Heritage

The Last Parsis: Tales of Survival and Extinction

Kaevan Umrigar, a filmmaker, and good friend of Parsi Khabar runs his own blog.

His latest article in on Uran

Next on my itinerary was Mora Bunder at Uran, a small fishing village across the harbour from Bombay. The agiary wasn’t far from the jetty, and as I walked towards it I saw a couple of houses that looked unmistakably Parsi. Again, I found the agiary locked. Going around to the back, in one of the buildings in the complex, I met Kersi Sui.

Kersi Sui was the only Parsi left in Uran. He looked after the agiary, though he was not a priest. He told me how he came about this. His parents had come to Uran from Navsari to manage the sanatorium in the agiary complex. The agiary fire was a dadgah, and therefore laymen could tend it too. So whenever the priest had to go to his home-town, he entrusted the fire in their care. The trustees didn’t have enough funds, and neither the Suis nor the priest drew much of a salary. When the priest quit, no one was ready to work for the pittance offered. Rather than let the fire die out, Kersi began to look after it.

Continue reading the entire article here.

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