"Our common Aryan race has always held the cultural leadership of Asia…A dialog among civilizations is important for peace and progress in the international community.” Felicitating Bombay Parsi Punchayet chairman Minoo Shroff, who is chairman of the Indo-Iranian Friendship Society, at the golden jubilee celebrations of the Culture House of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI), its counsel general in Bombay Mohammad Shokrani continued to speak of the two "oldest civilizations in the world with more than 5,000 years of interaction between them.”
The two-day celebration on January 15 and 16, 2007 at Bombay’s Y. B. Chavan Partishthan Auditorium witnessed the award of a memento and certificate to a handful of Indians and Iranians who had made outstanding contribution to Indo-Iranian relations, including Shroff and K. R. Cama Oriental Institute (KRCOI) trustee secretary Homai Modi. The presentation was made by Morteza Shafi Shakid, cultural counsel from the IRI embassy in Delhi.
Entertainment comprised Iranian Sufi musical performances by the Naghme Group from the Neyavaran Cultural Centre in Tehran, a sitar and tabla duo by Arvind Parikh and Anutosh Degharia and screening of an outstanding Iranian film each day. An array of spectacular prints lined the walls of the auditorium foyer and beautiful Iranian crafts were displayed in showcases.
Complimenting the Culture House for "disseminating the sweet Persian language, the exquisite culture” which had attracted him since his college days, Shroff noted, "In the 1940s there were only two second languages offered by the colleges of Bombay University – French and Persian. Unfortunately, (the study of) Persian has now become rare. The other point of contact between Indians and Iranians at the working street level were the ubiquitous Irani shops and restaurants. They offered edible, affordable, appetizing food. Unfortunately, because of skyrocketing real estate prices, many of these have ceased to exist.”
Iran Culture House; (bottom) Mohammed Reza Mirzaei, director
Recalling his goodwill visit to Iran last year as guest of the Iranian government, Shroff spoke of how impressed he was by the way historical and archeological sites were being maintained: "I was struck by the citizens’ pride in guarding them…Unfortunately, these priceless treasures are not being marketed properly.” He spoke of Iranian carpets and caviar, the courtesy and warm hospitality of the people, the disciplined transport and cleanliness of the cities, the heritage of music and films. He alluded to the audience granted to the visiting Zoroastrians by President Ayatollah Khameni and Prime Minister Akbar Hashami Rafsanjani on the occasion of the Sixth World Zoroastrian Congress in 1996 when the primacy of Prophet Zarathushtra had been acknowledged. "King Jamshid is credited with (the concept of) music; there was also lively music under the Sassanians,” he added.
Welcoming the distinguished invitees on the first day, among whom were members of the Indian film fraternity and the diplomatic corps, Culture House director Mohammad Reza Mirzaei recalled that the story of the Iran Culture House in Bombay began on March 9, 1956 when Mohammad Kamkar Parsi, secretary of the ministry of culture and arts of the government of Iran at that time, came to establish "a center of Persian learning for Iranian residents of Bombay, more especially for the Zoroastrians.” Persian classes began after the inauguration of the Centre at its present location on December 19, 1956, with Parsi as its first director. Regular study of Persian for boys and girls from standard one to six, celebration of festivals and conversational Persian classes have found more than 450 students awarded certificates for passing in various grades each year, notes the Centre’s press release. Seminars on such subjects as Ferdowsi and the Shah Nameh, the poet, philosopher and astronomer Omar Khayyam, mathematician and doctor Al-biruni, poets Hafez and Saadi were among the many held by the Culture House in conjunction with such prestigious local institutions as the University of Bombay, the KRCOI, Anjuman-i-Islam, Poona’s Deccan College and others.
Annual Saadi Awards for language and literature have been instituted by the Culture House. As noted the evening’s compere Jawad Asgari, an Iranian born and bred in India, in the context of Indo-Iranian relations, "Iran is my motherland; India my fatherland.”
Arnavaz S. Mama