The first supper

"Ushering unity for peace, progress and prosperity,” the slogan adopted by the recently elected seven trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), was inscribed as the backdrop on the stage to be read and re-read by the nearly 5,000 members of the Parsi Irani Zoroastrian community who had gathered at the Dadar Parsi Colony Gymkhana on November 1, 2008 for the historic jashan-gahanbar hosted by the new board. Led by Dasturs (Drs) Kaikhusroo JamaspAsa and Peshotan Mirza, seven priests had conjointly performed the jashan invoking Ahura Mazda, the seven Ameshas-pands and the yazads.

Welcoming the new trustees Jamasp-Asa hoped they would work with "tan-man-dhan (physically, mentally and charitably) for the community, especially the poor.” Echoing his sentiments Mirza prayed that the band of traditionalists at the helm would respect the time-honored tenets and customs, and work as a team to protect the community and the religion.

"Let’s start afresh with a new leaf…forget the past acrimony and animosity… The community has given a mandate to the seven trustees… all the promises in my (election) manifesto will be honored,” assured the new BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta. Enthused with the community response to celebrate the victory of the seven front-runners, Mehta felt the last time his coreligionists had expressed such fervor was when the sacred Tavri fire was enthroned at the new Shapoorji Fakirji Jokhi Agiary in Godrej Baug nine years ago.

Thanking Ahura Mazda for granting her fortitude and strength and for blessing her with success beyond her expectations, Arnavaz Mistry, the candidate who won the largest number of votes (with an enviable margin over her nearest rival Mehta) acknowledged the cooperation of her "family, friends, volunteers, darling daughter Yasmin, Sir Jamsetji Jejeebhoy, guide and mentor Silloo Kavarana, and the support, love and appreciation of the community that has strengthened my resolve to carry on with my work for... ‘any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness I can show... let me do it now for I shall not pass this way again,’” she quoted the French philosopher Stephen Grellet.

"Honored and humbled by the faith reposed” in him by the community, Khojeste Mistree, a founder of the World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis, referred to "the long and hard struggle to bring tradition back on track…and to give religious matters their rightful and proper place in the most important apex body of the community.” According to him this is the first time ever that a "BPP electoral victory has been celebrated with a jashan and a gahanbar in the true spirit of Zoroastrianism. This board will do things differently — differently in terms of religion, differently in terms of what is right and differently in terms of making BPP community-friendly.”

Believing that each of the elected trustees has a "tremendous spiritual responsibility to safeguard, preserve and protect our great religion and our unique Parsi Irani identity,” he conveyed, "I look forward to working together with all of them in peace, harmony and with justice so that together we can bring a renewal and a hope back into the hearts and minds of our community members and to give our senior citizens and the poor a rightful place in our society.” Mistree further appealed to "all those who have over the years reduced the community to a war zone to put aside their personal beliefs and differences as indeed we will, and work together to build a stronger, better and more efficient BPP which will respond to the needs of the people.”

The only candidate from the Adult Franchise for Progress slate to be elected trustee Noshir Dadrawala admitted, "I entered with very mixed feelings in my mind because I knew and could not run away from the fact that I had serious differences with certain people who were sitting on the board with me.” The day when the new board took charge being Khordad roz, Khordad mah according to the Shahenshahi calendar, a day of perfection, he realized that "before I can bring about perfection in the community I need to repair the imperfections in my own self,” and thus extended a hand of friendship to his co-trustees.

It being 12 noon when the new board assumed office on October 23, 2008, Jawaharlal Nehru’s words came to mind for when India had gained freedom Nehru had said, "At the stroke of midnight when the rest of the world sleeps India will awaken.” Dadrawala shared the analogy that occurred to him in the context of the Parsi community: "At the stroke of 12 noon when we are all awake I hope we can put our differences to sleep.” Mentioning that the factions have seen "enough of battling,” he added, "Now is the time to join our hands, work together and build a new future for the community.”

