Sugar-coated promises

I have recently returned after several years in Dubai, London, Manchester, San Francisco, Houston and Montreal. I am back home!

It will take some time to settle down in India after having lived happily with mixed communities and nationalities with some broadmindedness and an "you-live-your-life-I’ll-live-mine” approach. During my stay in many countries, we never surrendered our Zoroastrian roots. We may not have been able to practice the religion thoroughly but that did not come in the way of faith. We were able to adjust to the given circumstances and the changes that come with the passage of time.

Therefore, it has been distressing my family to observe the unZoroastrian way in which the trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) are carrying out their duties. There is a personal agenda for each trustee and nothing is done for the community except sugar-coated promises while much money is spent towards self promotion. The trustees are administrators, not religious heads. Yet, they are poking their noses in matters that are not administrative. The open criticism of fellow trustees in the Press shows up the poor standard of their own upbringing.

It is amusing to note that they oppose the conversion of non-Parsi spouses as equal human beings and prohibit entry into agiaries of children born of mixed wedlock. But, when they go to court, their trust rests with lawyers of other communities. Perhaps, this may be because they are not sure that learned Parsi lawyers would accept their cases or laugh them out of office.

KHORSHED BAXTER

bax46@rediffmail.com