“Udvada Utsav”

In his letter "Udvada Utsav” (Readers’ Forum, Parsiana, February 7, 2016) Hushang Vakil, board member of the Traditional Zoroastrian Mazdayasni Mailing List (number of members not known), is critical of the festival. In what manner does he distinguish the celebrations at Udvada with those held at Navsari only a couple of months earlier? Is the "sanctity” and "spiritual function” of the Navsari Atash Behram of lesser significance? At both places, over 2,000 Zarathushtis participated in the celebrations.
His letter is a deliberate attempt to confuse the community by wrongly portraying that the Utsav celebrations were held at the Atash Behram premises when the celebrations took place at the Gymkhana grounds about 300 meters away. As for the presumption that some persons entered the Iranshah without performing the kusti ritual, can Vakil confirm whether all the devotees who entered the Navsari Atash Behram earlier during its anniversary celebrations had done so after performing the kusti?
Members of other communities celebrate their festivals with much more noise and drum beating in Udvada itself, but that does not seem to affect the "sanctity” of Iranshah!
Vakil urges that Dastur Khurshed Dastoor should be stripped of his title merely because his realistic views on community affairs are not in consonance with the Jurassic Age mindset of a handful of self-appointed "scholars” who want to be in the limelight by indulging in hair splitting and fault-finding. These self-besotted elements are torch bearers of the principle: "My way or the highway.” Though they have Facebook groups whose combined membership is about 4,700, after three weeks their online petition against holding utsavs in Udvada was unable to garner even 500 supporters. This speaks volumes about the support such groups/lists command.
It is reliably learnt that the panthaky of a local fire temple in Bombay was compelled to relinquish his position on grounds of moral turpitude, but the same group is working overtime to suppress these shameful incidents and portraying this stripped priest as "knowledgeable” and eligible for elevation as a high priest. HOMI DALAL
homeedalal@gmail.com