ZANTZANT NEWSNEWS

A Publication of Zoroastrian Association of North Texas

www.zant.org April 2013

ZANT EVENTS & CALENDAR INSIDE THIS ISSUE

 04/14: Children’s Religious  05/12: Children’s Arts & Craft Upcoming Events 2 Class and Vohu Manah Group Class meeting  05/25: Graduation and Ghambar Upcoming Events, Past Events 3  04/14: Children’s Arts & Craft  05/26: ZLC event Class Past Events 4  04/27: ZANT General Body Meeting  06/09: Children’s Religious  04/28: ZLC outing and museum Class and Vohu Manah Group Angels in the Background, ZANT visit meeting News, FEZANA Corner, 5  06/09: Children’s Arts & Craft  05/03 through 05/05: FEZANA Class AGM  06/30: ZLC Event Kid’s Corner 6  05/04: ZANT 2nd. Anniversary Cel- ebration Treasurer’s Corner, Miscellane-  05/12: Children’s Religious ous, ZANT Pledge Form 7 Class and Vohu Manah Group meeting BOARD OF DIRECTORS

MESSAGE FROM THE ZANT BOARD President Jamshed Rivetna As we approach the second anniversary of our ZANT Center, the ZANT Board, in collaboration with the Education Subcommittee (ESC), are Vice President Farshad Bidanjiri working on our Center’s Library. If you have recently visited the Center, you have probably seen the cabinets and shelves that have been installed, with help from the Furnishing Subcommittee, in the Library. The ESC Treasurer Neenaaz Dilucci has also begun cataloging books and other items that were donated over the years to ZANT (please refer to detailed article on page 4). We hope to Secretary Ardeshir Mistry complete the Library in the next few months. Once the Library is open, we invite all our members to enjoy the facility and relax in this comforta- ble addition to the Center. Social Director

Director Dilnawaz Rustomji

Director Naazneen Johnson

We welcome and encourage feedback from our community. For comments or suggestions please call the Board mem- bers, fill in the “Contact Us” section on our website (www.zant.org) or mail them to ZANT, 1605 Lopo Road, Flower Mound,TX 75028.

ZANT April 2013 Newsletter 1

UPCOMING EVENTS

SPECIAL ZANT GENERAL BODY MEETING 2. Presentation and approval of the corrected Date: Saturday, April, 27, 2013 General Fund Budget. Time: 2:00 p.m. 3. Approval of the monies requested in the Capi- tal Reserve Fund. Place: ZANT Center 4. Discussion of the Library Operating Guide- Some issues were left over from the January lines. ZANT Annual General Body Meeting. These will be addressed at this special General Body 5. Any other items. Meeting. The agenda for the meeting is as fol- lows: 1. Approval of the January 2013 AGM minutes.

ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION & FAIR Saturday May 4, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. Program: Tandarosti Prayers, welcome to FEZANA guests, food, fun and entertainment for all! Come and enjoy chicken biryani, chelo kebabs, aash, dhansak, shrimp pulao, tandoori chicken, khoresh, vin- daloo sandwiches, pizza, chaat, rus malai, ice cream, falooda, tres leches cake, and many more delicious dishes… Take home baklavas, batasas, bhakras, pickles and achaars, cakes, cookies and other surprises! Bounce house for kids!! Games and fun for the young at heart! Remember to bring cash for this ZANT Fundraiser. Special this year – Early Bird Discount!

Send your check for $ 50 and receive 60 $1-coupons to be redeemed at the Fair. Check must be sent to the ZANT Treasurer, 1605 Lopo Road, Flower Mound, TX 75028 and received by April 27, 2013. This amount is non-refundable.

