We Parsis love to lay personal claim to our greats. Even all those with whom our familiarity doesn’t go beyond their public presence. In the case of ‘Apro George’ it was a legit claim; wasn’t King G. the Fifth once framed on our drawing room wall along with our forebears four generations up the family tree? But, seriously, the present hasn’t much replenished the trove of the past, which is why the community’s gaping hole grew wider with the passing of Fali Nariman, the last in that legion of India’s legal greats.
He wasn’t one of those who felt the need to add his voice to the cacophony triggered by any of the many issues, valid or hysteria-fanned which plague our increasingly paranoid community. But when called upon, he gave unstintingly of his time, erudition – and reputation. The most recent was that of the Bombay Parsi Punchayat vs the Union of India, where he steered an amicable solution to the emotionally sensitive matter of disposing of the corpses of Covid victims; the traditional manner was deemed violative of government protocols.
How deeply and as quietly he was invested in his own ‘court’ was reflected in the heartfelt tributes of the Delhi Parsi Anjuman and Parzor, Shernaz Cama’s UNESCO-recognised body for the preservation of Parsi-Zoroastrian heritage; he was its senior most patron. It recorded how much ‘Fali Uncle’ will be remembered for his ‘sane advice, his penetrating questions and his sense of humour’. It thanked him for all he had done not only for........