The meeting, held on Tuesday at the office of a prominent law firm in Mumbai, saw Mehta offering Rs 2.9 crore to keep...
arZan Articles
As ‘Parsiana’ closes, Indian journalism loses a small but important voice
The final edition of Parsiana has rolled off the presses.Established in 1964, the semi-monthly magazine was a vital...
Are you bawa enough to act?
The golden age of Parsi-Gujarati theatre may be long over, but a few drama-loving bawas are determined to revive it. Theatre veteran Burjor Patel, his daughter Shernaz Patel, lighting director Sam...
Bawi Bride Kitchen Brings Parsi Food Festival to J W Marriott Hotel in Mumbai
Good friend Perzen Patel, the powerhouse behind the namesake Bawi Bride Kitchen informs us about the upcoming Parsi Food Festival at the J W Marriott Hotel at Sahar, in Andheri; Mumbai. Spread over...
Head To Udvada Before Prime Minister Modi Does.
Visit Udvada, a Parsi town, before Narendra Modi does Article by Kermin Bhot | hindustantimes.com Two giant stone statues guard the main entrance. They hold a sword to their chest and stand at...
Who really owns this Bangalore Parsi burial ground?
Three acres of prime land in the heart of the city which has been used as a burial ground by the Parsis for 123 years has turned into a conflict zone. The community has filed a case against the...
All is not well in the high corridors of hospitals
Are patients being given an adequate say in the treatment they receive? Almost one year ago, Jehangir Cama, a respected hotelier, who was the former President of the Federation of Hotel and...
Amicable End to Stalemate at Doongerwadi
An Interim Settlement has been reached between the Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha and the Bombay Parsi Punchayet. Via Parsiana "All is well that ends well”. The Parsi community can heave a sigh of relief as...
Pairing a Parsi with food
She started helping her mom in the kitchen when she was 10 years old and by the time she was 13 she started cooking in her free time after school. “By then I knew that I wanted to be a chef,” says...
Why Are India’s Parsi People Going Extinct?
There are less than 60,000 Parsis in India today. That fact itself is so alarming that it demands measures to help the community from fading away. Despite their low numbers, their contribution in...
New Film Debuts: The Path of Zarathushtra
A feature film 'The Path of Zarathustra' will be released at Mumbai in PVR theaters on Friday September 3, 2015. It will also be released at theaters in Delhi, Bengaluru and Pune. The film is the...
Sleepy Udvada Will Spring to life with first-ever Parsi festival
It's where history meets hearty Parsi cuisine. Udvada, a coastal town about 200km north of Mumbai and a place of pilgrimage for Zoroastrians, is as beloved for housing the community's sacred fire or...
Ratan Tata inducted into Automotive Hall of Fame
Other automotive heavyweights inducted include former Ferrari chariman Luca di Montezemolo Ratan Tata has been inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame for his contribution to the automotive...
Food Picks in Udvada
While Mumbai and Pune are the first two cities people think of when it comes to good Parsi food, they forget that Udvada is really the heart of this cuisine. Udvada is home to the Iranshah, a sacred...
House of Fire: Can India’s Parsis survive their own success?
Fali Madon was looking for a bride. A boyish twenty-seven-year-old with twin passions for physical fitness and expensive cars, Fali was the chief priest of a Parsi fire temple in the Colaba district...
3,000-yr Parsi tradition of final rites threatened by strike
The Bombay Parsi Punchayet received a notice of a strike by the Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha, which also includes workers who lay the community’s deceased to rest; the notice came after negotiations for a...
Parsis Aflame Over Snoop Dogg Video Featuring Sacred Symbol
A new video, “King,” featuring rapper Snoop Dogg and Iranian American singer Amitis has raised the ire of the worldwide Parsi community, including the Indian American community, for its use of a...
Navroze Godrej: 4th-gen Godrej ushers in new culture at Godrej & Boyce
Navroze Godrej, the son of Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing (G&B) chairman Jamshyd Godrej, and who is the only member of the fourth generation of the Godrejs so far to be inducted on the...
