AZA Zoroastrians 2004

Sandwiched between the covers depicting the beautiful environs of the Arbab Rostam and Morvarid Guiv Darbe Meher in New South Wales are 53 pages bearing the names and addresses of about 1,200 Zoroastrians currently living in the Sydney area. Published by the Australian Zoroastrian Association (AZA), two sets of committee members have shouldered the burden of producing the AZA Directory 2004, forwarded to Parsiana by Mithi Daver, editor of the AZA newsletter Manashni.

Largely restricted to the names of family members, the residential address and phone number, one is unable to glean the community’s professional or commercial profile. What does come through is that the majority (102) of the 354 families have four members i.e. the parents and two children.

Thirty families have three children and only four families seem to have four children. Bearing in mind that in some cases a grandparent is included, this does not present an efflorescence of the community in a country where living space is not a constricting parameter. Families with one child number 66. Also listed are 99 couples (or twosomes) and 53 individuals living alone.

Going on the basis of names alone — not a very reliable indicator in today’s cosmopolitan world — about 42 of the listed families have partners from other faiths.

The AZA, whose current president is Tim Desai, was formed in 1970. Its five-acre Annangrove property includes a natural pond "which we believe is fed by an aqua spring and is the major focus of beautification at the Darbe Mehr,” notes the introduction to the Directory. The compilation includes members and non-members of the AZA.

The main work of compilation was done by Eruch Nanavati with the support of Adi Kanga, Daver, Villie Meher-Homji and Shanaz Desai. AZA vice president Fariborz Jamshidi is credited with the artwork. The beautiful pictures for the cover have been provided by his son Shariar Jamshidi.