The fire in this agiary was consecrated way back in 1857 (the year of the Mutiny), but the imposing building was constructed only in 1941 when the fire was shifted from Fort to Tardeo. What is especially significant for many Parsis is that the last Zoroastrian saint, Dastur Jamshed Ervad Sohrab Kukadaru (1831-1900), was a priest in this agiary.

The charity commissioner’s order on last Tuesday comes as a major respite for a miniscule community, which has been fighting to prevent builders and trustees from usurping large fire temple lands in the city to set up residential buildings.

Recently, a group of Parsis lost a legal battle in the Supreme Court, trying to prevent a builder from setting up a 22-storey residential tower, adjoining the Lalbaug agiary entrance. The building is now ready and occupied.

“The Kappawala order is a victory for the community. The trustee’s lawyer tried to argue that a precedent had already been set in the Lalbaug agiary case but the charity commissioner did not buy this argument,” said Anahita Desai of World Alliance for Parsi Irani Zarthostis, which fought the case along with another temple trustee, Behram Billimoria.

Billimoria had strongly opposed his co-trustee Dara Nicholson, who wanted to redevelop a ground-plus-one-storey structure, next to the agiary. “Agiary lands are sacred. Any form of development will spoil the ambience,” said Desai.

Last year, Nicholson, the octogenarian trustee of Kappawala agiary, had filed an application before the charity commissioner, seeking permission to demolish the ground-plus-one storey structure on grounds that it was dilapidated - a claim that was subsequently challenged as false by Billimoria and Wapiz.

The building is occupied by a lone tenant, Rohinton Devlaliwala. Interestingly, the redevelopment proposal was floated by Devlaliwala himself and when Nicholson invited tenders for the project, Devlaliwala won the bid and his offer was accepted by the trustee.

“There is compelling necessity for the trust to demolish the existing annexe building, which is currently in a seriously dilapidated condition. The trust does not have adequate funds, time and expertise to carry out redevelopment at its own cost,” Nicholson said in his application.

Devlaliwalla had offered to give Rs 60 lakh and a 800 sq-ft flat to the trust. The trust, in return, was to give him development rights of about 5,000 sq ft of the unutilised Floor Space Index (FSI).

Billimoria, however, contended that Nicholson on his own and without consulting his co-trustees “did several acts in collusion with the alleged successful bidder (Devlaliwala)”. “Without any decision or resolution passed by the trust, the bid for the alleged redevelopment was invited on behalf of the trust. Since the bids were invited without proper authority or application for sanction for alienation of trust property on the basis of the said unauthorised act, it (application) should be dismissed,” said Billimoria.

Raising objections, the dissenting trustee alleged a collusion between Nicholson and Devlaliwala and said the successful bidder was being given full rein to exploit the FSI without any restriction or check by the trustee.

“The agreement is silent on how to ensure that the sanctity of the fire temple is maintained. In fact, the agreement is drafted with the sole aim to help the developer instead of putting stringent conditions in favour of the trust,” said Billimoria.

The Railway Claims Tribunal of the city is least bothered about Dinaz N. Chhapgar(56) who was injured due to one of the windows of the Reservation Centre building falling on her back. She went through a surgery to fix three fractures - one in the right shoulder, another in her vertebrae and another in her ribs. Dinaz Chhapgar had to spend over Rs. 80,000 for her treatment. In a classic case of adding insult to injury, the Western Railway informed her that her case doesn’t come under the Railway Claims Tribunal.

It might strike some as ironical that Dinaz had been to the station that day to buy tickets for a religious trip to Udwada. Remembering the unfortunate day, she told us, “I bought the tickets that day, December 16th, and as I stepped out of the Reservation Centre building at Churchgate, something heavy came crashing down on my back. I immediately lost consciousness. I was told later that it was a part of a window that was being renovated.”

Her eyes shone with tears as she recalled the pain. “I screamed at top of my voice; it was the worst moment I had ever experienced. I fell face-down and my entire weight fell on my injured side and ? there are, truly, no words that can explain the pain I went through. I was then rushed to the Parsee General Hospital by the railway authority.”

Dinaz spent a month in a wheel chair and took three more months to recover and get back to the Central Bank of India, Tardeo branch, where she holds the post of Assistant Manager. “The railway officers who visited me on the same day at the hospital gave Rs.5,000 to my brother to start the treatment. When my brother asked about rest of the amount of the compensation, he was told that it will be given later but that amount was for the time being,” she told us.

Operating her broken arm meant living with a rod in her body for the rest of her life.

