Peace, prayer at Aramgah

A Dae mah jashan was held at the Matheran Parsi Aramgah on the morning of April 27, 2014, notes reader Ardeshir B. Damania of the USA who was present. The annual event is organized by the Matheran Parsi Aramgah Trust (MPAT). The Lord family facilitates this in their capacity as trustees of MPAT. Priests motored down from the H. B. Wadiaji Atash Behram in Bombay, having started at 5.30 a.m. After placing an offering of roses and sandalwood on an afarganyu at the plot where hotelier Jamshed (Jimmy) Lord’s ashes are buried, Ervad Sharokh Mirza said a special prayer. Thereafter, a jashan was performed for the souls of all the departed resting in the Aramgah by Ervads Mirza, Ardeshir Bhesania, Meheryar Sidhwa and Zubin Dalal.

The Aramgah is located about 1.5 km from the Bazaar, on the road leading to Matheran’s Olympia race course. When the prayers were over a donation book was passed round and contributions made for the upkeep of the cemetery and the services of the permanent caretaker who lives with family on the property. Trustees of MPAT, including Jimmy’s wife Zenobia, son Shiavax, brother Fali, Nari Doctor and Farhad Gimi, have been looking after the Aramgah where several generations have been buried over a period exceeding a century, Damania notes.
The entire Lord clan, Jimmy’s friend Rustom Irani of Cecil Hotel along with about 20 Parsis from Bombay, Poona, Matheran and abroad were in attendance on the solemn occasion. Joining them was a large black faced langur who sat at a respectable distance, Damania mentions. After the jashan, fruits and malido papri were offered to the attendees. Attracted by the food, a troop of Rhesus monkeys made attempts to raid it, but were kept at bay by Shiavax Lord and others who pelted them with stones. Only one simian was successful in making off with a packet of tissues. "To what purpose he made use of this stolen booty is left to the imagination!” Damania observes.
The attendees then walked back to Lord’s Central Hotel for a lunch of dhansak with kebabs among other items.
Impressed with the peace and greenery there, Damania urges that people visit this last resting place of Parsis and make appropriate donations for its upkeep. In fact, he states that he has already asked the trustees to reserve a place for his own last resting place.