Readers' Forum
“Brief overview”
We refer to the review titled "Brief overview” of the booklet Zoroastrianism: A Lofty Topic in a Small Volume by Capt Dara Driver (Book Notes, Parsiana, March 7, 2013).
We strongly object to your comment "which the WZO (World Zoroastrian Organisation) subsequently debunked in advertisements which appeared in the Parsi Press.” There is no question of WZO "debunking” as WZO were never consulted in the preparation of the book and its printing. The first time we realized that we were ostensibly associated with the booklet was when Toxy Cowasjee, editor of WZO’s publication, Hamazor, received a copy of it for a book review. This is clearly a gross misrepresentation of the facts. It names as "Associates” WZO, the various WZO Trusts, the names of the trustees with addresses and also the private address of one of the trustees, all without our permission.
We requested Capt Driver to remove these offending pages from the booklet and since he chose to ignore this, we were forced to send him a letter from our legal advisors and print a statement in the Parsi Press disassociating ourselves from the booklet.
We note that he is now seeking to find an organization to market these booklets. We hereby warn any organization that should the booklets be sold with these offending pages intact, we will seek legal advice again and act accordingly.
DARAYUS S. MOTIVALA
Chairman, World Zoroastrian Organisation
London
chairman@w-z-o.org
The editors reply:
Parsiana regrets any inadvertent misrepresentation of WZO’s announcement.
In a letter to Parsiana Capt Driver wrote: "For a small mistake of mine WZO punished me by sending a lawyer’s notice and inserting public notices in the Jam-e-Jamshed Weekly and Parsi Times, which completely stopped the sale of my book. But with the blessings of Ahura Mazda I managed to solve the problem and made a clear profit of Rs 1,37,025 which will go to charity.”
We strongly object to your comment "which the WZO (World Zoroastrian Organisation) subsequently debunked in advertisements which appeared in the Parsi Press.” There is no question of WZO "debunking” as WZO were never consulted in the preparation of the book and its printing. The first time we realized that we were ostensibly associated with the booklet was when Toxy Cowasjee, editor of WZO’s publication, Hamazor, received a copy of it for a book review. This is clearly a gross misrepresentation of the facts. It names as "Associates” WZO, the various WZO Trusts, the names of the trustees with addresses and also the private address of one of the trustees, all without our permission.
We requested Capt Driver to remove these offending pages from the booklet and since he chose to ignore this, we were forced to send him a letter from our legal advisors and print a statement in the Parsi Press disassociating ourselves from the booklet.
We note that he is now seeking to find an organization to market these booklets. We hereby warn any organization that should the booklets be sold with these offending pages intact, we will seek legal advice again and act accordingly.
DARAYUS S. MOTIVALA
Chairman, World Zoroastrian Organisation
London
chairman@w-z-o.org
The editors reply:
Parsiana regrets any inadvertent misrepresentation of WZO’s announcement.
In a letter to Parsiana Capt Driver wrote: "For a small mistake of mine WZO punished me by sending a lawyer’s notice and inserting public notices in the Jam-e-Jamshed Weekly and Parsi Times, which completely stopped the sale of my book. But with the blessings of Ahura Mazda I managed to solve the problem and made a clear profit of Rs 1,37,025 which will go to charity.”
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