“Pride and prejudice”

The extracts from the speech of Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) chairman Dinshaw Mehta ("Pride and prejudice” Parsiana, November 21, 2009) were unfortunately factually incorrect and seem to suggest that the trustees of the M. F. Cama Athornan Institute and M. M. Cama Education Fund were about to sell their school property at Andheri and that Yezdi Bhagwagar was instrumental for the same.

Our trust, like many other Parsi trusts, suffers from a lack of funds to meet with our objectives and we look for opportunities to augment them. We were therefore very happy when Bhagwagar brought a proposal which, in essence, was as follows: it would be a joint consortium (for a limited period) between two charitable trusts i.e. the Cama Trust and the Nirja Mody Foundation for setting up and operating an international school. The proposal was in the best interest of our community apart from the monetary compensation to our trust. The benefits included inter alia the following:

A discount of 90 percent of the usual fees and charges (estimated at eight lakh rupees per student per year) to any of our Zoroastrian students.

Our students could attend evening classes for vocational and technical courses at a discount of 80 percent.

The library and resource center would be free of cost.

Use of sports facilities would be free of cost but subject to payment for consumable.

An outreach program for the weaker section in the evenings, free of cost.

Providing non monetary and psychosomatic assistance to the old and senior members, etc.

The above proposal could have mitigated almost all the financial problems of our priestly class. The added income so received would have enabled our trust to put in place several schemes, for the benefit of the would-be priests and attractive enough to induce the parents to enter their sons into our Institute. I would stress that at no time was there any thought or plan to alienate even an inch of our Andheri premises.

In my opinion, formed after 25 years of association with Bhagwagar, his commitment, dedication, care for his clients, his intellect and knowledge of finance and legal issues is second to none and he is one of the most competent professionals I have had the good fortune to meet. Though he is not a trustee of our trust he is our advisor and continues to guide us on most issues.

The development of the Cama Park residential complex which houses almost 300 Parsi families would not have been possible without Yezdi’s support, guidance and knowledge of legal structuring.

MANCHERJI J. CAMA

Chairman and Managing Trustee

M. F. Cama Athornan Institute

and M. M. Cama Education Fund