Friday, March 31, 2006

Mercury Madness

It's a long-standing joke that Iranians invented everything. But there's one thing I take exception to... Please, Iran, stop trying to claim that Freddie Mercury was Iranian!

Freddie was born Farrokh Balsara in Zanzibar, Tanzania. His parents were Indian Zoroastrians. Granted our ancestors (Freddie's and mine) originally came from Persia, but that was 1,000 years ago! Freddie was more African than he was Iranian, really!

We Parsis have so little. Most people have never heard of our prophet and think Zubin Mehta is Jewish. One of our few worldwide claims to fame was aapro Freddie. Even though Freddie changed his name, lived a wild life that probably didn't always include good thoughts, good words and good deeds and left little to the Parsi community when he died, we still want him. In fact, we NEED him.

So forgive me, Iran, for being a little defensive on the Freddie front, but you have so much to be famous for and we Parsis are holding on to what little we have. So back off... or I might have to refer the issue to a higher body!

No comments: