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Having lived in Udvada till I was 14 years old, I have happy memories of the Jijibhai Dadabhai (JD) School where I studied till 1953 and the Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy (JJ) School in Bombay from where I matriculated. As the majority of students and teachers in both these schools were Parsi Zoroastrians I bonded well with them and remember them with affection to this day.

The medium of instruction in the JD School in Udvada was mostly Gujarati and partly English, while at the JJ School it was entirely English. The former School had Parsi, Hindu and Muslim students and excellent teachers, including my dear sister Thrity. At the JJ School the students were only Parsi. Here we were served free lunch and also milk powder! A class monitor would serve each student one large spoon of delicious milk powder twice a day. The thought of it makes me suddenly feel hungry!

The vice principal of JJ School, Meherjibhai Taraporewala, was very strict but had a kind heart and was a marvellous teacher. I can recall the surnames of most other teachers (Pavri, Bana, Doctor) as also full names of some classmates, especially Homi Bookbinder, with whom I shared many jokes.

My dear father Minocher was a doctor in The Seth M. C. Damanwala Charitable Dispensary in Udvada with a majority of his patients and friends being Parsis. I recall the evenings we spent with friends, both Parsis and non-Parsis, on the seashore where adults discussed every topic under the sun while I played in the sand with my school friends. My father had dubbed the venue Rety Club, réty in Gujarati meaning sand.

Another childhood memory of Udvada is of playing cricket with my schoolmates in the evening in front of my house. I was never a good cricketer but loved playing with my friends even if I was bowled for a low score or my bowling was hit for sixers!

My childhood experiences were pleasant, but for one exception. The JD School in Udvada was cosmopolitan with students of all communities mingling happily. Then there was a crisis; not for me or my family, but for the local mobeds. 

Three boys from the lower caste were admitted to the School in the early 1950s. The mobeds thought this would adversely affect the purity of the Zoroastrian religion since the profession of the boys’ parents required them to clean toilets. My father tried his best, unsuccessfully, to convince the mobeds that the children were as clean and hygienic as anyone else. But the majority of mobeds termed them untouchables. Not my parents though, who agreed with Mahatma Gandhi that Harijans, as he called them, were not untouchables.

When the boys continued to study in the School, some mobeds rushed to Bombay to approach wealthy Parsis and convinced them that "our religion was sinking in Udvada.” Those ill-informed Parsis donated large sums of money and a new school, meant only for Parsis, was established in Udvada.

Along with few other Parsi children, I remained in the JD School, thanks to my father. How proud I am of my parents!

This was the only time I was against the thinking of some Parsi mobeds in Udvada.

I remember my pre-teen and teenage years in the coastal town with affection, especially my navjote at our home, aptly named Meher Home (Meher connotes sun, love, kindness, justice, friendship). Being nine years old, my passion was cycling. My dear parents had promised to buy me a bicycle for my navjote. I wanted to ride the shiny new bicycle as soon as the ceremony was over, but visitors kept coming to wish me a happy navjote and handing me pehramnis (envelopes containing cash) for my initiation into our religion. 

When at last my chance came it was one of the happiest moments in my life. I rode my bicycle to the Rezasha Hotel where the guests had congregated for lunch.

Another highlight of my navjote was the visit from Bombay of my uncle and aunt, Khershed and Gooloo Meher-Homji. Khershed Uncle had played a cricket Test match as a wicket-keeper for India against England in Manchester in July 1936. He had remained unbeaten and also caught the England captain, George Allen.

Also, during a match against the Europeans in 1936-37, he had smacked the feared English fast bowler, Harold Larwood of Bodyline fame, for four consecutive boundaries in the first over (Bodyline was a tactic devised by the English cricket team for their 1932-33 Ashes tour of Australia in which the cricket ball was bowled, aimed at the body of the batsman — Wikipedia).

Dr Jaal Wadia, the principal of JJ School, was a likeable character. He was very keen on English grammar. He was also a cricket lover. Every year he would take the School cricket teams to Brabourne Stadium to watch a five-day cricket Test match, at his personal expense! I still remember watching cricketers like Vijay Hazare, Rusi Modi, Polly Umrigar, Tom Graveny, Bill Lawry, Frank Worrell, Hanif Mohammad, Fazal Mahmood, Sonny Ramadhin bat and bowl, thanks to Wadia’s large-heartedness.

Cricket was indeed in my family. My great uncle Rustomji P. Meherhomji had become the first to score 99 runs in the match against Europeans which enabled Parsis to win by an innings. A graceful batsman, critics called him the "Parsi Palairet,” likening him to the elegant English batsman of that name, Lionel Palairet. In Stray Thoughts on Indian Cricket (1905), J. M. Framjee Patel had written, "People go to see it (a Presidency match) just as the Greeks went to their Olympic Games or the Spaniards go to visit the bullfights in Madrid.”

Rustomji scored the maximum runs in the Triangulars, 354 in seven matches, his highest score being 100. 

It is a well-known fact that Parsis were the pioneers of cricket in India. They were the first to tour England way back in 1886. They took part in all inter-community tournaments in India from 1892-93 to 1945-46, winning many matches. The history of Indian cricket is laced with the contributions of the pioneering Parsis in Presidency, Triangular, Quadrangular and Pentangular tournaments involving Europeans, Hindus, Muslims and Christians. 

They participated in the Presidency Tournament against Europeans from 1892-93 to 1906-07 at Bombay Gymkhana and Poona Gymkhana. This Tournament evolved into the Triangulars between Parsis, Europeans and Hindus held at the Bombay Gymkhana from 1907-08 to 1911-12, to the Quadrangulars between Hindus, Parsis, Europeans and Muslims from 1912-13 to 1936-37 in Bombay and Poona and finally to the highly popular Pentangulars contested between Hindus, Muslims, Parsis, Europeans and the Rest (Indian Christians) from 1937-38 to 1945-46. 

"Forget Ranji Trophy and even Test matches; those three-day Pentangular matches drew huge crowds every day,” my father told me. "And not one riot took place even on those frightening days prior to Partition. Cricket united players and spectators of different castes and religions as nothing else did.” He was most disappointed when Gandhi, expecting riots, put an end to the popular Pentangulars in 1946.

During the 1930s a short plump Parsi amused the crowd with his tomfoolery during dull moments of play. Best known for his mimicry of comedian Charlie Chaplin, he called himself "Charlie.” The carnival spirit of Quadrangulars and Pentangulars was enhanced by the antics of this lovable Parsi clown. He once ran between the legs of the Maharaja of Patiala who presented him a gold watch for the joy he brought to the crowd!