ZANT April 2013 Newsletter 2

UPCOMING EVENTS (CONTINUED) Z L C - “The ZANT Ladies Club” Caring, Sharing, Daring – Living Life to the fullest! ZLC Family Picnic in the park and museum visit. This event is open to all family members. Picnic Time - April 28 at 12:45/1:00 p.m. We will meet at Klyde Warren Park, located at 2012 Woodall Rodgers Freeway Dallas, TX 75201 between Uptown and Downtown Dallas over Woodall Rodgers Freeway, bordered by Pearl and St. Paul Streets. We will have lunch in the park. You may bring a picnic basket or purchase from the gourmet food trucks parked there. After exploring the park and having lunch, we will walk over to the Tram- mel Crow building for a docent-led tour of the Crow Collection of Asian Art (http://www.crowcollection.com/ current_exhibitions.aspx). The tour begins at 1:45 p.m. and lasts for about an hour. Admission to the museum is free but donations are accepted. In case of rain we will have lunch at EL Fenix across the street from the park. Please RSVP Mary Tengra or look for an evite from the ZANT Ladies Club and RSVP to it.

ZLC Coordinators: Mary Tengra & Rakshi Dhalla

FEZANA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The 26th. FEZANA Annual General Meeting will be hosted by ZANT from May 3 to May 5, 2013. Delegates will be staying at the Hyatt Place Hotel in Grapevine, where meetings will take place Friday, Saturday and Sunday. ZANT members will have opportunities to meet with the out-of-town guests. On Friday evening ZANT will host a home- cooked dinner for FEZANA delegates. ZANT members and non-members are welcome to attend. There is a nominal fee of $5 for ZANT members and $7 for non-members, ages 5 and older. Please RSVP with Dilnawaz Rustomji by Friday, April 26, 2013 if attending the dinner. Please send your check, made out to ZANT with FEZANA AGM dinner in the memo line, to the ZANT Treasurer by the above date. For more information on the FEZANA meeting, please contact Sherazade Mehta.

CHILDREN & YOUTH SEWING & VOHU MANAH GROUP GRADUATION CEREMONY AND ART/CRAFT CLASS There will be no Vohu Manah GAHAMBAR We will meet at the ZANT Center meeting in April. We will meet On May 25, 2013 we will honor our gradu- on Sunday, April 14, 2013 at 1:30 again on May 12 when Firdosh ates at a ceremony and gahambar. Details p.m. For details regarding this Mehta will make a presentation will follow. Parents wanting their child to on using prayers for good class, please contact Dilnawaz Rus- be acknowledged, should email Delna tomji. health. Details will be in the May newsletter. Godiwalla by May 10, 2013 with the child’s name and the institution they are PAST EVENTS graduating from.

GAHANBAR PANJEH Many of our ZANT community members gathered on March 16 and 17 to celebrate Gahanbar Panjeh. On Saturday, Mobed Sirous Hormozdi recited Tadorosti prayers. Our community members joined in the effort, preparing siroo, komach, and sir-se-dov, all traditional foods cooked during the Gahanbar. On Sunday, Mobed Homozdi recited prayers for the souls of our departed ones. Both events were fol- lowed by pot luck food shared by all present. We hope that at next year’s Gahanbar Panjech, all can participate by bringing ingredients of their choice and work as a team to cook and bake traditional foods such as aash or siroo. Special thanks to: Shirin Torki and Saghar Behroozi for organizing Saturday’s Gahanbar, and Parichehr Salamati, Norangiz Atashband, and Dilnawaz Rustomji for organizing Sunday’s event.

