The Bawaji

The Bawaji by Berjis Desai
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Vignettes from the lives of everyday characters – all memorable – with their unique Parsi flavour and foibles. You will not find the stereotype cranky, crotchety, cantankerous Parsi – ready for litigation at the drop of a hat – although some inveterate “litigationophiles” do find mention.
Many of these unforgettable characters have found a voice in the author’s Towers Of Silence.
I wish the delightful illustrations were bigger in size.
The stories are about Parsi men and women, charitable, selfish, scheming, suave, unkempt, religious, atheists, well off, middle class, poor and it is about the latter that is an eye-opener

Every one of the villages in south Gujarat, with a Parsi population, was an eye opener. The widowed mother and her ten-year-old daughter subsisting on one scrambled egg as the only meal of the days. Naked toddlers of Parsi farmers running about in the strong sun with distended bellies indicative of Vitamin D deficiency. Parsi octogenarians not able to see due to easily operable cataract. Constipated teenage girls too embarrassed to relieve themselves in the open fields. Middle aged women making half a dozen trips daily to the well to fetch water. Aching ribs due to constant coughing bouts. The aged trembling in the bitter cold with out a wood fire to warm their limbs. Tuberculosis. Malnutrition. Even starvation. Miscarriages. Infant mortality. Feeding mothers with dried up breasts. No hospital. No doctor. No midwife. All Parsi Zoroastrians. Shattering the myth that there are no poor Parsis.

As the author says, all incidents are true – just the names have been changed - to avoid possible litigation! There is an autobiographical touch and the Berjis Desai's favourite trope – mysticism and magic is quite evident. He can be downright cruel too

Her mental grasp was slightly better than that of an orangutan.

This is describing someone's sister.
Deserved five stars but subtracting one for the repetitive and passages copied verbatim from Towers Of Silence.

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