She is their "patron saint… a philanthropist and benefactor to thousands of Zoroastrians, a legend in her lifetime who will never be forgotten,” stated World Zoroastrian Organisation Trust Funds (WZOTF) chairman Dinshaw Tamboly at a ceremony to unveil a portrait of Scylla Vatcha at the Bai Maneckbai P. B. Jeejeebhoy Senior Citizens Centre in Navsari on October 20, 2023. The entire cost of building the Centre was borne by Vatcha’s Bai Maneckbai P. B. Jeejeebhoy Deed of Settlement Fund. Magnanimous donations from her helped WZOTF uplift the poor farmers in Gujarat, motivate young full-time mobeds, promote self-employment schemes with interest free loans, provide residential facilities in Navsari and build their Sanatorium in Sanjan.
Above, from l: WZOTF trustees Rohinton Contractor, Bachi and Dinshaw Tamboly, Farokh Kasad,
Aspi Ambapardiwala, Cyrus Vandriwala; top: benefactor Scylla Vatcha
The inspiration to create the Centre came from a Parsi gentleman working with the Central Bank of India who came to meet Tamboly in 1992. "He conveyed to me he was single, had no relatives and was due to retire in 1995.” The man wanted Tamboly to assist in locating a suitable house at Navsari to be purchased from his retirement benefits where he could spend the remaining years of his life in the company of five to six healthy Parsis of his age group, who like him were single. When the chairman told him he would help him in his search, "he began to visit me at my office ever so often and kept on reminding me of my commitment…Finally, in 1995 when he did retire, he asked me to begin scouting. After a bit of effort, a suitable house was located and he was informed to meet the owner and finalize the terms.” That was the last Tamboly heard of the man. "He seemed to have simply vanished into thin air, not accepting the few reminder phone calls that I made to him.”
A few days later while meeting Vatcha at a social gathering he mentioned the incident and the philanthropic lady asked him to prepare a project for such a home. Among the three conditions she specified were: proximity to a bazaar, to a fire temple and a Parsi locality. "In keeping with her dynamism, Scylla approved the project within a fortnight and gave us the green signal” to go ahead. The visionary also arranged for construction of a separate building at the Parsi Infirmary at Navsari "where our residents could be shifted under their care,” should such an eventuality arise.
Vatcha, whose credo was "give till it hurts” passed away on March 17, 2020 (see "Scylla, the Samaritan,” In Memoriam, Parsiana, April 7-July 6, 2020).