The Parsi community has reason to be pleased as FD Alpaiwalla Museum near Hughes Road opened after a spell of...
Mumbai Articles
Vintage Zoroastrian Bikers of Bombay: Parsi Bikers With An Insane Vintage Bike Collection
Parsis have a unique connection with their motorcycles, treating them like family and keeping them in pristine...
Out of this world: Bombay Theosophical Society
The Bombay Theosophical Society turns 129 today. Kareena N Gianani pays a visit Blavatsky Lodge at Grant Road doesn’t quite echo the enthusiasm of its ex-president and a much-respected speaker, Keki...
44 Parsis allotted houses at new board’s first meet
The newly-elected Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trust allotted houses to 44 Parsis at its first board meeting held on Tuesday. The new trustees were of the view that 44 of the 90 cases that were...
Tales from Cusrow Baug
by ShwetaTeotia Posted online: Oct 26, 2008 at 0205 hrs A peek into the Parsi bastion in Colaba, which is out of bounds for most Mumbaikars On Colaba Causeway, there is a place that intrigues the...
Mehli Mehta centenary birth celebrations to begin tomorrow
MUMBAI: Western classical music lovers in the city are in for a treat as a week-long festivity, to mark the birth centenary of conductor Mehli Mehta, will commence on Tuesday with his son Zubin...
The Parsis of South Bombay
By Aakar Patel No Indian community internalised the civilising mission of the British as did the Parsis. Only 50,000 remain, mainly in South Bombay, the most disciplined and cultured part of India....
Ring in the Symphony
By Anil Dharker Zubin Mehta will be in Mumbai again this month and whichever orchestra he brings with him and whatever music they play, the frenzy is always the s ame. For a lot of Mumbaikars (and...
Parsi Landmarks of SoBo
Clamber on for a tour of three Parsi landmarks in the heart of SoBo, each with an interesting story to tell. Mithila Mehta gets you the details Cusrow baug and its interiors The Parsi community in...
Alls Well: Bhikha Behram Well in Fort Mumbai
The Parsi community may not be the biggest in terms of numbers, but when it comes to culture and heritage they have plenty to offer. The Bhika Behram Well in Fort, a Grade I heritage structure, is...
BPP elections: Charges fly thick and fast
As reported in the TOI The tension underlining the Bombay Parsi Punchayat elections finally blew up on Tuesday when a meeting called by the BPP dissolved into pandemoniumthe gathered candidates and...
A House in a Baug
by Manoj R Nair – Mumbai Mirror – 02 Sept, 2008. Bombay Parsi Punchayet will allot more than 70 flats of the trust to members of the Parsi-Zorastrian community who are on the wait-list...
Fire temples burn bright
47 Parsi fire temples have finally made it to the heritage list. Labonita Ghosh looks at the struggle that led to this and some of the more unique agiaries that will find protection from rapacious...
Bye bye to the baklava
The food here was legendary with more than a hundred dabbas going out every day. But the authentic Parsi flavour, and ‘no-nonsense’ Parsi ladies have gone missing from the Ratan Tata Institute,...
ZOCHILD Day 2008
The 6th ZOCHILDAY is scheduled for Sunday, 30th November, 2008. Events have been planned at Shanmukhananda Hall and at Cama Baug, Khetwadi. If interested in participating, forms for registration...
Parsi punchayat gears up for polls
Otherwise known to be a genteel people, the Parsi community is likely to witness mud-slinging, name-calling and character assassination over the next two months as the 350-year-old Bombay Parsi...
The Harbour That Gave the Name ‘Bombay’ to Mumbai
Mumbai harbour has been the gateway to the world for commerce and travel since the British took control of the island city from the Portuguese in 1660s. However, the group of seven islands acquired...
Heritage status: Parsis pen support for BMC’s plan
The development plan department of the BMC has received nearly 3,000 letters from Zoroastrians all over the world in support of an official proposal to list the 47 fire temples in the city under the...
Sat with the Dead
All Zera, 85, had in the world was her 65-year-old nephew, Homi Kaku. The latter, who was suffering from diabetes and gangrene, died on Saturday night. With no relative to inform about his death,...
The Parsis October Revolution
Those Russians call it double – 10 from 10th October, when the Tsars were overthrown. We, Parsis, will call it the October Revolution. When a frustrated, fed up, angry, exasperated, irate, end...
Zubin Mehta to perform in Mumbai
World-renowned music conductor Zubin Mehta will hold a charity concert at the Brabourne stadium in October. The Mehli Mehta Foundation, founded in 1995 in memory of Zubin's father, confirmed...
The pages of history: J. N. Petit Library
The staff of the JN Petit, home to 150,000 titles, do more than just take care of books If you can’t remember the last time you visited a heritage library, you are not alone. Edged out by modern...
Yazdani Bakery
Here is a wonderful video of Yazdani Bakery, one of the last few bakeries of its kind left in Bombay
Vulture Culture
This is a youtube video about the Parsis of Bombay and the issues that face the community today. If the video does not show, please click here
Voting rights? But whom do we choose?
Ask Parsi youth, who want to know whether issues like housing will be resolved MUMBAI: Last week, the High Court passed a judgment, one that would in many ways shake the age-old hierarchy of the...
Brabourne Restaurant: Death of an Eatery
Cities are complex entities. They provide shelter for different communities who, over the years, generate their own sub-cultures, shops, markets and restaurants. This collection of sub-cultures can...
