NAVROZE BRINGS BACK MEMORIES OF A TRIP TO IRAN

NAVROZE falls on March 20 this year.

- RENUKA NARAYANAN

It is the Zoroastrian or Parsi New Year celebrated by various communities around the world then or on successive dates as their New Year, too. Navroze, meaning 'New Day', is based on the Iranian solar calendar, on the spring equinox, which is on or around March 21. The holy book of the Parsis is the Zend Avesta, the Creator is 'Ahura Mazda' and their high priests are known as dastur. Their threefold path is Humata, Huxta, Huvarshta, meaning good thoughts, good words, good deeds, and respecting nature and protecting water and the environment. There is an emphasis on charity, and men and women are considered spiritually equal. To Parsis, and by association with Parsi friends, to me, Navroze, seems like a forever feeling.

I got a rare chance to visit the original homeland of the Parsis almost 20 years ago with the staunch sisterhood of the Indian Women's Press Corps and Iran refuses to fade from memory. It appears suddenly as a gift of gaz, which is white Isfahani nougat, rose-scented and pista-laden. It glows in the sienna colour of my kelim from Isfahan, in the blue-and-white wall clock made by the fauladgar or ironsmith in Imam Square, and in the photo of Rabindranath Tagore in the tomb keeper's office at the grave of the poet Hafiz in Shiraz.

I took rose and sandalwood-scented incense sticks for Hafiz, out of respect for my then Persian teacher, Dr Yunus Jaffrey of the Walled City of Delhi who taught me some verses from Hafiz. I would go for lessons to his teacher's room in the 17th century Ghaziuddin Madrasa (alas, I have now lost most of what I learnt). When I showed the authorities the incense, they exclaimed "Oodh!" I recognised this word because incense sticks are called oodhvatti in Tamil.