The Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI), the nation’s only full-time professional orchestra, is delighted to...
Bombay Articles
J B Vachha School: On this day 100 years ago, my Zoroastrian high school was founded in Mumbai, India
Dear friends, I woke up today to the pleasant news of longevity and resilience—my high school located in the beautiful...
Parsi punchayat gears up for polls
Otherwise known to be a genteel people, the Parsi community is likely to witness mud-slinging, name-calling and character assassination over the next two months as the 350-year-old Bombay Parsi...
The Harbour That Gave the Name ‘Bombay’ to Mumbai
Mumbai harbour has been the gateway to the world for commerce and travel since the British took control of the island city from the Portuguese in 1660s. However, the group of seven islands acquired...
Heritage status: Parsis pen support for BMC’s plan
The development plan department of the BMC has received nearly 3,000 letters from Zoroastrians all over the world in support of an official proposal to list the 47 fire temples in the city under the...
Sat with the Dead
All Zera, 85, had in the world was her 65-year-old nephew, Homi Kaku. The latter, who was suffering from diabetes and gangrene, died on Saturday night. With no relative to inform about his death,...
The Parsis October Revolution
Those Russians call it double – 10 from 10th October, when the Tsars were overthrown. We, Parsis, will call it the October Revolution. When a frustrated, fed up, angry, exasperated, irate, end...
Zubin Mehta to perform in Mumbai
World-renowned music conductor Zubin Mehta will hold a charity concert at the Brabourne stadium in October. The Mehli Mehta Foundation, founded in 1995 in memory of Zubin's father, confirmed...
Soon, heritage status for fire temples
Mumbai, July 3 47 Parsi structures, including 4 Atash Behrams, in city’s heritage list Parsis across the city were cheering on Thursday when, after a long battle that has lasted over six years,...
The pages of history: J. N. Petit Library
The staff of the JN Petit, home to 150,000 titles, do more than just take care of books If you can’t remember the last time you visited a heritage library, you are not alone. Edged out by modern...
Yazdani Bakery
Here is a wonderful video of Yazdani Bakery, one of the last few bakeries of its kind left in Bombay
Vulture Culture
This is a youtube video about the Parsis of Bombay and the issues that face the community today. If the video does not show, please click here
Voting rights? But whom do we choose?
Ask Parsi youth, who want to know whether issues like housing will be resolved MUMBAI: Last week, the High Court passed a judgment, one that would in many ways shake the age-old hierarchy of the...
Brabourne Restaurant: Death of an Eatery
Cities are complex entities. They provide shelter for different communities who, over the years, generate their own sub-cultures, shops, markets and restaurants. This collection of sub-cultures can...
All Parsis Can Now Vote in Parsi Panchayat Elections
Every Parsi, over the age of 18 years, will now have a vote in deciding the future of the Parsi community. In a significant judgment, Bombay High Court on Wednesday entrusted the process of electing...
Eeda Par Agiary
Eggs and toddy jars for a fire temple? The good-life-loving Parsis are not finicky about mixing the sacred and the secular. Still, I was intrigued by the E&T detail in Nauzer Bharucha’s...
Fire temple enters its 300th year
24 Apr 2008, 0434 hrs IST,Nauzer Bharucha,TNN MUMBAI: For the past few centuries, they have been one of Mumbai’s most important religious and architectural landmarks. On Thursday, the...
Thana Parsee Zoroastrian Anjuman Wins Court Battle
Received via an email comminique From: pervezbhesania Subject: Another victory to savour: The mail: To, All Zoroastrians of Thana, We have a phenomenal piece of news to share with you once again. As...
Exhibition: Zoroastrians Through the Ages
We received this from the organisers. Farohar Foundation Exhibition “ ZOROASTRIANS THROUGH THE AGES” at Allbless Baug, Charni Road, Mumbai. From 13th April 2008 to 16th April, 2008 Exhibition...
Making statues smile
Statues make it to the news in Mumbai mostly when miscreants use them to stoke trouble in the city. At other times, they stand on busy road junctions or watch dusty playgrounds, derelict and often...
New Construction Near Doongerwadi
A proposal to build a multi-storey residential building near the Towers of Silence on Malabar Hill has caused concern among a section of Parsis. They worry that residents of the upper floors of...
Khada Parsi may stand elsewhere
Away from the noise and pollution in Byculla, BMC plans to shift the century-old statue to Five Gardens The landmark Khada Parsi statue may find a new home at Five Gardens near Dadar. The statue now...
A conversation with Kekoo Gandhi
We explore the avant-garde Progressive Art Group as veteran art collector Kekoo Gandhy unearths its history Many art veterans believe that the formation of the ‘Progressive Art Group’ is one of the...
Is Mumbai Really Secular ?
Lawmakers may have given Mumbaikars a loud speaker deadline of 10 pm, but I guess laws are meant to be broken. True there have been cases wherein Mumbai’s event organisers never cross the set time...
Who are they talking to?
Dr. Kersey Antia was in the Zoroastrian news recently, for better or for worse. In fact, the officers at the Colaba Police Station will also tell you who he is. Dr. Antia came to Mumbai to...
Decoding the longevity DNA of Parsis
The Avestagenome project, that seeks to plot the genetic and medical database of the Parsi community, expects to start its Mumbai-leg of the study this April. The project would open a base in...
Parsi fascination
I first went to Bombay when I was 14 or 15. An uncle worked for an antique store inside the Taj, then the grandest hotel in India, and lived in a rented flat in Bandra. The journalistic offerings of...
