01.01.2013
Really one good mail I received...
SALUTE TO ALL PARSIS .......
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No Indian community internalized the
civilizing mission of the ancient Hindu culture as did the
Parsis. Only 50,000 remain in Bombay(Now"
MUMBAI) today, mainly in South Mumbai, the most disciplined
and cultured part of India .
In South Mumbai,
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 Mumbai has some of the finest buildings in India, many
of them built by Parsis.
The Parsis came to Mumbai after Surat 's
port silted over in the 17th century. Gerald Aungier
settled Mumbai 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.
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.!!!
The Kingfisher Mallyas gilded the insides of the Tirupati temple
with gold.
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 Birla Family built 3 temples in Hyderabad , Jaipur
and Delhi .
These days Hindu philanthropy means building temples. They
do not understand social philanthropy.
And these days,
the Hindus' lack of enthusiasm for philanthropy has become
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. This is something that needs to be
changed and reverted to our Sanatan Dharm.
The Parsis, on the other
hand, 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 ever
before, on building institutions, making them stand out in
a culture whose talent lies in renaming things other people built.
The Parsis built
libraries all over India , they built the National
Gallery of Art. 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.
They gave Mumbai the Jehangir Art Gallery, Sir
JJ School of Art , the 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 (SOI) - www.soimumbai.in <http://www.soimumbai.in/> .92 of
them are Parsis. 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.
The
Parsi dominates high culture in Mumbai. This means that
a concert experience in the city is unlike that in any other part
of India . Classical concerts seat as many as two thousand. Zubin
Mehta, the most famous Parsi in the world, is Director
of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra since 1969. He
conducts the tenor Placido Domingo, the pianist Daniel Barenboim
and the soprano Barbara Frittoli. Four concerts are 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 Mumbai this comes from the Parsis. Despite their
tiny population, the Parsi presence in a concert hall is above 50
per cent.
Symphony Orchestra of India concerts begin at 7 pm. 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
Mumbai's Gujarati theatre, which remains the most
popular form of live entertainment in Mumbai.
Mumbai's first
theatre was opened by Parsis in 1846, the Grant Road Theatre, donations
from Jamshetjee Jejeebhoy and Framjee
Cowasjee making it possible.
Want to add about the generosity about Ratan
Tata who did so much about the staff of Taj Hotel during the
terrorist attack in Mumbai. Not only that but he also set
up camps for all the other victims and their families who
suffered during the attack at Bori Bunder.
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 rest. 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 Mumbai will become like the rest
of Mumbai - brutish, undisciplined and filthy.
Preserve this race...You are privileged if you have a Parsi
Bawa as your friend...He/She is indeed a "Heritage" to
be treasured for ever.
CREDIT TO SARDARS
We all love
Sardar jokes. But do you know
that Sikhs are one of the hardest working, prosperous and
diversified communities in the world!
My friend told
me about the following incident which I wish to share with
you. It has had a deep impact on my thinking.
During the last vacation, a few friends came to Delhi .
They rented a taxi for local sight-seeing. The driver was an old
Sardar and boys being boys, these pals began cracking Sardarji
jokes, just to tease the old man. But to their surprise, the
fellow remained unperturbed..
At the end of the sight-seeing, they paid the cab hire
charges. The Sardar returned the change, but he gave each one of
them one rupee extra and said,''Sons, since morning you have been
telling Sardarji jokes. I listened to them all and let me tell
you, some of them were in bad taste. Still, I don't mind coz I
know that you are young blood and are yet to see the world. But I
have one request. I am giving you one rupee each. Give it to the
first Sardar beggar that you come across in this or any other
city !!!"
My friend continued, "That one rupee coin is still
with me. I couldn't find a single Sardar begging anywhere."
MORAL:
The secret behind their
universal success is their willingness to do any job with utmost
dedication and pride. A Sardar will drive a truck or set up a
roadside garage or a dhaba, run a fruit juice stall, take up
small time carpentry, ... but he will never beg on the streets
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