Sisters of the late industrialist Ratan Tata have voiced distress over the turmoil at Tata Trusts, describing last...
arZan Articles
WZO Trust Suspends Auction Of Sanjan Parsi Sanatorium After Donor Steps In
The move follows widespread backlash within the Parsi community, which had launched online campaigns and social media...
Rohinton Mistry Wins Lifetime Achievement Award at the Times Litfest
We still don’t know how to make him talk, but if you want to hear Rohinton Mistry sing, give him a lifetime achievement award. The lawns of Bandra’s Mehboob Studios turned into a...
Dilnavaz Mehta: Bring Up The Rare
Bring up the rare A forthcoming show of rare collectibles, curated by art historian Dilnavaz Mehta, is a lesson on India’s lesser-known stories By Reema Gehi | PuneMirror Art historian...
Parsi Punchayet senior executive quits in frustration
Cawas Panthaki was trapped in crossfire between warring factions of the trust: Sources Bombay Parsi Punchayet’s (BPP) senior executive B officer Cawas Panthaki resigned from his position...
Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal: In Conversation
Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal, an actress of repute and the power behind the wildly successful Vagina Monologues in India; speaks candidly at a recent event in Mumbai. For the second guest of the day in...
Ignored by state parties, Parsis in Jharkhand look to PM Modi
Largely ignored by political parties as a vote bank, the Parsi community in Jamshedpur has reserved their votes for a candidate who can bring a Central government scheme, that promises to save their...
Pakistani Zoroastrians Must Keep The Fire Ablaze
Funerals are the only constant for Zoroastrians in Pakistan. For a community of less than 1,800 — last recorded in 2006 in a research conducted by KE Eduljee — the announcement comes faithfully...
Papadum Express: Kayo and Kersi Kadva
Two Liverpool inventors have brought their boyhood dream to life. Brothers Kersi and Kayo Kadva’s impatience at waiting for papadums to cook in oil one at a time sparked an idea to quickly satisfy...
India’s Declining Parsi Population: Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera English TV had a panel discussion revolving around the Jiyo Parsi scheme and recent ad campaign. The panelists were Shireen Havewala of Zoroastrian Return To Roots, Hoshaang Gotla of XYZ...
Parsi Weaves and Palate Offerings at Chennai Exhibition
As part of Crafts Council of India’s golden jubilee celebrations, efforts are being made to revive the exquisite Parsi Gara embroidery. Apoorva Sripathi meets the people behind the initiative For a...
Attorney Narges M. Kakalia Receives Human Rights First’s Pro Bono Star Award
Narges M. Kakalia, a Member of the Litigation Section of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., has received Human Rights First’s prestigious Pro Bono Star award for excellence in...
NDTV India Special on Jiyo Parsi
NDTV ran a segment on Sunday November 23, 2014 in their Hum Log program. A very well presented media segment; that focuses on the issue at hand. They interviewed a few prominent Parsi women and men...
Provoking the Parsi to procreate: Why I am rooting for Sam Balsara’s ad campaign
In the early 1970s, one of the oil majors – I forget which one – ran an outdoor campaign with a headline that screamed, “Save that drop of oil – or walk to your destination 20 years from now.”...
Cyrus Broacha on the Jiyo Parsi Campaign
A funny and hilarious take on the recently launched advertising campaign regarding the Jiyo Parsi scheme. Cyrus’s take on Jiyo Parsi campaign which did not go down very well with the Parsi...
From Living in a Mumbai Brothel to Seeing the World
Zaneeta E. Daver is a young Zoroastrian living in Washington D.C. Last year she did ….for a second time !!….something we all dream of….sailing around the world. And now she is trying to give the...
Nat Geo Parsi: Rahul Da Cunha
And so I’m sitting in Albless Baug at a Navjote — (for the unintiated, that’s the Parsi thread ceremony to initiate little Perizaads and Khushrus into Zoroastrianism). In this case, my hearty,...
Two Women Talking: Tales From India That Need To Be Told
One rainy fall evening in Brooklyn, two women walk out onto a small stage and stare at the audience. They stand in comfortable silence for several minutes – until the short-haired woman in the blue...
