In the 1920s, when municipal corporator and civil engineer Muncherji Edulji Joshi, initiated a housing project for...
Mumbai Articles
140-Year-Old Ripon Club At Kala Ghoda Faces Eviction From Landlords; Court Hearing Scheduled On November 24
After a furore over the proposed sale of the Sanjan sanatorium, Parsis have raised concerns about the future of...
Migrated but kept the Apartment ? Parsis must give ’em up
Is it fair to keep low rent, charity apartments in prime localities of the city locked while the tenants have migrated to the US or Canada? The Bombay Parsi Punchayat (BPP), the city's biggest...
Metro speedily realigned at BKC but not elsewhere
Work on the 2B corridor, which will connect D N Nagar and Mankhurd, has begun at several places along its 23.6km route. The corridor will run along the 3.6 km-long arterial BKC road. MMRDA...
Parsis last joined Mumbai police 21 years ago
The dwindling numbers of the Parsi community has cast a long shadow on its representation in the Mumbai police force, over the past five decades. The brick-red tiles of the Police Gymkhana on Marine...
Bombay High Court Permits Mumbai Metro 3 tunnelling under two fire temples
Senior Journalist and friend of Parsi Khabar, Nauzer Bharucha writesA COMMUNITY SCARRED “The Bombay High Court today allowed a metro rail tunnel to run under one of the most venerated Fire Temples...
Parsis oppose toilet block near Dadyseth Atashbehram
UPDATE: The contents of the article are not current. Senior journalist Nauzer Bharucha, in a facebook post had informed that he had spoken to the authorities and this proposal has been scrapped. Vow...
Parsis say no to flight path over Tower of Silence
Airports Authority of India may now have to revise the path flights will take to the Navi Mumbai airport. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) may have to alter the flight path for the Navi Mumbai...
Dadar Parsi Colony on Instagram
It is impossible not to be taken up by the verdant beauty of Dadar Parsi Colony, and it may so happen that the next time you are sauntering through its lanes or driving past its parks, you may take...
Dadar Parsi Colony: A Photo Tour
My first encounter with Dadar was back in 2004 when I used to travel from Churchgate to Dadar during the evening rush hour. Most of my journey would go in planning my exit strategy from the crowded...
The Fire Temple vs The Mumbai Metro: Bachi Karkaria
In early October, a petition was sent to the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, about the latest phase of the Mumbai metro – a 33.5km stretch that is currently under construction. The petition...
Christians, Parsis discuss Metro threat to structures
The controversy over the proposed underground metro rail tunnels at Jagannath Sunkersett Marg in Girgaum has brought together Christians and Parsis for the first time to discuss the project at a...
Milind Deora meets Mumbai Metro brass over Parsis’ fire temple issue
A delegation of Parsis led by former south Mumbai Congress MP Milind Deora on Friday met senior officials of the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) to express concern about the rail tunnel...
Mumbai Parsis to meet Uddhav Thackeray for help
Members of the city-based Parsi community will meet Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray over the Metro-3 project’s alignment that passes below three of its fire temples in south Mumbai. According to...
A Year’s Membership To J N Petit Library in Fort Mumbai Only Costs INR 1,000
Eminent Parsi historian and our dear friend Marzban Giara informs us that the J. N. Petit Library Fort was started in 1895 and not 1856 (as stated in the article below) in memory of Jamsetjee...
In the city of Tata and Godrej, there’s no Parsi in BMC poll fray
For the first time in 50 years, the illustrious Mehta family won’t be contesting the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls from what used to be its stronghold in Mumbai Central. The Mehtas...
132-year-old Ripon Club plans partial sell-off to cut rising losses
Although the 132-year-old Ripon Club has endured the vicissitudes of time and fortune, a part of the good old Parsi bastion may suffer partial eclipse. A controversial proposal to surrender or sell...
The mystery of the clock tower deaths
A century and a quarter after two Parsi girls fell to their death from the iconic Rajabai Clock Tower in Mumbai, the shocking incident continues to intrigue On 25 April 1891, at about 4pm, Bachubai...
