A brighter future?
Are we witnessing a resurgence of community activity in and around Bombay?
The Jiyo Parsi program launched by the Delhi based Parzor Foundation with funding from the Government of India has seen a heightened interest in the community and without. A leading Bombay based gynecologist mentioned she is receiving phone calls from all over inquiring about the fertility treatment offered. She noted the awareness level had risen considerably.
The B. D. Petit Parsee General Hospital after vacillating for years whether to open in collaboration with others a cosmopolitan hospital on its sprawling grounds has finally decided to go it alone. The Hospital needs the additional income to subsidize its multifarious medical services for indigent and middle-income Parsis. For the ambitious Rs 170 crore project, 120 crores has already been pledged by Jal and Pervin Shroff of Hong Kong.
The Navsari Parsis are successfully undertaking and completing major projects. On January 17, 2015 The Dorabji Nanabhoy Mehta Sarvajanik Hospital celebrated its centenary year. Starting out as a four-bed maternity institution in a residence, the 120-bed Hospital is amongst the city’s finest and offers a host of medical facilities. An additional structure is under construction to house a larger outpatient department and another intensive care unit comprising 16 beds.
Two new residential buildings in Navsari funded by the World Zoroastrian Organisation Trust Funds are expected to be ready for occupation by March and July of this year and five more benefactors have reportedly pledged their abodes after their demise. Twelve buildings with a total of 100 flats have already been constructed over the past 16 years. The Trust also runs three senior citizens homes, among whose occupants is the Navsari high priest.
Residents who become immobile are shifted to the spacious Khan Bahadur Hormusji Framji Meherwanji and Bai Jaiji Hormusji Meherwanji (Abuwalla) Parsi Infirmary run by the Navsari Samast Parsi Zoroastrian General Fund.
The homes where Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy and Jamsetji Tata were born in this south Gujarat town have been turned into museums housing a few artifacts and laminated boards depicting photographs and bearing information on these individuals and their times.
Two years ago Parzor organized an international seminar at the First Dastur Meherji Rana Library in Navsari.
A four-volume compilation on The Genealogy of the Sett and Sethna Family was released by Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata at the K. R. Cama Oriental Institute (KRCOI) on January 14 this year. Three days later the KRCOI held an international seminar on Cultural Dialogues between India and Southeast Asia from the seventh to 16th centuries.
A grand gahanbar is scheduled for March 14 courtesy the Shapoorji Pallonji group which marks its 150 year. A gahanbar was already held in Poona where around 7,000 people dined. Over a year ago Dr Cyrus Poonawalla hosted a series of gahanbars in Poona and Bombay.
In Ahmedabad moves are afoot to shift the Panchayat managed fire temple to a more conducive environment in consultation with the members. Gahanbars are held by the Panchayat.
The Parsiana office receives numerous invitations for community events pertaining to art, theater, charitable causes, anjuman functions, talks, scholarly seminars, book launches, felicitations, zonal meets of the Federation of the Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India and so on.
In Bombay, as far as the city’s apex trust is concerned, matters are in disarray. There is a "status quo" order on properties managed by the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP). Salaries and bonuses are not paid on time. The staff is demoralized, monthly subsidies for the second and third child as well as the Mobed Amelioration Scheme have stopped for several months. Many people blame the dismal scene in Bombay to adult franchise. But Ahmedabad and Navsari also have adult franchise.
Parsis and even non-Parsis inquire "What is going wrong? How can (Bombay) trustees behave in such a manner? They should all resign or be shown the door."
Two trustees who earlier had stated they would not contest the forthcoming BPP trusteeship elections this September have had a change of heart. Both Khojeste Mistree and Yazdi Desai are now expected to seek reelection. While they had not stated publicly they would or would not stand, the community grapevine was abuzz with their intentions. Whether Desai’s wife Anahita will also stand is unknown. Between BPP chairman Dinshaw Mehta and them, they have paralyzed the working of the BPP.
In her book Saving Community Journalism: The Path to profitability, Penelope Muse Abernathy quotes sources describing community publications as the "glue that binds." The author quotes Ron Heifetz, professor at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government: "A good newspaper is an anchor in a community… A newspaper reminds a community every day of its collective identity; the stake we have in one another and the lessons of its history."
Yet in Bombay with three publications devoted to community affairs has the "glue" worked? Is not the community and the leadership divided? Are not the anjumans in Gujarat bereft of any local community publication better off?
The "glue" has stuck, albeit partly. Where once many Parsis were indifferent to community matters, or even scoffed at the mention of the subject, today they voice concern. Indifference has been replaced with curiosity and anguish.
Activity can be for the good or the bad. It depends where the energy is channeled. If 2015 is being heralded as a landmark year for the country with the economic reforms being ushered in by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), similarly the Parsi and Zororastrian community can also look forward to a brighter future. Just as the BJP government has to tread lightly on contentious issues and refrain from minority bashing, so all the Parsis have to keep in check their gender and racial biases. Then 2015 may truly be a Happy New Year.