Deliberating on whether to address the audience in Marathi or English, Rustom Tirandaz jested, "I finally decided to speak the language of love which is a mixture of Gujarati, English and prèm ni bhaashaa.” When he was first elected trustee in 1995 his only audience was about 50 people working for the Punchayet, recalled Tirandaz expressing his dream "to see the Parsis who represent the crème de la crème come forward.” Conveying his willingness to work for the community with "tan ané man (body and mind)” pointing to his co-trustees he added, "dhan thee séva karé é loko (service through money power can be done by them).” In support of causes "nearest and dearest to them,” he was hopeful the community "will rise to the occasion in numbers larger than this” even when no meal is offered.

Dismissing the fears that the community will become a tribe and be wiped out he hollered, "Nothing of the sort is going to happen” and referred to Mehta’s plan whereby 3,000 new houses will be created and a corpus built of 100 crore rupees so that the waiting list for housing is eliminated. One of his priorities being "to refurbish the image of the community,” Tirandaz stated, "Too many people have taken potshots at my community’s apex body. I want all of you to swear in your hearts that you will not tolerate any nonsense of that sort…If anybody tries to character assassinate any of my colleagues on the board, he is as good as character assassinating me and I will ensure that those types of campaigns are eliminated. Except for me all the people on the platform are men of highest integrity…all of them are a head above the rest of the society… Because of universal adult franchise (UAF) we had 32 candidates and the 25 other candidates were equally competent… Seven of us are the creation of the goodwill of the rest of my community. Seven of us are reposed with your confidence and I pray to Almighty God that may he give me wisdom to never violate that confidence ever…”

"I am very, very happy to be elected as trustee of the BPP, something I believed five years ago was beyond reach,” announced Yazdi Desai who felt this was possible thanks to the new electoral process involving the entire community in Bombay. Thanking his well-wishers, volunteers, supporters and family, "above all, my beloved wife Anahita,” Desai announced his "pledge that I will make BPP the most powerful body of Parsi Irani Zoroastrians throughout the world; a pledge that I will make BPP an oasis for the less fortunate of the community.” The constitution of the new board is "very different because of UAF — every candidate had to interact with the community at ground level during campaigning...(we) will work more closely with the community and not just sit in the ivory tower and be disconnected from the realities of the community. This board will feel the pulse of the community. I am one of you. Please feel free to approach us whenever and wherever you want.” To those seeking to be trustees he had advice: "toil, interact with the community at the grassroots level, know their need, be available” and finally, "change your surname to Mistry because we have three Mistrys on the board.”

The community having heard a lot of speeches in the last two months, "now it is time for action,” declared the youngest trustee Jimmy Mistry who had come in late for the function, having just flown in from Dubai. Keen to prove every single critic wrong that "you cannot harmoniously work at the BPP, cannot improve the brand image of BPP,” Mistry added, "We are quite united in our resolve. This gahanbar was the suggestion of Khojeste and we were all unanimous in our decision of hosting it. It is a good way of getting the community together and we will continue to do so year after year,” he stated and then sought a confirmation from his co-trustees on the dais. "Grateful to God for giving me six fine people from our community with whom I am looking forward to working,” he added, "Some of them I truly admire and adore.” Planning to utilize the resources of "the huge band of volunteers,” Mistry declared, "We’ll call for more and we’ll have volunteers of BPP joining hands with the trustees, enabling us to fulfil our vision of a very, very highly respected Parsi Irani Zoroastrian community. I pledge to commit hundred percent to this cause making sure the lives of our Parsi Irani Zoroastrians are far better and that our team goes down in history as a team that has made maximum impact on the Zarathushti community.”

"The real Zoroastrian credo is a sense of tolerance,” reminded outgoing chairman Minoo Shroff who was heartened that "people have made different pledges, they come from different backgrounds, they have resolved to sink their differences, to bury the hatchet and carry the community forward. This is the crying need of the hour.” Despite being an elitist community with cent percent literacy and a higher standard of living than an average Indian, Shroff observed that "the bottom 10-15 percent is still highly underprivileged, unskilled...their issues need to be addressed. There is a lot to be done.”

During the 22 years he was trustee "I have lost a lot of hair,” said Shroff, before referring to the "tortuous circumstances in which we were caught, internal/external, for the last two-three years when most of our agenda had to be suspended or kept on low-key.” He recalled his first foray into community affairs 30 years ago when he had raised a flag of revolt at the Framjee Cawasjee Hall, criticizing the then trustees for not maintaining accounts. That lacuna was soon set right. Pledging "all my support” to the new trustees, Shroff hoped that with "a lot of youth, vigor, promise, ambition to take the community forward…they will try and fulfil the solemn promises and assurances they have given to the community (which) expects a lot from them…It is much nicer to see smoke brightening into flame than seeing flames sinking into smoke,” he cautioned.

