Zoroastrian Association of F lorida Newsletter No. 3, November 2002

started meeting to discuss and plan the events of the up-coming year. The Board does discuss far more than just the four functions. Our Community is the main focus, particularly in terms of how we can preserve our culture. Nari Uncle is constantly concerned about the kids and therefore recommends events that would involve them. Prayer lessons and story-telling sessions rank among the top suggestions. Several folks have volunteered their services, time and homes. Once we set the agendas

ry tempting to try to organize another function for all members during the holidays. However, with the proliferation of

several times during the holiday season.

Miami and Boca Raton, possibly in the Davie area where several temples serving other religions have their home. Getting the land may be the easy part, building it will be challenging, but the maintenance and upkeep of the property will require the greatest effort. We need more Zoroastrians to move down to South Florida. The Ghambaar was a wonderful success. Our thanks to Jimmy Kaikobad for the use of his home, to Ervad Soli Dastur for leading the prayers, to Farida Major for her organizational efforts, and to all the members who so generously donated time and food to enhance the event. This is a great Zoroastrian tradition that helps keep the community together. The next scheduled event for ZAF will be the Annual General Meeting (AGM). This is a chance for all members to review the finances and to ask questions of the Board Members. The AGM will be held on a Sunday afternoon in the first weekend of January. More details for this event will follow. In the meanwhile, on behalf of the Board I would like to wish all of our members a Happy and Healthy Holiday Season!

Khushroo M. Daruwalla The ZAF Board wishes to thank Khushroo for his leadership and hard work in guiding the ZAF Board to a successful start, this year. Khushroo also attended many functions held by the Indian community,

istance for all the functions hosted by the ZAF, this year. Shari prepared all the decorations; her organization skills were invaluable.

next few years. We hope you share in this vision too.

ZAF Board

We would like to share the following interesting data on accomplishments by our Indian community; these statistics and associated data were contributed by Homi Shroff and Pesi Sagar:

FACTS TO MAKE EVERY INDIAN PROUD .....

Who is the co-founder of Sun Microsystems? Vinod Khosla Who is the creator of Pentium chip (needs no introduction as 90% of the today's computers run on it)? Vinod Dahm Who is the third richest man on the world? According to the latest report on Fortune Magazine, it is Azim Premji, the CEO of Wipro Industries. The Sultan of Brunei is at 6th position now. Who is the founder and creator of Hotmail (Hotmail is world's No.1 web based email program)? Sabeer Bhatia Who is the president of AT & T-Bell Labs (AT & T-Bell Labs is the creator of program languages such as C, C++, Unix to name a few)? Arun Netravalli Who is the GM of Hewlett Packard? Rajiv Gupta Who is the new MTD (Microsoft Testing Director) of Windows 2000, responsible to iron out all initial problems? Sanjay Tejwrika Who are the Chief Executives of CitiBank, Mckensey & Stanchart? Victor Menezes, Rajat Gupta, and Rana Talwar. We Indians are the wealthiest among all ethnic groups in America, even faring better than whites. There are 3.22 millions of Indians in USA (1.5% of population). YET,

38% of doctors in USA are Indians. 12% scientists in USA are Indians. 36% of NASA scientists are Indians. 34% of Microsoft employees are Indians. 28% of IBM employees are Indians. 17% of INTEL scientists are Indians. 13% of XEROX employees are Indians.

QUOTES ABOUT INDIA We owe a lot to the Indians, who taught us how to count, without which no worthwhile scientific discovery could have been made. Albert Einstein. India is the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend and the great grand mother of tradition. Mark Twain. If there is one place on the face of earth where all dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India. French scholar Romain Rolland. India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border. Hu Shih (Former Chinese ambassador to USA)

You may know some of the following facts, recently published in a German magazine:

WORLD HISTORY FACTS ABOUT INDIA.

01. India never invaded any country in her last 1000 years of history.

02. India invented the Number system. Aryabhatta invented 'zero.'

03. The world's first University was established in Takshila in 700BC. More than 10,500 students from all over the world studied more than 60 subjects. The University of Nalanda built in the 4th century BC was one of the greatest achievements of ancient India in the field of education.

04. According to the Forbes magazine, Sanskrit is the most suitable language for computer software.

05. Ayurveda is the earliest school of medicine known to humans.

06. Although western media portray modern images of India as poverty stricken and underdeveloped

through political corruption, India was once the richest empire on earth.

