Suave matchmaker

One of Roshan Rivetna’s many skills was recently written about by Samuel G. Freedman on the New York Times News Service. The article, reproduced in The Times of India of February 2, 2009, describes how adroitly the Chicago based matchmaker got two young Zarathushtis together in Los Angeles (LA).

Roshan Rivetna: organizing skill

Using the wide contacts and warm friendships she has forged from her many years as editor-in-chief of the FEZANA Journal, the mouthpiece of the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America, Rivetna got a friend to not only arrange a party but to get an unattached Zarathushti accountant resident in California to drive to the airport to receive an unattached corporate trainer from Ohio flying in to attend a telemar­keting conference. The two hours it took them to get through LA’s gnarled traffic was enough time to break the ice.

Through the party — and subsequent dates — the die was cast. By then the Ohio girl had realized that it was not just a coincidence. It transpired that her parents and the boy had approached a common matchmaker thousands of miles away and the party she was supposed to attend arranged by her mother’s friend had been set up in the interest of forging a match within the community!

A retired nuclear physicist and a confectioner of repute, Roshan Rivetna’s devotion to the community and its preservation and entrenchment in North America is shared by her husband Rohin­ton, the founder pre­sident of FEZANA. It accounts for the lengths to which they are prepared to go to ensure marriage within the community, wherever possible.