Swiss stirrings
Enthusiastic families drove down from Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchatel, Basel, St. Gallen, Engelberg and Zurich. "To reduce the overall travel time for everyone we chose Lucerne” that lies almost in the middle of Switzerland, mentioned Aibara. Another reason for choosing this location was that the Antalia family owns the restaurant GourmIndia that catered the delicious Parsi bhonu. "The food was the biggest draw, and we had a great afternoon meeting, greeting, and eating of course,” she added. "Seeing the response, we hope to organize more such meet-ups in the future.”
Above: Community gathering in Switzerland to enjoy Parsi treats (top)
In addition to the 22 families who assembled, there are four other families who could not join in for the contributory lunch, stated Aibara. Although not sure of the community strength in Switzerland, among those assembled, residing in Switzerland for the longest duration of 40 years was Rati Surti Puz. The youngest was six-month-old Freya Fellmann, brought by her mother Dilber Devitre.
For the August event, Aibara "created a WhatsApp group and with a little bit of effort, and word of mouth, soon we had many people joining in. We fixed a date and the response was very encouraging.” Responding to queries from Parsiana, Aibara mentioned that she has been living in Switzerland for the last nine years. "I’m originally from Calcutta, and we are a small but very active community there. I guess community bonhomie developed from an early age because of my active participation in various events in Calcutta. That got me motivated to organize something similar here. Of course it wouldn’t have been possible without the Antalias’ help and support.” The Antalia family also owns several other Indian restaurants in Switzerland and a hotel in Engelberg.
It was wonderful to know there are so many Parsis in Switzerland. Through this comment I request Khushnum Aibara to spread the word among the Parsis in Switzerland that I am conducting a pilot survey of Zoroastrians world-wide known as the Reforth Index Survey. I would like the Zoroastrians of Switzerland to participate in large numbers. The survey involves a short form of 20 statements to which one has to assign numbers from 1 to 5, depending one's opinion on each statement -- 1 for Strongly Disagree, 2 for Disagree, 3 for No Opinion, 4 for Agree and 5 for Strongly Agree. There is no "right" or "wrong" response. I just want your personal opinions. It takes only 15 minutes to fill out the form which can be requested in either Excel or Word format. Information requested is for statistical analysis only -- no personal information will be revealed. Full instructions are on the form itself. Please send requests for form to me, Dr. Jamshed Modi, on modi.jamshed@gmail.com. Many thanks.