Minority report: Farewell, community champion and companion

I enter through the beautiful Gothic Revival archway Cocooned in cool familiarity I instinctively tread the corridor twists and turns leading to an office revisited after several years From 1990 till 2015 I would drop in at Jehangir Patelrsquos publishing offices at Fort on the ground floor of the Parsi Lyingin Hospital A matter of pride to write for the communityrsquos leading and possibly only liberal publication which Patel has edited since 1973 with good sense and great integrityNow from October itrsquos adieu to the last of a trio of magazines he steered to high standards Signature and Voyage were the others Packing 30 to 40 pages with thoroughly researched fiercely independent content Parsiana became what Bachi Karkaria has defined as ldquopathguider trendtracker backpatter callouter and therefore as much hackleraiser as praisegetter But age and illhealth have caught up with its intrepid editor and his teamrdquoThey certainly have agrees 80yearold Patel who lost a prolific senior editor Farrokh Jijina to cancer earlier this year Asserting that finance is not the reason nor is such closure limited to Parsiana he says ldquoThere is a dearth of fresh entrants to our profession Even when I taught journalism at the Xavier Institute of Communication few writers went out into the field to file reports or features Content writing websites and an explosion of social media possibilities claim promising writers Conventional print is no match But I have faith in the Parsiana archives made available to the publicrdquo In his verandah editorial cabin to discuss the decline of print publishing I glance across flanking rooms Patelrsquos smiling wife Veera sits at the same table she has for years quietly supervising the accounts and advertising departments welcoming freelancers like me with tea and coffeeSifting through editions I find a heap of my longform articles for Parsiana Profiling the 19thcentury painter Pestonji Bomanjee who depicted Parsi daily and religious life Tracing the more contemporary Jehangir Sabavalarsquos artistic journey Describing philatelist Darabshaw Mistryrsquos collection of 50000 rare stamps Mapping 50 memorable years of the Jehangir Art Gallery in 2002Dr Pestonji Warden who introduced Parsiana in 1964 Pic courtesy ParsianaRummaging for more rediscoveries I gaze with awe at the solid 19thcentury buff walls embellished with carved stone screens designed by the Municipal Corporationrsquos star civil engineer Muncherji Cowasji Murzban for the Parsi Lyingin Hospital One of Bombayrsquos oldest maternity facilities cofounded in 1887 by obstetrician Dr Tehmulji Nariman it provided pregnant women hygienic conditions to deliver in an era of soaring mortality ratesIncidentally Patelrsquos mother Maki Adenwalla went that wonderful step further She opened a unique creche in this building in 1969 assuring women working in the Fountain area a safe space for their childrenldquoI never stopped being enthralled on entering the Victorian Gothic entrance of the hospital premisesrdquo says Geeta Doctor Having written extensively for the magazine after teaming up with Patel at Freedom First Minoo Masanirsquos monthly of liberal ideas she says ldquoUnder Masanirsquos spell as a roving intellectual tilting his lance at the orthodoxy with the glee of a Parsi Don Quixote Jehangir launched Parsiana the version we know today on a whim and a dream We imagined the next generation of Parsis was being born behind our corridors The magazine was a means of recording the arrival and perhaps encouraging the rebirth of a new cycle of the Parsi elite that made the city what it used to be at one timerdquoThe January 1974 cover and the October 1973 cover illustrating her sister Geeta Doctorrsquos lead interview with Sam Manekshaw designed by Manjula Padmanabhan Pic courtesyParsianaThe gentleman who conceived Parsiana was Dr Pestonji Warden Running a pair of sandalwood shops the general practitioner launched the magazine in November 1964 to propagate the teachings of Zoroastrianism Warden also stood for Bombay Parsi Punchayet BPP trusteeship elections with a triangular placard advocating universal adult franchise A theatre buff as well he twinned passions mdash placing cyclostyled Parsiana copies on seats in Tagore Hall Dadar before a show of Gool Shavaksharsquos play The Splendoured OneWanting continuity of Parsiana Warden was happy when Patel a distant relative and political science graduate from Yale expressed keenness to start a community publication Ownership transferred in exchange for just one rupee and a twoyear mention of Warden as the founder The stylisedfont Parsiana logo was visualised on the desk of Bahadur Meherwan an artist with J Walter Thompson the ad agency on whose panel Warden was appointed doctorFrom June 1973 Patel led a lowcost highvalue operation doubtful of advertiser support for ldquoan untested publication brought out by obscure individuals with a liberal bent of mindrdquo He was most pleasantly