In June 2018, Roshan and Rohintan Rivetna drove down to Pennsylvania, to visit Pallan Ichaporia, at the Rehab Center in Sinking Spring, PA, and to bring back his collection of books that the family wished to donate to FEZANA.
The following card was presented to Pallan – who was visibly moved to get it.
Dear Pallan,
Your legacy of learning, researching and imparting your knowledge through your publications and presentations is invaluable, and will forever remain in the annals of our community’s early years in N. America.
Your study of Zoroastrian texts and manuscripts has contributed in no small measure to enrich and inspire our community members and scholars worldwide to realize the splendor and relevance of Z’s message in today’s world! For this the Zoroastrian community worldwide is beholden to you.
Your rich library of books and manuscripts will be our prized possession at the FIRES library and will be enshrined in your memory.
Best regards
Rohinton and Roshan
on behalf of a grateful NA community.
While the six cartons of approx. 150 books do not include any valuable manuscripts that Pallan was known to have owned, there are some very amazing, volumes, by noted scholars, some with personal notes and communications.
There is also a carton of two books authored by Pallan. We plan to distribute these to various Z libraries and Associations.
The next step was to catalog books to add to the FIRES’ libraries. The Rivetnas recruited their grandkids after a quick lesson on the Dewey Decimal system. Ness and Zane (mostly) and Natasha and Alea spent time this summer to catalog the books, in a spreadsheet provided by Aban Rustomji.
Here’s what Ness writes:
“……. after going through a few books we began to see the hard work that went behind each book … I started looking closer and it interested me how someone devotes all their time into a book. I then looked even deeper and saw how creative and unique these books really were. This inspired me to want to read the next book, and the next, and the next ……I feel as if we got a great opportunity to see books that go as late as the 1800s. We are so grateful that our grandparents … gave us the opportunity to help. I hope these books are treated well in (the FIRES library) in Houston.”
11-year old Zane adds:
“…. It was pretty cool to see so many books. For example, a book called “The Avestan Vowels” – was a whole 710 pages on a few vowels! For me at least that would take my whole life. All of the books were very detailed, and for me a little complicated to read … “