Karachi’s history does not reside merely in its buildings, its roads, or the long curve of its shoreline. It lives in...
Opinion Articles
Why the Parsi community is fading away| From the India Today archives
This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated September 27, 2004 The wooden steps leading to...
Dwindling population in Navsari, Mecca of Parsis
Navsari, once a sleepy town with magnificent buildings, sprawling lawns and wide roads but is fast turning into a ghetto Kersi K Deboo’s eyes light up when he starts talking about the Parsi...
Sanaya Dalal: A Parsi Woman’s Perspective On Being Denied Basic Rights
“You knew what you were getting into.” “A child inherits his father’s name and religion, not his mother’s.” “Women with non-Parsi spouses will have their...
Farrukh Dhondy: An open letter to my fellow Parsis
In his words: “I am just a professional writer, which means I don’t do blogs and try and get money for whatever I write.” The Parsis gathered in numbers at this well as it is...
Many think Parsis are a model minority. Are they?
Debates over the Uniform Civil Code usually zero in on one kind of personal law: Muslim matrimonial law. What gets less airtime is Parsi matrimonial law. We assume that it lacks the gender...
Honour or Undermine: Your Choice
When I read ‘This is how USA treats Indian Military Veterans’ by Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi in the May 2017 issue of “Fauji India”, I could not help but write about the experiences of my...
An Iranian Holiday That’s Perfect for Americans
As a little girl in Iran, I loved Nowruz, the first day of spring, known as the Persian New Year. It was the only time when grown-ups seemed joyful and full of hope. Even my most morose relatives...
Dr. Roshni Rustomji and the Diversity of Karachi
Dr. Roshni Rustomji-Kerns, a renowned author, was nine years old in 1947. She lived in a building full of diverse tenants, in a Parsi family that espoused the ideals of acceptance, integration and...
Jame Response on the Recent Happenings
The below is an Op-Ed piece sent to us by Shernaz Engineer, Editor Jam-e-Jamshed Shernaz writes… Four BPP trustees proposed a “ban” on the Jam-e-Jamshed on June 28, 2016, to which several pages of...
Noshir Dadrawala’s Open Letter to Jam-e-Jamshed Weekly
Below is an open letter by Noshir Dadrawala, a current trustee of the Bombay Parsi Panchayet, addressed to the Jam-e-Jamshed newspaper Open Letter to the Editor of Jam-e-Jamshed Weekly They say, for...
Dasturji Peshotan Mirza: Obituary by Dinyar Patel
The passing of Dasturji Peshotan Mirza has been a loss on many fronts. We have lost a high priest who helped sustain the spiritual needs of the community, took an active part in our religious...
Open Letter to the Editor of Jame Jamshed
Below is a reader submitted open letter to the Editor of Jame Jamshed. Dear Ms Shernaz Engineer, I am a reader and well-wisher of Jame Jamshed our grand 184 year old newspaper. The 5 pages dedicated...
Reminiscing Memories of Three Parsi Stalwarts we lost in last three months
It is hard to believe that we have lost three of our Parsi commuity’s esteemed luminaries – internationally acclaimed Neurolgist Dr Noshir Wadia on 10th April 2016, renowned Advocate & Solicitor...
In Memoriam: Dasturji Peshotan Dasturji Hormazdyar Mirza
Our dear friend Ervad Soli Dastur wrote a very personal piece on the passing away of Vada Dasturji Mirza. We are sharing the article here with his permission. Ervad Soli Dastur writes… As all of you...
Lord Karan Bilmoria’s Speech in the aftermath of BREXIT
The 23rd of June was not Independence Day for Britain; it was the day the UK shot itself in the foot. The UK economy has been going so well after an awful recession, but we have a fragile recovery...
A box of tissues for Mr. Jehangir Patel please!
Yesterday we published an editorial by Jehangir Patel titled “A Parsi Trupti Please”. Below is a rebuttal to the same by Ervad Marzban J. Hathiram, Editor of Frashogard The ubiquity of...
A Parsi Trupti, please
Parsi women have tolerated discrimination for over a century, and there’s no-one to fight for them. Trupti Desai’s efforts to seek equality between the sexes in matters of worship have...
Speaking Tree: Ahura Mazda Ahura Mazda
Threads of Continuity — an exhibition on philosophy and culture of Zoroastrians in India is currently on in Delhi. MONA MEHTA reports on what she learnt about the Parsis from the show Half way...
Anu Aga says she doesn’t favour reservation for Parsis
Former chairperson of Thermax Industries and parliamentarian Anu Aga says it would be unfair for her Parsi community to seek reservation. “We have not faced generations of discrimination and...
Parsis bitterly divided when they should be multiplying
Our Persian empires, our fabled fortunes during the British Raj, the drum-roll of greats, all this and high praise from the PM too. The Everlasting Flame Programme (March 19-May 29) in Delhi on...
The Achaemenids At Ankleshwar
As the Everlasting Flame exhibition gets ready to make its India debut on March 19th in New Delhi, we bring you a critique of the original exhibition in London in 2013. The Achaemenids At...
Dara Rivetna: My Sojourn At Navsari
My dear wife Dinsoo passed away at the WZO Trust Funds Senior Citizens Centre at Navsari on 24th December 2015 around 7 am. EXPERIENCES OF MY SOJOURN AT NAVSARI By Dara M. Rivetna, Chicago. I...
We’re Zoroastrians first
Often, during first-time meetings with non-Zoroastrians, when I identify myself as a ‘Zoroastrian’, I get a puzzled look in response. When I say ‘Parsi’, they ease up and smile and promptly quote a...
Let’s Agree to Disagree with Darius: Noshir Dadrawala
If I were to adapt Mark Antony’s speech in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones”, in contest to the recently...
