Parsi Khabar

The Taj Mahal Hotel was founded, according to legend, after Jamsetji Tata was refused entrance into a European-owned hotel which displayed a sign forbidding entry to dogs and Indians. He vowed to build a luxury hotel that would be open to Indians and where Indians could entertain and be entertained without being insulted. There is, [...]

Sari sorority: Why Parsi ladies are a national fashion treasure As this small but influential Indian community has their new year this week, CNNGo’s shop section celebrates the embroidered Parsi gara sari — the ultimate vintage fashion find By Deepika Sorabjee / CNN Go Attending a Parsi wedding or navjote (initiation) ceremony of the old [...]

High in the hills of western India, Homi Dhalla looks around the Bharot Caves complex, pointing out the cracked and crumbling stone in the roughly-hewn rocks. By Phil Hazlewood (AFP) "If we wish to save these caves, the world community has to stand up and do something about it now before it’s too late," he [...]

Ervad Marzban Hathiram at Frashogard.com writes a very informative piece on the Muktad Days at the end of the Parsi Calendar year. Ten days before the Parsi New Year, fire temples around the city are dotted with roses and other flowers. One can see Parsi families dressed in spotless white, heads covered with scarves or [...]

If you aren’t looking for it, you’d probably miss it. Tucked somewhere in the by-lanes of the crowded Bhuleshwar bazaar is the Bombay Panjrapole, a 176-year-old infirmary that primarily looks after 350 cows and other stray animals like donkeys, hens, birds, dogs, goats, parrots and ducks. By Humaira Ansari / DNA The shelter, painted bright [...]

Roadaben Sorabji Botwala spent her whole life in Bhuj Bhuj, the district headquarters of Kutch, which once boasted of a large population of Parsis is sad at the death last weekend of the last surviving member of the Zoroastrian community. Seventy-eight year old Roadaben Sorabji Botwala, who spent her whole life here, and who also [...]

Below is the text of presentation by Pervin J. Mistry at the Parliament of Worlds Religions, Melbourne, December 5th, 2009. This was circulated by the author via email to a newsgroup. All copyrights are with the author.   We are the oldest monotheistic religion. Asho Zarathushtra is our Holy Prophet. Our Revealed Book is the [...]

Adil Fatakia literally lives in the past; the 65-year-old bachelor takes great pride and interest in the rich legacy of his community. In fact, he can trace his family tree 13 centuries back to when the first Parsis landed in Sanjan near Nargol – fleeing religious persecution in Persia, now Iran. By Tejas Patel, NDTV, [...]

Dinshaw Cawasji, President of The Bangalore Parsee Zoroastrian Anjuman narrates the history of Parsees; how they took refuge in a small coastal town in Gujarat after agreeing to several conditions laid down by the then Maharaja of Sanjan. By Sudha Narasimhachar , 18 Mar 2010 In the mid-eighties when I used to travel on Bellary [...]

The UN has acknowledged the festival of Navroze as a Heritage of Humanity. The below is an email forwarde by Mickie Sorabjee. Dear All, You will be happy to know that finally, after some years of delay, this news of Navroze being awarded the UNESCO award as an Intangible Heritage of Humanity has come through [...]

Culture is our attitude to beauty and ugliness, to power, to religion, and to family. It shows in our music, in what makes us laugh. Civilization is our attitude to mankind By Aakar Patel / Mint Indians have culture but not civilization. Culture is how we entertain ourselves; civilization is how we entertain others. Culture [...]

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 [...]

When life in a Parsi household was lived at a leisurely pace… By Silloo Mehta Indian cities were beautiful a century ago. Bungalows had gardens, leafy parks were well maintained and flowering trees arboured the streets. There was an air of space, tranquillity and wellbeing. We were a joint middle class family, Grandpa the benign [...]

The below video is a presentation by ZAGNY and IZA New York.

After 30 years, 100 hawkers evicted from Cross Maidan It was jubilation on Saturday for local residents, who finally succeeded in ridding the southern tip of Cross Maidan of a major nuisance By Manoj R Nair Demolition crews from the City Collectorate removed over 100 stalls that had stubbornly resisted all earlier attempts of eviction [...]