Pakistani artist paints truck as Eid gift to India

Haider Ali has given several lectures on truck art in various universities around the world.

AMRITSAR:

Pakistan’s famed artist Haider Ali painted an Indian truck on Saturday in an effort to spread the message of peace and friendship.

The artist was in Amritsar at the invitation of his Indian friend Aman who owns a restaurant ‘Sarhad’. Ali said he used Pakistani colours to paint the Indian truck to propagate peace between the two neighbours.

Interacting with media persons here, Ali, who is on a ten-day visit to India, said, “I wanted to exhibit my art here in India, our neighbouring country, that I love the most. Today I got the opportunity and I am very happy to use my art on the Indian truck.”

He said the truck painting was the perfect gift to his Indian friend on the eve of Eid.

“I should be with my family in Pakistan on Eid. But I am not feeling away from home as India looks like home to me,” said Ali, whose father Mohammad Sardar too was a painter by profession and hailed from Jalandhar.

His paintings include the depiction of women making Lassi, birds that are found both in India and Pakistan, and traditional art forms, showcasing traditional Punjabi lifestyle.

It takes three members of a team to paint a small truck while a big truck takes about 15 days to paint, depending on the work, says Ali.

Singling out unemployment as the common problem faced by India and Pakistan, the Karachi-based artist suggested promotion of truck painting to offer employment opportunities to people.

Ali, who has given several lectures on truck art in various universities around the world, expressed the desire to educate Indian students and professionals who want to learn truck art.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2012.