ZAGNY Stalwarts Bag Three of Five FEZANA Awards in 2010

Below is the complete report of The 2010 North American Zarathushti Community Awards.

These were presented at the Fifteenth North American Zarathushti Congress, hosted by the Zoroastrian Association of Houston, and sponsored by the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America.

History of the Awards

The first North American Zarathushti Community Awards were presented at the Sixth North American Zoroastrian Congress, which was held in Toronto, Canada, in 1988. Since then, North American Zarathushti Community Awards have been presented biennially at each North American Zoroastrian Congress.

Before 1998, the awards process was the responsibility of the FEZANA member association hosting the Congress. However, in 1998, in order to ensure consistency in judging and regularity of administering the awards, the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA) took over the responsibility and created an Awards Committee with Mr. Dinshaw F. Joshi appointed as its chair.

Under Mr. Joshi’s leadership, the Awards Committee developed a standard nomination procedure, and established the Terms of Reference for the awards process. Six award categories were formulated along with their definitions and criteria, and an impartial judging process was created. Independent panels of respected North American Zarathushtis judge the nominees for each award. The Awards Committee coordinates the evaluation process, tabulates the results, and determines the winner based solely on the judges’ evaluations. In addition to Mr. Joshi, past committee chairs have included Mrs. Yasmin Pavri and Mr. Framroze Patel. Currently, Mrs. Shehernaz Joshi Verahrami and Mr. Navroz Gandhi are chairing the committee.

 

Award Categories

Shirin Nariman Dastoor Outstanding Zarathushti Student Award: To recognize a young Zarathushti student who is studying at the university level, has achieved academic excellence in his/her scholastic studies and extracurricular activities, and has made substantial contributions to the community affairs of his/her local Zarathushti community.

Outstanding Young Zarathushti Award: To recognize a young Zarathushti, 30 years of age or younger as of January 1, 2010, who, after achieving high grades as a student in his/her scholastic studies and extracurricular activities, has subsequently achieved excellence in his/her chosen profession, is deemed to be a rising star by his/her peers, and has made substantial contributions to the community affairs of both his/her local Zarathushti community and the North American Zarathushti community.

Dinshaw Framroze Joshi Excellence in Performing Arts, Literature or Painting Award: To recognize a Zarathushti who has excelled in the performing arts (dance, music and drama), painting or literature, and whose achievements have been recognized by peers within his/her country of residence and internationally.

Jamshed and Shirin Guzdar Excellence in Business or Profession Award: To recognize a Zarathushti who has reached the pinnacle of prominence in his/her profession or business, and whose achievements have been recognized in both North America and internationally.

Jamshed Pavri Humanitarian Service Award: To recognize a Zarathushti who has made significant contributions in advancing social and humanitarian causes in general and for the Zarathushti community in particular, and whose humanitarian service achievements have been acknowledged in his/her local community, in North America and internationally.

Rohinton Rivetna Outstanding Zarathushti Award: To recognize a Zarathushti who has made outstanding and well-recognized contributions, through outstanding leadership and service, to further the cause of Zarathushtis in North America and internationally. Such contributions can be in, among other things, Zarathushti history, theology, culture, religious education, community affairs, and interfaith activities.

 

2010 Award Recipients

 

Shirin Nariman Dastoor Outstanding Young Zarathushti Student Award

Dinyar P. Patel

Born in Houston, Texas, Dinyar Patel is a graduate of Stanford University, and is currently a doctoral candidate in the Department of Modern Indian History at Harvard University. His doctoral dissertation on Dadabhai Naoroji has, according to Dr. Vevaina, a Fellow at Harvard University, “the potential to revitalize the ways in which we understand the most salient issues of minority rights and participation in colonial and contemporary South Asian political discourse.” With his research, recent publications in scholarly journals, and studies such as Zoroastrianism in Qajar,

Iran, Dinyar is fast-becoming one of the more sought after lecturers in his field.

