A Parsi in spirit

I read the obituary columns in the national newspapers as a matter of course. From time to time, there have been obits of some Parsi which, if read carefully, convey that the dead body was cremated/buried, but the uthamna prayers would be held at some location.

Recently, I was saddened to read about the death of one Nandini Durgeshwar Dave, née Najoo Jussawala (as stated in the obit column). It must be presumed that Nandini remained a Parsi in spirit and practice in spite of her marriage. She changed her name but that did not interfere with her staunch belief in and practice of Zoroastrianism.

Her uthamna was to have been on the afternoon of March 4, 2010 at the Vachaghandhy Agiary. This means that one more group of priests associated with the said agiary had no objection to praying for the noble soul. This agiary may be in the "backyard” of the residence of one of the elected trustees of our Bombay Parsi Punchayet. He masquerades as a scholar and may be visiting the Agiary from time to time but was not able to stop the free and correct thinking in his own beat!

Are we to expect excommunication of more priests as a result of this justified "rebellion” by persons who have no authority to take such steps? Or can we hope that the cooks and clerks will bow down to the general view that is being expressed internationally and allow such persons to have prayers after death to give eternal peace to their souls?

This is further to the sad predicament of Goolrukh Gupta that was mentioned in your magazine ("Is this justified?” Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, October 21, 2009).

JAMSHED IRANI

Calcutta

iranijams@yahoo.in