Our dearest friend Zerbanoo Gifford writes a beautiful review on a new book titled: “Shahriar: Phoenix of the Desert,...
arZan Articles
Uniting Democracies: The US-India Alliance | Policy Stories with Dinsha Mistree
Our dear friend Dinsha Mistree speaks about The US-India alliance and how it is key to securing democracy, innovation,...
Homai Vyarawalla: National Photo Award for Lifetime Achievement
In 10 days from now, we will witness India's first national photo awards as part of commemorating 50 golden years of the photo division, a media unit of the ministry of information and broadcasting....
Muktad Days: When The Souls Come Visiting
Ervad Marzban Hathiram at Frashogard.com writes a very informative piece on the Muktad Days at the end of the Parsi Calendar year. Ten days before the Parsi New Year, fire temples around the city...
My successor will not be anti-Parsi or pro-Parsi: Ratan Tata
Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata today said that his successor would neither be pro-Parsi nor anti-Parsi but should be the right person. "The Tata Group is an Indian group and we should not be...
Parsi Gara back in vogue
The 150-year-old gara embroidery is stunning, mysterious, but not dead, as it was once believed. Designers and entrepreneurs are doing their best to revive what was originally a Chinese art form. By...
Tata for Now. But What About Later?
Can the Tata Group be led by a non-Tata? That is the question the group’s chairman, Ratan Tata, has refused to answer for the public even though the leader of India’s second largest conglomerate is...
Zoroastrians – Keep The Faith: Different Drummers
Rohinton Rivetna, Tenaz Jamsetjee and Shazad Mehta of Chicago were recently interview on TV for the program Different Drummers. This was featured on CBS TV a couple of weeks ago.
Ratan Tata: The Successor Search Is On
Ratan Tata appears serious about keeping his date with retirement. Tata Sons, the promoter of the $71 billion Tata Group, has formally set the ball rolling to find a successor to its present...
Reminiscing About Behram Contractor
Every Saturday morning, as I am doing now, the great Bombay writer Behram Contractor would hunch over his typewriter and punch out his weekly column. It was a special edition of his daily column,...
WZO : London Divorces India
With deep regret, the World Zoroastrian Organisation (WZO) wishes to announce that it can no longer be associated with WZO (India). By Darayus S. Motivala / The Bombay Samachar This decision was...
Life was quite a drudgery in my childhood: Ratan Tata
Unless you talk to the man, you don’t get a taste of the subtle sense of humour that he has. Industrialist Ratan Naval Tata has a very simple definition of going to school. “It seems terrible when...
Chennai Parsi Fire Temple Celebrations: 100 Year Anniversary
There are just 250 of them in the city, so it's no surprise that all members of the Parsi community here have their demographics at their fingertips. By Kamini Mathai / TNN No one seems to need to...
Dalal Estate Mumbai: Transformation
One of the oldest and largest residential complexes in south Mumbai is all set for a makeover. By Nauzar Bharucha / TNN Dalal Estate, the more than seven-decade-old landmark residential enclave...
Zoroaster: Forgotten Prophet Of The One God
The Abrahamic religions were preceded, and decisively influenced by, followers of an earlier prophet By John Palmer / Guardian UK The tiny world wide communities of Zoroastrians are no doubt pleased...
Ferdowsi, the Reviver of Persian Language
The United Nations cultural body (UNESCO) has named the year 2010 as 1000th anniversary of the composition of The Shahnameh, the renowned national epic of the Persian-speaking world which has been...
Nariman Point: Never Concede On Principles
By Khushwant Singh / Hindustan Times As I read Fali Nariman’s memoirs Before Memory Fades, an autobiography (Hay House), I kept thinking about Nani Palkiwala who I had the privilege of befriending...
Eminent Parsis fight for liberal priests
Anu Aga and Dr Hector Grant, among others, to support priests who were barred from praying at the Towers of Silence by the Bombay Parsi Panchayat after they conducted Navjots of children from mixed...
