“Careless in Calcutta”

With reference to the review titled "Careless in Calcutta” by Bachi Karkaria (Parsiana, June 7, 2006), I never expected that Karkaria would write such a nasty and abusive review of my book The Parsees of Calcutta. As a Parsi who has lived in Calcutta for a number of years she knows better than I about how disunited the Parsis are. My book was to have been sponsored by the trustees of the Calcutta Zoroastrian Community’s Religious and Charity Trust Fund who were supposed to arrange for its publication at their cost as per the terms of my contract with them signed on April 10, 2002. But the trustees went back on their contractual obligations and I had to fall back on my own resources to publish it.

The work is based largely on interviews with members of your community and the information supplied by them. Naturally there must be gaps, for which I am not responsible. Many members of your community were most non-cooperative and refused to be interviewed or to part with any information about their families for reasons best known to them. I also remember that I contacted Karkaria through Noshir Gerda for details of her family history as well as Navroz magazine, but she did not cooperate. So what right does she have to blame me for any lacuna in her family history in my book? In the case of R. K. Modi, whatever he narrated to me in his interview was reproduced in my book.

As the first of its kind, my book may not be up to the mark but I do not deserve Karkaria’s unkind, unwarranted and indecent remarks about my work. Why did she not write a book on the Parsis of Calcutta which was better than a "mofussil gazette record” and "Zilla Parishad souvenir,” since she is so knowledgeable about the subject? The manuscript of The Parsees of Calcutta was seen by late C. R. Irani.

The pictures appearing in my book were taken by a professional photographer; they are not Press photographs. Regarding spelling mistakes, I am not responsible as proper names may be spelt in different ways.

Dr DALIA RAY

Calcutta

S. N. Medora, chief executive, Calcutta Zoroastrian Community’s Religious and Charity Fund (CZCRCF), responds:

Ray claims that the trustees of CZCRCF reneged on their contractual obligations for the publication of her book on the Parsis of Calcutta. The true status is that Ray approached the trustees with a request that they fund her project. The trustees agreed and reimbursed all costs to her till she submitted the book for our review and subsequent publication.

Prior to our having seen the book she had C. R. Irani comment on it in The Statesman, which he did, keeping in mind the involvement of our trust in sponsoring an initiative for research on our community in Calcutta.

Apart from inaccuracies and omissions, the trustees were not fully satisfied with the writing style. It was suggested to her, and after much coaxing she agreed, to have it ‘edited’ by someone of our choice provided that the contents of the book did not change in any way. It is unfortunate that the trustees were not able to locate a suitable person in quick time upon which Ray decided to publish the book on her own steam. The trustees reluctantly agreed to let her do so and to save themselves embarrassment insisted that they should not be publicly involved in any way by her in the production and publication of the book. However, in an effort to be fair, the trust confirmed that all expenses toward research which had already been reimbursed would be treated as a grant to her.

It is sad that Dr Ray should have so quickly forgotten this matter which we would now like to correct for the benefit of your readers.