Sanjoy Majumder gets a taste of Parsi life

India’s ancient minority Parsi community are pinning their hopes on modern methods such as speed-dating, social networking and IVF to stop their numbers vanishing, finds the BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder in Mumbai.

Click to read on and view a short video.

Courtesy : R. K. Talati

Zarathushtis at the United Nations

FEZANA in collaboration with the Zoroastrian Association of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia and Ashta No Kai, a Non-Governmental Organization in western India, presented a workshop at the 63rd Annual DPI/NGO conference on 1st September 2010.

Marking the first day of spring in the Southern Hemisphere, a Haft Sheen Table, wishing good health and happiness to all, was displayed at the workshop, thanks to close collaboration and support from Zarathushtis in the Australian diaspora.

The entire conference proceedings, photos, webcasts and media coverage with links are available at :

http://www.un.org/dpi/ngosection/conference/ 

The Declaration arrived at by conference participants  forwarded  for consideration by member states of the United Nations convening  at the UN Headquarters later this month is appended here.. Zarathushtis at the UN – Advance Global Health

Best,

Behram Pastakia

Metropolitan Washington DC

6 September 2010

Former Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) chairman and one of the guiding lights behind India’s first nuclear test, Homi Nusserwanji Sethna, died on Sunday at his Walkeshwar residence after a prolonged lung ailment. He was 87 years of age. Sethna passed away on Sunday night, surrounded by some of his family members, around 11.15pm. His funeral [...]

Former Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission Homi Nusserwanji Sethna, an important figure in India’s nuclear programme, passed away at his home here on Sunday night. He was 86.

Homi Mehta, a long-time associate, told The Hindu Dr. Sethna was suffering from lung fibrosis. “For the past two years, he was on oxygen for 24 hours. Because of that he was on a wheelchair and could not go out. However, despite the debility, he worked from home.”

He played a key role in India’s first peaceful nuclear explosion of May 18, 1974, called the Smiling Buddha, or Pokhran-I He developed an interest in “the greening of the Kutch belt in the 1980s or 1990s,” Mr. Mehta recalled. “He formed cooperatives with the local people and horticulturists for planting Jojoba seeds.” Mr. Mehta described him as “a strong personality with straightforward” manners. “He loved the opera. [Luciano] Pavarotti was his favourite.”

Click Here for the full Article in The Hindu

An Outstanding Engineer and a great Patriot – Times of India

Nuclear legend, passes away – Times of India