Iran’s central city of Yazd is home to one of the fire temples most sacred to Zoroastrians worldwide with a flame that has been burning for nearly 1,550 years.  The Yazd temple is one of the world’s nine Zoroastrian fire temples which hold the sacred Atash Behram, meaning Fire of Victory.

Atash Behram is the highest grade of fire in Zoroastrian fire temples and its preparation, which took place several centuries ago, involved an elaborate purification ritual that took almost a year.

The Yazd fire temple was built in the Iranian central city of Yazd in 1934 in the Achaemenid architecture style in brick masonry, similar to fire temples in India. It is located in the middle of a vast garden of pine, cedar and fruit trees with a vast circular water pool in front of it.

The sacred fire of the temple is said to have been burning since 470 AD in the Sassanian Empire. It was originally started in the Pars Karyan fire temple in Larestan County, Fars Province, but it was later transferred to several other temples and secret locations to keep it burning until it was finally consecrated in the Yazd temple in 1934.

The sacred flame is currently preserved inside a bronze vessel visible from behind a glass wall and only Zoroastrians are allowed to go to the sanctum. A person called Hirbod is in charge of keeping the fire burning.

Zoroastrians are required to perform special rituals to enter the temple. Apart from personal cleanliness, the pilgrims have to remove their shoes. Men have to wear white caps and women need to put on white scarves and light color clothes.

Zoroastrian Fire Temple in Yazd, Iran (Yazd Atash Behram)
By Zenith210 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons

In 1999, the Yazd fire temple was registered in Iran’s National Heritage List and some sections of the temple have been open to visit for tourists where they can see the fire behind the glass wall.

Origins of fire temples

Zoroastrianism is one of the world’s oldest known monolithic religions and, contrary to some misperceptions, fire only represents purity and the brightness of God in its belief system. Documents indicate that Zoroastrians initially did not have fire temples and they normally prayed at homes or on top of the hills.

The tradition of fire temples originates from the times when Iranian communities developed fire houses to keep fire burning for everyday uses. In this way, people did not have to make fire separately and could take the fire they needed from fire houses.

The fire houses finally turned into an essential part of Zoroastrian communities called Astash Kadeh or Atashgah and they gradually served multiple community purposes, including as places of worship, courts, educational centers and health clinics.

The construction of fire temples flourished during the Sassanian dynasty (224 to 651 AD) during which Zoroastrianism was announced as the official religion of the Persian Empire.

Nowadays, most of the world’s active fire temples are located in India which is home to the world’s largest Zoroastrian community.

Meanwhile, the Zoroastrians in Iran, who mainly live in the central provinces of Yazd, Esfahan, Tehran and the southern province of Kerman, still have their own fire temples where they perform their religious rituals.

… Payvand News – 04/04/18 … —

Source: Press TV

http://www.payvand.com/news/18/apr/1011.html

A minority community in India – only about 60,000 live there now – Parsis are the pioneers of cricket in India. Being anglophile in the 19^th century, they were the first to learn the game of cricket from the Englishmen. When the Hindus and Muslims had little idea of what cricket was all about, the Parsis took a cricket team to England in 1886.

That was much before the legendary Ranji and Duleep mesmerised Englishmen with their elegant run-making.

Originally from Iran, the Parsis (also called Zoroastrians) – followers of prophet Zoroaster – settled in India about 1200 years ago because of religious persecution in Iran.

In all, 11 Parsis have played Test matches for India from 1932 (the first ever Test India played) to 1975. In alphabetical order they are: Soli Colah (2 Tests), Nari Contractor (31), Farokh Engineer (46), Jehangir Irani (2), Rustomji Jamshedji (1), Kharshed Meherhomji (1), Rusi Modi (10), Piloo Palia (2), Rusi Surti (26), Keki Tarapore (1) and Polly Umrigar (59).

Three of them; Engineer, Meherhomji and Irani were wicket-keepers.

Only Contractor (aged 84 years) and Engineer (80 years) are now alive. Umrigar and Contractor captained India with distinction. Handsome Farokh Engineer was a flamboyant personality, scoring runs aggressively and keeping wickets like an acrobat.

