Amit Ohdedar
What made you come here? I would be asked and I would stumble to answer.
People migrate for many reasons. Migration has been at the core of human existence – goes back to the very beginning when the first modern humans emerged out of Africa. In the modern days there could be many reasons – economy, political, professional, religious and conflict related issues being the major ones.
New Zealand was the last major landmass on earth to be colonised by human being. The Maori came here in search of food resource, probably from an island that could not sustain the population any more.
About the same time in the 13th century, there was another migration happening across the world. The Zoroastrians were the ancient people of Persia [now Iran], who faced the brunt of religious persecution with the Muslim invasion and the fall of the Persian empire. A group of them decided to flee the country and crossed the Arabian Sea to arrive at a small princely state on the western coast of India – now a part of the state of Gujarat. They were granted residency. The locals called them Parsi [from Persia].
Over the years the Parsis have become the part of the Indian nation. Interestingly they have retained much of their original culture and identity. They follow their Zoroastrian faith, many of the festivals like the Nav-roj [New Year], some of the dress and customs like Sudara, dugli etc. They have adapted to the land, they have adopted the local language – Gujarati, modified their food habit to suit the need driven local produce, yet they have retained their own unique identity.
The Parsis need not be a Hindu to be an Indian. They could retain their own identity in an alien land for some seven hundred years and are still a thriving community.
Jamshed is a Parsi from Colaba, Bombay. No wonder his Parsi parents do not fathom the reason why he has to change his own self – inside and out, to be a Kiwi! Or is it all in his mind?