All Parsis Can Now Vote in Parsi Panchayat Elections
Every Parsi, over the age of 18 years, will now have a vote in deciding the future of the Parsi community. In a significant judgment, Bombay High Court on Wednesday entrusted the process of electing...
Eeda Par Agiary
Eggs and toddy jars for a fire temple? The good-life-loving Parsis are not finicky about mixing the sacred and the secular. Still, I was intrigued by the E&T detail in Nauzer Bharucha’s...
Fire temple enters its 300th year
24 Apr 2008, 0434 hrs IST,Nauzer Bharucha,TNN MUMBAI: For the past few centuries, they have been one of Mumbai’s most important religious and architectural landmarks. On Thursday, the...
Thana Parsee Zoroastrian Anjuman Wins Court Battle
Received via an email comminique From: pervezbhesania Subject: Another victory to savour: The mail: To, All Zoroastrians of Thana, We have a phenomenal piece of news to share with you once again. As...
Making statues smile
Statues make it to the news in Mumbai mostly when miscreants use them to stoke trouble in the city. At other times, they stand on busy road junctions or watch dusty playgrounds, derelict and often...
New Construction Near Doongerwadi
A proposal to build a multi-storey residential building near the Towers of Silence on Malabar Hill has caused concern among a section of Parsis. They worry that residents of the upper floors of...
Khada Parsi may stand elsewhere
Away from the noise and pollution in Byculla, BMC plans to shift the century-old statue to Five Gardens The landmark Khada Parsi statue may find a new home at Five Gardens near Dadar. The statue now...
A conversation with Kekoo Gandhi
We explore the avant-garde Progressive Art Group as veteran art collector Kekoo Gandhy unearths its history Many art veterans believe that the formation of the ‘Progressive Art Group’ is one of the...
Is Mumbai Really Secular ?
Lawmakers may have given Mumbaikars a loud speaker deadline of 10 pm, but I guess laws are meant to be broken. True there have been cases wherein Mumbai’s event organisers never cross the set time...
Parsi fascination
I first went to Bombay when I was 14 or 15. An uncle worked for an antique store inside the Taj, then the grandest hotel in India, and lived in a rented flat in Bandra. The journalistic offerings of...
The battle of Mumbai
Original article by Deepak Lokhande in the Mid-Day Should I be wasting another 400 words on what went on in our city during the last week? I should. For over two weeks, the city remained hostage to...
Migrants, your grunts, everyone’s stunts
by Bachi Karkaria in the Times of India I cannot promise to raise a statue of Shivaji in Dadar Parsi Colony. But, in the ultimate cultural surrender, I hereby change my surname to Karkare. Many...
Bombay central
by Haseena Jethmalani in the Indian Express. Come December and I await invitations from our Parsi friends with bated breath. For me, it’s more about the food, though the bhonu is to die for and the...
No identity crisis
There was a time when Parsi businessmen and industrialists from Mumbai preferred to employ the ‘Marathi manoos’ in their offices, for he was hard-working, sincere and honest. He had respect for...
Freewheeling for a cause: Parsi Bike Rally Mumbai 2008
For the Parsi community in the city, Sunday was Bawas’ day out on bikes. Hundreds of Parsis, both young and those young-at-heart raced their way on their motorcycles from Dadar Parsi colony to...
Migrants are Mumbai’s shapers, not its shame
By Bachi Karkaria, Jug Suraiya’s Second Opinion (January 4) may be dead-on in blaming India’s ersatz modernity for what happened in Mumbai , but it is way off the mark in also damning...
Parsi Bike Rally in Mumbai
Watch out for the Parsi bikers as they criss-cross through the city on January 6 for peace. Organised by the Parsi Resource Group, the rally will begin from the Dadar Parsi Gymkhana. The...
Architect Jimmy Mistry: The high of creativity
Maverick architect Jimmy Mistry is an accidental architect who loves the freedom that hospitality design offers him. There are some things you don’t want to know about your architect. Such as a...
Godrej is all set to unlock greater value in Mumbai
The Godrej business group recently commissioned a London marketing agency to redesign its brand image. The aim was to dust down the dowdy Godrej of Almira cupboards to something smarter befitting...
Bawas of Bambai rejoice!
The objective of the event was to bring the youth together, put the community resources to use and give the young blood a platform to a world of opportunities. Architect Jimmy Mistry’s NGO...
Powai’s ‘Parsi’ Connection
Originally published on PLANET POWAI [Article Link] The renowned site where Powai Lake stands known as Framaji Kavasji was Powai Estate. It was in 1890 that the Britishers dug out the lake at a cost...
FTII Award for Parsi Themed Film
Parsi Wada, Tarapore — Present Day, a film that talks about the present and future of the Parsi community in Mumbai, has won cameraman Paramvir Singh the award for Best Cinematography (Rajat...
Parsi Food Hub In Bandra
With a municipal vegetable market (Pali Market) nearby and lined with grocery stores, this road is also rather active during the day. After a hard day’s shopping for groceries, people often...
Why gatecrash a Bawa lagan? Parsi bhonu…
The minute you told someone you were Parsi, they’d crib about how they never got invited to Bawa weddings, their only chance at nirvana after downing Patra ni Machchi. The load on our...
Bambai ka Bawajis!
‘We bawas live in a different world of our own.’ Food, fun and farehghat. Three words that get every Parsi in the mood. Especially on Parsi New Year. After atoning for the wrongs done in...
How safe is Bombay, really?
By Shernaaz Engineer | Thursday, July 26, 2007 11:21:37 IST Most women have developed a defence mechanism by which they know how to deal with this… Certainly, by most accounts, Bombay is a...