Enough is written on a majority of these Parsi Test cricketers. This article features two less known Parsi cricketers who played only one Test each and while batting, remained unbeaten.

As I reported in Parsiana magazine (India) earlier this month, two “ji”s of Indian cricket were unique characters. Both were good-looking Parsis, one was a slow left arm spinner, the other a wicket-keeper and a dare devil batsman – an earlier day Farokh Engineer.

They were Rustomji Jamshedji Dorabli Jamshedji (1892-1976) and my uncle the dashing debonair Kharshed Rustomji Meherhomji (1911-1982).

Jamshedji the first Parsi left-arm spinner

 

Jamshedji was the third Parsi to play Test cricket. The first two were Sorabji (Soli) HM Colah and Phiroz (Piloo) E Palia who were selected in the first ever Test match for India; against England at Lord’s in London in June 1932.

Jamshedji played only one Test, on Bombay Gymkhana in December 1933, the first Test on Indian soil.

Click here for the full article with some interesting pics and facts

 

Standing at the open door of the slowly moving B.B.&C.I.R. train from Ahmedabad to Bombay, a distinguished Mobed in flowing beard beckoned a Cooley to carry an old metal trunk and alighted on the Andheri station platform with his tender age son. The three slowly walked up the hill across the street to that magnificent architectural Boarding School building.

The mango trees on the vast grounds were heavy with the fruits. The Mobed was ushered in the Acting Principal Faramroze P. Patel’s office. After exchanging greetings, the son’s name was duly registered with his entire details of birth date, grandfather’s name, the Mobed “Panth” (family) etc. in Patel Saheb’s one and only complete School register as the 70^thstudent this year in the School and 288^th overall from the beginning!

Then he strikes the metal plunger bell and orders the assistant Keshoo to bring the first standard teacher. And here comes a Gujarati gentleman, in his Dhoti with a wonderful smile, the most respected, loving, wise, the one and only teacher Kantilal M. Upadhyay!

Kantilal Saheb escorted the young recruit to the last class room, informing on the way that he has taught all his 4 brothers before him and they were very good students! We entered the class room with all the students standing up for the teacher and Kantilal Saheb introduces me as Soli Pirojshah Kawasji Dastur from Tarapur and requests me to occupy the only empty desk left! After a few minutes, Kantilal Saheb had to leave the room and he brings his “Dhoko” (club) to me and says: “Sorabji! You are the monitor of this class and take care of it in my absence!”

Thus started my initiation to this magnificent Boarding School, The Muncherji Framji Cama Athornan Institute (MFCAI)! The fateful day was June 20^th, 1945 and it started the most formative 9 years of my life until I passed the S.S.C. (High School) exam in March 1954! And all that I am today is due to the wonderful training we all had in this Institute, under the tutelage of those unbelievably dedicated Teacher Sahebs like Kantilal, Kaikhushroo S. Daruwalla, Rustomji S. Sanjana, Mobed Tehmurasp P. Sidhwa, Acting Principal Faramroze P. Patel, Dr. Peshotan K. Anklesaria, Rana, Khambata, and many others! And as a monitor of this unusual class, I was fortunate to have as my class mates, nay as my brothers, in our last years, Ervads Dr. Kersey Antia, Dastoorji Feroze (Framroze) Kotwal, Noshir Bharucha, Late Gustad Andhyarujina, and many others!

Alas, gone are the glory days of this Institute with 70+ students and 12+ teachers with teeming activities around the clock from the peel of 100 bells at 5:20 AM to “Khudaavind Khaavind Parvardegaar” Monajat at 9:00 PM before going to sleep!

The Village Schoolmaster

Whenever I think about our wonderful MFCAI, I always remember that beautiful poem The Village Schoolmaster by Oliver Goldsmith from his book: The Deserted Village. Besides bringing the memories of MFCAI, the poem also brings back the memories of my small Tarapur school where we had our first 2 – 3 years of education. I am sure it will bring back similar memories of your school to many of you.

