Burjorji Billimoria, RIP

Burjorji, the elder son of Nowroji Billimoria, founder of the Parsi High School (PHS) for Boys, Panchgani, passed away at the age of 94 on January 15, 2011.

I joined PHS as a boarder in 1935 and left the School in 1944 to appear for the matriculation examination then conducted by the University of Bombay. Since its inception in 1908, PHS had no uniform other than the khaki shorts which we were asked to wear when a British education officer visited the School for inspection. In 1942, after Burjorji returned from England where he obtained his MEd degree, he introduced the School uniform of white shirt, short blue pants, white socks and black shoes.

Burjorji taught us English; his younger brother Rustomji taught French. Burjorji was formal and strict; Rustomji was easygoing and mingled freely with the students. After Nowroji’s death, the baton passed to Burjorji who became the principal of the School. A few years after I left PHS the school’s name was changed to Billimoria High School with Burjorji and Rustomji as joint principals.

Alas, this institution, started and nurtured by a Parsi passed into the hands of a non-Parsi in 1995 when Billimoria High School was taken over by the Goradias, an NRI (nonresident Indian) Gujarati family.

Burjorji is survived by his ailing wife Najoo and two siblings living abroad.

BHIKHAJI M. ADENWALLA