“A home away from home”

For Filly Bapuna, Marzee Kerawala and several other donors this was an opportunity to repay their debt to the community. Bapuna had been a resident of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) run Bai Soonabai and Seth Behramji H. Sorabji Parsi Students’ Hostel in Gamadia Colony, Tardeo for seven years in the 1980s while Kerawala was a beneficiary of a flat in Panthaky Baug. When they heard the dilapidated Hostel structure built in 1937 was in urgent need of repair and renovation, they readily lent a helping hand.
After the garlanding of the portrait of Behramji Hormusjee Sorabji who donated the money for the construction of the Hostel, Bapuna addressed the gathering terming the Hostel "A home away from home.” When he left the facility, however, the structure "was like a slum. I felt I must do something. Never forget, when you have something you have to give back...When people who are rich don’t give back, it’s shameful.” Bapuna later mentioned to Parsiana that he runs his own business, Filboy which deals in corporate gifting, merchandising and car accessories. A student of J. N. Petit School in Poona, he recalls that even his monthly school fees of Rs 40 was paid by the School trust. He has financially assisted other Parsi institutions in Bombay and Surat as well. For the Hostel he roped in donors such as ex residents Percy Pooniwala of Minneapolis, USA and Zubin Dastoor of San Francisco.
Kerawala said he was a student of the Athornan Boarding Madressa at Dadar and was a qualified navar maratab. He came forward after seeing the advertisement. A certified financial planner, he runs his own firm, Nivesh India.
Students who have passed their 10th standard are eligible to stay for seven years at the Hostel, BPP chief executive officer Cawas Panthaki informed Parsiana. The Hostel can accommodate around 49 students. The Hostel manager Jehangir Mandviwala said the boys come mainly from the cities of Surat, Navsari and Valsad with some from Baroda, Pardi, Jhansi, Bhusaval, Indore and Jamshedpur.
"This is the first public-private venture,” for the BPP in recent times, stated trustee Kersi Randeria talking to Parsiana prior to the inauguration ceremony for the repairs on August 17, 2017, Shahenshahi New Year at around 1 p.m. when Parsis should have been with their families enjoying lunch (the mahurat was 12.40 p.m. but as BPP chairman Yazdi Desai was delayed, the ceremonies started later). Randeria wished to demonstrate that despite the sullied image of the BPP in the community’s eyes, they could still raise donations from the public. "We put a few advertisements in the Parsi Times and I spoke to some people on the phone,” said Randeria. (He owns the weekly and reportedly carries the BPP advertisements without charge — editors)
Randeria told the gathering that even an elderly lady, Guloo Sadri, who lives in a building next to Captain Colony, had made a small donation. "People are ready and willing to help the BPP,” he asserted. Architect Hanoze Mistry of HMD Architects who resides in Bharucha Baug and does assignments for the BPP is giving his services pro bono. The contractor for the job is Mayuresh Jakhi. Around Rs 30 lakh (USD 46,834) had been collected and Randeria intends to collect another Rs 10 lakhs (USD 15,611). He would like to see the institution become self supporting and is contemplating refurbishing some rooms and offering them at a higher rent to working Parsis.

Addressing a gathering of around 25 which included BPP trustees Armaity Tirandaz, Viraf Mehta, Gamadia Colony Welfare Association committee members, some BPP staff and others, Desai admitted, "We have not paid much attention to the Hostel in the past… It’s not the board that does things, (rather) one or two individual trustees who take the initiative,” explained Desai. "Kersi Randeria took on the task as a personal project. The BPP had to spend some money but we got some fantastic donors, one of whom donated in his parents’ memory but wished to remain anonymous. They wanted to give back.” Sometimes colony residents would complain about the boorish behavior of the students commenting, "Ayee jungleeo kah thi ayya (Where have these uncultured people come from)?”
Mandviwala told the gathering he had been badgering the BPP to do something for the Hostel for a long time. Earlier the hostelites had complained about bedbugs and the first priority was to arrange for pest control, recalled Desai. A donation of Rs 1,00,000 (USD 1,561) from Nariman Daruwalla made that possible.
Some years back Mandviwala had even invited Parsiana to come and see the condition of the building but the journal replied that if they wrote about the Hostel without the trustees’ knowledge, he would lose his job. (At that time, the board was even more bitterly divided and whoever was perceived to be in one camp or the other faced victimization. Mandviwala had groused then that one day he was called for a meeting with a trustee at 11 a.m. but taken in at 5 p.m. Visitors waiting till late at night to meet a trustee is not unusual — editors) Mandviwala approached Randeria who set the ball rolling. He noted the BPP had been benign employers and that he is "well looked after.” Even though he was past 65 years of age, they requested him to continue working.
As regards the residents’ complaints about the hostelites’ behavior, Mandviwala clarified, "They are good children. They are your children.”