Clarification issued jointly by Jamsheed Kanga & Homi Khusrokhan There appear to be several misunderstandings...
Month: April 2015 Articles
Activist’s Idea of Composting Bodies as an Alternative to Dokhmenashini
With vultures fighting for their survival, the Zoroastrian community finds itself at a crossroad. A Parsi community...
Tinaz Pavri: Author of Bombay in the Age of Disco
An interview highlighting our newest author, Tinaz Pavri and her book Bombay in the Age of Disco. Keep an eye out for its release this spring! 1. In a brief summary describe your transition from...
Vulture culture atop coconut palms sends bird numbers soaring
Conservation Centre At Raigad Gets Encouraging Results In Three Years A flock of vultures swoops down on a quiet open plot, flapping their wings with gay abandon while another flock takes sudden...
Vahbiz Dorabjee: Playing a Parsi
Vahbiz Dorabjee was last seen in Saraswatichandara and now she will be seen in an episode of Code Red. She talks about her cameo, playing a Parsi and Nach Baliye. What is special about the episode...
Ruttie Petit and Bella Captain: The Tale of Two Parsi Women
Mitra Sharafi, the amazing author at South Asian Legal History Resources writes: I was recently struck by the strangely inverted but parallel lives of two young women, both tragic figures in early...
Banaji Limji Agiary, Mumbai’s oldest fire temple, turns 306
Parsis-Zoroastrians will celebrate The Feast of Fire, held on the ninth day of the ninth month (roz adar, mah adar) of the Shenshai or Shahenshahi calendar. It is an important day for the community...
BPP trustees at loggerheads over allowing Film shootings in Parsi baugs
The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustees are sparring over allowing film shootings in the city's Parsi baugs. While a majority of the seven BPP trust ees are against allowing film and advertisement...
Tales of the haft seen table
It’s been a while since Navroze has passed us by. The more-than-usual excitement over Parsi food is over, the pantry re-filled and the fridge is no longer bursting at its seams with endless packs of...
Rustomji H. Vania Builds Supercomputing "Ferrari" Machine at Southern Illinois University,
In the age of information, data rules. A new supercomputer has been installed in the basement of the Wham Education Building to keep SIU on the cutting edge of technology. SIU is the second Illinois...
Café Mondegar, others won’t vacate Colaba’s Metro House building
Despite an eviction notice from the Mumbai Port Trust (MbPT), the tenants of Metro House in Colaba, which houses iconic establishments such as the famed Café Mondegar, have refused to vacate the...
Longing and Loss at Dadar Parsi Colony
The heritage precinct is both, a tree spangled island and the last bastion of a threatened community. To its residents, the BMC's move to fill its streets with hawkers has become a metaphor of loss....
Dadar Parsi colony residents fight for hawker-free zone
One of the oldest area in Mumbai, the Dadar Parsi colony area's residents came out, on Sunday in large numbers for anti-hawkers protest march. The protest which began from Five Gardens had residents...
Eating in Thousands: The Parsi Gahambars
It's a fight for a seat, and sometimes, a chicken leg, at the Parsi gahambar that celebrates an age-old tradition of praying and feasting. Article By Meher Mirza | Mumbai Mirror At 8 pm on March 21,...
Persian Parade 2015 in New York City
Here are some pictures from the Persian Day Parade that went down Madison Avenue, in Manhattan; New York City today. See the full set of images on Parsi Khabar’s Facebook Page
Bawi Bride Brings Parsi food at your doorstep
Catering service the Bawi Bride Kitchen, which serves Parsi food, will launch its delivery services next month. sunday mid-day samples a meal, which comprises old Parsi favourites including Sali per...
Bordi: In Search of Serenity
‘Chikoos’, ‘aamras’, Parsi food and empty beaches—Bordi offers a restful break from the city rush When you’re driving in Mumbai, you never get to speed, or even feel the wind in your hair. Road...
Cafe Mondegar faces eviction after Bombay Port Trust terminates building lease
The Mumbai Port Trust has served an eviction notice for all tenants of Metro House building in Colaba including the iconic Cafe Mondegar for criminal violations of the lease agreement. The 7-page...
The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism
Yuhan Sohrab-Dinshaw Vevaina, eminent Zoroastrian scholar at Stanford University and a good personal friend of Parsi Khabar brings out the much-awaited Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism...
The World Zoroastrian Symphony Orchestra at XVII NAZC 2014
The World Zoroastrian Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Adil Mehta performed at the XVII North American Zoroastrian Congress in Los Angeles. Below is the video recording of the event that way...
Parsi Mumbai: The Legacy of Zoroastrianism in India’s Urban Fabric
An Iranian visitor can’t help but notice the Zoroastrian symbols that dominate old Mumbai. In the historic Fort District toward the southern end of this metropolis of twenty million souls,...
BPP Divided Over Rs 1000 Crore Silver Oaks Property in Mumbai
While a majority of Bombay Parsi Punchayet trustees feel the property should be reserved for Parsis only, its chairman says charity funds should not be spent on legal fees to make it...
Jehangir Sarosh Takes over as Interim General Secretary of ECRL–RfP
Seasoned RfP activist Mr. Jehangir Sarosh OBE is the new interim General Secretary of European Council of Religious Leaders-RfP (ECRL-RfP). He replaces Mr. Stein Villumstad who has stepped down to...
Rustom’s of Delhi: The Taste of a Parsi Home Fare
It is not every day that you see someone wanting to serve their family recipes in a restaurant setting. It is even rare if this restaurant is not a quick service restaurant (QSR) but a humble...
