Today marks the beginning of a new year according to the Shehenshahi Parsi calendar and we would like to take this opportunity to wish each and every single one of you a very Happy New Year….Navu Varas Mubarak !
May this be the year when we find the best in all of us as individuals and as a community globally and locally. Our wishes extend to you, your loved ones, families and friends.
May this also be the year when our community is in the news for all the positives that we bring about, not only for ourselves, but for our neighborhoods, communities, cities and nations.
On August 19, 2005 Parsi Khabar started with one post and a fledgling idea. This has metamorphosed into 6023 daily email subscribers and over 11 million page views as we enter our 12th year. As the pioneering news aggregator website for the Parsi community, we could not have done without all our readers and supporters. We strive to maintain our standard of bringing you pertinent, accurate and insightful news and opinion. Your comments….all 13067 of them over the past 12 years are highly appreciated and we look to many more in the years to come.
Our Facebook page is inching towards its fifty thousandth follower and our Parsi Khabar group on Facebook continues to be the place for animated and civil discussions. Twitter and Instagram help complete our social media presence.
However the above are just numbers. What really matters is the friends we have made worldwide. The connections and the virtual introductions that start online have led to amazing personal friendships, not only among Parsis but people of all faiths and beliefs.
As Parsis we are lucky to have an extra set of chromosomes…the Goodwill Chromosome. That had endeared us to whichever community, city, state or nation we have called home. The onus rests on the present and future generations to nurture and build on the “Goodwill Chromosome”.
We take this opportunity to wish you and all your loved ones a happy new year.
From our family to yours may this be the year of happiness and pride in all things Parsi.
We leave you with a wonderful write up from our archives….sent to us by a reader from Australia and published on Parsi New Year day in 2009.
Rejoice, it is Papeti and Navroze
This is the day to go out and have fun, eat and make merry.
This is the day when the RTI staff will be working overtime:
Putlamai will head the dar ni pori team, Dolly Patel will roll out the patrel,
Coomi Mevawalla will bake the kumas, Soli Botawalla will add the sali to the boti,
Bhikhamai Bhamgara will fry the bhakras and Ketayun Kateli the cutlace.
This is the day when no Parsi worth his name will go to work. Soli Solicitor will only drop into his office to give his staff mava ni boi from N. Lookmanji & Sons. As will Dinsu Dalal at the stock exchange to bring Mahim no halwa from Joshi Budhakaka.
Dr. Bumla, at 79 will not open his dispensary, but will be at the Grant Road market to buy chhamnas for his unmarried sister Alamai (aged 82) to fry.
Just to add, Dara Daruwalla will be giving Rs. 5/ off on every bottle bought from his liquor shop opposite the Cama baug.
Percy Pochkhanawalla, Tehmul Topkhanawalla, Jimmy Gymkhanawalla and Darab Darukhanawalla will be at the Ripon Club reminiscing about how they all lost out on well-endowed Moti Motafaram 40 years ago.
The culture vultures (the real ones are extinct) will all start getting dressed after their chai and batasa like Behramshaw Behra, who will go to Sam Kerawala’s natak, Kavasji Kana who has tickets for My Fair Lady at Novelty cinema and Limjibhai Langra who will dance at the Parsi Gymkhana to the tune of the new Parsi rock band, Nusly and his nusesals.
The PVM gymkhana will be full of osteoporotic women in their finery and men with toothpicks trying to pick leftover botas from their dentures swaying to the accordion of Jangoo Seervai.
This will also be a day to call friends and relatives wherever they maybe. Gayomarz Ghyara has already heard from all his 11 siblings as has Banubai Baria from her 12 cousins.
This is the day when Gaimai Gimi will ask her grandchildren in Toronto not to eat beef and Dariush Bugli will dress in a dugli in Montreal.
Kelly Kharas, Myrna Moos, Nelly Noble, Tania Tata and Grace Gazdar will also meet up in London for a Queen Mary’s school reunion.
So fellow Parsis, have a blast and a good laugh!
NAVROZE MUBARAK