WZCC Global Meet 2017

“The WZCC Global Meet 2017 is now just a few weeks away, and the WZCC Bangalore Chapter is all set to make the event a grand success! We want to keep all WZCC Chapters & participating Delegates updated about the many events planned, the Speakers, other net working activities & entertainment planned from 14 to 16 December 2017. This is the first such update, and we shall keep you posted about further developments on a fortnightly basis as a run-up to the final event.

Dr. Ferzaan Engineer, a prominent and well-loved member of the Parsee community in Bangalore, is a pharmaceutical cientist and healthcare entrepreneur. A pharmacist by training, he received a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of South Carolina.
He started the international clinical research industry in India and was the Chairman & CEO of Quintiles India from 1997 to 2011. Ferzaan become an independent entrepreneur four years ago and cofounded two companies which are described below.

• Medwell Ventures (medwellventures.com) offers home healthcare services under the Nightingales brand (nightingales.in)
• Cytecare Hospitals (cytecare.com) is one of India’s only organ-based cancer hospitals and is super-specialized in various surgeries, radiation techniques and chemotherapies. The flagship project was a 150-bed hospital launched six months ago in Bangalore. Ferzaan is a great supporter of the WZCC and we eagerly look forward to having him as our speaker on the evening of December 15th 2017.

Our Guest co-ordinater for the Leadership Games is Zerbanoo Gifford, an author, a human rights campaigner and founder of the ASHA Centre, which pioneers youth empowerment in the fields of sustainable development, interfaith dialogue and the arts. She holds the International Woman of the Year Award 2006 for her humanitarian work, which spans fifty years of grassroots and global activism. In 1989, Zerbanoo was presented with the Nehru Centenary Award for her work championing the rights of women, children and minorities. A pioneer for Asian Women in British politics, she made history by being elected as a councillor in Harrow in 1982 and standing for parliament in 1983. Zerbanoo’s biography ‘An Uncensored Life’ by Farida Master is published by Harper Collins.

We are privileged to have Zerbanoo conduct the session on Leadership Games along with her assistant, Adrian Locher who is an actor, voice coach and director of many years’ experience. As the Artistic Director of the ASHA Centre, he has run numerous drama-based programmes with young people from all over the world including one play that was created with young South Africans and presented to Nelson Mandela at his home.

And to give you all a heads up, here’s something on the Bangalore Parsees The need to establish an Anjuman in Bangalore was felt by the Parsee Zoroastrians in the first quarter of this Century, when in the year 1922, after two or three preliminary meetings, they inaugurated the Bangalore Parsee Zoroastrian Anjuman. Even though the first recorded settlement of the Parsees in Bangalore was in 1880, it took nearly 42 years for the Parsee Zoroastrian population to increase sufficiently to fill this long felt need.

The newly established Anjuman then took over the management of the then existing “Ararmgah” which had been in existence since 1892, when on the death of Seth Muncherji Dosabhoy Cama, the Parsee residents of Bangalore obtained a plot of land from the Mysore State Government to bury their dead community members.

Ever since then, as more and more assets were added, the responsibilities of the Anjuman also increased. Gradually the local community also felt the need for a Fire Temple and a Tower of Silence. Thus in the year 1924-25, Late Seth Dinshaw Cawasji came forward with a donation to the Anjuman to build a “Daremeher” for Bangalore Zoroastrians. Well-known personalities who took a leading part in this project were Late Seth Meherwanji Maneckji, Late Seth Nusserwanii Mirza, Late Seth Kaikhushroo Belgaumvala and Late Seth Rustomji and Nusserwanji Boyce. A year later the Anjuman built a community Hall for religious ceremonies at the “Aramgah” at a cost of Rs.5,000/- and which amount was donated to the Anjuman by the Late Bai Pirojbai Fakirji Chaina, for this specific purpose.

Subsequently as the Zoroastrian population of Bangalore increased, structures like the Lady Jehangir Kothari Memorial Hall, the Tower of Silence, the B.J. Entee Dharmashala

and the Kothari Hall Annexe were added to the assets of the Anjuman.and the Kothari Hall Annexe were added to the assets of the Anjuman.
Today we number a mere 450-500 in number but constantly strive at keeping this community alive with events, gatherings and preservation of our assets.   “Entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity beyond the resources currently controlled.”