Calcutta’s Banajee Agiary to get relief: Archeological Survey of India Steps In
The Fire Temple at Ezra Street, though one of the earliest symbols of pluralistic and cosmopolitan culture of ‘Calcutta’, has long been taken over by trading units that have turned it...
A sense of belonging: We must recognise the contributions of our minorities
KARACHI: The Parsi community in Karachi has always been small, but it has gifted an unmistakable legacy to the city. They have left their mark on the metropolis, especially in its older parts, with...
Sam Balsara to daughter Lara: Embrace motherhood at the earliest
Sam Balsara, CMD, Madison World has a word of advice for his daughter Lara Balsara, a director in the company, who is soon getting married to KaizadVajifdar, a young pilot with Air India. It is to...
Brand Equity: No Joy For ‘Jiyo Parsi’ Advertising Campaign
According to a study carried by Parzor foundation & TISS – Since 1947, Indian Parsi population has come down considerably by about 40%. The Ministry of Minority Affairs has therefore...
Farrokh Chothia: In conversation with Anurag Banerjee
Photography legend, Farrokh Chothia talks to Anurag Banerjee about all things Jazz. Article on Sensorium What is your first memory of jazz music? FC: My first introduction to Jazz music was through...
Go Forth and Procreate: Boman Irani At Sanjan Day Celebrations
Eminent Parsi and Bollywood personality Boman Irani endorses the Jiyo Parsi campaign. A video recording of his speech is at the end of this article. Praising the ‘Jiyo Parsi’ campaign of...
Long lives the Parsi debate: Jehangir and Simin Patel
Jiyo Parsi’s ad campaign, which urges Parsi couples to marry early, within the community, and multiply, has raised hackles among many who accuse it of sexism and eugenics. Kareena Gianani tries to...
FEZANA Announces 2014 Zarathushti Awards
The 2014 FEZANA North American Zarathushti Community Awards The FEZANA Awards Committee is pleased to announce the 2014 FEZANA North American Zarathushti Community Awards. The Awardees for this...
Discover ancient Parsi cuisine before it’s too late: Niloufer’s Kitchen
The decline in the Bombay Irani cafe culture has been the subject of regular media coverage. In the 1950s, there were about 550 traditional Parsi cafes in South Mumbai. Today, there are less than...
Voices of Reason: The Jiyo Parsi Ad Campaign
A week ago, the Jiyo Parsi Scheme administered by PARZOR and set up by the Government of India launched an advertising campaign. The campaign and the advertisements went viral and have incited a...
India’s Parsis told to have more children in controversial campaign
India’s Parsis told to have more children in controversial campaign A campaign in India to encourage more of its dwindling Parsi community to have children – ‘Be responsible: Don’t...
Bhonu Prakash: A Talk by Dan Sheffield
Here is a wonderful video presentation titled: “Bhonu Prakash: Zoroastrians and Food in Historical Perspective” by good friend of Parsi Khabar, Dan Sheffield who lectures at Princeton University in...
His Honourable Son-in-Law: Feroze Gandhi
Late on the morning of 8 September 1960, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, heavily lugged himself up the staircase at Teen Murti Bhavan, the Prime Minister’s residence in New...
Lara Balsara to tie the knot
What’s keeping Sam Balsara busy these days? It could be another campaign for Madison’s clients or maybe the upcoming wedding of daughter and Madison World’s Executive Director Lara...
Weekly Zoroastrian Scripture Extract: Ervad Soli P. Dastur
Our dear friend and respected Ervad Saheb Soli P. Dastur of Florida, USA informs us about the web presence of his extremely popular Weekly Zoroastrian Scripture Extract. More than 75+ and counting...
Why Are Parsi Numbers Declining: A TV Report
NDTV one of the mainstream news channels in India does a detailed TV report as a follow up on the recent launch of the Jiyo Parsi advertisement campaign. The phenomenal Shernaz Cama, who heads...
Charter For Co-Existence
Below is a write-up sent by good friend of Parsi Khabar, Mr. Dinshaw K. Tamboly. Charter For Co-Existence Seldom has our small community been so riven with divisiveness and factionalism as now....
