In all religions and cultures, there’s the belief of a specific deity behind the rains. In the Vedic tradition, yagnas are performed to invoke the rain-God. In our Zoroastrianism, we invoke Teshtar Tir Yazad. Similarly, while we were touring South Africa, a few years ago, a lady who was a mystic, told us about a […]
I had a very dear Bengali friend in my class at St. Anne’s High School – Rupa Ganguly, daughter of the late veteran actor, Ashok Kumar and wife of actor Deven Verma. I think of Rupa every year on Dassera because once she had told me (in Std. VIII) that when you look into Goddess […]
England lost many of its early actors to Hollywood. The likes of Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, Charles Laughton and Cary Grant and many others all found more scope and richer pastures in Hollywood. British actresses have also supplied Hollywood with an abundance of talent, notably Deborah Kerr and Vivien Leigh. But the most acclaimed and […]
The first beat of the heart means life and its last beat means death. The medium that the heart uses to act upon our body is blood, which combines with the breath to carry the life-principal, or prana, building up and maintaining the body in its endless circulations throughout life. Physiologically, the heart is the […]
A shocking head-line in the Hindustan Times of August 28, 2016 reads, “Most divorces among Parsis due to adultery.” Parsis never fail to amaze! The report goes on to say, “Adultery is the most common reason for divorce.” This report is based on a thorough examination of statistics and facts pertaining to the Parsi Matrimonial […]
Last week, our External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj criticised Bollywood celebrities like Amir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan who opted for ‘surrogacy’ for making this procedure ‘fashionable’. This article is neither for nor against surrogacy – who are we to judge other people’s needs and compulsions? What is worrying is that surrogacy has become a […]
Previous generations had a somewhat shorter life-expectancy compared to today’s but they led happy and contended lives compared to today’s stressed-out-in the lap-of- luxury generation. We live longer since science has pulled back the barriers of death but what is the quality of those extra years of life? What modern science cannot cure, it merely […]
Before I start this article, I must say that ‘Reincarnation’ has been a rather controversial subject with the Zoroastrians. Why so? Because our Priest-class and some scholars say there is no reincarnation in Zoroastrianism. Some base their dissent on actual study of the scriptures whereas many just go along because the priests says so. However, […]
And so it came to pass (sounds Biblical) that our dear Meherbai received an invitation to her old girls’ association from her school. The invite was for the ex-students along with their respective spouses. Meherbai was overjoyed while her bitter-half, Meherwanji said, “Your friends will die with envy when they see you. You have the […]
No matter what you’ve accomplished in life so far, no matter if you are male or female, rich or poor, educated or a moron, chances are, you have a bit of ‘Parsipanu’ in you. It comes as a package-deal with our genes and chromosomes. Other communities call it Parsi-eccentricities but that doesn’t cramp, suffocate or […]
The word ‘Gatha’ is found in Sanskrit as well as in Pali literature, to mean ‘song’ from the Sanskrit root-word ‘gai’ meaning ‘to sing’. Music is the expression of the spiritual side of man. It is the link between intellect and sense, between thought and feeling, between the mind and the heart. The vibrations of […]