{"id":6286,"date":"2016-04-10T17:35:43","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T12:05:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=6286"},"modified":"2016-04-10T17:35:43","modified_gmt":"2016-04-10T12:05:43","slug":"parsi-diary-moving-to-a-baug-is-a-lot-like-moving-to-a-new-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=6286","title":{"rendered":"Parsi Diary: Moving to a Baug is a Lot Like Moving to a New City"},"content":{"rendered":"\nI<\/span>f I had a rupee for every time someone\u2019s asked me, \u201cSo do you know Mr TheOnlyOtherParsiIKnowWala,\u201d I would be writing this piece for free (for the record, the answer to that question is usually a no). Since I\u2019ve lived all my life in a standalone building and not in one of the many Parsi Colonies<\/a> that dot Mumbai, my interaction with community members has been limited to meeting family at weddings and old matchmaker aunties when I was on the \u201cmarriage<\/a> market\u201d.\n\nI did go to a Parsi school, but there were barely five others of my kind in class \u2013 you know, with us being an \u201cendangered species\u201d and all that. This was followed by six years at a Jesuit college, where sightings of members of my tribe were so rare that I was once actually asked the question, \u201cAre Parsis the same as Jews?\u201d (They\u2019re not).\n\nWhile there are a little over a lakh Parsis left in the world (yes it\u2019s that many \u2013 we\u2019re endangered, not extinct yet), around 40,000 of those live in Mumbai<\/a>. And most of them come from colonies \u2013 from Cusrow Baug and Gamadia Colony in South Mumbai<\/a> to Wadia Baug, Jer Baug, and Rustom Baug in the central parts and Malcolm Baug and Behram Baug in the suburbs.\n\nI may not have had a \u201ccolony childhood<\/a>\u201d, as people call it, or had several Parsi friends but I\u2019ve never felt like I missed out on anything. Raised in a fairly liberal-but-religious household, I\u2019ve had as Parsi an upbringing as one can imagine and have always been proud of my Zoroastrian heritage. I walk Parsi, talk Parsi, visit the Fire Temple every Navroze (Parsi New Year) and every birthday, wear my religious garments. I have watched all Boman Irani movies, and am up-to-date with all that\u2019s new on Godiwalla\u2019s food menu.\n\nBut, much like moving to a new city or a new country, you only understand the true meaning of being an \u201coutsider\u201d, when you experience it first-hand.\n\n

Acceptance of a new face in a community so close-knit can\u2019t happen overnight, but it starts in small ways.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nOne of the biggest green patches of Mumbai, Dadar Parsi Colony (DPC as it\u2019s fondly called) has been an important part of the metropolis for more than a century. Housing around 8-10,000 people, it\u2019s Mumbai\u2019s only non-gated Parsi colony, and is almost like a city-within-a-city. DPC has its own Fire Temple, parks, all-girl and co-ed schools, a madressa for young boys, a gymkhana with game rooms, a gym and a canteen, a local library, and five gardens that give the area its name. A chemist shop along one of the roads and a general store or ten right outside the premises means the inhabitants of the colony don\u2019t need to leave their haven at all (aah, an introvert\u2019s dream). It\u2019s a haven I became a part of when I moved in with my husband<\/a> after marriage.\n\nAdjusting to life in a new building, with new neighbours<\/a> and a new husband is never easy. But when that multiplies by the hundreds, it\u2019s as daunting as it gets. When I walk down the road, I\u2019m met with blank stares from aunties and old uncles walking their dogs<\/a> as though wondering where this new face came from. The giggling kids going to school stop their chatter until the unknown face passes by, because of course mom said never to talk to or smile at strangers. I realise I\u2019m an \u201coutsider\u201d when I\u2019m at the temple, and people greet one another happily and ask each other for life updates as they finish their prayers<\/a>, but I\u2019m the only one who\u2019s there to pray and leave. I\u2019m still trying to figure how turning left from building No 620 leads me to building No 779, and how telling your bai something about yourself means you\u2019re letting the aunty who lives ten buildings away in on it too.\n\nI sometimes need Google Maps to navigate through the many by-lanes, and never know who or what the 223 people (yes it\u2019s that many) on the colony WhatsApp group<\/a> are talking about \u2013 although one can\u2019t be thankful enough to read about a monkey menace, or receive recipe forwards at the very reasonable hour of six in the morning.\n\nBut fitting in takes its own time, even if it\u2019s among your \u201cown\u201d people. Acceptance of a new face in a community so close-knit can\u2019t happen overnight, but it starts in small ways. Nowadays I\u2019m greeted by a \u201ckem che dikra\u201d by my ever-smiling next-door neighbour whenever we cross each other, and even the watchman three buildings away smiles when I pass by (he probably does that for the Amazon delivery agents too, but it\u2019s a start). People sometimes recognise who I am when they see whose dog I\u2019m walking daily, and tell me to say hi to my husband on their behalf. I may not know the names of all the colony \u201cgangs\u201d or laugh at all the inside jokes at parties, but I\u2019m still starting to feel a little at home.\n\nThree months on, I\u2019m slowly starting to belong again.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unlike most Parsis in Mumbai, I\u2019ve not had a \u201ccolony childhood\u201d \u2013 I haven\u2019t been brought up in a baug. After moving to Dadar Parsi Colony after marriage, I feel like quite the outsider. I sometimes need Google Maps to navigate through the many by-lanes and more people recognise my husband\u2019s pet than me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":397,"featured_media":6287,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3452],"tags":[10301,1225,10302,10303,10304,4912,10305],"class_list":["post-6286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-baug","tag-childhood","tag-colony","tag-fire-temple","tag-neighbor","tag-parsi","tag-parsi-school"],"yoast_head":"\nParsi Diary: Moving to a Baug is a Lot Like Moving to a New City<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Unlike most Parsis in Mumbai, I\u2019ve not had a \u201ccolony childhood\u201d \u2013 I haven\u2019t been brought up in a baug. After moving to Dadar Parsi Colony after marriage, I feel like quite the outsider. 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