Umair Nawaz
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A truck on the roads of Hassan Abdaal,Pakistan
Truck artists from Pakistan in Kolkata, this year Durga Puja
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A truck on the roads of Hassan Abdaal,Pakistan
nana41
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.......but what is your problem after all?
Aka123
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Karachi truck artists bring Pakistan to Kolkata’s Durga Puja
Haider Ali and his associates are decorating a puja pandal.
SUSENJIT GUHA Kolkata | 14th Sep 2013
Goddess Durga and her children will be worshipped inside a makeshift Pakistani truck driver's cabin for the first time in the history of Durga Puja celebrations in Kolkata. Haider Ali, Mumtaz Ahmed and Md. Iqbal, all professional "truck artists" from Karachi are busy giving shape to the Pakistani pandal at a Durga Puja organised by a north Kolkata club, Nabinpally.
The idea of housing the Goddess inside the truck-pandal first came to Gopal Poddar, a Durga Puja theme consultant. Poddar, who located Haider and his team on the internet, said, "I had the idea of using Pakistani truck art for the worship area and the pandal (makeshift structure for venerating the Goddess) for long. When I suggested this to Nabinpally, the members readily agreed despite the high cost involved."
Using motifs like the picturesque mountains and valleys of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, national birds of Pakistan and India, the partridge and peacock, the truck artists are painting the inside walls of the pandal to resemble a garishly decorated Pakistani truck.
Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, Haider Ali said, "We knew Diwali, but came to know about Durga Puja only after coming to Kolkata. We were told that Durga Mai will be seated inside the driver's cabin. We are trying to make the decor as eye catching as possible."
To get a better idea of India, Ali, who had earlier crossed the Wagah border once to decorate two trucks on the occasion of an India-Pakistan friendship meet, insisted on travelling by train from Amritsar to Kolkata, even though Nabinpally was ready to fly them down.
The Pakistanis then insisted on taking the drab looking trams from Howrah station. "If allowed, we could paint the trams as well," Ali chuckled. Overwhelmed by the city's hospitality, Ali and his team have requested the organisers to get their 30-day visa extended so that they can witness the fruits of their labour, when crowds, as they have heard, would pour out on the streets during the four-day festival and visit their truck-pandal.
"We are soaking up the over-mohabbat (love) right now, sweetened further by rosogollas," said a beaming Ali.
Explaining the genesis of his art, Ali said that it all began in the early 1960s when Bedford trucks started arriving in Pakistan through Karachi and the port city quickly became the hub of truck art. Themes depended on vehicle owners and varied from province to province, but each one of them had to be unique. Rattling off popular themes favoured by truck owners, Ali said, "For Punjab's Mohari, it is the Taj Mahal, Minar-e-Pakistan for Lahore, camels and dates for Quetta, and roses and sceneries in Karachi. Political families, Pakistani actors and villains and Sufi saints are also much sought after."
Ali and his team had decorated trucks for Luton's Disney Centre Museum at the invitation of UK's South Asian community, shipped a bedecked vehicle for Washington's Silk Road festival and presented their art at Canada's Royal Ontario Museum.
Nabinpally committee members are clearly upbeat, with its president Shib Shanker Moitra saying, "We have done themes ranging from various aspects of Santhal art to Ayurveda medicines in the past with the help of consultants. This latest idea is an extraordinary experiment and we are very optimistic."
Karachi truck artists bring Pakistan to Kolkata
Marshmallow
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Aka123
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@Marshmallow... I have seen live photos of Haider bhai decorating the pandal in Kolkata. It's simply amazing!! I could have shared some photos here but I am not sure, how to upload photos from system. Hence unable to do that.
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Marshmallow
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you can ask anyone from the mods on the process of uploading pics here....wud like to see them for sure!
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Aka123
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A team of Pakistani truck artists have decorated the Nabin Pally Durga Puja pandal, tucked away in one of the narrow lanes of north Kolkata, with their phool-patti paintings in styles from Karachi, Peshawar and Rawalpindi.
Truck-art veneration: Maa Durga on phool patti – The Express Tribune
Spring Onion
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KOLKATA:
For long, Bengal has had a direct link with Pakistan — the Grand Trunk Road that connects Howrah with Peshawar. The “road connection” has only got stronger with Karachi’s truck artists bringing to life a Durga Puja pandal (a makeshift structure set up to venerate a god) in Kolkata this autumn.
A team of Pakistani truck artists have decorated the Nabin Pally Durga Puja pandal, tucked away in one of the narrow lanes of north Kolkata, with their phool-patti paintings in styles from Karachi, Peshawar and Rawalpindi. A phantasmagoria of images, their work is a riot of colours and motifs of trees, flowers, leaves and birds — all the objects that a truck driver is likely to encounter — and geometric shapes.
