While Prime Minister Narendra Modi attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit elsewhere in China, two...
arZan Articles
Justice, Faith, and Asha: Zerbanoo and Richard Gifford Meet Pope Leo XIV
A historic Vatican audience honours decades of work for the Chagossian people and celebrates Zoroastrian values of...
In Tihar, Kobad Ghandy traces his Parsi roots
As a communist ideologue, Kobad Ghandy rarely showed any interest in Parsi community issues. But in Delhi’s Tihar jail, where he has been imprisoned for nearly two years, Ghandy is reading about the...
Bangalore’s only fire temple is being slowly smoked out
It was built in 1926, and the Bangalore Parsee Zoroastrian Anjuman (BPZA) is keen to preserve the sanctity of the only fire temple in the city, now uncomfortably located at a busy intersection, en...
Campaign frenzy at its peak for Parsi punchayet by-polls
With the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) by-elections set to begin next week, the four candidates vying for the vacant seat on the board of trustees are aggressively wooing the community. In the past...
Vivan Bhathena: Cine Artist
Blessed with boyish good looks, this 32-year-old has some movies and TV roles to his credit, but he feels it’s not enough. "The craving for good parts will always be there. Though my...
BPP Candidature: Advocacy over Meritocracy
It is with regret that I have to mention that the BPP is heading in the wrong direction. I say this after I read articles in Free Press and Jame Jamshed proposing Anahita Desai for BPP Trusteeship...
Dr. Mehroo Bengalee Cries Foul Over Endorsing Candidate for BPP Elections
The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) elections always seem to have some talking point. And this time, it is a letter one rival group is using to bring down the other. By Ashutosh Shukla | DNA India The...
Aspi Damania: Home-Tutor Par Excellence
School students in Powai and particularly in Hiranandani are well familiar with the name of ‘Damania Sir’. He has been giving private tuitions and guiding youngsters in Powai for the...
Dr. Homi Bhabha: Let There Be computing
Homi J Bhabha is famous as the founder of India’s nuclear establishment, but he also enabled India’s IT success. Rajeev Anantaram on a survey of the computer industry that is also a paean to its...
Bachi Karkaria: Blindly into the abyss
The Parsis have been in the news for the wrong reasons. The fractious case which arose from the Bombay Parsi Punchayet’s 2009 ban on two priests continues to make headlines. Earlier this...
Parsi election to be an expensive affair
The election for a single vacant seat for the position of trustee of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) is set to be an expensive affair. With no code of conduct in place, estimates are that the poll...
BPP or Desai Mistry Mistree & Associates
The below is an Op-Ed by regular reader and good friend of Parsi Khabar, Mickie Sorabjee. After baiting and rubbing him the wrong way during the watershed 2008 Bombay Parsee Punchayet elections and...
Bombay Parsi Punchayet bypolls from June 19
The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) will hold its by-elections for filling an empty position on its six-member board of trustees on the weekends between June 19 and July 3. The position has been vacant...
HPY: Grooming Parsi youth for college life
Dubai resident Mahfrin Wadia could have travelled anywhere for her summer holidays, but the 16-year-old Parsi had decided months ago that she would spend all of May in Mumbai. Wadia finished her...
Understanding Parsi Population Decline: Video and text now available
Below is an email received from Dinyar Patel. Dinyar writes As many of you know, I recently gave at talk at the Nehru Centre in Mumbai on the topic of "Understanding Parsi Population Decline: A...
Cyrus Pishevar: Teen Web Innovator in Silicon Valley
Palo Alto’s Cyrus Pishevar, 13, is one of Silicon Valley’s second generation of Web innovators—teens who grew up online, watching and feeding the rise of Facebook and other nearby...
Dahanu Road: Three generations of Parsis, their secrets and fond dreams
Anosh Irani’s third novel Dahanu Road is a comprehensive account of a family of Iranian Zoroastrians who migrated to India before World War II. The story is a mix of historic encounters, family...
Godrej Typewriters: End of the Road
Just Not My Type Godrej and Boyce to shut typewriter production Godrej and Boyce silenced the click-ding of its iconic typewriter last week. The company stopped production at its last typewriter...
Parsis: A diminishing race
A Houston-based research student has written a paper discussing the causes for, and a solution to, the dwindling numbers of the Parsi community around the world By Priyal Dave | Afternoon DC “To all...
Intermarriage row must be resolved soon
It’s not so much the elephant in the room, no one wants to acknowledge, but rather the unicorn they all imagine-that the global Parsi population isn’t so desperately in decline, but that...
The Parsi Punchayet case: The imperative of inclusiveness
The judgement of the Bombay High Court in Jamsheed Kanga versus Parsi Punchayet Funds and Properties, has raised a big controversy within the Parsi community. Much of the controversy is due to...
Parsis get new community newspaper
The Parsi-Zoroastrians, who have a vibrant community press, have got their latest newspaper. On Saturday, free copies of the first issue of the weekly, Parsi Times, reached many homes. By Manoj R...
Lecture: Understanding Parsi Population Decline in India: A Historical Perspective
Friend of Parsi Khabar , Dinyar Patel shall be giving a talk titled “Understanding Parsi Population Decline in India: A Historical Perspective”. If you are in Mumbai this Saturday evening, this is a...
Insider trading
It had been a long day. Nina Godiwalla had stumbled home from a bar after work, and collapsed in bed. But she was wide awake in a few hours. She needed to talk to someone, be with someone. Her...
The First Vendidad Sade and Baj in North America
The First Vendidad Sade and Baj in NA at a Dar-e-Meher Inauguration, and Enthronement of Dadgah in the ZANT Brand New Built From Scratch ZCNT (Zoroastrian Center of North Texas) April 29-30 2011! By...
