Readers' Forum
“Doongerwadi crisis”
The letter "Doongerwadi crisis” (Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, September 7, 2015) is along the lines of what my late father Dara Khurody expressed after visiting Iran in the 1950s-60s. He retired as the Dairy Development Commissioner of Maharashtra. For his services to the milk revolution in India, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the Ramon Magsaysay Award and many other honors. He was a professional to the core and even in those days expressed concern over the "unhygienic and uncivilized method for disposal of dead bodies” at Malabar Hill.
He felt that the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustees should transform the entire area into a center for Zoroastrian scholarship where world scholars could research the entire geopolitical history of Persia and its neighbors. The center would have links with universities in Germany, UK, USA, Russia and the Middle East. One purpose would be to reveal — with sound academics — the underlying principles of Zoroastrian tenets that are designed to bring about a just, unified, progressive society universally. Zoroastrian tenets could be the basis of a new "United Nations.” We could establish an identity of "thought leadership” on issues covering law, natural sciences, music, medicine, literature, renewable resource planning, industry and social causes to uplift the unfortunate, to mention a few.
Instead, Parsis are viewed as a quirky lot — with money to indulge their petty prejudices. Looking inwards, backwards and foolishly at fossils of a bygone era and then deciphering them wrongly!
The BPP trustees are beyond redemption. There is no leadership, only attempts at petty ownership. I see no hope. The numbers are small and when they are reduced further, the assets will fragment and dissolve.
He felt that the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) trustees should transform the entire area into a center for Zoroastrian scholarship where world scholars could research the entire geopolitical history of Persia and its neighbors. The center would have links with universities in Germany, UK, USA, Russia and the Middle East. One purpose would be to reveal — with sound academics — the underlying principles of Zoroastrian tenets that are designed to bring about a just, unified, progressive society universally. Zoroastrian tenets could be the basis of a new "United Nations.” We could establish an identity of "thought leadership” on issues covering law, natural sciences, music, medicine, literature, renewable resource planning, industry and social causes to uplift the unfortunate, to mention a few.
Instead, Parsis are viewed as a quirky lot — with money to indulge their petty prejudices. Looking inwards, backwards and foolishly at fossils of a bygone era and then deciphering them wrongly!
The BPP trustees are beyond redemption. There is no leadership, only attempts at petty ownership. I see no hope. The numbers are small and when they are reduced further, the assets will fragment and dissolve.
NAUSHIR KHURODY
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