For a few weeks each year, in parts of Karachi and Quetta, you can hear Avestan prayers in the Parsi fire temples...
arZan Articles
The Bomanjee Hormarjee Wadia Clock Tower Restored: A Legacy of Service, Craft, and Civic Collaboration
Built in 1882 by Bomanjee Hormarjee Wadia, this clock tower was a gift of service and foresight. Today, its legacy...
Zoroastrian Association of California Celebrates 2nd Salgreh of their Atashkadeh
The 2nd Salgreh of Zoroastrian Association of California Atashkadeh was celebrated with great religious fervor on November 13th. The day started with Zerkxis Bhandara doing Chowk and with the Bui...
Freddie Mercury – The Early Years
In the countdown to the cinema release of Bohemian Rhapsody, this short film looks at the early years of Freddie’s life including his birthplace of Zanzibar, his schooling and first musical...
Parsee General Hospital: Hong Kong couple may not invest Rs 162 cr in new hospital
Some community members say charity commissioner’s nod was not taken for deal. BD Petit Parsee General Hospital’s (PGH) bid to beat financial blues by opening a new hospital for all on its premises...
A Persian Popinjay. A Review of the Film Bohemian Rhapsody
The Demands of the Narrative The film opens with a close-up of star Rami Malek’s eye, a circlet of pale blue-grey iris clearly visible around a wide black pupil. The actor probably chose to eschew...
Perfect Letter for All Eeda (Egg) Loving Bawajis
A write up by a parsi mother to her son! Perfect letter for all eeda (Eggs) loving bawas!! Dear Son, Today I am writing to you about a strange topic. Eggs. After all, what kind of a Parsi caterer...
Inside House of Daaruwala, the café inspired by a Mumbai institution
The all-day café in Andheri pays homage to the legacy of Irani cafés that once dotted every prominent corner of the city Article by Kermin Bhot | Architectural Digest Mumbai’s House of...
Jiyo Parsi scheme gains ground in Gujarat
The dwindling population of Parsi community nationwide has long been a cause of concern and was the primary motivation for the Jiyo Parsi scheme. Funded by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, and...
Neomi Rao: First Parsi Judge Nominated on the D.C. Circuit Court in the United States.
Neomi Rao, Trump’s Deregulatory Leader, Gets DC Circuit Nod to Replace Kavanaugh Neomi Rao, who has led the Trump administration’s push to curtail agency regulations, would succeed Brett...
Jimmy Engineer: “The servant of Pakistan”
Jimmy described his wall paintings depicting Allama Iqbal’s masterpiece Javed Namah as his most difficult work, but also one of his major artistic achievements “I have been sent here,” said an...
Jeejeebhoy’s Bombay
The scion of a leading business family was among the first historians to document the city’s hidden stories, and was deeply affected by the loss of its heritage. If one were to think of a household...
Adi Bulsara: Navy scientist selected for ONR’s Outstanding Lifetime Achievement in Science
Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific (SSC Pacific) is proud to announce Dr. Adi Bulsara has been selected by the Office of Naval Research for the Dr. Fred E. Saalfeld Award for Outstanding...
Amyra Dastur on being an actress, ‘It’s scary’
Talents coming from a non-Bollywood background and standing on two feet in the industry gain more respect from the audience, says actress Amyra Dastur. Daughter of a doctor and a businesswoman,...
South Bombay varsity to be named after Homi Bhabha
The new cluster university in south Mumbai is set to be called Dr Homi Bhabha University after the notable alumnus of the Institute of Science, the lead college in the cluster. A notification from...
Month-long feast in Colaba celebrates Parsi lagan fare
Oct 30, 2018, 07:59 IST | The pop-up curated by Perzen Patel, known for her catering service The Bawi Bride Kitchen, will feature dishes authentic to the community and common to a Parsi wedding menu...
Remembering an Indian Prometheus: Homi J. Bhabha
On 12 March 1944, a proposal was despatched from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) at Bangalore to the Sir Dorab Tata Trust in Bombay. The letter read ‘I have for some time past nurtured the...
We Always Talk About Freddie Mercury’s Sexuality, But What About His Confusing Racial Identity?
