Parsi’s iconic magazine in India closed after 60 years

In the old, neo-gothic building in the Fort, the northern district in the financial capital of India Mumbai is a launched office that produces one of the oldest and most famous Parsi-Parsius magazines.

The magazine was launched in 1964 by Pestonji Warden, Dr. Parsi, who also tried to trade sandals to chronicle the community in the city.

Since then, the magazine has grown into subscribers and reaches. For many Parsis, he offered a window in society that help members around the world feel linked and considered when their number decreased and scattered.

60 years later, Parsyan will close in October this October from the destruction of subscribers, lack of funds and no successor to launch it.

This news was upset not only by subscribers, but also by those who knew about the magazine’s inheritance.

“It’s like the end of the era,” says 18 -year -old Susant Singh. “We used to joke about how you weren’t” real Parsi “when you didn’t know about Parsia or Voice eloquent about it.”

Ever since the news of the magazine’s closing has been announced in one of its editions in August, tributes are poured.

In his September edition, the reader in Mumbai writes: “To think that such a small community as ours can be chronic with such diligence and passion seems to be a terrible Andrew.

Another reader based in Pakistan says the magazine was “more than the publication; it was a satellite and a bridge connecting Zoroastrians around the world.”

The reader, based in Washington, praised the magazine for informing the community, “but also brought a touch of realism on controversial issues.”

The 80 -year -old Yehangir Patel, which headed the magazine since his purchase only for one Rupee in 1973, says he always wanted it to be a “journalistic endeavor”.

When Warden launched the magazine as a month, he only conducted essays on Parsis or Ward’s medical works.

After being taken to the post, Mr. The pan turned it into a weekly stories, acute columns and illustrations that solved the sensitive problems of Parsi honesty and humor.

He hired and prepared journalists, created a signature model and, eventually, turned the black and white magazine into color.

Mr Remember his first story after the magazine’s capture; It was a high level of divorce in society.

“Nobody expected that there would be something similar in Parsia. It was a little shocking for society.”

In 1987, the magazine broke the new soil, publishing interfaith marital advertising – a bold step in a community known for strict endogamia.

“The ads created a furore in society. A lot of readers wrote to us by asking to stop the practice. But we didn’t do it,” Mr. Patel says.

He says that Parsyan has never shy away from disputes, always offering numerous prospects, and for many years the focus, such as the population that diminishes in the community, and the decline of the tower of silence – the place where Parsis will bury their dead.

The magazine also chronicled the achievements of society, key social and religious events and new Parsi institutions. In May, Parsyan covered the inauguration Alpaiwalla museum in Mumbai is the only Parsi Museum in the world.

Now the 15-member team, many in the 60s and 70s, who joined the paten, is preparing to finish both the magazine and their journalistic career.

“There is a feeling of fatigue mixed with sadness,” says Mr. “We’ve been doing it a long time,” he adds.

The office composed with old editions shows the age with peel paint and hardwater ceilings. It is located in a former Hospital Parsi, which has been vacant for four decades.

Mr. Pate says that the team has no grand plans for the last day, but the upcoming issues will feature stories that mark a long way and inheritance.

As for the team, Mr. The pan says they can dine in office. No cake. No celebrations.

“This is a sad occasion,” says Mr Pate. “I don’t think we will feel celebrated.”

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