I have read "A farewell to the hills” (Parsiana, October 7-20, 2020) about the Nowrojee family owned 160-year-old store Nowrojee & Son, General Merchants in McLeodganj, Himachal Pradesh (pictured) that closed down recently. It was not the only Parsi entity in the hills of Northern India. Sorabji Billimoria’s father had a shop dealing in Chinese goods in Simla sometime after 1860, about which I had written last year ("Settlers in Simla - I” Parsiana, August 7-20, 2019).
Then there were the Pestonjees of Srinagar on the Bund with their daru (liquor) business. They had a life-size wooden White Horse depicting the eponymous Scotch whisky on the edge of the lake. Every evening the old man would stand next to the statue of the horse and wave to tourists gliding by in shikaras. In Pathankot we had the Perrys. I wonder what happened to these people?
RUSI SORABJI
California, USA
rustam@sorabji.org...