It’s unbecoming of an enlightened community like ours, that such humungous hatred has, in recent times, been hurled at the Trustees of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), now in their last days in office.
Not just unbecoming but ironic too, because the most virulent and vocal of BPP bashers are today among the very people who are trying every trick in the trade to step into the shoes they have so savagely stomped upon!
But the outgoing Trustees of the BPP must have some merit, and you don’t have to believe everything you are led to, even if it comes via a so-called “shocking video film” that, not surprisingly, thrashes the Trustees (calling them “small men with no heart”) and, then, surprisingly, sidles up to two of them for support!
Lest the community forgets, it is these Trustees we have turned to over the past several years and, human lapses notwithstanding, they are, individually and collectively, men of stature, although we may not have agreed with them on everything.
The least we can do is give them a fitting farewell with a kind word for all that has been done. At least a lot hasn’t been undone, as could well be the case with some of the newcomers.
Strident campaigning is one thing, diligent delivery quite another. Blaming one’s predecessors is a tempting ploy for electioneering, but it can also be a pitfall when performance doesn’t match promise. Anyone who has any experience of working as a Trustee will affirm that it is essentially a thankless task!
More so since our community is plagued with a feed-off-the-BPP syndrome. Almost from birth, every Mumbai Parsi believes it is the BPP’s bounden duty to house him, educate him, support him, sponsor him, and then some! Anything that goes wrong in a Parsi’s life is eventually blamed on the BPP. This has to stop.
The BPP is here to facilitate the community, not to spoon feed it. Parsis have to take the onus of their lives in their own hands and stop playing the blame game, fuelled by those who ostensibly hate the BPP, but inherently harbour the ambition of being at its helm themselves!
Meanwhile, our final felicitations to Minoo Shroff, Burjor Antia, Dinshaw Tamboly, Dadi Engineer, Dinshaw Mehta and Maneck Engineer, for negotiating rocky seas, and occasionally rocking each other’s boat – but hanging in there through hell and high water, anyway!
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