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Within the Byramjee Nowrojee Javeri Dar-e-Meher complex in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh "used to be servants’ quarters for about six-seven servants of the erstwhile Parsi families who built our agiary. Currently none of those servants exist and their grandchildren who currently occupy the quarters are a... nuisance. They occupy maybe 800 square yards but have a free run of the whole compound,” wrote chairman of the fire temple trust Jamshed Mehta. "We have fought an eviction case against them and won it. But the love for these people that some of our Parsi brethren have (ensured) that the order was never executed and the file just disappeared so that someone like myself would never get their hands on it,” Mehta stated. He was responding to Parsiana’s follow-up questions on community assets in the north Indian city. Earlier, fire temple treasurer Adil Byramji had informed Parsiana in an email that community members living in the agiary complex were "terrorized” by encroachers. He had referred Parsiana to Mehta to provide more details. Co-trustees on the fire temple trust are vice president Jamshed Billimoria, secretary Firdausi Patel and members Danish Rustomjee, J. S. Mistry and Mehli Sadri.

 

 

 

 

 

The agiary complex would be approximately 4,000 sq yds, Mehta stated. "Apart from the main agiary building there are three blocks behind the fire temple: an old building which has four families as occupants; another old small building along the boundary wall which has four shops on the ground floor... and three to four rooms on top with entry from inside the compound, previously used as a dharamshala then made into storerooms, with a room occupied by one needy Parsi gentleman; one new building which has six flats, all occupied, built from the donation of the Rustom Guiv Foundation in the 1970s,” the chairman provides the details.
Three associations serve the needs of the 30 to 35-member community in Kanpur: the Byramjee Nowrojee Javeri Dar-e-Meher Trust; The Cawnpore Parsee Anjuman; the Cawnpore Parsee Aramgah Committee, Byramji wrote to Parsiana on August 28. All of them were constituted at least eight to 10 years ago. He was responding to Parsiana’s queries further to his email about the behdin pasbaans who serve the Kanpur fire temple (see "Tending to Kanpur,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, September 7-20, 2019). In the 1960s, Kanpur had 600 Parsis, he stated.
Mehta noted that "at the aramgah which runs into a few acres of land, I can only say that apart from the well kept graveyard of about 2,000-2,500 sq yds (I may be wrong), all the other lands have been usurped, illegally occupied or given away voluntarily by whoever’s conscience allowed it, and we get pennies as rent. These problems are inherited by the current committees and we have done little to set them right. That is the state of our affairs as on date.”
But when Parsiana had spoken on September 3 to ex-air force official, 85-year-old Jimmy Patel, the president of the Aramgah Committee, he stated that some part of the property is leased out to a factory and some shops, adding that there were no issues with the tenants, except for non-payment of rent from one of them for six months. He said that he could not provide exact information about the acreage of the aramgah. The aramgah was built in the 1870s by his grandfather Ardeshir Pestonji Patel who once headed the city’s municipal board.
"The trustees of the Anjuman committee who have sent their resignations (not accepted yet as we have to call for an annual general meeting to do so) for reasons unknown to me (are) Parvez Rustomjee and Baji Kolah,” mentioned Mehta.
Office bearers of the Anjuman are president Rustomjee, vice president Jamshed Sadri, secretary Jimmy Patel, treasurer Baji Kolah and members Kamal Mehta, Nilufer Kolah and Amy Mehta, Byramji provided the names. He informed Parsiana that the  Aramgah management was led by Jimmy Patel along with vice president Aspi Patel, secretary Roshni Sadri, treasurer Keshmira Byramji and members Diler Rustomjee, Villoo Mehta and Jamshed Billimoria.