Seen Petronas Towers? These kids have!

VADODARA: Esha Shah, a standard III student of C A Patel School in this village has not seen any multiplex in Vadodara but she has all the right words of praise for Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Twin Towers.
Esha has just returned from a 10-day tour of South East Asia along with 16 school children from nearby villages.
Florida-based cardiologist Kiran Patel, chief patron of the school, had funded the trip.Having just returned, the children were awe-struck and the parents did discern a perceptible change in them. Their perspective of the world had gone beyond their village and it was showing.
“They don''t walk like us�, says Sneha Joshi, a standard IX student from Chanod. "They even speak very gently. It is something we can learn from them. I have already become more gentle," said Sneha, who was left starryeyed by the sky bus and the flyovers in Singapore.
"I did not find their eating habits healthy," says Mitesh Patel, a standard VIII student from Dabhoi. "But I was amazed at the kind of displays that attract people, like the musical fountain show. Even the Butterfly Park, the night safari, the dinosaur house! How amazing!"
Standard VIII student Jasmine Patel of Avakal village on the other hand was impressed by the silken roads and the cleanliness. "They wouldn''t even let our fingerprints remain on the steel bars at the Petronas Towers. As soon as we stepped away, a man was cleaning the bars. They are very careful and meticulous."
"I haven''t ever stepped out of Gujarat and my child is talking of Singapore," says Esha''s father Gopalbhai, who runs a grocery shop at Shinor. "One of the best things about the tour was that my daughter seems to be more responsible now. She takes care of her clothes and belongings. She took 17 pairs of clothes with her and lost nothing!"
Even Mitesh''s father Suresh Patel is happy. "I was worried of his mischievous ways when he left," he says, adding "but now my son seems less naughty. He seems to have grown up in these 10 days."
"The tour concept was developed by our donor Kiranbhai, who wanted these students to see the world. Now, he might organise a tour to his residence in the United States. He was born in Zambia but he retained his love for Mota Fofalia, his ancestral village," says Jitendra Patel, school administrator.