Sydney stamps

Homaxi Irani and Rashna Mody-Clark were announced as the co-winners of the 50th Anniversary Commemorative Stamp competition organized by the Australian Zoroastrian Association (AZA) of New South Wales. The asho farohar features prominently in the "design and creativity” displayed by the winners. "With over 20 very high quality entries, it was difficult for the judging panel that we had appointed to select the winning entry. The main criteria used in judging was: recognition/reflection of the theme as to who we are; size and format restrictions (38 mm square excluding the borders within which Australia Post would print the word AUSTRALIA and the denomination of the stamp); wording style and design; simplicity, elegance and philosophy of design,” noted the July 2021 issue of their newsletter Manashni.
Pre-orders for a sheet of 20 postal stamps of $1.10 denomination each on payment of $35 (Rs 1,943) can be given to AZA management committee secretary Mithi Daver, the newsletter noted, "This is a special early bird price as Australia Post is offering these to us at a discounted rate for a very short period. Please note that in years to come this will be a collector’s item to be treasured by our children and grandchildren.”
The logo in use by the AZA for the last 40 years had also been created by Rashna, daughter of Jeroo and the late Gaev Mody, when as a student in school she had won the competition "to visualize the harmonious integration of our community into the Australian community.”

Prize winning entries for postal stamps by Homaxi Irani (l) and Rashna Mody-Clark

"We have a number of initiatives in mind,” announced AZA president Viraf Hathiram on behalf of the committee that took charge in March 2021. Having initiated a survey seeking to understand the priorities of the different demographic components among the members who number nearly 500, Hathiram added, "We are going to attempt to make a change. It is a two-way street — we must engage the community appropriately and the community has to put their hands up to volunteer their time and skills…
"Management committees utilize much of their capacity organizing events, day-to-day tasks and fulfilling legal obligations. There is little capacity to be facilitators — facilitating wholesome conversations within the community about the future and facilitating a range of activities. Committees ought to have capacity for, to use a favored phrase, ‘doing things better and doing better things’... We need a core of long-term volunteers. The benefit of long-term volunteers is the understanding and continuity of knowledge they bring, something that changing management committees will not necessarily have. The prime examples of this are the Sunday School, Seniors Days and Working Bee which have a life of their own, independent of the committee,” the president was quoted in Manashni.
Having planned a grand 50th anniversary gala at their Darbe-Meher on August 21 where they hope to see many members, the website of the Association carries an endorsement (dated April 30, 2021) from 14 community doctors who "strongly urge all adult members in the Zoroastrian community to receive a Covid vaccination as soon as they are eligible for it… Vaccination remains the best way to protect against severe illness and death from Covid-19 and is a core element of the pandemic response.”
Pfizer and AstraZeneca are the only two vaccines available in Sydney that is currently in lockdown. As reiterated by the Zoroastrian doctors, for " people over the age of 50 years, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) continues to advise that the benefit of vaccination with AstraZeneca far outweighs the small risk of side effects associated with vaccination. As the AstraZeneca vaccine appears likely to be causally linked with a very small risk of a newly recognized clotting disorder known as Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS) in adults under the age of 50 years, the Pfizer vaccine is the preferred option in this age group. The overall rate of TTS is extremely low at about six cases per million people vaccinated.”