“The BPP is now the world body”

"Damn good!” That’s Rustom Tirandaz’ assessment of the first ever universal adult franchise (UAF) to elect seven new trustees to the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP). "From less than 26,000 registered voters, over 50 percent came to vote. That’s better than the national average! And look at the people who stood for election, what a wide spectrum of promises they made. The candidates really want to serve the people and that is what UAF is all about!”

Tirandaz has reason to be elated. Apart from being a candidate who has won a second term as BPP trustee after several failed attempts earlier ("I was a dark horse,” he states candidly), he had been rooting for UAF in the election of trustees ever since he was first elected in 1996. "Much earlier,” he corrects us. But he has another reason, besides: "The BPP has emerged as the apex body of the (Parsi) world!” We remind him that he had been contending that over the years. "It was contended, claimed, but never realized,” he admits, adding, "It was said that the WZO (World Zoroastrian Organisation) is doing good work, not the BPP, and therefore it was the premier body; the ZTFE (Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe, Inc) claimed to be the oldest body of Zoroastrians outside India; FEZANA (Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America) said it was the most widespread and therefore represented the Parsis of the world. But now the BPP has established itself as a homogenous, declared and accepted body…Parsis who had been in the woodwork have come into the main hall. Its activities are publicized in the cosmopolitan Press in India.”

In contrast, the earlier elections were not only not more gentlemanly, they were essays in "backbiting and dinners at the Taj,” contends the trustee elect. He chooses to see the round of dinners that preceded the UAF elections in a different light: "I was happy that people who had money spent it on people who didn’t have it.”

Tirandaz’ mix of attributes makes it difficult for people to classify him. A loud, sometimes belligerent and contradictory speaker, his cheerful acceptance of defeat gives him a sportsmanlike image. His ready acknowledgement — "It hurts a lot inside, though I try not to show it” — underlines an almost childlike simplicity. A ready smile and an impish sense of humor lace his long-winded rhetoric. One may reject his arguments as whimsical, but one cannot gainsay his sincerity. When Parsiana interviewed him in the BPP boardroom on December 18, 2008 — the most recent of several such meetings in the past — he declared, "I am a traditionalist but I am not a deeply religious man. I am very modern in my outlook.”

We ask him whether he considers himself orthodox, liberal or middle-of-the-road. "All three,” says the maverick, qualifying tongue-in-cheek, "Orthodox because I defend the feelings and concerns of so-called obscurantists. Liberal to the extent that I don’t mind if someone has directly opposite views to mine. Middle-of-the-road because I run with the hare and hunt with the hounds!”

He insists that Parsis enjoy a special position in the country today because "they are equidistant from every other community. Parsis are the nation builders of the country. After the terror attacks in Bombay and the immense anger in the country against the government, both national parties came together to nominate Ratan Tata as the country’s permanent non-elected deputy prime minister. Tata did not accept so there is a move to establish a three-member body with Tata, (the choice being) Infosys founder Narayana Murthy, HDFC’s (Housing Development Finance Corporation) Deepak Parekh and Sam Pitroda, the man who ushered in India’s communications revolution. They are seriously considering a change in the Constitution. Mulayam Singh Yadav is wanting to scuttle (the idea),” claims the man whose political credentials cover 37 years as Bombay municipal corporator, overriding our inclination to take it as a joke. "I tell you this is the year of the Parsi!”

Coming back to the more limited field of Punchayet activities, Tirandaz says his aim is "to bring in unanimity. Conflicts have been so predominant in the last two years in the trust, it was the in-thing to dispute, dissent, oppose.” In contrast to the two WAPIZ (World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis) trustees — Khojeste Mistree and Yazdi Desai — and AFP (Adult Franchise for Progress) representative Noshir Dadrawala, "Jimmy Mistry, Arnavaz Mistry and I (Tirandaz says he is not a member of WAPIZ) are the only independents on the board,” each with a distinct point of view. "Sometimes Dinshaw Mehta comes out with prize winning material. He wants to have the Worli Sea Link named after (the late Field Marshal) Sam Manekshaw.” Another direction in which the Punchayet wants to assert itself vis-à-vis the Maharashtra government is to get 50 members of the community appointed as SEOs (Special Executive Officers) by the chief minister, "as the Parsi community has hardly any SEOs,” Tirandaz tells us.

Addressing the community at the celebratory jashan in Dadar

A priority with Tirandaz is the appointment of a community ombudsman or an arbitration cell "rather than nataks (charades) at the charity commissioner’s (CC) office.” Mehta has invited the CEO (chief executive officer) of the Zoroastrian Bank Hoshang Sinor to be chairman of the Punchayet’s venture capital fund and he has accepted, Tirandaz notes. Jimmy Mistry and Mehta are said to be working together on a master plan for housing. "Some of our housing stock is very old. The Dadar buildings are decrepit. By now we would have got 250 surplus flats. I had got all the permissions,” claims Tirandaz, averring that the previous board of trustees refused to proceed with the reconstruction. He estimates the waiting list at 1,000+ covering five to six categories of seekers. "Housing is a murky business. I have stayed out of it.” He says, he is unable to differentiate between claimants. "To me they all seem equally deserving.”

Shortly after taking office as trustee for the first time in 1995, Tirandaz had been instrumental in inviting the community to Doongerwadi to see the conditions and the problems on that estate. He says it had resulted in the encroaching kharwas being ousted. Till then the Punchayet’s tune had been, "Rahwa dé, kai thavanu nathi (Let it be, nothing will come of it). The last kharwa was removed on my last day in office,” states the former corporator. This time around he says he has found "gardens where the forest used to be. We called and told them, this is our property.”

