Mama’s métier

In the early 1980s she was the only working mother at Parsiana and its sister publication Signature with three school-going daughters who showed us how conflicting responsibilities and demands on the domestic and job front could be juggled. Although petite and slender in frame, like a dynamo Arnavaz Mama would charge in and out of office, being permitted flexi time facilities way before the concept was in vogue. With her surname being Mama, some staffers lovingly referred to her as "Mamma” and the more innovative called her "Mammy Doe.”

During the nearly three decades she served as managing editor of Parsiana, she had an opportunity to interview stellar figures in the community in the fields of politics, law, medicine, history, religious studies... "She was the intellectual anchor for the publication, writing with ease on a scholarly conference or the travails of a villager,” summed up Parsiana editor Jehangir Patel. With her zest for exploring new concepts and challenging conventional claims she enjoyed interviewing scholars and grappling with their affirmations and negations.
The last write-up she did for Parsiana before she succumbed to cancer on June 5, 2013 was the book review of Wildlife of the Himalayas and the Terai Region that was carried as our cover story for the January 21, 2013 issue (see "Himalayan heads and Terai tails”). Even thereafter she agreed to review two books but with the unending rounds of the hospitals and secondary metastasis sapping her energy, the books were ultimately returned, unreviewed.
"She was a truly professional journalist of the highest caliber and a regular at all our Federation (of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India) and Anjuman meetings…What was most heartening was her reporting which was always factual without any personal views or agenda being introduced therein…” noted a condolence letter by chairman Dinshaw Mehta on behalf of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet trustees.

For many years she continued to report on the two-day meetings of the Federation which were then held three times a year. Referring to her reports, erstwhile joint honorary secretary of the Federation Keki Gandhi described the meetings when "quite a few delegates would talk to each other in loud whispers sometimes even across the aisle, some would open their mouths wide open not to say something but to yawn, others would put their heads down on the table to sleep… Through all this Arnavaz diligently noted down as much as she could hear, during lunch and tea breaks try and fill up the gaps, and during dinner interview delegates. She would then write most interesting and readable articles, highlighting what was necessary, never missing asides, quips, etc.”
To bring to the fore the rising rate of interfaith marriages, when Parsiana introduced the Milestones column in the magazine to record births, marriages and deaths in the dwindling community, it was her communication and public relations skills that helped us earn the confidence of leading hospitals, the Bombay High Court and Registrar of Marriages who then agreed to share the data with us.
For our overseas readers she was the face of Parsiana and many were the voices that condoled our loss: Founder president of FEZANA (Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America) Rohinton Rivetna and his wife Roshan who edited FEZANA Journal for many years recalled their frequent interactions "in times when there was sheer mayhem as well as in times of joy. That face and those eyes that consoled were ever so disarming and reflected an inner self that was at peace with friend and foe. Her endless reports that filled the pages of Parsiana will remain testimonials to her spirit of forbearance and her eternal love for her community.”
Recalling her presence at various North American Congresses and events, current FEZANA president Katayun Kapadia commented, "Arnavaz was indeed very professional in her reporting and her journalistic work will be remembered forever by the North American Zarathushti community.” "She was a great lady and a great journalist and also a good friend to me,” commented Dolly Dastoor, current editor of FEZANA Journal. "She leaves a legacy of quality journalism… Arnavaz will live in our archives and her contribution will be valued even more as time passes,” wrote Aban Rustomji of Houston. Immediate past president of the North American Mobeds Council, Ervad (Dr) Jehan Bagli referred to her "so diligently serving the community for decades using your unique publication as a vehicle of communication.”

