Jini Dinshaw, violin virtuoso and founder of the Bombay Chamber Orchestra (BCO)—India’s oldest indigenous Western...
Blog Articles
Jini Dinshaw: A one-woman institution for whom music was life itself
Jini Dinshaw (1930-2025), the founder of the Bombay Chamber Orchestra – India’s oldest active Western classical...
Parsis And Our Cars
This is an old clip from UTV that exemplifies Parsis and their love for vintage cars.
Darius Karani and Manuka Gold Liqueur: Flavours to tempt Asian tastebuds
Only at the end of the interview does Indian New Zealander Darius Karani reveal this surprising fact: Auckland boasts the third-highest population of practising Zoroastrians in the world, outside...
Old Family Ties
“On hearing him say he loved her She felt like a fairy queen When all he meant in saying it Was that the grass in spring is green.” From The Songs of Sinbad by Bachchoo My great grandmother, Avabai...
Kobad Gandhy speaks from Tihar
A petite Mumbaikar, Anuradha Shanbag, captured the fancy of a tall, lanky, bespectacled young man, who had returned to Mumbai from London after a stay in jail. By Madhusree Chatterjee| IANS The man...
Jeejeebhoy Senior Citizen’s Centre Navsari
Here are two video clips about the Bai Manechbai P. B. Jeejeebhoy Senior Citizen’s Centre situated in Navsari Gujarat. Part 01.
Dokhmenashini Controversey
Noshir H. Dadrawala’s take on the Dokhmenashini controversey. Thanks for provoking me to respond on the latest controversy surrounding ?Dokhmenashini. I believe this controversy has a time cycle of...
Laughter In The House: Meher Marfatia On Parsi Theatre
That Sunday afternoon was as soggy with nostalgia as a khari biscuit dunked in chai. Fifty old troupers of Mumbai's Parsi stage had reunited to celebrate a new book, Laughter in the House. They met...
Has the genteel Mr Taraporewalla turned tapori?
The Parsis reeled from another dirty (and cyber) election war. Bachi Kakaria reports from the sidelines of the Inbox Insurgency Munchi Cama is not just the new replacement Trustee of the Bombay...
Parsi community has created modern India: Amitav Ghosh
The Parsi community is an amazing pool of talent, having created modern India as we know it, says one of the country's foremost novelists and chronicler Amitav Ghosh, who tails his Parsi...
The Nanavati Case
Kawas Manekshaw Nanavati vs. State of Maharashtra was a 1959 Indian court case where Nanavati, a Naval Commander, was tried for the murder of Prem Ahuja, his wife's lover. With Nanavati frequently...
Adi Modi: Obituary
Adi Modi, who died on June 27 aged 60, was general manager for more than 25 years of the Bombay Brasserie in London, Britain's first upmarket Indian restaurant. Published in the Telegraph UK A...
BPP Bypolls In the Aftermath: An Overview
The below is an Op-Ed by Mickie Sorabjee, regular contributor to Parsi Khabar and a good friend and well-wisher of the website. The moving hand writes and having written, moves on. The Fravashis of...
Mumbai Samachar MD wins Parsi elections
Muncherji Cama, the managing director of Asia’s oldest newspaper ‘Bombay Samachar’ has won the fiercely contested elections to choose a trustee in the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP). By Manoj R Nair |...
Muncherji Cama Wins BPP Bypolls
Muncherji Cama has been elected in the Bombay Parsi Punchayat bypolls to fill the seat left vacant on the resignation of one trustee. This result has been reported in various forums. At the end of...
The fun of being a Parsee
It lies in many things.... It's like belonging to an exclusive Club worldwide. Birth, the only credential and consideration; nothing, but nothing else works, no sirree! No waiting lists, no entrance...
Retirement home: Ratan Tata chooses elegance over extravagance
An elegant sea-facing house at Colaba is getting ready to welcome Ratan Tata, as he prepares to hand over the reigns of the salt-to-steel-to-software business group to his successor. The house, yet...
