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For some Parsis, the wait just got longer
Several Parsi families that were allotted flats by former trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) this year have now been put on the waiting list again. On Friday, they were present at the Charity Commissioner’s office to put forward their case in the presence of the commissioner and BPP trustee Rustom Tirandaz. “I was allotted a flat at a complex in Goregaon in September. After the new trustees have been elected, I have been removed from the list,” says Ruzbeh Satarawalla.
Many of the complainants explained how they were genuinely in desperate need of flats and had been waiting for years now. Some elderly citizens at the meet said that they were being sidelined, while young couples, ready to start a family were given priority over them.
According to Tirandaz, in all probability, people who had been allotted flats by the earlier trustees would be reconsidered. “We would want to know some facts about these people and their income before making any decision.”
Kersi Randheria of the Alert Zoroastrian Association believes that the truly deserving will be sidelined again as some of the new trustees were all set to prolong the case.
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Out of this world: Bombay Theosophical Society
The Bombay Theosophical Society turns 129 today. Kareena N Gianani pays a visit
Blavatsky Lodge at Grant Road doesn’t quite echo the enthusiasm of its ex-president and a much-respected speaker, Keki Palkhiwala. A longstanding member of the Bombay Theosophical Society, Palkhiwala is upbeat about the 129th anniversary celebrations to be held today.
But, after more than a century, the Lodge itself bears no outward signs of anticipation or fervour. Occasionally, a library member walks in and browses through the old volumes on the shelves. Ganpat, the Lodge’s faithful caretaker keeps a keen eye and lets no one wander around “without proper business.” On most evenings, he says he maintains “a safe distance from the Hall” because schoolgirls come for ballet lessons and male members of the Lodge aren’t allowed to mooch around. Ganpat goes home on Sundays and, though he knows little about theosophy, guards the Lodge devotedly.
The Theosophical Society, a worldwide organisation, was founded in 1875 in New York by Madame HP Blavatsky, a clairvoyant from Russia and Colonel HS Olcott, a retired US Army officer. The Society believes in the brotherhood of man, irrespective of religion and sex, and strives to seek ‘the Truth’ by studying religions, philosophy and science. It came to Mumbai in 1879 and today, the city has seven lodges. The two-storeyed Blavatsky Lodge is home to the Theosophical Library that has over 7,000 books, a hall, a meeting room, a private section for advanced studies, and a co-Freemasonic temple, where the initiation ceremonies are performed.
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Capt Cyrus Cama becomes first Indian to commander the A380.
Article suggested by Percy Kavarana
Indian to command world’s first double-decker aircraft
MUMBAI: The world’s first double-decker aircraft A380 may not have had its maiden commercial flight in India, but it sure does have an Indian commander in its cockpit. The super jumbo completed its first anniversary of commercial flying recently and a few months before that, Capt Cyrus Cama became the first Indian to be a commander on the A380.
“I was expecting it,” said Capt Cama, in a telephonic interview, recalling his selection in Emirates’ first A380 training batch of eight pilots in May this year. “I feel very proud and happy about the whole thing. Being a Parsi and considering that a Parsi (JRD Tata) brought aviation into India, this achievement was of special significance to me,” says Capt Cama, who flies the 489-seater, Emirates A380 on the thirteen-and-a-half-hour Dubai-NewYork route. “It takes about 12 hours during the New York-Dubai leg,” he adds.
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The Roots of a Name: What is Barack?
This is an article I read on a email newsgroup. The original author is Parviz Varjavand
Tonight was a very special night as Barack Obama became the president of the United States of America. May the Barack be with him and stay with him.
Barack is not an Arabic word but a Moarrab word.
What are Moarrab words?
Moarrab words are words who have their roots in Persian and from there they have entered the Arabic language In ancient times. My dear and departed mentor Dr. Sadegh Kia was the greatest authority on Moarrab words, but what I am writing here as to the Persian roots of Barack, I am taking from the book “Jostar dar bareye Mehr va Nahid” written by my other mentor Dr. Mohamad Moghadam.
