in 1902. Further north, San Francisco’s cricket drew from its rich history of immigrants (though records are unreliable from the late 19th century) from south Asia.

Fred Lillywhite/Wikimedia Commons

The first English cricket team to tour overseas, on board a ship to North America in 1859.

Bhumgara came to Pasadena in Los Angeles from New York. Documents related to his arrival in New York in 1904 show that he was born in Surat on July 27, 1878. He moved to Bombay before travelling to England, where he lived for 10 years (mainly in London and Liverpool). He described himself as an art merchant—in the Los Angeles city directory, he was listed as an art store manager.

Straddling two worlds

While information is scarce, there is reason to believe that Bhumgara was related in some way to Framji Pestonjee Bhumgara, the well-known Oriental art store owner and merchant, whose company, by the 1890s, had branches in many cities across the world.

The business began in 1865, when the Bhumgaras set up their first art store dealing with wooden carvings and artefacts in Surat. The firm branched out to Bombay, and the Bhumgaras acquired prominence from their association with the reputed philanthropist and textile mill owner Maneckji Dinshaw Petit. By 1886, the Bhumgaras had been named art dealers to Queen Victoria, and their displays at exhibitions in Paris, Chicago, and elsewhere received considerable attention.

Bhumgara, whose father Jamshedji had been associated with Bhumgara and Co., honed his cricket skills playing for Bombay’s Elphinstone Cricket Club (formed in 1870s). During his time in London, he turned out for the Crescent Hampstead Cricket Club, and when in Europe on business, he played cricket in Paris, Brussels and Antwerp, among other cities.

As records show, when Bhumgara and Co. displayed their goods in exhibitions in various American cities, such as Portland and St. Louis, in 1904-1905, Bhumgara was present there as well. He set up base as an art dealer but ensured he didn’t miss out on any opportunity to play cricket.

Question of belonging

For all the honours he won for his team, Bhumgara struggled to belong. In 1890, a fellow Parsi, Eduljee Sorabji, secured citizenship in the US. But, by the turn of the 20th century, American federal and state authorities had begun placing restrictions on immigration, and tightening laws to discourage Asian emigration.

Despite the strictness, citizenship laws were couched with ambiguity and interpreted by the courts quite vaguely and inconsistently. For those seeking naturalisation in the early 20th century, the onus was on them to prove themselves Caucasian and, more often than not, such an interpretation invoked questions of race and colour. Bhumgara’s own declaration papers (these were filed prior to making a petition for naturalisation) made contradictory statements – it read, colour: white, complexion: dark.

Where south Asians were concerned, court rulings on naturalisation would, over the next few years, take a convoluted turn, as seen in the Bhagat Singh Thind case. Thind was granted citizenship by an Oregon court in 1920, only to have it overruled in a binding supreme court decision in 1924. This decision also ruled that south Asians “were aliens” and could not be granted citizenship. The ruling effectively stopped immigration from south Asia for the next two decades.

Wikimedia Commons/Public domain

Charles Aubrey Smith played for Sussex from 1882 to 1896.

Bhumgara did not evidently follow up on his declaration. In any case, he lived a somewhat peripatetic life. Around 1908-’09, he announced his decision to travel a bit more. He would, in the end, settle in London, as records suggest, and remained a frequent visitor to continental Europe and the US on business.

In 1915, he was Superintendent of the India exhibits during the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, which celebrated the opening of the Panama Canal, and commemorated the host city’s recovery after the 1906 earthquake. In 1920, he filed a case in San Francisco, claiming compensation for goods lost by a business associate. Bhumgara died in 1944, in Paris, aged 66, survived by his wife, Coovermai, who was in London.

