I was saddened to learn that Aloo Mowdawalla (pictured) of the Godrej Group is no more ("Mowdawalla’s motivation,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, November 7-20, 2019). She represented the best that Godrej had to offer and had integrated herself so thoroughly with the Group hailing as she did from the same town as Ardeshir Godrej, a priest, and possibly having blood ties with the family.
I got to know her well during a visit to Bombay while I was campaigning for Jimmy Carter as US President and thought of writing about his mother Lillian’s work at Godrej as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1967-68. I knew that Lillian’s guide, neighbor and "supervisor” at Godrej was Kersy Mowdawalla, Aloo’s husband, and thought that my task would be easy, but was unaware that he had passed away. However, Aloo proved to be most helpful in providing me all the necessary data about Lillian’s work. Aloo was very surprised to find herself mentioned in my essay, but I had found that she had fully devoted herself to Lillian’s care and well-being. Lillian, on her part, was very appreciative of Aloo and Kersy and spoke nostalgically about them,
However, something much more outstanding was destined to come out of this relationship. When Carter became president of the USA, the Iranian Zoroastrians in America were aware of the functions I had held in Chicago in his honor. Even Nani Palkhivala, the then Indian ambassador to the USA, who had chaired one function, urged me to seek Carter’s help in ensuring the safety and security of the Zoroastrians in Iran during the revolution that was raging there. So I wrote a letter to the President about it, not being sure how much he really knew about our religion being the origin of the Judeo-Christian tradition. I hoped it would touch his heart as a true Christian and that he would take steps to save the followers of this ancient creed. Though short, it is one of my most sought after essays. And it worked. Carter promised to do the best he could in the matter even though the circumstances were out of his hands.
I sent the letter to the newly formed World Zoroastrian Organisation which was doing all it could to help our co-religionists in Iran. What exactly Carter did is not known to me (or to others), but fortunately no harm was done to the Zoroastrians in Iran at that time, though they were utterly apprehensive about their fate. A great deal of credit for this goes to Aloo and Kersy along with the Godrej Group which had taken care of Lillian as one of their own. Dr KERSEY H. ANTIA
Chicago, Illinois, USA