Bawas of Borivali

With various games of skill and luck, the Borivali and Suburban Zoroastrian Association (BASZA) marked Jamshedi Navroz with a get-together on March 29, 2014 at the Rustomjee School.
Complimenting the Association for being among the first in India to publish a newsletter, the chief guest Parsiana editor Jehangir Patel stated that publications kept the community together. He also applauded the drive and initiative that made the members of the Association venture out to the suburbs and buy homes for themselves instead of being dependent on others. BASZA is also a regular participant in the meetings of the Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India.

The guest of honor was World Zoroastrian Organisation, India president Rusi Bhumgara who drove almost two hours to reach the venue from his Dadar residence guided by BASZA trustee Marzban Mehta. Noting that BASZA doesn’t have a fire temple both Mehta and Bhamgara told Parsiana that this was just as well as looking after such an institution was problematic. Mehta said that BASZA was at present not looking for any premises to establish a fire temple. The nearest fire temples are located in Malcolm Baug and Behram Baug, both in Jogeshwari.
In a letter explaining the origins of the 38-year-old western suburban Association secretary Khurshed Pastakia noted, "Our membership is open to Zoroastrians, but if a Zoroastrian has a non-Zoroastrian spouse we allow the spouse to attend all our functions including religious lectures as a guest, except for religious prayer functions like jashans. In all our functions we allow guests. The aim of our Association is to encourage social and cultural interaction among Zoroastrians, but we do conduct religious lectures and do some charity, as well... BASZA had unfortunately remained dormant for about two-and-a-half to three years in between and was revived about two years ago.
"Our activities include religious lectures, discussions/workshops; general social gatherings; charity drives; and a small amount of medical help to deserving Zoroastrians. All our functions usually are held at Rustomjee School, Borivali — which our benefactor Boman Irani (Keystone Developers) graciously allows us to use free of cost. Our membership is not very large — about 300-350 people... We get an attendance of about 40 to 100 at our functions, depending on what the function is and when.”