Readers' Forum
“The end of Camelot”
With apologies to Rabindranath Tagore, I am using his poem in modified form: "Where the mind is fearful,/ And our community is broken into fragments,/ By narrow fundamentalism,/ Where reason is submerged beyond resurfacing,/ Into the hands of despair and extinction,/ Into the hell of orthodoxy, and criminalization,/ My community has awakened to this state today!”
Jamsheed Kanga’s article "The end of Camelot” (Parsiana, December 7, 2013) exposes all the wrongdoings we are faced with today. He ends with Tagore’s original verse which is optimistic, but though I am not a pessimist, I see no future for us now! Kanga has given us a very straight and to the point account of what the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) once was and what it has become today. Earlier eminent persons worked to make the Parsi kom (community) a productive, pioneering group.
It’s strange that way back then Parsi women who married under the Special Marriage Act, and continued to profess Zoroastrianism, were freely allowed the use of the fire temple and Doongerwadi. Why then is there a controversy about this now? And if they are allowed, why are our priests humiliated and declared renegade? If the practice was not a sacrilege then, why should it be so now? Who is answerable? The decision making capacity of trustees during bygone days was directed only towards the betterment of the community, whereas now they meddle in matters that should least concern them. The present lot of trustees comprises self-centered, self-professed scholars and self-proclaimed caretakers on all religious matters. Probably priests are now only required for prayers and nothing else.
One over-the-top idea is the aviary project at the Bombay Doongerwadi. Everyone sees it as a colossal waste of money except the die-hard few who are hell bent on going ahead with it.
But the most shameful and earlier unheard of are the court cases. Also, an FIR (first information report) has been filed against their own chairman on criminal charges! The donors’ money is being utilized in all these faltu jhagdas (avoidable quarrels)! It is worth asking the trustees if there is a special fund allotted for such litigation, with no accountability!
Instead of unifying the BPP and speaking with one voice, one sees rifts galore, non-attendance at meetings and public infighting.
One is left searching for strong, righteous and courageous leaders who can lead us safely to a better life like Moses (in the Bible) who parted the ocean to save his flock! RODA D. HAKIM
Baroda
vadhakim@yahoo.com
Jamsheed Kanga’s article "The end of Camelot” (Parsiana, December 7, 2013) exposes all the wrongdoings we are faced with today. He ends with Tagore’s original verse which is optimistic, but though I am not a pessimist, I see no future for us now! Kanga has given us a very straight and to the point account of what the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) once was and what it has become today. Earlier eminent persons worked to make the Parsi kom (community) a productive, pioneering group.
It’s strange that way back then Parsi women who married under the Special Marriage Act, and continued to profess Zoroastrianism, were freely allowed the use of the fire temple and Doongerwadi. Why then is there a controversy about this now? And if they are allowed, why are our priests humiliated and declared renegade? If the practice was not a sacrilege then, why should it be so now? Who is answerable? The decision making capacity of trustees during bygone days was directed only towards the betterment of the community, whereas now they meddle in matters that should least concern them. The present lot of trustees comprises self-centered, self-professed scholars and self-proclaimed caretakers on all religious matters. Probably priests are now only required for prayers and nothing else.
One over-the-top idea is the aviary project at the Bombay Doongerwadi. Everyone sees it as a colossal waste of money except the die-hard few who are hell bent on going ahead with it.
But the most shameful and earlier unheard of are the court cases. Also, an FIR (first information report) has been filed against their own chairman on criminal charges! The donors’ money is being utilized in all these faltu jhagdas (avoidable quarrels)! It is worth asking the trustees if there is a special fund allotted for such litigation, with no accountability!
Instead of unifying the BPP and speaking with one voice, one sees rifts galore, non-attendance at meetings and public infighting.
One is left searching for strong, righteous and courageous leaders who can lead us safely to a better life like Moses (in the Bible) who parted the ocean to save his flock! RODA D. HAKIM
Baroda
vadhakim@yahoo.com
◆ ◆ ◆
From the archive