Unwittingly, I find myself dropped into the caldera of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) elections by a wonderful lady whose sensible letters to you I have always appreciated, Piroja Homi Jokhi ("The engine driver’s curse,” Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, April 21- May 6, 2021). Using an exchange of letters with my old friend, Berjis Desai, to argue for his suitability on the board of BPP trustees, she draws our attention to the grace with which he acknowledges some inconsequential errors that I was crude enough to point out. I fully agree with her; I too was humbled by Desai’s very generous response to my letter.
The same issue carries a letter from Phiroze Amroliwalla and Zeree Jehangirji, "A costly consent,” on reading which I realized that we have the solution to a problem many in India are confused with. Even whilst Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi was preening and pirouetting at having single-handedly conquered mari-giyo pélo (that dead) virus, our very own Dinshaw Mehta, former BPP chairman, had predicted the onset of the second wave of the pandemic as far back as February 17. Had he been in the PM’s chair, we would have been well prepared with oxygen, remdesivir and firewood for crematoria. So, mahra hamdeen (my co-religionists), I propose Mehta for PM. None of this there-is-no-alternative-to-Modi nonsense! Though, may I suggest to Mehta that a full, square-cut beard would suit his buccaneer spirit far better than the Robi Thakur style that Modi grew for the West Bengal elections.
NAWSHIR MIRZA
nhm@nawshirmirza.com
Illustration by Farzana Cooper