The bringing together of Zoroastrians in Poona and giving them a chance to meet and interact every Jamshedi Navroz and Khordadsal has been the objective of the Zoroastrian Youth Association (ZYA) of Poona since its inception, writes president Mabrin Nanavatti. This year students who had excelled in the Secondary School Certificate, Higher Secondary Certificate and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education examinations of 2004 were honored by the ZYA at their Khordadsal function held at the Ladies Club on August 25, 2004. Giving an outline of the activities of the Poona Parsee Panchayat, president Dara Irani stressed on the importance of education in the present scenario.
Fancy dress competition in Poona
The function which began with Soonu Doctor’s choir singing the humbandagi and a few other Gujarati mo-najats included the playing of the tombach, a popular musical instrument in Iran, and dance items by the students of the J. N. Petit Boys School and three teenaged girls. In the fancy dress competition for kids, four-year-old Jennifer Chindy as honey bee was declared the winner in the under 10 age-group and twins Bezan and Behnaz Nanavatti as Dasturji and Najamai were declared the runners up. In those aged over 10, Farzan Kotwal as Parsi Jassi was the winner and Mejernaz Patel as a weight lifter was the runner up. For the elders there was a competition for pregnant mothers, pregnant men (biggest belly!), mother with the youngest baby and longest wed couple.
As per their annual practice, at the dinner that followed the resident boys of the Petit School, nearly 120-130 each year, as also the priests of all the agiaries, chasniwallas, khandhias and their families, and the dole recipients of the Pan-chayat were invited. Music by D. J. Cawas had the audience dancing well past 11 p.m.
Organizing the activities for the 170 members of the ZYA are Nanavatti, vice president Vahistea Mancherji and secretary Behafrid Patel. A summer sports and multimedia activity camp for the youth is also a regular feature every May when about 45-50 children participate.