Farokh Talati - Parsi: From Persia to Bombay: Recipes & Tales from the Ancient Culture

To my dearest mother and father,

for their constant love and support.

Humata, hukhata, huvareshta

Good thoughts, good words, good deeds

Zoroastrian proverb

Khana peena ne khodai apnar

Eat and drink and god will give

Parsi proverb

BY HOMI K. BHABHA AND LEAH BHABHA

FOREWORD

A good Parsi cook rebels against the constraints of a defined method

Bapsi Nariman, A Gourmets Handbook of Parsi Cuisine

By Homi K. Bhabha and Leah Bhabha

Youll never guess who was running the show, Homi called his daughter Leah from a London hotel over FaceTime in September 2019. A Parsi guy born in London! The show was a celebratory gathering hed hosted for family and friends at St. John Bread and Wine. Since Leah couldnt attend, Homi regaled her with details of a caramel-coloured suckling pig, Yorkshire puddings, free-flowing French reds, and a hometown boy at the helm. This was how we first encountered Farokh Talati a fitting introduction for a food-obsessed father and daughter.

Jamva Chalo Ji, a simple phrase in Parsi-Gujarati, which translates literally as Come, lets eat! invites guests to make their way to dinner. What sounds like a straightforward request is, in fact, the ritual call of a small Indian-Zoroastrian community to invite its people to dine in a spirit of generosity and hospitality. These three words Jamva Chalo Ji signal to the throngs of guests at lagaans (weddings) and Navjotes (Zoroastrian initiation ceremonies) that the celebratory meal is about to begin. The epicurean Parsis require very little cajoling to come to the table. Imagine the scene: You enter the venue to find that a previously unexceptional space has been transformed into a garden of delights. Gateways are decorated with spectacular garlands, roses and lilies adorn tables, and from the ceiling descend chandeliers composed of marigolds, fairy lights and crystal balls. On a central stage, Parsi priests in long, white muslin robes and fitted caps pray in front of a great silver urn the afarghan that holds a raging blaze of aromatic sandalwood, the supreme symbol of the Zoroastrian faith. Couples are joined; children are blessed. The tableau is timeless, as if a Sasanian frieze has suddenly come to life in 21st century Mumbai.

The Parsi story, like that of so many minorities, is one of diaspora and assimilation. In the 7th century CE, Zoroastrians fled religious persecution in Iran and settled in Gujarat, on Indias west coast. An enduring piece of lore that is oft repeated: When the Parsis arrived in India, the local leader Jadi Rana displayed a vessel full of milk to the newcomers, a visual illustration of an area already densely populated with no room for more. The head Parsi priest poured a spoonful of sugar into the milk, symbolising the way in which his community would sweeten the society without destabilising or overpowering it. Jadi Rana acquiesced.

As a non-proselytising faith, Zoroastrianism has kept its believers outside the realms of the religious conflict and communal violence frequently ignited by the issue of conversion. Indias Parsis maintain a fine balance between the integrity of their minority milieu and the need to belong to the larger societal mosaic. Though they dont press for autonomy or resort to the power play of identity politics, their sizable and sustained contribution to the growth of a modern civic consciousness has established them as progressive pioneers in the development of urban India. The community played a major role in making social innovations appear both local and historically inevitable by demonstrating that the institutions required by an evolving society newspapers, schools and colleges, legal and medical services, forms of government could be established in tune with Indian traditions. We have largely aligned ourselves more closely with municipal rather than national politics and worked towards piecemeal reform rather than social revolution (although a number of Parsi leaders were involved in the struggle for Indian independence).