Zeenia K Patel has a distinct memory of her elder cousin brother Bakhtyar K Irani sneaking inside one of the backrooms of the Parsi Dairy Farm (PDF) and getting chocolate chips for her and her siblings to share. “He would pretend that only he knew where to get them, making us wait outside a closed door. A year or two later, he lost his power when we realised we all could go inside and get them on our own!” she chuckles at the memory, while her sister Parvana S Mistry recalls fondly the sweet smell of fried jalebi from their karkhana (factory) across the road.
Zeenia (36), Parvana (35) and their cousins Bakhtyar (41) and Sarfaraz K Irani (38) are the great-grandchildren of Nariman Ardeshir, the Parsi gentleman who opened the iconic Parsi Dairy Farm at Princess Street in South Bombay in 1916 with — as legend has it — a single can of milk. The fourth generation of the family — Zeenia and Parvana’s mother, Meheru K Patel and Sarfaraz and Bakhtyar’s mother Shernaz K Irani, are sisters, who grew up listening to stories about their great grandfather and how he started the business, which continues to be one of the few single family-owned brands in the country.
