"The Parsi population in Calcutta has declined over the years…It is difficult to have big teams for sports…We will have more or less the same activities as we have had in the past,” stated the Calcutta Parsee Club’s new president, retired businessman Rustom Daroga, talking to Parsiana on August 20, 2022. He has been a trustee of the Delhi Parsi Anjuman and has represented the north zone at the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India; he has headed Selvel Delhi, an outdoor media company. The managing committee for 2022-23 is a mix of existing and newly nominated members. They took charge in the week of August 15 this year. "I nominated (Daroga),” immediate past president and first ever woman to head the 113-year-old much loved institution, Prochy Mehta told Parsiana.
Clockwise from top l: office bearers of Calcutta Parsee Club Rustom Daroga, Cyrus Confectioner,
Rayzad Bulsara, Khurshed Bulsara, Boman Parakh, Yasna Buchia, Jamsheed Daver,
Farhad Master, Jahan Mehta, Dinyar Mucadam
Entrance of the Calcutta Parsee Club
The 10-member Club committee includes other new faces besides Daroga: Rayzad Bulsara (vice president); Jamsheed Daver (ground secretary); Farhad Master (assistant general secretary); and Yasna Buchia (junior representative). Cyrus Confectioner and Dinyar Mucadam (vice presidents); Jahan Mehta (vice president, sports); Khurshed Bulsara (general secretary) and Boman Parakh (treasurer) were part of the earlier committee and continue to remain so.
Calcutta is looking forward to hosting the Jiji Irani Cup cricket tournament in late January 2023, said Daroga. Normally played between the Parsi teams of Hyderabad, Surat, Calcutta, Nagpur and Jamshedpur, "Surat has backed out so it will be a quadrangular,” Daroga rued. It was Surat’s turn to host the competition this year.
Numazar Mehta, senior trustee of Calcutta Zoroastrian Community’s Religious and Charity Fund, will now be the convenor of the tournament. "We have sadly lost two stalwarts but are determined to keep the Jiji tournament going,” Mehta noted. [Previous chairman of the Cup Shiraz Gimi passed away in Nagpur in 2021 (see "Gimi’s legacy,” Events and Personalities, Parsiana, March 21-April 6, 2021) as did Jamshedpur’s ardent cricketer Navzer Dotiwala.]
Sports form the bulk of the Club’s activities. Stated Jahan Mehta, son of Prochy and Numazar, "We are currently playing a lot of five a side soccer at our Club. We have an under 13 boys’ team which plays regularly, and we hope that they will be able to play in the under 17 Indian football Association league in the next few years.” The football season will come to an end in October "when we get the grounds ready for tennis… We hope to have the courts ready in December.” Jahan noted that members who have settled outside the city normally come back to Calcutta in winter, so the Club witnesses plenty of activity over the weekends. "It is great to watch multiple generations of families get together and play sport in our Club.”
Their women’s basketball team will participate in the state run league between November 2022 and March 2023, stated Jahan. "Our girls have won the league in the recent past and we hope to be challenging for the championship this year as well.” Next March will see the start of the Bengal Hockey Association league. "We have several members who represent our team, and we hope to see some of the under-13 lot picking up this sport too.” And in April is a keenly anticipated tournament "where we have teams coming in from neighboring Bangladesh as well.”
The Club has been admitting women members since the 1930s. Jahan clarified their position on intermarried members: "The earlier committee had taken a stance that they would treat intermarried couples the same regardless of whether it was the man or woman who had married out of the community… There was a great desire from the members to expand this further to allow the children of intermarried couples who had opted to follow another faith to be made members. At the Open House called specifically to discuss the matter, speaker after speaker spoke in favor of the rule change. However, the rule amendment did not go through at the extraordinary general meeting which was called for subsequently.” The members of the Club still welcome all the children with open arms, he ended.