07. The art of navigation was born in the river Sindh 5000 years ago. The very word "Navigation" is derived from the Sanskrit word NAVGATIH.

08. The value of pi was first calculated by Budhayana, and he explained the concept of what is now known

as the Pythagorean theorem. British scholars have last year (1999) officially published that Budhayan's works dates to the 6th Century, which is long before the European mathematicians.

09. Algebra, trigonometry and calculus came from India. Quadratic equations were by Sridharacharya in the

11th Century; the largest numbers the Greeks and the Romans used were 106 whereas Indians used numbers as big as 1053.

10. According to the Gemmological Institute of America, up until 1896, India was the only source of

diamonds to the world.

11. USA based IEEE has proved what has been a century-old suspicion amongst academics that the pioneer of wireless communication was Professor Jagdeesh Bose and not Marconi.

12. The earliest reservoir and dam for irrigation was built in Saurashtra.

13. Chess was invented in India.

14. Sushruta is the father of surgery. 2600 years ago he and health scientists of his time conducted

surgeries like cesareans, cataract, fractures and urinary stones. Usage of anesthesia was well known in ancient India.

15. When many cultures in the world were only nomadic forest dwellers over 5000 years ago, Indians

established Harappan culture in Sindhu Valley (Indus Valley Civilization).

16. The place value system, the decimal system was developed in India in 100 BC. ALL OF THE ABOVE IS JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG, THE LIST COULD BE ENDLESS. But, if we don't see even a glimpse of that great India in the India that we see today, it clearly means that we are not working up to our potential; and that if we do, we could once again be an ever shining and inspiring country setting a bright path for rest of the world to follow. I hope you enjoyed it and work towards the welfare of INDIA.

I AM AN INDIAN.

MAZDA ANTIA. We were very fortunate to have Ervad Mazda Antia do an internship at a court in our parts of town. Ervad Kersi Antia, the Head Dastoorji of the Chicago-area has been a real asset to our North American

religious class for our kids; the kids listened with rapt attention to every word. Mazda has accepted a new job and moved to California but we appreciate getting to know him during his short tenure here. The Sun-Sentinel has published an interesting article on Mazda, reproduced below:

South F lorida, Sun-Sentinel, Saturday, July 20, 2002

Cyrus Bhadha has written a historical story which he would like to share with the other children:

A Day in Ancient Mesopotamia

His parents had told him several times to study for the test but he had insisted that he knew all about Ancient Mesopotamia and that he would get an A+ on it. But secretly, Bob knew that it was all a big lie!

Late at night, he slowly crept downstairs to get his book for studying in bed but before he reached the

get into

started drooping and he fell right into a deep sleep.

Boburabi! d. And get moving

went outside. His father was planting corn and potatoes in the field and pulling out ripened stalks to eat. Bob at once realized that this strange country was Mesopotamia. Somehow, he had gone back in time to arrive in ancient Mesopotamia

Tigris River, grabbing stones along the way.

When he got there, he took one of his really large stones and rubbed smaller ones against it until they became sharp. He hurled one at a passing fish. The stone was sharp enough to do some major damage. It cut

had a satisfactory bundle of fish at his feet. Then Bob hurried back darker. He then saw that his father was still working the field, plowing it with Jasper, their old donkey.

Bob heard his mother shout that they needed lots of water for themselves and for the crops. Bob placed the fish on a small, carved, table and headed back to the Tigris River.

This time, Bob took along a dozen clay pots, which his mother had made for collecting water, milk, or any other liquid. He set the pots in a small cart, and hitched Jasper to the cart. As he rode, he was very happy that the Sumerians had invented the wheel! He shuddered to think how many trips he would have had to make to fill all the twelve pots full and bring them back.

When Bob got to the river, he tied Jasper to a tree and. He grabbed a pot, carried it to the edge of the river and filled it gently, being careful not to stir up the mud. He then carried it back to the cart and tied it into place. In this way, he slowly filled all the pots, until the cart was full.

Bob untied old Jasper from the tree, hitched him to the cart again, and hurried back home, as fast as the

to pray.

a regular feature of this newsletter, is intended for our children who are thirteen and younger. We invite everyone, including your children, to send in their contributions puzzles, quizzes, drawings, articles, jokes, and news / items of interest for this section.

