New hand on the helm

"I am particularly delighted that a young man whom I spotted very early on as a person of exceptional merit is today going to take over from me as our new president… Paurushasp Jila becomes the youngest president in the long history of our association. He is only 30 years old but has already served the ZTFE for over 12 years… Paurushasp also becomes the first president of the ZTFE to have been born in the UK. All previous 24 presidents were born overseas, either in the Indian subcontinent or Iran or East Africa. His presidency should mark a watershed in our history — for the first time, the president is from the generation that knows no home country other than the United Kingdom. This is yet another feather in the cap of Britain’s smallest but most patriotic and loyal faith minority. I believe Zoroastrians are the first of the Asian faith minorities whose leader is UK born and bred.”

So ZTFE’s popular – and hitherto youngest — president Dorab Mistry introduced his successor to his constituency. At the end of eight years of remarkable organizational and public relations achievement, Mistry stepped down to a standing ovation at the 144th annual general meeting of the association on November 27, 2005 and a flurry of appreciation, from local and international Zoroastrians.

Jila (left) with Mistry holding a ZTFE souvenir presented on the occasion

In the course of Mistry’s presidency the ZTFE acquired its new premises at a heritage site, renovated those premises with the approval and blessings of the local municipal and heritage committees, hosted Prince Edward and Countess Sophie – the first ever visit to the association from members of the British Royal Family, bid for and organized the Eighth World Zoroastrian Congress in June 2005. Apart from these milestones, the ZTFE — which, under Mistry’s predecessor Rusi Da­lal, was just beginning to emerge from its long, head-on confrontation with the World Zoroastrian Organisation (WZO) but continued to face a debilitating orthodox-liberal divide — procured the goodwill, cooperation and participation of the WZO at the Congress, with the latter even voluntarily agreeing to accept changes to its constitution and nomenclature in the interests of forming a truly representative world body of Zoroastrians. That this goal was eventually stymied by orthodox forces from India was rued by people of goodwill all over the world. Mistry’s farewell address recognized everyone who had worked on his team, from the trustees and members of the managing committee to the donors and volunteers whose commitment and expertise contributed to the success of the ZTFE.

"When Dorab was elected to be the president on November 16, 1997, the balance sheet of the anjuman as at March 31, 1997 stood at £1,195,097. As he steps down from being the president some eight years later, the balance sheet as at March 31, 2005 stands at £5,779,679. You will, therefore, appreciate that it took us 136 years to bring our balance sheet to a value of £1,195,097 …thereafter, within a span of a mere eight years, the base value of our balance sheet multiplied almost five fold. Can you now see why I describe today as being an occasion of landmark proportions? In economic terms, we have now indeed ‘taken off’ — the phrase used by that great economist W. W. Rostow. Hereon, provided we continue to exercise good judgment and unstinting harmony within the community, we could be on a ladder of progress of geometrical proportions… This vibrancy of the balance sheet has not been achieved by some clever and canny ‘trading deal’ as would be the case in a normal business enterprise. Our achievements only come through wooing our donors to part with substantial charitable donations. In that respect, the Zartoshty family will go down in the annals of history of our anjuman as people of legendary charitableness… However, their philanthropy would not have touched the anjuman in London if it were not for Mehraban’s unstinting confidence and trust in the honesty and integrity of Dorab and his team of trustees and managing committee… Besides the legendary charity of the Zartoshty family, Dorab’s presidency inspired many members of our community to donate four and five-figure sums (with Khorshed and Mahinder Sodhi in the lead)…Most importantly, and absolutely unique to Dorab’s presidency, we witnessed for the first time the receipt of bequests from the likes of the late Dr Phiroz Pithawalla, Darius Chinoy and Captain Rusi Bhadurjee, to name but a few. All this undoubtedly is a reflection of Dorab Mistry’s presidency. People have been moved by Dorab’s integrity and commitment, and thus the love and respect that they, in turn, showed to him and his team.” ZTFE’s longest serving trustee Noshir Avari’s handsome tribute to the retiring president and his wife Shehnaz also noted, "I do not think that there is a single Zoroastrian home in the UK that has not at one time or another been touched by the Mistry family’s hospitality, friendship and warmth.” Avari’s speech detailed the many qualities of head and heart that make for a successful anjuman president and urged the president elect to continue in the footsteps of his predecessor.

A graduate in computer sciences from Kings College, London University, Jila has attained several postgraduate qualifications in computer sciences and finance. He runs a software company and has executed contracts for some of the most famous investment banks such as Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Nomura and is currently under contract with the Royal Bank of Scotland, noted Mistry’s introduction. As a member of the house committee for six years and then, after a stint of working in New York, as a member of the managing committee for the past six years, he is credited with having handled every major responsibility — as joint secretary, secretary and treasurer — with flair, dedication and success.

In the course of his acceptance speech Jila sketched in a few programs he hopes to introduce. Aiming to increase the participation of children in the community Jila said, "I would like to organize more events for children so that they can interact with each other on a more frequent basis and make friendships with fellow Zoroastrians from an early age. Most in our current YZ ( Young Zoroastrians) group are above 18. I feel we should cater for three separate age groups, say two to 10 years, 11 to 18 and 18+. The first step towards this goal is that we will be organizing a children’s party for under 10s on December 31, before the main New Year’s eve party. My goal to build a stronger youth community can only be fulfilled in partnership with the parents in the community. I ask all of you to encourage your children to attend events when we publicize them in due course.

"The second of my goals is to increase the ZTFE’s activities and links with Europe. After all we are the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe. I would like to facilitate ZTFE functions in Europe. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could celebrate the Navroz festival in say France or Germany? Again we have already made the first step in this regard and just yesterday I have sent out an e-mail regarding a ZTFE trip to France which will include an anjuman jashan.

"The past few years the committee has concentrated on developing this lovely home for our community. It will be my task to ensure that we draw up and implement a maintenance plan to keep this magnificent building in good shape. In the medium term the community needs to look at the possibility of implementing the planning consent which we have already gained to develop other unused parts of the building.

"Finally I plan to continue to elevate the association’s profile externally and maintain the peace and harmony within the community that has been built up in recent years.”