Bonhomie in Surat

To bring the members of the community together during the auspicious muktad and Gatha days, the Zoroastrian Women’s Assembly of Surat (ZWAS) or­ga­nized a series of programs from August 11 to 16, 2003 so that the coming year would see them enjoying bonhomie and fellow feeling, as notes a write-up from trustee Maharukh Chichgar.

President of the Surat Parsi Panchayat Darayas Master and the other trustees assured their cooperation to the ZWAS which serves as a friend of the Surat infirmary, a confidante of the girls and boys orphanages and assists the needy Parsis in and around Surat.

To create the mood for the festive season with the necessary zest and pep the New Year Festival was launched by the ZWAS team under its president Kainaz Kapadia, secretary Benaifer Engineer and trustees Chichgar and Piloo Bhathena. A prayer competition for the four-six, seven-10, and the 11-15 age-group on the first evening was judged by Ervads Kobad Bharda and Zubin Dalal. This was followed by a slide show depicting the life of Zarathushtra and a screenplay On being a Zoroastrian which was directed, conducted and conceived by Chichgar with the assistance of Sarosh Sanjana. The compere for the evening was Perin Karanjia, chairperson of the program committee.

Winners of the antakshari competition (left) and prayer competition (below) with ZWAS committee members and Master (center)

The following day saw 32 teams compete as the Katlesh, Kabab and Petis teams in the Antakshari rounds hosted by Hemin Engineer and Ketul Patel where the background music was provided by Bagda Melodies. A mystical magic show by Mukund Gajjar was the treat scheduled for August 14. A games session on August 16 saw the young and old join in the fun and frolic as masti-makers Benaifer Engineer, Anahita Mistry and Pearl Daboo kept everyone entertained until the contributory dinner by Yazdi Engineer.

Assisting Perin Karanjia on the program committee were Farzana Karanjia, Daboo, Vira Karanjia, Vahista Variawa, Roxanne Ghadiali, Mani Jehangir, Khushnaz Italia, Farida Anklesaria, Gulshan Dumasia, Maharukh Davier­wala, Nazneen Wadia and Aban Bha­thena.