Zarrir Bhandara

Los Angeles — Mobed Zarrir Bhandara delivered the following speech at a “Unity, Peace and Harmony” gathering organized by the Friends of South Asian American Community at the Woodlands Banquet Hall — the Indo American Community Center in Artesia on Saturday December 20:

I bring the greetings to you from the miniscule minority community of the world, the Parsee Zoroastrian community.

My message is very short and simple yet profound for present times. This is a true episode that occurred about eleven hundred years back, when my ancestors came to India as refugees from Iran. We landed on the shores of Gujarat, ruled by the Indian king named Jadi Rana. The language of the land was Gujarati and my ancestors spoke Farsi or the Persian language.

To overcome the language barrier and communicate with my ancestors the King Jadi Rana sent a bowl full of milk filled up to the brim indicating that my land is overpopulated and there is no more room left to accommodate your people in a response to the king’s gesture our priest added sugar to this bowl of milk and sent it back signifying that we will unite with your people like sugar in the milk without letting it overflow and spread sweetness in your land.

We have become a part of Indian Fibre and have continued to spread sweetness in our India and we will continue till our last breath.

The message that I want to convey with my short address is let’s unite with each other like milk and water and spread sweetness in our community the Global community.