Sharan Gill interviews Gaurav Pardeshi, a successful entrepreneur and the enigmatic personality behind A-Desiflava who has taken on an innovative venture.
When I first met Gaurav and joined the team at A-Desiflava, one of the first things that struck me was his passion for the magazine, he spoke of the need for a publication that caters to the needs and interests of the South Asian community in Hong Kong. As a writer, I recognised a kindred spirit and it has been a pleasure to introduce to our readers myriad topics and books that would resonate with our community. It was therefore not a surprise in the last year when Gaurav started to talk passionately about another venture he had taken on, Go Pichu. I understood vaguely what it was about but did not explore further until recent weeks when the topic seemed to crop in social settings, everyone had only good things to say about Go Pichu. The idea then came about, we feature interesting people with interesting ideas regularly in the magazine, why not let our Chief Editor talk about his lovely new venture for our children? I hope you enjoy hearing about Go Pichu, I certainly did.
[Q] For our new readers, do tell us about your background and what brought you to this point in your life?
I started as a marketing professional in Hong Kong in 2010 but left my job in 2012 to found A-Desiflava magazine along with my wife, Neha Pathak. In 2013, we also started Dabbawalahk, supplying lunch boxes to over 300 Indian professionals working in Hong Kong. A-Desiflava events took off around the same time, and we organized Dandiya, Holi & Cricket events in Hong Kong. Around mid-2014, with the exponential growth of Dabbawalahk, we started our first Mumbai theme-based Indian restaurant and bar in Tsim Sha Tsui.
The businesses were doing very well until the protests and Covid hit Hong Kong. Due to the fall of retail business in Hong Kong, we had to shut down our restaurant in 2019. In early 2014, while simultaneously running the other businesses, I also started my electronics trading business by supplying laptops to clients in Bolivia, whom I met through my own self-made informative YouTube video. My experience working as a marketing professional in multinational firms in Hong Kong helped me simultaneously build my electronics trading business alongside others. Now in 2023, our company Adesiflava Private Limited has expanded to handle events, magazines & branded electronics supply chain businesses.
[Q] You have already achieved success as an entrepreneur and founder of A-Desiflava magazine, what inspired you to launch Go Pichu?
My son Aadyansh Pardeshi. He is 8 years old. During my school days, my father signed me up for National Cadet Corps (NCC) and Sea Cadet Corps (SCC) training in Mumbai. At NCC and SCC, I received training on discipline, respect, personality development, habits, manners, and many other military and naval-based courses. I always wanted my son Aady, to also learn all these skills from me, that I had learned at NCC and SCC.
I started training Aady, but he did not seem very interested in the training. I tried again a second time, and again he didn’t show that much of an interest. But one fine day, I tried the same thing again, while he was playing in the park with a few of his friends. This time he responded very well to my training, and his friends as well, all of them were interested in doing more training with me. That day I understood one thing “If I want to train and build up my son, I need to build up and train his friends together with him”.This thought was the founding idea behind Go Pichu.
[Q] That is quite inspirational, could you tell us what age group would benefit from Go Pichu?
Go Pichu is for kids from 5 to 12 years of age. At Go Pichu, kids pick up valuable life skills through a training course that involves lectures, presentations, and practical workshops on Good Habits & Manners, Discipline, Leadership, Tolerance, Public Speaking, Dancing, Acting, Football, Kid’s Yoga, Singing and Lawn Tennis.
We encourage and instill team building among those who sign up for the course with group debates on topics, role acting and narration of stories in teams, group selling of used toys, pairing of strong Pichus with weaker Pichus for public speaking sessions, and group singing.
This mix of sports and personality development training is not just enjoyable for our young Go Pichus, but will also help set them up with the right mindset, character, and tools so as to face the future and make a success of themselves.
To inspire the young Pichus further, we also organize guest speaker sessions, where we have invited professionals, authors, doctors, air hostesses, chefs, and even a former Davis Cup player, a cricketer, and a singer, to talk about their professions and show what our young Pichus can learn from them when they grow up. I do encourage professionals in any sphere to drop me a line if they are interested in sharing their knowledge with our Pichus.
[Q] It is a well-rounded course and holistic in its approach, is there any part or module that is of particular significance? 
Overall personality development of our Pichus is the utmost significant aspect of Go Pichu. When they are ready to face the world, they need to be aware and equipped to handle everything and anything that is going to come their way. The whole idea is to make them street smart and show them the many doors of life related to their personality or profession.
