Great Going, PT!

Dear Editor,

Parsi Times is indeed reaching new heights and is becoming the weekly for the thinking Parsi. The drastic improvement in your content and structure, as well as the thought provoking editorials, is gaining increasing popularity, leaving far behind the other weekly, which has been on an ethically-deteriorating, community-divisive and negative spree.

It is a privilege to have some of the country’s greats adding to the prestige of your newspaper and of course, invaluable knowledge in terms of content to the readers. I would especially like to mention the start of your column by Dr. Batra, the globally renowned name in homoeopathy, and more recently on board, Shirin Merchant, another veteran in the world of Vets. Ruby, of course, continues to delight us week after week.

What is most appreciated by the community is your neutrality as a news medium on all subjects – your unbiased reporting of news – it is informative and investigative, as opposed to instigative. We look forward to more such genuine journalism which keeps our Zarthostis well-informed as well as entertained every weekend.

Keep up the good work, Parsi Times!

Boman Mistry

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Zubin Mehta For Bharat Ratna and The Nobel!

Dear Editor,

I wholeheartedly agree with Parsi Times that Aapro Zubin should be awarded the Bharat Ratna, not only for his immense contribution to the world of classical music, but also for his untiring effort to spread peace through music. He is probably the best known non-political Indian in the world today.

Being a lover of western classical music from a very young age, and having seen and heard Zubin Mehta conduct several Philharmonic Orchestras, I have no doubt that he must rank amongst one of the greatest conductors like Von Karajan, young Dudamel, Maazal, Stokowski and Bernstein.

Music Lovers in India saw him conduct for the first time in 1976 when the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra treated us to Gustav Malher Symphony no.1 and Franz Liszt Piano Concerto No 2 with Andre Watts at the piano. It was Diwali season and the sounds of the fire crackers outside the Shanmukhananda Hall formed a counterpoint to the music. Maybe it lent something to the atmosphere required for Malher’s symphony No.1. That Day I also heard under his baton, the finest rendition ever, of the Indian National Anthem.

On 20th of April, he enthralled the gathering of about 8000 music lovers at the Brabourne Stadium and true to his comment, “For me the match is a tragedy,” a tragedy it was indeed. The traffic jams caused by the tamasha that has come to be known as the IPL matches, prevented from arriving on time and missed some great music. Still it was a great event, a happening. That evening Zubin did not conduct in white tie and tails, but to everyone’s surprise, in a Dagli.   There were two encores, a standing ovation, Happy Birthday was sung by all, followed by a second standing ovation for the great Indian Genius.

He fully deserves to be conferred the honour of the ‘Bharat Ratna’.  But I will go a step further and say that the Indian government should also propose his name for the ‘Nobel Peace Prize’.

Dara Khodaiji

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Thank you For Listening!

Dear Editor,

Thanks a million from me and all my reader friends for reverting the Paidast format to the earlier type. It made reading easier. Believe you me, my wife came across the obituary of two of her school friends who had died earlier this week. These would have been missed for sure in the new format as it made reading not just difficult, but irritating too. Thank you once again for the prompt action and expect to receive the same attention to the reader’s request in the future too.

Cyrus R. Bharucha