Inflatable pools, barbecues, open backyards…this is how architect Rooshad Shroff recalls the better part of his...
arZan Articles
Manifestation in Meditation: A Father’s Day Special Virtual Event
Join 2021 Father's Day Transformational Special MANIFESTATION IN MEDITATION with Global Leading Holistic Health Guru...
Grand Tour: A century ago, these Parsis circumpedalled the world
In the 1920s, long before the dawn of fake news, one Chinese man was told that Rabindranath Tagore had composed the Gujarati national anthem of the Parsi community that went: "We are old...
Parsis, a tiny Indian minority, challenge ban on traditional sky burial rite amid Covid-19 pandemic
They have, for centuries, left their dead to be devoured by scavenging birds and decay naturally atop circular raised structures known as dakhma or Tower of Silence.But the pandemic has put a stop...
Ba Humata Lecture Series: June 2021 In Memory of Ervad Soli P. Dastur
The June monthly Ba Humata Lecture will be honoring Ervad Dr. Soli P. Dastur Our Honorable Friend Dr. Ervad Soli P. Dastur passed away a few days ago. He served as the Guiding Light For Bahumata...
Discussing the history and practice of Zoroastrianism: Register Now
This online webinar is organised by The Iran Heritage FoundationDescriptionZoroastrianism is one of the world’s oldest religions and the exhibition Epic Iran, co-organised by the V&A and IHF,...
Behram Yazad Jashan of Victory to be performed at Zoroastrian Association of California.
A Jashan of Victory "....The Most courageous Beheram yazata then speaks unto him (i.e. seeker for help): I am the most courageous in courage, I am the most victorious in victory, I am the most...
Ervad Soli P. Dastur: In Memorarium
We are deeply saddened to hear about the passing away of Soli Uncle. This is a huge loss for the community in North America and all over the world. Soli Uncle was a huge supporter of Parsi Khabar...
Centre Seeks More Time From Guj HC To File Reply
Next Hearing To Take Place On June 9; Parsi Trust’s Petition Says Burial Or Cremation Of Parsis Succumbing To Covid-19 Is Against Their ReligionThe Central government on Thursday sought time from...
Dr. Behramshah Mazda: The Flying Doctor of Dahanu, An Obituary
Mark Manuel's tribute to Dr. MAZDA ... The Irani doctor of Dahanu has gone, flying away… I bring sad news. Dr. Behramshah Mazda, MBBS, of Dahanu is no more. The message came on Whatsapp: “Your...
Four Zoroastrian Scouts Awarded the Good Life Zoroastrian Emblem
On May 16th, 2021, the Southern Californian Zoroastrian Community gathered for the first time in many months at the ZAC Community Hall after the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.The community was...
Gujarat High Court Issues Notice On Plea Seeking Permission To Perform Dokhmenashini, The Practice Of Disposing Dead Bodies In Parsi Community
The Gujarat High Court has issued notice on a petition filed by Surat Parsi Panchayat Board seeking permission to perform Dokhmenashini, a customary practice among the Parsi community of putting the...
Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia receives English Heritage blue plaque
Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia (1808-1877), a pioneering naval engineer and former member of the Society has recently been awarded an English Heritage London blue plaque marking the 180th anniversary of...
Ardaseer Cursetjee Wadia: The esteemed Indian ancestor no one in my white British family knew about
Who do you think you are? The esteemed Indian ancestor no one in my white British family knew aboutImage: Ardaseer Cursetjee, the first South Asian Fellow of the Royal Society, has been awarded a...
Famed deliverer of babies Dr Feridoon Setna passes away
Benazir Bhutto said to have been his patientOne of Karachi’s most famous gynaecologists, Dr Faridoon Setna, FRCOG, has passed away, according to information on Saturday.His funeral prayers will be...
The Iranian kings who thought the world revolved around them
While not as well-known as that of the Achaemenid dynasty (550–330 BC), the second Persian empire ruled by the Sasanian dynasty (AD 224–642) is a pivotal but often overlooked period of ancient...
Aspi Engineer And Winning the Aga Khan Race
Our dear friend Rusi Sorabji writes….I attach something I wrote about friend, ASPI Engineer*, the 17 years old should go down in the annals of World Aviation better than the likes of Alcock &...