Barack and Baraka and Barakat with the plural as Barak’aat means Blessings in Arabic, but also somthing more than blessings. Let us look at their Persian root to get a better grasp of the meaning. Parak was how the Sassanians used the word and when it went from Sassanian Persia to Arabic, the P changed to a B as the Arabs can not pronounce P and usualy change it to B. My name Parviz was pronounced Barwis by my Arab classmates when I went to high school in Beirut, Lebanon.
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44 Parsis allotted houses at new board’s first meet
The newly-elected Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trust allotted houses to 44 Parsis at its first board meeting held on Tuesday. The new trustees were of the view that 44 of the 90 cases that were given provision of allotment of houses by the former trustees needed to be considered first.
Chairperson of BPP Dinshaw Rusi Mehta said, “Various issues were discussed at the meeting. Among them was the housing issue. We decided that there are some 40 cases among the old ones that should be given houses.”
The trust provides housing to Parsis who are poor, needy, old and engaged to be married.
The charity commissioner will now hear the cases on November 14. The cases will be put up before him as the commissioner had asked the new board to stick to the decision of the previous board. The previous board had unanimously passed allotment of over 90 houses after some aggrieved Parsis staged a protest at the charity commissioner’s office.
The charity commissioner had stopped all financial transactions after a section of Parsis complained to him under section 41/d of the Bombay Public Trust Act (which deals with removal of trustees). There were charges of nepotism, irregularity in providing housing and charges of doing ‘charity to the rich instead of the poor’. “These cases will be put up at the charity commissioner’s office when the hearing takes place,” said Noshir Dadrawala, a trustee.
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Nazneen Contractor’s long, strange trip to ‘The Border’
As customs agent Layla Hourani on “The Border” — which airs Mondays on CBC Television — Nazneen Contractor is almost a genre of one.
Hourani defies both the Western stereotype of the submissive Muslim woman and the Muslim stereotype of the fast, loose Western female.
“Layla is someone who is assimilated and entrenched but still holds a lot of Islamic core values,” Contractor says. “I
think that makes her a very dynamic character and also makes for great moral issues on a show like ‘The Border.’ ”
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He willed for street kids, but sons came in way
Before his death in March 2007, Dr Shapoor Behram Badshah, a rich Parsi living in Germany, wanted to do something for the welfare of Mumbai’s street children.
He executed a will, which provided for the construction of a hospital, a prayer hall and a shelter home for the homeless kids.
Badshah’s will stated that a large part of his estate comprising movable and immovable properties was to be administered by the Dr Shapoor Behram Badshah Charitable Trust. His two Mumbai-based sons were bequeathed certain properties.
However, according to a petition filed in Bombay High Court, Badshah’s two sons allegedly suppressed the fact that their father had left a will and obtained the right to administer his entire estate.
In an unprecedented order, given recently, the HC not only confirmed that Badshah did leave a will, but also stated that if his two sons failed to comply with their father’s wishes stated in the will, then the chairperson of Akanksha, an NGO working for street children, would be appointed as administrator of Badshah’s estate.
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Dr. Homi Bhabha Birth Centenary
Article contributed by Parsi Khabar reader Percy Kavarana
The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) on Thursday celebrated Dr Homi Bhabha’s 99th birth anniversary amidst its Founder’s Day festivities and also marked the beginning of the Homi Bhabha Birth Centenary Year, which will be celebrated till October 30 next year.
The highlight of the function was a live telecast by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from New Delhi, which was beamed to all Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) institutions. The PM also inaugurated six new BARC facilities through video conferencing. These include the multi-stage flash desalination plant and the barge-mounted desalination plant — both in Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu; a new training school at Anushakti Nagar in Mumbai; the Critical Facility for Water Reactors and New Hot Cells Facility— both in Trombay and an Electron Radiation Facility in Khargar, Navi Mumbai.
“It gives me great pleasure to begin these celebrations to enter the centenary year celebrations of Homi Bhabha’s 99th birth anniversary,” said the Prime Minister. “These two sons (Jawaharlal Nehru and Homi Bhabha) were the fathers of our nuclear energy programme,” he added.
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Ancient Blessings Near the Flat-Screen TV
PERVEZ PATEL, a Zoroastrian priest from Elmhurst, Queens, was wearing a long white robe and a white cotton veil over his mouth that looked something like a surgeon’s mask. Using a candle, he set fire to a small pile of sandalwood sticks placed on a dish covered with aluminum foil. Fragrant smoke filled the room, hovering in drifting layers of white under the ceiling lights, as the priest chanted in an ancient language called Avestan.