YouTube withdraws Snoop Dogg video
Readers of Parsi Khabar might remember that we had broken the story of the video featuring Snoop Dogg and Amitis, that had questionable and disrespectful use of the Farohar in it. The story then got...
Khandias: The Keepers of Doongerwadi
Among Parsis, Khandias are a group of people spoken about only in hushed tones. It is their job to bathe and carry the deceased of the community to the Towers of Silence for vultures, and then tend...
How India makes Parsi babies
The Parsis of India are a unique community, but their numbers are declining fast. In an effort to change this, the government is spending $1.5m to encourage them to have more children. Persis Aspi...
Udvada gets Rs 20 Crore boost
Gujarat's tourism ministry has sanctioned Rs 20 crore for the development of Udvada, home to the Iranshah Atash Behram, the highest order fire temple for Parsis. Article By Jyoti Shelar | Mumbai...
Prime Minister Modi and Ratan Tata set to grace International Udvada Utsav in December 2015
Parsis from across the country and globe will participate in the first ever 'Iranshah Udvada Utsav', beginning December 25 in Udvada, Navasari. The Iranshah Udvada Utsav is jointly organised by the...
Ervad Dr. Parvez Bajan Earns Doctorate In Ancient Avesta Pahlavi Script
Rustom House in Grant Road is home to an elderly priest who is a veritable storehouse of Iranian history . Ervad Parvez Bajan has six cupboards for books on Irani and Persian culture and just one...
Open Parsi dokhmas to kin, says protesting workers’ union
The Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha, representing the Bombay Parsi Punchayet's (BPP) 220 Class IV workers, has asked the trust to allow relatives of the deceased into the roofless towers where dead bodies are...
Parsis volunteer to turn corpse-bearers
BPP Trustee Scopes Out Substitutes If Khandias Strike About 25 Parsis, normally employed as plumbers, engineers and businessmen, will don crisp white uniforms and work as pallbearers or khandias if...
Chalo Udvada: The First Iranshah Udvada Utsav 2015
The Foundation for Development of Udvada & the Udvada Samast Anjuman are very pleased to announce that the first ever 'Iranshah Udvada Utsav’ will be celebrated on December 25-26-27, 2015 at...
Indian Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh Meets with UNESCO PARZOR Team
“Though very small in number comprising a minuscule fraction of India’s total population, the Parsi community has consistently and remarkably enriched the Indian society over the years”. This was...
Mumbai’s Parsis fight to preserve the city’s greenest space in Dadar
The Parsi colony in Mumbai’s Dadar neighbourhood is unique. It is the world’s largest concentration of Parsis, now down to its last 80,000 despite the community’s wealth and education. Article by...
Surat’s Garda College’s lost glory to be restored
A new governing body in S B Garda Trust, one of the oldest Parsi educational trusts in south Gujarat, has brought to an end differences simmering for two decades and also controversies involving its...
Police Orders Fresh probe into cash at Bombay Parsi Punchayet office
In May, cops submitted a report concluding investigations. Community activists, four trustees smelt a rat. Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria has ordered a re-investigation in the case of Rs 21 lakh...
Spotlight’s on khandias, the Parsi ‘untouchables’
Sam Vesuna was 19 when he became a pallbearer at the Parsi Towers of Silence at Malabar Hill. Today, bodies laid to rest in the roofless towers putrefy below solar panels, but at that time, hungry...
The curious case of the vanishing Parsis
“I’ll grow up to be a math teacher,” declares Delicia Billimoria. Looking at the ease with which she demolishes a complex multiplication assignment on a canvas blackboard hung in her living room at...
Kolkata Parsi Zoroastrians file petition in high court against Snoop Dogg video
The Parsi Zoroastrian community in Kolkata is up in arms against a video uploaded on YouTube that they feel is blasphemous and shows disrespect to the 'Faravahar', a symbol held sacred by them....
Toronto’s Jashan In the Baug: A Photo Essay
On July 21, 2015 the Ontario Zoroastrian Community Foundation (OZCF), located on beautiful 10 acres of land, held a huge event of "Jashan in the Baug” on their premises at 1187 Burnhamthorpe Road...