This poem brings back the vivid memories of what the school was in its glory days when I was a student and what has become of the school today: a magnificent structure with no student and one Principal (?!), unkept, not maintained and left empty to itself! (please see the attached photos of the school in 2004).

Whenever I visited the school in recent years, it brought tears to my eyes to see the deplorable condition it is left in. Changing the last two lines of Goldsmith for MFCAI:

“But past is all (its) fame. The very spot

Where many a time (it) triumph’d is forgot.”

So, here is that beautiful poem by Oliver Goldsmith:

The Village Schoolmaster

by Oliver Goldsmith (1728 – 1774) (read by Tom O’Bedlam)

Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way,

With blossomed furze unprofitably gay,

There, in his noisy mansion, skilled to rule,

The village master taught his little school;

A man severe he was, and stern to view;

I knew him well, and every truant knew:

Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace

The day’s disasters in his morning face;

Full well they laughed, with counterfeited glee,

At all his jokes, for many a joke had he;

Full well the busy whisper, circling round,

Conveyed the dismal tidings when he frowned;

Yet he was kind, or, if severe in aught,

The love he bore to learning was in fault.

The village all declared how much he knew —

‘Twas certain he could write, and cipher too;

Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage,

And e’en the story ran that he could gauge;

In arguing, too, the parson owned his skill,

For, e’en though vanquished, he could argue still,

While words of learned length and thundering sound

Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around;

And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew

That one small head could carry all he knew.

But past is all his fame. The very spot

Where many a time he triumph’d is forgot.

SPD Explanation:

1. The school has meant to all of us a steady influence throughout our lives, in thick and thin, and we owe everything that all of us have accomplished to that great philanthropist and far-sighted Parsi Zarathushtri, late Meherwanji Mancherji Cama who built this Boarding School for the uplifting of the Athornan families! Many of us school graduates still remember late Meherwanji and his father Mancherji in all our Afringan Deebache even up to this day, a tribute of our gratitude to them!

Addendum

2. The alumni of the Institute form the bedrock of priests on this Continent, to name a few: among them are Ervads Kersey Antia, Kersey Bhedwar, Noshir Karanjia, Parvez Patel, Adi Unwalla, Peshotan Unwalla, Behram Panthaki, Dara Sinor, Kobad Jamshed (Andhyarujina), Tehmton Mirza, Jimmy Panthaky, and Soli Dastur
3. This institute has produced three Dasturs: Dastur Navroze Minocher Homji, Dastur Feroze Kotwal, and Dastur Peshotan Hormazdyar Mirza.  Dastur Minocher Homji and Ervad Manecksha K Panthaki, the father of Ervad Behram and Ervad Gustad Panthaki were the first batch of 36 students enrolled in the institute in 1923 and Ervad Manecksha was the first Navar from this Institute on 2/11/1928.
4. In addition there were two Mobeds from Iran, Dastur Firooz Azargoshasp and Dastur Rostam Shahzadi, who also received their training at the Cama Athornan Institute. They were sponsored by the Yazd Anjoman e Moobedan and the Bombay Irani Anjuman, under the leadership of the late Dinshaw Irani.  
5. Now the MFCAI Ex-Students are trying to revive this Institute and they deserve all the help from our community worldwide! They used to hold 2 weeks Refresher Course on Religious Prayers, Rituals, History, etc. with Guest Speakers coming to speak. However, the Principal and the Trustees stopped them to hold these annual course for some flimsy reasons and the MFCAI is not involved in any Zarathushtri Programs.
6. Now they are holding these courses at Cama Baug. We wish them all success, and help!
7. And finally, I leave you all with that haunting echo in my ears of the last lines of our nightly “Khudaavind Khaavind Parvardegaar” Monajat: “Maneh Paasbaani maa taari suwaad, Bhalaa kaamo karvaa savaareh uthaad!” (Let me sleep under your watchful eye and wake me up in the morning to do good deeds (again)!”

May the Flame of Fellowship, Love, Charity, and Respect for all burn ever eternal in our hearts so we can do HIS work with humility, diligence, and eternal enthusiasm!

In HIS Service 24/7!

Atha Jamyaat, Yatha Aafrinaamahi! (May it be so as we wish!)

