Parsis: The Zoroastrians of India: A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY [Hardcover]

Sooni Taraporevala (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2004

The result of a 20 year labour of love, photographer and screenwriter Sooni Taraporevala's Parsis: The Zoroastrians of India offers a rare insiders view of how the Parsis, a religious and ethnic minority of India and the South Asian diaspora who follow the religion of Zoroastrianism, endures today. Unesco recently celebrated 3000 years of Zoroastrian culture. Today, the Parsis are a proud but often misunderstood religious minority, small in number but significant in influence - the community has produced many well-known leaders and artists, including the world-renowned conductor, Zubin Mehta; the late rock singer Freddy Mercury, of Queen; and the international award-winning author, Rohinton Mistry. As a people, the Parsis are a highly literate and educated people, comprising one of India's most wealthy and urbanized communities, yet they are also the smallest - and they also follow what many would consider Stone Age rituals: perhaps most notably, leaving their dead out in specially designed open air towers for vultures to devour. The words and images in Taraporevala's unique book chronicle, for the first time, the faces, voices, and unique culture of the Parsis - a community of intense contradictions.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

...reminds us once again about the unique contribution which all cultures-and-communities make towards the richness-and-diversity of this world... -- Rohinton Mistry, Writer

...stunning achievement...As a Parsi, these remarkable photographs bring to life the vivid pageant of living amongst my people. -- Homi K. Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of English Literature, Harvard University

A monumental book...a remarkable marriage of heart and mind—a book of photographs that tells many good stories alongside. -- Mira Nair, Filmmaker

I am grateful to Sooni Taraporevala...this photographic journey of contemporary Parsi life...a book I can wholeheartedly recommend... -- Bapsi Sidhwa

Sooni Taraporevala's book...is indeed the finest documentation of the life and achievement of our community in 20th century India. -- Maestro Zubin Mehta

About the Author

A professional photographer, Sooni Taraporevala, is also the acclaimed screenwriter of the award-winning films Mississippi Masala and Salaam Bombay. Born and raised in Bombay, she received her BA from Harvard and an MA from New York University. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 252 pages
• Publisher: Overlook Hardcover (October 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585675938
• ISBN-13: 978-1585675937
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 11 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,243,440 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #64 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Other Eastern Religions > Zoroastrianism

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars At home with the Zoroastrians, May 24, 2005

By 

The Sanity Inspector (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Parsis: The Zoroastrians of India: A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY (Hardcover)

This is a big book of street and interior photography in Bombay, India. (The author spells the city thus, rather than the official Mumbai.) The focus is on the religious minority the Parsis, who honor the ancient prophet Zoroaster or Zarathustra. Zoroaster was from somewhere in eastern Iran, as best as anyone can tell, and the Parsis in this book indeed look more Persian than they do like their Aryan/Dravidian compatriots, to this admittedly untrained eye. The author approvingly includes a neat quote by Friedrich Nietzsche in the introduction:

"People have never asked me, as they should have done, what the name Zarathustra precisely means in my mouth, in the mouth of the first Immoralist; for what distinguishes that philosopher from all others in the past is the very fact that he was exactly the reverse of an immoralist. Zarathustra was the first to see in the struggle between good and evil the essential wheel in the working of things."

The story of the author's family, temple, and home life is interesting enough, but the book is rewarding on sheerly photographic merits alone. The familiar urban India of crumbling concrete, colorful shutters, thronging streets, and hole in the wall shops is vividly reproduced here. It is oddly refreshing to not have India's poverty on display--we know it exists, but that's not the point of this book. The people herein range from the wealthy to the shopkeeper class. It is not, as similar books by non-Indians are prone to be, a cavalcade of exotica.

Some of the uniformly excellent photos include these:

A deaf, wizened grandfather shouting at a fountain pen repairman.

An abandoned, one-room temple, still with its devotional portraits and wall clock, inhabited only by a crow on the ceiling fan.

Middle-aged businessmen, most half in the bag already, crowding the bar at a celebration

Young priests performing a rite over a ceremonial feast, on the floor in a daylight interior space.

A wealthy art patron and wife, in their sumptuous living room.

Several river scenes, with devotional activity such as reciting verses or praying in the water.

A Parsi and a Nepalese seated together on the train--a contrast of ethnic types.

A man with a distinctive face, such as Leonardo da Vinci collected in his sketchbooks, snapped with the telephoto lens while waiting for the bus.

And plenty of home scenes, like one of mother, friend, and tots, enjoying a play date on the English-looking lawn. Except that it isn't grass, but some other wide-bladed carpet plant, instead.

These scenes are all expertly and affectionately photographed, and presented with genuine warmth.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Celebrated Parsi filmmaker captures essence of Parsis in..., November 1, 2004

By 

Carole - See all my reviews

This review is from: Parsis: The Zoroastrians of India: A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY (Hardcover)

Whether you are a Parsi or not, this book is a joy to behold. Ms. Taraporevala has captured the many facets of Parsis through their daily lives through essays and haunting photography. Her photo documentary weaves a loose story from training for the priesthood to the final passage of life. Her personal essays and photos of family members allow the reader to get a glimpse of what it means to grow up as a Parsi in Bombay. This book is probably the first photo documentary book about Parsis and it will be a real asset in shedding light on a group that is little understood in the world today.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, December 22, 2004

By 

DM "DM" (New York, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Parsis: The Zoroastrians of India: A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY (Hardcover)

This isn't a book just for Parsis- it's a perfect combination of veritable art and wonderful writing. The Parsi community is one of great diversity, and Sooni Taraporevala's "The Parsis" brings this variety to light in a way that few other publications have successfully managed. Not only does her book stride the cultural spectrum, but it captures each facet beautifully; heart-wrenchingly so, and one can scarcely imagine another picture that could capture the moment more eloquently. The accompanying narratives are also insightful in the extreme and lack the posturing and false grandiosity that riddles so many other publications that try to infuse a sense of pride and wonder in the reader. This is a book that I am bound to use when explaining my heritage and background, not only to non-Parsis, but to future generations of Parsis here in North America. A wonderful book that I'd recommend to anyone.