Photograph courtesy of Dilnawaz Rustomji

ZANT April 2013 Newsletter 3

PAST EVENTS (CONTINUED) VOHU MANAH EVENT IN MARCH The ZANT library is taking shape! While we wait for all the furnishings to be com- pleted, we are also excited to let you know that the southwest corner of our build- ing will soon be used as envisioned. Towards that end, the Vohu Manah group hosted two dedicated Zarthustis, Aban Rustomji and Yasmin Pavri, from Houston who spent the weekend with us and got us started with organizing and cataloging our collec- tion. Over the years as we have gone from “dream to vision to reality” for our ZANT Center, many of our members and friends have been setting aside books, maga- zines and artifacts that reflect our history. As we opened and organized many boxes, we saw that we have a small but significant collection. Being a professional librarian, Aban helped us catalog at least 50 books with standard Library of Congress call numbers, taught us how to generate bar codes and place labels on the books. But most important, the list has also been entered into “FIRES” – the FEZANA Information and Resource Service – which is an online data base for all books on Zoroastrianism or written by Zoroastrians. We feel gratified to know that the titles of our nascent collection are already available to the world! You can access it at www.Fires-Fezana.org. Assisting Aban and Yasmin on Saturday March 9, 2013 were ZANT members, Poras Balsara, Nina Kalianivala and Anahita Sidhwa.

On Sunday March 10, at the regularly scheduled Vohu Manah meeting, Aban gave an overview of the FIRES project which helped the participants see the benefits of the data base. Aban also spoke about her grandfather, the value of books and libraries and their place in our lives. Next she presented an overview of garas – the heirloom saris owned by many Parsis. We were entertained by the many beautiful designs, their significance and our attempts to piece together the history of these heir- looms. Some interesting terms used for the designs are ka- rolia-no garo (flowery spider) cheena-chino-no garo (Chinese figurines), kanda-papeta-no garo (polka dots), dor patlo (less than full width). After being ignored as “old-fashioned” before the 1950’s, garas have seen a re- surgence thanks to people like Naju Davar who have re- produced the old designs on new fabrics. The afternoon ended with some of our members sharing their old and new garas. We could not control what we lost in the ancient past, but we can do our part to safeguard what we have now. We are writing the history of the Zarthushtis in the 20th and 21st centuries in North America! And paper books will be giving way to digital formats that we cannot even imag- ine. Our history is contained in our magazines like the FEZANA Journal and in association newsletters like ZANT News. But as Aban reminded us, the true value of a library is not in how many books we have, but the extent to which we use them. We take care of the sacred in our prayer room. The kitchen and main room have seen much food and fun and fellowship. Let us now grow in- tellectually as we preserve our past, and learn from it for the future. Stay tuned and welcome to our library! Article courtesy of Anahita Sidhwa

ZANT April 2013 Newsletter 4

AngelsAngels inin thethe BackgroundBackground Many of the photographs that have been recently published from our ZANT events have been made possible due to the graciousness of Farook Raghani. He has taken upon himself to be ZANT’s de facto “Official Photographer” offering his services gratis to the Association. At our Nauroze event last month, he also graciously offered to take free portraits of our members and their families. We recognize his selflessness in helping us out whenever needed. Thanks Farook, you are indeed our Angel in the Background! ZANT NEWS COMMUNITY SERVICES SUBCOMMITTEE ANNOUNCEMENT If you have seniors at home who would like a social phone call on a weekly basis, please email Nina Kalianiwala at [email protected] or call 817- 605-7046. We have volunteers who speak Farsi or Gujrati in addition to Eng- lish.

FEZANA CORNER

FEZANA ACADEMIC SCHOLARSHIPS ANNOUNCEMENT Message from Dolly Dastoor, Ph.D, Chair FEZANA Academic Scholarship Program

FEZANA Academic Scholarships for 2013

FEZANA has some Scholarships for our students. Please go to the links below to get more information. If you are a student, FEZANA would like you to send in your application.

The Scholarship Announcement: http://fezana.org/node/294

The Scholarship 2013 Form: http://fezana.org/files/drupalfiles/ FEZANA_Scholarship_2013_Application.pdf

CONTRIBUTIONS FOR CYRUS KHARAS In order to help Cyrus Kharas (brother of Yazdi Kharas, a longtime ZANT member) and his family in their time of need, the FEZANA Welfare Committee has set up a special account for any contributions that you would like to send for them. Please send your contributions to the FEZANA Treasurer, Mr. Ratan Mistry, 1258 Water Lily Way, San Jose, CA 95129 or donate through the FEZANA web site: www.fezana.org/Funds noting the specific purpose of the contribution. The web site accepts credit cards and is completely secure. We thank you and ask that you keep Cyrus and his family in your prayers.