Dinyar has been the recipient of numerous awards during his academic career. Some noteworthy ones include the Firestone Medal for Excellence in Undergraduate Research, the Derek Bok Center Certification of Distinction in Teaching, the Harvard South Asian Initiative Study Grant, and the Harvard Tata Grant. Additionally, Dinyar was named a FEZANA Scholar, and was awarded the Mehraban and Morvorid Kheradi Scholarship for Academic Excellence.

Dinshaw Framroze Joshi Excellence in Performing Arts, Literature or Painting Award

Kayhan N. Irani

A native of New York, Kayhan Irani is an award-winning writer and “artivist” dedicated to using theater to activate audiences and transform society. Since graduating summa cum laude from the CUNY Baccalaureate Program, Kayhan has performed at a variety of venues including Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, Chashama Theater, The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, Off-Broadway, and various universities and colleges around the United States. Most recently, Kayhan returned from an assignment in Kabul, Afghanistan, where she was a Participatory Theater Trainer under

the aegis of the BBC World Service.

Kayhan currently works for the New York Office of Adult Education and the City University of New York as a writer and director of training and outreach. She is the producer of the television series We Are New York, a show designed to help immigrant adults learn English and important city services, for which the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded her the 2010 New York Emmy Award. Kayhan has also been profiled in the Washington Post, New York Times, and several other newspapers and magazines for her work, including her emotional one-woman show We’ve Come Undone – a series of monologues inspired by stories from the Arab, Muslim, American and South Asian communities.

 

Jamshed and Shirin Guzdar Excellence in Business or Profession Award

Dr. Noshir A. Langrana

Originally from Mumbai, India, Dr. Noshir Langrana is the Chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Rutgers University and an adjunct faculty member of the Department of Orthopedics at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey. A graduate of Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute and Cornell University, Noshir joined Rutgers in 1976, and has steadily climbed to the top of his profession over the past four decades. His research interests include spinal column injury and recovery, for which Noshir holds 3 patents related to the design of a spine disc prosthesis that removes lower-back pain associated with a

degenerated and painful lumbar disc.

Noshir is internationally recognized as an authority in biomechanics related to the lumbar area of the spine. He has conducted numerous experiments and investigations into spinal implants, has published extensively, and has received many awards for his accomplishments. In 2001, Noshir was invested by Rutgers as the first recipient of the Mary W. Raisler Distinguished Teaching Chair in Mechanical Engineering, and in 2008 he earned university-wide recognition with his receipt of Rutgers’ Teacher-Scholar Award. Furthermore, in 2008, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) awarded Noshir with one of its highest honors – the H.R. Lissner Medal for outstanding accomplishments in bioengineering.

Jamshed Pavri Humanitarian Service Award

Farrokh Namdaran

Originally from Tehran, Iran, Farrokh Namdaran has a long-standing commitment to charitable activities. Before emigrating to Canada in 1978, he, along with his family, played an active role in both Zarathushti and non-Zarathushti charitable activities in the Greater Tehran Regional District. Subsequent to his arrival in Vancouver, he has continued this commitment of service. Farrokh has played a significant role in every major undertaking by the Zoroastrian Society of British Columbia (ZSBC) while serving for 26 years as a Board Member, and has committed his time and

financial resources to other charitable organizations including the Vancouver Food Bank, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, the British Columbia Children’s Hospital and Operation Eyesight Universal. Additionally, with the assistance of other ZSBC members, Farrokh has helped many elderly Zarathushtis and non-Zarathushtis in the Vancouver area ensure that they have sufficient clothing, food and clean shelter.

Farrokh has also been the primary benefactor and organizer of a humanitarian fund under the auspices of the ZSBC. This fund has contributed substantial sums of money to charities worldwide. One such charity is The Pourchista Foundation located in Yazd, Iran, which helps provide Zarathushti girls driven to prostitution and drugs by local mullahs with food, accommodation, and training in handicrafts. Other beneficiaries of this fund have included the B. D. Petit Parsee General Hospital and victims of the earthquake in Iran and floods in Pakistan. But, despite all these accomplishments, in the end, it is Farrokh’s ability to motivate others to help those in need that is the best testament to his humanitarian qualities.