Love and Tandoorasti, Soli Dastur

MFCAI Photos

Zoroastrianism is an ancient Iranian religion, founded by Zarthushtra who lived and taught in the first millennia BC, in the east of the Caspian Sea. From his Gathas, we know about his personal history.

This manuscript comes not from India or Iran, the lands associated today with the Zoroastrian religion, but from Dunhuang in Central China, and is written in Sogdian, a medieval Iranian language.

It contains a short text concerning the prophet Zarathushtra (Zoroaster in Greek sources) and a phonetic transcription into the Sogdian script of the holy ‘Ashem Vohu’ prayer, composed originally in Avestan, a more ancient Iranian language. Probably dating from the ninth century, this manuscript is some 400 years older than any other surviving Zoroastrian scripture.

Originating in Central Asia, Zoroastrianism teaches the importance of good thoughts, words, and actions, in a world where the forces of the all-knowing Lord Ahura Mazda, are constantly opposed to those of the evil spirit, Angra Mainyu. The oldest scriptures, referred to as the Avesta or Zend, were, however, not written down until around the sixth century AD, many centuries after their composition.

From Central Asia, Zoroastrianism spread southwest to Iran where it was the religion of the Achaemenid kings (550–330 BCE) and their successors until the Arab conquest in the mid-seventh century. Subsequently, Zoroastrian refugees from Iran settled in Gujarat in India, where they are known as Parsis, i.e. ‘Persians’. Today, in addition to the Zoroastrians of Iran and India, there are Parsi communities worldwide.

In Central Asia, Sogdian traders, whose homeland was the area of Samarkand in present-day Uzbekistan, carried their religion eastwards to China where it survived for many centuries alongside Buddhism, Manichaeism and Christianity. Sogdian communities developed at staging posts along the trade route, and in Dunhuang, where this manuscript was found, there is written evidence as early as the fourth century for a Zoroastrian temple, which was still flourishing in the early 10th century. The Sogdian language, in which this text was written, died out some time after the 10th century, but a related dialect, Yagnobi, still survives as a minority language spoken in the Yagnob valley north of Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

How was the manuscript discovered?

This manuscript was one of 40,000 or so manuscript scrolls and fragments hidden in one of the ‘Caves of a Thousand Buddhas’  – a cliff wall near the city of Dunhuang honeycombed with 492 grottoes cut from the rock from the fourth century onwards and decorated with religious carvings and paintings. This manuscript was acquired by the archaeologist and explorer Aurel Stein in 1907 during his second expedition to Central Asia.

What does this fragment show?

This manuscript fragment appears to be the top 10 lines of a scroll. Traces of where the next sheet was attached are still visible at the bottom. The text has been written with some care in a large and calligraphic hand, with a ruled margin on the right hand side. To judge from the paper and style of calligraphy, our scribe may also have copied another similar Sogdian fragment preserved in the British Library which tells the story of the Iranian national hero Rustam.

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/zoroastrian-prayer

HISTORY OF THE PARSIS

including  their Manners, Customs, Religion, and present position

by

DOSABHAI FRAMJI KARAKA, C.S.I.

Presidency Magistrate and Chairman of Her Majesty’s Bench of Justices, Bombay;

Late Member of Bombay Legislative Council; Late Chairman of the Municipal Corporation and Late Sheriff of Bombay

Published in 1884

Volume I

Chapter I – Historical Sketch

Chapter II – The Zoroastrians in Persia

Chapter III – The Zoroastrians in India – their manners and customs

Chapter IV – The Zoroastrians in India – their manners and customs (continued)

Chapter V – Internal Government and Laws

Chapter VI – Education

Click Here to read Volume I

Volume II

Chapter I – Distinguished Parsis of Gujarat

Chapter II – Distinguished Parsis of Bombay

Chapter III – Zoroaster

Chapter IV – The Parsi Creed

Chapter V – Monotheism and Fire-Reverence

Chapter VI – Progress and Present Position

Click Here to read Volume II

Right in the heart of Tehran, this populated mega city, there is a street that has a lot to tell you about its history and all the events that it’s seen and been through. Watch our feature to find out why this street takes the pedestrians back in time.