Speak Your Mind: Open Thread
This is the very first time we are trying this idea. This is an open thread for discussion. Speak your mind. Anything and everything, topical or off-topic can be discussed in the comments. No...
The Art of Longevity
My father is 89 and he’s in reasonably good health," says Dr Villoo Morawala Patell, founder and chairperson of the biotechnology company, Avesthagen, in Bangalore. Her father is among an...
Godrej & Boyce shuts world’s last typewriter facility
More than 140 years after the first typewriter was sold commercially in Europe, the epitaph for the writing machine is finally being digitally recorded on millions of PCs across the world. To...
One of Ratan’s biggest achievements is the way he has unified the Tata Group
JRD Tata announced the appointment of Ratan Tata as the Chairman of Tata Sons on 25 March 1991. Two weeks later, on 5 April, I met JRD just as he was going to Europe for his angioplasty procedure...
The Parsi Connection to the Royal Family Spans Generations
Royal connection to Zorosatrians dates back generations As the world waits to see the royal wedding, I cannot but think of the profound influence the Queen of England and her family has had on my...
City’s first garden for special children at Parsi colony
Before December 2010, Nasha Khan could only watch other children of Byculla’s Rustom Baug play in the Parsi colony’s garden. Now, the garden is the high point of Khan’s life as she plays with her...
Udvada, Sanjan to be world heritage centres for religious harmony: Narendra Modi
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi today announced that the famous pilgrimage places of Parsi community, Udvada and Sanjan in Valsad, would be developed as ‘World Heritage Centres for...
Parsi Punchayet Looks For Trustee
Parsi-Zoroastrians are preparing to elect a new member to the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), the community’s main representative body, to replace the trustee who resigned last month. But many members...
The consecration of a new Afarganyu for a Daremeher
Dear friend and Panthaki Saheb of the Behram Baug Daremeher, Ervad Marzban J. Hathiram has a very nice article about the consecration of a new Afarganyu for the Ustad Saheb Behramshah Nowroji Shroff...
The Bombay Artists from the Jehangir Nicholson Collection
Last Wednesday, art collectors in Mumbai responded favourably to an auction of paintings from the collection of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA). By Anupa Mehta | DNA And while a...
Senior citizens have a hard time in Udvada
Tight police bandobast during chief minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Udvada on Sunday was a nightmarish experience for a large number of Parsis. However, police defended the arrangement...
Dwindling numbers a big concern for Parsis
Dwindling numbers is a big concern among Parsis, but you would not have felt it at Udvada on Sunday as the community came out to take part in the 1290th anniversary celebration of the most important...
Fire temple at Udvada is central to Parsi religion
Fire holds a central position in the Zoroastrian religion. Fire is seen as a living, breathing embodiment of the supreme divinity and hence not only a worthy representative of God but also a...
Narendra Modi attends 1290th birthday celebration of Iranshah at Udvada
UPDATE We would like to clarify that at no point did CM Narendra Modi enter the Iranshah. The Hon. Chief Minister stopped by the gates, bowed and prayed, paid his respected to the Holy Fire, and...
What can FEZANA do to promote marriage ?
Below is the conclusion of a study done by Dinyar Patel titled “What can FEZANA do to promote marriage?”. The conclusions of this survey throw some interesting light on the state of affairs and what...
Hanging by a thread
Parsi embroidery is being kept alive by a few patrons in the Capital. At Navjote or during a Parsi wedding, the entire congregation of Parsi women is transformed into a sea of Gara saris, in shades...
Don’t Move SC Against Barred Priests, Say Some Parsis
1,150 join online petition saying Bombay Parsi Punchayet can use money to fund community activities instead of fighting another legal battle By Sunil Baghel | DNA An online petition gaining momentum...
Life and times of a Chennai Parsi
MARCH ended on a zealous note for the Parsi community in Chennai, as it celebrated the Navroz, or the New Year with ardour and joy. But then, high spirits aren’t exclusive to special days, for this...
Paranormal experience with Ragini MMS actress Kainaz Motivala
She has thrown the proverbial beautiful, sexy and sultry out of the window. So when I was told to meet her, I was a bit sceptical. Yes, I picked her for my next interview. Not that I knew that she...
The Journey of Rasna
In the 80s, anyone switching on to the national television channel Doordarshan for their daily dose of programmes — be it mythological, children’s programme or even Chitrahaar — were greeted...
BMC show cause notice to unrecognised school in Dadar: Ranina Day Nursery
J.M. Ranina School, in Parsi Colony, Dadar which has more than 100 students received a show cause notice from the local civic authorities on April 11, for not getting the school approved by the...
Came close to getting married four times: Ratan Tata
Revealing one of the best kept secrets of his personal life, the bachelor industrialist Ratan Tata has said that he had fallen in love and had come seriously close to getting married as many as four...
Udvada Land Issue: Nucleus Developers Speak
Below is an email communique from Nucleus Developers who are at the centre of the “storm” over the 200 acres plot. Here is their side of the story. To, The Respected Parsi Community. Respected...
‘Priestly’ battle continues to rage
The dispute in the Parsi-Zoroastrian community over the bar on two priests accused of ‘irreligious’ activities has moved to the Supreme Court, which will hear an appeal later this month against the...
Zoroastrian Panorama: Exhibition
Regular reader and friend of Parsi Khabar, Dr. Annavaz Havewala informs us about the following event. Frohar Foundation and Frohar Films Invite you to “THE ZOROASTRIAN PANORAMA” An...
India’s Tata Succession Struggle
Ratan Tata: Can’t anybody do this job? Indian way of succession leaves something to be desired India’s largest conglomerate — the US$71-billion salt-to-steel behemoth Tata Group,...