WAPIZ Oxygen Concentrator Project
– Aim To Provide Each Baug With 1 Oxygen Concentrator – The most heart-wrenching news heard daily, in connection with the ongoing pandemic, is that scores of people are dying due to lack of...
Over 500 Zarthostis from around the world participate in a Jashan & Pray Together
Our dear friend Ervad Zarrir Bhandara writes in….Sincere gratitude to all in making our efforts towards ending the pandemic and bringing about good times through the collective power of our...
Arzan Nagwaswalla, a Parsi in Team India after 28 years
Farokh Engineer played his final Test for India in 1975 while Diana Edulji's last game in the women's team came in July 1993. Arzan Nagwaswalla in action for Gujarat in the Ranji Trophy. ...
Prints For Hope: Divya Cowasji
We are thrilled to share a very timely initiative by our dear friend and brilliant filmmaker Divya Cowasji. She writes… “I am Divya Cowasji, a Parsi filmmaker and photographer from India. Like...
Former Attorney General For India and Veteran Jurist Soli Sorabjee passed Away
Soli Jehangir Sorabjee was born in 1930 in Bombay. He commenced his legal practice in 1953 in Bombay High Court. In 1971, he was designated senior counsel by the Supreme Court of India. He became...
Homi Dastoor’s Musical Journey: The Ninety First Symphony
Over the last three weeks India is going through one of the worst public health crisis of our lifetimes. The fact that this comes more than a year into the covid-19 pandemic is even worse.Here is a...
Behram Roj Jashan from Zoroastrian Association of California
"He who heals by means of reciting the Mānthra (is) the best amongst (all) the healers." - Ardibehesht Yasht para 6 Our dear friend Mobed Zarrir Bhandara informs us…A Behram Yazad Jashan will...
Ba Humata Lecture Series: May 2021
The May 2021 Ba Humata Lecture shall be on the topic: THE LIGHT OF ZARATHUSHTRA "Aatarsh Puthra Ahuraheh Mazdaao" An Ode To Energy, Light and Life (Atash Niyayesh And Related Prayers)On Sunday, May...
Painting with a Needle: Dr. Shernaz Cama and the work of PARZOR
Dr. Shernaz Cama the founding director of UNESCO PARZOR Project speaks on ZAMWI ZOOM, a lecture series curated by the Zoroastrian Association of Metropolitan Washington DC.
Not just the coronavirus, the government’s ineptitude has brought this tsunami on us
Oxygen, vaccination, more beds and firmer enforcement of COVID-19 protocols can help us weather this crisis.The present pandemic has devastated our poor country and anguished its people. There are...
Jimmy Engineer talks about major artistic achievement Javid Namah mural
Jimmy Engineer said that he has been painting for well over four decades and has so far created hundreds of paintings but he considers transforming big murals into colourArticle by Muhammad Zahid...
Mumbai: 100-year-old Parsi Gate to be relocated 75mt away
BMC has relocated the century-old Parsi Gate at Marine Drive to make way for the coastal road project. While one pillar of the gate was moved on April 17, the other was moved three days later. After...
How the Parsee gara, or sari, has Chinese influences and history woven into its fabric
Nineteenth century Parsee traders returned to India from Canton with embroidered silk cloth which was fashioned into unique saris which came to be known as garas Traditional Parsee embroidery has...
Who are the Iranian People?
In a landmark study, a team of international researchers with unrestricted access to local populations and fossilized genetic material in Iran, led by scientists from the University of Cologne...
The Gatha Smart Pen Introduced in Iran
Our dear friend Meher Amalsad shares a video about a new technological innovation called The Gatha Pen. This is developed by Mobedyar Dr. Rashin Jahangiri M.D. a Mmber of the Developing Team. Photos...
Gulshan Kavarana: Dubai resident helps people of determination get through pandemic
Gulshan Kavarana speaks about the support group she has been running for over two decades. Over two decades ago, a journey that started in a living room, has now offered help and growth to more than...
The Battle of the Parsis
Will the house that Jamsetji built with a capital of Rs 21,000 in 1868 continue to retain its values?LET’S START THIS story with the one question everyone asks. How many Parsis are there in...
With ‘folded hands’, Poonawalla urges Biden to lift export ban from these raw materials
With ‘folded hands’, Poonawalla urges Biden to lift export ban from these raw materialsSII chief executive Adar Poonawalla said that vaccine production can be ramped up if the Biden administration...
