For more than a decade, during my tenure as a Trustee of BPP (November 1996 to October 2008) we debated the need for allowing funerary prayers to be performed at Doongerwadi and thereafter permit family members to dispose of the corpse through alternate system of disposal – cremation or burial. With some Trustees being in favour and some not, pressures from the clergy and vociferous sections of traditional Parsis did not allow this issue to move forward.
A majority of the BPP Trustees and others professing the traditional mind set maintained that those intending to consider alternate systems of disposal should not expect BPP to approve of their proposal to allow any of the bunglis at Doongerwadi to be made available, but they should go ahead and make their own arrangements. Thanks to this sagacious advice, the seeds that were sown nearly four decades earlier began to sprout in two thousand fourteen.
The creation of the Prayer Hall has been the result of cohesive team work but the main credit undoubtedly belongs to our two mentors, Jamsheed Kanga and Homi Khusrokhan, the two champions who successfully took on the BPP in the ‘Ban on Mobeds’ issue and undertook the process of communicating and collaborating with the Municipal Corporation and their various executives. Without their involvement the prayer hall would not be a reality today. Ms. Silloo Billimoria, Ex Law Officer, Consultant Legal, of Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai was also most helpful in drawing up the necessary documents.
We were fortunate to have eminent engineer, Rustom Dadabhoy who had worked in Tata Housing advising and supervising the project and of course the involvement of Godrej engineering team led by Maneck Engineer. Our architects firm ‘Epicons Consultants’, our building contractor Mr. Ashok Punjabi of AP Enterprises, associated with the House of Godrej, have all worked as a well knit, dedicated and committed team and brought the project to its fruition in very good time.
We initially circulated an appeal to various individuals; some of us Trustees also dug into our own pockets. We also discussed the proposal with the Trustees of A. H. Wadia Trust and requested their support, in response to which they sanctioned a munificent donation of Rs.15,000,000 (Rupees fifteen million). Without their generous donation it would not have been possible to complete the construction of the facility within 16 months.
We were extremely fortunate to receive excellent cooperation from Executives and various departments of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, with two Addl Municipal Commissioners taking active interest. Our mentor Jamsheed Kanga has left behind a huge reservoir of goodwill since his tenure as Municipal Commissioner.
Thanks to the support of Mr. Jamshyd Godrej and personnel of his company, a beautiful garden is being created at the site. The Godrej’s have been most supportive in not only creating the garden, but also in providing the services of their personnel in supervising the construction. Mr. Maneck Engineer has been keeping a watchful eye on the work.