I am a Parsi married to a foreigner. Every time I return to India I read in the Parsianas my father keeps for me about the problems faced by Parsis married to non-Parsis in dealing with najvotes, births and deaths, about not being allowed to enter the Towers of Silence on the death of our parents.
I would like to ask a few questions to the pious and the priestly. I grew up in a city where there were no Parsi boys. Were the boys three-legged? Did they have two heads? Were there so many suitable boys around that I had to go around saying no to each one of them? Did I wave them away with the back of my hand? Also, if you really and truly wanted us to marry Parsi boys, why didn’t you have more children? In fact, many of you did not have any children at all. And now you say "it’s your fault!’” You want to punish us for a "crime” we did not commit.
Well, let me tell you a thing or two. It’s not in death but when a person is alive that we must do our duty. You can punish me, judge me, but you cannot take away my soul.
KERRY HANWALLA
Istanbul