As Bombayites, or now Mumbaikars,
we live amongst the largest congregation of Parsis anywhere in the world. And,
most of us must have noticed, with some amusement, the funny surnames some of
them bear. Probably, the first such surname that comes to mind is
Sodawaterwalla. Well, it is a no-brainer that it was given to a Parsi gent in
the carbonated water business. Much before colas were invented, we had
Raspberry, Orange, Lemon and Pineapple flavoured carbonated drinks. This
surname was fictionally elongated to Sodawaterbottleopenerwalla by Adi Marzban
in his popularly funny Parsi Nataks.
The next one sounds a bit
embarrassing – Boywalla. Whilst in today’s
lingo it sounds quite Gay, it has nothing to do with one’s sexual preferences.
This surname comes from the Boi ritual which involves feeding the sacred fire
in a fire temple with fragrance and fuel. And the persons who performed it were
referred to as Boiwala or Boywalla.
A
Ginwalla would probably be the lucky bloke dealing in liquor. Sadly, no. On the
contrary, those who were referred to as such were textile mill employees in
charge of the Ginning machines. Similarly, the highly erotic-sounding Screwalla
surname was suffixed to those whose job was quite boring – overseeing loads of
fluffy cotton pressed tightly into bales by a screw-operated mechanism. And, while
Daruwalla indicates liquor trade, the word Daru was also used to refer to
gunpowder.
Fanibanda
may tickle your funny bone but it refers to Parsis from a place in Hubli
(Karnataka) called Faniband. Similarly, Dhondys were residents of Daund near
Pune. While Parsis are known anglophiles and have anglicised surnames like
Cooper, Nicholson, Driver, Doctor, Engineer, etc., a few even had
European-sounding surnames like Petit, Sinor and Italia. Not that they have any
connection to France, Spain or Italy. Petit is the French equivalent of the
Parsi-Gujarati Nalla meaning short or small, whilst Sinor and Itala are
villages in Gujarat! Another village that has given a rather unpleasant-sounding
surname is Gharda, meaning old in Gujarati.
A lot
of Parsis made their money in the 18th, 19th and early 20th
centuries due to their business links with the British in India, though this
association was not confined to cities like Bombay, Calcutta, Surat and Madras.
Many Parsis travelled to, and later settled in, military cantonments at
Deolali, Nagar (Ahmednagar), Belguam, Poona and called themselves Deolaliwalla,
Nagarwalla, Belgaumwalla and the most famous of all since Covid, Poonawalla.
And from one such cantonment in Karachi comes the story of a particularly
derogatory but laughable surname. A Parsi contractor desperate to win a
contract for military supplies adopted such patronising behaviour towards a
particular British officer in charge of procurement, that the hassled official
told the contractor that he would consider his proposal if he changed his
surname and the name of his company to Bumsuckerwalla! Evidently, the Parsi
complied!!
And
finally, when it comes to the most famous Parsi surname of all, TATA, which is
associated with their fair treatment of employees, their commitment to the
nation, and winning the trust of its customers in India and abroad, one would
be surprised to know that it is a corruption of the word Tartar, meaning hot as
in hot-tempered, referring to an ancestor of Jamsetji who, so it seems, was
quite irritable!
PS: I was
inspired to write this piece after attending a talk on Parsi surnames by Kaevan
Umrigar at Khaki Labs in Fort, Mumbai. Burjor Daboo’s compilation of Parsi
surnames on Zoroastrians.net has also been a point of reference. The image is from Parsikhabar.net
