KARACHI: The aroma of sizzling Patra Ni Machi — fish wrapped in banana leaf and slathered with green chutney — drifted...
Blog Articles
Diana Pundole from Pune to Make History as First Indian Woman to Race a Ferrari Internationally
The 32-year-old from Pune will compete in the Ferrari Club Challenge Middle East, driving the Ferrari 296 Challenge...
Calcutta’s Banajee Agiary to get relief: Archeological Survey of India Steps In
The Fire Temple at Ezra Street, though one of the earliest symbols of pluralistic and cosmopolitan culture of ‘Calcutta’, has long been taken over by trading units that have turned it...
A sense of belonging: We must recognise the contributions of our minorities
KARACHI: The Parsi community in Karachi has always been small, but it has gifted an unmistakable legacy to the city. They have left their mark on the metropolis, especially in its older parts, with...
Sam Balsara to daughter Lara: Embrace motherhood at the earliest
Sam Balsara, CMD, Madison World has a word of advice for his daughter Lara Balsara, a director in the company, who is soon getting married to KaizadVajifdar, a young pilot with Air India. It is to...
Brand Equity: No Joy For ‘Jiyo Parsi’ Advertising Campaign
According to a study carried by Parzor foundation & TISS – Since 1947, Indian Parsi population has come down considerably by about 40%. The Ministry of Minority Affairs has therefore...
Farrokh Chothia: In conversation with Anurag Banerjee
Photography legend, Farrokh Chothia talks to Anurag Banerjee about all things Jazz. Article on Sensorium What is your first memory of jazz music? FC: My first introduction to Jazz music was through...
Go Forth and Procreate: Boman Irani At Sanjan Day Celebrations
Eminent Parsi and Bollywood personality Boman Irani endorses the Jiyo Parsi campaign. A video recording of his speech is at the end of this article. Praising the ‘Jiyo Parsi’ campaign of...
Long lives the Parsi debate: Jehangir and Simin Patel
Jiyo Parsi’s ad campaign, which urges Parsi couples to marry early, within the community, and multiply, has raised hackles among many who accuse it of sexism and eugenics. Kareena Gianani tries to...
FEZANA Announces 2014 Zarathushti Awards
The 2014 FEZANA North American Zarathushti Community Awards The FEZANA Awards Committee is pleased to announce the 2014 FEZANA North American Zarathushti Community Awards. The Awardees for this...
Discover ancient Parsi cuisine before it’s too late: Niloufer’s Kitchen
The decline in the Bombay Irani cafe culture has been the subject of regular media coverage. In the 1950s, there were about 550 traditional Parsi cafes in South Mumbai. Today, there are less than...
Voices of Reason: The Jiyo Parsi Ad Campaign
A week ago, the Jiyo Parsi Scheme administered by PARZOR and set up by the Government of India launched an advertising campaign. The campaign and the advertisements went viral and have incited a...
India’s Parsis told to have more children in controversial campaign
India’s Parsis told to have more children in controversial campaign A campaign in India to encourage more of its dwindling Parsi community to have children – ‘Be responsible: Don’t...
Bhonu Prakash: A Talk by Dan Sheffield
Here is a wonderful video presentation titled: “Bhonu Prakash: Zoroastrians and Food in Historical Perspective” by good friend of Parsi Khabar, Dan Sheffield who lectures at Princeton University in...
His Honourable Son-in-Law: Feroze Gandhi
Late on the morning of 8 September 1960, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, heavily lugged himself up the staircase at Teen Murti Bhavan, the Prime Minister’s residence in New...
Lara Balsara to tie the knot
What’s keeping Sam Balsara busy these days? It could be another campaign for Madison’s clients or maybe the upcoming wedding of daughter and Madison World’s Executive Director Lara...
Weekly Zoroastrian Scripture Extract: Ervad Soli P. Dastur
Our dear friend and respected Ervad Saheb Soli P. Dastur of Florida, USA informs us about the web presence of his extremely popular Weekly Zoroastrian Scripture Extract. More than 75+ and counting...
Why Are Parsi Numbers Declining: A TV Report
NDTV one of the mainstream news channels in India does a detailed TV report as a follow up on the recent launch of the Jiyo Parsi advertisement campaign. The phenomenal Shernaz Cama, who heads...
Charter For Co-Existence
Below is a write-up sent by good friend of Parsi Khabar, Mr. Dinshaw K. Tamboly. Charter For Co-Existence Seldom has our small community been so riven with divisiveness and factionalism as now....
Parvez Patel: Bangalore’s Ideal Chef for Parsi Delights
The Parsis are a small community with a rich culinary heritage that a lot of people don’t have a clue about. Recently, Bangalore was treated to an array of authentic Parsi dishes whipped up by none...
Provocative ads to revive Parsis’ numbers
Good advertising has to offend someone to work,“ said Sam Balsara, chairman and managing director of Madison World, at an event to elaborate on Jiyo Parsi, a Rs 10-crore scheme, funded by the...
Jiyo Parsi Launches A Brilliant Print Advertising Campaign
Jiyo Parsi is a Government of India supported scheme to arrest the decline in population of the Parsi Zoroastrian Community in India. Headed by the phenomenal Shernaz Cama, the program launched a...
India’s oldest scouting group turns 100 on November 8
One of the oldest continuously run scout groups in the city will complete 100 years on November 8. Sethna’s 18th West Bombay, whose members are mostly Zoroastrians, was founded in 1914....
Kavasji Jamshedji Petigara: An Extraordinary Policeman
On reading a recent article on the Irani brothers in the Mumbai Police Force, Parsi Khabar reader Shahpur Doctor writes in to remind us of a legendary Parsi police officer from nearly a 100 years...
