Shahzadi in Paris
Monday, 17 September 2012
Readers at Light Within remember when a French doctor started Art on Wheels tour to promote a better image of Pakistan. Well, Foxy Shahzadi (a 1974 Volkswagen Beetle painted with unique Pakistani truck art) landed in Paris in November last year after covering a total distance of 5400 miles (approximately 8000 odd km) during the course of a month.
On the morning of her arrival in Paris, Shahzadi drove around Champs Elysees followed by a warm reception by family and friends. Following this personal, rather touching reception Shahzadi was also taken to the Embassy of Pakistan in France where the tour team met with the Ambassador of Pakistan to France, Mr. Shafkat Saeed and other members of the Embassy. As it was all across the distance that it covered from Islamabad to Paris - Shahzadi was appreciated and loved by the people of Paris.
During the course of this journey, the Art on Wheels Tour team felt that they were successful in achieving the objectives that they had set for themselves. They got ample opportunities to talk about Pakistan, make people across all 6 countries aware of the cultural and artistic potential of Pakistan as well as the fact that just like all the beautiful countries that the tour drove across, Pakistan too is a beautiful country with a past, a present and a prosperous future.
The Art on Wheels tour was sponsored by corporate Pakistan. Organizations that understood and supported the spirit of this journey include LMKR, Trans World Associates (Pvt) Ltd, Gadoon Textile Mills Ltd (GTML), TOTAL Parco Pakistan Limited (TPPL), Mobilink, Kings Group Apparel Industries (Pvt) Ltd and TPL Direct Insurance Ltd. Media support was given by Dawn News TV (exclusive TV media partners) and CityFM89 (exclusive radio media partners). The Art on Wheels tour and Foxy Shahzadi also enjoy the support of NGO(s) such as The Citizens Foundation, Behbud, Acid Survivor Foundation and Cure2Children Foundation.
With the same enthusiasm as seen at Behbud School at Saidpur village near Islamabad in Pakistan, children from the Fontaine School in Asnieres sur Seine near Paris met Foxy Shahzadi on December 11, 2009. The children (between 3 to 9) appreciated the car and were very keen on asking questions about where it came from, who made it and who Quaid-e-Azam and Allama Muhammad Iqbal are?. "Trop belle la voiture" (what a beautiful car") they said.
{Thanks Art on Wheels}
{Thanks Art on Wheels}
posted by S A J Shirazi @ Monday, September 17, 2012,
1 Comments:
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At 18:10,
Kausar Bilal said...
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Simply Awesome! A beautiful topic, very inspirational content and encouraging picture! Thanks for such an amazing article.
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