Tension along the border has escalated and the premiers of Pakistan and India would not see eye to eye when they met at the United Nations. But Pakistani artist Haider Ali and his teammates Mumtaaz Ahmed and Muhammad Iqbal have been blurring the lines of sarhad (border) and mazhab (religion) with their paintbrushes in this “city of joy” over the past five weeks.
The structure of the pandal has been made to make the visitors feel like they are standing inside the cargo hold of a long and empty truck. The truck-art painting is done on the interior and the taj (the front portion of a typical Pakistani truck that juts out at an angle) is flipped to face the visitors and adorns the top of the ‘sanctum sanctorum’. Goddess Durga with her family of gods and goddesses, made of copper and brass by Kolkata artist Gopal Poddar, are placed there.
Typically, the festival begins on Saptami, the seventh day of Navratri observed all over India through nine days. However, nowadays in Bengal the festivities have been extended with a “soft-beginning” on Panchami and Sashthi (the fifth and sixth days).
Sashthi, the sixth day of the month, falls today (Thursday), but there’s a steady stream of visitors already on Wednesday.
With work finally over, the artists in their shalwar kameezes relax in the antechamber of the pandal. The wait is now for the river of humanity to flow into the pandal.
“Cha khaben?” Haider Ali asks in Bengali, offering tea to visitors. “It’s been great fun. The people are nice, so are the rasgullas,” he adds in Urdu. Kolkata biryani was a bit of a dampener—“not as spicy as ours.”
When they crossed Wagah borders, the internationally acclaimed truck artists from Karachi had little idea about Durga Puja. “We’d heard of Diwali but had no clue of Durga Puja,” says Ali. “We were thinking, we’d be painting a truck. Pandal was a pleasant surprise,” says the artist whose truck-art have been showcased in the US, Canada and Europe.
Celebrated in autumn every year, Durga Puja is the biggest festival in Bengal and one of the biggest in Asia. The festival celebrates the victory of Goddess Durga over buffalo demon Mahishasura—of good over evil.
Durga idols are worshipped in the pandals. On the tenth day of Vijavadashami, or Dusshera, they are taken around in a procession and immersed in water bodies in a ritual called Bisarjan.
Despite the religious nature of the festival, the Durga Puja is more a cultural melting pot, with five days of revelries—food, music, new clothes, cultural events and addas, animated discussions that Bengalis are known for.
The main draw, however, is pandal-hopping. Hundreds of people, in brand new clothes, flock from one place to another to check out the idols and the pandal work put together by artists and craftsmen. Some Kolkata pandals see as many as three to four million footfalls in those five-six days. Leg-ache assumes epidemic proportions with extended waits in queues and long marches on off-traffic roads.
Kolkata alone has more than 3,000 community Durga pujas, apart from many bari (household) pujas. Needless to say, general life comes to a standstill.
Every year, Puja organisers in Kolkata line up new themes— terrorism, cricket, cinema et al. Art-styles and materials used are wide ranging— pandals made of bhad (earthen cups used to drink tea, also called kulhars), leaves, jute, hay, wood, tiles, clay and just about anything—bringing together wood-carvers, painters, and craftsmen.
This year, while French and Bengali artists are collaborating to put together a theme of 100 years of Bollywood in one pandal, visual artist Sanatan Dinda is working on the theme of ananda (joy) in another.
“Our theme this year is India-Pakistan friendship,” says Jayanta Chaudhuri, vice-president of Nabin Pally Puja Committee. “We had heard about Pakistan’s truck art and contacted the artists almost a year ago. We want people in large numbers to come and see their work and develop fond feelings for our neighbour,” he adds.
“The common people want peace and friendship. It’s only the politicians who love spreading hatred,” says Ali. For a resident of Garden in Karachi, crossing the border is also a homecoming of sorts. His father Muhammad Sardar, from whom he learnt truck art as a child, had migrated with his family from Jalandhar, India, during Partition.
Would he like to come back? “Oh yes, I want to paint the Kolkata trams.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 10th, 2013.
For long, Bengal has had a direct link with Pakistan — the Grand Trunk Road that connects Howrah with Peshawar. The “road connection” has only got stronger with Karachi’s truck artists bringing to life a Durga Puja pandal (a makeshift structure set up to venerate a god) in Kolkata this autumn.
A team of Pakistani truck artists have decorated the Nabin Pally Durga Puja pandal, tucked away in one of the narrow lanes of north Kolkata, with their phool-patti paintings in styles from Karachi, Peshawar and Rawalpindi. A phantasmagoria of images, their work is a riot of colours and motifs of trees, flowers, leaves and birds — all the objects that a truck driver is likely to encounter — and geometric shapes.
