06-30-2008, 04:07 PM
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Desi Club Badshah
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The Last Of The Punjabi Parsis ~ {ERG}
The Last Of The Panjabi Parsis
 DAILY NEWS & ANALYSIS
Ajay Bharadwaj
Sunday, June 29, 2008
The last of the Punjabi Parsis
With the passing away of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw on Friday, none of the Parsis who had made Amritsar their home are alive today
CHANDIGARH: Amritsar has been in deep mourning after the only tender link it had with the Parsi community was severed with the passing away of Field Marshal Sam HFJ Manekshaw.
It was more than a century ago that a handful of Parsis found a home in the heart of the Sikh religious capital. Since then, the relation between Amritsar and Parsis, though tenuous, had persisted even as the Parsis weathered all storms that the border city faced, be it during the Partition or the trouble-torn days of militancy.
But the demise of Sam Bahadur has left the holy city forlorn, for it has no Parsi link left to feel proud of. Last year, Tehmi Bogga Bhandari — the only recognised Parsi living in Amritsar — had passed away She was 102. The family of another Parsi, Keccki Kawasji, moved out of the holy city four years ago due to medical reasons, while Mini Bogga, who still lives in Amritsar, has lost her place in the Parsi community by marrying a Canadian.
Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw was born on April 3, 1914, in Amritsar, to Parsi parents who had immigrated to Punjab from the small town of Valsad on the Gujarat coast. Sam’s father, Dr FHS Manekshaw ,a medical practitioner, who settled down in Amritsar in 1900, ran a clinic in the city.
The city had hosted a memorable reception in 1973 when the Field Marshal visited the historic Ram Bagh after scripting history in the 1971 war. During that visit, he had also visited “Sur Babu & Co”, the chemist shop once owned by his father in Katra Ahluwalia. The shop still displays pictures of the family members of the Field Marshal and the chair in which his father sat still remains unoccupied with a picture of Sam on it.
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