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Zoroastrian Teachings on a carpet at the Dariush Hotel, Kish Island, Iran

Some time back I received this interesting email from a friend and wanted to share with the readers.

This is the picture of a beautiful and interesting carpet hanging on the wall of
the reception area of Dariush Hotel, Kish Island, Iran. Kish lies between UAE
& Iran. Until 20years was barren and disputed territory.”

It does look very real. However, I personally do not know how
authentic it is and you can put it up with a disclaimer. The carpet itself
cannot be very old since it contains an English translation-and that too in
modern Englis-not the old world English. What I liked was that it reflects the
noble and liberal thoughts of a great Parsi.

The English translation seems to be very similar to something similar I believe is scribed in stone by King Cyrus somewhere else in Iran as well.

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Rebel Parsis ready with agiary plan

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As always an email from a well wisher got this story to us. Did not see it posted anywhere except “Mumbai Mirror” so posting here.

It could be an event quite unprecedented in the 3000-year-old history of the Zoroastrian religion. A group of reformists in the community, called the Association for Revival of Zoroastrianism (ARZ), are planning to set up an agiary or fire temple that will be open to spouses of community members married outside the fold.

For the complete story click on the Mumbai Mirror link.

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Plight of Zoroastrians living in Sanatoriums all over Mumbai India

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Woke up this morning and saw this email in our inbox sent by one of our readers. While the email was forwarded a few times below is the content from the seed email that started the thread.

I’m a little confused on this topic so posting here to see what the community thinks. On the one hand this email describes the sad plight of the folks living in these sanatoriums and the hardships that are facing for close to 15 years. However on the other hand the skeptic in us raises the question that are some of these folks trying to take advantage of the current situation and contorting the original puspose of these sanatoriums to stay put at a low low rent and fianlly hoping to get a part of this prime property pseudo-attached to their name.

Should the Panchayat make it their highest priority to ensure that all families currently residing in sanatoriums in Mumbai are given a residence in some parsi colony in Mumbai and then return these sanatoriums back to their original purpose of being convalesce homes for the community?

Would the current residents of these sanatoriums be open to such a move?

From personal experiences I know that there are some very needy aged folks in these sanatoriums that definitely need to be taken care of by the community and then there are some able bodied folks in these sanatoriums who are more of a migrant population from out of state who used the sanatorium as a place to stay when they landed in Bombay years ago and have never moved on. Instead they got into this game of spending 6months here and then 6months somewhere else.

In either case we feel that the Panchayat needs to do something constructive to help these folks get out their current situation. After all the panchayat is elected for the welfare of the community and to take care of its resources and these folks are part of the community.

Tell us what you think.

*********************************************HELP US WE ARE HUMANS, TODAY EVEN DOGS HAVE RIGHTS !!!!

One and all Parsees of the world I know it has been almost 5 years that we wrote to you all. But what to do, we have no one who would listen to our problems and day by day things are getting worse in the premises of the S.B.Bhabha Sanatorium situated at Bandra Bandstand, Mumbai..

I will still give you a brief on what the lives of 46 Parsee families is like (we are talking of about over 100 people) We were given rooms in the sanatorium for 4 months and extended by another 4 months by the Bhabha’s so total 8 months, then we were to pack up our entire homes and load them in trucks and go to the F.B. Petit Sanatorium located at Kemps Corner. Children studying in schools, colleges, people working in different areas all had to do this (there are families who are doing this for the past 16 to 20 years). The most saddest part is that most of the children didn’t get admissions because their parents had no residential proof like ration cards, voter’s Id, telephone connections, LPG connections etc. But some- how on request they would manage to put their children in schools. Another most important thing is that being Indian Citizens all 108 people (that includes 30 senior citizens ageing from 60 to 80 years) have not casted their votes for the past several years. We were not allowed to bring fridge, TV, or even an extra fan in our rooms, the reason was because we do not pay the electrical bill. But the truth is that in our rent receipts we pay Rs 100 for a month for every electronic item we get.(so 4 items would be Rs.400) In the year 2000 it was our turn to go to the Petit Sanatorium but it so happened that the Petit was under renovation since they built a 25 storied Petit Tower in which the flats cost in Crores and is occupied by rich NRI’s and also Non Parsees So we were asked to share a 350 sq ft room between two families by Late Mrs. Siloo Kavarana. We refused. How can our mother, wife or daughter feel comfortable with another man in the room, so we had no other option but to live where we were. (streets was the only option). The Trustees filed cases against us stating that we were trespassers and that this is a convalescent home (our reply to this was that if it was a convalescent home then why for the past 20 years the same Parsee families where given the rooms and that too no fixed rent, some would pay Rs 300 and some Rs 2000/- a month which had to be paid in advance for four months. Is our salary given in advance ? Any ways, a few families who had no money to pay the lawyers left we don’t know where they are today probably on the streets. But those who were strong stayed and are still fighting against the Panchyat who are the so called care-takers of this property. Even when they don’t have money to feed their families they have to pay for the lawyers.

