Meeting the Pope

Shaking hands with the Pope was out of this world! I never expected that,” says Ervad Karl Desai, an architecture student from the University of New South Wales who was in Bombay recently with his mother Shanaz. Young Karl had been selected by the community to meet Pope Benedict XVI at an interfaith meeting along with senior mobed Dr Peshotan Katrak when the pontiff visited Sydney for more than five days for the World Youth Day celebrations.

The last time the Sydney born youth was here was 10 years ago when he was initiated as a navar at the Banaji Atash Behram. Since then he has been performing religious ceremonies for the Zoroastrian community of Sydney like his father Tim, a fomer president of the Australian Zoroastrian Association (AZA) and elder brother Neville.

On the present trip he said he had the time to experience the Parsi culture, soak in the feel and history of the community, revel in the conviviality of colony life. They were in Ahmedabad for a short stay with relatives when the terrorists attacked the city. Even so, Shanaz was quite shaken.

Having attended the Fourth World Zoroastrian Youth Congress in Ballarat, Victoria, Karl was enthusiastic about the community’s strong Zoroastrian roots even though the discussions were often trivial. He seemed particularly impressed by Zoroastrian Studies founder Khojeste Mistree’s "very knowledgeable” presentation.

Top: Ervad Karl Desai with Pope Benedict XVI and (above) with mother Shanaz

By and large the Zoroastrians of New South Wales are largely unwilling to lose any member of the community and therefore accept all intermarriages, says Shanaz. "Peshotan (Katrak) welcomes them all. But my father Tim is a conservative and will not do the navjote even of the child of a Parsi father and non-Parsi mother,” says Karl who considers himself a liberal, having performed two such navjotes. "So far I have not been approached for the children of Parsi mothers. I probably won’t do it,” he adds. Despite being conservatives, no one in the family is a member of WAPIZ (World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis).

"People get carried away sometimes,” smiles Shanaz, noting that "Tim is now advising the boys to think for themselves.”

Now that the Australian Zoroastrian Association is into its third generation, "we are doing our best to get the youths to join the committees…They organize the band and catering. There are frequent requests for accommodation from prospective migrants, and we try and help out with students, especially when common friends are involved,” says Shanaz noting that exchanges between the Sydney and Melbourne communities are quite common.

A secretary with an eye for the right openings, Shanaz (née Irani) had accepted the lead the late Peshotan Nargolwala had given to the community in seeking better prospects in Iran under the Shah and found a job with Wilmeg Oil Company. In Tehran she had met Tim, a chartered accountant from India. "After the revolution the company closed down and we lost our jobs. We were looking for visas to get out of Iran. The US and Canada only accepted blood relatives. Some went to Dubai. Australia wanted secretaries so I appeared for a shorthand-typing test. Luckily I passed. I got a visa and flew out to Australia via Bombay.” Shanaz and Tim were married in Bombay’s Allbless Baug. "He was allowed into Australia as my spouse,” Shanaz tells us.

Karl has finished two years of the six year course of architecture and is toying with the prospect of majoring in town planning. Neville, a horticulturist, is an entrepreneur working on his own.