Zoroastrians in India: ‘Dating my way out of extinction’ – BBC News
In India, an ancient religion known as Zoroastrianism is under threat. There are fewer than 60,000 believers in the country and their numbers are projected to fall further. The UN says this is...
COVID-19 has forced Surat Parsis to cremate the bodies
Around 40 members of community who succumbed to the infection in Surat denied the traditional funeral of consigning the dead to dakhmas and cremated as per Covid guidelines Monaz Bhesania, a...
Farohar Cafe in Udvada: How a mother-son duo is popularising Parsi cuisine through authentic recipes
A sleepy coastal town in Gujarat, about 180km from Mumbai, is home to one of the world’s oldest religions – Zoroastrianism. Udvada, also spelled Udwada, in Pardi taluka of Gujarat’s Valsad district,...
Justice Rohinton F Nariman speaks on “Great Women of History” 26th Justice Sunanda Bhandare Memorial Lecture
Each had to fight with their backs to the wall." Cleopatra, Pope Joan, Razia Sultana are some of the figures featuring in Justice RF Nariman's speech on "Great Women of History."
Zoroastrian Spirituality: The Relentless Pursuit of Good: A Talk by Khojeste Mistree
The Beshara Trust is pleased to announce that a recording of this event is now available on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/83Lozj_rv6I
Zoroastrian Co-op Bank sees change of guard; Yazdi Tantra is new Chairman
An expert in Information Technology Yazdi B Tantra has been elected unopposed as the new Chairman of Multi State Scheduled Bank- Zoroastrian Cooperative Bank in the recently held election. He...
India’s Mini-Craze for Bicycling Around the World
In the 1920s and 1930s, a dozen adventurous young riders went on the ultimate journey. In 2017, Anoop Babani, Goa-based former journalist, was recuperating from a cycling accident when he...
Hemin Bharucha appointed as Country Director, India at London & Partners
Based in Mumbai, Bharucha is the Mayor of London’s chief representative in India and leads the teams in India with offices in Mumbai and Bangalore, according to a statement.London & Partner on...
Zarathushtra: The Man And The Message by Meheryar Rivetna
Meheryar Rivetna, an active member of the library committee of the Zoroastrian Association of Houston (ZAH), has written and published a book Zarathustra: The Man And The Message. The book aims to...
A paradox revealed through portraiture
A photograph taken seven years before her passing says much about the life, times and character of the trailblazing Meherbai Tata The much-loved wife of Dorabji Tata and daughter in-law of Jamsetji...
Goodbye, Mehli Irani !
Former Mumbai batsman passes away in Dubai at 90; will be known for his long club cricket journey that spanned generationsMehli Irani at the Bombay Gymkhana. Pic/mid-day archivesIt seems only...
Fire Retardant Attire For Mobeds
The following update is put out by Empowering Mobeds & WZO TrustsSaturday October 24, 2020 was indeed a dark day, not only on account of the Pandemic but more so that Er. Zahan Meherzad Turel,...
Ba Humata Lecture Series: April 2021
The April 2021 Ba Humata lecture shall be on the topic: From Humata to Hvarashta: To Protect and Heal the Earth (Spentomad Gatha 48.12)The lecture is scheduled for Sunday, April 4, 2021 at 8:00 AM...
Dr. Farokh E. Udwadia: Keynote Address at the Iranshah Udvada Utsav 2017
Dr. Farokh E. Udwadia is a legend in the medical field worldwide. He is also a proud Parsi Zarathushti and was invited as the Keynote speaker at the Iranshah Udvada Utsav 2017 In two frank and...
Book Review | The TATAS — How a family built a business and a nation
Girish Kuber’s book has many interesting anecdotes of stories, struggles, trials and tribulations, and many jubilations behind the family’s journey.A lot is already known about the Tatas; one of...
An Expert Explains: Behind the Tata-Mistry feud, the crossed wires of history
The Supreme Court has set aside a Tribunal ruling that had reinstated Cyrus Mistry as Executive Chairman of Tata Sons. Tracing the history of the Tata, Wadia and Mistry families, leading to the...
COVID-19 vaccination drive for Parsi community in Mumbai off to a slow start
No takers in first five days; Punchayet says 9 Parsis will get jabs on Friday; they are also offering free transport to vaccine-seekersBD Petit Parsee General Hospital at Cumballa Hill. Pic/Bipin...