Parsi Punchayet sweepers, pallbearers threaten strike
On Monday, over 230 Class IV workers including the Tower of Silence's pallbearers sported red Gandhi topis with their union's name “Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha“ emblazoned across. This was the first phase...
Sticky dispute as Kurdish Zoroastrians blast diaper maker
Members of the Zoroastrian religious minority in Erbil, Kurdistan have threatened a diaper company with a lawsuit for giving a baby product the same name as their holy book. The product in question,...
In Toronto Zoroastrians’ passing of priesthood and traditions
When Hormuz Mahveer Javat was 8, his parents popped an unusual question to the Mississauga boy: “Do you want to become a priest?” Although he always attended all the religious services and...
The Parsi Food Pilgrims
I’m going to be honest with you. I’m a Parsi but I’ve always had a somewhat tenuous love for Parsi food. Of course I liked the odd dish here and there—dhan-dar chawal, simple yellow dal and rice...
WZO Trust Funds and Jiyo Parsi work together in South Gujarat
With the kind cooperation and support of Mr Dinshaw Tamboly and the Members of the local Committee at Navsari of the W.Z.O Trust Funds (Mrs Sharmin Tamboly, Mr Cyrus Vandriwala, Mr Rohinton...
Clarification with regard to consequences of the Settlement of 17th February 2015 in the Ban on Priests Case
On 27th April 2015, the Hon’ble Supreme Court approved the Settlement arrived at in February 2015 between Messrs. Kanga and Khusrokhan and the BPP Trustees. The following is the factual position on...
Parsi-Iranian way of life and a journey to the roots
While lamenting the lack of interest on Zoroastrian religion, the mother-in-law mentioned that there are opportunities to learn the Avesta language and Zoroastrian scriptures. Article by Natasha...
Perth Or Mumbai May hold next World Zoroastrian Congress
Mumbai may become the venue for the next World Zoroastrian Congress (WZC) for the second time in a row after the Singapore community body, scheduled to host the event in 2017, declared its inability...
Toronto Jashan In The Baug: Zoroastrians to celebrate summer solstice
Plans are in the works for world-class Zororastrian place of worship for Oakville But if plans move ahead as organizers hope, the Jashan in the Baug will be held outside of their brand new $3...
Singapore Backs out as Hosts of World Zoroastrian Congress 2017
The Parsi Zoroastrian Association of Singapore will not be hosting the 11th World Zoroastrian Congress in 2017 as the requisite two thirds majority did not support the proposal at an extraordinary...
Punchayet Trustee Quits Before Polls
Slams Parsi Co-Trustees For Mismanagement A Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustee, Muncherji Cama, resigned from his post on Friday just a few months ahead of the next round of BPP elections. Article...
New Delhi To Host First Ever Large Scale Festival on Parsi Culture in 2016
A mega festival, with exhibits being brought from world over, is being proposed by Minority Affairs Ministry for March next year Article by Sobhana K Nair | Bangalore Mirror New Delhi: In March next...
Cooper Union’s President Jamshed Bharucha Quits
The fight over the future of the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, an arts and engineering college in New York City, came to a head this week as five members of its Board of...
Muncherji Cama Resigns as Trustee of Bombay Parsi Punchayet
In a letter to his fellow trustees, Mr. Muncherji Cama; one of the seven sitting trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet resigned from his position. Below is his letter of resignation circulated to...
Snoop Dogg Features Asho Farohar in his Music Video Titled King
A Snoop Dogg video has to be one of the most unusual places to see Persian motifs and the Asho Farohar. Wonder what and how that came to be. The lyrics of the song have nothing to do with...
Zoroastrianism in Iran and India: Then and Now: Summer School at University of Zurich
Call for Applications The Institute of Religious Studies at the University of Zurich (UZH) invites to the summer school: Zoroastrianism in Iran and India: Then and Now August 30th – September 2nd...
Dying Iranian language gets boost
BORI, in collaboration with London University, to hold 10-day course in Avestan, an ancient language now fading into oblivion. In an attempt to resurrect the ancient Iranian language Avestan,...