Category: Books

Crossroads is a delightful window into the Parsi community. This collection explores the day-to-day conversations, emotional landscape and events that alter and shape the lives of different Parsis in modern India. These stories and essays reveal the community’s unique character and quirks and the issues that a vanishing community faces. This little gem of thought-provoking… Continue reading Crossroads by Armeen Kapadia Basavaraju

From Tendon Transplants to Eradication of Smallpox Engaging and lively memoir of an outstanding surgeon and humanitarian ‘What Pesi Did: A Surgeon’s Story’ by Dr Azmy Birdi tells the story of Dr Pesi Bharucha, based on a treasure trove of correspondence discovered after his death at the age of 98 in 2018. The book documents… Continue reading From Tendon Transplants to Eradication of Smallpox: What Pesi Did: A Surgeon’s Story

Set in 1892, Murder in Old Bombay addresses issues prevalent at the turn of the 20th century which are very present today: discrimination against those who do not belong to our ‘in’ group, misogyny, inequality in attitudes toward women. It’s also a heart-felt appeal to the (tiny) Zoroastrian community to update our social norms–or face… Continue reading Mystery Murder Story Set in Colonial Bombay

Editors’ Note: Continuing HistPhil‘s forum on waqfs, Leilah Vevaina reviews Nurfadzilah Yahaya’s Fluid Jurisdictions (2020), while discussing her own research on religious endowments in India and the Straits Settlements. Vevaina writes: “This axis of what colonial authorities recognized as public, and hence, as charitable giving, versus familial hence private giving, was the key evaluator of… Continue reading Fluid Jurisdictions and Solid Perpetuities: A Review By Leilah Vevaina

New automotive history book on the Mahindra vehicles by Adil Jal Darukhanawala explores the Indian automaker’s 75-year journey, from the CJ-3B to the Thar Chronicling a large and rich mass of stories of manufacturing and allied adventures, Adil Jal Darukhanawala’s new book titled “Timeless Mahindra” is now out. Simultaneously a celebration and a memoir of… Continue reading “Timeless Mahindra” by Adil Jal Darukhanawala Hits The Stands

Meher Castelino’s Fashion Musings takes a humorous, saucy, cheeky, tongue-in-cheek look at the fashion, beauty and film world in her unique style. The unconventional Q & A format of the book makes it easy reading, while taking the reader through the various segments of style and glamour. With a Foreword by ace couturier, Tarun Tahiliani… Continue reading Fashion Musings by Meher Castelino

Afshin Marashi is Professor and Farzaneh Family Chair in Modern Iranian History at the University of Oklahoma, where from 2011 to 2020 he also served as the founding director of the Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies. He is the author most recently of Exile and the Nation: The Parsi Community of… Continue reading India’s Parsi Community and the Making of Modern Iran: An Interview with Afshin Marashi

Dinyar Patel’s splendidly researched, elegantly written book traces the life of a memorable pioneer. ‘A Parsee is no more a representative of Indians, than a Nestorian Christian would be of Ottomans.’ — The Spectator Dadabhai Naoroji, Dinyar Patel writes in this splendidly researched, elegantly written book, made at least two whistle-stop tours across most of… Continue reading At Last, a Biography of India’s Grand Old Man

Ace illustrator and our dear friend Delzin Choksey informs us of a new book out on Amazon Delzin writes… I wanted to share my latest children’s book. it’s on Amazon, here https://bit.ly/AmazonAPG   The illustrations are hand-drawn and digitally inked by me. For a few days the Kindle edition of the book is for free,… Continue reading The Adventures of the Pillow Gang: Illustrated by Delzin Choksey