Shocking ignorance

Unlike the British, not many Canadians in British Columbia have heard of Zoroastrians. Recently I telephoned The Chapters Indigo chain of bookstores in Canada to inquire about Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism by Mary Boyce. I did emphasize to the lady at the other end that I wished to order the book if it was available.

After making me wait for what seemed to be an eternity the young female voice at the other end finally exclaimed, "Can’t find it. What kind of cook book is it?” Shocked, I retorted, "Lady, it is not a cookbook! It is a book on religion.” I listened in silence as she muttered that she thought Zoroastrian was a dish and I wanted to know the various sauces to go with it. I hastily disconnected the phone when she asked me to spell Zoroastrian, just one more time, please! My blood pressure had by then reached boiling point at her ignorance.

Days passed, and my husband Paterasp and I met a good customer of ours, a German born Sardarji whom we affectionately call Randy, at one of the numerous pubs he owns in Vancouver. Our family runs a business in that city, Delta4 Projection Systems Inc., dealing in audiovisual equipment (projectors, screens, sound systems, etc), which are used in pubs, churches and funeral homes. Randy’s pub was a frequent customer of ours. "By the way, are you Hindu or Muslim?” asked our German Sardarji. On hearing that we were Parsi Zoroastrians from Bombay, he further probed, "But is that closer to Hindus or Muslims?” Then, before we could get over the shock of having met someone of Indian origin who had never heard of Zoroastrians, he gave us an indication of his brilliance with the statement, "Closer to Muslims, I know!”

Earlier this week, an elder from a local Anglican church, having rented some equipment from us, wanted to know if we belonged to the Baha’i religion. In response to our usual explanation that we are Zoroastrians, came the query, "But is that not the same as Baha’i?”

We finally solved this problem by ordering from Roshan Rivetna in the USA copies of the book edited by her, The Legacy of Zarathushtra: An Introduction to the Religion, History and Culture of the Zarathushtis (Zoroastrians) as well as copies of the pamphlet, Zoroastrians (Zarathushtis), Followers of an Ancient Faith that is Relevant to the Modern World (Edited and published by FEZANA). So now, as soon as one of our customers asks us the million-dollar question, as they inevitably do, "To which religion do you belong?” we give them a pamphlet to keep, and the book to read.

PERVIN PATERASP NIRUMVALA

Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada