Kudos to Parsiana for the "Iran Focus” articles in the March 21 issue. One cannot help commenting on the latter portion of Noshir Dadrawala’s "Spiritual motherland” where he quotes Prof Edward G. Browne’s A year among the Persians (1887-1888). It was a period of unkind discrimination described in reality, devoid of any exaggeration. I had learnt about it from my late father who had further bad experiences to narrate. A non-Zoroastrian who was poor and hungry would face scorn, rebuke, censure and perhaps more, if "caught” accepting "food” from a Zoroastrian! In contrast, the change in modern times can be witnessed in "Joint ventures improve logistics,” where Bombay Parsi Punchayet chairman Minoo Shroff refers to the prospects of joint trade with Iran, making us Zoroastrians and all Indians respectable as well as acceptable!
In an interview with the present president of the Iranian Zoroastrian Anjuman (IZA) Mehrwan Irani ("Coping with change”) you have brought to the reader much of the career and profession trends pursued by the growing Iranian youth today. Already beset with numerous problems Mehrwan Irani has gone out of his way in a determined bid to ensure the safety of Zoroastrian properties. Another very capable and well-adjusted Irani, vice-president Gaiv Irani shuns the limelight and renders exemplary community service. The three main functionaries of IZA, Mehrwan Irani, Gaiv Irani and Pervez Irani, are fairly professional in their approach and have conducted affairs creditably despite many encumbrances. The unfortunate problem with Zoroastrian Iranis today is a distinct lack of cohesiveness, in the absence of a celebrity "controlling figure” who can evoke awe, attention and acceptance. Being well-known to Indians of other communities too, past presidents Maj Aderbad Irani and Noshirwan Muluk used to manage effectively, with minimum dissidence. The next article exposes "differences” among members that would surface in any institution anywhere. Two litigants however have been named who express bitterness and one of them draws attention to the problem of personal egos. There was a small oversight on the part of the president, by way of a lapse, when mentioning the photographer and actor Boman Irani but forgetting to name Perizaad Zorabian who has certainly traveled a long way on the road to fame.
"Pondi’s Parsis past and present” (Parsiana, March 21, 2006) indicates that the Parsis of Pondicherry are obsessively preoccupied with life.
"The belle of Belgaum” in the same issue was very enjoyable. What versatility comes out in the personality of Freny Nanji, not "terribly religious,” but the embodiment of the belief that "working hands are better than praying hands.”
The learned and much respected former bureaucrat Jamsheed Kanga gives us several relevant points to ponder in his lengthy scholarly contribution ("The duty of every Zoroastrian…”). Expecting and hoping that our "educated and intelligent” community would read the painstakingly assembled material contained in Judgments, a book published by Parsiana, Kanga strikes a note of subdued sarcasm, a gentlemanly trait that is the mark of a discreet, restrained individual. Kanga opines, "Thus it is clear that the fears that the community would be swamped by Africans and Brazilians as Khojeste Mistree’s fertile imagination predicts, is unfounded and there would be no sharing of our assets which are safe from converts.”
The truth is that the imagination of a highly dogmatic person has been going on the rampage, a condition capable of much mischief. To conclude, may I add a small original composition of mine, put poetically: Multiple mischief is found to be/Born always as a dangerous brainchild/It is the ill conceived progeny/of an imagination running wild.
RASHID G. KHOSRAVI