ZANT April 2013 Newsletter 5

KID’S CORNER

Life …. with 6 of the 7 Creations  Meaning of Gahambar/Gahanbar In Life you will realize that there is a pur-  Different periods of the year when each Gaham- pose for everyone you meet. bar/Gahanbar is celebrated Some will test you,  Each Gahambars/Gahanbars is celebrated over a 5-day period some will use you  Importance of the “Hamaspathmaidyem” and Gahambar/Gahanbar some will teach you.  Religious duty and communal sharing of food But the most important are the ones who  Link with the 6 tassels of the Kusti bring out the best in you,  Gahambar / Gahanbar story of Nosherwan-e- respect you Adil and

accept you for who you are. We ended our class watching videos of “Gahambar/ Source : An E-mail from a friend Gahanbar in Damavand” in modern day Iran. Religious Class: This month our teen group learned about important women in Persian his- At our March class, our little ones understood why we celebrate our New tory from around 600 BC to 300 AD. Year in March. They made the connec- tion with making a fresh start on the day of the Vernal Equinox or the start Children’s Religious Class: of spring when all of nature renews itself. We created a little Our next religious class will be held Haft Seen table with the traditional 7 items begin- on Sunday, April 14, 2013 at 11:30 a.m. ning with the letter 's' as well as some later addi-

tions. They learned about King Jamsheed, much loved by his people, and how he was crowned on Please be at the ZANT Center by 11:00 a.m, so this day. Hence we also call the celebration Jam- we can have prayers and Tandarosti for the kids sheedi Noruz. The kids then played a game that en- in the Prayer Room at 11:15 a.m. before the Reli- couraged them to make 'good' choices as compared gious Class. to 'bad' ones to move ahead in the game. Noruz

Mubarak! For further details about the Religious Classes,

please contact Pearl P. Balsara. Continuing with our Religious Class theme of “Zoroastrian celebrations”, our middle-age group had a Power-point presentation about the Gaham- bars / Gahanbars . They learnt …..

 Association of the 6 Gahambars/Gahanbars (Kid’s Corner logo courtesy of Zoroastrian Studies, India)

ZANT April 2013 Newsletter 6

TREASURER’S CORNER (CONTINUED) We welcome our new annual members (checks received through 03/15/2013):

Bahram Atashband Sima Salamati Current membership for Norangiz Atashband Babak Soroushi 2012-2013:

Pouran Contractor Mitra Soroushi Life Membership 42 Mehernosh Garda Mehran Yadegari Annual Membership 111 Rubina Jamshidi Nikkan Yadegary Honorary Members 7 Jamshid Jamshidi Paimon Yadegary 160 Sam Moghadam Farhad H. Patel

ZOMF Campaign Friend: $50/month for 1 year...1 Thanks a lot for your continued support to Free Card Key for the calendar ZANT. Your contributions are very helpful Visionary: $100/month for 1 year of donation. to our organization. If you have any ques- year...1 Free Rental & Card Key tions please call our Treasurer: Neenaaz for the calendar year of donation. Supporter: $25/month for 1 year. Dilucci.

MISCELLANEOUS Since the ZANT 2013 Nauroze function was at a date later than the deadline for submission of newsletter items, an article and photos from the function will appear in the May 2013 newsletter. Please look out for them in the May 2013 newsletter.

Keep this stub Please detach and return this side Accept my contribution of: for your records. with your contribution payable to: “ZANT" and mail to: ( ) $10 ( ) $20 ( ) $30 ( ) $40 ( ) $50 ( ) $_____ To: ZANT ZANT Treasurer 1605 Lopo Road For: Check # Flower Mound, Texas 75028 Date ( ) General Fund ( ) Building Fund Amount $ ( ) ZOMF ( ) Other______

FROM:______

“Without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community.” Help us pass on the Good Religion to future generations.

ZANT April 2013 Newsletter 7