Katy and Noshir Gotla are utilizing their wealth to support worthy causes
Farrokh Jijina
They are serial donors, Katy and Noshir Gotla. Residents of Rustom Baug, the innocuous looking couple has donated several crore rupees to various community and cosmopolitan causes. At one time, Noshir states, he did not have Rs 2,000 to his name. "Hu bov garibi ma thi pasaar thayélo (I have experienced extreme poverty),” he told Parsiana on October 21, 2022, explaining that his wealth is a result of prudent investing. He says that he is the custodian of his wealth for the Almighty. "Étla badha paisa aavi gya stock market ma thi té saachavvana bhari paré (I earned so much money from the stock exchange that it was difficult to handle),” he stated. Noshir credits Katy for their savings. "Énné maru ghér kar-kassar thi chalaavyu (She ran my home economically).”
Moved by the loneliness of the residents at the F. S. Parukh Dharamshalla at Khareghat Colony, run by the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), the couple recalled what motivated them to help: "Aapuné é loko ni halat joyi né rarrvu aavé…é loko né khayal nai hossé ké dikra dikri amuné ahiya mooki jassé (We are moved to tears seeing them… They may not have envisaged their offspring leaving them here),” he told us.
Noshir and Katy Gotla (1st and 2nd from l) with Bombay Parsi Punchayet trustees and well-wishers
Above, l: Cursetjee (top) and Jamsetjee Parukh; above r: Dharamshalla premises
The ground and second floors of the ladies wing of the Dharamshalla now wear a new look, thanks to a donation of Rs 30 lakhs (USD 36,440) the couple made. The funds were utilized for painting and plastering, BPP trustee Anahita Desai communicated to Parsiana. Tiling in the passage areas and some sprucing up of the bathrooms was done, with the funds being received through the World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ), she informed Parsiana prior to the October 17 unveiling of the plaque. Desai is chief executive officer of WAPIZ. The first floor had been renovated four years ago, courtesy another donor.
In her address to those present at the event, Desai pointed out that according to Noshir, he "does not look like a man who could give lakhs and lakhs in charity.” The Gotlas live simply, she explained. A hands-on donor, Noshir "would come with (the contractor) Anil Parmar every week to see the progress of work.” Desai had words of praise for Parmar: "Dil thi kam kidhuch (He has worked whole-heartedly) — Étlo (such a) respectful né namano (soft-spoken) contractor is hard to find.”
The trustee enumerated the other charities undertaken by the couple. The Gotlas have donated Rs 1.1 crores to Helping Hands Charitable Trust which runs a medical home at Pardi in Gujarat for lonely senior citizens. It is located on the banks of a river with gardens and open space all around, she noted, with one doctor and two nurses in attendance all the time. At the Victoria Memorial School for the Blind at Tardeo, the couple initially donated Rs 18 lakhs to have the roofs of all five buildings repaired. "He donated another Rs 20 lakhs to renovate a Hall (see "Gotlas’ generosity,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, July 7-20, 2022)… And just recently he donated Rs 1.35 crores for renovating another big hall there,” she noted. "Let us not forget our Bhabha Bungli at Doongerwadi which they renovated ani thi pani ver (completely) by donating Rs 47 lakhs (see "Benefactor for bunglis,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, November 7-20, 2020). He has also repaired and got painted the Contractor Chawl at Byculla for Rs 5.3 lakhs where mostly 21 senior Parsis reside… Apart from these big projects they have made many other donations of two lakh and one lakh to many schools, institutions, agiaries and hospitals.”
Noshir had stood as a candidate for the BPP trusteeship election in 2011 to get an insider’s view. "Bé hatthio marai tau mara jévi kiri né barthi jovanu (When two elephants fight, an ant like me can only stand aside and watch),” he had noted then. He had said he did not intend to spend more than the Rs 5,000 deposit he had to pay to stand for office. He stated he is a certified company secretary and worked for about 40 years with the oil corporation Burmah Shell.
In his address, BPP trustee Xerxes Dastur thanked the Ladies Committee which looks after the day-to-day management of the Dharamshalla. "We need more institutions like this which have stood the test of time and rendered yeoman service to our community,” he stated. BPP trustee Hoshang Jal told Parsiana later that he did not speak on the occasion as it was a Ladies Committee event and he was there as he knew the donors.
Noshir’s sister Dinoo Irani and a few friends accompanied the generous couple to the function. The duo was felicitated with flowers and a plaque by the BPP trustees present and by Zenobia Adajania, longest serving member of the Ladies Committee. Deputy chief executive officer of BPP Shehnaaz Khambatta compered the event.
BPP chairwoman Armaity Tirandaz’s vote of thanks extended to the Dharamshalla managers, Daraius Ichhaporia and Farokh Daruwalla.
Those present included members of the Ladies Committee (Tirandaz, Desai, Adajania, Shirin Katgara, Hutoxi Dadabhoy and Shehnaaz Engineer); BPP trustees (Tirandaz, Desai, Dastur, Jal); WAPIZ trustees (Meher Panthaki and Khojeste Mistree) and the residents of the Dharamshalla.
The facility currently houses 52 residents, 19 women and 33 men. Fourteen of these are paying residents, Desai informed Parsiana.
The Parukhs’ philanthropy
The Dharamshalla owes its origin to a communication from Jamsetjee Jejee- bhoy to the BPP dated January 1835. He "drew attention to the Parsis coming from mofussil for jobs and failing that for monthly doles and, further failing to maintain themselves, begging in the streets or going to marriage functions to get fed or to funerals to get some alms,” notes Sapur Desai in The History of the Bombay Parsi Panchayet 1860-1960. The then yet-to-be-knighted Jejeebhoy suggested that these persons be kept in a house on the land of Wadia Hormusji at Doongerwadi. In June 1835, Kharshedji Banaji placed his land admeasuring about 23,000 sq yards bought by him from the heirs of Hormusji Bomanji Wadia at the disposal of the BPP to carry out Jejeebhoy’s proposal. "When the bungalow became too ramshackle, two brothers, Jamsetjee and Cursetjee (Parukh) came forward to reconstruct the building and in April 1845, after a jashan ceremony, handed it over to the BPP” in memory of their father Fardoonjee.
In 1933 the BPP reconstructed the structure. Subsequently the Aderbad apartment building came up on the same plot.
Fardoonjee and Cursetjee were partners in the firm Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy Sons and Company, writes H. D. Darukhanawala in Parsi Lustre on Indian Soil. Cursetjee’s other charities included Rs 5,21,000 "to support European, Hindu, Parsi and other families in Bombay” between 1862 and 1865; food distribution during the Gujarat famine of 1863-64; four lakh rupees to "dispensaries, panjrapoles (animal shelters), schools and libraries.” He also contributed Rs 20,000 towards the cost of constructing Bombay’s Flora Fountain. A plaque stands on the monument as a testament to his generosity.