Golden gleanings

The colorfully illustrated book Celebrating 50 Years highlights the achievements of the Australian Zoroastrian Association (AZA) of New South Wales (NSW) from 1971 to the present. With the main contributor being Ervad (Dr) Peshotan Katrak, it was published in the span of just two months which caused editor Dr Behram Doctor to comment in the Preface: "This has not been so much a journey as a 100 m sprint to get the work done in time.” As I went through its glossy pages I felt as though I was watching an entertaining movie rather than plowing through pages of a boring narrative.
Dr Purviz Kolsawala, who had earlier conducted a demographic study on Sydney Zoroastrians with graphs and pie charts, gives a brief history of Zoroastrians from the time of Cyrus the Great to today’s diaspora spread over six continents.
In a scholarly chapter, "Zoroastrianism and the Diaspora,” Dr Pheroza Daruwalla explains our religion and the advent of Parsis in India. Referring to the works of scholar Dr Mary Boyce, Parzor founder director Dr Shernaz Cama and author Amitav Ghosh, Daruwalla takes us back to the seventh century. "Lamentation over dwindling numbers is futile if not accompanied by actions and solutions that embed evolution essential to the continuation of the religion,” she notes.
Villie Meher-Homji records the multi-colored history of AZA, growing in number from under 75 Zoroastrians in NSW in 1970 to more than 2,000 today. The first navjote performed in Sydney, of Rashna Mody in 1977, received full page coverage in the popular magazine The Australian Women’s Weekly. The article began: "Gold-bordered saris and old family jewels glinted and shone in the Australian sun.”
The book focuses on dedicated and philanthropic members like the late Akhtar and Nawzar Ostowari whose donations initiated the AZA House project. AZA House has been named Arbab Rostam and Morvarid Guiv Darbe Meher after its overseas benefactors. Its grand opening in 1994 was featured in Parsiana and the Sydney Morning Herald.

Top: aerial view of AZA Darbe Meher (l) and billabong; above: Darbe Meher Photos: Nadish Naoroji

Top l: book cover; postal stamps to commemorate 50^th anniversary

The Foundation Committee’s role in establishing AZA House is summed up by Sherna Kotwal and Katrak. The Committee organized many fundraisers in the 1980s, including dinner dances, fashion extravaganzas, lagan nu bhonu, jashans, sari raffles and garage sales. Kotwal and Katrak write about the inauguration: "How auspicious then to have with us eminent Zoroastrian scholar Khojeste Mistree from Bombay and eminent conductor Zubin Mehta from US… It has more than fulfilled our hopes and expectations as a place to call our own.”
AZA has never had a salaried mobed. "We have been blessed with many mobeds who have willingly given their time and services to the local Zoroastrian community. All of them hold full-time employment,” wrote Katrak who has maintained a register to record all navjotes performed. The mobeds in NSW donate all the money they receive for prayer ceremonies to the AZA and have so far contributed over $108,000 (Rs 58,21,353). In 2016 AZA was proclaimed as a recognized denomination where some mobeds can sign a marriage certificate after a Zoroastrian ashirwad ceremony. Interfaith presence was recorded by Katrak, Hutoxi Hira and Karl Desai when they met Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Sydney in 2008.
The Sunday School (SS), started in 1977, was the initiative of Katrak, Farrokh Mistree and the late Dorab Kotwal, among others. For several years it was conducted at the residence of Jeanie and Jangoo Unvala before it relocated to the AZA Darbe Meher. Booklets on the SS were published in 2002 and 2017. Gooloo Katrak organized a night camp for the SS children. Celebrating 50 Years includes recollections of AZA’s SS coordinators from the enthusiastic Hutoxi D’Vine to Simone Kasad today.
Tim Desai introduces us to Working Bees, dedicated volunteers who keep the AZA property in immaculate condition, meeting on the last Sunday of each month to clean the place. "We look back with pride at what we have achieved at the Darbe Meher. It is really something fantastic that ‘bawajis’ like us who had difficulty changing a light bulb in Bombay/Karachi could achieve so much.” Apart from routine gardening, maintenance and cleaning, several major projects have been undertaken by Working Bees such as constructing pavilions on the property in 1998 and 2009, installing the pergola (a covered outdoor structure adjoining AZA House to accommodate large gatherings of people) in 2005 and creating a bilabong (lake) in 2006. The late Dr Cyrus Ostowari, a retired aeronautical engineer, has been given credit for helping construct the Darbe Meher’s pergola, patio and paving. Peshotan Katrak made a Farohar in clay to adorn the entrance of the Darbe Meher and a meter high "flame” in fiber glass for the pergola. "At the end of a grueling day the volunteers (of both genders, young and old) feel God’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world,” Desai concludes.
The Pourshasb family is featured in the chapter on Iranian Zarathushtis of AZA. They had migrated from Iran to Australia in the 1960s. At one time the late Fereidoun Pourshasb was Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s pilot. "The AZA of NSW prides itself on being a single cohesive organization for Irani and Parsi Zarathushtis alike and (we) hope this state of affairs continues long into the future,” concludes the chapter.
Karl Desai, Merzi Modi and other enterprising youngsters keep the Zoro flame burning in the chapter on the Sydney Zoroastrian Youth (SZY), formed in 2015. With youngsters socializing at various activities like ski trips, archery, trivia nights, movie nights and unusual sports events, SZY is flourishing today.
The seniors of Sydney are just as active. In 2007 the first of many seniors’ monthly get-togethers was initiated through the foresight of Akhtar Ostowari. Before that Mithi Daver organized picnics twice a year which the seniors looked forward to. Currently the seniors’ meet-and-greet events are held on every third Sunday at the Darbe Meher and include nostalgic songs, religious talks, bingo and other games.