 

Rohinton Rivetna Outstanding Zarathushti Award

Ervad (Dr.) Soli P. Dastur

Originally from Tarapur, India, Ervad (Dr.) Soli Dastur is a graduate of Bombay University and Northwestern University in chemical engineering. Now retired, Soli worked in various senior-level and executive positions at Proctor & Gamble for 30 years. Today, he performs various community services including navjotes, weddings, jashans, Muktad prayers, and obsequies, lectures extensively on the Zoroastrian religion and scriptures, and is working to preserve Zoroastrian literary resources in both

printed and audio-visual formats. Soli serves on the board of the Zoroastrian Association of Florida, and is active within various religious and community organizations including FEZANA, the North American Mobed Council (NAMC), and Coming Together Roundtables. He travels all over North America and internationally in his desire to share his religious knowledge.

When it comes to religious education, Soli is a much sought after speaker and teacher with both adults and youth alike. His unique style of using technology, highly interactive sessions, and easy-to-understand language, draws his audience into his presentations. Some examples of this include his presentation at the NAMC seminar “Journey Through Our Scriptures” and a book of Hama Anjuman prayers that he created and distributed in North America and India. Soli has also made our ancient Avestan texts and prayers more accessible. He has scanned books such as Ervad Kangaji’s Khordeh Avesta Ba Maeni (with a word-by-word translation in Gujarati and English) and Sanjana’s Pahlavi Grammar, and placed them on Avesta.org. His tremendous appetite to learn and share his knowledge with the community continues to endear him to all.

 

Previous North American Zarathushti Community Award Recipients

	Lifetime Achievement Award
2007	Ambassador Jamsheed K.A. Marker
2002	Dr. Farhang Mehr
1996	Prof. Kaikhosrov D. Irani
1992	Mr. Zubin Mehta
	Shirin Nariman Dastoor Outstanding Young Zarathushti Student Award	Outstanding Young Zarathushti Award
2007	Ms. Anahita Dua	Mr. Dinsha F. Mistree
2004	Mr. Boman Irani	Ms. Susan Karani
2002		Ms. Sherazade Mehta
1998	Mr. Phiroz Tarapore	Mr. Orang Demehry & Mrs. Parastu Dubash
1996	Mr. Arash Anoshiravani
1994	Mr. Cyrus Hirjibehedin	Mr. Darius Bagli
1992	Mr. Murzban F. Morris & Ms. Shanaya Deboo	Mr. Mehran Sepehri
1990	Mr. Neville M. Billimoria	Mr. Sarosh V. Kanga
1988	Mr. Zubin J. Panthaky	Prof. Jamsheed Choksy
	Dinshaw F. Joshi Excellence in Performing Arts, Painting or Literature Award	Jamshed and Shirin Guzdar Excellence in Business or Profession Award
2007	Mr. Dinyar J. Vania	Dr. Beheruz N. Sethna
2004	Mr. Farobag Cooper	Dr. Dhun Noria
2002	Ms. Bapsi Sidhwa	Mr. Firdaus Bhathena
1998		Dr. Yasmin Thanavala
1996		Mr. Adi Dastur & Mrs. Meheroo Jussawalla
1994		Dr. Jehan Bagli
1992		Mr. Mehli Mehta & Mr. Jamshed Mavalwala
1990		Mr. Meherwan Boyce
	Rohinton Rivetna Outstanding Zarathushti Award	Jamshed Pavri Humanitarian Service Award
2007	Mrs. Khorshed F. Jungalwala	Dr. Russi D. Balsara
2004	Mr. Framroze Patel	Dr. Lovji & Mrs. Mehru Cama
2002	Mr. Kayomarsh P. Mehta	Ms. Bella Tata
1998	Mrs. Farangis K. Shahrokh	Mr. Jamshed & Mrs. Yasmin Ghadiali
1996	Mr. Homi Minocher-Homji	Mrs. Katy Driver
1994	Dr. Dolly Dastoor	Mr. Minoo Treasurywala
1992	Mr. Homi Davier	Mr. Rustom Irani
1990	Mr. Rohinton & Mrs. Roshan Rivetna	Ervad Mehraban & Mrs. Paridokht Zartoshty
1988	Mr. Minoo Dastoor	Mrs. Saber E. Patel