With Bohemian Rhapsody, the film about Queen’s eccentric frontman Freddie Mercury, just around the corner, discourse about Mercury’s sexuality has rocked the internet. Some folks say that Mercury...
We are not mama’s boys, say Parsi men
Are Parsi men Mama’s boys? Are Parsi women really fussy?’ This was the topic of debate at a matrimonial meet for 108 eligible Parsi men and women on Sunday. Of course, the men and women refused to...
Can you crack this 150-year-old cloth merchants’ code?
Fabric trading in 1800s Bombay was a complex affair, with towels, hand-signals and secret bids. See how one british newspaper described it Would you have recognised the Bombay of 150 years ago? No...
Hoarding At Doongarwadi in Mumbai pulled down
A nearly decade-long battle to remove a two-level hoarding within the premises of the Parsi Tower of Silence (Doongerwadi) at Malabar Hill ended after it was pulled down over the weekend. It was...
Textile artist Areez Katki retraces his family’s odyssey
From Auckland to Mumbai to Tehran, textile artist and aesthete Areez Katki is retracing his family’s great odyssey, for inspiration for his next collection Instead of using a tapestry frame,...
Cyrus Mistry makes a comeback, starts aVenture Capital firm
Mistry Ventures LLP to invest in and nurture start-ups across the world Making his comeback into the corporate world, Tata Sons’ former Chairman Cyrus Mistry has started a firm Mistry Ventures LLP...
Fali Nariman Gets Shastri National Award
Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Monday honoured senior advocate Fali Sam Nariman with Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration and said Nariman was one of the...
Our Parsi Rich Have Fallen on Evil Days: A Sharp Account of the Community in the 19th Century
Behramji Malabari (1853-1912) was a social reformer, journalist, poet, travel writer/ethnographer and vital catalyst of change, who did much to shape the national reform discourse in late-19th...
BPP chairman hauls former board member to court over ‘defamatory’ articles
Based on the criminal complaint filed in Sewri court, Desai has alleged that Mehta has been spreading false and derogatory information The tussle between the current chairman of the Bombay Parsi...
Kobad Ghandy Acquitted of All Charges
The court of Additional Sessions and District Judge Mohammad Gulzar today acquitted CPI (Maoist) ideologue Kobad Ghandy of all charges. He was booked by the Patiala police under Sections 10,13,18...
Daraius Sorabji Stands for Campbell City Council Seat in California
Indian American Software Engineer Makes Bid for Campbell City Council Seat, Campaigning on Platform of Curbing Rampant Development Indian American software engineer Daraius Sorabji, a newcomer to...
Parsis in uproar over ‘hurtful’ videos; police start probe
An FIR was registered by the Gamdevi police on Tuesday after a community member made repeated complaints Parsis have been most displeased and unhappy the last couple of months. Reason: certain...
J B Kanga: A Legal Giant
Mitra Sharafi a legal historian of colonial South Asia, and a regular reader of this site writes about Jamshedji Behramji Kanga During a recent visit to the basement of Columbia Law Library, I came...
Chef Anahita Dhondy at the United Nations Week 2018 in New York
Our regular reader and friend Rusi Sorabji sent us this write up about A young Parsi Lady Chef at the UN week 2018 Last week of September, World leaders, Queens, Presidents, Vice Presidents, Prime...
Cyrus Mistry: What’s Your Life Optimization Score
Cyrus has spent the past 20 years helping people and business be more efficient. Through his work at Google, he has developed a simple process for optimizing all the areas of our personal lives –...
Freddie Mercury’s complex relationship with Zanzibar
With the release of a new film about the British rock band Queen, the spotlight has fallen again on the life of its legendary lead singer, Freddie Mercury. His flamboyant stage presence, outlandish...
UK Parsi Youth Discuss the new Freddie Mercury Biopic
Below is a video clip and an audio interview with Parsi youth in the United Kingdom, speaking about the impact of Freddie Mercury in popular culture. This is in a lead-up to biopic “Bohemian...
Toronto author builds new life after a stroke, eating disorder
After suffering a stroke in her 20s, Dina Pestonji, who grew up in Willowdale, had a long road to recovery ahead. That road included penning a book, Surviving Myself: How an Eating Disorder, a Car...
