A GOOD PARSI SALE

by Aban Bana

It is a tradition in our community to have an Exhibition and Sale a couple of weeks before a Parsi festival. These Sales are a real joy to visit, even if you don’t need to buy anything. Last weekend there was an Exhibition cum Sale in Cama Baug at Grant Road, which I attended.

The Cama Baug sale had everything to delight the Parsi Heart! First of all there was delicious FOOD, the kind for which people queue up for hours on end, with colourful names like Chapat, Dar-ni-pori, Bhakhra, Popatji, besides the usual kababs and batata wada and falooda! So that’s reason enough to go. No food, no good. Being a vegetarian I had no problem because Parsis are now waking up to the fact that there is life beyond meat. So I tucked into the batata vadas, but skipped the fattening chapats. There were others like me who had come to look and to buy, mostly Parsis of course. It could be interesting for non-Parsis too actually!

After fortifying myself, I began a survey of the various stalls selling an amazing variety of articles. Most of the stalls were manned/womanned by the Parsi owners and manufacturers themselves. There were hand-made artifacts and gifts, clothes which only a Parsi would wear, packaged foodstuff, sukhar-loban, prayer books, calendars, household wares, you name it! I was highly impressed by the level of craftsmanship and quality on display.

I would love to write about all these wonderful people at the sale who work so hard and sell the things they make, thereby keeping alive our Parsi traditions and customs. The customers in turn buy the wares and thus support this small but important Parsi cottage industry. However, I wish there would be many more people coming to these sales and spending their money to help our Parsi brothers and sisters. The prices are so reasonable, the same articles in the city shops would cost far more. I especially hope that Parsis who are very well off would visit these sales. I have been told that many people are put off by the location of Cama Baug, because it is somewhat down-market. True, it is certainly not a very elegant locality, but once inside the gates of Cama Baug, we are in an oasis of cleanliness and order. There is so much talent and enterprise in our Parsi community, let us give it our whole hearted support!