Ahmedabad’s Vakil Anjuman Adarian to move out of Old City
The Bukhara Mohulla at Khamasa Crossroads in the Walled City is home to two shrines. One is the Parsis' Vakil Adariyan Agiyari fire temple. And the other is the only Jewish place of worship in...
The Dabu Couple wins over Syracuse theater scene, 20 years running
Hints of spice waft in swirls of steam. Pastel teacups brimming with brewed Indian chai rest on the sanded wood of a low table. Binaifer Dabu and her husband Navroz Dabu sit side-by-side on their...
Daryush Mehta: Zoroastrian Chaplain at Harvard and MIT in Boston, USA
From Harvard’s website: Daryush Mehta It is with great humility that I represent the Zoroastrian community as a Chaplain at Harvard University. Dr. Cyrus Mehta has diligently represented the...
Mercenaries and merchants: A short history of the strong ties between India and Yemen
As Houthi rebels overran the Yemeni capital of Sana’a in March, the embattled government shifted its capital to Aden. For many Indians, and especially for residents of Mumbai, the name of the city...
Dr. Navroze Kotwal and Urdu Poetry
Why can’t a Parsi pen Urdu poetry, asks orthodontist When he is not fixing his patients' teeth, he is penning Urdu couplets. But orthodontist Dr Navroze Kotwal's passion for Urdu poetry, especially...
Death and Legal History on Sunday Afternoons
Cemeteries as Historical Evidence In Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia, Mitra Sharafi argues that rather than trying to maintain collective autonomy and integrity by avoiding interaction with...
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....
Enlarged Compendium of Zoroastrian Calendars
Rohinton Erach Kadva writes in Appeal to preview and purchase my book entitled ‘Enlarged Compendium of Zoroastrian Calendars’. I am a civil engineer settled with my wife in Bangalore for the past 36...
Setback to Wadia in land battle as Supreme Court upholds old Act
In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a law made in Maharashtra in 1977, which requires that before courts get into the facts of a case, they should decide on jurisdiction when...
AirAsia unveils aircraft with JRD Tata livery
JRD Tata was a visionary who established civil aviation in India for the benefit of its people, Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata said on Saturday after unveiling an AirAsia India aircraft with...
Rattana Pestonji: Pioneering Thai film director
Rattana Pestonji was a Thai Indian film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer and is regarded as the father of contemporary Thai film. Although his filmography was brief, his films...
The steady, inspiring rise of Zia Mody
You've seen them at the peak of their careers -- P Chidambaram, Dimple Kapadia, Rajdeep Sardesai, Shashi Tharoor and many more. But what were they like when they were 25? What was India like when...
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...
Farida Khambata Appointed as Tata & Sons’ first ever woman director
Tata Sons, promoter of the major operating Tata companies, appointed top-ranked investment strategist Farida Khambata as the first woman independent director in the company's 103-year history. With...
An Interview With The Field Marshal
The below interview was carried by the August 10, 1974 issue of Swarajya In the course of a 45-minute interview the author had with him in a Calcutta hotel on July 5, the retired Field Marshal H. F....
The Phoenix of Persia: A Book Review
The following book review was recently published in the FEZANA Journal. The FEZANA Journal is the leading publication of FEZANA and over the last two decades and more has become the leading...
Parsis prepare list of defunct Anjumans, other properties
Mumbai: Soon after the demand for a "waqf-like" board by Parsis to manage their properties, members of the community have begun to prepare a list of properties that they want to be controlled by the...
Collector forbids Mhow Parsi community from selling property
Based on a letter from the under secretary of the Minority Department of Government of India regarding a complain filled by Parveen Jahangir, collector Akash Tripathi found mismanagement, after...
Can marriage deprive women of their religion? Parsi woman asks Supreme Court of India
Can a woman be prohibited from practising her religion if she marries a man from a different religion? Is she bound to follow her husband's religion? Can her religious places bar her from offering...
Yazdi Karanjia Felicitated in Baroda
This year, the World Theater Day was celebrated at Vadodara by Triveni in a unique way, as they invited Yazdi Karanjia, the doyen of Parsi Theater, who delivered a humorous talk about his theater...
Remembering Sam Manekshaw, India’s greatest general, on his 101st birth centenary
Valsad Nagarpalika has decided to honour Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, architect of the country's victory in the 1971 war with Pakistan, by naming a road after him in the town on his 100th birth...
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...
Shroff’s of Hong Kong Donate New Facility to Parsee General Hospital
A Parsi couple from Hong Kong has donated Rs 135 crore to south Mumbai's Bomanjee Dinshaw Petit Parsee General Hospital, hoping to halt its decline. The endowment has been made with the intention to...
Emperor Akbar’s Parsi counsel: The First Dastur Meherji Rana
Established in 1874, the first Dastoor Meherjirana Library in Navsari is named after the first Parsi high priest of India. The most priceless manuscript at the library is a framed original document...
Thrity Umrigar on her latest novel, and living in chilly Ohio
Who is Cleveland's most prominent writer? Kevin Keating seems like a rising star. Paula McLain found success with The Paris Wife. Mystery writers would likely mention Les Roberts. Science fiction...
Bawas and Babies
Coming from an ancient movie projector, the image is shaky and scratchy. Kajol and Anil Kapoor's marriage seems beset with problems. But, that does not stop the usual Bollywood song and dance...
Navroz The New Day at the United Nations
This film from India was screened at the United Nations last month as part of the celebrations of the International Day of Navroze – Preserving an Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The film was...