Assembling in Allahabad

The fact that 16 of the 18 members were present at the annual general body meeting of The Allahabad Parsee Zoroastrian Anjuman (APZA) on March 21, 2004, indicating an 88.88 percent attendance "speaks volumes,” noted a communique from the president of the Anjuman Capt Homi Dandiwalla who was reelected to his seventh consecutive three-year term as president. He was first elected as president on August 13, 1985 and now at the age of 78 continues with his responsibilities despite physical disabilities. "I have just completed supervising repairs at the bungli at the APZA aramgah sitting from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day,” he wrote to Parsiana.

Dandiwalla (left) and Gandhi

The newly elected vice president-trustee of the Anjuman is Rustom Gandhi who, according to Dandiwalla, is a very good administrator well known in the Parsi and cosmopolitan communities. "I am very sure that now the APZA Bazam Hall will also start functioning — it needs extensive repairs and a lot of other work has to be done,” added Dandiwalla. At the executive council meeting of the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anju-mans of India in Bombay in June 2003, Dandiwalla had commented that with the declining interest rates and escalating expenditures the only way for the Anjuman to avoid deficits was to turn the Bazam Hall into a money-earning asset. At an estimated cost of two lakh rupees, to be raised from generous philanthropists, they hoped to renovate the Hall.

The efforts of Darius Dinyar Dhondy and his uncle Bejan F. Dhondy in keeping alight the holy fire at the Jalejar Shapoorji Ghandhi Dar-e-Meher in Allahabad were commended by Dandi­walla as was the dedication of Yezdi Darius Gandhi in cleaning the kebla, readying the divas, laying the sandalwood and giving monetary compensation to the gardener.