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 collection of his articles, “Calling a Spade a Spade, Selected Writings” (Vanguard Books 2010), gives us a glimpse into the mind of this great Pakistani. Minoo graduated from the Punjab University and went on to Oxford to do a PPE at Brasenose but was...
Blog Archives
Todywalla Auction House: Numismatics
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 Priyanka Joshi / Business Standard meets the Todywallas, who run India’s first licensed numismatics auction house. How Farokh Todywalla gave up his coveted bank job in the 1970s and set up the auction house is a story that everyone in the Todywalla mansion knows...
Game Changer: The TATA Nano Story
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 Globe and Mail As usual in India’s crazy traffic, the streets were full of dodging scooters, many of them carrying whole families: father at the controls, mother holding on behind, children riding on their laps. Typically, none of them were wearing helmets. Suddenly, a...
Percy Batliwalla Heads Bank of America in Singapore
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 corporate finance sales head for Western India at GE Capital Services India and held executive posts at American Express Bank in India and Singapore.”
Well Done Boman Irani
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 television interview, yaar!”) at Mumbai’s ITC Grand Central hotel. Even the bored doorman snaps to life, saluting him with a spark in his eyes. By Avijit Ghosh , TOI Crest Almost anonymous till 37,Boman Irani is now premium Bollywood property at 50.Which is why...
Navroz Mubarak from Bollywood
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 sunlight at the Khareghat crossroads of Dadar Parsi Colony (DPC). By MARK MANUEL, TNN, At 9 am sharp, Shenaz Treasuryvala arrived in a strappy floral summer dress, like a fresh gust of perfumed air rustling the dead leaves on the road, eager to do...
Achaemenid K’aba of Zoroaster In Danger of Collapsing
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 this amount has increased over the past few days, the Persian service of the Mehr News Agency reported on Monday. Experts believe that the occurrence may lead to the destruction of 2500 year-old edifice, which is located at a distance of five meters from...
Boman Irani: In Conversation
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 even when you meet him in person — the man touted to be one Bollywood star sans the conventional looks, the I-am-to-die-for air or the star-child luck. By Jethu Abraham / Khaleej Times The 50-year-old character actor who was a virtual unknown before he...
Jimmy Engineer: Man With A Mission
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 their logical end are widely regarded. Making peace between India and Pakistan is one of his lifetime obsessions. In the corridors of the World Zoroastrian Congress in Dubai, he was busy exhibiting his paintings on Muslim culture. His penchant for striking a unique semblance...
Dadar Parsi Colony to stay ‘ exclusive’
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 anyone who is not a Parsi-Irani Zoroastrian. “Monday’s court ruling is important for the community because it is necessary to protect our identity, customs and traditions which can be maintained by living together in an enclave. It must, however, be emphasised that the Parsi-only...
Sir JJ’s heir held for fake voter ID
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 him by Malabar Hill police station. Sixty-year-old Byram Jeejeebhoy, who holds a US citizenship, was booked in August this year for cheating and violating the Representation of the People Act. According to a complaint from the Special Branch, Jeejeebhoy had obtained a voter identity...
Parsi children return to their roots
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 Zochild Day, which brings together Parsi children from across the country. On Sunday, over 2,000 Zoroastrian kids converged at Shanmukhananda Hall, Sion, for the seventh edition of Zochild. The day was marked by a series of events, including a play on the arrival of...
India’s New Drone plane named after Dr. Rustom Damania
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 Drone aircraft (remote controlled unmanned aircraft) developed by DRDO and that will be used by India’s armed services, was named RUSTOM, to honor the memory of a Parsi Zarathushti, the late Prof. Rustom B. Damania, who led the team of engineers that developed the...
Think value, think vintage
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 discovered here many years ago. A Parsi friend, from Dadar Parsi Colony no less, used to have a business. About 9/11, when she was fired from a big American bank (yes, it seemed they used to fire people even then), she returned to leafy...
Freddie Mercury memorial a beacon for British Asians
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 and enduring hits like "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Don’t Stop Me Now" and "We Are The Champions". But few know of him as a shy teenage immigrant from India via Zanzibar who blossomed in the unremarkable dormitory town of Feltham — and the local area is...
Parsi Khabar is a Wadias.Inc Enterprise
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