Girl Guides go global

Bombay based Goolrukh Buhariwala and Navaz Daroga were the only two Zoroastrian Girl Guide captains at the 21st World Scouts Jamboree (international centenary celebrations) attended by nearly 40,000 scouts and guides from 138 countries, notes a press release. Representing the International Service Team from Maharashtra the duo enjoyed the hospitality of Prince William and the Duke of Kent at the meet which began on July 28, 2007 at Hylands Park, Chelmsford, UK, home of founders Lord and Lady Baden Powell and now world headquarters of the Scouts and Guides movement.

"These two leaders have excellent knowledge of the Girl Guide movement, present and past,” Scouter Maneck F. Sattha of the 1st Zoroastrian Scout Group, 100th Toronto Scout of Ontario, Canada, who was also at the Jamboree, wrote to Parsiana. "They had carried with them some valuable historic literature and displayed (it) to boys and girls from all over the world,” he informed, referring to the logbook meticulously maintained by the late Dinoo Dadi Sarkari, their teacher at the Bai R. F. D. Panday Girls’ High School at Tardeo. The logbook, dating to 1938, contains facts about the movement in India and pictures, including some of Queen Elizabeth II in her Sea Rangers’ uniform. Sea Rangers was the earlier version of Girl Guides.

Clockwise from top: Guides of yesteryear,a picture from Sarkari’s unique logbook ; Girl Guide captains Dinoo Sarkari, Goolrukh Buhariwala and Navaz Daroga; Buhariwala and Daroga at the 21st World Scouts Jamboree in the UK which began on July 28 this year

This rare compilation elicited a great deal of interest. Copies of the logbook were admired by UK Chief Scout Peter Duncan during the closing ceremony and Buhariwala and Daroga were referred to the UK Scouting Museum’s archivists Paul Monyhan and Karen Taylor. A copy of the book has been placed in the archives there. The Queen herself does not have some of her own photographs which have been preserved by Sarkari, and her private secretary Sonia Bonici invited Buhariwala and Daroga to Buckingham Palace to show her the logbook, making them the only two at the Jamboree to have toured the inside of the Queen’s London residence, they informed. At Chelmsford the duo took to the stage, singing English, Hindi and patriotic songs. They were invited to the Hylands Park Library to show their collection and share their considerable guiding knowledge and were interviewed live for Mexico TV and SKY 148, UK.

Priceless pictures from Sarkari's logbook. (Clockwise): at the Tower of London; King George VI with his Queen Elizabeth, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose; guiders at a meeting; Queen Elizabeth II (then Crown Princess) in Sea Rangers' uniform. The Queen herself does not have these pictures

Unfortunately, the enthusiastic senior citizen, 68-year-old Pervez Kanga, District Headquarters commissioner of the Central Bombay District, who too had gone to the Jamboree to impart scouting skills to youngsters there, subsequently passed away in August 2007, Daroga noted with regret.

Buhariwala and Daroga have maintained links with their alma mater, continuing to impart guiding knowledge and skills to the students of the Panday School, the 14th West Zone troop. In 1978, when barely 16 years old, they were honored by then president of India Neelam Sanjiva Reddy with the President’s Gold Cord, the highest honor in the Bharat Scouts and Guides Movement. They had passed all the 18 Proficiency Badges under the able guidance of their Guide captain, Sarkari. Silloo S. Commissariat, principal of the Panday School for many decades, encouraged their activities then, as does the current principal, Freny Jabulee.

Daroga, daughter of Nergish and the late Noshir Cooper, is now self-employed, having earlier served the British Bank for 17 years in a senior position. For several years Buhariwala, daughter of the late Ketty and Soli Gutta, has been a part-time employee with well-known pathologist Dr F. E. Palia. Despite their tight schedules and family responsibilities, both would like to continue their work as Girl Guide Captains in the tradition of their own ‘guru’ Sarkari and devote as much time as possible to the movement.