The BPP hired a security of 40 guards and they would traumatize us to leave the premises. We have had hand fights with them (and have several NC’s in the Bandra Police station) but as usual money rules and we were told that it being a Civil matter they could not do any thing to help us. We were given water for only 15 minutes a day the electricity was shut down from 10 in the morning to 6 in the evening, our room were leaking with tons of water in the rainy season and we would get electrical shocks since the building is very old and has no earthling and every day there would be shot-curkits in one or the other rooms, the toilets where so unhygienic worse then the municipal toilets and all the swage use to over flow from the pipes, the water is yellow in colour and stinks (we have samples) so that people fall ill and cannot afford medical expenses because as it is they had stopped all the charities given by the various trust to the residence of the Sanatorium I am sure the people who had left the donations had not told them to be unjust to the Bhabha people. Well, we requested the BPP to do the repairs but they degraded us and told us to get out of the premises they said beggers cannot be choosers and also told us that we will be soon thrown out on the streets with their money power and their contacts . Then we requested them that if they were not willing to do the repairs they should allow us to do so but they stopped all the laborers that we got by paying their daily wages and would bribe the cops to come and scare the workers and did not allow us to do the repairs.

Then the manager Mr Dhanjishaw Jesia stopped accepting our rent so we all decided to do a registered Ad and send it directly to Mr Sorabji Bhabha residence in Colaba but after a day it came back (we have the slip of the register Ad)and then in the Court the lawyer said that we aren’t paying the rent.

The atrocities didn’t stop there every day after work some thing or the other had to happen the guards were given weapons to terrify us every 15 minutes, they would look into our homes when they pass-by (we have chawl system in one of the building and pass comments on our wife and children.. Then one day the main gate was locked and old people who could not climb 85 steps to reach their homes were made to get down from the rickshaw and walk (people who had rods in their legs). ARE WE LIVING IN A ZOO THAT THE GATE IS LOCKED?

Eventually one day the court gave the judgment in our favor Judge Batkar understood our condition and told the Panchyat to let us stay where we are. But the BPP filled the case in the High Court. Then about 7 months back the BPP appointed two new managers called Mr Temton Gowadia and his wife ,he told us that he had paid the BPP Rs 20 lakhs to get a flat in Panthaki Baug but due to the stay the building is not constructed so the BPP gave him two rooms of about 1500 sq in the sanatorium and a salary of about 12000/- as interest. Please note that he already owns a 2 bedroom flat in Goregaon - Nirlon Colony and his wife is working for a BPO in Malad and earns about 25000 to 30,000 a month then how can she do 2 jobs? He also has two sons working in BPO’s

He also claims to be a Dastoor and goes and performs house warming and other rituals and gets additional income. But to add to all this Dastoorji applies in Charities and also gets stags of food grain from the Trust So a man whose income in about 60,000/- a month gets 2 rooms in the Sanatorium with complete renovation which includes English toilet, 24 hours water supply, painting and plastering, fridge TV and to top it up get charity Whow!! Dasturgee WA !!WA!! Panchyat.