surprised The next edition SeptemberOctober attracted Shapoorji Pallonji and Company K Wadia and NS Guzder By the third ads from Air India Tata Chemicals Jeena and Company and Central Bank of India poured inThe original November 1964 edition produced by Dr Pestonji Warden with the tagline ldquoNew medium for old wisdomrdquo under the logo later slightly redefined by Patelrsquos art director Mini Boatwala Right Bahadur Meherwan who created the logo Pic courtesy Thrity StaffordAll this solidarity despite Parsiana catching people offguard with progressive sociopolitics right from Patelrsquos first cover story in August 1973 ldquoParsi Divorces The Cultural Alternativerdquo The magazine boldly questioned hallowed establishments like the BPP on decisions governing its properties and other concerns It sparked strong opposition from outraged traditionalists for listing ldquomixed marriagesrdquo in the Milestones section mdash resulting in many readers demanding subscription refundsInterestingly in a New York Times interview with Bernard Weinraub as far back as March 1975 headlined ldquoThe Indian Parsis Waning Troubledrdquo Patel had observed ldquoBasically we are two communities mdash an urban reformist sophisticated community and a diehard orthodox group controlling our institutions and trustsrdquoFielding brickbats and bouquets with equanimity Patel soldiered on resolutely His band of diligent writers including Geeta Doctor Feroza Paymaster Pervin Mahoney Sanober Marker Jeroo Gorimar Gustasp Irani Arnavaz Patel Parinaz Gandhi Arnavaz Mama and Dina Mehta presented the communityrsquos every controversy and celebration with scrupulous detail Homi Rogers was among the regular freelancersldquoJehangir was a relentless guardian of the truth of the written wordrdquo avers Doctor ldquoAt heart a professor and perfectionist if he debated the difference between a comma and semicolon in a sentence he was equally hard on himself My first contributions were mundane One of Jehangirrsquos methods on initiation was to hone the writing of obituaries Under his eagle eye obituaries became works of art resembling the etching of stone memorials with precision and flourish lsquoPlease give me a living personrsquo Irsquod beg Sometimes he did One interview I recall with affection was with retired Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw in his beautiful Coonoor bungalow and gardenrdquoAboard too came one of the countryrsquos finest illustrators Doctorrsquos younger sister Manjula Padmanabhan to create stunning magazine covers and memorabilia Patel asked Geetarsquos son food writer Vikram Doctor to review Parsi cookbooks Vikram says ldquoI grew up reading Parsiana and always felt Jehangir and the publication are remarkable He insisted on rigorous reporting not the sentimentality that comes easily with community reporting Best to keep it this way in tributesrdquo And so he matteroffactly states in a recent newspaper column ldquoParsiana stayed seemingly unchanged over the decades even as the rest of the building fell silent a symbol of plummeting Parsi birth rates and migration abroadrdquo The intelligentsia look forward to Editorial Viewpoint columns reflecting Jehangirrsquos wit wisdom and indepth knowledge of the community says Managing Editor Parinaz Gandhi Joining in 1984 she admires her ldquoprincipled and pragmaticrdquo editor ensuring factually accurate news and a broad spectrum of views not necessarily echoing his mdash ldquoJehangirrsquos reputation for frank and fearless journalism is respected even by the orthodox who find him approachable His communication skills marked by patience tact and diplomacy have helped him win over his most vociferous opponentsrdquoIn last monthrsquos Editorial Viewpoint ldquoWinding downrdquo Patel explained ldquoThe cessation of Parsiana evoked interest from dogooders little realising that qualified and experienced personnel are required for a niche publication focusing on the international Parsi Iranian and Zoroastrian communities When the community bemoans the impending loss of Parsiana it is lamenting the absence of a publication that covered the community with its own take on events developments and personalities The occurrences and individuals we chose to glorify or vilify may be quite different from the approach other journalists may choose to portray the communityhellip Each institution is created with a purpose and a goal The community has to decide which institutions need to be salvaged and which to be sacrificedrdquo Candid chronicler thoughtful voice trusted companion you will be much missed We hold hope in the words of Geeta Doctor ldquoThe novelist Tan Twan Eng writes of a driedup stream mdash lsquoThough the water has stopped flowing we still hear the whisper of its namersquo We will continue to hear the name Parsiana long after its doors shutrdquoAuthorpublisher Meher Marfatia writes fortnightly on everything that makes her love Mumbai and adore Bombay You can reach her at mehermarfatiamiddaycomwwwmeher marfatiacom