Range of antique Parsi Garas attracts visitors in Islamabad
An exhibition by Kersi Dubash, displaying a wide range of antique Parsi Garas, Gara borders and Gara shalwar kameez suits, French chiffons, Lucknow saris and shalwar kameez suits, Kantha saris and...
By The Way: Mumbai Restaurant With A Cause
Sitting in this quaint restaurant, just gullies away from the furious churn of the Arabian sea, watching the rain steam up the glass double doors that open up to a leafy Grant Road lane, it’s hard...
Fali’s enduring life
Its authors sought to dismiss the June 1975 Emergency as an event of no consequence in four famous words: “not a dog barked”. The bench and the bar, which are regarded as the fair and fearless...
Chennai Parsi Fire Temple Celebrates Centenary
On Saturday (July l0), there will be celebrated in Royapuram the centenary of the consecration of the only Parsi Fire Temple in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala. Gracing the commemoration of the...
Fali Nariman: Mea Culpa And Other Stories
Three Zoroastrians (Parsis) have dominated our jurisprudence through the last four decades: Nani Palkhivala, Soli Sorabjee and Fali Nariman. Fali Nariman lets memory strike its own patchwork path,...
Unused Urinal At Cross Maidan Behind Bhikha Behram Well Raises A Stink
Residents want the toilet block - locked in a dispute since 1996 as Parsis fear it would contaminate water in their sacred well, located at Bhikha Behram - demolished By Manoj Nair / Mumbai Mirror...
BM Masani passes away
Veteran constitutional expert and noted advocate, BM Masani passed away yesterday at the Parsi General hospital in Mumbai. He was 86. Family sources at Mhow said today that Masani was suffering from...
Art films not my scene right now: Jennifer Kotwal
Fast Constipation Relief Kannada actress Jennifer Kotwal wants to continue to star in entertainment films and not really looking at art films as of now. “Art films are not my scene right now,” the...
Bombay Panjrapole
If you aren’t looking for it, you’d probably miss it. Tucked somewhere in the by-lanes of the crowded Bhuleshwar bazaar is the Bombay Panjrapole, a 176-year-old infirmary that primarily looks after...
Pasta on the patra
The Parsi lagan nu bhonu, the last of the purist community wedding feasts in the city,is also going the mishmash way By Mahafreed Irani | TNN When Sam and Freny Satha were preparing to send out the...
Boman Irani wants to become a singer
Boman Irani, who started life as a photographer, just loves exploring different avenues. After some crackling performances, including in comic roles, the hugely talented actor is trying his voice as...
Bahman – Bestows Divine Wisdom
In the Zoroastrian calendar, the second day of every month as well as the eleventh month of every year is dedicated to Bahman Amshaspand. By Noshir H. Dadrawala Bahman is the Persian form of the...
Artist Jehangir Sabavala goes for record Rs 1.7 cr
The market for India’s modern masters seems to be sizzling. After Raza became the priciest modern by notching up over Rs 16 crore at a London auction recently, another master, 88-year-old Jehangir...
Parsis felicitate new Chief Justice of India
Addressing a large gathering of the Parsi community on Saturday, newly appointed Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice Sarosh Kapadia admitted to being a workaholic and a deeply spiritual person. By...
Perizad Zorabian, The Monsoon and Chicken Shashlik Sizzlers
The odds that you might catch vivacious actor Perizad Zorabian in cook’s garb are narrow. By Ismat Tahseen / DNA Says the mother of two, “I rarely like to try my hand in the kitchen but my husband...
Cama Baug Agiary Varasyaji Pass Away
Ervad Marzban J. Hathiram informs us about the passing away of the holy Varasyaji, and a fascinating primer on the importance of Varsyaji in Zoroastrian religion and culture. It is my sad duty to...
Govt scheme to arrest decline in Parsi population
Concerned over the dwindling number of Parsis, one of the five notified national minorities, Government has launched a scheme to arrest the trend of decline in their population. The Central Sector...
