Forging unity

The biggest stumbling block for our community today is unity. The survival of our community depends on unity. There are so many different bodies created in India, America, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, etc. The two main groups are the fundamentalists and the liberals.

The controversy over the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) joining the World Body has been going on since a long time and various parties, especially the fundamentalists, are raising objections and fears. The fear that the BPP will not be the leader in the world is only for a short time (refer to my predictions in "Delphic Deboo,” Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, September 2003).

In our country, especially in our city of Bombay, there are so many organizations carrying out same activities or projects e.g. kusti weaving and sudreh stitching, helping mobeds, preserving and reprinting of rare books, preserving of monajats and other Parsi songs, preserving atash behrams and agiaries and other heritage buildings, Save Udvada Project, etc. What a waste of effort, time and money by duplicating the various activities.

As all Parsis know Farsho-Kereti is going to happen (Farshogard being the 101st name of Ahura Mazda). But the big question is when is it going to happen and how?

I predict that it is going to happen during this century. Nay! It may be during our lifetime. How is it going to happen? We have to convert. At present we should not convert in India (one can do elsewhere). Later on a time will come when we will make select conversions.

FAROKH D. DEBOO