When Bob got home, he quickly unloaded the water pots. Bob and his parents then set off for the temple in the cart, faithfully being pulled by old Jasper. While they were riding along, they could see carpenters, bricklayers, and other builders all doing their jobs. Throughout the land, they saw many farmers and soldiers. Mesopotamia did grow a lot of corn, wheat and potatoes; Bob saw huge stockpiles all along the way.

Specialization of labor was important in all of Mesopotamia, most people had a profession, farmers

ploughed the fields, potters made pots and soldiers protected the population from invaders.. They even saw many slaves who were of the lowest social class. The slaves were usually members of opposing tribes who had dared to fight against Mesopotamia! strict (thieves had their hands cut off), Bob felt quite safe in the land.

Then, at last, they saw the huge ziggurats, or temples, which were each dedicated to a specific God. They saw the huge palace of the king. The palace walls were covered with many stone drawings. Bob and his parents stepped into the ziggurat of their favorite God. Going down on his hands and knees, Bob humbly prostated in front of the giant stone carving of their God and asked for his blessings for a bountiful harvest. He gave a small offering of two ears of corn to the priest and then left the temple. He grabbed Jasper by the rope and impatiently waited for his parents to come out.

pen. Bob could easily tell that she had forgotten to milk the cow. He then saw his father lead several sheep back into an empty pen. Suddenly, one pig, squealing loudly, escaped from its pen. His father was busy with the sheep. Quick as a flash, Bob ran and pounced on the pig and wrestled it back into the pen.

Soon the family gathered around a big meal of bread, cheese, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, and fish, and fresh cow milk. Bob gobbled down his bread and cheese and devoured the fish, potatoes, and corn. When he was full, he washed it all down with some milk and water.

After a very enjoyable dinner, Bob noticed that many of the corn and potato plants were slowly dying. He discussed his observations with his father who jumped up in alarm and told him that they should immediately get some more water from the river.

They got there safely and filled the pots but on their way back, Bob and his father came face to face with a saber-toothed tiger. The sight of that large killer scared Jasper and he dashed off into the woods. Unfortunately Bob and his father fell off the cart while Jasper raced ahead pots falling off and breaking into the soil.

-toothed tiger in a crouching position. Then the tiger jumped at Bob

his skin was pale again, and he was actually wearing a real shirt. He was back in 2002 A.D. and the voice belong

NEWS from our Community CONGRATULATIONS to the following outstanding individuals: Nellie and Darab Unwalla on thei r 40th W edding Anniversary.

niversary cake. Young Darab, sporting quite a close resemblance to Elvis Presley, was partying with young Nellie. Seems like our esteemed Professor was quite a swinger in the good old days. Farida and Jimmy Major on thei r 25th W edding Anniversary. Darius Dubash on his 50th Birthday.

ANNOUNCEMENTS We would like to mention that we welcome anyone who wishes to advertise his or her business card in our quarterly newsletter for a $25 donation per card. You can even post your business cards on our website, http://zasf.org/, at $25 donation for 3 months. Anyone who wishes to have an article printed in our newsletter, and we hope there will be many articles and other contributions forthcoming from our members, may submit it to Kernaaz Engineer, either by e mail: Curlykat17@zasf.org or at her home address: 17905 N.W. 21st Street, Pembroke Pines, FL 33029. At this time the entire Committee would like to thank all our anonymous donors for their generous contributions towards ZAF. We also take this opportunity to thank all who helped to make the Ghambar house, a success.

UPCOMING EVENTS There are no more ZAF organized events for this year. We hope you enjoyed all the events. The Annual General Meeting for the coming year will be held on Sunday, January 5th. Details to be announced in the next flyer.

INFORMATIVE NEWS

Fezana. All membership fees/dues for full-time college students will be $15 starting from Jan 02 Our refund policy for any function monies collected in advance, is limited to 3 calendar days advance notice from the member who cannot attend such functions, for any reason. These motions have been passed and are effective, immediately. Just a friendly reminder: Some members have outstanding dues and we would like to receive them as son as possible. We are trying to put together some estimates of the costs for the upkeep & maintenance of a Community Center. Anyone who has suggestions or can help in any way is most welcome to contact any board member.

O UR SPO NSO RS

Hoshedar Mehta

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