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Blurred past condensed in a teardrop,
Unending desires drawing arc of smile,
& a fleeting life negotiating between the two...!!
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The text for this post I received as an email attachment, and I thought I would add to its shelf life, by paying tribute to my oldest childhood friend Rayomand Framroze ..we were three actually Rayo , Vimal from Sri Lanka and late Keith Kanga of Atomic Forest.
Rayo stayed at Khatau Road close to Wodehouse Road ..We Keith , Vimal and I stayed at Jony Castle..it was called Khatau Bhuvanwhen we were young.
Vimal stayed on the second floor in a house that belonged to Gazdar Jewellers Taj Mahal Hotel.Vimal and Keith were on the same wing..Keith's father Dossabhai Kanga a Parsi magnate owned the entire ground floor of their wing.
I stayed in the adjoining wing that was completely owned by late Nawab Kashmiri, we stayed in two room spacious servants quarters on rent ..1955 or before., I am bad with dates
I have not met Rayo for several years , but we connect more efficiently now that he is on Facebook.as Ray Framroze .
Rayo is in the white shirt ,I am in dungarees and a red scarf.. this is a very old timeless treasure of a memory...but he is now the quintessentially nomadic Bawa of Mumbai...
So read the attachment ..
A SALUTE TO THE PARSIS-A heritage to treasure
A SALUTE TO THE PARSIS ( An abstract from a leading Indian publication)
No Indian community internalised the civilizing mission of the British
As did the Parsis. Only 50,000 remain in Bombay today, mainly in South
Bombay, the most disciplined and cultured part of India.
In South Bombay, the cutting of lanes by drivers is punished, jumping
A red light is impossible, parking is possible only in allotted areas,
Roads are clean, service is efficient, the restaurants are unmatched -
Civilization seems within reach. South Bombay has some of the finest
Buildings in India, many of them built by Parsis.
The Parsis came to Bombay after Surat's port silted over in the 17th
Century. Gerald Aungier settled Bombay and gave Parsis land for their
Tower of Silence on Malabar Hill in 1672. The Parsis made millions
Through the early and mid-1800s and they spent much of it on public
Good.
Hindu philanthropy means building temples. They do not understand
Social philanthropy.
The Parsis built libraries all over India, the Birlas built 3 temples
In Hyderabad, Jaipur and Delhi. The Parsis built the National Gallery
Of Art, the Ambanis built Dhirubhai Ambani International School, where
Fees are Rs. 348,000 (US $8,000 a year in a country where per capita
Income is $ 600 per year) and where the head girl is Mukesh Ambani's
Daughter.
Mukesh Ambani is worth US$ 43 billion and the world's 5th richest man.
His brother Anil is sixth on the list, worth US$ 42 billion.
In the US John D Rockefeller spent millions educating black women and
Eradicating hookworm disease. He built the University of Chicago,
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Rockefeller University. He
Gave away $550 million ($13.5 billion in today's money) over the
Years, always setting aside 10 per cent of his earnings. The
Kingfisher Mallyas gilded the insides of the Tirupati temple with
Gold.
Bill Gates (who is 53) has given away $25 billion to combat malaria
And poverty. In 2006, Warren Buffet gave away $30 billion to charity,
The largest donation in history.
Lakshmi Mittal, the fourth richest richest man in the world says he's
Too young to think of charity... He's 57 and worth $45 billion.
The Hindu's lack of enthusiasm for philanthropy is cultural. The Hindu
Cosmos is Hobbesian and the devotee's relationship with God is
Transactional. God must be petitioned and placated to swing the
Universe's' blessings towards you and away from someone else. They
Believe that society has no role in your advancement and there is no
Reason to give back to it because it hasn't given you anything in the
First place.
Two centuries of British education was unable to alter this. The
Parsis understood that philanthropy - love of mankind - recognizes
That we cannot progress alone. That there is such a thing as the
Common good. They spent as no Indian community had on building
Institutions, making them stand out in a culture whose talent lies in
Renaming things other people built.
The Indian Institute of Science was built in 1911 by Jamshedji
Nusserwanji Tata, the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research was built
By Dr Homi Bhabha, the Tata Institute of Social Science was built in
1936 by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.
The Wadias built hospitals, women's colleges and the five great
Low-income Parsi colonies of Bombay. JJ Hospital and Grant Medical
College were founded by Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy. By 1924, two out of
Five Indians - whether Hindu, Muslim or Parsi - joining the Indian
Civil Services were on Tata scholarships.
The Parsis patronized art and culture. They gave Bombay Jehangir Art
Gallery, Sir JJ School of Art and Taraporevala Aquarium. The National
Center for Performing Arts, the only place in India where world-class
Classical concerts are held is a gift of the Tatas.
There are 161 Friends of the Symphony Orchestra of India
(www.soimumbai. In).. Ninety-two of them are Parsi. For an annual fee
Of Rs 10,000, Friends of the SOI get two tickets to any one recital in
The season, they get to shake hands with artistes after the concert
And they get to attend music appreciation talks through the year.
Donations of Rs. 1 million to the Tirupati Temple (www.tirumala. org)
will bring the donor and his family three days of darshan in the year,
one gold coin with the lord's portrait and 20 laddoos.
They know who their gift is for - not society - and so diamonds and
gold are the preferred offerings, things that cannot be used other
than as ornamentation to prettify the deity. The temple's budget for
2007-8 was Rs 9 billion (Rs 904 crore/ US $193 million!!!).
The Parsi dominates high culture in Bombay and this means that a
concert experience in the city is unlike that in any other part of
India. Classical concerts in Bombay are always full in halls that can
seat as many as two thousand.
Zubin Mehta, the most famous Parsi in the world, is in Bombay this
month for a series of concerts. Mehta, director of the Israel
Philharmonic Orchestra since 1969, will conduct the tenor Placido
Domingo, the pianist Daniel Barenboim and the soprano Barbara
Frittoli. Four concerts will be held at the Jamshed Bhabha Opera House
and then one at Brabourne Stadium with a capacity of 25,000.
No other city in India has this appetite for classical music and in
Bombay this comes from the Parsi. Despite their tiny population, the
Parsi presence in a concert hall is above 50 per cent. And they all
come. Gorgeous Parsi girls in formal clothes - saris, gowns -
children, men and the old. Many have to be helped to their seats. Most
of them know the music.
The people who clap between movements, thinking that the 'song' is
over, are non-Parsis. Symphony Orchestra of India concerts begin at
7pm. Once the musicians start, latecomers must wait outside till the
movement ends. The end of each movement also signals a fusillade of
coughs and groans, held back by doddering Parsis too polite to make a
sound while Mendelssohn is being played. No mobile phone ever goes off
as is common in cinema halls: his neighbors are aware of the Parsi's
insistence of form and his temper.
The Parsis were also pioneers of Bombay's Gujarati theatre, which
remains the most popular form of live entertainment in Bombay. Any
week of the year will see at least a half dozen bedroom comedies,
murder mysteries, love stories and plays on assorted themes on stage.
The Parsis were the pioneers of this, writing and acting in the first
plays of Bombay. They also built the institutions that supported this.
Bombay's first theatre was opened by Parsis in 1846, the Grant Road
Theatre, donations from Jamshetjee Jejeebhoy and Framjee Cowasjee
making it possible.
The Parsi in Bollywood caricature is a comic figure, but always
honest, and innocent as Indians believe Parsis generally to be,
rightly or wrongly.
In the days before modern cars came to India the words 'Parsi-owned'
were guaranteed to ensure that a second-hand car listed for sale would
get picked up ahead of any others. This is because people are aware of
how carefully the Parsi keeps his things. His understanding and
enthusiasm of the mechanical separates him from the Hindu, whose
horror of it comes from his culture. Most of the automobile magazines
in India are owned and edited by Parsis.
The Parsis are a dying community and this means that more Parsis die
each year than are born (Symphony concert-goers can also discern the
disappearing Parsi from the rising numbers of those who clap between
movements).
As the Parsis leave, South Bombay will become like the rest of Bombay
- brutish, undisciplined and filthy. The British left when they had
to, but they left some of their civilisation behind and the best of it
remains in the possession of this great Indian community, the Parsis!
Preserve this race.....
You are privileged if you have A Parsi Bawa as your friend......He is indeed a "Heritage" to treasure.
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