The story doesn’t end hear he started going into houses with 4 guards and started threatening the old and docile inmates to vacate the room in the next 1 month or else he would call Gundas and throw them out (an old man of 82 years and a lady who lives alone) does our Zoroastrian religion teach us to ill-treat the old and the poor? The reason he does all this is because he has support by the Panchyat’s the Eagle Security’s head Mr Manakshaw Ex ACP of Bombay, so the police in turns helps him. There are a few inmates who are married to non Parsees so they are threatened every day that they will be thrown out (old and young) Aren’t all the Parsee colonies having cosmopolitan wives? Why don’t the BPP remove them? What a shame being Parsees Mr Manekshaw, Mr Gowadia and the Trustees of the BPP harass and ill-treat their own brothers and sisters. Why only so that they can sell off the property to rich builders Haven’t they done enough? Every second day there is a article in the papers - this trustee cheated this one; this trustee put this allegation on the other trustee; this trustee took 30 lakhs donation; this trustee is having end number of cases against him; this trustee gave flats to his Kaka, Mama, etc haven’t we seen enough. Haven’t they made enough money for their next 4 generations, are they not satisfied with their bungalows, buildings, their imported cars and their vacations abroad? One more question did our great grand fathers, grand fathers pay donations to get flats in any of the Parsee colonies in India and did our fathers? Then why are the same flats sold to Parsee NRI’s why are flats is Kushroo Baug, Rustoom Baug, Navroz Baug, Godrej Baug sold in 35 to 60 Lakhs and why is it official and why are they paying rents of 600 to 1000 and getting all facilities whereas we are called Trespassers, beggers, and vagabonds. We would also like to inform you that the day the municipality was suppose to demolish the wall of the Tata Agiary at Bandra Mr Dinshaw Mehta along with his chamchas had visited our sanatorium and requested us to join the other Parsees in protesting on the roads to save the Agiary Wall and we all did. My question to you is to save the wall of a Agiary Parsees from all over Bombay came but to save us and our families from being thrown out why are the same Parsees keeping their eyes and ears shut. Please explain he Parsee community is detoriating day by day and we are harassed even we want to get married, even we want children, even we want peace of mind, even we want essential commodities like LPG connections, licenses, passports, phone connections, fridge, TV, water tanks, furniture, ration cards, even we want to vote, even we want to be treated like humans.

But I guess it’s never going to happen just because the sanatorium is located in Bandstand and not Vashi or Vasai. Otherwise the BPP would have let us be. The Pandey Sanatorium is broken and people have been given rooms in the same place. The JJ Sanatorium is broken and sold to Non Parsees and now has a stay. The Petit Sanatorium has built Petit Towers but have given people self content rooms with 24 hours light and water . Now what can you gather from that just because none of the Sanatoriums were in the custody of the BPP every body is living in peace and we are dying every day fighting our war for our rights and our survival.

And ultimately we all have decided that if any one of us is forced out of our homes then we would go on a silent march to the Mantralaya and remove our Sadra & Kusti and give up our religion and go on a hunger strike. All 108 of us. We once again request the Zoroastrians of the world to come to our Sanatorium and see and resolve our problem.

P. S. Attached copies of Letter to RR Patil (CM) and others, Interview in Mumbai Mirror, Photographs of the sanatorium.

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Ode to Pak Iranshah

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My Sudreh is in tatters
My Kushti almost in pieces
Oh Shah e Iran when will you summon me afore your eyes?
I am separated from you by a hundred skies.,

You Atash e Vazisht, you Fire of yore
Bestower of boons, to you I do implore.

Though I am far away, still I know you are near.
I only have to close my eyes to feel you here.

You Atash with soul, twelve hundred years old !
I bow to you in my mind each night and every day

I am in your presence this moment.. Now
I know you can hear me, every word I pray.

You giver of Light and Life to Zarthostis
You bringer of boons, destroyer of animosities.

You beauty of Beauties, Shah en Shah of Shahs
You Shah e Iran, to me YOU JUST ARE !

And to think ..once at you r threshold
My ancestors had knelt with piety untold !

I can feel their presence when I am at your door
Its like they are here now, like they were once before.

The Paevand they created once upon a time with you
Comes down to me, and from me to You.

It’s a cycle that I pray my seed will carry on
And from my seed may that Paevand be re-born.

I instruct and command my seed to be faithful to you
To be soldiers ever vigilant in the service of you.

Be ever prepared in faith to your Sovereignty
God forbid if they are not.I condemn them to eternity.

Oh Shah e Iran I feel such love for you
And I know every single Zarthosti feels it too.
But most are coy, many will not admit
But in your mighty presence, every mighty one will submit.

I am not coy to air my Love for you
Like a Sufi mad, I must say I adore you.

You are the Grace of my Maker manifest in earthly form
I’ve been in your arms since the day I was born.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I was born-again in your
Palace bright
( my Naujote)
With H. Mirzaji binding me firmly in your light.

(Because no flashes are allowed) my Navjote photos are obscure
But that day of my promise to you, will forever endure.

That Paevand that Khareno Naryosang established with Thee
On Ruz Adar, Mah Adar, 90 AY, did he.
And to this earth he brought forth your Glory
For all the world, but most for his tribe..his little community.

Sixteen Fires did he purify and consecrate
That Naryosang, the champion, the great !

And the last ..Atash e Vazisht
He culled of lightening from the sky
And the sandal it softly kissed.

The sky went dark, the Manthra was strong
The Fire of Heaven came down and Lo.Pak Iranshah was born !

The moment you were born your journey began,
You traversed far and wide upon Indian land.

At Sanjan you glowed for years (669) six sixty nine
Then for twelve years you blazed in the caves of Bahrot, ever sublime.