The battle of Mumbai
Original article by Deepak Lokhande in the Mid-Day Should I be wasting another 400 words on what went on in our city during the last week? I should. For over two weeks, the city remained hostage to...
Migrants, your grunts, everyone’s stunts
by Bachi Karkaria in the Times of India I cannot promise to raise a statue of Shivaji in Dadar Parsi Colony. But, in the ultimate cultural surrender, I hereby change my surname to Karkare. Many...
Bombay central
by Haseena Jethmalani in the Indian Express. Come December and I await invitations from our Parsi friends with bated breath. For me, it’s more about the food, though the bhonu is to die for and the...
No identity crisis
There was a time when Parsi businessmen and industrialists from Mumbai preferred to employ the ‘Marathi manoos’ in their offices, for he was hard-working, sincere and honest. He had respect for...
Bid to exploit Kappawala agiary land thwarted
An attempt to commercially exploit a portion of Tardeo’s Kappawala agiary (fire temple) land by one of the trustees has been scuttled after the charity commissioner rejected an application seeking...
Freewheeling for a cause: Parsi Bike Rally Mumbai 2008
For the Parsi community in the city, Sunday was Bawas’ day out on bikes. Hundreds of Parsis, both young and those young-at-heart raced their way on their motorcycles from Dadar Parsi colony to...
Migrants are Mumbai’s shapers, not its shame
By Bachi Karkaria, Jug Suraiya’s Second Opinion (January 4) may be dead-on in blaming India’s ersatz modernity for what happened in Mumbai , but it is way off the mark in also damning...
Parsi Bike Rally in Mumbai
Watch out for the Parsi bikers as they criss-cross through the city on January 6 for peace. Organised by the Parsi Resource Group, the rally will begin from the Dadar Parsi Gymkhana. The...
Britannia Restaurant
Berry berry good The eatery still maintains its worth with a menu card right out of Iran. You’ll never know what the fuss is about until you actually eat here. This 83-year-old Parsi-Irani eatery is...
Godrej is all set to unlock greater value in Mumbai
The Godrej business group recently commissioned a London marketing agency to redesign its brand image. The aim was to dust down the dowdy Godrej of Almira cupboards to something smarter befitting...
Khada Parsi statue at Flora Fountain set to get facelift
The Khada Parsi, the statue of Shet Cursetjee Manockjee erected in the memory of the illustrious Parsi in the 1860s, was made to order after his youngest son Manockjee Cursetjee shelled out Rs...
Bawas of Bambai rejoice!
The objective of the event was to bring the youth together, put the community resources to use and give the young blood a platform to a world of opportunities. Architect Jimmy Mistry’s NGO...
Powai’s ‘Parsi’ Connection
Originally published on PLANET POWAI [Article Link] The renowned site where Powai Lake stands known as Framaji Kavasji was Powai Estate. It was in 1890 that the Britishers dug out the lake at a cost...
FTII Award for Parsi Themed Film
Parsi Wada, Tarapore — Present Day, a film that talks about the present and future of the Parsi community in Mumbai, has won cameraman Paramvir Singh the award for Best Cinematography (Rajat...
Parsi Food Hub In Bandra
With a municipal vegetable market (Pali Market) nearby and lined with grocery stores, this road is also rather active during the day. After a hard day’s shopping for groceries, people often...
Why gatecrash a Bawa lagan? Parsi bhonu…
The minute you told someone you were Parsi, they’d crib about how they never got invited to Bawa weddings, their only chance at nirvana after downing Patra ni Machchi. The load on our...
Bambai ka Bawajis!
‘We bawas live in a different world of our own.’ Food, fun and farehghat. Three words that get every Parsi in the mood. Especially on Parsi New Year. After atoning for the wrongs done in...
How safe is Bombay, really?
By Shernaaz Engineer | Thursday, July 26, 2007 11:21:37 IST Most women have developed a defence mechanism by which they know how to deal with this… Certainly, by most accounts, Bombay is a...
Senior citizen’s murder mystery solved finally
The Nagpada police on Wednesday announced to have solved the murder case of a 67-year-old Parsi lady. They arrested one Faisur Ansari and have deployed a team to search for the one who planned the...
Save the Tehmulji Nursing Home
In the recent weeks, there has been news about the selling off of a very important Parsi heritage building. The Temulji Lying In hospice has for generations been the first point of entry into the...
BMC again eyes Bandra agiary land
The Parsi agiary on Hill Road, Bandra (west), is in danger of losing its porch and part of its compound yet again. The civic administration is making another effort to acquire land for widening...
Tower of Silence trees to stay
Assuring the protection of the trees in the Towers of Silence, the Zoroastrian crematorium, better known as Doongerwadi, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday asked the BMC to submit an undertaking to...
Protests against hoarding at Tower of Silence
Parsis are protesting against a hoarding that has come up on the premises of the sacred Tower of Silence at Doongerwadi–declared a green belt and a heritage site by the Supreme Court. Accusing...
Funeral billboards raise cash, ire in India
Some might see the towering billboards that rise out of a centuries-old Bombay funeral ground as a message from beyond the grave. But the signs — which exhort motorists to “Rev up your...
The Western Railway disclaims responsibility; Dinaz’s case dismissed…
The Western Railway disclaims responsibility; Dinaz’s case dismissed as low priority The Railway Claims Tribunal of the city is least bothered about Dinaz N. Chhapgar(56) who was injured due...