Located in Karachi, Jamshed Road was established in 1922. Stretching between M.A. Jinnah Road and Jail Road, most of the houses that once stood on Jamshed Road have been demolished and replaced by high-rise apartment complexes and commercial enterprises, such as auto repair workshops, banks and grocery stores.

Jamshed Road is named after Jamshed Nusserwanjee, a prominent Parsi philanthropist of his time. Fondly known as ‘the Builder of Modern Karachi’ Nusserwanjee was the first mayor of Karachi and the president of Karachi Municipality where he served for 12 years and transformed the city into a great and important metropolis. He also developed a first cooperative housing society (known as Jamshed Quarters) which is located there, catering to the city’s growing middle class. What is more is that he was a close friend of Mr Jinnah.

As you drive down Jamshed Road, you will see remnants of small houses built in classic British colonial architecture. Not only that, once you step off the road, you will see quarter-like houses that were once used by the officers and government employees in the Raj period, one of them is known as 1865, which according to the residents, was used as a storage place for arms and ammunition by the British army .

Jamshed Road is home to a string of desi cuisine, which offers biryani, haleem, nihari as well as samosas and pakorays. A few bakeries are also located there for lovers of all things sweet. Recreational avenues are limited to a few parks. However, if you go to the adjacent M.A. Jinnah Road there you will find several parks, educational institutions, healthcare facilities as well as shopping and recreational avenues, in addition to the well-known iconic Quaid’s mausoleum, Islamia College and TDF Ghar.

Although traffic, hustle bustle and rapid commercialisation can take its toll, Jamshed Road still retains its old-world charm.

https://writerlogophile.wordpress.com/2018/10/14/in-memory-of-a-parsi-philanthropist/

Tomorrow, Sunday 11th November 2018, is the Centenary of the Armistice of the First World War. Across our country and the Commonwealth we will be remembering all those who served, including those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the King Emperor and Great Britain. 
Our patron Lord Karan F Bilimoria CBE DL and myself will have the honour in representing the ZTFE and the Zoroastrian community at the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph, Whitehall. 
Our Hon Secretary Rohinton F Munshi and our Trustee Rusi K Dalal will have the honour in representing the ZTFE and the Zoroastrians of Harrow at the Harrow Council Service of Remembrance at the War Memorial, Harrow Town Hall.
At 11am during the two minutes silence, we will be remembering all our Zoroastrian volunteers who served during WWI, WWII, Korea, Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan, including those who made the ultimate sacrifice for the King Emperor and Great Britain.          
One such Zoroastrian volunteer who served the King Emperor and Great Britain during WWI and WWII was Captain Heerajee Jehangir Manockjee Cursetjee DSO. Heerajee was the great grandson of Seth Cursetjee Manockjee Shroff, whose statue stands today between the two flyovers in Byculla, Mumbai, popularly known as “Khada Parsi”.
Captain Heerajee Jehangir Manockjee Cursetjee, served as a medical officer with the 14^th King George’s Own Ferozepore Sikhs, one of the oldest regiments in the Indian Army today. For his bravery Captain Heerajee J M Cursetjee was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). This British military decoration recognised ‘meritorious and distinguished service’ by officers. 
During the Second World War, Heerajee J M Cursetjee was promoted to major-general, becoming one of the first Indians to achieve general officer rank in the British Indian Army. 
Major General Heerajee Jehangir Manockjee Cursetjee’s medals are exhibited at the National Army Museum (NAM), Chelsea, London.
I am thankful to Jasdeep Singh, the curator at NAM, and his colleagues for the write up on Major General Heerajee Jehangir Manockjee Cursetjee, which is attached and pasted below. http://ww1.nam.ac.uk/stories/captain-heerajee-cursetjee/