Parvez Patel: Bangalore’s Ideal Chef for Parsi Delights
The Parsis are a small community with a rich culinary heritage that a lot of people don’t have a clue about. Recently, Bangalore was treated to an array of authentic Parsi dishes whipped up by none...
Provocative ads to revive Parsis’ numbers
Good advertising has to offend someone to work,“ said Sam Balsara, chairman and managing director of Madison World, at an event to elaborate on Jiyo Parsi, a Rs 10-crore scheme, funded by the...
Jiyo Parsi Launches A Brilliant Print Advertising Campaign
Jiyo Parsi is a Government of India supported scheme to arrest the decline in population of the Parsi Zoroastrian Community in India. Headed by the phenomenal Shernaz Cama, the program launched a...
India’s oldest scouting group turns 100 on November 8
One of the oldest continuously run scout groups in the city will complete 100 years on November 8. Sethna’s 18th West Bombay, whose members are mostly Zoroastrians, was founded in 1914....
Kavasji Jamshedji Petigara: An Extraordinary Policeman
On reading a recent article on the Irani brothers in the Mumbai Police Force, Parsi Khabar reader Shahpur Doctor writes in to remind us of a legendary Parsi police officer from nearly a 100 years...
Passion Flower by Cyrus Mistry: A Book Review
Mistry has the inspired storyteller’s knack of looking at finer details. Passion Flower has a cover of such exquisite charm that, like the hero of one of the stories in the seven short stories in...
Father, son and the holy Court
Senior advocate Fali S. Nariman appearing in cases before the Supreme Court where his son is a judge has revived an old debate regarding the appropriateness of such appearances Article by K. CHANDRU...
Shaan Kandawalla: Bringing Lessons From a Pool in Pakistan to a Pitch Meeting With Investors
Shaan Kandawalla, a native of Pakistan who lives in New York, is used to challenging gender norms. As a teenager in Karachi, she excelled at competitive swimming — something only boys were...
Twins born to parsi couple, more births due: Jiyo Parsi
The twins have landed. Another eight arrivals are expected by the year-end. A central scheme that encourages Parsis to multiply has sired twins, in a double delight for the community whose numbers...
Nosh Mistry: Into Zanskar–The Ladakh Less Travelled
Nosh Mistry points us to a fantastic video of his motorcycling trip in remote Zanskar in Ladakh, Kashmir, India. Nosh writes “…..About the trip itself, it was absolutely unplanned. I wanted to visit...
Defunct Tower of Silence lives on in the heart of an Andheri residential colony
The article has an UPDATE since it was first published. Read below At Malabar Hill, the Parsi Towers of Silence are shrouded in mystery— and thick foliage — with few community members ever spying...
Buildings through the veteran lens
Catch the last day of photographer Aspi Patel’s show, Architecture Beyond Platitude, at the Jehangir Art Gallery, where he captures graphical patterns in architecture from across the world Article...
Netagiri By Cyrus Broacha: Book Review
Cyrus Broacha is a morning person. He also seems to be one of those people who have a plan for each day, a schedule they rigorously follow. Coming up against that side of his personality can be...
The Story of TATA By Peter Casey
The values at the heart of the Tata Group as well as the role played in its development by the philanthropic trusts that own two-thirds of the company are explored in a new book that is a brief...
Niloufer Ichaporia-King: Parsi cultural history served up on a plate
Scholar and author Niloufer Ichaporia King started writing an account of the disappearing Parsi culture and food traditions when her mother turned 90. The result is an engaging cookbook, “My Bombay...
New Bombay Zoroastrian Association Kick starts their Agiary Project
Sharukh Doctor, the President of the New Bombay Zoroastrian Association informs us The New Bombay Zoroastrian Association (NBZA) Kick starts their Agiary Project with the Bhomi Poojan offered by the...
Soprano Meher Pavri: In Conversation
Ashima Suri speaks to Indo-Canadian soprano, Meher Pavri. Born and raised in Canada, Meher Pavri is proud of her Indian heritage. In 2007, she was crowned Miss India-Canada and wowed the crowd with...