Passion Flower by Cyrus Mistry: A Book Review
Mistry has the inspired storyteller’s knack of looking at finer details. Passion Flower has a cover of such exquisite charm that, like the hero of one of the stories in the seven short stories in...
Father, son and the holy Court
Senior advocate Fali S. Nariman appearing in cases before the Supreme Court where his son is a judge has revived an old debate regarding the appropriateness of such appearances Article by K. CHANDRU...
Shaan Kandawalla: Bringing Lessons From a Pool in Pakistan to a Pitch Meeting With Investors
Shaan Kandawalla, a native of Pakistan who lives in New York, is used to challenging gender norms. As a teenager in Karachi, she excelled at competitive swimming — something only boys were...
Twins born to parsi couple, more births due: Jiyo Parsi
The twins have landed. Another eight arrivals are expected by the year-end. A central scheme that encourages Parsis to multiply has sired twins, in a double delight for the community whose numbers...
Nosh Mistry: Into Zanskar–The Ladakh Less Travelled
Nosh Mistry points us to a fantastic video of his motorcycling trip in remote Zanskar in Ladakh, Kashmir, India. Nosh writes “…..About the trip itself, it was absolutely unplanned. I wanted to visit...
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...
Buildings through the veteran lens
Catch the last day of photographer Aspi Patel’s show, Architecture Beyond Platitude, at the Jehangir Art Gallery, where he captures graphical patterns in architecture from across the world Article...
Netagiri By Cyrus Broacha: Book Review
Cyrus Broacha is a morning person. He also seems to be one of those people who have a plan for each day, a schedule they rigorously follow. Coming up against that side of his personality can be...
The Story of TATA By Peter Casey
The values at the heart of the Tata Group as well as the role played in its development by the philanthropic trusts that own two-thirds of the company are explored in a new book that is a brief...
Niloufer Ichaporia-King: Parsi cultural history served up on a plate
Scholar and author Niloufer Ichaporia King started writing an account of the disappearing Parsi culture and food traditions when her mother turned 90. The result is an engaging cookbook, “My Bombay...
New Bombay Zoroastrian Association Kick starts their Agiary Project
Sharukh Doctor, the President of the New Bombay Zoroastrian Association informs us The New Bombay Zoroastrian Association (NBZA) Kick starts their Agiary Project with the Bhomi Poojan offered by the...
Soprano Meher Pavri: In Conversation
Ashima Suri speaks to Indo-Canadian soprano, Meher Pavri. Born and raised in Canada, Meher Pavri is proud of her Indian heritage. In 2007, she was crowned Miss India-Canada and wowed the crowd with...
Dreams Come True: A Parsiana Editorial
Dreams come true Parsiana Editorial Viewpoint on New Zoroastrian Centers in the Diaspora In the 1970s as more formal Zoroastrian associations sprung up in North America (NA), the notion of having...
The Traditional Parsi Hadvaid
Abstract This article studies the heritage of the traditional hadvaid in the Parsi-Zoroastrian community and shows how this tradition pre-dates what the world today knows as chiropractic. The...
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...
Derangement takes on a scary dimension in Cyrus Mistry’s new book
Cyrus Mistry’s play Doongaji House (1977) won him the Sultan Padamsee Award, positioning him in the limelight when he was just 21. Despite this early claim to fame, Mistry has preferred to...
Life of Balance: Dhan and Jehangir Palkhivala
Dhan Palkhivala, 86, & Jehangir Palkhivala, 50 South Mumbai’s most famous Iyengar yoga exponents, Dhan and Jehangir Palkhivala on how the ancient art helped them change lives Article by...
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...
Architecture Beyond Platitude: Exhibition of Photography by Aspi Patel
We are happy to note that good friend of Parsi Khabar, Aspi H. Patel will be exhibiting his photographs at the famous Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai next week ‘ARCHITECTURE BEYOND PLATITUDE’...
Mahzarin Banaji: Zooming in on blind spots
On a recent Thursday evening at Deutsche Bank AG’s fourth annual Women in Asian Business Conference, over 800 corporate executives, largely bankers, discovered that they barely knew their own minds....
Zoroaster: The World’s First Bessemer Ship
Framroze K. Patel, good friend of Parsi Khabar sends us this very interesting article. Framroze writes “These days Alfred Noble is in news. You probably did not know that the world’s first Bessemer...
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....
Kappawalla Agiary: Appeal for Kathi Funds
Below is an appeal we received from Ervad Jamshed Bhesadia, the Panthaky Saheb of the Kappawalla Agiary in Tardeo, Mumbai; India As we are aware that to enable the Fire of Aatash Padshah to...
From Persia to Akbar’s Court: Google Cultural Institute Exhibit
Dr. Shernaz Cama; good friend of Parsi Khabar; and the powerhouse behind such Parsi institutions as the PARZOR Project, the Jiyo Parsi Scheme and the Zoroastrian Return to Roots Program informs us...
B. Merwan & Co. : No One Ever Asked Us.
Aashim Tyagi has some beautiful images of B. Merwan & Co. the most famous Irani café in Mumbai. At the start of the year there was a frenzy in Mumbai concerning the news that Merwan was closing...
Jiyo Parsi Scheme: Mumbai gets first Parsi Twins Under Government Scheme
The govt-funded scheme, Jiyo Parsi, comes as a welcome change as every new birth matters for the rapidly declining community Jyoti Shelar | Mumbai Mirror At a time when the government is promoting...
Dinyar Wadia Inducted into New England Design Hall of Fame
Architect Dinyar Wadia has been selected as one of the 2014 Inductees into the New England Design Hall of Fame. This award was created to honor the work of professionals who have made a significant...