FEZANA JOURNAL FEZANA SUMMER TABESTAN 1378 AY 3747 ZRE VOL. 23, NO. 2 SUMMER/JUNE 2009 G SUMMER/JUNE 2009 Tir – AmordadJOURJO – Shehrever 1378 AY (Fasli) G Behman – Spendarmad 1378 AY, Fravardin 1379 AY (Shenshai) N G Spendarmad 1378AL AY, Fravardin – Ardibehesht 1379 AY (Kadimi) Chicago area Zarathushtis celebrate the arrival of the Spring Equinox in a special sunrise ceremony at the lakefront planetarium Also Inside: Pakistan Revisited Passport to Persia Festival ZAPANJ at the Philadelphia Museum Navroze Celebrations Across North America PUBLICATION OF THE FEDERATION OF ZOROASTRIAN ASSOCIATIONS OF NORTH AMERICA PUBLICATION OF THE FEDERATION OF ZOROASTRIAN ASSOCIATIONS OF NORTH AMERICA Vol 23 No 2 Summer / Tabestan 1378 AY 3747 ZRE President Bomi Patel www.fezana.org Editor in Chief: Dolly Dastoor 2 Editorial [email protected] Technical Assistant: Coomi Gazdar Dolly Dastoor Assistant to Editor: Dinyar Patel 5 Financial Report Consultant Editor: Lylah M. Alphonse, 7 Coming Events [email protected] Graphic & Layout: Shahrokh Khanizadeh, 9 NOROOZ -Celebrations Around www.khanizadeh.info the World Cover design: Feroza Fitch, [email protected] 23 JUNGALWALLA LECTURE Publications Chair: Behram Pastakia Columnists: 65 NOROOZ Photo Montage Hoshang Shroff: [email protected] Shazneen Rabadi Gandhi : 74 PAKISTAN REVISITED [email protected] Yezdi Godiwala [email protected] 95 Mumbai’s Last Parsi Restaurants Fereshteh Khatibi: [email protected] Behram Panthaki: [email protected] 99 A Secret Place: San Jose Darbe Mahrukh Motafram: [email protected] Meher Copy editors: R Mehta, V Canteenwalla Subscription Managers: 101 IN THE NEWS Kershaw Khumbatta : [email protected] 109 Interfaith /Interalia Arnavaz Sethna: [email protected] 125 North American Mobeds’ Council FALL 2009 From Roots to Wings: The Next Generation of 134 Youthfully Speaking Zarathushti Leaders Guest editors Jim Engineer, Farah Minwalla, 137 Personal Profile Mantreh Atashband, Lylah Alphonse WINTER 2009 141 Sunday Story from the Religious Perspectives: The World Parliament of Religions" Shahnameh Guest Editor Jesse S.Palsetia 143 Milestones Photo on cover: 151s Between the Covers s 158 Business WZCC Tir – Amordad- Shehrever 1378 AY (Fasli) Behman – Spendarmad 1378 AY, Fravardin 1379 AY (Shenshai) Spendarmad 1378 AY, Fravardin –Ardibehesht 1379 AY (Kadimi) Cover design Feroza Fitch Opinions expressed in the FEZANA Journal do not necessarily reflect the of views of FEZANA or members of this publication's editorial board. Lexicongraphics Published at Regal Press, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada Photo Cyrus FEZANA Journal Vo 23 No 2 ISBN 1068-2376 Rivetna (USPS 021-495) published quarterly by FEZANA 5750 S. 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 FEZANA JOURNAL – Summer 2009 1 A word from the Editor Dolly Dastoor ZARATHUSHTI MOSAIC- joke in Farsi.!! There are more In Celebration of Diversity Iranian Zarathushtis having the sudreh pushi preformed of Unity in Diversity is no more evident than in the their children and attending celebration of NauRooz. the Jashan ceremonies performed by We all spell the most significant event which unites us, differently, in spite of the heroic efforts made by past Parsi priests. The internet president Rustom Kevala to make the community in has played a significant part North America adopt an uniform spelling. For this in breaking down this issue of the FEZANA Journal we received materials diversity. The cultural and from several associations across North America and academic events organized from around the world and each one of them has a by our co-religionists have different spelling, (and the Journal team made no made us appreciate the zeal attempt to make them uniform) each one celebrated felt by the Iranians to show Naurooz differently, each one has their own case the rich cultural interpretation of haftseen sofreh reflecting their own background of our religion. reality, the haftseen sofrehs are different in Parsi homes from those in Iranian homes. There were Does this mean the Parsis are losing their culture? Or intercultural and intracultural differences. the Iranians are losing theirs? Some die hard purists may think so. But I see this as the beginning of a new But in spite of all this diversity, there is a glimmer of amalgamated identity emerging in the diaspora based positive outcomes. In North America, our diversity is on mutual respect while the two groups continue to live gradually disintegrating towards unity. In recognizing in their two solitudes in the mother countries. our diversity we are becoming more united. We are becoming more united