"My life has not changed much… but I do have a nostalgia for the old culture… manners used to be the big thing back then. Maybe people are more practical now,” Mithoo Coorlawala had stated when she turned 100 (see "A blessed centenarian,” Parsiana, July 21-August 6, 2018.) The 106-year old "begum,” as she was referred to, a former Hyderabad/Secunderabad resident, passed away on April 23, 2024.
Her elegance — double string of pearls, diamonds on her fingers, perfectly coiffed hair, stockings and peep-toed shoes — had struck the Parsiana representative during the interview. A few months before that interview, her extended family had celebrated her milestone birthday with a gathering at Hyderabad’s Falaknuma Palace (Hotel). Coorlawala was among Parsiana’s oldest and most valued subscribers and well-wishers.
From l: Uttara Asha Coorlawala, Mithoo Coorlawala,
Sherena Khan; inset: Col Khushroo Coorlawala
The first Indian head of the Madras-e-aliya School for the elite of Hyderabad, a (British) Army wife, blood bank secretary at St George’s Hospital, Coorlawala was associated with the Indian Red Cross Society, the Cancer Society and the Women Graduates Union in various capacities. She also served as chairman of the executive committee of the Cambridge Society of Bombay and as the president of the Time and Talents Club. She lived a generous life, stated the obituary in The Times of India.
Parsiana requested her daughters Uttara Asha Coorlawala and Sherena Khan to share their reminiscences. "Most cherished are the steady stream of letters she would write to me when I went to college in the USA… Each letter brought her love with it and held me steadfast,” stated New York based choreographer and danseuse Asha. "In later years, Mom’s total immersion in the activities of the Time and Talents Club stood out for me… There were constant meetings and discussions at our home, at other members’ homes, and at the Club.”
Asha stated that she was very proud of what Mithoo accomplished as part of her fundraising efforts: "Major cultural firsts like the Dior fashion show where local models sashayed with Dior’s models and my sister and I would watch fascinated and practice walking like them… Dance and music concerts where my sister and I got to play ushers… French mime Marcel Marceau… The outdoor Shakespeare plays in the garden at Petit Hall organized by the Oxford and Cambridge Societies of which she was also an active member.” By 1984 the Time and Talents Club had sponsored more than 400 performing artiste groups, appreciated Asha. "All these cultural events were successful as social events but they were in fact a pretext for raising funds for charitable institutions providing medical, educational and other forms of relief for those in need.”
Mithoo had once told Asha that she had wanted to write an encyclopedia but this aspiration was thwarted while she was still very young. "I felt saddened by this limitation in her life.” She did end up writing and lecturing on aspects of Zoroastrian history, including the Ahd-Namah on the relatively unknown covenants of personal protection and religious freedom granted by Prophet Muhammad to the Zarathushtrians, Jews and Christians of Arabia, stated Asha.
In the third standard at the Walsingham House School, Mithoo visited Asha’s class teacher. "A little boy sitting next to me asked. ‘Who is she? Your mother?’ I was very embarrassed and nodded. He responded, ‘She is beautiful.’ I was so happy… Much later I came to appreciate how despite her age she would remember details about friends of all ages who would call and ask to visit! And this is how many of her friends, now my friends, remember her — charming, enthusiastic, inquisitive, forthright and always elegant.”
Born on September 24, 1917 in Bombay to Jeroo Dastur and Nadirshah Chenoy, legal adviser to the government of Hyderabad, Asha stated that Mithoo often recollected that Hindu, Muslim and Parsi families around her shared a rich and unified cultural identity. Educated at the Nizam College, Hyderabad, and the Universities of Bombay and Newnham College, Cambridge, she held a bachelor’s degree in history and economics and a masters in English literature, "securing first place in the entire universities for both her degrees.” Married to Col Khushroo, at the outbreak of World War II, the young officer was assigned to the battlefront in Burma. "My mother volunteered as head information officer and librarian in the Indian Military Hospital in Trimulgeri (Secunderabad) during the war.” Independent India saw them in Bombay in 1951 where Mithoo was involved with multiple organizations. She also served as lecturer/director of studies for courses of the Leslie Sawhny Programme for Training in Democracy, stated Asha.
"Most recently Mithoo had been serving as a resource for historical archives of the life of the city since Independence,” stated the daughter.