Saal Mubarak Dikra

The indomitable zest of the Parsi community in the city came out in full force at the Navroze celebration at the Dadar Parsi Gymkana grounds yesterday, as the entire Fasli community of south Mumbai came together.

Actress Perizaad Zorabian, Rustom Irani Foundation trustee Boman Irani – not the actor — and sculptor Arzaan Khambatta joined in the fun too.

Six-to-sixty: Traditional Parsi clothes take a back seat to shirts and trousers or dresses and skirts

Navroze literally means ‘new year’ and though it is celebrated by the Fasli sect, all Parsis share in their joy on this day.

Curiously, the traditional dagli, phaitas and black caps were distinctly missing on the grounds, even on the elderly.

The crowd preferred shirts and trousers or dresses and skirts instead. It wasn’t colas and candies the seven and eight year-olds were fiddling with, but mobile phones and sleek digital cameras.

Signs of changing times? The food though remained 100 per cent authentic.

As was Manch Baliye, a spoof on the Star One dance show Nach Baliye by the residents of Parsi colony, with judges like a bawi Shiraj Khan, bumbling Farhan Baxter, saccharine sweet Malaikha Arora and gold-decked Bhappi Larry — for added effect.