Wanted! Young Parsis to maintain agiyari
When the Parsi agiyari in Sayajigunj recently celebrated its 90 years of existence, the entire building was cleaned and lit up by the community members.
While many admired the spic and span agiyari, few knew that the fire temple management is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain and clean the huge building.
The trustees have even begun looking for young Parsi volunteers to clean up and maintain the agiyari every weekend.
“Only Parsi community members are allowed in the agiyari premises. So we cannot hire non-Parsis to maintain and clean the building
what are the Trustees doing. Why should they not do the work. ARE THEY JUST CHAIR WARMERS AND SHOW RUDENESS TO POOR PEOPLE. If Trustees cannot perform their duties they should vacate and let others be Trustees who can do some constructive work. Most of the Parsi Charitable Trusts seek funds without opening their account books and also do not have budget. Contractors are apppointed as per their liking and not due to competence. It is a shame.
I think it is a wonderful idea. But I have another suggestion. There are quite a few economically inadequate Parsis. The Trustees and the managers of the agiaries can ask them to clean the premises and pay them for their labour. We get two birds with one stone.
I remember that several years ago an agiary panthaki asking for volunteers to clen the agiary. When somebody asked why not keep a few helpers, permanent/temporary he answered very candidily that then he will have to pay them