Once upon a Hill Road
An arterial road in Bandra is as deep-steeped in general lore as it is in personal memory for someone who grew up on this street I am the Resurrection and the Life’ affirms the inscription on the...
Cyrus Poonawalla buys iconic Lincoln House in Mumbai for Rs 750 crore
Bulge-bracket property deals by the rich and the famous are not new to the land-starved megapolis, but the weekend sale of the iconic Lincoln House here to the Pune-based industrialist Cyrus...
Mumbai’s Parsis fight to preserve the city’s greenest space in Dadar
The Parsi colony in Mumbai’s Dadar neighbourhood is unique. It is the world’s largest concentration of Parsis, now down to its last 80,000 despite the community’s wealth and education. Article by...
Parsi Punchayet sweepers, pallbearers threaten strike
On Monday, over 230 Class IV workers including the Tower of Silence's pallbearers sported red Gandhi topis with their union's name “Mumbai Mazdoor Sabha“ emblazoned across. This was the first phase...
Tehmulji Parsi Lying-In hospital may see development soon
The hospital at Fort has not been functioning for over two decades now. For the past three years, the BPP trustees and the hospital committee have been locked in a legal tussle over the...
Row over Parsi hospital’s pact with private firm goes to Bombay High Court
A quaint heritage Parsi hospital property built in 1895 and lying defunct for several decades in the prime Fort area of south Mumbai will be redeveloped into an orthopaedic and neurosurgery centre....
Mumbai City Development Plan forgets to mark as many as 24 fire temples as heritage structures
Parsis were among the first settlers in Mumbai in the 17th century and they started consecrating their fire temples (Agiaries and Atash Behrams) over the next 200 years. In the past decade, the...
Adi Jehangir on the Closing of Café Samovar
As Mumbai bids goodbye to Cafe Samovar this week, Adi Jehangir says he is simply making room for artists. It's a busy Thursday afternoon at Kala Ghoda's Jehangir Art Gallery. A queue winds out of a...
Elderly Parsi killed by ex-help in Bandra
A 78-year-old retired principal secretary to a former Chief Justice of the Bombay high court was murdered at his residence at Tata Blocks, Bandra (West), early on Sunday. His wife was bound,...
8 CCTV cameras to keep a watch on Khada Parsi statue
In a bid to safeguard the Khada Parsi from drug addicts and thieves, the BMC is set to install eight CCTV cameras and a circular fence around the statue. One of only two such cast-iron...
Bombay Airport’s Terminal 2 Art Wall To Depict Parsi-Style Theatre
Having already set the standard in terms of artistic beauty, the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport's (CSIA) T2 terminal is now undergoing the completion of its 'art museum' on the walls, set...
Heritage enclave cracks open its door to redevelopment
At the entrance to Parsi Colony in Dadar, two new towers signal the changes creeping into this low-rise, historic neighbourhood. Article by Nergish Sunavala | Times of India One is Parsi builder...
Bombay Heritage Walks for Tata Employees
The business group takes staff back in history by organising Bombay Heritage Walks every week in an effort to reacquaint them with the company's storied links to the city. By Anirban Chowdhury |...
Nobody learns Parsi history in schools, says historian
On just a short stretch of Veer Nariman Road in Fort, beginning at the stained glass enclosure of the Bhikha Behram Well and ending at the v-shaped Eros Cinema with its Art Deco dome, six Parsi...
A winter time walk in Dadar Parsi Colony
Many moons ago, the bead-like red seeds that emerge from the tiny star shaped yellow flowers were used by Arabian Jewellers as units of weight because all of them have identical weights. These are...
Defunct Tower of Silence lives on in the heart of an Andheri residential colony
The article has an UPDATE since it was first published. Read below At Malabar Hill, the Parsi Towers of Silence are shrouded in mystery— and thick foliage — with few community members ever spying...
The Capital City
Mumbai has its commercial roots in drug money. A profile of the City Just as one crosses the suburbs into Worli, Samudra Mahal juts up from the edge of Mumbai, casting its eye out into the Arabian...
