A Taste of Pakistan: Hospitality, History… and Truck Art
Seven days in Pakistan is not enough to know the country, but at least we’ve become acquainted. Visiting the Trust’s charity partners—Developments in Literacy (DIL) and LRBT—took me to cities and villages in the Punjab and Sindh provinces. I travelled from the heart of South Asia’s largest slum to remote rural areas where women wash clothes in rivers and cow dung is dried for fuel.
Right from the very start, no matter where I went, unprecedented hospitality prevailed. Pakistan is famous for it. Warm welcomes are swiftly followed by refreshments. Pakistani people cannot do enough for their guests. From charity headquarters in the cities to rural community centres built by local villagers, hospitality flows.
No more so than in the home in Lahore of my Pakistani colleague Rabia Nusrat whose family ‘adopted’ me for a week. Proud of what their country has to offer, the Nusrat family made sure I experienced it with homemade meals showcasing Pakistani cuisine, and by making me a part of their daily lives which included celebrating a birthday and an engagement.
I was humbled by an unexpected show of hospitality during a stop at the majestic turquoise-tiled shrine of Sufi poet Hazrat Sachal Sarmast in the Khairpur region, home to 16 DIL schools. Sufis travel to the tomb of this famous poet who wrote of love and humanity to show their appreciation for good fortune like marriage, childbirth or good health.
“You have come from so far away. We have so much love in our hearts for you,” said the matriarch of a group of women pilgrims, instantly dispelling my apprehension about being a ‘foreigner’ in such a Holy place. Their warmth generated an immediate friendship that crossed borders, religions and ways of life. It was a tender and touching gesture that I will never forget.”
As the journey continued, I shared the road with another speciality of Pakistan—‘truck art.’ Truck, bus and even rickshaw drivers transform their vehicles into vibrant rolling art. Pakistani truck art is about cultural history and tradition, storytelling and passion. These moving metal canvasses parade their owner’s lives; political, national and religious motifs; and trinkets and talismans. The UK’s closest equivalent–narrow boat art—pales into insignificance next to Pakistan’s gaudy, but gorgeous vehicles that glitter and jingle along the highways
Truck art, emerging in the 1920s by transport companies competing for passengers, is a recent cultural phenomenon in Pakistan. But glimpses of the mighty Indus River as we visited our project partners across the country reminded me that civilization started right here—on the site of present-day Pakistan.
The Indus River valley is the largest and most enduring civilization in human history and the genesis of South Asian culture. During my week-long quest to capture our charity partners’ work in case studies and photographs, I could feel the impact of Pakistan’s past and present… and I was inspired by the determination of our partners to forge a promising future through education and health.
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