Eminent Parsi and Bollywood personality Boman Irani endorses the Jiyo Parsi campaign. A video recording of his speech is at the end of this article.
Praising the ‘Jiyo Parsi’ campaign of the Centre, Bollywood actor Boman Irani has called upon youngsters in his community to procreate. “For the young Parsis, there is only one formula to arrest the dwindling numbers of the community – go forth and procreate. It’s not a rocket science that requires teaching and schemes,” said Irani at Sanjan Day celebrations on Monday.
Article in the Times of India
The chief guest at the celebrations said, “I appeal to the young Parsis to continue our legacy and contribute profusely for the well-being of this beautiful country. Our ancestors have done India proud in every field and I expect today’s youth to carry forward that legacy for another 150 years.”
Irani added, “The government has always been supportive towards the Parsi community. I appeal to the youngsters to come forward and perform for overall good of our community. There are only 70,000 Parsis in the country and we want to increase this number in the coming years.”
Over 1,000 Parsis from Mumbai, Surat, Valsad, Bardoli, Vadodara, Umbergaon, Navsari, Sanjan, and Nargol were present at the celebrations that kick-started with the religious priests – Dasturs – performing ‘Jashan’ under Vada Dastur of Udwada Khurshed Kekobar.
Irani, his wife Zenobia and younger son Kayoze participated in the Jashan along with other dignitaries from the Bombay Parsi Punchayat (BPP) including chairman Dinshaw Mehta, trustee Khojestee Mistry and member Arnavaz Mistry.
The event was organized by Sanjan Memorial Column Committee to commemorate the 1294th year of the Parsis landing at Sanjan.
President of Sanjan Memorial Column Committee Bapsy Davierwala told TOI, “This year’s celebration was based on the theme of ‘Jiyo Parsi’ scheme. All those present at today’s celebration praised the scheme and appealed to the youth Parsis to procreate.”
“This time around the Sanjan Day fell on Monday so many Parsis could not attend. But, our message for the community to procreate has reached out loud and clear,” added Davierwala.
Roshini Wadia, a volunteer at Sanjan, said, “I have seen the ad campaign for ‘Jiyo Parsi’ scheme. There is nothing that one should feel bad about. I totally support the scheme.”
Here is a video of Boman’s speech at Sanjan Day 2014 recorded by Shahrukh Asundaria.
