Band baajaa boomerang

The B. V. S. (Bai Virbaiji Soparivala) Parsi High School’s band continues its "age-old tradition” of playing music in every Parsi colony and neighborhood of Karachi on the occasion of Navroz and Khordad Sal, to the delight of some and the disdain of others. And invariably the principal of the School Kermin Parakh receives phone calls "from moaning and groaning Parsis. Some demanding as to why the band had not gone to their colony and others as to why it was sent early in the morning to their colony,” writes Parakh in the October 2011 issue of What’s On, the newsletter of the Karachi Zarthosti Banu Mandal.

"In spite of the tense situation prevailing in the city this year…the School sent the administrator two guards, one van driver (all fasting) and the 75-year-old band master Paul Pareira to accompany the boys from 3 a.m. to 2 p.m.,” mentions Parakh adding, "One needs to appreciate the fact that the young and enthusiastic Virbaijeeites, past and present, and a few other Parsi boys who join in, stay awake the whole night, try to go to…various houses of our kind benefactors, playing and collecting donations for the band. They reach their homes exhausted at 2 p.m. then freshen up to enjoy the Navroz Mela at the Beach Luxury Hotel.”
Whilst acknowledging the largesse of those who for years have fed and encouraged the boys, the principal admits that the band is confronted with a dilemma: "to play or not to play.”
According to the BVS website, Fakirjee Cowasjee started the school band in 1927 with a generous donation by the Cowasjee family. It was named the Cowasjee Variava Band. "Every Monday, a general assembly is held where the school band plays a very important role. The entire school is assembled, grouped in four houses that march in front of all teachers with the principal accepting the salute. The school band plays... the general salute, the march past and the national anthem. This tradition has continued to this day since 1927.”