Dear Readers,

Today’s issue of Parsi Times is one which truly celebrates the human spirit, and leaves us in awe and inspired, when we read about the seemingly impossible feats that one can achieve – immaterial of the tragedies that destiny riddles you with – when you make up your mind to overcome these. Yes of course, I’m speaking of our Community’s very own braveheart, Aspi Sepoy, who lost his legs to a tragic train accident in Udvada last September but overcame this personal catastrophe with grace and grit, with timely and generous help from the community – led by none other than WZOT’s Dinshaw Tamboly along with Vada Dasturji Khurshed Dastoor.

Four months later, Aspi’s dedicated and immense efforts, nurtured gratis by a fabulous team of professional greats, have been successful in getting him quite literally back on his (new) feet! Last week, Aspi was discharged from hospital to make his way back home to Navsari, and the Community’s response to his recovery has been overwhelming, as is obvious also from the reaction to Aspi’s videos shared on PT’s Facebook page (facebook.com/parsi.times), which have gone viral with innumerable comments, shares and likes, all rooting unequivocally for Aspi’s indomitable spirit! Parsi Times is delighted to share with you Aspi’s success story (Pg. 5) of courage under tremendous pressure, and how he converted the Community’s initial reactions of sorrow and pity to inspiration and pride, proving true the saying, “The darkest moments of our lives are not to be buried and forgotten, rather they are a memory to be called upon for inspiration to remind us of the unrelenting human spirit and our capacity to overcome the intolerable.”

Another heartening takeaway from this was, no matter how staunchly and chronically divided our Community may be on certain matters, we put aside all our differences and came together to support a Parsi in need. Yes, our Parsipanu throbs and thrives under those layers of disagreements, which cannot stop us from uniting for a Community Call. If only we could work towards dissolving those disagreements for good…

What also amalgamates our community in celebration and unity, is music, and this issue profiles the Community’s most loved, All-Parsi band, The Big Red Bus (Pg. 8), which has been breathing excitement into innumerable Community events with its magical performances for 12 years now!

Sunday, 14^th January marks the beginning of summer and is hailed as the Harvest or Kite Flying festival, commonly celebrated as Makar Sankranti. Here’s wishing you a Happy Makar Sankranti and as per its custom of saying “til-gul ghya, god-god bola” (meaning ‘have this sesame-jaggery sweet and speak sweet words likewise) while distributing sweet goodies, may our thoughts, words and actions too, be sweet towards each other, as we continue celebrating our unity, our music, our spirit and our community.

Have a god-god weekend!

– Anahita
anahita@parsi-times.com