Allahabad's aramgah

Financial assistance of Rs 2.68 lakhs sent by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi helped The Allahabad Parsee Zoroastrian Anjuman proceed with the cleaning up of the aramgah where is located the grave of Feroze Gandhi, father of the former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi. The neglected condition of the Parsi cemetery in Allahabad had been reported in the media and was showing the community in a poor light, reported the vice president of the Anjuman Rustom Gandhi at the last general body meeting of the Anjuman on October 30, 2005, as recorded in their minutes, a copy of which was sent to Parsiana by Anjuman president Capt Homi Dandi­walla.

When Rustom Gandhi took the initiative to solicit help from Sonia Gandhi, being the wife of his cousin Rajiv, her "immediate and positive response” prompted the Anjuman members to draw up a proposal.

"We have tried to do up the place and give it some sort of respectability. We have tried to maintain the originality of Feroze Gandhi’s grave (as desired by Sonia Gandhi) and had the original gravestone refurbished... Unfortunately, the architect had underestimated the expenditure by a huge amount and we ran short of funds and had to therefore curtail our plans on this account,” related Rustom Gandhi.

Entrance to refurbished Allahabad aramgah with Feroze Gandhi’s grave in the foreground

"Another angle which we have yet to sort out is how we are going to ensure that the same condition is not repeated in the next few years. We need at least Rs 10,000 per month by way of recurring expenditure on security and gardeners if we have to keep the place looking respectable for visitors who want to visit the grave of Feroze Gandhi. This wou­ld mean a corpus of around Rs 20,00,000 on which the interest would be around Rs 10,000 per month. Any assistance or donations from indivduals, companies, or firms, would be welcome, else the entire effort put in by us will be negated in a short period,” he added.

The small Anjuman continues to have its regular get-togethers. On March 21, 16 of them celebrated Jamshedi Navroz with a banquet dinner at El Chico. On the occasion the members gave a standing ovation to educationist Meher Dhondy who was privileged to meet the President of India Dr A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. In 2003 she had expressed her desire to meet him when he had conveyed that on his visiting Allahabad, he would see her. That she was invited to Bamrauli Airport to meet the President on October 6, 2005, prompted Dhondy to write to the Patrika editor, "Such a great personage keeping his promise is what all of us marveled at. He met us individually and…commented on the work I was doing with my students for their all-round development…”

In January, 22 Anjuman members celebrated Republic Day with a banquet dinner for, as noted Dandiwalla, "nation comes first.” A prayer for the nation was specially recited by Dhondy. Besides Dandiwalla and Rustom Gandhi, the third trustee of the Anjuman is Dandiwalla’s wife Shireen who officiates as secretary of the Anjuman, notes a press release.