Cricket in southern California thrived till the 1930s and 1940s, with the formation of the Overseas Cricket Club and the Hollywood Cricket Club in 1932 by British actor and cricket player C Aubrey Smith. The arrival of British actors in Hollywood gave a fresh stimulus to cricket in the region. Actors such as Boris Karloff (from Frankenstein), Leslie Howard and David Niven all played for the Overseas Cricket Club. Though cricket’s popularity shrank with the rise of other sports across most of the US, cricket clubs continue to thrive in California, thanks to its large immigrant South Asian population and the contribution of players, such as Bhumgara.

This piece was first published on Scroll.in. We welcome your comments at ideas.india@qz.com.

Emeritus Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology Stanley Insler GRD ’63 passed away on Jan. 5 at the age of 82.

Insler was a distinguished historical linguist who studied Indo-European languages. He is specifically known for his writings about the language and literature of India and Iran as well as his translation of the Gathas, a sacred text of Zoroastrianism.

“I think he was a real connection to the history of the department,” said Robert Frank, chair of the Linguistics department. “His loss really is the loss of one bridge to that history. The other thing we will miss is that he really was a lively and spirited person, so we’ll certainly miss his presence around the department.”

Insler was born in the Bronx, New York on June 23, 1937. At the age of 16, he enrolled in Columbia University on a Ford Foundation Scholarship, graduating with a B.A. in 1957 before receiving his Ph.D. from Yale in 1963.

He remained at the University as a professor until his retirement in 2012. In his nearly 50 years of professorship, he served as chair and director of graduate studies in the linguistics department. He also served as a fellow of Jonathan Edwards College.

Insler was a member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, the Philological Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Science, along with several others. Additionally, he was a speaker at the Library of Congress’s 300th Anniversary of Zarathustra in 2003. In 2004, the World Zoroastrian Organization named him a fellow — “a signal honor” for someone born outside Iran and India — according to Valerie Hansen, professor of history.

“Yale is the poorer for the loss such a loyal, devoted, yet clear-eyed critic,” said professor emeritus of therapeutic radiology, molecular biophysics and biochemistry, and history of medicine William Summers. “He had a secure sense of his own position and self-worth that gave him the confidence to explore widely and take intellectual chances. He was a teacher and scholar who was an inspiration to all and will be missed by many.”

Insler’s translation of the Gathas allowed many modern Zoroastrians to access the sacred text, and he wrote extensively on the ethics of Zoroastrianism. He also studied Avestan — the languages of Zoroastrian scripture; Sanskrit — an ancient language of India; and Pali — the Indo-Aryan language used in Hindu and Theravada Buddhist texts.

According to Claire Bowern, professor of linguistics, the faculty regarded him as an “excellent teacher” with a strong understanding of the relationship between language and ancient culture.

Colleagues told the News that they remembered Insler not only for his academic contributions but also for the kindness he showed colleagues and students alike.

“When I first came to Yale in 2004 I could not have envisioned a warmer welcome than the one he extended me,” said Phyllis Granoff, professor of religious studies. “He loved Yale and Yale students. My graduate students found in him a generous teacher and mentor.”

According to Granoff, her graduate students worked with him in the American Oriental Society Library and relished the opportunity to hear about the history of the society for which he served as treasurer for four years before assuming the role of president from 1997 to 1998. He “loved to tell stories about the great Sanskritists of yore,” Granoff added.

Many faculty interviewed by the News spoke of Granoff in context to the Elizabethan Club, a social club of Yale, where he often met for tea with peers. Other professors remember Insler for his grand storytelling abilities. Molly Worthen ’03 — an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina who came to know Insler through the Elizabethan Club — said that he fully embodied each character with his stories. She fondly recalls his “side-splitting impression” of actress Tallulah Bankhead.

A graveside service took place on Jan. 8, and a memorial service is planned for the spring of 2019.

The Parsi community in Karachi has always been a minority, but one that has left an inimitable legacy. Late Jehangir Framroze Punthakey, in his book, The Karachi Zoroastrian Calendar, called the Parsis, “the makers of the Karachi of today.” They belonged to the elite in Karachi, with the city’s first mayor, Jamshed Nusserwanji, also belonging to a Parsi family. Be it institutions like The Mama Parsi Girls’ Secondary School and the BVS Parsi High School, or infrastructure facilities such as the M.A. Jinnah Road, the Parsi community has significantly contributed towards Karachi’s history and heritage.

