ZWAS Holds Fun And Delightful Children’s Camp 2022
‘Kids Ni Kalbal, ZWAS Ni Hulchal!’
The dynamic members of ZWAS (Zoroastrian Women’s Assembly of Surat) recently conducted a fun-filled, three-day Children’s Camp which was full of excitement, entertainment, creativity and bonding for Surat’s children. Day 1 kicked off with an orientation and a prayer, with Zinobia and Cyrus Dotivala giving the children a tour of their iconic bakery, sharing its history, techniques and live demos of how their world-famous jam-puffs, batasa, karakari, parwali, cakes and pastries are prepared. Lunch followed at the cozy Tamna-ni-Dharamshala, post which Perin Karanjia and Mahazarin Variava got the children prepped with scripts of jokes, skits and speeches and dance steps, respectively. Watching the movie ‘Jayeshbhai Jordar’, at Valentine Theatre, proved to be quite the entertaining conclusion to the day.
On Day 2, Daisy Patel taught the junior group the art of decorating diva-glasses with paints, while the senior learnt India’s famous craft of ‘tie-and-dye’, with T-shirts being dyed in various hues, under the guidance of Dilshad Mehta. Next, Kainaz Variava regaled the kids by enacting stories and connecting these to real life experiences. Post lunch, children were introduced to the exciting ‘Yog Garba’ therapy. After freshening up, they were treated to yummy snacks, which marked the delicious end of the second day.
The final day of the camp began with laughter as Surat’s famous Laughter Therapist – Kamlesh Masalawala anchored an hour of total dhamal! Next, Zenia Engineer conducted an informative tech session titled, ‘Blogging And Vlogging – A Career Option’. As ZWAS camps focus on entertainment as well as preparing children for a bright future into becoming better Indian citizens, an insightful talk on ‘Behaviour and Mannerisms’ was given by Mahazarin Variava.
As the evening of Day-3 was setting in, the children were readying up eagerly for their finale performances – glitter, glam, glory, curls and Dyed T-Shirts were the highlights! The enthusiastic audience motivated and encouraged all the participants.
Master of Ceremony – Khushnuma Kolah proved to be the perfect hostess, as Parizaad Karanjia rendered a prayer song in her melodious voice and President Delnaz Katpitia gave the welcome note. The children showed off their admirable talents, presenting skits, speeches and dances learnt in the past couple of days. ZWAS welcomed its special guests – Yasmin and Jamshed Dotivala, Shernaz and Hoshang Hilluwala, Vira and Yazdi Karanjia, and Gulshan and Burzin Chiniwala.
Two talented Surti bawas were applauded and honoured by ZWAS for their achievements: Kayan Rustom Katpitia for bagging a Gold Medal in Rifle Shooting held in Surat; and Musician Shezan Hanoz Mehta for his inspiring music launched on Spotify with his band.
ZWAS Trustees – Maharukh Chichgar and Piloo Bhathena expressed their gratitude to all who made the Children’s Camp a huge success, including Freny and Nozer Daruwala for catering (all three days breakfast, lunch and snacks); Fredy Variava for lights and décor; Natesh Sound System, and all mentors, artists and volunteers. Hampers comprising chocolates and tasty Dotivala bakery biscuits were given to all the children by ZWAS as parting tokens. And that marked the end of three extra special days of the Children’s Camp – amid the happy kalbal of kids and great hulchul in ZWAS!