in our diversity. We are As you leaf through the pages of this issue of the beginning to create our own canvas. We are beginning JOURNAL, give a thought to why we should celebrate to understand the psyche of each other, understand the our diversity as we are truly writing history together. mores where each is coming from, and we are coming to a middle ground. The younger generation are of course much more integrated than the older generation. In what aspects are we diverse? Is it food, language, music, dance, dress, in the practice of religion, our belief system? But at any social event you see young and old sway to scintillating Persian tunes, waving their hands gracefully, you will hear the Persian National anthem and Chaiye hame Zarathushti sung by all Zarathushtis, Parsia and Iranian, you will find Chelo palo and Laganu nu stew served side by side, And we all speak the common lingua franca of North America, English, though yes we do revert to Gujarati or Farsi when we are with our own for we cannot very well tell a bawaji 2 FEZANA JOURNAL — Summer 2009 A Message from FEZANA President The 22nd Annual General meeting of For the first time FEZANA members FEZANA was hosted by the Central Florida and committee chairs had to re-visit the Group under the leadership of Mr. Mezdi proposed budget of $187,200 and cutback Birdie. We congratulate the CFG members to $126,000/- I thank all members and on doing an excellent job of organizing the committee chairs for unanimously event. accepting the budget cut. Mr. Birdie informed me that organizing Even then we have supported 100% the AGM brought the community together allocation for ZYNA (Youth), Academic in an unprecedented way, and he was glad Scholarships, Manuscript Preservation, to see volunteers come for the meetings Sports, UN/NGO, Jungalwala Lecture from as far away as Tampa. He was Series. Other committees have absorbed impressed by the way the members got 5-100% reductions. together, and wanted more projects to sustain the momentum and reinforce unity. I congratulate Mr. Mezdi Birdie, Mr. Dinyar The Fundraising Committee Chair, Mr. Mehta, Ervard Soli Dastur and the CFG Jerry Kheradi, launched a new program Community for a job well done. "The Fareshta Challenge" which should bring in some additional revenue this year with the support and co-operation of the Although the AGM went off smoothly associations. and we were able to achieve our goals including that of obtaining the unanimous approval of the North American Zoroastrian Congress (NAZC) and FEZANA Information We all understand that the times are trying for and Resources Center (FIRES) TOR, we have a growing everyone. However we do need to support our concern when it comes to the issue of FEZANA donation community. revenues. With timely advice from our financial consultant, Mr. If you are contributing to United Ways, you can direct Kavasji Dadachanji and Mr. Zubin Bomanshaw of those contributions to FEZANA through United Ways. To Integrity Investments, we converted our investments into forward your funds, they will require the FEZANA 501C3 cash and saved our investments/endowments from the registration Federal ID 36-3521343. Please check with downward market. However, like any other non-profit your company HR. Your company may even decide to organization, we too saw a sharp drop in our donation match your contribution. income. In the year 2007 our total income was $ 443,723 I appeal with the hope that the Zarathushti while last year, in 2008, we saw our income reduced to $ community will consider our request and donate 144,518. generously to FEZANA. Some additional breakup of income 2008 2007 General Contributions: $26,513 $ 40,183 Welfare and Critical Assistance Bomi Patel $25,883 $ 90,494 FEZANA President Infrastructure $ 401 $ 94,680 Interest and Dividend $ 18,597 $ 31,572 FEZANA JOURNAL – Summer 2009 3 FEZANAFEZANA UpdateUpdate Chaordica Behram Pastakia Edward Lorenz, a meteorologist at “Everything in its place and a place for the Massachusetts Institutes of everything” after spring cleaning in Technology in Boston, is credited with our homes. the formulation of the chaos theory in • The fact that Norooz is celebrated at modern times. In a paper entitled: the precise moment of the spring "Predictability: Does the Flap of a equinox, reminds us of the Butterfly's Wings in Brazil Set Off a importance of punctuality and of Tornado in Texas?" he shared the timeliness in our undertakings. observation of the sensitive Sisdeh Bedar brings us up close to dependence on initial conditions which the laws of nature to remind us of can affect drastically the long term asha