HAMAZOR - ISSUE 1 2011 Entrance to Udwada Atash Behram, p12. C o n t e n t s 04 Message from the Chairman 05 The Sensible Solution ... - kersey antia 09 Importance of Zoroastrian Diaspora - pallan ichaporia 11 A status report on the threat to Shreeji Pak Iranshah - dastur khurshed dastoor kaikobad dastoor 14 What being a Zartoshty means to me now - ruzbeh mowdawala 17 5th World Zoroastrian Congress - zain mavalvala 18 15th N A Zarathushti Congress - magdalena rustomji 21 N A Zarathushti Community Awards - dolly dastoor 22 The Commonwealth Games - October 2010, India 25 Migration & Diaspora in Zoroastrian History - dinyar patel 28 Someone broke the Mould - homi khusrokhan 34 Introduction to the history of Persian Rugs - arash karimzadeh COVER 37 Tooran Bahrami Shahriari 38 When the Sena wins Mumbai Loses - teenaz javat Ratan Tata, Chairman, House of Tata - - maneck bhujwala 40 Prof Rustom Behramji Damania courtesy of Tata 42 Dorabji’s story of service in the railways - ardeshir damania Collection. 44 Darya-Dino - yesmin madon PHOTOGRAPHS 47 Parsis & their legendary love of animals - homi khusrokhan 50 ‘Dinamai na Doodh na Puff’ - bachi karkaria Courtesy of individuals whose articles appear in 53 In Search of our Culinary Heritage - june ash the magazine or as 55 Shanta Pathak - a legend mentioned. 57 DISHOOM - an Irani tea house in London? shahin bekhradnia WZO WEBSITE 60 WZOs on-going assistance - toxy cowasjee 63 Membership Form with details www.w-z-o.org 1 remembering late Nariman K Irani M e m b e r s o f t h e M a n a g i n g C o m m i t t e e London, England The World Zoroastrian Organisation Mr Darayus S Motivala Er Jehan Bagli Mr Rustom Yeganegi Mr Russi Ghadiali Chairman Mississauga, Canada Tehran, Iran Singapore E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: Email: E-mail: [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Mr Sam H Bhiwandiwalla Mr Dadi E Mistry Mr Darius Mistry Mr Keki Bhote President New Delhi, India Auckland President, US Chapter E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: New Zealand Illinois, USA [email protected] E-mail: E-mail: Mr Dinyar Modi [email protected] [email protected] Hon Secretary Mrs Meher Amersey E-mail: [email protected] Mumbai, India Mrs Toxy Cowasjee Email: Vice President Mrs Khurshid B [email protected] Karachi, Pakistan Kapadia E-mail: Membership Secretary [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Note: WZO’s committee is extensive, these are just a few of the names given for member’s convenience Volume LVIII - Issue 1 2011 Printed by: A A Graphics 1721/31 LAC No 2 Karachi 75420 Pakistan Funded by: late Nariman K Irani & his wife Franey Cover design by: Tannaz Minwalla Karachi, Pakistan Design & layout by: Toxy Cowasjee Karachi, Pakistan 2 HAMAZOR - ISSUE 1 2011 From the Editor January 2011 and the beginning of a new decade, fresh thoughts, progress with good will, is what we hope to strive for at WZO. As a leap forward, we have just heard the Mobed Anjuman of Iran have enrolled eight women mobedyars, a first both for Iran as well as in Zoroastrian communities. We have a dearth of working mobeds in many cities where our diaspora have settled, and with this forerunner in Iran, hopefully there will be more women taking up the role of a mobedyar. jWZO offers its grateful thanks to Franey Irani for sponsoring these last four issues of Hamazor, a pledge she so graciously and willingly kept of her late husband Nariman. Without their timely assistance there possibly would have been no issues. Our Chairman has been on a goodwill tour of nearly six weeks visiting various cities of India travelling as far as Hong Kong, to meet with the various leaders and community members especially to impress that we are here to help all Zoroastrians whenever required, being a global organisation. WZO has completed a hectic year - a new Chairman, though totally familiar with the workings of the organization, it is another ball game having to rise to the challenge of shouldering the full responsibility, celebrations of 30 years, fundraising for various projects, and having to deal with the disappointing break away from WZO India. But these challenges have made us stronger and more determined to move forward. We ourselves, need to work on - • a website that works well and effortlessly, having up to date information for all to access. • to encourage young people to become members of WZO and join committees so that change can come. • interaction between youth from all corners of the world, so easily achieved today through Facebook or Twitter, the two most popular social networking sites - for which, I am pleased to inform