“Till today I suffer from a continuous, excruciating pain in my back,” said Dinaz. “It is as if the tissues of my back bone are separating from each other and insects are crawling in and around my fractured spine. I cannot sit for a long time. That one second of mishap has changed the way I will live my life until I pass away. The compressed fractured T6 cannot be operated on to

complete recovery because of osteoporosis noted.”

When we contacted the Railway Claims Tibunal about her case, one of the officers on the condition of anonymity denied any knowledge of it.

“I can’t remember any such case,” he said. “I will search for her application and see whether it qualifies for compensation.” When asked how much time the exercise might take, he replied, “I have no idea. There are many such cases and, in fact, even more serious ones pending.”

Original article here

Parsis in Mumbai said they are not surprised — Western history has always portrayed their ancestors as “barbarians”.

King Xerxes of the Achaemenian dynasty is depicted as a barbarian, whose army fought the Spartans in 480 BC at Thermopylae.

Khojeste Mistree, a religious scholar who conducts tours to Iran every year, said, “As they say, history is written by the victors not the vanquished.

Yet again, we have another Hollywood blockbuster showing Hellenic triumph and glory. It may interest you to know that the word barbarian in original Greek usage, meant a foreigner who spoke no Greek.”

Mistree said, “Clearly Hollywood moguls are products of Western culture, which is based on the values found in Greek history and civilisation. Little do they realise the profound contribution that Zoroastrianism and the Magii (Zoroastrian priests) had on Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle, and indeed, the religious thought of the time.”

Achaemenian kings like Cyrus and Darius the Great gave a new meaning to the phrase “religious tolerance” by enforcing human rights 25 centuries before this concept was enshrined in the United Nations’ charter, he said.

Another Mumbai-based scholar Adi Doctor said kings like Xerxes were “generous and tolerant to a fault”.

“Today’s film-makers act according to their whims and fancies by not only distorting history, but projecting the benevolent historical characters as savages and barbarians.” Iranian consul general in Mumbai, Mohammad Shokrani, said the film is a “clear distortion of Iranian history, as well as the world’s history”.

“The movie has levelled inadmissible attributes to a great nation with a glorious history,”he said.

US-based Maneck Bhujwala said, “Is it our current political antagonism towards Iran that encouraged the movie director to misrepresent Persians as monsters or was it total ignorance of history? The standing ruins of Persepolis, the palace of King Darius the Great clearly shows elegant looking carvings of King Xerxes I and Persian soldiers, that are nothing like the punk-rock looking character in the movie. And, the director is quoted as saying that he and his studio staff discussed calling the ‘bad guys’ Zoroastrians instead of Persians in light of the political sensitivities. This is even worse, and most offensive to all Zoroastrians who follow the oldest monotheistic religion founded by Zarathushtra.”

Original article here.

The only reason we carry this article is because we want the world to know how wrong the article is. Please read it with a pinch of salt and if you also disagree as I do, write to the columnist at ninpa2003@yahoo.com and give him a piece of your mind.

Some Christmas ‘magi’ may have done a disappearing act

By Nin Privitera OBSERVER Community Columnist

12/10/2006 - It’s that wonderful time of the year again when many of us celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. In case you had forgotten, that is the origin of the holiday, not the birthday of Sam Walton.

At least, that’s what Christmas used to be about before retail gross sales from Wal-Mart superceded the divine birth of the Son of Man; the one who changed time, space, and eternity.

One of the more intriguing legends surrounding the birth of Jesus was the story of the mysterious visitors from the east. Matthew 2:1 simply states that they were magi. Other sources suggests that they were Three Kings. Some believe they were wisemen, which is a difficult concept for us to grasp, being that we are daily witnesses to the vaudeville act that poses for Washington politics today.

Whomever these visitors were, their gifts to the Christ child initiated the tradition that we carry on to this day. Without their bearing gifts to the newborn, who knows how Uncle Bob would ever have the opportunity to fake the thrill of receiving a new tie. ‘‘Ooh, now that’s a smart looking piece of neckwear. You know, I don’t think I have a charging Buffalo Bill smashing into Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs tie.’’

For the sake of Mary and Joseph, one hopes that these eastern visitors weren’t the ‘‘magician’’ magi. I doubt that their presence would’ve been welcomed in that cold dark manger. With the lowing of stable animals and the crying of a baby, who needs an annoying guy in a funny robe telling you, ‘‘Hey, Joseph, you can feed the donkey later. Right now, how about picking a card, any card and show it to the audience.’’