"Arnavaz came into my life when I was secretary of Karachi Zarthosti Banu Mandal (KZBM) and then its president, often sharing information I might have required without hesitation,” revealed Toxy Cowasjee, adding, "Later when I was appointed editor of Hamazor in 2002 by World Zoroastrian Organisation, London, a job I knew nothing about, she and Roshan Rivetna were there for me in the early days helping me along for which I will always be most thankful.” The current editor of KZBM’s newsletter What’s On, Sunnu Golwalla declared, "She was the reason I started subscribing to Parsiana.”
The leaders of the Zarathushti community in the UK too commented on her contribution. Wrote Rusi Dalal erstwhile president of the Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe (ZTFE), "Arnavaz first visited us at the time of the Youth Congress we at ZTFE had organized in 1997. Since then she had fairly reported and widely publicized our activities in the UK.” Yet another ZTFE president Dorab Mistry added, "Arnavaz will be hugely missed.” Current ZTFE president Malcolm Deboo remembered Arnavaz "inviting me to the Willingdon Club for lunch whenever I visited Bombay. Over lunch she would gently inquire about the various activities at the ZTFE, then a report would appear in a future edition of Parsiana… It was the reporting of the (1997) Congress and ZTFE that endeared many of us at the ZTFE towards Arnavaz. We were happy that Parsiana sent her again to London to report on the ZTFE’s first Royal visit in 2002 and the Eighth World Zoroastrian Congress in 2005… We missed Arnavaz in 2011 when ZTFE had the second Royal visit for our service of thanksgiving to celebrate our 150th anniversary.”
For this reporter, her first outstation assignment was to Surat in 1985, as an understudy to Arnavaz who had to cover the re-enthronement of the Goti Adarian fire for Parsiana. As guests of the Surat Parsi Panchayat we had a ringside view of the events that unfurled in the dead of the night and continued until the next afternoon. During his speech at the morning function the late Dastur Navrooz Minochehr-Homji referred to the event as "A midnight tryst with divinity.” "That would make a fine headline,” she whispered to impress on this neophyte that the fine art of reporting required one’s antenna to be on high alert at all times.
Our last official trip together was also to Surat, in 2002, when this writer had to report on the frictions and factions in Surat whilst Arnavaz had to make sure that the writing was balanced, with no bias. In the interim we were able to establish a good rapport, sharing reporting responsibilities whereby one of us would start writing the account and the other would end it. With her command of the language, she could express herself easily but she detested deadlines! Even when she disagreed with a particular editorial approach she was always ready to see reason.
Parsiana’s liberal stance was best exemplified by Arnavaz. Though she was an agiary going, devotional individual who opted for dakhmenashini she had told her family that if the formalities for shifting her body from Thana to Bombay were too troublesome she may be cremated.
A letter writer had once criticized the liberal articles in Parsiana by "the Arnavaz Mamas and Parinaz Gandhis.” Arnavaz believed fervently in equal rights for women but when in Iran to cover the Sixth World Zoroastrian Congress she followed the Islamic dress regulation to a tee, unlike one or two of the other women, not wanting to offend the host country or embarrass the Congress organizers.
Jeroo Irani who was the managing editor of Signature shared her reminiscence of their sojourn to Sikkim in the early ’80s when she was on assignment and Arnavaz decided to join her as she needed a break: "Our flight to Bagdogra was delayed and we landed rather late in the evening. Arnavaz suggested we spend the night in Siliguri rather than risk the drive to Gangtok at that late hour. I stubbornly overruled her and we hired a taxi. Half way through the ride, the driver and cleaner jumped out and peered at us belligerently through the windows and said that they could go no further as the car had stalled. We were on a lonely mountain road and it was already pitch dark.
"With typical resourcefulness, Arnavaz jumped out, ordering me to leap out as well and we ran towards a pinpoint of light. It turned out to be a mud hut inhabited by a mother and her two daughters. Arnavaz convinced them to allow us to stay the night though the driver and cleaner tried to dissuade them from taking us in saying that we were ‘loose’ women traveling alone. (This the young girls told us later, after the duo had sped away in the night!) We spent the night on a mud floor with large posters of Bollywood stars pasted on the walls. I apologized to Arnavaz for my foolishness. Typically, she laughed her throaty laugh and said, ‘But this makes for a great travel story, doesn’t it?’” As Jeroo and her husband Gustasp who had earlier worked as Parsiana’s managing editor remarked, "What we will always remember about Arnavaz are her lovely grey eyes which sparkled with a hint of a smile, a private joke, a love for life. She was a free spirit, highly intelligent yet brimming with human warmth.”
"A pint sized bundle of energy, she tackled with dedication and enthusiasm any assignment, whether it was her column or events in the city, other cities in India or half way across the globe!” observed Parsiana’s senior editor Sherene Vakil who appreciated that "over the years the initial formality between us developed into a warm working relationship, maturing into a sincere admiration for her both as a person and a professional.”
Born in Bombay to Homai and Sorabji Marshall, Arnavaz’s schooling was at The Alexandra Girls’ English Institution after which she graduated with an honors degree in English and French from St Xavier’s College. For seven years she worked for the Onlooker magazine then chose to pursue a second degree in economics but got married to Sam Mama just a month before her final examination. One of her principal regrets was that she did not join the London School of Economics although she had been granted admission there. For the next 10 years she raised her three daughters before joining Signature. Whether writing in Onlooker or Signature or Parsiana or providing meals professionally, she glided from one role to the other with ease.
Cooking for her was an expression of creativity and she enjoyed experimenting with flavors and ingredients. Once her daughters had grown up, she used the spare time on her hands to bake cakes on a commercial basis but discontinued this business once her youngest daughter Anaitis who was diagnosed with cancer passed away at the age of 17. Personal trials and tribulations had helped her emerge as a stronger person. "Although liberal, she believed in treading the middle course,” declared her second daughter Parezade. Reading and gardening were a stress buster for her but "Towards the end she could barely manage to read the newspaper, that too in a desultory manner because the news depressed her,” conveyed her eldest daughter Khushnum.
Quick to offer succor and assist the needy, she was roused to come to the aid of a Bombay family when four of its members were electrocuted in Kanyakumari. Whilst the two younger children who were the first to be electrocuted by the high voltage wires could be saved, their parents lost their lives. On reading this news report in The Times of India, Arnavaz garnered medical and financial support for the orphaned kids who were being treated at the Bombay Hospital while Parezade helped with legal formalities. At their residential complex, the old and lonely neighbors had found a caring guardian in Arnavaz who saw to it that "they were well looked after and provided good, hot food,” mentioned Parezade.
Fond of animals, "she had a cat even before I was born,” revealed Khushnum. Many a stray four-legged and winged creature sought refuge at their homestead and she always delighted in recounting stories of their escapades. They never failed to entertain except when one of their dogs chose to chew on a precious tome loaned to her by one of her eminent interviewees!
When the family had to shift residence from south Bombay to the distant suburbs in 2012, it was not the personal convenience of the family members that was taken into consideration but the comfort and well-being of their menagerie. "The babies,” as the family would refer to the pets, included six dogs, seven cats and five birds when she passed away.
Her presence at Parsiana will be solely missed both as a warm-hearted individual and also as a committed and talented journalist.
The spirited managing editor is survived by her husband Sam, daughters Khushnum and Parezade, brother Minoo Marshall and sister Faroukh (Freny) Bagli.