"A second arm”
It was good to read in "A second arm” (Parsiana, May 21-June 6, 2019) that the Zoroastrian Charity Funds of Hongkong, Canton and Macao will extend financial support to Parsi pallbearers in India.
These pallbearers are like outcastes: few visit them; few invite them over; few want to marry them. As a former chief executive officer of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), I remember the trustees and the staff having an annual lunch with them. That was about all.
In the smaller anjumans and punchayets this institution does not exist, because in all probability they cannot afford it.
The BPP and larger anjumans like those in Poona, Baroda, Surat and Ahmedabad should consciously do away with pallbearers by educating the latter’s children and weaning them off this profession, which has a long-standing stigma. BEHRAM T. DASTUR
I would like to know who started the discrimination against pallbearers? Parsis do not have a caste system. We have been brought up to believe that all are equal. Even though I know we have been influenced by other communities, this practice could have been stopped long ago. It is unbelievable that those who carry us to our final place of rest should be treated so.
When my father-in-law, Lt Col Rustam Kharegat, who was a trustee of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet passed away, all the pallbearers came to pay their respects. They told us that whenever they visited the homes of other trustees, they were made to stand outside the house. However, when they came to see him, they were immediately taken into his study, seated there and then asked what their problem was. They were never made to feel that they were inferior in any way.
It is rather shocking that even today some people behave as though the pallbearers are a breed apart. A supposedly educated community should know better. I wonder how many of those who read this letter will nod in agreement, but still carry on in the same old way!
MEHROO KHAREGAT
meherbai36@hotmail.com