She’s the Boss: Growing into Success
On Monday October 15, 2018 I had an opportunity to attend a fantastic panel discussion titled “She’s the Boss: Growing into Success”. The panel was moderated by my very dear friend Narges Kakalia, a...
Zoroastrians and Jains added to UK’s war memorial service
Representatives of the Jain and Zoroastrian will now join 15 other faiths, including Hinduism, Sikhism, at Britain’s annual war memorial service to make it more reflective of modern Britain,...
FEZANA’s Participation at the 2018 Parliament of World’s Religions
NORTH AMERICAN ZOROASTRIAN RELIGIOUS, COMMUNITY LEADERS TO REPRESENT ANCIENT FAITH AT 7TH PARLIAMENT OF WORLD’S RELIGIONS, NOV. 1-7, IN TORONTO Burr Ridge, Illinois, Oct. 18, 2018 – FEZANA, the...
Lord Karan Bilimoria: Great grandpa had unpleasant task of arresting Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi or Bapu as he was endearingly called by millions of Indians, was arrested several times in his lifetime. In the history of British India and free India, one family had its tryst with...
Simran Jehani’s film portrays Zoroastrianism
When Simran Jehani first came to USC, people asked her a question she was all too familiar with — “what are you?” Telling them she was Zoroastrian caused some confusion — so Jehani, a senior...
Commemorating Zoroastrian and Indian women in the British Suffrage movement
Our dear friend Shazneen Y Munshi wrote a report on the event that commemorated Zoroastrian and Indian women in the British Suffrage movement. This was initially shared by Zoroastrian Trust Funds of...
Rawalpindi’s Parsi benefactor
During colonial times the Parsi community expanded to every corner of India. These fortune seekers settled in developing towns across the Subcontinent. And they took with them their unique origins,...
Honouring the First Benefactor of HKU: Sir Hormusjee N Mody
Every year on October 12, the local Zoroastrian community commemorates the birthday of Sir Hormusjee Mody and his generosity to the University by having a priest place a garland of flowers around...
Fall from glory: Prof Pithawala holds up a mirror to India’s oldest law college
Prof. Pithawalla, who has been teaching at the GLC for 46 years, says lax attendance, poorly-paid teachers are among its sore spots Prof. Homiar Pithawalla has been witness to the peaks and troughs...
Metro 3 vs Parsis: MMRCL compares Parsi beliefs to Sati
The massive battle put up by the Parsi community to save two of their sacred Atash Behrams from Metro III is now drawing to a close, as final arguments on both sides ended yesterday in the Bombay...
Tata Group history is also the history of Indian industry
The history of a behemoth that is also the history of Indian industry T.R. Doongaji hails from Nagpur, the place where Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata started his first venture, Empress Mills, in 1877....
Blessed By The Light: Zubin Balaporia Exhibition at BARO
Zubin Balaporia’s photography exhibition explores how he listens to his pictures Contemporary Design Store BARO will host photographer Zubin Balaporia’s first Photography Show titled “BLESSED...
From Zarathustra to British Aristocracy: The Paisley of Persia
Resembling a teardrop, fashion’s famed Paisley motif earned its western name from the Scottish town of Paisley, a center for textiles where paisley designs were produced. The distinctive...
A Brown Kitchen: India meets Persia in seductive Parsi pickles
A first cookbook is like a first love, the first boy that you meet and fall in love with. You might not end up spending your life with him, but you might always remember the relationship fondly....
Russy D Sumariwalla: Towards a Planet-wide Culture of Non-Violence
From times immemorial, humankind, in its brief history on planet Earth, has caused and experienced for itself unimaginable horrors and carnage. Violence is commonly used to settle disputes or to...
India’s Birthing Project
Amid its fight against a surging demographic, India has taken up the responsibilities of a depleting community — the Parsis — nestled in the middle of its diverse cultural smorgasbord. Article by...
Parsi Gara: Using History For a New Story
How Ashdeen Lilaowala keeps traditional oriental embroidery craft distinct without adapting to the millennial culture Seated in the plush, spacious, newly launched store of textile designer and...