So they say

"I defied every agiary (fire temple). Just by signing my name on a paper and marrying someone,

it doesn’t mean I’ve changed

my religion. Both my children, Ashaita, 20 and Aakil, 18, have

had their navjotes and

accompany me to fire temples.”

Vera Mahajan, a Parsi married to a Maharashtrian, Sunday Hindustan Times, September 3, 2006

"As parents, we have done

absolutely everything in our power to raise our children in the

Zoroastrian tradition... We have also told them not to expect the religion to change and bend to their needs if they marry outsiders.”

Firoza Punthakey Mistree, community activist, Sunday Hindustan Times,

September 3, 2006

"The Supreme Court affirmed the principle that it is not for a secular judge to sit in judgment on the correctness of a religious belief. Of course the belief and its practice must not be ex facie contrary to public order, morality and health.”

Soli Sorabjee, jurist, The Indian

Express, September 3, 2006

"About 40 percent of India is destitute, malnourished, living miserably from hand to mouth totally unfree. Nearly half (48 percent) live in ‘kutcha’ houses

still; 77 percent rural homes and

30 percent of urban ones have

no toilets. About 900 million

have no power or clean drinking

water, not even in cities.”

A. D. Moddie, environmentalist,

Pulse 2006 Number 170

"The exact causes of the

disappearance of the vulture in Africa are unclear. In Asia, diclofenac was responsible. ‘But that is not the case in Africa. It is hardly used there.”

Robin McKie, Hindustan Times, July 17, 2006

"But smaller firms faced disruption They’re harder hit by corruption

And more entangled in red tape

Which in India you can’t escape

And because of this sorry state

Both big and small didn’t innovate.”

Nadir Godrej, managing director, Godrej Industries Limited, Change, The Godrej house magazine, July-August 2006

""‘Promise me, that when I die only my friends shall stand about my coffin... See that no priest or any one else utter falsehoods at my graveside...’ This was in 1879.”

Friedrich Nietzsche, philosopher,

quoted in Parsi Pukar,

October-December 2005

"A lot of my record collection is more than 100 years old. One requires different gramophones, needles and amplifiers to

play them properly.”

Khusrau Santok, Splurge HT Luxury Magazine, August 12, 2006