The release of Made In India: A Titan Story has brought renewed attention to one of the most remarkable business...
arZan Articles
Veteran Actor Dinyar Tirandaz Passes Away in Mumbai
Veteran television and film actor Dinyar Tirandaz, fondly remembered for his comic timing, warmth, and memorable...
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 itWould 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 collectionInstead of using a tapestry frame, textile...
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 informationThe 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 DevelopmentIndian 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 complaintsParsis 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 KangaDuring 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 2018Last 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, Faith...
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 TORONTOBurr 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 picturesContemporary Design Store BARO will host photographer Zubin Balaporia’s first Photography Show titled “BLESSED BY THE...
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.That...
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...
Tête-à-Tête With Iconic Mumbai Eatery Britannia’s Owner
On a warm on Saturday afternoon in the city of dreams - Mumbai, when masses rejoice their weekend, a Parsi family gears up to welcome their customers at their iconic eatery Britannia & Co. The...
Zavera Shahuna: The Parsi platter
Zavera Shahuna’s kitchen speaks volumes of her love for order.Zavera Shahuna’s kitchen speaks volumes of her love for order. Glassware is neatly stacked on the shelves, a tray exclusively for sauce...
MMRCL shakes Parsi hopes for quick resolution to Metro row
A day after offering an out-of-court meeting to discuss options, MMRCL yesterday stated it would review the alternatives and decide whether the meeting was requiredArticle by Arita Sarkar |...
Prove fire temple is important to you, state tells Parsis
Setting community and MMRCL on warpath, govt pleader taunts petitioners: 'show more than two-and-a-half documents to prove that the Atash Behram is integral to ZoroastrianismThe Anjuman Atash...
How Indian opium traders from Bombay helped the British Raj wreck China’s economy
Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, who helped build modern Bombay and was the first Indian to be knighted by Queen Victoria, was a prominent figure in the business. Article by Girish Shahane | Scroll India...
The Mango and Parsi Cooking: Niloufer Mavalvala
Our dear friend and cookbook author and chef extraordinaire Niloufer Mavalvala was recently featured on a cooking show that is making the rounds of public broadcast in the United States. On the 4th...
Nari Contractor: A Captain with Grit and Impeccable Character
Nariman Jamshedji Contractor was born on March 7, 1934 at Godhra Gujarat by accident. His pregnant mother was coming on a train from Dahod in Gujarat to Bombay for delivery when all of a sudden she...
Why Urban Food Fortnight is good for business
Cyrus Todiwala is the founder and owner of Café Spice Namaste, a Sustain Patron, long-time London Food Link supporter and JE reader. Here he shares his thoughts on how Urban Food Fortnight helps the...
XYZ Leadership Camp 2018 by Rayaan Dadiburjor
Rayan Dadiburjor the XYZ President-Elect writes in about the recent XYZ Leadership Camp.Rayan writes…We arrived at Karjat’s Rivergate Resort with our bags packed for an overnight trip but went back...
How JRD Tata came up with a marketing strategy that ran through Tata ads for nearly a century
On September 9, 1925, Jehangir Tata wrote a letter to his father Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata from the barracks in the south of France. The 21-year-old had come up with a way to help the family business....
An artist who approached the work of painting like a campaign: Mehlli Gobhai (1931-2018)
He came to his canvas with no feelings of certainty about what he wanted, with no pretense that it was a willing ally in the act of creation. We were sitting in a Charles Correa-designed house,...
The Story Behind Raphael’s Masterpiece ‘The School of Athens’ And the Zoroaster Connection
Long before Rafael the hotheaded, red eye mask wearing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle entertained children onscreen, there was Rafael the esteemed painter who’d won over a cultured crowd of art...
Artist Mehlli Gobhai passes away
The 87-year-old veteran artist had been ailing for a while The Mumbai-based artist, Mehlli Gobhai has died at the age of 87 in a city hospital this morning. The artist was said to be ailing for a...
NanoViricides, Inc. Welcomes Dr. Irach Taraporewala as the New CEO
NanoViricides is pleased to announce that the Company's Board has appointed Dr. Irach Taraporewala as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Dr. Irach B. Taraporewala is a seasoned pharmaceutical...
Dancing on the edge: In conversation with Astad Deboo
At 71, Astad Deboo still walks with the leaping grace of a warrior Is it sweet revenge to be acclaimed as a living legend of dance right here in the most conservative of dance bastions?” I ask Astad...