"In 2016 an inner voice kept saying that it was time that I reunited the chandi ni toran with Aden’s atash padshah,” stated 71-year-old Filly Maravala, former mayor of London. As he had planned a trip to India last December he got in touch with Saroosh Dinshaw, trustee of the Cowasjee Dinshaw Daremeher in Lonavla where the Aden atash padshah has been enthroned for the last 40 years. "He was absolutely delighted,” added Maravala who then expressed his keenness to hang it up himself at the doorway leading to the atash padshah. "I told the panthaky sahib to take great care of it as I felt I was losing a huge part of me,” Maravala conveyed in an email to Parsiana.
Recalling his association with the chandi ni toran and the Aden agiary, Maravala who was born and educated in Aden mentioned that he had spent his formative years there. In 1967, at the age of 21 political upheavals caused him to leave Aden where he was working for Air India as a telex operator and settle in England. After an absence of 15 years he made a short trip to Aden when he had "a burning desire to visit our beloved agiary…that was looked after (by)…Madan Uncle.” Worried that the agiary artefacts may fall into wrong hands, Madan urged Maravala to carry them with him to England but he opted to take only the chandi ni toran.
"Just as I had feared, I was stopped at Customs and asked by the officer what this article was. Being fluent in Arabic, I explained that this pertained to my religion. He then asked me to demonstrate exactly how I used it. So I took it out from my bag and unfolded it, put on my topi and recited an Ashem Vohu. He was impressed and asked me to put it back in my bag and clear customs… From 1982 until 2016 I kept it in my house and looked after it as if it was part of my body, polishing it on auspicious occasions,” Maravala related to Parsiana.
Chandi ni toran being hung up by Filly Maracala at the entrance to the Aden atash padshah at
the Cowasjee Dinshaw Daremeher in Lonavla
A resident of UK for the last 50 years, Maravala first worked for a bank and an insurance company before he joined the Labour Party in 1982 and became a councillor in 1994. Although retired from politics since 2014, he held the record of receiving the highest number of votes among 63 councillors in the London borough of Redbridge in 2010. "In 1999 (the millennium year), I had the great fortune to become the first Zoroastrian/Asian mayor not just of the London borough of Redbridge but the first Zoroastrian mayor in the capital city of London, all with the grace of Dadar Ahura Mazda… I am a very devout follower of our beloved Zoroastrian religion and watching recent shenanigans in Bombay and elsewhere breaks my heart,” states Filly who is married to Hutokshi and has four children. Since his retirement he has been busy with small DIY (Do It Yourself) projects.