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Minoo Bhandara Remembered

Posted 07 June 2010 | By Shirin Kumaana-Wadia | Categories: Individuals | 1 Comment

Out of my 10 favourite contemporary Pakistanis, four happen to be Parsis: Justice Dorab Patel, Ambassador Jamsheed Marker, Ardeshir Cowasjee and Minoo Bhandara. Article by Khaled Ahmed / Express Tribune Minoo Peshotan Bhandara (1938–2008) was a parliamentarian who died in an accident in China. Like his novelist sister, Bapsi Sidhwa, he wrote extremely well. A [...]

Todywalla Auction House: Numismatics

Posted 18 May 2010 | By Shirin Kumaana-Wadia | Categories: India, Individuals | 4 Comments

Old coins and paper money are not just an antiquarian interest; they are also big business. The 103-year-old Todywalla House in Mumbai’s bustling Khetwadi locality may look uninviting, but it is the address of India’s first licensed numismatics auction house, and perhaps the only one owned by an individual to hold regular sales. Article by [...]

Game Changer: The TATA Nano Story

Posted 03 May 2010 | By Shirin Kumaana-Wadia | Categories: Industry | 7 Comments

The story of the world’s cheapest car begins on a rainy day in Bangalore. Ratan Tata was in the south Indian city on business and on his way to the airport. The head of India’s most famous business empire told his driver to be careful on the slick roadway. Article by MARCUS GEE for The [...]

Percy Batliwalla Heads Bank of America in Singapore

Posted 28 April 2010 | By Shirin Kumaana-Wadia | Categories: Individuals, News | 1 Comment

Received via email from Maneck Bhujwala According to India-West News of April 23, 2010, “A Parsi Zarathushti, Percy Batliwalla in May will join Bank of America Merrill Lynch as head, Asia Pacific, financial institution treasury sales. He will be based in Singapore. Batliwalla most recently held a similar post at JP Morgan. He was also [...]

Well Done Boman Irani

Well Done Boman Irani

Posted 28 March 2010 | By Shirin Kumaana-Wadia | Categories: Film, Individuals | 8 Comments

In limited edition crème de la crème parties, corporate cats and their Chanel No 5-perfumed wives fawn over him. A German woman wants to jet across to Mumbai to meet him. Heads turn as the six feet, two inches tall actor arrives in jeans, an onion-coloured corduroy jacket and canvas shoes (“Just back from a [...]

Navroz Mubarak from Bollywood

Navroz Mubarak from Bollywood

Posted 23 March 2010 | By Shirin Kumaana-Wadia | Categories: Festivities, Film | 21 Comments

Good morning, Mumbai — and Navroze Mubarak! The Irani New Year and first day of spring began at 11.02 and 13 seconds last night. But BT invited the ‘Bawajis of Bollywood’ (actually, two Parsis, two Iranis and one half-breed) for a pow-wow on Saturday morning itself to the Rustam Faramna Agiary standing serenely in dappled [...]

Achaemenid K’aba of Zoroaster In Danger of Collapsing

Achaemenid K’aba of Zoroaster In Danger of Collapsing

Posted 04 February 2010 | By Shirin Kumaana-Wadia | Categories: Iran | 22 Comments

The Achaemenid dynastic structure known as the Ka’aba of Zoroaster is on the verge of collapse due to escalating earth sinkage at the ancient site of Naqsh-e Rostam in Fars Province. Published by Circle of Ancient Iranian Studies The measured earth sinkage previously reported by experts was five centimetres, but a new survey shows that [...]

Boman Irani: In Conversation

Boman Irani: In Conversation

Posted 17 January 2010 | By Shirin Kumaana-Wadia | Categories: Film, Individuals | 5 Comments

There is something very, very real about Boman Irani. It can be felt in the way he gets into the skin of the character — being innocent enough to endear like Oscar Fernandes in Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd. or vile enough to disgust as Farokh Sethna in Being Cyrus—and this is a feeling that stays [...]

Jimmy Engineer: Man With A Mission

Jimmy Engineer: Man With A Mission

Posted 15 January 2010 | By Shirin Kumaana-Wadia | Categories: Art, Individuals | 1 Comment

Jimmy Engineer is a man with a cause. He stands tall, somber and deep in a thought. His passion to make a difference comes with a style of his own. Posted in the Khaleej Times His courage and conviction to pick up critical issues of life and death and campaign for many of them to [...]

Dadar Parsi Colony to stay ‘ exclusive’

Posted 25 December 2009 | By Shirin Kumaana-Wadia | Categories: Bombay, Housing, Mumbai, News | 18 Comments

Residents of the landmark Dadar Parsi Colony, the largest Zoroastrian enclave in the world, have won a six-year-long legal battle to allow only members of this tiny community to live in this ‘reserved area’. By Nauzer Bharucha | TNN The city civil court has granted a permanent injunction restraining the builder from selling flats to [...]

Sir JJ’s heir held for fake voter ID

Sir JJ’s heir held for fake voter ID

Posted 16 December 2009 | By Shirin Kumaana-Wadia | Categories: News | 4 Comments

Malabar Hill police are investigating how Byram Jeejeebhoy, who holds a US citizenship, obtained an Indian voter identity card By Abhijit Sathe & Manoj R Nair / Mumbai Mirror Byram Jeejeebhoy, great-grandson of Mumbai’s best-known philanthropist, Sir Jamshedji Jeejeebhoy, was detained at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport on Wednesday following a lookout notice issued against [...]

Parsi children return to their roots

Parsi children return to their roots

Posted 07 December 2009 | By Shirin Kumaana-Wadia | Categories: Bombay, Culture, Current Affairs, Festivities, kids | 16 Comments

A decade ago, karate champion Vispi Kapadia (52) lost his five-and-a-half-year-old daughter Fareena. Seven years ago, she appeared in his dreams and asked him to do "something for children" and the annual Zochild Day was born. By Anahita Mukherji, / TNN Every year, the Zoroastrian Children’s Foundation (of which Kapadia is a trustee) celebrates the [...]

India’s New Drone plane named after Dr. Rustom Damania

Posted 05 December 2009 | By Shirin Kumaana-Wadia | Categories: Individuals, News | 4 Comments

The Indian Air Force announced its latest project: a remote drone plane that is named after its chief designer Dr. Rustom B. Damania. Here is a link to more information about the drone. And below is an email from Maneck Bhujwala on this topic. Friends, It is a proud event to know that India’s new [...]

Think value, think vintage

Posted 30 November 2009 | By Shirin Kumaana-Wadia | Categories: Fashion, Heritage | No Comments

Luxury is now about a different idea, an out-of-the-world experience, not just products and names… This week I am in Bombay where, between interviewing the Chief Minister and an encounter specialist who survived 26/11 (but still has a bullet lodged in his right elbow), the city helped me remember something unique about luxury I had [...]

Freddie Mercury memorial a beacon for British Asians

Posted 29 November 2009 | By Shirin Kumaana-Wadia | Categories: Music | 1 Comment

By Robin Millard / AFP LONDON — Eighteen years since he died, an unglamorous London suburb has unveiled Britain’s first memorial to Freddie Mercury, hoping it will inspire other local British Asians to take the world by storm. Mercury, the lead singer of rock legends Queen, is remembered for his captivating live performances, spellbinding vocals [...]

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