The final edition of Parsiana has rolled off the presses.Established in 1964, the semi-monthly magazine was a vital...
arZan Articles
Rayomand J. Patell Launches New Venture — Firestarter
Rayomand J. Patell, a senior creative professional with a career spanning three decades across advertising and...
Tributes paid to Firoz Gandhi on his 49th death anniversary
Glowing tributes were paid by Congress leaders to veteran freedom fighter late Firoz Gandhi on his 49th death anniversary on Tuesday by lighting candles and placing wreaths on his grave in Parsi...
Parsi Punchayet faces the axe over audit row
By Ashutosh Shukla/DNA Barely six months after the charity commissioner (CC) warned the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) of dismissal, a similar show-cause notice has been served on its trustees. The...
Voter I-card demand lands Jeejeebhoy’s great grandson in a spot
Vijay V Singh | TNN Mumbai: His great grandfather, Jamshetji Jeejeebhoy, is mentioned in history books as one of Mumbai’s biggest philanthropists but businessman and real estate tycoon Byram...
Govt control over Parsi Punchayet?
TRUST with properties worth Rs 5.000 cr in city laces funds misuse charge. By Naresh Kamath for the Hindustan Times. MUMBAI: The Charity Commissioner has issued a show-cause notice to all...
The Role of the High Priests of Parsis in India
This article is written by Kersee Kabraji of Pune, India and published with his permission. At the outset, I like to make it clear that I am neither a priest nor a scholar of our religion. With some...
Hawkers Evicted from around Bhikhabehram Well
After 30 years, 100 hawkers evicted from Cross Maidan It was jubilation on Saturday for local residents, who finally succeeded in ridding the southern tip of Cross Maidan of a major nuisance By...
Parsis push on with sops to boost birth rate
By Rathin Das | Surat At a time when most countries are engaged in controlling the population explosion, the miniscule Parsi community here is busy taking steps to increase its fast-dwindling...
Parsis moot Waqf-like body to protect land
By Nauzer Bharucha, TNN 7 September 2009, 12:47am IST Large-scale encroachments on properties belonging to Parsi trusts across the country led to suggestions during a two-day meet over the weekend...
Parsis fight to keep Sanjan coastline clean
Over a thousand years ago, Parsis landed on the shores of Sanjan on the Gujarat coast, seeking shelter and were welcomed by the local raja who allowed them to settle on his land. The descendants of...
Zoroastrians: Mapping Our Future: A Survey
Sam Balsara of Madison Advertising is putting together a presentation for the World Zoroastrian Congress in Dubai at the end of this year. As part of that he would like as many Zoroastrians to fill...
Authentic Irani Food in Bombay: Cafe Universal
It's funny that the only Irani features in an Irani cafe are black tea and its owner. The menu usually has Parsi food, which has more in common with Lucknow than Tehran. It's ironic that the city's...
Go forth and multiply in Punchayet flats
By: Alisha Coelho for Mid_Day Bombay Parsi Punchayet hopes its new scheme to give priority in housing allocation to engaged couples with a wedding date will bear fruit In a desperate attempt...
Religious Adultery and Parsis
Ervad Marzban J. Hathiram, a good old friend, editor of Frashogard.com and the Panthaki at the Jogeshwari Daremehr has written a hard hitting post on religious adultery. Marzban writes My...
The Parsis in Colonies
This is a hilarious forward sent to us by dear family friend and regular Parsi Khabar reader Bakhtavar Mistry. BE PROUD as After the the British colonies there is only the parsi colonies on which...
Zoroastrians hope ‘Facebook for Parsees’ will revive religion
By Rhys Blakely in Mumbai for the Times UK. During their brief history, social networking websites have united millions of long-lost school friends and diverted millions of office workers from,...
Parsis refuse to do the poll dance
See corporator's attempt to include representatives of the community in the upcoming Assembly elections as a gimmick A proposal from a Malabar Hill corporator to include representatives from the...
