Worli Prayer Hall
According to our religion, after a few hours the body becomes contaminated and should not be touched by anyone. However, the relatives of the deceased touched the body and placed flowers on it, which in my view is contrary to Zoroastrian traditions. I also saw the relatives of the deceased themselves place the body in the furnace of the crematorium. The ambience at the crematorium was not good and I also saw some non-Parsis near the Prayer Hall. The area outside was very dirty.
I feel what is being done at the Worli Prayer Hall is a mockery of our religious system of disposal of the dead.
KHORSHED DINSHAW OOMRIGAR
Dinshaw K. Tamboly, chairman of The Prayer Hall Trust, responds:
While it is tempting to enter into a debate as to who has made a mockery of our ancient funeral practices after the disappearance of vultures from Indian skies in the late 1980s, a response to accusations as petty as these is, quite frankly, beneath contempt and I certainly would not like to be drawn into such an argument.
The Prayer Hall is today a much needed facility for the growing numbers of Zoroastrians residing in Bombay who wish to opt for alternate methods of disposal, but had no choice earlier than to use other municipal facilities far inferior. The Worli Prayer Hall is airy, quiet and spotlessly clean. It is well managed and we do our best to take note of suggestions from those who use the facility to continuously improve. The appreciation, thanks and blessings this Trust has received since it started from those who have used it, or intend to use it someday, has been most gratifying.
It could be mentioned that the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai has not only been very helpful to us when creating this facility but also readily agreed to undertake a major renovation of the building that houses the furnaces, entirely at their own cost. (The Prayer Hall and the crematorium are housed in separate buildings and separate compounds – editors). The repairs which are currently in progress are expected to be completed before the end of the year.
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In the month of July 2016 I attended two funerals at the Prayer Hall at Worli: one of my aunt for whom all the four-day ceremonies were conducted at the Prayer Hall, and the other of a dear elderly friend.
I found Ervad Framroze Mirza, the coordinator in charge, very helpful and compassionate. All the ceremonies were conducted with the greatest dignity and efficiency, strictly on time and without any problems. One only needed to arrive there with the death certificate and everything was looked after. Divas and sandalwood were conveniently available.
The Prayer Hall is airy, well lit, spacious, and above all very clean, including the wash rooms which were modern. The surroundings of the Hall itself were well maintained. The crematorium was functional and still undergoing re-tiling and other renovations. No doubt, the Worli crematorium does not have the sylvan surroundings available at Doongerwadi, but it was and still is the lack of empathy and foresight on the part of the trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet that was responsible for the creation of the Prayer Hall. And we are grateful that we had this option to conduct the four day ceremonies in a bright, clean and airy hall where all were welcomed — Parsi or non-Parsi. I felt that it was in the true Zoroastrian spirit that all could attend and be part of the ceremonies.
We are thankful for the efforts of Dinshaw Tamboly and others who have secured this alternate option for Parsis who do not want dakhmenashini, despite the tantrums and shenanigans of bigoted traditionalists who, lacking foresight, refuse to face the reality that the system does not work anymore. FIRUZA J. KHAN
firuzakhan2009@gmail.com
I hope I don’t die when visiting India as I don’t want to end up dead in a bloody well with other dead bodies, bones, blood, urine and guts... If that is not hell, what is?
Ninety-nine percent of Zoroastrians in the UK bury their dead at Brookwood, Surrey; 100% in Canada cremate their dead. It is time people in India wake up and think progressively instead of hanging on to the old dysfunctional ways.
Those who don’t change with the changing times are left behind.
ASPI RABADI
Mississauga, Canada
aspib@rabadi.net