Zoroastrian rituals like these are a few thousand years old and have roots in the land of Persia, now known as Iran. This particular ritual, however, took place on a recent Thursday night in the living room of a two-bedroom apartment near Union Square, and the proceedings unfolded between the flat-screen television set and the white futon.
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Croweaters: MP Minoo Bhandara’s Art Gallery To Remain Open
Win for the arts: Croweaters to remain open
LAHORE: The family of Bapsi Sidhwa and the late MP Bhandara has renounced its decision to shut down the Croweaters Art Gallery after a large segment of society protested the move, Daily Times learnt on Tuesday.
“The administration has now decided to shift the gallery to another location, most likely in the Defence Housing Authority or Gulberg. They have already started their search for an adequate place to run an art gallery,” Gallery Curator and General Manager Nayab Shami told Daily Times on Tuesday. She said that a large number of people had visited the gallery after learning of its impending closure and several had requested the family to keep the historic location open for business. She said that the family had been overwhelmed by the public outcry and had decided to shift the gallery instead of shutting it down to entertain the public’s request and keep the family tradition alive.
Nayab said that the decision has also energised the people working at the gallery, as they were very pleased to learn that the masses did not want the country to lose even a single art gallery and had rallied to save it. She said that while it was certain that the gallery would be shifted, it was not yet decided whether the new location would have only an art gallery or a café and crafts shop as well. Beaconhouse National University (BNU) Visual Department chief Saleema Hashmi welcomed the move, saying the late MP Bhandara’s family had done a great service for the world of fine art. She said that the Bhandaras were a family of traditionalists; art lovers; and philanthropists. They had taken many steps in the past to contribute to the preservation of culture in Lahore and the Parsi people who lived here, she added.
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Parsi Panchayat to make elderly a priority
Senior citizens belonging to the Parsi community have a reason to smile. The newly-elected Parsi Panchayat members have promised to put issues related to the elderly in their community to the top of their agenda.
“Nearly a third of the Parsi population in Mumbai is aged and lonely. Housing is a huge problem for such Parsis. Our baugs are deceptive. They seem large but in reality, the rooms are small and large families have to make do with the space they have,” said Arnavaz Mistry (59), who got the highest number of votes (1,029) in the elections. Parsis from as far as Canada and New Zealand have requested the Panchayat to work for the elderly. Mumbai is home to around 39,000 of the world’s 64,000 Parsis. At the JJ Hospital Parsi ward, 79 applicants are waiting to fill 45 beds and more keep coming in every month, according to senior medical officer Dr Mohan Warang. “The patients here, aged 70 to 90, suffer from psychosomatic ailments like dementia, amnesia and Alzheimer’s,” said Warang.
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Tales from Cusrow Baug
by ShwetaTeotia Posted online: Oct 26, 2008 at 0205 hrs
A peek into the Parsi bastion in Colaba, which is out of bounds for most Mumbaikars
On Colaba Causeway, there is a place that intrigues the non-Parsis a lot. For over six years, we’ve have gone up and down the Causeway a million times, each time thinking about what goes on within the fortress called Cusrow Baug. A lovely residential sanctuary, the Baug situated across the road from Café Churchill is also a gateway to traditional Parsi ways of life and culture.
Cusrow Baug was built in 1934 after two years of construction. In present day Mumbai, it may seem totally unbelievable, but the Baug covers an area of 84,000 square yards and is home to over 500 families. The houses are all on a rental basis and cannot be sold.
There is a designated trust looking after maintenance of the place. This ensures that the place remains exclusive to the community.
A dedicated website called cusrowbaug.org tells us that self-contained as it is, the Baug has an Agiary named The Seth Nusserwanji Hirji Karani Agiary. It also has a social activities cell which carries out educational initiatives, including religion classes and some scholarships. The Religious Class in the baug is one of the most valuable and dedicated service of the colony to the Parsi community. This is credited to a few dedicated people who have carried out social service for the past 22 years. There is also a full-fledged sports centre called Cusrow Baug United Sports and Welfare League. They have a computer centre and a gymnasium too. However, this website hasn’t been updated since 2004.
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