Parsis call for revival of business skills
Concerned over the community losing its entrepreneurial knack over the years, a group of Parsis has decided to inject the much-needed impetus. The World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce (WZCC), a...
Parsi Theater Revival
A dearth of new scripts may have theatre veteran Sam Kerawalla worried about the decline of Parsi theatre, but on the eve of Parsi New Year, he's decided to leave Mumbai laughing with a 1970s play,...
It Pays to be Parsi at the Taj
India’s Top Chef Hemant Oberoi gets a hefty annual remuneration of over Rs. 6 million but a 60-year old Parsi senior laundry operator at the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower in Mumbai earns a net salary...
Jamva Chalo Ji at Zamu’s Place
The Guide drops in at Zamu's Place to celebrate the Parsi New Year Today's Special at the 22-year old Parsi eatery on DP Road is a mouth-watering spread of Kid Gosht, Sali Chicken, Mutton Pulao Dal...
Swine flu se darna kya
Parsis plan to celebrate their New Year today with usual fervour despite the pandemic Swine flu and all the hype around the virus notwithstanding, Mumbai's Parsi community is determined to...
Nargol to host a Parsi Festival
Nargol is set to become the first village in the country to host a Parsi festival. This will be similar to government sponsored annual fests like Tarnetar fair, Kutch festival and kite festival. The...
Vadodra Parsis celebrate Navroze
Members of Parsi community celebrated the Pateti (Parsi New Year) with fervour here today. Parsis visited the Fire Temple in traditional dresses and greeted each other with sweets. J H Parabia, a...
India”s Parsis celebrate ”Navroz”
India''s Zoroastrian Parsi community celebrated the New Year day, ''Navroz'', with usual fervour here on Wednesday. Members of the miniscule Parsi community flocked at the Fire Temple to pay...
Homai Vyarawalla gets Nano car as ‘Pateti’ gift
Vyarawalla gets Nano car as 'Pateti' giftThe country's first woman photographer, who had cancelled her booking for a Nano car as it was not delivered to her on time, has accepted the low-cost...
PM Manmohan Singh Greets Nation on Navroze
New Delhi, Aug 18 (IANS) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday greeted the nation on the “joyous occasion” of Navroz, the beginning of the Parsi New Year. In his message, the prime minister said...
The Influence of Early Parsi Theater
The early influences of Parsi Theater on the film scene today… The dominance of Urdu has a lot to do with the origins of the film industry in Bombay. There were roughly two major influences — the...
Sapat Makers: Kerawalla and Company
Somewhere in the noisy lanes of Dhobi Talao stands a picturesque shop; a little old fashioned, with a small cosy bench, and loads of memories. The owner is a fourth generation Parsi; but the heavy...
Saal Mubarak: Happy Parsi New Year 2009
!! Saal Mubarak !! August 19th is the first day of the Parsi New Year. A time of happiness and rejoicing for all members of the small Parsi community in India and worldwide. This is one of my...
Site Issues
We would like to bring to the notice of our readers that for a period of 6 - 12 hours our site was hacked. In a routine check I found out that the homepage had been hacked and a photograph of the...
Chef Farrokh Khambata: Eat Drink and Be Merry
By Dipti Nagpaul D'souza For a true foodie, there isn’t a feast bigger than the Parsi New Year. On the day of the feast, you’ll find a non-follower for every Zoroastrian queued up outside city...
Former Ranji trophy cricketer Soli Patel dies
Jamshedpur, Aug 12 (PTI) Former Ranji trophy cricketer of undivided Bihar, Soli Patel passed away after losing his battle with throat cancer here. Patel was 81 and who was keeping unwell for the...
Parsis seek apology from Arjun Rampal over ‘hurtful’ remark
Arjun Rampal should apologise to the Parsis. This is the demand from sections of the Parsi community who are scandalised with the actor for stating in a recent interview to a men's magazine that he...
