Snafu at Sanjan

The mercurial Areez Khambatta, president of the World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zarthoshtis (WAPIZ) disrupted the sanctity of the Sanjan Day celebrations on November 18, 2010 with a verbal dia- tribe against the priests of Udvada, ac- cording to eyewitness accounts. Speak- ing to an audience of over 1,000 Parsi devotees in the south Gujarat town — which is located just beyond the Maharashtra border — the voluble founder of the Rasna soft drink concen- trate alleged that non-Parsis were per- mitted to enter the holy precincts of the Iranshah, the Indian Parsis’ most sacred house of worship and that the Udvada priests encouraged conversion, converts and "convertists,” a word he proudly proclaims he coined.

Incensed at the baseless allegations, the Udvada high priest Dastur Khurshed Dastoor walked off the dais followed by his fellow priests who had earlier joined him in performing a jashan.

Pandemonium followed with mem- bers of the audience shouting down Khambatta and one or two persons at- tempting to grab the microphone from his hand. One of the invitees, the Valsad district superintendent of police D. B. Vaghela reportedly informed the organizers that if matters were not brought under control, he would be forced to press charges against some of those present.

In the meantime Bombay Parsi Pun- chayet chairman Dinshaw Mehta appealed to Dastoor to return to the dais which he reportedly agreed to do if Khambatta was not permitted to speak any further.

Parsiana sent Khambatta an e-mail asking if he would like to present his side of the story but received no reply. A full report on the Sanjan Day celebrations will appear in the next issue of Parsiana.