"With a lot of effort and imagination, the present renovation has been carried out within around Rs 10 lakhs,” declared Nargolwala. Taking a keen interest in the improvement of the guest house is the Dharamshala subcommittee constituting Dr Niloufer Shroff, Farida Variava, Meenakshi Bhujwala, Kaenaz Engineer, Villie Aria, Zavher Chowdhury and Benaifer Bagli.
Following the retirement of long-standing manager Dhun Bagli (see "Dhun at the Dharamshala” Parsiana, October 7, 2017), the Anjuman appointed Irani who has considerable experience in managing hotel properties in India and overseas. He will now be in charge of the rooms while the kitchen which has been separated from room stay, will be in the control of Rustom’s, a popular Parsi eatery started by Kainaz Contractor and Rahul Dua. To make it a revenue generating stream for the Anjuman and the caterer, lodgers as also DPA members will have the option of availing of Rustom’s Parsi and mutli cuisine food beginning mid-December. The kitchen and dining room are currently being renovated under the supervision of architect Kavas Kapadia.
The main door and its frame have been painted in brighter colors as also the corridors on the ground and first floor, and all the rooms and bathrooms. Most deluxe rooms have been refurbished with new curtains, bedspreads, bedsheets, towels, colorful cushions and bright pictures to give them a cheerful appearance. All rooms have been fitted with a "Magic eye,” a peep hole with a fish eye lens that magnifies the image of the person standing outside the room. Wi-fi connectivity is available throughout the premises. Staff members are now seen in uniforms with name tags. Whilst the tariffs of the deluxe air-conditioned rooms with attached bathroom and geyser, flat screen LED television, coffee/tea maker are Rs 1,550-1,700 per day (or Rs 18,000-20,000 per month plus electricity as per sub meter), that for the standard rooms without AC are Rs 950 per day (Rs 15,000-17,000 per month plus electricity). On room tariffs exceeding Rs 1,000 per day, 12% Goods and Services Tax is applicable.
The twin sharing student rooms on the second floor have the convenience of an attached bathroom with geyser, separate beds, writing tables and cupboards for which each student has to pay Rs 8,500 per month. They can additionally avail of the pantry fitted with refrigerator, microwave, toaster, RO (reverse osmosis) plus water cooler and TV lounge facility on the floor. DPA member Novy Kapadia’s contacts with the Times School of Journalism brought in postgraduate students to the Dharamshala and thus a steady revenue for nine months of the year.
Room bookings have been facilitated with the use of an electronic dash board, and to ensure maximum occupancy, flexible pricing of rooms has been permitted within certain limits. The Dharamshala permits stay to non Parsis too. Bookings can be done via the website delhiparsis.com managed by Mehernosh Shapoorjee or the website delhiparsidharamshala.com. Further enquiries can be made by email:
roomsdpa@gmail.com or by phone: +919773965100 or 011-23238615.
Most of the repair work on the front side of the Dharamshala building where cracks had emerged due to the impact of Metro work in the vicinity was undertaken by the Metro authorities. The gate structure and sewer covers were also fixed by Metro workers.
All fire-fighting equipment has been refilled and repositioned more logically and a training drill was conducted in May. An anonymous donor has come forward to finance the cost of installing electricity generating solar panels that will result in "huge savings on our monthly electricity bills,” states Nargolwala.
Of the 995 members on the Anjuman’s rolls, 680 or 68% reside in Delhi NCR (National Capital Region), 236 or 24% in other parts of India and 79 or eight percent live abroad. To augment revenue for the Kaikhushru Pallonji Katrak Dar-e-Meher, it was decided that an appeal will be sent to the members to contribute to the corpus. The secretary’s report lauded the donation drive spearheaded by Feroza Jassawala who "worked tirelessly with unmatched passion to collect funds for our Anjuman. In December 2015 she had collected around Rs 28 lakhs for the Dar-e-Meher and DPA corpus… We hope she continues to help us in future too.” This year she succeeded in raising Rs 25 lakhs for the DPA when she organized a show by Dinyar Contractor Production (see "A play for funds,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, April 21, 2017). The funds collected by her are partly being deployed for Dharamshala renovations.
Besides participating in various celebratory functions, members take time off to collect old clothes and send them to the needy in Gujarat, an initiative spearheaded by Nilufer Dhondy and Rinchen Nargolwala. This year six boxes were sent to The WZO Trust Funds in Navsari to be distributed among their old age homes and other institutions. The boxes were transported by Kaenaz and Cyrus Engineer.
Since Delhi was left with only one priest, Ervad Cawas Bagli from September 2016 to March 2017, after consulting Dastur (Dr) Firoze Kotwal of Bombay, the Anjuman has engaged behdin pasbans to assist Cawas at the Dar-e-Meher from March 2017. To address the complaint of excessive smoke during muktads when multiple fires are lit, the trustees are considering improving the ventilation system. The Anjuman is happy though that it has three school going children among its ordained navars: Ervads Karl Sidhwa, Malcolm Bajan and Jehan Madan.
Karl who was ordained as a priest in Udvada at the age of 12 years in 2014 comes from a family of 28 generations of priests, as per information sent by Jassawala. After his navar ceremony he has performed several jashans along with his father Ervad Rohinton, and grandfather Ervad Jamshed Sidhwa who taught him the Yasna prayers. Currently studying in the 10th grade, he is also a sports enthusiast, being on the school basketball team and a gold medalist in swimming. Whilst he has set his sights on becoming a chartered accountant he is equally determined to complete his maratab training. Karl set the precedence for Malcolm and Jehan (see "Delhi’s mobed duo,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, September 7, 2017) to pursue priestly training.
Whilst members were urged to book jashans, tandorostis regularly on auspicious occasions, the annual report mentioned that prayer services will be listed on their website so that those who cannot visit the fire temple, can book and have the prayers performed online.
The community in Delhi that prides itself on being "vibrant and progressive in its thinking — working not just towards preserving its rich cultural heritage, but also towards finding solutions that can stem the slow annihilation of a race,” is led by a group of trustees "with old world experience and enthusiastic young blood,” as expressed on the website. "Openness to other points of view and depth of thinking are some of the key characteristics that make us who we are!”