I met some pilgrims who had been to the holy heritage town of Udvada and were greatly disturbed to see that the beautiful statues of the guardians on either side of the entrance to the Iranshah Atash Behram had been ruthlessly removed and cast aside. These pillars embellished the entrance gate and visitors to the holy site were wowed and impressed by them.
I also heard that the beautifully laid out paving stones on the street leading to the Iranshah are to be ripped off. Earlier, before the paving stones were laid, pilgrims to Iranshah had to traverse this dusty road which was full of ditches and puddles of water. Women visitors to the Iranshah were indeed grateful that the paved road did not muddy their precious kor saris!
It is regrettable and wasteful to remove the entrance pillars and the paver stones which were installed at considerable cost by a generous and philanthropic donor a few years ago, duly approved of and erected at the instance of the authorities concerned. It is always good to see a resourceful benefactor come forth and do something for our community but, the good acts of the past by others should not be destroyed when there is absolutely no need to do so.
Such wasteful, unnecessary expenditure can easily be avoided and the funds used to protect our community’s interests elsewhere which, as we have seen in recent media reports, are in jeopardy. I sincerely hope good sense prevails and the powers-that-be do not discourage other well-meaning individuals from coming forward to do some good for our religion and community.
FIRUZA JIMMY KHAN
firuzakhan2009@gmail.com
The editors’ response:
Khan’s letter was sent to Dastur Khurshed Dastoor, High Priest of Udvada, and we were awaiting his response till this issue went to press.