Parsi beloved community of India
Man, I love Parsis. And director and photographer Sooni bawaji, the term of respect for an older Taraporevala in her charming lm Little Zizou. Bombay, the city I was born and raised in, was built on...
Parsiana Editorial Viewpoint on Bombay Parsi Panchayet Elections
Yes, No, Can’t say Parsiana, Editorial Viewpoint, Issue Date: 07-Oct-2015 Covering a Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trusteeship election with 23 candidates (two dropped out on September 30) vying for...
Nisaba Godrej: The ‘ovarian lottery’
Why you don’t need to wait till you’re a grandparent, to start passing it forward Disclaimer: I’m not a philanthropist. Not by the conventional definition anyway—that to fit (and foot) the bill, you...
There’s something about Parsis
Hindi films that churn the box-office mill have never been known to be kind to the diversity of the country’s culture. Without losing much sweat you will find the money-minting Gujarati, the...
House of Fire: Can India’s Parsis survive their own success?
Fali Madon was looking for a bride. A boyish twenty-seven-year-old with twin passions for physical fitness and expensive cars, Fali was the chief priest of a Parsi fire temple in the Colaba district...
Parsi Mumbai: The Legacy of Zoroastrianism in India’s Urban Fabric
An Iranian visitor can’t help but notice the Zoroastrian symbols that dominate old Mumbai. In the historic Fort District toward the southern end of this metropolis of twenty million souls,...
Provoking the Parsi to procreate: Why I am rooting for Sam Balsara’s ad campaign
In the early 1970s, one of the oil majors – I forget which one – ran an outdoor campaign with a headline that screamed, “Save that drop of oil – or walk to your destination 20 years from now.”...
Nat Geo Parsi: Rahul Da Cunha
And so I’m sitting in Albless Baug at a Navjote — (for the unintiated, that’s the Parsi thread ceremony to initiate little Perizaads and Khushrus into Zoroastrianism). In this case, my hearty,...
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...
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...
Dear Najmaji, I have a plan to save Parsis
The below is an article written by Farrukh Dhondy. Unlike the Dodo, we are not being killed and eaten. Parsis are probably the only species on Earth who are doomed to extinction through our own...
Opposing forces find each other: Jim Taylor
Ancient Zoroaster got a few things right. Zoroaster, whose name was probably closer to Zarathustra before the Greeks tinkered with it, lived in eastern Persia about 2,000 years before Christ. He’s...
Outside the homeland, inside the community?
From Mumbai to Toronto, Parsi identity is no simple matter The Parsi story starts with an exodus. My ancestors left Persia a thousand years ago, fleeing religious persecution, and finding a new home...
Why Parsis are India’s finest citizens: Aakar Patel
I’m delighted a Parsi has taken over this week from Ratan Tata as head of Asia’s greatest corporation. I have strong feelings in this matter but I don’t think they come from prejudice. That would...
Jerry Pinto: The Parsis
In the 1970s, Victoria High School, Mahim, was a melting pot, as state-aided Roman Catholic schools tended to be. The majority of the students were Hindu, the second largest group was the...
Parsis and Jews, Exile and Return
At the turn of the 16th century, the Portuguese discovered an eastern passage to India that afforded them easy access to well-priced goods and to India’s natural wonders and human curiosities. ...
Dinshaw Tamboly: Decline of the Parsee Community In India
The Parsees, a proud community, having impressive resources, is perhaps one of the smallest communities in India if not the smallest. As per the 2001 Census of India the number of Parsee’s in India...
Khushwant Singh: The Parsis have given India more than others have
I crave my readers’ forgiveness for my eccentricity. I believed that at long last I had found the right-sized condom for my pen and would produce no more. I have been proved wrong. Either it did not...
A Wish List for 1380 Yz
The following is an article by Ervad Marzban J. Hathiram on Frashogard.com On 16th June, 632 AD, Yazdegard, son of Shaharyar ascended the throne of Iran as the 29th King of the Sassanian dynasty. As...
Ta-Ta to TATA
When Apro Ratan goes, can doom be far behind? By Bachi Karkaria / TNN Bomsie surveyed the pall of gloom which hung over Mumbai’s Dadar Parsi Colony. "Eh, Kawsie," he said, "Soo...
Two eyes, two ears, one mouth
There needs to be a willingness among people of every faith to sit with someone of a different religion and listen. By Cyrus Bahrassa /Student Life I am going to be skeptical and assume you’ve never...
Ervad Mody: Show the strong will to survive
About 100 Parsis were on Sunday reminded again of the need to show the will for survival. The message was communicated to them by one of the most learned members of the community, Ervad Navad Modi....
Nina Godiwalla: A Zoroastrian’s walk through Wall Street
“What?!” is usually the response I get when I explain I’m Zoroastrian. It’s that vocabulary word you may have learned in your seventh-grade history class when you read about...
The Zarathushtra Effect
His admirers claim he was the first to teach monotheism, the existence of heaven and hell and the final triumph of good over evil. Plato and Aristotle revered his wisdom. Raphael included him among...
Diaspora: A Talk by Khojeste Mistree
What the Diaspora can do for India and what India can do for the Diaspora A talk given by Khojeste P Mistree at the 10th World Zoroastrian Congress, Dubai on 31st December 2009 Good Morning Ladies...
Small Yet Significant
The Parsi community in the city continues to play a vital role in the field of education and business Indian Express While the dictionary defines them as members of Zoroastrian origin who came to...
Thinking Big
In the 10th century, a group of Zoroastrians arrived from Iran on the shores of Gujarat, India, and sought refuge in the kingdom of Jadi Rana in Sanjan. An oft-told tale then describes a meeting...