Category: About

Despite a 2006 ban on veterinary diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug for cattle, vultures are fast vanishing from India. So quick is the decline in numbers that experts say three species could be extinct in less than 10 years. The oriental white-backed vulture, once thought to be the commonest bird of prey in the world, has… Continue reading Indian vultures may be gone in 10 years

Remembering Russy Karanjia, who died yesterday, exactly 67 years after he founded Blitz, India’s greatest tabloid weekly The story of the life of Russy Karanjia is intimately tied up with the story of Indian journalism. He displayed a penchant for writing from his college days, when he took keen interest in contributing to, and editing,… Continue reading Remembering Russy Karanjia

Community treasures The more popular spot off Hughes Road might be a city bookstore but a rewarding experience awaits the curious at the Khareghat Memorial Hall, in the Khareghat Colony a few metres away. A lonely, uniformed caretaker sits like a weary guardian at the entrance of the Framji Dadabhoy Alpaiwalla Museum–a capsule-like gateway into… Continue reading Framji Dadabhoy Alpaiwalla Museum

Ruins of a Zoroastrian fire temple in western Iran. A joint Iranian-Polish team has started excavations at the site of the Azar Barzin Mehr fire temple in Sabzevar, northeastern Iran. Iran’s Archeology Research Center and a team from Warsaw University are studying the temple, a quadric-arch.

That’s what Parsis will do on Pateti today, a day before celebrating Navruz. If you plan to wish your Parsi neighbours “Happy Pateti” on Saturday, don’t. That is, unless, you believe that penitence is a joyful event. Wait till Sunday (August 20) instead, and wish them a “Happy Navruz”. Many non-Parsis recognise Pateti as the… Continue reading Pray, atone and feast

Bapsi Sidhwa has become well-known as the author of the novel Cracking India, which was made into the 1998 movie ‘Earth’, directed by Deepa Mehta. She, however, has been around for a lot longer than that. As more than one reviewer has pointed out, her first book The Crow Eaters was first published in 1978,… Continue reading Talking with Bapsi Sidhwa

Saturday was a big day for actress Perizaad Zorabian as the actress got married with her longtime boyfriend Boman Irani. No not the actor Boman but an estate developer based in Mumbai. The couple got married in a typical Parsi way. The wedding reception which happened at Taj Lands End was a very private affair.… Continue reading Perizaad Zorabian gets married to Boman Irani

I’m not Semi Girebaal because I’m a Bawa! Cyrus Sahukar’s second season of spoof has begun, but he has his serious moments as well … despite being a Parsi, he says! With all due respect to Simi Garewal, we think the spoof on her show ‘Semi Girebaal’ is more entertaining than Simi’s original ‘Rendezvous’. And… Continue reading I’m not Semi Girebaal because I’m a Bawa!