Shroff was presented a bouquet by his successor Mehta. The others who had put in a lot of hard work for the elections were felicitated too: chief executive officer Mehli Colah, senior executive Cawas Panthaky, election officers Rustom Hormuzdiyar, Rustom Jasoo-money and Ratan Lalkaka.

Responding to Shroff who said he had traveled 100 km to be present that evening, Phiroze Amroliwalla said he had traveled 200 km to attend the function for as "a candidate I admire the way we have all contested in a spirit of brotherhood…I really admire the team spirit with which the new board has come together.” Hoping the new team will stand for a "Better Parsi Punchayet” as he had specified in his manifesto, Amroliwalla was keen to offer a bouquet to Shroff "who has been receiving brickbats all his life” and to Mehta who five years ago had told him, "As and when I become chairman I will change the face of this community.”

The scintillating dance items presented by Hormuz Khambata’s troupe on popular Bollywood numbers brought the evening to a memorable close as did the series of gaffes presented by Jehangir Karkaria (Mini) and Mahiyar Panthaky (Max), making light of the pre-election accusations leveled at the candidates. The supposed sound of an ambulance siren in the distance had Max worried until Mini reminded him that the presence of Arnavaz Mistry in their midst (social worker known to regularly visit several hospitals) should have reassured him! Mehta it was found was sitting on a chair from the Dadar Parsi Gymkhana which meant he was not stuck with Fevicol to the trusteeship seat! Never mind his Pinochhio nose, he was able to show that his naak oonchoo chhè (nose remains high)! Dadar no vaanchhado (calf) Jimmy Mistry’s supposed connections with D-Gang (identified as Dinshaw Mehta and Company) and with Sahara was played up for he has "méraa sahaaraa, téraa sahaaraa, poori Parsi community ka sahaaraa (my support, your support, the entire community’s support).” Khojeste Mistree with his distinguishing beard and noorani (halo), and a fair countenance suggesting doodh maa dhovaila (washed in milk) was actually "paper, paper maa dhovaila (given a rubbing by the media).” Desai, "the angry young man,” was given credit for "dil thi boléch (speaks from his heart).” Tirandaz whose financial dealings were questioned was described as an economic "wizard” for after just spending Rs 6,500 on his election campaign he was able to secure sixth position! The "saatmo stambh (seventh pillar)” Dadrawala was reportedly contemplating changing his surname to Ghadiyali because he is frequently referred to as "pendulum” for supporting the orthodox and the liberal at different times! But Mini insisted he could not be considered a pendulum but more of a wall clock with his burly figure!

Frequently-hummed Bollywood and folk songs (with a change of certain key words) too were dedicated to different trustees: Arnavaz Mistry earned Tu kitni achhi hai, tu kitni bholi hai ...(you are so good, you are so naïve); Mehta, Arré deewaano, mujhé péhchaano, kahaasé aaya, mai hu kaun…(O you foolish people, recognize me, whence have I come, who am I?); Jimmy Mistry, Bachnaa ai haseeno (Ladies, beware); Khojeste Mistree, Anhoni ko honi kar dé…(Make the impossible, possible); Desai, Hai agar dushman, dushman…(If there be foes); Tirandaz, é Rustom aala ré, aala... (Rustom has come). One common song to celebrate the collective victory: Everybody put your hands up in the air and say hé naa, hé naa.

After giving credit to the 25 other contenders as also to the BPP staff for working so tirelessly, Mini exhorted the community to unhesitatingly enjoy the hearty repast on offer, for the meal (catered by Tanaz Godiwalla) being financed by the trustees themselves, would not earn any adverse publicity in any newspaper. Finally the Mini-Max duo decided to order Fevicol in large doses so that the seven trustees would remain on their seats for the next seven years — "Nahi koi oothi saké, nahi koi khhèchi saké (so that neither could they vacate their chairs nor be forced to resign)!”