In the forests of Vansda you spent years fourteen
Then at Navsari you shone for another three thirteen( 313 )

For three years then, you made Surat your abode
Then back for five years, to Navsari you rode.
Finally with great majesty and dignity
You glowed in my beloved Udvavda now, and for all eternity !

An ode to you Pak Sahib, would be incomplete
Without mention of your truest servants indeed.
Those two dynasties of your chosen Dasturs
Whose lineage served you with their every thought , word and deed !

From one Holy Nagan Ram came the pious Hormazdyar Mirza
From one Nek Khushed Kamdin came the great Kaikobad.
Twenty generations of theirs served our Emperor
In all piety, faith and furore.

And to imagine all the Barshnums that were taken
What faith, what a sense of duty and dedication !

These Mobedaan, more soldiers than Priests
Ever vigilant, resisting greed and temptation !

I’ve heard it said from the horses mouth
That if the Boiwala came to confess and tell
Of forty winks at the time of the midnight Boi
“To be told instead , “Hey, but I heard the Bell” !

Oh Naab( pure ) Sahib, how mysterious your aura be
May your glory for-ever and ever be.
May your divinity forever on Zarthostis shine
And sorround the true faithfuls through the annals of time.

So when will you call me to your door
I cannot take this parting anymore.

I really need to see your face
So full of love, your Majesty and Grace !

When I am in your house I am happy as a child
When its time to leave, tears well in my eyes.

Its amazing how I miss you when I am far
Strange and strong truly are these ties!

So when will you call me, Your Majesty ?
When will I your Fire once again, behold and see?
I need to be in your presence soon Pak Sahib
And recharge this failing battery.

Just as Khorshed Yazad produces solar energy
Gives life and makes things glow and grow.
Your rays they penetrate every Zarthosti
That comes into thy vicinity.

It is your glory that’s taken a tribe 100,000 strong
From history’s page onto the world stage.
And if anyone dares deny this fact
They are wrong, Oh so very wrong !

And so I sing my song to Thee
Captivated by your Fire, its mystery.
As I look forward to the day I will be at your door
And miss you no more, no more.

Before I end my wish to you I make known
When I am old and grey and on my own.
Please bring me to you where each day I can see your face
In your town I’ll make my final resting place.

My Sudreh is in tatters
My Kushti almost in pieces
Oh Shah e Iran when will you summon me afore your eyes?
I am separated from you by a hundred skies.

By a humble servant of Pak IranShah

P. J. Contactor

**************

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Darius the Great and the End of History - BBC Radio 4 Broadcast

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BBC Radio 4, recently broadcast a programme on Darius the Great, master of the largest empire the world had ever seen. The broadcast was part of their “Discovering Iran” series and was presented by Tom Holland, author of the book “Persian Fire”.

During the documentary Tom Holland interviewed Dr. John Curtis, Keeper of the Ancient Near East Department at the British Museum and Paurushasp B. Jila, President of the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe Incorporated (ZTFE). The programme started on how Darius the Great claimed to be the defender of truth by a cosmic mandate as the lieutenant of Ahura Mazda.

This brought the programme to Zoroastrianism and Tom Holland’s visit to the Zoroastrian Centre in London. Tom described the Zoroastrian Centre and the Zartoshty Brothers Hall as having “Echoes of Ancient Persia”. Ervad Jal
Karkaria, one of ZTFE’s senior Ervad Shahebs performed a prayer ceremony in the Zoroastrian Centre Setayash Gah.

To hear the full 30 minute documentary use one of the links to the BBC website below. The interview at the Zoroastrian Centre starts at around 13 mins 30 seconds.

BBC Radio Show Streaming

BBC Radio Show Download

Please note: To listen you will need to have RealPlayer software installed on your computer. You can Download it for free from the BBC audio help page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/audiohelp.shtml

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A Religion in Decline

9 comments

Interesting feature one of our readers shared with us.

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CNN IBN Video - Bury funeral ritual: Parsi woman

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This evening one of our relatives in Australia emailed us a link to the CNN IBN Video that covers the current controvery around the Towers of Slience in Mumbai and requested us to put it up as reader contribution.

PLEASE BE WARNED THIS VIDEO HAS VERY DISTURBING CONTENT!!

http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/20608/parsi-woman-asks-leaders-to-bury-funeral-ritual.html

We feel that this is something we as a community and especially the Zoroastrian, Parsi, Irani community in Mumbai need to discuss and bring to closure.

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Wearing the Sudreh Kusti

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Let me begin this by saying I do not mean to offend anybody by my views and comments. I really respect our religion and am writing just to get feedback.

