Indian origins
Freddie Mercury is the first British rock star to have Indian origins. This fact and his sexual orientation are two aspects of his deliberately cryptic short life. He was born on September 3, 1946 in Zanzibar on the east coast of Africa, but his parents were Parsis from Gujarat. Subsequently, Mercury often talked about their Persian roots, but the Parsis were forced to leave Persia a thousand years ago. They landed on the coast of Gujarat and settled down in the city with the largest population – Bombay. Any Parsi can follow his or her ancestry back to Gujarat.Encyclopedia Britannica gives the following information about the Parsis:
“The representatives of this nation are characterized by yellowish-brown skin, aquiline nose, bright black eyes,a sharp chin, heavy brow ridges, thick lips. Men usually wear a little twisted mustache. “Whatever it is,it surely reminds us of Freddie. One of the famous followers of the Zaratustra cult practised by the Parsis was the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Freddie’s father’s family name Bulsara actually derived from the name of a little village Bulsara (north of Bombay and south of Ahmedabad) in which he grew up. In this province there has always been a strong tendency to emigrate. There were a lot more Indians that emigrated from Gujarat than any other area of the subcontinent. Bomi and his wife Jer settled in Zanzibar, where Bomi began working as cashier in the Supreme Court. He and Jer, from whom Freddie inherited his great physique and protruding teeth called him Farrokh. Kashmir, Freddie’s sister, was born six years later.