[Q] The children have a lot to benefit from this course, do you single-handedly put the content together?
It is hard but rewarding work. I make it a point to through at least one audiobook on a particular topic of the course every weekend. I also find it useful to go through a lot of videos on YouTube, where I extract more useful bits of information, and make notes of useful pointers on my phone, which I then put together into a course module that will benefit the Pichus.
Each module teaches specific skills. Take football for example, it is not just about
competing against your opponent. I was a footballer in Mumbai for 6 years, if I am preparing for a football training module, I will watch videos that teach you specific skills like dribbling, shooting the ball, and in short, all the tactics that enable a Pichu to become a good footballer. On the other hand, if it is a course in public speaking, our Pichus will learn about having eye contact, using your tongue properly, making sure your audience is listening, etc. It is hard work, but I enjoy dedicating that time.
[Q] How many sessions have you had thus far, and are there any interesting moments you would like to highlight?
I started Go Pichu with its first session on 30 July 2022 and since then I have not missed a single Saturday or Sunday, sometimes I am there both Saturday as well as Sunday, back to back. You can literally count every Saturday and Sunday starting from July 2022 until today, and there will have been a session of Go Pichu.
There have been many interesting moments, let me share a few.
- A group of around 25 Pichus were trained for a fashion show and they had to perform in front of an audience of over 500 at our Navratri Utsav 2022 event in Wan Chai, Southorn Stadium. The Pichus were trained for over a month and it was a mix of all age groups of Pichus. They were all very nervous on the final event day. “I just told them, before they go out on the stage, exhale 3 times really fast, and then with your right hand and fist, hit on your chest softly and say “I’ve got this”. says Gaurav PardeshiIt was a beautiful moment for me to see my Pichus doing this before they entered the main performing area. They all performed extremely well.
- Another interesting moment was when I made all the Pichus bring their old toys from home, and in the first session, they were taught how to label and price their toys. Here they learned how to value good and bad and how much someone would pay for it. They were then made to do mock-up selling sessions during our training. On the final day, all the Pichus were asked to stand on the streets of Tung Chung in groups and sell their old toys. I felt so content when I saw all of them effectively persuade and convince people walking by to buy their old toys for their kids. They did extremely well and one older Chinese guy even paid HK$100 for a HK$10 priced toy, because he was overwhelmed with the efforts of that group of Pichus.
It was also interesting to see the clever questions put to our guest speaker one day, an air hostess stewardess from Cathay Pacific. The questions our young Pichus put forward were so logically correct that our lovely guest that day was caught off guard trying to give them correct answers to the questions.
[Q] Is there a message that you would like to send out to our readers, in particular parents of young children?
We have all been there and done that, now forget about what you want to do on your weekends with your friends. Give time to your child, because in this age of technology and electronics, it is very important that we give our kids the real taste of life to make them stronger, wiser, and smarter. I always keep sharing my thoughts and quotes from motivational books on Audibles. One recent quote that I shared in our Go Pichu Tung Chung group, is something I would like parents to remember, “Sometimes we are so concerned about giving our children what we never had while growing up, we neglect to give them what we did have growing up…” James Thomson, reading a book by Brendon Burchard.
I would also like to thank all the Go Pichu parents in Tung Chung who keep sending their Pichus regularly for all the classes. We now have 70 Pichus in Tung Chung and many more keep joining every week. I would like to also to give a very big thanks to Purviz R. Shroff, MH, and the Late Rusy M. Shroff, BBS, MBE for supporting and sponsoring this non-profit project of ours.
Go Pichu
Testimonials
Bhavya & Jitesh Vora
Pichu: Aarush Vora
We are fortunate to have Go Pichu in our community and accessible for our children to enhance their creativity & learning in a fun yet inspiring environment. I am sure Aarush is in safe hands & will Thrive and Excel in the programs that he will attend.
Go Pichu is doing an amazing job of instilling creativity & confidence in children in the past. After many strong referrals & positive reviews, we decided to enroll our child here so he could also benefit & enhance his skills further.
A Big shout-out to Mr. Gaurav Pardeshi for making these classes super fun yet engaging for kids to focus & learn better. What an amazing place to set a foundation for the love of creativity & helping each child grow to the best of their ability. We are sure your time & efforts will help foster kids’ passion to another level.