I am a Zarthosti and grew up in an environment where we did try and follow most of the Zarthosti traditions. When I was 9 we had a small navjote ceremony for me and my cousin and it was such a great day for me, I still vividly remember some moments even though unfortunately I do not have a single picture of my navjote. I was so excited that I would wear my sudreh kusti everyday just like my parents did, and my dad always told us that it is not good to even drink water without the sudreh kusti, though sometimes when my mom wore some saree’s she would not wear the sudreh and I wondered why is she doing that, but now I understand why she did not wear it and that is where I am trying to go with this article.

Many a times when I am wearing a top that is short my sudreh shows and I am not very comfortable with it, so I got a sudreh stitched that is short, ok I know it is not what many people would say is a sudreh but my train of thought is I rather wear it short than not wear it all so my aunt stitched me a bunch of sudreh’s which I can wear with my tank tops and short tops, but sometimes when I am wearing a tight top the sudreh really gets smushed up behind and you can see it all crinkled up and I am quite uncomfortable wearing it like that so many a times I am like ok let me not wear this top but sometimes I really want to wear that nice body hugging top so I skip wearing the sudreh. While I do see some girls wearing the sudreh all crinkled up and showing from everywhere and honestly I think it does not really look nice, it’s like wearing a suit with flip-flops.

Anyways I am trying my best to wear it everyday but what do you guys do when you want to wear that dress in which you know the sudreh will show or when you are wearing a body hugging dress and the kusti knots show, do you wear the sudreh or just skip it.

After reading all the comments on the Parsi Chokra Chokri Stories I thought this is a great forum where one can write something like this and know what others are thinking. I’d love to hear your comments or you can contact me at ishirin007@hotmail.com

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Parsi chokrio naa naatak

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It’s now become really common to hear a relationship break off (especially when both the guy and girl are parsis) Parsi girls have problems for every small thing one can think of. First of all they don’t like to talk, even when we try to just let them know about our feelings, they think its rubbish and just end the topic then and there.

When it comes to going to a guy’s place for what we call ‘kaaj karava’ they have a really aggressive approach. They have very interesting questions. Aapre lagan pachi kem rahisoo, bhonu kaun roundhse, mane ketla piosa kharachva aapse if I don’t work, aapre honeymoon par kau jaisoo, tu dastoor chee kee etc etc etc……………

It is really difficult to match up with a bawi’s mind and this seems to be one of the reasons for increase in the number of inter-caste marriages. I am not joking but I can write a whole book on ‘Bawi naa natak’ A recent example can be taken for one of my best friends. My friend named Anosh (name changed) used to earn more that a lac every month. He gets friendly with a girl online and gets serious about her in 1 month’s time. He undergoes the ceremony of ‘Rupiya peria’ goes back to work abroad after fixing the marriage next year. Things get worse when the girl’s family starts asking money for house renovation, new dress/clothes, money for changing the interiors of the flat and the list goes on & on & on. For each of these things the girls family keep on asking 30 to 40 thousand rupees. Atleast in this case I don’t blame the girl as the girls family had premature plans of getting their girl married in such a wealthy family.

There are many such instances that I have come across. I don’t say that good parsi females are impossible to find but it is surely difficult to find a good understanding parsi girl/family.

I just hope things don’t become worst in the days to come and may all parsis live happily together.

(feedback and comments welcomed at iamaparsi@yahoo.com)

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Parsi boys lack focus

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I have received lots of comments for my article ‘Parsi chkrio naa natak’ published 2 weeks ago. One of the reply has made me realise a major drawback about parsi guys that I would like to highlight.

We always say that parsi girls want high salaried spouse, but it can also be said that parsi guys lack focus. Always speaking bad words, roaming around with friends, unfaithfulness have been some of bad qualities of parsi guys. After graduation, they don’t know what to do, they never lay down a proper career path, a life cycle that they could follow. They enjoy movies, outing and timepass at college. They hardly seem to realise the importance of time. Even after graduation they take time of upto one year to decide whether they want to study further or work. Parsi girls are more literate now-a-days and hence they demand more out of life. Maybe parents are culprits to a certain extent. Parents should enforce good education for children, they should make sure that their children have a dream, a plan to achieve a set target in life and they should help and motivate them to achieve it.

I am not writing this to instigate any parsi guys. I just want to throw some light on parents and parsi children. Would like to make them realise of what we can be if we start focusing on our future. Our community needs many TATA’s & Godrej’s in future.

Comments and feedback welcomed at iamaparsi@yahoo.com

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