Article by Farheen Abdullah | Youlin Magazine

While families like Minwalla and Avari invested into five-star hotels and fine-dining eateries, others chose to adapt a humbler approach towards satisfying the appetites of Karachiites. In the latter category, Cillie’s has remained the market leader for creating delicious baked goods.

Situated inside a 100-year-old house in Parsi Colony, Karachi, Cillie’s stands as a reminder of the inclusivity and tolerance that used to exist in Karachi post-partition, and how the minority communities still survive here in peace and harmony. Upon entering the neighbourhood, which once housed many Parsi families, most of whom have now migrated to the West, a prominent shift in the city’s energy can be felt. With low fenced houses, and single and multi-storey buildings, the locality stands in stark contrast with its adjacent areas of Saddar and M.A. Jinnah Road, which are full of the pollution of a bustling and congested metropolis. Driving into the quiet and calm streets of the Parsi Colony, the visitors are transported to a different zone, where their eyes do not meet high-rise glass buildings, but are instead welcomed by old brown stone structures with big windows and balconies, showcasing architecture from the late colonial period.

In a city known for its rising crime rates, the houses of Parsi Colony confidently keep their gates open and their walls low, without any of their guests worrying about security. Cillie’s too, keeps its main gate open for visitors to walk in without hesitation. Moreover, even though the house has no signboard for the bakery, one can always rely on passerby’s for directions and be guided straight towards the popular destination near the community park. Though the structure is multi-storey, the business itself functions through a small window on the ground floor. With four delicate steps leading up to the window, and a swing placed on the porch for visitors to sit on as they wait for their cakes, Cillie’s looks nothing like a mainstream confectionery, yet immediately gives a warm homely feeling.

The staircase leading upto the house

Can you spot the window which has delicious secrets hidden inside?

The business started in a house in Garden East, nearly 50 years ago, and was founded by a Parsi lady named Cilly, who now lives in Texas. However, the bakery was moved to its current location thirteen years ago, when the owner sold the previous house. The house in Parsi Colony is owned by a sweet lady named Bakhtawar, who greets the visitors personally, and even takes the newbies through the variety of desserts that they serve, ensuring great customer service.

Serving a range of desserts at surprisingly reasonable prices (some of which are as low as Rs.300 for a full cake), including plain cakes, butter icing cakes, and ice creams, Cillie’s was actually the first bakery in Karachi to introduce fresh cream cakes. Though their menu now has 16 different flavours of fresh cream cakes, their classic plain cakes remain hard to beat. The marble cake, especially, is soft and succulent, and serves as a perfect combination with evening tea.

Marble cake

While all desserts are entirely homemade, along with the mousses and creams used for the cakes, only a few delicacies are available for walk-in customers. All other orders need to be placed at least a day before. Since Cillie’s does not have a dedicated social media profile, their main source of publicizing the place remains word of mouth, along with the strong network of fans that Cillie’s has acquired over the years. In fact, the delicacies remain so popular amongst the Parsi Community that Naushad Mehta, Cilly’s son, has opened an outlet of Cillie’s Cakes in Houston, USA as well, and word has it that their products taste equally delicious.

Chocolate fudge, chocolate cream, and peach pineapple cakes

Karachi may have witnessed the birth of numerous new and fancy cafes and bakeries in the last few years, but to say that the best flavours of the city are hidden in quiet corners like Cillie’s would not be an exaggeration. Cillie’s is a perfect representation of the strength of the Parsi community and how dedicatedly they have always served the people of Karachi. Though only a few Parsis remain in Karachi now, the community and its contributions need to be preserved as much as possible, and given the same level of respect as their Muslim counterparts.