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FEZ18-fall-06.ai 11/13/2006 8:16:23 AM FEZANA JOURNAL FALL 2006, PAIZ 1375 YZ Mah Meher-Avan-Adar 1375 (Fasli) Mah Ardibehest-Khordad-Tir 1376 (Shenshai) Mah Khordad-Tir-Amardad 1376 (Kadmi) G FALL 2006 FALL FEZANA in North America Also Inside: CELEBRATING A SEASON OF PEACE ZARATHUSHTIS JOIN UNITY WALK IN D.C. ZARATHUSHTIS AT WORLD GUJARATI CONFERENCE HOUSTON HAPPENINGS PUBLICATION OF THE FEDERATION OF ZOROASTRIAN ASSOCIATIONS OF NORTH AMERICA FEZANA JOURNAL Vol 19 No 3 FALL 2006 TABESTAN 1375 YZ www.fezana.org 3 EDITORIAL 59 AROUND THE WORLD Dolly Dastoor 50 years of Dasturship - 5 FEZANA UPDATES Dastur Jamasp Asa FINANCIAL REPORT Mehergan Celebrations in Iran CRITICALLY SPEAKING Pallonji Shapoorji Home for Seniors 8 CALENDAR OF FESTIVALS 64 INTERFAITH /INTERALIA 9 COMING EVENTS FEZENA NGO delegates at UN 10 ROLE OF FEZANA IN N. New York City Events AMERICA Unity Walk, Washington DC Rustom Kevala President World's Religions after Sept 11 Creating a Season of Peace 18 SCHOLARSHIPS World Gujarati Conference 2006 2006 Winners Zarathushti Youth with a Social 21 OUR FEDERATION Conscience Dinaz Kutar Rogers Zarathushti Youth without Borders 23 Z SPORTS COMMITTEE 81 SOCIAL JUSTICE NETWORK Bijan Khosraviani Read 82 YOUTH FULLY SPEAKING 27 VOLUNTEER VOICES Nikan Khatibi, Farah Minwalla Freyaz Shroff Unlock the Future 32 NEWS FROM ASSOCIATIONS 85 READERS FORUM 38 HOUSTON HAPPENINGS - 88 LAUGH AND BE MERRY Seminar Rashna Writer 89 STORIES FROM THE Sarosh Manekshaw SHAHNAMEH 43 EVENTS AND HONOURS Rustam and Tahmineh - Send a gift subscription to family and friends Send a gift Shazneen Rabadi Gandhi Ava J. Udvadia; Zubin Mehta Story of Zal - Ardeshir Irani Dinyar Vania 92 PERSONAL PROFILE 45 XIV NORTH AMERICAN CONGRESS -TORONTO Soroosh Sorooshian IMPACT- Phee Vania, Chair 94 MILESTONES 49 Z. SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA Obituaries 99 Births/Navjotes/Weddings 52 ARTICLES Anniversaries Matrimonials Photo on cover:by Will the vultures ever return to Dariush Jamasb the Dokhmas-A. Damania 103 WZCC Sunrise Ceremony for An ecological and environmentally 106 BETWEEN THE COVERS prayer vigil for the earth friendly method of Disposal of the dead---A. Maneckjee Poonawalla 1 FEZANA JOURNAL – Fall 2006 FEZANA JOURNAL PUBLICATION OF THE FEDERATION OF ZOROASTRIAN ASSOCIATIONS OF NORTH AMERICA www.fezana.org EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Dolly Dastoor IN COMING [email protected] Technical Assistant: Coomi Gazdar ISSUES OF CONSULTANT EDITOR : Lylah M. Alphonse [email protected] GRAPHICS AND LAYOUT: Shahrokh Khanizadeh FEZANA www.khanizadeh.info COVER DESIGN: Juana Merlo and Feroza Fitch JOURNAL Lexicon Graphics Winter 2006 / [email protected] Spring 2007: COLUMNISTS: Between the covers: Hoshang Shroff SOCIAL JUSTICE [email protected] ISSUES Business: Homi Davier [email protected] Guest Editors: Children Stories: Shazneen Rabadi Gandhi Shirin Cama and Vishtasp [email protected] Soroushian Farsi: Fereshteh Khatibi [email protected] Summer 2007 Interfaith: Behram Pastakia [email protected] 20th Milestones: Mahrukh Motafram ANNIVERSARY [email protected] Fall 2007 Special Interest: Dilnavaz Shroff [email protected] ORAL HISTORY Youthfully Speaking: Nikan Khatibi [email protected] Guest Editors. D.Patel H.Katki Copy editors: R Mehta [email protected] J Udvadia [email protected] N.Merchant V Canteenwalla [email protected] SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER: Kershaw Khumbatta [email protected] ASST. SUBSCRIPTION MANAGER: Arnavaz Sethna Deadline for [email protected] Summer BUSINESS MANAGER: Rusi Gandhi 2007 [email protected] Submission: PRESIDENT FEZANA: Rustom Kevala [email protected] CHAIRPERSON PUBLICATIONS Firdosh Mehta April 1st 2007 COMMITTEE: [email protected] Published at Regal Press, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada FEZANA Journal Vo 19 No 3 ISBN 1068-2376 ( USPS 021-495) published quarterly by FEZANA 5750 Jackson St Hinsdale Il 60521- 5109. Periodical postage rate is paid at Oakbrook, IL 60523 and at additional mailing offices. Annual subscription $15 (US) ; $20 (Canada); $30 (surface) and $50 (air) for other countries; details on subscription Form. POSTMASTER: send changes to Fezana Journal, 8787 W. Airport Blvd. Houston, TX 77071 2 FEZANA JOURNAL — Fall 2006 A word from the Editor: What is the role of FEZANA in North America? Dolly Dastoor FEZANA, the Federation of Zoroastrian FEZANA? Maybe not. However Associations of North America, was born out of a one can clearly see that need for the Zarathushti community in North FEZANA has been the catalyst America to pool resources and ideas to achieve in community building, for collaboratively and collectively more than what can setting parameters for growth, be done individually. But even then, people asked for facilitating the