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Edited text of the speech delivered by the author at the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India (FPZAI) and the Ahmedabad Parsi Panchayat awards function in Ahmedabad on December 18, 2004.

In my primary school days in Bulsar, one of my favorite songs was Que Sera Sera and for the benefit of many this evening who are from a later generation, the song goes:

Que Sera Sera

Whatever will be, will be

The future is not ours to see ....

I cannot but help feel that we the Parsis have taken the words of this song of yesteryear too seriously and too literally and perhaps this is the cause of some of the issues that face our community.

In today’s fast paced world that is driven by science and technology and where time is measured in nano-seconds one cannot survive, let alone grow by assuming that "Whatever will be, will be.” Based on an intelligent assessment of the past we have to attempt to predict or see the future and take steps today to increase the probability of our continued success tomorrow. This is what most of us do in corporate life in order to ensure success of our individual businesses and I should think for the community as a whole, it should work no differently.

Two Saturdays ago I spent some time at a session organized by the National Commission for Minorities where the focus was on the sharply declining numbers of Parsis. Whilst I have no doubt that our intelligent, forward thinking community needs to address this problem, it is a little disturbing to find two sharply divided groups emerging both of whom want the same results — an increase in Parsi numbers. I have no intention in getting into that controversy and would leave the solution to the more learned and esoteric members of our community, but I do want to say that our increasing focus on numbers is leading us to ignore another major issue which is facing our community. And that, may I suggest, is quality. Yes, whilst we do have the challenge of how to increase our numbers, may I suggest this evening that we focus equally on ensuring high quality amongst those limited numbers. The Parsi community in the past has been the cynosure for literacy, discipline, cleanliness, honesty, integrity, entrepreneurship and charity. We did not even escape the attention of the famous British storywriter, poet, novelist and Nobel prizewinner Rudyard Kipling who said:

"There lived a Parsi from whose hat the rays of the sun were reflected in more than oriental splendor.”

Our numbers have always been small. After all what’s a few thousand in a global population of six-and-a-half billion or of the Indian population of one billion. And yet from these very, very limited numbers we have had people like Dadabhai Naoroji, Pherozeshah Mehta, the Tatas, the Godrejs. We have roads, buildings, hospitals, educational institutions named after great Parsis. Thanks to them, today, years later, we continue to enjoy a certain brand equity in society.

But what about tomorrow?

Forget the numbers. Forget the quantity. What are we as a bunch of intelligent, forward thinking people doing to ensure that even amongst the limited numbers that we always have been, we continue to have the right quality for others to notice us, to admire us, to recognize our contribution?

I would like to propose a five-point plan with a view towards achieving this. My five points are:

Prepare Parsi youth to face tomorrow and play an important role in society.

Encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship amongst Parsi youth.

Inculcate the need for charity amongst the more successful Parsis. 

Retain traditional customs and values.

Consciously build the brand equity of the Parsi community.

Preparing youth 

A foundation for any young person has to be his education and upbringing at home. Increasingly, because of severe competition for admission into prestigious universities or institutions, young Parsis are not able to get entry into them for courses of their choice.

It should be possible for us to set up a central advisory council to advise our young people on not just the opportunities available, but guide and actually help them secure admission into institutes of their choice. Our community has done more than its fair share in establishing a lot of educational institutions that now have a formidable reputation and it should be possible for us to exert some influence with the powers that be to facilitate entry of our youth into some of these institutions. 

My understanding also is that our Parsi boys seem to be needing more help than our girls. The girls seem to be able to better fend for themselves and are persistent and determined. This, in turn is creating another major social problem, which affects our numbers, because Parsi girls cannot find their intellectual and social level match in Parsi boys, and have to look outside the community.

I also want to say that whilst good education is necessary it is not a sufficient condition to ensure success in life. Remember the U. S. President Calvin Coolidge who said, "The world is full of educated derelicts.”

What is required in today’s world is basic education, plus vocational training in a subject of one’s interest, plus a high amount of what is called "emotional intelligence.” Even if our youth have a strong educational background, and a good IQ (intelligence quotient), I think they get overtaken because of lack of EQ or Emotional Intelligence Quotient. We need to develop their EQ  and instill in them the ‘fighting spirit to win,’ adopt a street-smart approach, which youth of many other less fortunate communities seem to have in ample measure. It is not impossible for us to conceive of an annual program that can provide our youth with all these inputs so that they are able to achieve early success in life. Because, only if you are successful, can you think of contributing to society in a meaningful way.

