As sci-fi films go, this one manages to give the genre a bad name. Vin Diesel is expressionless, the plot is threadbare and the acting is nothing to write home about. Ray Garvison (Diesel) has just won a battle freeing hostages. His plans of spending quality time with his wife Gina (Talulah Riley) goes awry […]
The text from Victor Hugo’s 1862 classic seminal novel of the same name, at the end of the film, sums it up succinctly – ‘There are no bad plants or bad men… only bad cultivators.’ The film, which opens with France celebrating its 2018 football World Cup win against the backdrop of Eiffel Tower and […]
“Like birds, let us leave behind what we don’t need to carry – grudges, sadness, pain, fear and regrets. Life is beautiful, enjoy it. May the year ahead be full of happiness, good health and prosperity. Navroz Mubarak!” – Er. Percy G. Panthaky (Panthaky of Nagpur Agiyari) Happy and Prosperous Navroz to our Zarthosti members. “This […]
Iran, the home of ancient Zoroastrian sites, still retains otherworldly charm in many of its structures. One such is the ‘Atashgah’ – an ancient fire temple in Isfahan Province, located between the city of Isfahan and Najaf-Abad. Currently, the remains of the ruined temple on the top of a rocky mountain draw the attention of […]
The art world is a unique microcosm in itself – there is a passion involved which goes beyond the mere economics of selling and buying art. The appreciation and attraction to a particular artwork is not only subjective but inexplicable. Which is something that renowned Art Collector, Parvez Damania, also struggles with when we ask […]
For Parsi Times readers who’ve been wondering where our Meherbai had disappeared to, from their favourite Parsi-newspaper, the mystery finally unfurls… but in the meanwhile… Abhan Aban thought that Meher aunty had applied too much vanishing cream and vanished! Sagan-No-Gathyo Sorab thought she had become Late i.e. gujri gaya and therefore the ‘Late Meherbai’! Hormusji Homeopath thought the […]
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty” – Sir Winston Churchill. The Coronavirus has triggered panic in stock markets worldwide, causing sharp falls. Investors are increasingly worried about the broader economic effects as trade gets disrupted and demand turns soft. The latest count, when this article […]
As we welcome the Navroz week of 2020, us Parsis still definitely rate as India’s most colourful but fastest dwindling community; our cultural heritage, ethnicity, vibrancy – all rapidly under imminent danger, with our headcount gradually petering out. Life without this small race, over-brimming with its idiosyncrasies, eccentricities and manageable lunacy, will seem bereft of […]
The quest for eternal life has long been a subject of many stories. One such story is from the Hindu pantheon of tales. It is said that the Divine Nectar or Nectar of Eternal Life, which they called ‘Amrut’, was hidden in a pot deep inside the ocean. So, both – the Asuras (rakshasas) and […]
Come September, and one eagerly awaits the ‘lagan’ and ‘navjote’ season… looking droolingly forward to Patra-ni-machhi, chicken farcha, (or their other culinary avatars), a dollop of Bharuchi-akuri, and of course, the inevitable pulao-dar, alongside the other trimmings of a Lagan-nu-patru. Come February, and we are like – ‘OMG! Not again! Yet another invite and one […]
In 1987, Dr. Cashmera P Bhaya conducted a sample (not census) socio-economic survey of poor Zoroastrians residing in the villages of South Gujarat. She identified 687 Zoroastrian families from 209 villages living in miserable conditions, many of them way below the poverty line, which in those days was pegged at an annual family income of […]