At 89, conductor Zubin Mehta doesn’t make things easy for himself. Since taking on the role of the Los Angeles...
arZan Articles
Ashdeen Lilaowala Redefines Parsi Heritage with Contemporary Gara Embroidery
Ashdeen Lilaowala ‘s relationship with Parsi Gara embroidery began long before it became his life’s work....
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 |...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
Bombay Parsi Punchayet Trustees’ kin line up for elections
In the run up to the polls, which are likely to be held on October, names of some trustees’ kin have started doing the rounds. Article by Kamlesh Pednekar | DNA Elections to the Bombay Parsi...
Hotfut: Mistry Brothers bring Soccer on the Roof in Hyderabad
Ten floors above the busy Begumpet traffic, a live football game is on. Hyderabad is the first city in South India to get two rooftop football pitches. “Hotfut” has been built on the 10th floor of...
Pianist Zubin Kanga: Dark Twin
Zubin Kanga goes where few pianists dare- expanding the possibilities of his instrument in the process. In his Dark Twin concerts, themes of media intrusion, climate change and multiple...
Seattle Music Community Stunned by Untimely Death of Darius Minwalla
The Seattle music community was shaken yesterday when news began to spread, first by phone calls and text messages, and then across social media, that Darius Minwalla died Wednesday at the age of...
Farthest Field An Indian Story of the Second World War
Raghu Karnad the author of “ Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War” writes in about the new book. It features stories about Parsi soldiers in World War 2. Three young men gazed at...
Narendra Modi to Visit Udvada in December 2015
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi is likely to visit Gujarat in December. He will be visiting Udvada in south Gujarat to attend a function of Parsi community. District administration and local BJP...
Jehangir Sabavala’s last six works now at Prince of Wales Museum in Mumbai
Family of painter donates his easels, brushes, palettes to CSMVS The family of the late master painter donates his final six paintings, study material and archives to the museum for maintenance and...
Khada Parsi Statue to Get a Protective Barrier and CCTV
Protection Against Beggars, Drug Addicts et al for Iconic Statue Article by Chaitanya Marpakwar | Times Of India Almost a year after it was restored at a cost of nearly Rs 1 crore, the BMC has decid...
XYZ Xtremely Young Zoroastrians Summer Camp in Mumbai
The Xtremely Young Zoroastrians (XYZ) a Parsi non-government organisation (NGO), has organised a week-long educational summer camp for Parsi children. The camp started on Monday, May 18 and will go...
Around the world: Diary of a prodigious woman traveller
I know someone who has had 18 passports. Who has travelled 180 countries. Solo. As a woman. Over five decades. I am talking about one of our country’s most prodigious and brave travelers, a woman...
Mumbai’s Oldest Cricket Clubs
In 19th-century Mumbai, the gentleman’s game was often used to show that one’s community was superior to another’s Article by Dustin Silgardo | Mint On Sunday “The Parsee owes his...
Mumbai’s vulture breeding programme has fizzled out: BNHS
After managing to have a successful programme elsewhere in India, BNHS’s Dr Vibhu Prakash, head of the BNHS Vulture Conservation Breeding Programme spoke to dna’s Tanea Bandopadhyay on...
SodaBottleOpenerWala: Irani Cafe Opens in Hyderabad
For those who have grown sipping Irani Chai but are worried about the shutting down of the famous cafes serving them, there is good news. AD Singh and his wife Sabina, promoters of Olive Bar &...
Dorab Mistry Elected to the European Council of Religious Leaders
In an email communiqué from ZTFE: Dear ZTFE Members & Well-wishers Members of the European Council of Religious Leaders ECRL met in Frankfurt, Germany between 11th and 13th May 2015, to debate...
How did Meher Heroyce Moos get her 18 passports?
Meet the solo woman traveller from Mumbai who has stomped across 180 countries over half a century The sharks were swarming in the Polynesian waters below. A goat was flung overboard. They darted...
Parsigutta A cluster of basthis in Hyderabad
Parsigutta is one of the popular suburban areas in the city. It comes under Boudhanagar Municipal Division. Parsigutta is surrounded by Ram Nagar, Padma Rao Nagar, Musheerabad, Warasiguda and...