Navjote on Xmas Eve

Celebrated Xmas eve by attending a Navjote at the Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy Agiary at Navy Nagar,Colaba.It was my second time at the lovely venue and the atmosphere was that of a Christmas party.There was a beautiful Xmas tree at the entrance and gifts for children.Songs that blared off the speakers were all of my generation!! Yeh!!! Laughter,clinking of glasses and dazzling diamonds everywhere! Navjote is the ceremony to initiate a child into the Zoroastrian faith.Here it was of the talented Hansotia children,a invitation which stressed on the presence of great food to entice me!
The starters were outstanding......Sali Boti Tartlets and Tiny Egg Chutney Pattice were the best.Pepper Mushrooms,Arbi Rolls,Pepper Chicken were good.I don't remember how many I had.Must be the wine.

The dinner was traditional Parsi mostly and catered by the one and only Tanaz Godiwala (whom you can see in the green shirt below).We headed for the first seating as I don't like waiting behind someone's chair for the next sitting.No....actually I don't like waiting at all for dinner so we ate first... but that sounds better.
We were seated next to a suave and amusing gentleman called Shiraz who kept us in splits.He was accompanied by his lovely wife Roselyn.He gave us tips on how to elbow everyone out and grab the Raspberry Soda :D....we did!
A waiter went around asking who all wanted vegetarian food.Expectedly,there weren't many takers.He removed the banana leaves and put silver plates for all the vegetarians.I saw dhoklas going into their plates and then our food arrived so that was all a haze.

The chutney came first followed by the frilly Farcha and a sweet onion based Prawn dish

What I liked the best was the Bharuchi Akuri....creamy scrambled eggs with raisins.How on earth they managed to do this on a large scale,I wonder.

Another dish which was superb was the Bhaji Dana Ma Gosh,a dish I had heard of because of my friends Kurush and Rhea Dalal.This is a green  mutton gravy made of methi,peas and coriander and is oh so delicious!

The last item was the Ras Chawal,again good.....a mildly spiced tomato gravy with chicken

It being Xmas eve,there was soul satisfying ice-cream with rum ball

 We stopped by the Afghan church next door and listened to carol singing.It was beautiful! This church was built by the British in memory of soldiers who died in the First Afghan war.On the way back we passed Prabhadevi which is an essentially Hindu neighborhood.There were  twinkling lights and stars all along the way! Does intolerance exist in Mumbai? Only among some politicians!! Time we got intolerant of them! 

Merry Christmas to you all!!