The book acknowledges the role of AZA members Farida Irani and Shanaz Desai in collecting funds for hospitalization and expensive lifesaving medical treatment for the needy. They check the authenticity of the appeals with Dinshaw Tamboly, chairman of the World Zoroastrian Organisation Trust Fund. Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, AZA supported several charities like the Red Cross, Masina Hospital and The B. D. Petit Parsee General Hospital in Bombay.
Manashni, the AZA newsletter, has summed up chronologically over four decades, landmark occasions concerning AZA and its members. When AZA bought the property in Annangrove, Sydney in 1985, neighbors objected to the idea of a community development. In rural surroundings, noise from gatherings was a big issue for them. They were also ignorant of who the Zoroastrians were. A court injunction was brought against AZA and members had to stop using the property for community gatherings. The local council sided with the neighbors. At the extraordinary general meeting held in 1989, AZA decided to retain its property and fight for it against the Baulkham Hill Shire Council in the Land and Environmental Court. AZA, represented by Noshir Irani, won the court case.
When Australia’s Chanel 9’s Today Show "Bewitched” wrongly included Zoroastrians among the cults of witches, satanists and pagans, past AZA president Nauzer Bana took a stand against the television channel and won. After Bana wrote strongly to the producer of Today Show, explaining that Zoroastrianism is one of the earliest monotheistic religions, the Australian Broadcasting Authority chastised Chanel 9 for its inaccurate presentation and the latter sent a formal apology to AZA.
On the professional front, Dr Rustom Kanga, founder and chief executive officer of iOmniscient Pty Ltd was conferred the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce Outstanding Zarathushti Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2020. Rustom’s wife Marlene received the Member of the Order award in chemical engineering in 2014. She is the past president of the World Federation of Engineering Organisations representing 100 nations. Peshotan Katrak received the Member of the Order of Australia award in 2018 for his services to rehabilitation medicine, medical education and for AZA community work for many decades.
On the cultural scene, AZA staged a play Aapri Cricket — Hastovari (Our cricket — of course) to celebrate the centenary of the Parsi cricketers’ pioneering tour of England in 1886. The play and the book, written by this reviewer, were featured in local papers, Parsiana and Wisden Cricket Monthly (UK). Sherna Kotwal exhibited nine of her modernistic paintings at the Vibrant Art Exhibition at Annandale Gallery in May 1998. In 2009 she won the first prize at the Ku-Ring-Gai Society Arts Exhibition in Sydney. She has been made Fellow of the Royal Art Society. In 2009 Piroozi Desai-Keane became the first Zoroastrian in Sydney to be awarded the Member of the Order of Australia for her achievement in creative arts at the Eisteddfod (a competitive festival of music and poetry in Wales). The late Adi Kanga composed Song of the New Millennium — a national anthem for the community (an English version of Chhaiyé Hamé Zarathoshti). His grandson Zubin Kanga is an internationally famous pianist.
In the sports arena, Nosh Mistry became the first Indian to compete in the Australian Ironman Triathlon in Foster, NSW in 2005. Kaizer Austin represented Australia, winning three gold and four bronze medals at World Nations Championship in Boat Racing at Thailand in 2019. Cyrus Pestonji won a triple crown in the Indo-Australian Table Tennis Tournament. He was selected to compete in the World Senior Table Tennis championship in France in January 2020. He is ranked number five in Australia in the senior’s age group.
This commemorative publication is enlivened with color photographs by Nadish Naoroji and includes humorous snippets and witty quotes like: "Our minds are like parachutes, to function properly they must be open;” "A committee is a group that keeps minutes but loses hours;” and "Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone.”
I assure you that Celebrating 50 Years will not make you snore. It will keep you entertained. The book can be ordered by emailing Dr Behram Doctor on jessie.behram@gmail.com
KERSI MEHER-HOMJI