Encouraging entrepreneurship  

Our forefathers were known for their spirit of adventure in the early days and, later, for entrepreneurship. However in the last 30-40 years, it would appear that many of our young men are quite happy joining a large organization at a relatively junior level and feel easily satisfied with the slow and steady progress they make in their organizations through regular but petty increments. We need to inculcate in our youth a spirit of dissatisfaction or unhappiness with the status quo and then provide meaningful help and assistance for starting small and medium scale enterprises.

To this end I propose a Parsi entrepreneurship council which should have ready over a 1,000 medium and small scale projects in the manufacturing and service sectors, which call for investments of five to 50 lakh rupees. And a few of the more successful Parsis could come in on these projects as venture capitalists. If we can get 1,000 such projects going, out of which only 500 are moderately successful and 50 are very successful, we would have a radical turnaround.

The need for charity 

The third point in my action plan revolves around charity. Whilst our numbers are few, we have a large percentage of the fortunate and successful who are well placed in life and we need to persuade them not just to sign regular cheques in favor of the less fortunate but to come forward and play an active role in community matters and give freely of their time, effort and advice on community issues, which I believe is as valuable, if not more, than money that one gives by way of charity.

Customs and values 

We need to actively take steps to retain our Parsi tradition, customs, mannerisms, beliefs, etc. Whilst there is nothing wrong in the Parsi weakness for aping Western culture, in so doing, we should not give up on our Parsiness or Parsi ways. We need to actively celebrate all our Parsi festivals, Pateti, Navroze, go to our agiaries regularly, wear a sudreh and kusti, do the kusti as prescribed, keep in touch with our Parsi Gujarati language and know a little about our religion.

When I was in Bangalore during my childhood days, I had the advantage of attending religious classes on Saturday mornings which has given me some idea and perspective of our religion, the stories of the Shahnameh and what-not. But my two daughters growing up in Bombay, the bastion of the Parsi community did not get an opportunity to do so. Of course, I must confess, I did not actively try to create that opportunity for them either.

It is easy to give up on old customs and traditions living in a modern society and in a cosmopolitan setting, but if you give them up, remember they can never pass down the generation.

We need to have again some books, classes, websites talking about our customs and traditions, to help those at least who want to know more and follow them, to make it easy for them to do so. Perhaps there are some Parsis outside of Bombay who want to wear the sudreh and kusti but have no access to them once their existing stock wears out. They want to celebrate Pateti but in the absence of a Parsi calendar they don’t know when the day comes and goes by, because as a community we don’t have a mechanism to stay connected, informed or plugged-in. We need to have a dedicated group to look into these aspects and take some concrete action.

Build brand equity 

All of us are indeed proud (and if you are not, you should be) to be born into the Parsi community. Although our numbers are small, a Parsi very widely enjoys in society a reputation of honesty, trust and integrity. I am keenly aware that in my advertising profession I have substantially benefited from this belief, which no doubt is true. Whilst we can freely take advantage of these strong brand values of the Parsi community, we must remember that it is our duty to contribute to the community and help further build the community’s already strong brand values, so that future generations can continue to enjoy the benefits of this equity. After all, isn’t this what a community is all about? It allows you the privilege of partaking of the benefits, provided you accept the responsibility of contributing towards its welfare.

Perhaps my five-point plan will remain on paper. There is only one way of taking some positive steps and that is to replicate for our community what we do in our corporate lives. We need to find a single owner for each of these points of the plan. Huge multi-million dollar projects are undertaken by corporations. How do these complex projects get completed on time? Because the organization gives responsibility and authority to different people to do different jobs and it becomes the responsibility of that person to do that job. We need to do that at the community level. Ideally a group of people led by one senior person should be given both the responsibility and the authority to do something concrete  and report on their progress after six months or a year to an apex body.

Today I would re-write my favorite song as:

Que Sera Sera

It’s not how it used to be

The future, you must foresee

That’s the key, you see

Que Sera Sera.

Sam Balsara is chairman and managing director, Madison Communications Private Limited, an advertising agency ranked the second most admired in the country. The Madison group consists of seven units, all in the field of communications, and has a billing of over 800 crore rupees. Balsara has been president of The Advertising Agencies Association of India, The Advertising Standards Council of India and The Ad Club, Bombay.