Zubin Mehta: Variations of Happy Birthday
Zubin Mehta's variations on the theme of "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" He conducts the orchestra to play the Happy Birthday song in the style of the following composers: Bach, Mozart, Beethoven,...
High stakes at an ill-tempered Parsi election
Universal adult franchise may seem a grand term to attach to 8,000 voters. But apply this figure to the diminutive Parsi community, and it looks significant. Over the past two weeks, Parsis have...
Violence at Election Time: Unbecoming of a Parsi
UPDATE 02: Find below an email from Viraf Mehta, son of Trustee Dinshaw Mehta, giving a detailed account of what transpired. It also contains the scans of the NC filed with the Byculla Police...
Tata becomes India’s wealthiest group
India's Tata Group has become the country's wealthiest, with a market value higher than the combined wealth of the two Reliance conglomerates. The combined value of the Reliance groups, led by...
Patuck Polytechnic Trust: Educational Institute
How many of us Parsis know that there is a reputed school and college of commerce and management in Mumbai, which provides free education to Parsi students? As a minority community institution 50%...
Youngster Jehan Daruwala to race for the CIK-FIA Trophy
Mumbai resident Jehan Daruvala, 12, will become the first Indian to participate in the CIK-FIA Karting Academy Trophy, which has been a breeding ground for Formula 1 world champions like Ayrton...
In Tihar, Kobad Ghandy traces his Parsi roots
As a communist ideologue, Kobad Ghandy rarely showed any interest in Parsi community issues. But in Delhi’s Tihar jail, where he has been imprisoned for nearly two years, Ghandy is reading about the...
Bangalore’s only fire temple is being slowly smoked out
It was built in 1926, and the Bangalore Parsee Zoroastrian Anjuman (BPZA) is keen to preserve the sanctity of the only fire temple in the city, now uncomfortably located at a busy intersection, en...
Campaign frenzy at its peak for Parsi punchayet by-polls
With the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) by-elections set to begin next week, the four candidates vying for the vacant seat on the board of trustees are aggressively wooing the community. In the past...
Vivan Bhathena: Cine Artist
Blessed with boyish good looks, this 32-year-old has some movies and TV roles to his credit, but he feels it's not enough. "The craving for good parts will always be there. Though my career s...
BPP Candidature: Advocacy over Meritocracy
It is with regret that I have to mention that the BPP is heading in the wrong direction. I say this after I read articles in Free Press and Jame Jamshed proposing Anahita Desai for BPP Trusteeship...
Dr. Mehroo Bengalee Cries Foul Over Endorsing Candidate for BPP Elections
The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) elections always seem to have some talking point. And this time, it is a letter one rival group is using to bring down the other. By Ashutosh Shukla | DNA India The...
Aspi Damania: Home-Tutor Par Excellence
School students in Powai and particularly in Hiranandani are well familiar with the name of 'Damania Sir'. He has been giving private tuitions and guiding youngsters in Powai for the last twelve...
Dr. Homi Bhabha: Let There Be computing
Homi J Bhabha is famous as the founder of India’s nuclear establishment, but he also enabled India’s IT success. Rajeev Anantaram on a survey of the computer industry that is also a paean to its...
Bachi Karkaria: Blindly into the abyss
The Parsis have been in the news for the wrong reasons. The fractious case which arose from the Bombay Parsi Punchayet's 2009 ban on two priests continues to make headlines. Earlier this month, a...
Parsi election to be an expensive affair
The election for a single vacant seat for the position of trustee of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) is set to be an expensive affair. With no code of conduct in place, estimates are that the poll...
BPP or Desai Mistry Mistree & Associates
The below is an Op-Ed by regular reader and good friend of Parsi Khabar, Mickie Sorabjee. After baiting and rubbing him the wrong way during the watershed 2008 Bombay Parsee Punchayet elections and...
