Parsi Khabar

Ratan Tata appears serious about keeping his date with retirement. Tata Sons, the promoter of the $71 billion Tata Group, has formally set the ball rolling to find a successor to its present chairman, who will retire in December 2012, when he turns 75. By Reeba Zachariah, TNN A Tata Sons statement said its nine-member [...]

Every Saturday morning, as I am doing now, the great Bombay writer Behram Contractor would hunch over his typewriter and punch out his weekly column. It was a special edition of his daily column, which was called Round and About, by Busybee, Contractor’s writing name. By Aakar Patel / The News Pakistan He wrote for [...]

With deep regret, the World Zoroastrian Organisation (WZO) wishes to announce that it can no longer be associated with WZO (India). By Darayus S. Motivala / The Bombay Samachar This decision was taken after very careful consideration of the actions of the committee of WZO (India) which has taken such a divergent path that they [...]

Unless you talk to the man, you don’t get a taste of the subtle sense of humour that he has. Industrialist Ratan Naval Tata has a very simple definition of going to school. “It seems terrible when you are there, questionable when you get out of it, and cherishable in the later years of your [...]

There are just 250 of them in the city, so it’s no surprise that all members of the Parsi community here have their demographics at their fingertips. By Kamini Mathai / TNN No one seems to need to riffle through history books for specifics. For instance, they can tell you offhand that there were no [...]

One of the oldest and largest residential complexes in south Mumbai is all set for a makeover. By Nauzar Bharucha / TNN Dalal Estate, the more than seven-decade-old landmark residential enclave along the Mumbai Central bridge, will be demolished later this year to make way for a 64-storey skyscraper, TOI has learnt. The project is [...]

The Abrahamic religions were preceded, and decisively influenced by, followers of an earlier prophet By John Palmer / Guardian UK The tiny world wide communities of Zoroastrians are no doubt pleased to get any mention in Cif belief – even if it is only to provide alphabetical balance to a list starting with the Bahá’ís. [...]

The United Nations cultural body (UNESCO) has named the year 2010 as 1000th anniversary of the composition of The Shahnameh, the renowned national epic of the Persian-speaking world which has been traditionally a source of honour and a manifestation of ancestral identity to the Iranian people and nations such as Tajikistan and Afghanistan who have [...]

By Khushwant Singh / Hindustan Times As I read Fali Nariman’s memoirs Before Memory Fades, an autobiography (Hay House), I kept thinking about Nani Palkiwala who I had the privilege of befriending during my years in Bombay. Both men were Parsis from the middle class families with modest means. Both rose to the top of [...]

Anu Aga and Dr Hector Grant, among others, to support priests who were barred from praying at the Towers of Silence by the Bombay Parsi Panchayat after they conducted Navjots of children from mixed marriages By Manoj R Nair / Pune Mirror Fault lines in the 50,000-strong Parsi community were thrown into sharp focus once [...]

An exhibition by Kersi Dubash, displaying a wide range of antique Parsi Garas, Gara borders and Gara shalwar kameez suits, French chiffons, Lucknow saris and shalwar kameez suits, Kantha saris and pure cotton saris, is attracting large number of visitors especially women. The exhibition that would continue till July 14 at a local hotel is [...]

Sitting in this quaint restaurant, just gullies away from the furious churn of the Arabian sea, watching the rain steam up the glass double doors that open up to a leafy Grant Road lane, it’s hard not to fall in love with the monsoons again. By Mahithi Pillay / DNA The quiet clatter of cutlery, [...]

Its authors sought to dismiss the June 1975 Emergency as an event of no consequence in four famous words: “not a dog barked”. The bench and the bar, which are regarded as the fair and fearless custodians of the fundamental rights of citizens were ridiculed as spineless. Coincidentally, on the 35th anniversary of the Emergency [...]

On Saturday (July l0), there will be celebrated in Royapuram the centenary of the consecration of the only Parsi Fire Temple in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala. Gracing the commemoration of the establishment of the Jal Phiroj Clubwala Dar-e-Meher will be former President of India Abdul Kalam. Reported in The Hindu The first Parsis arrived [...]

Three Zoroastrians (Parsis) have dominated our jurisprudence through the last four decades: Nani Palkhivala, Soli Sorabjee and Fali Nariman. Fali Nariman lets memory strike its own patchwork path, and presents his final case on the Bhopal tragedy By Mani Shankar Aiyar / Outlook India This is of a piece with what this community, given refuge [...]