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I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments expressed by Khorshed Javeri in "A question of survival” (Parsiana, March 7-20, 2020). I wish we could make a difference by removing bigoted ideas that lack compassion, justice and truth, the very cornerstones of Zoroastrianism. The discrimination against women and parjats, as non-Parsis are referred to, the cruelty of having to exclude one’s own wife/husband and family from prayers and entry into our fire temples are unbearable. What truth, justice or compassion is there in such practices?
Both my parents were ardent Zoroastrians and went to Aslaji Agiary every day. They taught us to pray from the Avesta and took us to Udvada regularly. However, both were liberal in their thinking and respected other religions. There were tiles depicting Laxmidevi and Saibaba in our house, pictures of Jesus Christ and Mother Mary, statues of Krishna and Ganesha. We studied in a Christian school, Queen Mary School and loved singing hymns, went to Swami Chinmayananda’s lectures and enjoyed the bhajans. I had a Muslim student who chanted namaz in the most sonorous voice that uplifted my spirits. That does not make me less of a Zarathushti. I am proud to be one, but first of all I am a human being, equal in all respects to all other human beings as Dadar Ahura Mazda meant us to be.

 

 

 

 

 

Javeri writes about her father with veneration, as I do mine, as being a "man of God.” A sister of mine and I married Parsis, but our younger sister married a Muslim, a fine man, a graphic artist who looked after my mother in the UK for 10 years until she passed away. When she told my parents that she wanted to marry a Muslim, it took them a brief while to adjust before accepting her decision. No ranting, raving, acrimony, scolding, contempt or disowning their daughter (which would have broken our hearts), just quiet acceptance. What a lesson in love, compassion and understanding! It taught us to be better mothers too.
So much of what Javeri has written about her father applies to my handsome, charming, loving Dad too. He never gave us sermons. We imbibed his principles through osmosis. It took me many years to realize this and pass on his principles to my students who noted them down. I felt proud of my religion that believed in equality of the sexes. The sentence "Man and woman are two wheels of the same cart” is fixed in my mind. I believed my religion, though the most ancient, professing one universal God, was so modern in thought. It was so, until later when traditionalists tried to impose upon us that "man is superior to woman and she has to be denied the privileges given to him.” How utterly barbaric! In a trice we have been thrown back into the stone age. Otherwise there would not have been a Goolrookh Gupta  courageously fighting for the rights of Parsi/Zarathushti women in the Supreme Court.
I never imagined there would be racial fanatics in our enlightened community who profess that our religion and community are superior to others. And yet we are admirers of Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda, the poets Kabir and Rumi and Rabindranath Tagore, freedom fighters like Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela, and the most recent hero, Abdul Kalam.
Then there is the totally irrational diktat that prayers can be performed for those buried or cremated where there are no dakhmas but not in Bombay, Poona, etc which have dakhmas. It is thanks to several progressive Parsis that non-Parsi husbands, wives, children and others can attend the funeral rites of their loved ones at the Prayer Hall in Worli. We should be ashamed of the cruelty that we are perpetrating upon the pallbearers, treating them as social outcastes while claiming we have no caste system. I appreciate the Parsis who carry their own family members to the dakhmas because there are no pallbearers.
I have been a teacher all my life and love children. Their caste, color or creed does not matter. It breaks my heart when an innocent child looks up at me and asks: "Why am I treated like an outcaste?” What answer can I give? We are all children of the same God, so why this division? Religions should be bridges between people and not walls.
I also admire the writings of Piroja Jokhi. She is in her 90s and expresses herself lucidly and with candor. Her letter  "Cleansing Doongerwadi” (Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, March 7-20, 2020) is superb. I quote her last paragraph, with which I am completely in sync: "When we are renovating the physical structure of the place, let us also cleanse our hearts of pettiness, remove the garbage of spite, hatred and arrogance, paint with the color of love and compassion, and polish with the luster of humility. Let us pray with love and devotion not only to purify our hearts of passions, but to bring us everlasting peace and joy!”