Not the global economic malaise but the case at the CC’s court "has affected our income.” The CC’s order prevents the BPP from selling the ownership flats it has built at Panthaky Baug. That money is vital for its further construction activity. Also, Tirandaz says the municipal rates and charges have increased so much, rents at Panthaky Baug amount to more than Rs 4,000. "Our definition of the poor and needy as people with less than Rs 10,000 as total monthly family income needs to be revised. If they pay Rs 4,000 as rent where will they be?”

As senior-most trustee — the longest serving trustee after the chairman — Tirandaz who is now in his second term is ex-officio joint honorary secretary of the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India. Claiming to be a "hard task master,” he says he has a single point agenda on that body: "Peace.”

During his first term as trustee Tirandaz had scuttled the agreement the trustees had reached with the DDD-AG (Disposal of the Dead with Dignity — Action Group) to allow the use of a Doongerwadi bungli for the funerary prayers of those who opted against the use of the dokhma for the disposal of the dead. Since then, for the past eight years, the question of cremateni bungli has been a source of controversy, more so after the fiery Dhun Baria’s in-your-face evidence of the towers of silence being unable to cope with the piling up of dead bodies. When Parsiana spoke to Tirandaz about it, his response was tangential. On the one hand he says "Death is carcass, you have to dispose of it. Where is the question of death with dignity?” On the other he says he is "trying to protect the belief structures of Parsis. There is something in Zoroastrianism that has kept esoteric knowledge alive.” According to him the belief of Parsis in their religion and traditions helps them to overcome heavy odds at various levels of existence. "Do you think a Parsi would make a good butcher?” he asks and answers the question himself: "It would be impossible. Our genes only permit us to do good things.”

A question on acceptance of the children of Parsi mothers married to non-Parsis elicits some more homegrown philosophy: "Marriage is a sacrifice…I want to believe that my forefathers believed that you must marry within the fold. If you go out, you are sacrificing religious heritage on the altar of personal love…(Besides) Indian society is patrilineal. There is no way the husband will accept the idea of his children being brought up as Zoroastrians.” By way of proof he cites two well-known unions, adding that in one case the wife on her demise was cremated even though she had willed that her funeral should be performed by Zoroastrian rites.

In their younger days: Armaity and Rustom with (L to R) Faredoon, Behram and Darayus

Another controversial subject — the world body — is dismissed with a single line answer: "The BPP is now the world body.”

A son of Lal and the late Sheriar, Tirandaz is a product of Don Bosco and St Joseph’s High Schools. While at Khalsa College Tirandaz says he "became the University weight lifting champion so Ruia College invited me.” It was from Ruia that he graduated with a science degree. Married to Armaity (née Karani) they have three sons, the late Behram, Faredoon and Darayus.

He describes himself as "a dreamer, not an executor.” During his first term as trustee he said he "wanted to set up a cyber café when there were none.” Space in Jer Baug had been acquired for the purpose but he says the other trustees washed their hands of it and he could not bring the project to fruition. After some time the place was given away, he notes, adding, "People wanted to prove me a failure. My biggest failure is that I don’t have the wherewithal to implement my ideas.”

Tirandaz had been wont to emphasize in the past that Parsi achievers need to serve their own community. We ask why it is that the community rejected such sterling candidates offered by the AFP, as it had someone like Sir Pherozeshah Mehta nearly a century ago. "Phero­zeshah Mehta was rejected by a coterie of people with vested interests who were jealous of him,” countered Tirandaz. As for the present development, "Most people don’t acknowledge that BPP trusteeship is a full time process. There are no macro and micro issues. All these people said we’ll give two hours of time every week!” He also felt that the AFP candidates were not presented to the community the way they needed to be presented. "(Lawyer) Nadir Modi has had a greater impression on my life as a human being and as a thinker than any one. (Dr) Ketayun Dinshaw has helped so many of my recommendees. If Keki Mistry (managing director of HDFC) comes on the board of the venture capital fund, he’ll work wonders… It was shabby propaganda… They were led by the wrong people. They were wallflowers. AFP had a one point program to destroy Dinshaw Mehta.”

Estimating the cost of printing and couriering one pamphlet to 30,000 people at Rs 1.5 lakh and therefore beyond his resources, Tirandaz believes he "emerged as a dark horse because I didn’t campaign. If I’d campaigned, all hell would have broken loose on me.” According to him a lot of non-Parsis who he had helped in the past went door to door in Dadar Parsi Colony seeking votes for him. "I have seen how Jimmy and Dinshaw have toiled. I went on their bandwagon to ask people to vote for them” adding contritely, "I recognize my limitations and abide by them.”

The BPP’s "ad hoc, antiquated systems” had rankled with Tirandaz in the past. He is now content to "leave it to Jimmy” to spruce up the Punchayet’s method of working. He has a good word for everyone on the team. "Khojeste Mistree is a bastion of logic…most cautious, most polite, very modest. Yazdi is a great binder, brings people closer together. I also have great expectations of Noshir…”

As a traditionalist would he oppose all religious changes? "I don’t know what religion is so what do I know about changes? I go to Udvada every Behram roz but I don’t pray. I close my eyes and see all my near and dear ones passing in front of my eyes. If that is religion, I’m religious. If not, I’m agnostic…”