XYZ Mom – Testimonial

‘XYZ’ is a very unassuming name for an organisation which shows much promise and has till date pleasantly surprised everyone who has believed in it. ‘XYZ’ is not just any ABC or Tom Dick and Harry organisation but is infact a movement, a belief in the fact that our children are the future and if one wants to help our community to grow and evolve and continue to make significant contributions in all fields then it is the children and their potential that we must tap.

Just to give a brief background, ‘XYZ’ stands for Xtremely Young Zoroastrians and has as its members the most important members of our community, our children who are in the age group of 5 to 15. It organised a summer camp in the month of May and now a trip to Kidzania.

All though Hoshaang Gotla who has spearheaded this “movement” along with his band of volunteers makes it look effortless, one has to believe that a lot of meticulous planning, organising and coordinating is involved, not to mention the logistics of planning it all. One has to appreciate the fact that everyone involved is doing it voluntarily and most of the volunteers are professionals having full time jobs as well. So one cannot but applaud and cheer the spirit and positive attitude of these young folk who took care of our kids, made sure the young ones ate, acted as photographers and patiently humoured all us mothers by sending us loads of pictures on the group chat and kept us updated on the days happenings.

Started by Hoshaang Gotla the main objective of this organisation has been to get children from across the Parsi community to meet each other and bond over ‘Parsi values’, ‘Parsi panoo’ and not to miss ‘Parsi bhonu’ while at the same time keeping them gainfully occupied.

On Saturday the 26th of July XYZ (read Hoshaang and his merry band of volunteers) arranged a trip to Kidzania which is a pretend city. It is located in R-City Mall. In Kidzania the children are taught the everyday skills required for life in a fun way. They are expected to work and earn ‘Kidzos’ which is the currency and only once they earn it can they spend it.
Lesson 1 of life learnt: You cannot spend what you have not earned!

The children can then use the money to buy food or buy things they like. The children are also provided information on various occupations based on their likes, dislikes and aptitude. They may choose to become doctors, car designers, tattoo artists, fire fighters, fashion models, dabbawalas and so on. The list is endless. Apart from learning about different aspects of these professions they also come to know what they enjoy doing.

Lesson 2 of life learnt: You have to enjoy your job and then every minute spent will be a pleasure!

If the children misbehave or even unknowingly indulge in socially unacceptable behaviour then the KZPD (Kidzania Police Department) will arrest them and they have to spend time in Jail.

Lesson 3 of Life learnt: Every action has a consequence.

Every time the children would run out of ‘Kidzos’ they would have to work and earn money. They would do all kinds of odd jobs including courier delivery and ‘dabba ‘ delivery which were both hot favourites with the children.
Lesson 4 of life learnt: Dignity of Labour. No job is too big or too small. Every job is equally important for a society to function smoothly.

So apart from having fun the children learnt valuable skills and lessons through hands-on experience. Of course one must not forget the most important part of any trip: the bus journeys! The part where all the action is! The children had a blast on the bus rides as was evident from the loads of pictures sent to us. The singing, the chanting, the telling of jokes and tall tales (only in Gujarati) which the children who do not live in colonies (like mine) enjoyed the most. They not only get to hear the ‘cool Parsi Gujarati’ and expressions like ‘Arre Ganda’ (which my daughter visualises as a mad onion because kanda + mad=ganda) which are quintessentially Parsi but also practice their Gujarati and make Parsi friends.

All in all not only did XYZ achieve its objective of getting Parsi children to meet and mingle but it has also raised our expectations as we as parents look forward to more such events organised by this dynamic group of do-gooders. If your child is not registered I would strongly urge you get him or her to join XYZ so that they can be a part of future activities and not miss out on any of the fun because it was a great learning experience in more ways than one!! The same