"Baria's battle"

Some questions for D hun Baria and those who want to change Zoroastrianism to be in tune with time.

Will Baria ask maestro Zubin Mehta to now dissociate himself from the Phil­harmonic Orchestra and bend towards Spice Girls to keep up with the music of the times? In fact would she herself change her bias from qawwali towards rap music to change with time?

Would she support a change in the system of housing today?

We fled Iran and our predecessors built agiaries and dakhmas and a-en residential properties so that the likes of me and Baria can get near free housing. Now staying in charitable properties we fight the charity givers' aims!

Zoroastrians donated land so that Zoroastrianism could prosper through Zoroastrians maintaining their customs. Will all those Zoroastrians who demand change add to the coffers left by om forefathers in terms of monies or by building other charitable blocks or make for themselves a crematorium or aramgah or whatever they prefer, forming a cult after their own name as they deem them­selves modern and knowledgeable about Zarathushtra' s teaching? Maybe Baria wouldn't want to change trust deeds and laws that govern Parsi housing policies but has no qualms in changing ancient Zoroastrian laws!

Why be adamant in changing our system? Why claim to be Zoroastrians when you detest its principles or prefer principles of other faiths?

Will Baria who is trying so hard for an aramgah get a flat from the Muslims or Catholic society, especially when she tries to change Islamic or Catholic cus­toms?

Would she advise change for crema­toriums if one photographed a body nearly sitting up and bursting in flames when cremated? Would she change the burial system if one photographed the remains of a body lying in the soil for a long time? After all land shortage for burial is a very important issue facing - uslims, Christians and Jews in Bombay!

She asks how many times have grffi·es been dug up and photographed? And how many have photographed a body misting and the skull exploding lffie.n cremated? Not many are sick to do it In 5,000 years of dakhmenashini, how many times and how many Zoroas­trians were sick enough to photograph the dakbmas?

Zoroastrianism treats a dead body as an empty shell and its rituals are in relation to the happiness of one's soul, not the empty shell. We see a dead body as e,.il at its pristine; yet if one wants to put joss sticks around it and build a molllIIIlent, the person has the freedom of choice. but not the choice to disband

hat beishe feels is unfit. On what grounds fight dakhmenashini? Why not fight the negligence towards it? Seeing the photographs, I acknowledge that something should be done on a war footing to preserve our custom. The dakhmenashini system has been allowed to drop to a drastic situation, maybe on purpose or negligence.

􀃁 Iodem man preserves the pyramids, the mummies, the Tasmanian tiger, ex­tinc species of wildlife, fauna and flora and technology enables us to treat a person when a doctor may be a thousand miles away. That's technology! Why not use it? Modern man is using it to preserve, only the naive give it up in the name of changing with the times.

RUSTOM JAMASJl

Kudos to this strong little woman Dhun Baria who has literally single-handedly brought out the obsolete use of tlie dakhmas. I remember seeing the night­marish pictures way back in the '70s, of highly decomposed bodies, the loud whispers about stench, and viewing from balconies of multistoried buildings around the Doongenvadi. But that was then and the matter like all sensitive issues was pushed back to the bumer. But this is now. We are in the next century, and Bombay is virtually breaking atitsseams, and to compound that there are no scavenger birds around the dakhmas. It's only a matter of time before the prized land will come in the eye of the land sharks. And then what? Probably it will be "Save Doongerwadi," like "Save Udvada?" All it needs is a public interestlitigation case tobe foughtinthe court. If this happens (the idea itselfis so frightening), it will open up a pandora-box which will not be easy to handle! Coming to the little woman Baria, what pray is she seeking? She is right-fully asking for an aramgah on the Doongerwadi land for those who wish to be buried, and to perform the four-day prayers at the Doongerwadi premises for any one who opts for an alternative method of disposal -could be burial or cremation. This little gesture would give satisfaction tothe bereavedfamilieswho need not then worry about where to find the priest and to perform the prayers. Let prayers not be for sale, but for the soul! Let every Parsi have a say, have achoice, to adopt his/her own way to cross the "Chinwadpool."

By denying prayers to those who do not consign the bodies to the dakhma is totallywrong. Aslonceagainask, would my grandparents who are buried inHubli and Nagpur be living in limbo? The argument that where there is a dakhma there can't be an aramgah is absolutely irrational. Let some strong steps be taken. Let those who wish to still use the dakhma use them, but let the others too not be deprived of prayers for their beloved departed especially when it is partially allowed and sanctified and coexists since time immemorial! These are the prob-lems that need to be dealt with urgently. One cannot make everyone happy but in the long run people will realize that old methods need drastic changes.

RODA D. HAKIM

Baroda

I have read "Baria's battle" (Parsiana, '--June 7, 2006). I sympathize withBaria's cause and I am heartened that her cru­sade is creating a stir. The dakhma sys­tem of disposal of the dead worked well in the past when there were no high-rise buildings close by and the vultures were in sufficient numbers to reduce a corpse to b r whit bones in a matter of30-40 minutes.

Alas, this is not the case,aswe read reports that come in from time to time. Even a staunch believer like me in the religion of Zarathushtra and its principal teachings of good thoughts, good words and good deeds,has to question the practicality of con­tinuing to follow a system that does not function anymore like it should.

We, Parsis, have always been ad­mired by other communities, ever since we came to Hindustan, for our honesty and cleanliness. Everyone admires our tree-lined, clean Parsi colonies and baugs. Then why should our dakhmas smell and the bodies of our dear de­parted lie in various stages of putrefac­tion? I have to ask myself, would those in Persia who originally gave us the dakhmenashini system approve of what we are doing at Doongerwadi with solar reflectors ( sic) and ozone gas?

I can understand that there are some priests who wish to uphold the tenets of our religion and will not budge. That alright; they have to live with their con­is science. But are the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustees also so rigid as to not take into account the feelings of a growing number of people like Baria who desire funeral prayers at Doonger­wadi but would like the body to be cremated? Given the current conditions at Doongerwadi, as described in Parsi­ana, I would not want that my body be consigned to the Towers of Silence.

I therefore appeal to the trustees of the BPP to look earnestly at the proposal of first constmcting a special bungli for the prayers of those who wish to be cremated. And later, to construct an elec­tric crematorium at Doongerwadi itself. Why should Parsis have to use the facili­ties at Chandanwadi? Let us use the land that we have before we lose it. Change with the times, or time will change you. If the stench ofrottingflesh continues or becomes worse, the government will acquire the prime property with one stroke of the pen · -public interest" because become a hygiene/ health is.sue. enashini system as put in place during another era and another place. Today it is totally out of step within the confines of a modern and congested city like Bombay and a progressive and educated community like the Parsis respond to change and go with the flow.

Dr ARDESHIR B. DAMANIA Davis.

California