Kindly note:
ZTFE being the oldest Asian voluntary faith based organisation in the UK, will be participating in ‘A Nation’s Thank You’ including the bell ringing which will be rung in places of worship across the UK, thus echoing the actions of British citizens 100 years ago.  Our resident priest at the Zoroastrian Centre, Ervad Yazad T Bhadha will perform the Thanksgiving Maachi ceremony at 12.30 pm GMT marking the Centenary of the First World War Armistice. All are welcome to join the Zoroastrian Children’s Educational Fun Club in witnessing the Thanksgiving Maachi ceremony.  
Prior to the Thanksgiving Maachi ceremony, Ervad Yazad will recite the Stum-no kardo when he will invoke the names of the Zoroastrians dead of WWI and WWII.  Their names are inscribed on the Zoroastrian War Memorial, Kharaghat Parsi Colony, Mumbai.  
At 3pm, our Lord Karan F Bilimoria CBE DL, Hon Secretary Rohinton F Munshi, Resident priest at the Zoroastrian Centre, Ervad Yazad T Bhadha and myself will be representing the ZTFE and the Zoroastrian community at, ‘A Service of Thanksgiving and Prayer for Peace to mark the Centenary of the Armistice signalling the end of World War I’ at Southwark Cathedral.  
At 6pm, I will be representing the ZTFE and the Zoroastrian community at, ‘The National Service of Thanksgiving to commemorate the centenary of the World War I Armistice’ at Westminster Abbey.  
Kindly inform those who are not accessible to the internet or email.            
Yours sincerely
Malcolm M DebooPresidentMalcolm M DebooPresidentZoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe (Incorporated)
Oldest Asian Faith Based Voluntary Organisation in the UK; Established 1861Zartoshty Brothers Hall, Zoroastrian Centre, 440 Alexandra Avenue, Harrow, HA2 9TL, UKReligious and Cultural Centre of the Parsi & Irani Zoroastrian CommunityTel: +44 20 8866 0765  Mob: +44 78 2570 5810Email: secretary@ztfe.com  Website: http://www.ztfe.comRegistered Charity No: 277185  Company Limited by Guarantee Reg No: 1403266

October 15, 1923 was yet another mellow Monday morning in Bombay, but the city’s central district of Grant Road was ablaze with blaring music. The erstwhile Bombay Weightlifting Club had organised a send-off for six of its young members — Adi B Hakim, Gustad G Hathiram, Jal P Bapasola, Keki D Pochkhanawala, Nariman B Kapadia and Rustom B Bhumgara — all of them Parsis in their 20s and readying for their cycling expedition around the world, a first such feat by Indians.

What had inspired them to undertake this seemingly-impossible journey? “It was a public lecture at Bombay’s Oval Maidan in 1920 by a French man who had walked from Europe to India,” reminisces 75-year-old Rohinton Bhumgara. Rohinton is foggy about the name of the world-walker, who eventually died of malaria in Assam, on his way to South-East Asia. Says Jasmine Marshall, granddaughter of Adi Hakim, “There was an extraordinary zeal of adventure in my granddad. ‘Nothing is impossible’, he would often tell me.”

Adi, Jal and Rustom pedalled 71,000 km over four-and-a-half years — at times in 60ºC, for days without food and some days without water, across pirate-infested territories and in swamp lands, through dense jungles and “up 6,600 ft amongst the terrible solitudes of the Alps”, avoiding the sea and traversing over most difficult routes, where no cyclists had been before. “We wanted to know the world more intimately and to acquaint the world with India and Indians,” they noted years later.

Not all six completed the ride, though. Nariman returned home from Tehran “for personal reasons” after giving “us company for 5,000 miles”, and Gustad decided to make the US his home. Disheartened by this, Gustad’s close buddy, Keki sailed home from New York.

On their expedition, the cyclists pedalled through Punjab and Baluchistan, crossing Prospect Point in Ziarat, 11,000 feet above sea level and in snow, reaching Iran and then Baghdad. Braving sandstorms, parched throats, temperatures over 57°C and saved from imminent death by Bedouins, they set a record by crossing the 956-km Mesopotamian desert from Baghdad to Aleppo in Syria, in 23 days.

They sailed to Italy, rode over the Alps, across Europe, finally reaching Britain. Three weeks later, they sailed to New York. The threesome cycled 8,400 km across the East to West Coast over five months and boarded S S Tenyo Maru to Japan, a leisurely cruise after months of grilling rides.

