The select six

Six Parsi scholars have been successful in obtaining scholarships from The Jamsetjee Nusserwanjee Tata Endowment for the Higher Education of Indians for the year 2009-2010, notes the trust’s director, Dr Nawaz B. Mody. The number of Parsi applicants for the J. N. Tata Scholarships declined this year to 23 from the 30 who had applied for 2008-2009, bringing down their percentage among all the applicants from 5.22 percent last year to 2.18 percent this year, Mody mentions.

Of the 23 Parsi applicants 18 were from Bombay, with two each from Gujarat and Karnataka and a lone one from Poona. The successful six, four females and two males, will be going abroad to study disciplines like financial law, teaching children with special needs, electronics and telecommunications, audiological science, industrial engineering and development studies. Two will be pursuing advanced studies at universities in the USA, two in London, one at Oxford and one in Canada. Other than one from Poona, the remaining successful candidates are all from Bombay.

Deeply aware of the value of education, the visionary Tata established the J. N. Tata Endowment Scheme in 1892 with a generous trust fund of Rs 25 lakhs. The Scheme metamorphosed into the J. N. Tata Endowment for the Higher Education of Indians in 1938, Mody recounts.

The Parsi awardees are:

Parvez H. Daruwalla who completed his schooling at The Dadar Parsee Youths Assembly High School in Bombay went on to complete his BE degree in electronics and telecommunication from the Father Conceicao Rodrigues Institute of Technology in the same city. Later, he worked for a few years with WIPRO Technologies in Poona. Daruwalla has now secured admission to the MS degree program in electrical engineering at the Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA. On his return to India he hopes to work in the field of developing telecommunications in the country, especially in rural areas.

Farishta A. Daver attended the Sir J. J. Girls High School in Bombay and completed her BA and MA degrees in psychology with a first class from the Jai Hind College and S. N. D. T. University, respectively. She will be attending the George Brown College in Toronto, Canada where she has secured admission for a one-year postgraduate certificate course in autism and behavioral science. Daver plans to use her specialized knowledge to better understand the problems faced by autistic children and enable them to reach their true potential in society. On her return to India she hopes to bring autistic children back into the mainstream by helping them to get admission into regular schools and society.

Scheherazade K. Dubash who completed her LLB from Bombay’s Government Law College has been admitted at King’s College, London, UK for the LLM degree where she will specialize in financial law. It is her intention, on her return, to practice in a corporate environment focusing on international business and finance.

Anahita H. Mehta schooled at Scholars High School in Bombay and completed her Bachelors degree in Audiology and Speech Language Pathology from the Ali Yaver Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped, winning the University of Bombay’s gold medals in the subject. Mehta will study at the University College, London for the MSc degree in audiological science. Her particular field of interest is the electrophysiological aspects of audiology which is still at a nascent stage in India. She hopes to use her specialized knowledge for neonatal hearing screening programs in India, particularly at the grassroot level. Interestingly, her brother Freddie Mehta was a J. N. Tata scholar in 2005.

Shahzaad Z. Mehta, who completed his schooling at the Activity High School in Bombay, went on to obtain his BE (Chemical) degree from the D. J. Sanghvi College of Engineering in the same city. Having secured admission at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, Mehta plans to complete his MS degree in industrial engineering there. Later, he hopes to fine tune his skills and emerge as an adept professional engineer.

Persis R. Taraporevala of Poona completed her BA degree from Fergusson College with a first class. She is headed for the University of Oxford where she has been admitted for an MPhil degree in development studies. Taraporevala has worked with numerous NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) including Community Conceived Areas (CCAs) in South Asia. She plans to work on the building of a more equitable India by becoming a social researcher and planner and shaping policies which would determine the trajectory of development adopted by her country.