Parsi Khabar

What the Diaspora can do for India and what India can do for the Diaspora
A talk given by Khojeste P Mistree at the 10th World Zoroastrian Congress, Dubai on 31st December 2009
Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to give you a short presentation on a theme titled, “What the Diaspora can [...]

The Parsi community in the city continues to play a vital role in the field of education and business
Indian Express
While the dictionary defines them as members of Zoroastrian origin who came to India from Pars or Persia – but the small yet fun loving community of Parsis are, in true sense, an important part of [...]

In the 10th century, a group of Zoroastrians arrived from Iran on the shores of Gujarat, India, and sought refuge in the kingdom of Jadi Rana in Sanjan.
An oft-told tale then describes a meeting between the reigning Hindu king and the community chief, Dasturji Nairyosang Dhaval. “My kingdom is like a cup of milk, full [...]

She calls it the U-Trip. Setting out from Karachi, 15-year-old Rosheen Birdie plans on visiting every major hub of Zoroastrians in the world, just so she can find one to marry. It’s not so easy to locate a ‘match’ in her homeland anymore. Colloquially known as Parsis, Zoroastrians in Pakistan seem to be on a [...]

By Deena Guzder / The Washington Post
Many of us recently finished celebrating Christmas, Eid, and Hanukkah; however, few of us have heard of the religion that deeply influenced those traditions of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. As the world’s oldest monotheistic religion, Zoroastrianism introduced ideas of a single deity, a dualistic universe of good versus evil, [...]

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 is our [...]

By Farrukh Dhondy / DNA India
Sitting next to the grandson of a late great English writer, himself a writer, at a dinner party in Exmoor, I am asked if I am a practising Zoroastrian. I say ‘not quite’ and am asked about its ethics and metaphysics.
"Simple," I reply, "Monotheism. The single God, Ahura Mazda [...]

In early summer 2009, Jim Engineer, one of the founders of NextGenNow got in touch with me to see if I would like to write an article for the Fall 2009 FEZANA Journal. NextGenNow as an organisation were guest-editing. The above-titled article is one of the two articles I wrote for this edition.
My earliest memories [...]

Ervad Marzban J.  Hathiram, a good old friend, editor of Frashogard.com and the Panthaki at the Jogeshwari Daremehr has written a hard hitting post on religious adultery.
Marzban writes
My apologies for not updating the blog for the last few weeks since I was tied up in the Muktad preparations and prayers in our Daremeher at [...]

You have to feel sorry for vultures. For animal campaigners they are a difficult case. Other, more photogenic, slightly less sinister creatures may gain the world’s sympathy at the drop of a hat, but raising money to save the world’s most proficient scavenger is a different matter.

As far as the Asian vulture is concerned, however, [...]

The route from Churchgate to Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus is sprinkled with memorials to sentinels of Mumbai history. Only, nobody cares
Sipping my masala chai one morning, I suddenly realized that the Khada Parsi statue, literally the Standing Parsi standing not far from where I live, had a name: Shet Cursetjee Manockjee, whose statue had been erected [...]

BY Rakshande Italia
If I cherished one special day during the year, besides my birthday, it was the New Year – not Jan. 1, but a day in August when members of my tiny Zoroastrian community in Mumbai, India, celebrated the beginning of their calendar year.
Colloquially referred as Parsi New Year, the day was extra-special as [...]

IN 1865, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata – a one-time opium trader and scion of a sparkling line of Parsee priests, Zoroastrians who had fled to western India from persecution in Iran – attended a lecture in Manchester given by Thomas Carlyle.
Carlyle, a cantankerous Scot, was known for his historical and philosophical essays, but he also put [...]

As the sun is about to set, a group of pale tall men in spotless white can be found on the beach, the sacred Zorastrian belt knotted around their waists. They stand at the edge, bend down and immerse both their hands into the water, which they then raise to their forehead, touching it briefly. [...]

By Bachi Karkaria
As an Indian Parsi Zoroastrian, I’m proud to belong to a tiny minority widely admired for its material success and its philanthropy.
But I feel a closing sense of siege. The vicissitudes of modern life are threatening our group’s ethnic identity and ancient ways.

The vulture, our main accomplice in death for nearly 4,000 years, [...]