Continuing their journeys, they reached the ‘Hermit Kingdom’ of Korea — the first bikers to do so — and on to Manchuria and China. On their last leg, they cycled through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, North Eastern India, Calcutta and Southern India, returning to Bombay on March 18, 1928. They recalled being “surrounded by people who had come to receive us… and garlanded till we were buried in flowers” and hoped that their city would welcome “Scouter F J Davar, who is shortly due in Bombay on the conclusion of a similar enterprise.”

Framroze Davar, 30, was to return home only in 1931. His was a far more adventurous, lengthier, and in-part, solitary journey for “rational curiosity”, beginning in January 1924, and totalling 1,10,000 km, 52 countries and five continents. The 30-year old did not compress his account in a single volume, as it could be “a book of geography gone mad”. He chronicled his arduous ride over the Andes Mountains in Cycling Over Roof Of The World(1929), risky passage through Sahara in Across The Sahara (1937) and crossing of the Amazon in The Amazon in Reality and Romance (1960).

He had cycled more than 5,000 km entirely on his own, for 11 months! In Vienna, he met Gustav Sztavjanik, his cycling mate for the next seven years. The duo cycled through Western and Eastern Europe, rode over the Alps and Mont Blanc mountain, pedalled through parts of erstwhile Soviet Union, Baltic countries, Poland, and Scandinavia, including Lapland, and returned to France 18 months later, to sail to Algiers in Africa. They tortured themselves through the Sahara, counting 156 camel skeletons along the way, surviving eight sandstorms, and a malaria attack. After cycling through Africa for another six months, they boarded a ship from Dakar to Rio de Janeiro, to take on their next big challenge, riding over the mighty Andes. Six months and 2,700 km later, they reached Argentina from Brazil, and scaled the Andes up to a height of 5,200m.

America was a relief. They got back to their saddles, cycling from the East to West Coast, lecturing and meeting dignitaries, including President Herbert Hoover and tycoon Henry Ford, before sailing to Japan. They sailed to Shanghai, cycled through Hong Kong, Singapore, Sumatra, Burma, Calcutta and Bombay on March 22, 1931.

Luck and the exciting accounts tempted yet one more — and the last — group of cyclists, Keki J Kharas, Rustam D Ghandhi and Rutton D Shroff. “We were all thoroughly and hopelessly afflicted with wanderlust,” they wrote in Across The Highways Of The World (1939). Setting off from Bombay in 1933, they cycled through central and northern India, Punjab, Kashmir, Multan and Baluchistan (then a part of India).

“In Afghanistan, we were marooned in the desert for three successive days and nights without either food or water and traversed on camel and donkey tracks; we were snow-bound in northern Iran; and were suspected as British spies in eastern Turkey,” they wrote in Pedalling Through the Afghan Wilds(1935).

Keki, Rustam and Rutton cycled through Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Belgium, Britain, France, Spain, Switzerland and Italy. They sailed to Alexandria and pedalled “twenty-one months across Africa, from Cairo to Cape Town, a distance of 12,000 miles (nearly 20,000 km). We were fortuitously saved oftener than we can recall.”

In 1937, the trio sailed from South Africa to Argentina and cruised through South and Central America until they reached Mexico and rode into USA from Texas. They spent a year cycling through the ‘New World’ and touching the borders of Canada. From USA, they sailed to Japan and cycled across Japan, China, Australia, Singapore and Burma, before reaching Bombay on January 29, 1942. In slightly less than nine years, Kharas, Ghandhi and Shroff had traversed 84,000 km, spanning five continents.

Our Saddles, Our Butts, Their World is a photo exhibition of the cyclists, to be held in ReelsOnHeels, India’s First-ever International Festival of Films on Running, December 1 and 2, 2018 at Ravindra Bhavan, Margao, Goa, curated by former Mumbai-based journalist and now avid cyclist, Anoop Babani

Courtesy : Parsi Khabar – https://parsikhabar.net/sports/10-indians-in-the-1920s-30s-went-on-cycling-expeditions-7-succeeded/18994/

Greetings from Goa!

