"In the good old days gahanbars held in Navsari were for men only,” stated Debara family member and trustee of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjuman of Secunderabad and Hyderabad, Omim Debara on March 15, 2023. "Around the year 1905 Pestonji Debara (his great-grandfather) started a gahanbar (for women) in memory of his late wife Dhunmai, née Deboo, who had passed away a few years earlier. Later he set up a trust for the gahanbar to be held regularly… Around 2007 the family members and trustees decided that the gahanbar, instead of being held only for women would be for the entire family.” About 1,200 people attended the gahanbar in Navsari on March 5, 2023, stated Omim.
Clockwise from top: feasting in Navsari; jashan in progress;
portrait of Hormusji Pestonji Debara’s (endower’s son) family
The feast is now held every alternate year at Jamshed Baug in Navsari. "Somewhere in the early 1940s they stopped having the gahanbar as the funds were not sufficient.” In 2003 Fali Sarkari, son-in-law of Aloo Poonjiaji, Pestonji Debara’s daughter, decided to restart the gahanbar. "He and family members of Pestonji contributed a large amount towards the corpus of the trust.”
Omim stated that Pestonji was born in Navsari. "One fine day he along with his friends Edulji Nakra of Surat and Dadabhai Italia of Chikhli left with their families in bullock carts for the Nizam’s state of Hyderabad Deccan,” said Omim. "Originally they started a country liquor business and as they prospered they started setting up oil factories which were in great demand as the crushing of groundnut was done manually and the yield was very poor.”