Who Is a Parsi?

IN ‘Who Is a Parsi?’, Prochy N Mehta handholds the readers and takes them through the lanes and bylanes of the 400-year history of Parsis in India. She narrates stories and records of the past to show the challenges that the community faced on the way, particularly in the absence of a fixed set of laws to fall back on, the debate between the orthodox and the reformist groups, the question of interfaith marriage and conversion. The book documents through letters, newspaper articles, transcripts of court cases, views of prominent Parsis to bring out a holistic view.

THREE novellas in one, ‘Blue Sky, White Cloud’ narrates extraordinary stories of animal life intersecting with that of humans. In the book, journalist-author Nirmal Ghosh takes us on a journey through the vast Indo-Malayan rainforests with a defenceless male elephant calf. He tells the story of a female leopardess facing shrinking forests as she crosses paths with a forest guard and a wildlife biologist researching geese travels to Mongolia. Rich in illustrations, the stories delve deep into the flora and fauna of the forests, something close to the heart of the writer, who is also a wildlife conservationist.