My name is Anoop Babani and I am a retired journalist. I live in Goa, India with my wife Dr Maria Savia Viegas, who is a retired professor and now a writer and painter. (www.saviaviegas.in).

We have founded and manage Saxtti Films (www.saxttifilms.com) which is a not-for-profit film society, passionate about good cinema and committed to cultivating and nurturing film ethos. We are ourselves avid cyclists too, part of a cycling group in Goa called Xaxti Riders.

In 2018, we organized two of India’s first-ever festivals of international films on the theme of Cycling and Running, named ReelsOnWheels and ReelsOnHeels.

The Cycling Films Festival was inaugurated by Alexi Grewal, only American ever to win an Olympic Gold Medal in Men’s Road Race Cycling, while the Running Films Festival was inaugurated by India’s Track and Field Queen, P T Usha.

During these festivals, we also organized – for the first-time ever in India – a photo exhibition on amazing global journeys of Indians who cycled around the world in 1920s and 1930s – all of them Parsees from Mumbai and in their early-to-mid twenties.

This Exhibition was titled ‘Our Saddles, Our Butts, Their World’.

I have attached pictures, posters and newspaper coverage for your information.

That is the background. And now the request.

I have been able to acquire some pictorial material on two of the three journeys (I am trying to get more material) through the families and friends of the cyclists.

I am now in the process of reaching out to families of the third group of cyclists, which was led Mr Keki Kharas and included Rustam D Ghandhi and Rutton D Shroff.

It is in this context that I request your help in contacting the family of Mr Keki Kharas and/or of the other two cyclists.

I am writing a book on History of Cycling in India, titled ‘Peddling History: Rise, Fall and Rise of Humble Bike’, and these global journeys will be an integral part of this book.

I am sure you will appreciate that these stories need to be told to younger generation of cyclists in particular and preserved for the future ones.

I extend my sincere thanks and warm wishes

Anoop Babani

Saxtti Films, Goa

saxttifilms@gmail.com

9324614861

Zoroastrianism, as one of the oldest religions still in existence and probably the world’s first monotheistic faith, had been the state religion of three Persian dynasties, while shaped one of the ancient world’s largest empires—the mighty Persia Empire, before the Muslim conquest of Persia in the seventh century A.D.

Although it was the dominant religion in Iran, Afghanistan, and central Asia, today Zoroastrians remain primarily in Iran, India, and Pakistan.

To highlight the impact of Zoroastrianism on western thought and the other religions in the world, we conducted an interview with Dr. Philip G. Kreyenbroek, professor and Director of Iranian Studies in Georg-August University of Göttingen (1996-2017).

Click Here for the full interview –  https://iranian.com/2018/12/05/zoroastrianism-4/

Southern California discovered cricket in the late 19th century, two centuries after the sport reached American shores, but the region lost little time in taking to the game with enthusiasm.

The cricketing season began every summer in May. Several counties—including Los Angeles, Santa Monica, San Diego, and San Francisco (in mid-California)—had their own leagues. Practice matches between league teams would kick off the season and near its end, a combined Los Angeles team would take on Santa Monica 11—comprising the best players from that region—for the Dudley Cup.

Year after year, the cricketing season unfolded without spectacular surprises, until the arrival of an Indian and his virtually unplayable spin bowling in the summer of 1907.

Maneckji Jamshedji Bhumgara, a Parsi from Surat, became a bowling sensation for his Los Angeles league team. The “East Indian,” as he was described in the local papers, was lauded for his “twirling abilities” that left the opposition batsmen flummoxed. His recurring five-wicket hauls made him a match-winner, and he was, on occasion, handy with the bat as well.

Bhumgara, who moved to Los Angeles around 1905, turned out for the Wanderers, one of the three league teams in Los Angeles, in his first season. In a crucial league match on July 8, 1907, when his team played the Marylebone Club, Bhumgara scored 16, as his team made 59—one of only three players who reached double figures. He took five wickets and Wanderers won the Test (comprising only an innings each) by six runs.

Click Here for the full story – https://qz.com/india/1520995/the-indian-parsi-spinner-who-bowled-us-cricket-over-in-the-1900s/