J R D Tata: It’s more important to be nice
By M S Neelakantan in Expressbuzz. The cover pages of all leading dailies on July 29, 2009, carried an advertisement paying tribute to a great man on his 89th birth anniversary. A visionary and a...
Arjun Rampal and the desecration of an Agiyari
The image you see below is from a recent issue of GQ Magazine published in India. Arjun Rampal actor/model answers some candid questions and one of his answers is a boastful “I am one of the few...
Nargol leads Nilekani, has own ‘UID’ for residents since 2006
It is not a part of Jammu and Kashmir or even the North East, but if an outsider is visiting Nargol, a seaside village in Valsad in south Gujarat, about 150 kms from Mumbai, he or she will need to...
Pune’s Sorabji Ratanji Patel Agiary: Temple of subdued grandeur
Demure and unassuming, Sardar Sorabji Patel Agiary in Nana Peth is quite like the Iranian and Parsi Zoroastrians who worship at this fire temple. And, although the community is arguably among the...
Playwright Meher Pestonji: Feeding Crows
The small Parsi community has often presented a universal picture, albeit with the help of Parsi writers. The latest voice to join this force belongs to Meher Pestonji. This Mumbai-based writer’s...
Nari Contractor reminisces about Kanga League
Nari Contractor the former India skipper and opening batsman inaugurated the 62nd edition of Mumbai's monsoon tournament, the Strategen Dr HD Kanga cricket league on Sunday with the traditional...
Cyrus Sahukar: In Conversation
Spirituality to me means an extremely deep connection with the forces at work around me and cannot be simply picked up from a book or manuscript or be told to you by someone. I definitely believe in...
3,215 new flats for Parsis on anvil
Resourceful minority communities in the city are doing all they can to keep their flock together. Close on the heels of Dawoodi Bohra spiritual leader Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin’s initiative to...
The Time and Talents Club Recipe Book
A Dhansak that dates back to the 1930’s Circa 1965, when Villie Mehta would feverishly cook in the kitchen of the Victory stall at Apollo Bunder, her biggest worry was the dhansak going out of...
At 80, Gharda wants to discover new tech, give fortune to charity
[Hat tip: Percy Kavarana] What do you do when you are 80, have Rs 1,500-2,000 crore saved up and no kids to bequeath it to? Few on earth have had to face such a dilemma, but for those who do, Keki...
Keki Dadiseth new Sony India chairman
[Hat tip Percy Kavarana] Sony India announced the appointment of Keki B Dadiseth - former director of the world's largest FMCG conglomerate Unilever and former chairman of its domestic arm,...
Architect Nari Gandhi: Monograph
We are very happy to inform you about the soon to be published Monograph on one of India’s foremost architects Nari Gandhi. There is a personal connection here for me. The author of the monograph is...
TOI prints an update in the Satarawala case
A month ago Parsi Khabar informed its readers about an erronous and factually incorrect article where in Aspi Satarawalla filed a suit against his son for maintenance. This article would have been...
Son asked to pay maintenance slams father
"For two minutes, imagine yourself in my place as a young boy seeing his mother being hammered savagely and vomiting blood. Her screams still ring in my ears. Even animals are better than this man....
City of Thieves by Cyrus Mevawalla
Cyrus Mevawalla a.k.a Cyrus Moore is a UK-born Parsi whose first book was recently published in the UK. City of Thieves abstract: Nic Lamparelli works for a leading US investment bank in London....
High Court says no to plan for redevelopment of Kappawala Agiary
In a major victory for the Parsi community in the city, the Bombay high court recently dismissed an application seeking to commercially exploit a portion of the Kappawala Agiary (fire temple) at...
Cavas D Tamboli: A Calcuttan with a Different Vision
Cavas D. Tamboli, known to his college friends as Dilip, achieved exceptional heights in his career. He did it without the help of eyesight. Born to a Parsee family in Gujarat, Tamboli lost his...