Bombay Parsi Punchayet bypolls from June 19
The Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) will hold its by-elections for filling an empty position on its six-member board of trustees on the weekends between June 19 and July 3. The position has been vacant...
HPY: Grooming Parsi youth for college life
Dubai resident Mahfrin Wadia could have travelled anywhere for her summer holidays, but the 16-year-old Parsi had decided months ago that she would spend all of May in Mumbai. Wadia finished her...
Understanding Parsi Population Decline: Video and text now available
Below is an email received from Dinyar Patel. Dinyar writes As many of you know, I recently gave at talk at the Nehru Centre in Mumbai on the topic of "Understanding Parsi Population Decline: A...
Cyrus Pishevar: Teen Web Innovator in Silicon Valley
Palo Alto's Cyrus Pishevar, 13, is one of Silicon Valley's second generation of Web innovators—teens who grew up online, watching and feeding the rise of Facebook and other nearby ventures By...
Dahanu Road: Three generations of Parsis, their secrets and fond dreams
Anosh Irani’s third novel Dahanu Road is a comprehensive account of a family of Iranian Zoroastrians who migrated to India before World War II. The story is a mix of historic encounters, family...
Godrej Typewriters: End of the Road
Just Not My Type Godrej and Boyce to shut typewriter production Godrej and Boyce silenced the click-ding of its iconic typewriter last week. The company stopped production at its last typewriter...
Parsis: A diminishing race
A Houston-based research student has written a paper discussing the causes for, and a solution to, the dwindling numbers of the Parsi community around the world By Priyal Dave | Afternoon DC “To all...
Intermarriage row must be resolved soon
It's not so much the elephant in the room, no one wants to acknowledge, but rather the unicorn they all imagine-that the global Parsi population isn't so desperately in decline, but that it has...
The Parsi Punchayet case: The imperative of inclusiveness
The judgement of the Bombay High Court in Jamsheed Kanga versus Parsi Punchayet Funds and Properties, has raised a big controversy within the Parsi community. Much of the controversy is due to...
Parsis get new community newspaper
The Parsi-Zoroastrians, who have a vibrant community press, have got their latest newspaper. On Saturday, free copies of the first issue of the weekly, Parsi Times, reached many homes. By Manoj R...
Lecture: Understanding Parsi Population Decline in India: A Historical Perspective
Friend of Parsi Khabar , Dinyar Patel shall be giving a talk titled “Understanding Parsi Population Decline in India: A Historical Perspective”. If you are in Mumbai this Saturday evening, this is a...
Insider trading
It had been a long day. Nina Godiwalla had stumbled home from a bar after work, and collapsed in bed. But she was wide awake in a few hours. She needed to talk to someone, be with someone. Her...
The First Vendidad Sade and Baj in North America
The First Vendidad Sade and Baj in NA at a Dar-e-Meher Inauguration, and Enthronement of Dadgah in the ZANT Brand New Built From Scratch ZCNT (Zoroastrian Center of North Texas) April 29-30 2011! By...
Speak Your Mind: Open Thread
This is the very first time we are trying this idea. This is an open thread for discussion. Speak your mind. Anything and everything, topical or off-topic can be discussed in the comments. No...
The Art of Longevity
My father is 89 and he's in reasonably good health," says Dr Villoo Morawala Patell, founder and chairperson of the biotechnology company, Avesthagen, in Bangalore. Her father is among an...
Godrej & Boyce shuts world’s last typewriter facility
More than 140 years after the first typewriter was sold commercially in Europe, the epitaph for the writing machine is finally being digitally recorded on millions of PCs across the world. To...
One of Ratan’s biggest achievements is the way he has unified the Tata Group
JRD Tata announced the appointment of Ratan Tata as the Chairman of Tata Sons on 25 March 1991. Two weeks later, on 5 April, I met JRD just as he was going to Europe for his angioplasty procedure...