Echoes in a Parsi Attic: A Box of Keepsakes Unveils Early Jamshedpur's Story Through Mumbai In 1935, Khurshed Maneckji Bharucha, the first Indian chief cashier of Tata Steel in Jamshedpur, borrowed Rs 3.5 lakh from a friend who owned an island near Bombay.
With this loan, he constructed a four-storey building at the Bistupur junction, using 'surkhi,' a mix of burnt clay and limestone, for its partition walls.
The building was designed to house the influx of Parsi workers arriving from cities like Bombay, Surat, Karachi, and even from as far as Birmingham and Munich, following the founding of Tata Steel in 1907.
Over time, it also became home to Regal Cinema, Jamshedpur's first single-screen theatre, located on its ground floor.
Today, however, the once-thriving Parsi community in Jamshedpur has dwindled to around 200 individuals due to migration, interfaith marriages, and declining population numbers.
Fragments of this community's vibrant history have been preserved in a box of photographs, letters, and notes maintained by Bharucha's son-in-law, Keki Gazder.
A mechanical engineer with a passion for photography, Keki's collection has transformed Cymroza Art Gallery in Mumbai's Cumballa Hill into a 1950s-style Parsi attic.
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