Chronicling Parsi culture on the Net

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Chronicling Parsi culture on the Net

Postby canadian » Sat May 06, 2006 3:01 pm

Source: Afternoon Dispatch & Courier, India

Chronicling Parsi culture on the Net

BY A STAFF REPORTER | Monday, April 24, 2006 11:40:32 IST

San Fransisco-based Ader Gandi’s website brings together Parsis from across the globe.

ImageThe Internet has truly made the web a smaller place. Besides making communication easier, it is literally a treasure trove of information. Among other things, if you wish to know anything about the Zoroastrian community, try visiting www.ParsiChronicle.com, which has loads of information on the Parsees.

Ader Gandi, the brain behind the website is a US resident, who keeps flying back and forth to India. Gandi founded the Parsi Chronicle in late 2003 and since then it has become the most visited site on Zoroastrians.

Dressed in a smart grey tee shirt with a tiny broach of Lord Zoroaster on the neckline, Gandi looks nothing like an elderly scholar one usually associates with religion! Still a bachelor, he said, “I migrated to San Francisco in 1975 and started my own mortgage loan business. After staying there for more than 30 years I came back to India around two years ago with a friend. I made good profits in my business and with that I thought of starting the website. I wish to make it clear that I’m not doing this for a religious reason. Making this website was a pleasurable experience, it was culturally enriching.”
All the above sites are very user-friendly and quite helpful. The matrimonial site especially has lots of registered members and the missing Parsi site has successfully solved a number of cases by locating persons from different parts of the world.
“I keep coming down to Mumbai very often but haven’t really thought of shifting base here. I never plan things so I can’t even say what the Parsi Chronicle has in store for the future. Many times I am asked the reason why I do all of this. The reason is a very altruistic one. I believe that this is my way of giving back the community. There is absolutely nothing commercial involved. I make efforts to advertise it in different places and I spend for that.”

“I’m extremely happy with the response all the sites have received. Everyday we get at least 300 visitors and I get a lot of queries from all over the world. I think that every Parsi who has access to the Internet must have definitely gone through the site no less than once,” says Gandi.

Talking about the different Zoroastrian groups that have sprung up all over the place, Gandi said, “I’m not a part of any camp. I don’t even wish to join any of them in the future. Any information that is available on the net, on Zoroastrians, electronically enters my network and then I proceed to add it on the Parsi Chronicle. The idea behind starting all of this was to make communicating within the community easier. I’m really blown away by the power of the net.”

Just log in, dikraa
If you type the word ‘Parsi’ in google search, the Parsi Chronicle site figures in the top five sites.

The site also boasts of having 70,000 visitors till date. Quite huge if you consider the number of Zoroastrians around!

Gandi has since opened several other websites like www.TheMissingParsi.com, www.TheParsiMatch.com, www.TheParsiDirectory.com and www.TheParsiGara.com, all of which have comprehensive information on the tiny Zoroastrian community.
canadian
 
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