Peshwar's truck art to adorn city puja pandal

Come this Durga Puja, art work of famous 'truck' artists from Pakistan's Peshwar will be on display at one of the puja pandals in the city.
Three artists, Haider Ali, Muhammad Iqbal and Mumtaz Ahmed are busy decorating a pandal at Hatibagan in north Kolkata and are recreating the popular truck art of Peshwar in Pakistan.
Truck art, which is also known as moving art, is about decorating trucks with hand-drawn floral patterns and lines of Urdu poetry using objects like plastic and metals.
Portraits of national heroes and religious verses also figure in the painstaking decoration.
Haider Ali, one of the three artists, told PTI that exchange of culture would help develop peaceful relation between the two nations.

"We wish that exchange of culture between the nations will one day ease bilateral tension. I dream of a day when there will be a free border for common people. Diplomacy or politics should not dampen the spirit of people from both sides," Ali observed.

Speaking on the form of truck art, Ali said time taken to put in place the art work, depends on the size of the truck being decorated and the art, which is very popular in Pakistan, varies in style from region to region.
"It is also very expensive. It takes about Rs 12 lakh to decorate a large truck and about 8 lakh to decorate a small one," Ali said in between his work.

However, cost of decorating the Puja marquee is much less as Ali has agreed to do the job at a lower rate.
Organiser of the Nabin Pally Puja at Hatibagan, Gopal Poddar said, "Though the cost has not been calculated till now, Ali has agreed to do the job at lower rate than demanded back home."
Visiting the city for the first time, Ali also wants to decorate the trams of Kolkata.
"When I first entered Kolkata crossing the Howrah Bridge, I saw the trams which are not nicely decorated. If given a chance, I would decorate them in the fashion of truck art," Ali said adding that he was overwhelmed by the love and affection of the people in Kolkata.