Storm in a teacup

I have heard of the Kapoors, Khans, Bachchans, but not of any Rampal. Well the Parsis (the fanatic diehard orthodox type) who wanted to play to the gallery and have their few minutes in the sun thanks to The Times of India have made Arjun Rampal a front page item.

Oh yes, Parsis have many self-styled scholars and researchers and they conjure up all kinds of fairy tales. It is only in India that Parsis do not allow non-Parsis to enter their fire temples, not because of any religious restrictions as is falsely made out to be, but because of the wishes of the sethias and donors who funded building of these fire temples, or as per their trust deeds.

Recently a group of 40 Italian tourists paid a visit to a fire temple in Iran, the birthplace of the Zoroastrian religion. The Italians invited Iranian Zoroastrians to build a fire temple in Rome, assuring them of all possible help, and even attended a Farvadigan ceremony held in the cemetery.

In Bombay the Mumbai Mirror of April 19, 2009 reported on the front page with a photograph, that a half-Parsi Farzin Batliwalla’s funeral prayers were attended by a small group including members of the Parsi community in the courtyard of a fire temple in Vasai. Not just that, the high priests shout from the roof tops that the Zoroastrian religion is for all mankind. The long and short of it all is that there is no apology coming and these diehards can do nothing about it. They have only stirred a storm in a tea cup for cheap publicity.

BEHRAM AGA

behram_r_aga@yahoo.co.in