associations to themselves, why should we join FEZANA? What is achieve their potential, in in there for me or for my association? After 20 years moving the community forward, are we still asking the same question? providing a meeting ground for Has FEZANA achieved what it wanted to Zarathushtis from India, Iran, Pakistan and Africa to achieve? What started as a federation of six interlink and interconnect, and most importantly associations has now grown into twenty-five helping to forge the unique North American identity, associations with eight Darbe Mehrs and one But growth, fame and popularity bring their own Cultural Centre. From a modest budget of several problems, the more the philosophy of the religion is thousand dollars FEZANA has now grown into half appreciated outside the community, the greater is a million dollar operation, with several endowed the interest to practice it, bringing out schisms funds for education and welfare of the community. between the proponents of Born-Zarathushtis and We have an NGO status with the United Nations, a Zarathushtis-by -Choice. Should the community ask 10 year strategic plan that has charted our direction FEZANA to develop parameters for controlled and on this continent. Along with demographic surveys, regulated acceptance, or should it continue to bury directories both paper and electronic of its head in the sand and snow and wish the problem Zarathushtis on this continent, youth and adult will go away?. The more coverage we get in the congresses and a world congress which has press the more defensive we become, killing the brought the community together, along with the messenger rather than reflecting on the message. annual sports event. Books by Zarathushti authors, FEZANA has played a significant role in the videos, musical CDs, this quarterly North American developmental history of the Zarathushti community publication (The Journal), active participation, in in North America but it needs to continue working on Inter-faith activities around the continent, in religious the more positive experiences of consolidation by conferences, development of the chamber of encouraging the new generation of North American commerce, and the growth of websites which born and educated Zarathushtis to assume further binds the community. leadership roles The earlier role of bringing the community together has expanded into empowering the community to consolidate its position center stage in every facet of North American life as Zarathushtis. We have grown not only at the individual level but also at the structural and A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS 2007 TO ALL organizational level. But can all this be attributed to IN THE COMMUNITY AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT We sincerely regret the inordinate delay in the publication of the summer 2006 issue. As you know, this is the second effort of the new board. Getting the articles and putting them all together without diminishing the quality of the journal has caused unavoidable delays As a one-time catch-up provision only, the Winter 2006 and Spring 2007 issues will be combined. The next issue will be published in March 2007. All existing subscribers will have their subscription extended for one free issue. We thank you for your understanding. THE BOARD OF EDITORS OF THE FEZANA JOURNAL. FEZANA JOURNAL – Fall 2006 3 A ZOROASTRIAN NEWS AGENCY (ZNA) IS BORN ....where you get at most one E-mail a day but you learn what other Zarathushtis are doing around the world! On June 1, 2006, a few individuals from different parts of the world established the Zoroastrian News Agency (ZNA) to keep Zarathushtis worldwide connected with unbiased and un-editorialized news of local, national and global interest on events and issues affecting our greater community. The news includes but is not limited to a wide variety of topics such as births, engagements, weddings, great achievements, Sedreh Pushi/Navjotes, deaths, community events, public service announcements, celebrations, ceremonies/Jashans, media links, etc. ZNA is not for any personal forums, discussions, arguments, etc The subject line will carry information to enable the reader to choose what they want to read. All news will be archived on a website for future reference. The default message delivery option is “Daily Digest”, so at most one email that includes all Z-News for any particular day will be received by subscribers. To subscribe please send an E-mail to: [email protected] Persian readers send an E-mail to: [email protected] In The Zarathushti Community, Every Local News Is Global News! Current Moderators: Ardeshir Behi (UK) Bijan Khosraviani (US) Fereidoon Demehri (Canada) FEZANA FINANCIAL UPDATES Between June1, 2006 and September 30, 2006, donations totaling $38, 284 were received for the following funds. We thank you