Keep motivating & Keep growing!!
Thank you.
Payal & Monil Shah
“Success isn’t about how much money you make; it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.” As humans we yearn to make a difference, to leave our mark. And most of us know helping others has a positive impact on our own lives — making us happier, and more balanced, and instilling a greater sense of purpose in our daily lives. Many of us, though, are unsure of where to begin.
This is where Go Pichu comes in as the perfect platform for children to learn and implement these values on a daily basis. It is a valuable contribution to society, and the efforts of Gaurav and Neha go above and beyond the norm. Every activity is carefully designed and executed to create better individuals who are valuable members of the community. Children are always eager to attend the sessions, and we can see a remarkable improvement in their behavior and skills, whether it be in personal development, public speaking, or even acting.
Go Pichu is a commendable effort that is making a positive difference in individuals and the community as a whole. It is a testament to the fact that success is not just about how much money you make, but about how much of a difference you can make in people’s lives.
Pichu: Riaan Shah
Go Pichu is awesome. I love acting and public speaking classes. I like getting feedback after public speaking class which helps me improve. I love to go to Go Pichu.
Kavita & Deepak Brid
Pichu: Aarav Brid
Go Pichu is an exceptional platform for kids, with many activities arranged for them such as Yoga sessions, Football coaching, Public speaking, and more. I met Gary (Gaurav) a few months ago but felt like I had known him for many years. He and his team are putting a lot of effort into each and every kid coming to Go Pichu, I’ve attended a few sessions since the beginning and I’ve seen a lot of improvement in the kids and their confidence. Go Pichu is doing a fantastic job and I wish them all the best in their future endeavors.
Stuti & Yash Walawalkar
Pichu: Riaan Walawalkar
Go Pichu is an amazing learning ground for young minds. The best part is the variety of classes that Mr. Gary and Ms. Neha offer and expose the kids to. From Mandarin classes to Tennis lessons from Tennis Asia Academy to Public speaking in front of an audience or Football classes, the classes focus on the overall development of the kids. It’s unbelievable that all of this is provided for free to the kids. Kudos to team Go Pichu team for doing such a beautiful community service for the kids in Tung Chung.
Shreya & Shirish Pednekar
GO PICHU is a fantastic platform for kids. My son always returned with a smile on his face after attending the class. I have also attended the class a couple of times along with my kid and the best part was we as parents get to participate if we are present. The coach, Gaurav, is very generous and good with kids; he always tries to make them feel comfortable. It’s not easy to handle different age groups of kids together, but he does it really well. Also, the special coaches that he has arranged to date were very good and educated kids with a brief knowledge of their profession. The whole mixed concept of Go Pichu is brilliant and I must say kids love to attend it. Thanks and GO PICHU rocks.
Pichu: Aaditya Pednekar
The Go Pichu classes that I had were amazing. One of the best classes is the Tennis class. The Go Pichu organizer, Mr. Gaurav, also the founder of this magazine A-Desiflava has sent us the best Tennis Coaches in Hong Kong. There are many other classes such as Football and Drama. These amazing classes are exclusively available in Go Pichu. Go Pichu also teaches us many skills in life such as discipline and confidence. I wish every child in the world could attend Go Pichu classes.
Sweta & Saurabh Surana
Pichu: 
Preksha Surana
Go Pichu is the best platform for showcasing your talent and learning new skills for your daily life. After her Go Pichu lessons, we saw significant improvements in our daughter Preksha. She is more confident than before and she loves to learn from different teachers and perform different activities. She enjoys attending classes like drama, sports, lawn tennis, and football. Preksha has always been a well-behaved child at home, but I can see more positive changes in her, such as making her own bed and reciting morning prayer. We are not sure what she will do in the future because she is so young, but she is showing an interest in a variety of activities that she did not previously. I have told a lot of my friends about Go Pichu and they loved the class when they attended the sessions by Mr. Gaurav. Go Pichu is the best platform for kids to build up more confidence in a variety of areas.
Interview & Article by :
Sharan Gill, Associate Editor, A-Desiflava Magazine. Sharan is a legally trained editor and writer for several publications. She has a special interest in human rights issues, having worked for several non-civil rights organizations. She has two lovely daughters she is incredibly proud of and lives with her husband in Clearwater Bay.
Photo Credits :
Go Pichu Sessions, Go Pichu Parents & Bhavika Darode