Motherhood matters: Tehmulji’s Parsi Lying-In Hospital
We unravel the history behind the crumbling Parsi Lying-In Hospital on Prescott Road Article by Meher Mirza | DNA India The Parsi Lying-In Hospital at Fort In the 19th century, young Parsi women...
All Is Well at The Bhikha Behram Well in Mumbai
Trust a grandmother to leave you with lifetime of faith in the waters of a well. Mine did so with ease. Article by Meher Marfatia | Times Of India It started with her telling the children in the...
Vada Dasturji Khurshed of Udvada asks Parsis to vote for BJP
Below is an article by good friend of Parsi Khabar and acclaimed journalist Nauzer Bharucha. It is indeed a first for a Parsi head priest to endorse and support a candidate in a political election....
Bombay Meri Hai : Hot Beat for Bombay
Bom bom bom bom“ the staccato rang out. How my brother and I chuckled as children to first hear that syllabic quartet. Our giggles muffled by mouths stuffed with an edge of the living room curtain...
Marzban Colony: Springing forth from history
The Marzban Colony in Agripada, south Mumbai, gets a new lease on life Article by Meher Mirza | DNA India The story of 'The Lal Chimney Compound' begins in the 19th century, with Mancherji Marzban,...
Requiem For A Bird: Documentary on the Towers of Silence
Requiem for a Bird currently stands as a last chance to document the singular relationship of the Parsi and the vultures. The two have been linked through death for centuries, with the bodies of...
Cafe 792 Opens in Dadar Parsi Colony
Be it cold cuts, set lunches or quick bites, Café 792, tucked inside Dadar’s leafy Parsi Colony, offers a variety of delicious chow, especially when you are on the go. We treaded on a gravel-laden...
The Khada Parsi Statue: In Animation
Sandwiched between the famous Byculla flyovers is the 152-year old cast iron statue of Shet Cursetjee Manockjee. The long forgotten 40 feet tall statue, once known to be a famous landmark, is back...
Farrokh Khambata’s JOSS to Open in Santacruz Mumbai
Long after shutting down Joss at Kala Ghoda, owner Farrokh Khambata will now open an outpost at Santacruz (W). Launching in place of Two One Two All Day, next to the Mini Cooper showroom, the Pan...
BBC: Mumbai’s Disappearing Irani Cafes
Mumbai's grand old Parsi cafes have long been a symbol of the city's diverse cuisine and culture. They were first opened in the 19th century by settlers moving to India from Iran and most of them...
Mumbai Samachar: Going strong at 192
On July 1, Mumbai Samachar, the city's second most circulated Gujarati paper, will reaffirm its position as the oldest surviving newspaper in Asia. When copies of the Mumbai Samachar (MS) hit the...
After restoration, Khada Parsi stands tall
After over two years of tedious restoration work, the iconic 150-year-old “Khada Parsi” statue, a Grade I heritage monument in Mumbai, was unveiled on Friday in the presence of Shiv Sena chief...
Smita Crishna-Godrej buys historic Bhabha bungalow for Rs. 372 cr
Smita has assured friends that the iconic home where brothers Homi and Jamshed grew up will not be torn down to make way for a highrise and will only be used as a family home. Dr Jamshed Bhabha's...
Wadias want back Parsi colonies their ancestors developed
The Wadias have taken exception to the BPP using the rent from these properties to pay the salaries of Parsi priests Industrialist Nusli Wadia, whose family developed five housing colonies for the...
Chemould Prescott Road: Moulding modern art for decades
India was still taking its first steps as an independent nation when a young Maqbool Fida Hussain was struggling to find avenues to display his art in the city. He met by chance a young Parsi couple...
B. Merwan and the Irani Cafe: A Fading Icon
Recently the news about B. Merwan the iconic Irani cafe with the best Mava cakes in the world, shutting down; has brought a sense of gloom over all those who love the restaurant and in fact the...
Charges Against BPP Chairman: Is the World Congress in Jeopardy ?
Four Trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) Arnavaz Mistry, Khojeste Mistree, Jimmy Mistry and Yazdi Desai filed a complaint with the Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Mumbai against BPP...