MUMBAI: You thought all Zoroastrians looked like Dorab Daruwalla from Mumbai's Dadar Parsi Colony. You thought conversion were never allowed in Zoroastrianism. This landmark photograph nixes both beliefs. On May 21, 2005, five Russians and one Ukranian were initiated into Zoroastrianism with the sedreh-pushti ceremony, the Iranian equivalent of the Parsis' Navjote. Konstantin Krilov, Akbar Aliev, Ivan Titkov , Alexander Smirnov , Maria Ivanova and Vyacheslav Fedoseenko ritually donned the sacred garments in Moscow, and became Stivand, Farrokh, Farabag, Bahman and Tishtar; the Ukranian didn't change his name. Apart from the Moslem Akbar, all the others were Christian. Akbar's ethnic...
