KOZHIKODE: Onam is when Kerala opens its homes to celebration with flowers at the doorstep, the aroma of a feast wafting through kitchens, and families gathering around the dining table. But at one home in Kozhikode, the Onam season brought a very different sound. The voices of two Parsi priests, from Mumbai, filled the Marshall household with the ancient prayers of Zoroastrianism. In a city where the Parsi community once numbered hundreds of families, only four members of the community remain.
The occasion was a Jashan, a thanksgiving prayer offered to Ahura Mazda, the supreme deity of the Zoroastrian faith. It was a prayer for the living and the departed but, for the Marshalls, it was an opportunity to reclaim a tradition that had become difficult to practise in a place where they are now the only Parsi Zarthusti family.
And there was a reason they chose Onam week.
"We are called the 'Mallu Parsis'," the family says.
Born into the Parsi faith but rooted in Kerala, Zubin Marshall wanted the prayer to be held during Onam, a festival that has been part of the family's life for as long as they can remember. Earlier, their Jashan was held during Vishu.
"As a Parsi, one of our most important rituals is the Jashan, a thanksgiving ritual performed by our priests to offer praise to Ahura Mazda. It is one prayer that can be performed outside the Agiyari, the Parsi fire temple, and we were fortunate to have one at our house," says Jasmine Marshall, daughter-in-law of the Marshall family.
"As the only Parsi Zarthusti family now in Calicut, we miss our prayers and rituals. So when we got an opportunity to have two priests come to us from Bombay and bless us, the feeling is difficult to explain," Jasmine says.
Dastoorji Jamshed and Dastoorji Khursheed, the two priests, brought with them something the family rarely gets to experience — the sound of a traditional Parsi prayer filling their own home.
The Jashan was followed by a special lunch, bringing another layer of Parsi culture to the gathering. Fish, rice and dal formed part of the meal. Some of the ingredients and traditional Parsi spices had to travel much farther than the priests. "You cannot get the masala here. We get it from Hyderabad and Maharashtra," the family says.
Usually, such prayers would bring together members of the Parsi community. But in Kozhikode, the community has become so small that the Marshalls invited their friends from across Kerala to be part of the occasion.