These magi were followers of an eastern religion founded by Zoroaster who was the prophet that originated Zoroastrianism. Undoubtedly, this religion would have been followed by Madonna and many other Hollywood disciples except that it’s too difficult to pronounce. Just saying the word Zoroastrianism one time and you can end up on the injured reserve list with a pulled tongue muscle.

You have to admit that Zoroaster was burdened with a pretty cumbersome name. If I had my choice for a name, Anthony would not have been on the top of my list, but thank God my parents loved me enough not to name me Zoroaster. That’s a name that is guaranteed to get you beaten up in school at least once or twice a week. You’d lose your lunch money to playground bullies everyday and no doubt, he left the locker room many times for social studies class with an atomic wedgie.

If this is the name that his parents chose, it makes you wonder what names they rejected. According to the Book of Aster found in the D’Agostino Archives, it is written that Zoroaster’s parents once considered calling him Bumpmasterzillywot but they decided it sounded too Babylonian.

In concert with his silly name, the history of the prophet found in the Book of Zo is quite entertaining. We don’t have a picture of him but he’s envisioned as a rather tall man with a pointed beard, wearing a pointy hat, carrying a wand with a cape draped over his shoulders, and a flamboyant robe with a starry motif.

He probably said the magic word ‘‘Shazam’’ as he sprinkled fairy dust on various items which didn’t make the meticulous housekeeper Mrs. Zoroaster terribly happy. Actually, his prophetic skills were not all that impressive. The only prediction that he ever hit out of the park was picking Syria over Lebanon 21 to 20 in the Sand Castle Bowl .

One of the more tragic events in the life of Zoroaster happened when he carried on with his wizardry image a bit too far. It all happened when Zoroaster insisted on coming to the dinner table in his robed-splendor once too often. You’ll find in chapter 3: 8-12 that his wife Zora Zoroaster strongly objected. ‘‘Do you have to wear that ridiculous outfit to the table every night? I’m sick of it. Where’s the cardigan that I got you for your birthday?’’

Zoroaster was one not to take criticism from his non-prophetic wife with grace and humility. He unwisely replied in verse 9, ‘‘Oh yeah, well, I’ll change this so-called ridiculous outfit when I get a change in the menu around here. Night after night of camel nuggets is too much. I’m developing a case of camel breath.’’

This criticism led Zora to fire a nasty retort in verse 11, ‘‘Well if you’re such an all-mighty prophet, why don’t you turn those nuggets into a juicy prime rib with your magic wand? All you do is stand around the corner with your sign,‘ ‘will prophesize for food.’’

This was followed by the tragic concluding events of their dinner that came to be known as the Smashed Pointy Hat, Broken Magic Wand, and a Lap Full of Camel Nuggets.

Well, so much for Zoroaster, the leader of the magi who also have a story that is larger than is commonly known. The first surprise in the Book of Zo is discovering that there were originally five magi that began the trip to Bethlehem but, of course, only three of them got their picture taken at the manger.

The Book of Zo names Winnebago as the fourth magi who had a unfortunate ending to his journey. Winny, as he was known in magi circles, took great pride in his astronomical knowledge of the night sky. In fact, he is credited with the rather obscure discovery of the constellation known as the Medium Dipper that’s appropriately found between the Big and Little ones. The 14th chapter of the Book of Zo describes the Great Astronomical Meltdown that occurred between Winnebago and the magi Balthazar. They got into one nasty rhubarb over which star was the legitimate Star of Bethlehem. According to magian scripture, there was much shouting and pointing with regards to the star that they should follow. The argument occurred one night at Osama’s Oasis and Grill when Winnebago, after a few too many Scorpions, exploded with the final dismissive, ‘‘Balthazar, you don’t know an asteroid from a meteorite.’’

Well, as you can imagine, that brought an irreconcilable break in their relationship. Winnebago decided to follow his star towards the northwest but he was never to be seen in Bethlehem or at subsequent magi conventions ever again. His failure to show up at the manger denied the Christ child his gift of pine tar which would have come in quite handy if Jesus ever played baseball.

Not much is known about the 5th magi who was called Larry the Dropout. Magian scholars believe that he made the fatal miscalculation of filling up his camel with water measured in quarts rather than liters as directed by the camel limited warranty. All that was ever found of Larry and his camel was a perfectly intact gift fruit cake for the Holy Family. Its presence in the manger would undoubtedly had led to a chapter in Matthew entitled Joseph Makes The First Christmas Gift Exchange.

Former community columnist Nin Privitera is a Fredonia resident. His column appears on the second Sunday of each month.

Original article here