you, all these aspects are on the agenda for the year. Two of our youth from the Managing Committee will be representing WZO at the 5th World Youth Congress at Vancouver, which Zain Mavalvala informs is nearly a sell out. These young and prudent organisers have kept the cut out age to 40 years, as it should be, having the appellation “youth”. Members, this year there will be the annual WZO calendar with all four versions coming your way , but a surprising email arrived a few days ago informing, ZYNG, the youth wing of BPP, has produced an innovative one having “12 Parsi girls in mini skirts, high-slit European dresses,” gracing the 3-in-1 calendar “being sold at Rs300.” Kudos to the BPP for allowing the youth to display our calendar in sync with the present day. One hopes individuals will have the sense of humour and modernity to allow this calendar to be sold without a furor as those who hang one would want something attractive, so why not Zoroastrians who do know how to enjoy life! On that cheerful note, the Managing Committee of WZO wish all our readers a happy, peaceful 2011. 3 Toxy Cowasjee, 2A Mary Road, Bath Island, Karachi 75530, Pakistan remembering late Nariman K Irani dear members, I am writing this message to you from a train travelling from Navsari to Mumbai. My thanks to Dinshaw and Bachi Tamboly for their kind hospitality over the last three days. Over this time, we travelled to the remote villages in Gujarat and Maharashtra meeting Zoroastrians whose lives have been greatly enhanced by the dedicated staff of the World Zoroastrian Organisation Trust. Along the way, we met other Zoroastrians who explained their The World Zoroastrian Organisation circumstances to us. Their request for assistance was listened to with humility and concern by Dinshaw Tamboly and others. My comfortable accommodation was one of the rooms at the Senior Citizen Centre where the staff offered me the same level of courtesy that they give to the residents. I am always impressed by the happy and contented faces of the residents which reflects the care and attention they receive from the staff. Before arriving in Navsari, I visited Hong Kong, Singapore, Delhi and Lucknow. In each of these cities, the local Zoroastrian associations made me very welcome and gave me an opportunity to present WZO and our work. At these meetings, the audience were amazed at the scope of work done by us. Of course, I was also grilled by a number of them on the negative press articles they had seen, put out by our detractors. This was a good opportunity to put the records straight and they were surprised how far our detractors had gone to distort the facts. I am pleased to say we made many new friends and members. One of the topics that was frequently brought up by the people I met was the treatment of the Vada Dasturji of Udvada, Khurshed Kaikobad Dastoor, at the recent gathering on Sanjan Day. I was fortunate enough to meet the Vada Dasturji in Delhi, who I found to be extremely knowledgeable on Zoroastrian religion and history. His rationale approach to Zoroastrian issues is what impressed me most. The Managing Committee of WZO firmly stands behind the Vada Dasturji and condemns the treatment he has received on Sanjan Day and in the open letters afterwards. In 2010, the Zoroastrian community was greatly divided by the intransigent attitudes of some of its prominent members, who purposely confuse the community by failing to differentiate between Parsi ethnicity from the Zoroastrian religion. Perhaps, they have their own agenda. However, I am gladdened to see that the whole community around the world is united to preserve the sanctity of our revered Shreeji Pak Iranshah in Udvada. We sincerely hope that this is the start of a better future for our community with a united front to meet the challenges we face. In the next issue of Hamazor, we shall be reporting on the proceedings of WZO’s AGM on 30 January, which was postponed from December due to the adverse weather conditions in London. Until then, let me wish you all a very Happy New Year and agree to work together so that our worldwide community will grow from strength to strength. Yours sincerely, Darayus S Motivala Chairman 4 Email: [email protected] HAMAZOR - ISSUE 1 2011 The Sensible Solution for Surviving Transformation in Zoroastrianism is by Adhering to the Basic Precepts of the Prophet The World Zoroastrian Organisation The article below is essentially the words written by Mobed Kersey Antia of Chicago, delivered at the 2010 WZO annual seminar in London, but where appropriate the text has been changed into the 3rd person so that it reads more fluently.