Is it time for an international Zarathushti referendum?
For the last 50 years, at the least, a debate is raging within our Community, between The orthodox and the reformist lobbies, leading to nowhere. By B.T. DASTUR / The Bombay Samachar Zoroastrianism,...
Britannia restaurant: Flying food and other Parsi tales
Boman Kohinoor and his son/chef Romin tell CNNGo the long history of Britannia & Co. and share the sacred sali meat recipe from one of Mumbai's best loved restaurants Article by Aarthi Gunnupuri...
The Woman Jinnah Loved
The personal life of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948) arouses great compassion simply because he was an astutely rational man. Article written by Khaled Ahmed / The Express Tribune He...
This Parsi divorce court convenes only twice a year
Indian courts abound with pending cases, but there is a court which does not seem to have much in hand. Article by Hetal Vyas / DNA India Therefore, it sits only twice a year. It’s a divorce court...
Fun, learning & bonding at Parsi youth meet
Over 250 youths participated in various events held at the 18th all-India Zoroastrian youth meet on Friday and Saturday. There were interaction-based games and orientation sessions. Author :...
Farokh Engineer: First and Dearest
A Parsee from Bombay who captured the imagination of an eight-year-old in Lancashire By Michael Henderson / cricinfo.com I first went to Old Trafford in 1967, the so-called Summer of Love....
Udvada Vada Dasturji Performs Jashan at ZAGNY Darbe Mehr in New York
The Vada Dasturji of Udvada is currently visiting USA and stopped by the ZAGNY Darbe Mehr in Pomona, NY to perform a jashan ceremony and talk to the ZAGNY congregation. ZAGNY welcomed Dasturji...
Delna Mody: When Art Meets Life
In her debut play under the banner of her new theatre production house Orange Dinghy, Delna Mody, who is collaborating with one of Parsi theatre’s biggest directors Sam Kerawala for her project,...
Parsi Youth Meet To Bond Community
Over 220 Zoroastrian youths from across the country are participating in the three-day all India youth meet that began in the city on Thursday. Twenty participants have also come from Iran to take...
Jamsheed Marker: The Not-So-Quiet Ambassador
Get an ex-ambassador to speak on your TV channel and the result will be steadily stale, his discourse carefully embedded in exploded theories that only people in the Foreign Office believe. But...
Ratan Tata Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
One of India's leading industrialist and two Indian American researchers have been elected as members of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Article by Indian Express Ratan Tata...
A Crisis for the Faithful
The Parsi bodies are piling up in India. Parsis are modern adherents of the ancient Zoroastrian faith that emerged in the 6th century B.C. in Persia, predating Christianity and Islam. According to...
Murree: Story of a Rawalpindi brewery that survived amid alcohol restrictions in Pakistan
Rawalpindi, recognised the world over for its army generals and fundamentalist mosques, is also home to Murree Brewery which has operated in the conservative Pakistani city since 1860. Published by...
Medical Aid Appeal for Pakzad Tata
Please find below a letter from Mrs. Queenie Tata Medical Aid for my 5 yrs old son having 90% Profound Deafness and lack of Speech. I the undersigned Mrs. Queenie J Tata PARSEE WOMAN would like to...
Villoo Morawala Patell: In Conversation
“I want to explain to the people how India can add to the world’s wealth through innovation” Villoo Morawala Patell’s youthful looks and exuberant personality hides formidable learning in complex...
Road to be named after Rustom Tirandaz
Rustom Tirandaz who passed away recently will be honoured by the naming of a road in his honour. In the Dadar Parsi Colony, Mumbai; the road opposite Rustomframna Agiary, popularly known as...
Parsi genome project to probe mysteries of longevity, cancer
More than 4,200 Parsis have so far given their blood samples for a genome project that aims at a comprehensive study of Zoroastrian individuals to explore the genetic basis of their longevity and...