Tension along the border has escalated and the premiers of Pakistan and India would not see eye to eye when they met at the United Nations. But Pakistani artist Haider Ali and his teammates Mumtaaz Ahmed and Muhammad Iqbal have been blurring the lines of sarhad (border) and mazhab (religion) with their paintbrushes in this “city of joy” over the past five weeks.
The structure of the pandal has been made to make the visitors feel like they are standing inside the cargo hold of a long and empty truck. The truck-art painting is done on the interior and the taj (the front portion of a typical Pakistani truck that juts out at an angle) is flipped to face the visitors and adorns the top of the ‘sanctum sanctorum’. Goddess Durga with her family of gods and goddesses, made of copper and brass by Kolkata artist Gopal Poddar, are placed there.
Typically, the festival begins on Saptami, the seventh day of Navratri observed all over India through nine days. However, nowadays in Bengal the festivities have been extended with a “soft-beginning” on Panchami and Sashthi (the fifth and sixth days).
Sashthi, the sixth day of the month, falls today (Thursday), but there’s a steady stream of visitors already on Wednesday.
With work finally over, the artists in their shalwar kameezes relax in the antechamber of the pandal. The wait is now for the river of humanity to flow into the pandal.
“Cha khaben?” Haider Ali asks in Bengali, offering tea to visitors. “It’s been great fun. The people are nice, so are the rasgullas,” he adds in Urdu. Kolkata biryani was a bit of a dampener—“not as spicy as ours.”
When they crossed Wagah borders, the internationally acclaimed truck artists from Karachi had little idea about Durga Puja. “We’d heard of Diwali but had no clue of Durga Puja,” says Ali. “We were thinking, we’d be painting a truck. Pandal was a pleasant surprise,” says the artist whose truck-art have been showcased in the US, Canada and Europe.
Celebrated in autumn every year, Durga Puja is the biggest festival in Bengal and one of the biggest in Asia. The festival celebrates the victory of Goddess Durga over buffalo demon Mahishasura—of good over evil.
Durga idols are worshipped in the pandals. On the tenth day of Vijavadashami, or Dusshera, they are taken around in a procession and immersed in water bodies in a ritual called Bisarjan.
Despite the religious nature of the festival, the Durga Puja is more a cultural melting pot, with five days of revelries—food, music, new clothes, cultural events and addas, animated discussions that Bengalis are known for.
The main draw, however, is pandal-hopping. Hundreds of people, in brand new clothes, flock from one place to another to check out the idols and the pandal work put together by artists and craftsmen. Some Kolkata pandals see as many as three to four million footfalls in those five-six days. Leg-ache assumes epidemic proportions with extended waits in queues and long marches on off-traffic roads.
Kolkata alone has more than 3,000 community Durga pujas, apart from many bari (household) pujas. Needless to say, general life comes to a standstill.
Every year, Puja organisers in Kolkata line up new themes— terrorism, cricket, cinema et al. Art-styles and materials used are wide ranging— pandals made of bhad (earthen cups used to drink tea, also called kulhars), leaves, jute, hay, wood, tiles, clay and just about anything—bringing together wood-carvers, painters, and craftsmen.
This year, while French and Bengali artists are collaborating to put together a theme of 100 years of Bollywood in one pandal, visual artist Sanatan Dinda is working on the theme of ananda (joy) in another.
“Our theme this year is India-Pakistan friendship,” says Jayanta Chaudhuri, vice-president of Nabin Pally Puja Committee. “We had heard about Pakistan’s truck art and contacted the artists almost a year ago. We want people in large numbers to come and see their work and develop fond feelings for our neighbour,” he adds.
“The common people want peace and friendship. It’s only the politicians who love spreading hatred,” says Ali. For a resident of Garden in Karachi, crossing the border is also a homecoming of sorts. His father Muhammad Sardar, from whom he learnt truck art as a child, had migrated with his family from Jalandhar, India, during Partition.
Would he like to come back? “Oh yes, I want to paint the Kolkata trams.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 10th, 2013.
doremon
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i love indian art hooligans atleast they dont go on bomb people they hate
Aaah i grew up watching these trucks honking all over the highways of Karachi-Pakistan.
all these vehicles are good for looks but they are aerodynamic bad like the 3rd pic this will lead to more fuel usage if they ever drive these vehicles
qamar1990
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Truth Finder
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Happy Durga Puja to all.
qamar1990
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well, we also do. truck art in Kerala where body is built in local workshops along with specialist artists. however does not over do the painting. Mangalore/Bombay trucks are decorated too.
portrayed "St.George" :
Curly Traveller: Kerala Truck Art
artnlight: Kerala truck graphics
https://www.google.co.in/search?q=Kerala+Truck+art
lmao lol looks ***.
third eye
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The driver's view is obstructed by all that is in front of the windshield.
Dont the traffic cops object , it must violate laws.
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