To his legions of fans, Freddie Mercury was a flamboyant, and very British, rock star. But in the background was a much more complex sense of identity, summed up by one picture, a black and white image of a baby called Farrokh Bulsara smiling in his pram, watched over by an African nanny in the… Continue reading The Freddie Mercury we didn’t know
Author: arZan
For Navi Mumbai Parsis, fire temple a distant dream
Unable to raise enough money to buy land for their first fire temple in Navi Mumbai, Parsi-Zoroastrians have asked the government to extend the deadline for payment by a month. By Manoj Nair | DNA India The community has been allotted a plot in Koparkhairane by CIDCO, the local planning agency at a cost of… Continue reading For Navi Mumbai Parsis, fire temple a distant dream
Bachi Karkaria on the Kolkata Agiary Turning 100
The name is bond. Sacred bond. And it is licensed to send a warm thrill up the spine of every Kolkata Parsi. Not just of only the 550 who still remain, but all of us who had grown into our Zoroastrian faith there. By Bachi Karkaria | TNN The city’s only fire temple, the DB… Continue reading Bachi Karkaria on the Kolkata Agiary Turning 100
The Empty House: Jehangir and Meherbai Bhabha’s “Meherangir”
Colonial India condemned Indians as a people without history, often quoting John Stuart Mill who argued that for “rude nations”, like India, “fable stands in place of fact” and “the times over which memory has any influence are rejected, and the imagination riots in those in which it is unrestricted”. By Inidra Chowdhury | Indian… Continue reading The Empty House: Jehangir and Meherbai Bhabha’s “Meherangir”
A Treasure Chest For An Opera House
Jamshed Bhabha’s NCPA will remain on song thanks to a generous endowment. Until a few years ago, at most concerts held at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai, two plum seats were sacrosanct. A few minutes before the curtains went up, a diminutive man would take his place in that seat… Continue reading A Treasure Chest For An Opera House
Bombay Parsi Punchayet Halts Coversion of Tehmulji Lying-In Hospital to Medicine Centre
Plans to convert the defunct Parsi Lying-In Hospital in Fort into a super-specialty orthopaedic and sports medicine centre has been rejected by the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), the lease-holder of the century-old property. By Manoj Nair | DNA India In March, the hospital’s managing committee had signed a memorandum with Krimson Healthcare, a health services… Continue reading Bombay Parsi Punchayet Halts Coversion of Tehmulji Lying-In Hospital to Medicine Centre
Parsi Author Rohinton Mistry wins $50K Neustadt Award
Toronto-area writer Rohinton Mistry has won the $50,000 US Neustadt International Prize for Literature, awarded for outstanding achievement in poetry, fiction or drama. Published on CBC News An international jury representing nine countries selected Mistry for the biennial prize. Mistry is the author of 1991’s Such a Long Journey, which won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize… Continue reading Parsi Author Rohinton Mistry wins $50K Neustadt Award
