Readers' Forum
The Parsi presence
Malcolm Deboo will be remembered as the only conspicuously Parsi representative present at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, the world’s longest reigning monarch.
There has been a consistent tendency for Parsis (few as they are) to be present on very important occasions. Nigel Nicholson in his book Napoleon 1812 (1985) mentions a Parsi doctor calling on the old soldier in the remote island of St Helena to ask him whether he could be of any help. I also recall Dr Jimmy Sidhwa telling me in Bombay that he distinctly remembers reading that there was a Parsi present when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in a theater in Washington DC on April 14, 1865. I don’t know if that is true.
FALI S. NARIMAN
New Delhi
falinariman@gmail.com
There has been a consistent tendency for Parsis (few as they are) to be present on very important occasions. Nigel Nicholson in his book Napoleon 1812 (1985) mentions a Parsi doctor calling on the old soldier in the remote island of St Helena to ask him whether he could be of any help. I also recall Dr Jimmy Sidhwa telling me in Bombay that he distinctly remembers reading that there was a Parsi present when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth in a theater in Washington DC on April 14, 1865. I don’t know if that is true.
FALI S. NARIMAN
New Delhi
falinariman@gmail.com
◆ ◆ ◆
From the archive