Coffee Table book reflecting ‘spirit of Spain’ unveiled at Spanish embassy
Zubair Qureshi
Ambassador of Spain, Manuel Duran Gimenz-Rico, Wednesday evening, invited the guests gathered at the Spanish embassy to visit Spain through a 330-page coffee table book ‘A Walk Through Spain’ and enjoy the mesmerizing pictures in it taken by Ammar Haider Zaidi, a professional photographer who travelled to the country back in October 2019 and captured its historical sites, monuments and popular tourist places in his camera.
A galaxy of guests including Federal Ministers Fawwad Chaudhry, Azam Swati, Shibli Faraz, Hammad Azhar, Khusro Bakhtiar, Ali Haider Zaidi (elder brother of Ammar Zaidi), former SAPM Zulfi Bukhari, Chief Operating Officer JS Bank, Imran H Shaikh, Financial Advisor JS Bank, Manoucheher Munawar Siddiqui, bankers, members of civil society, artists and diplomats attended the event. The mother of the Zaidi brothers had also graced the book-unveiling ceremony.
‘A Walk Through Spain’ is unique in the sense that the pictures of the buildings and places carry the well-writ captions introducing them in a brief but comprehensive way.
The credit for the textual introduction goes to Mawish Moulvi, another young, literary person who was the focus of the attention of the audience and was showered praises for her creative input.
Ambassador Manuel said the captivating pictures and the beautiful quotations in the book made it a must-read & see work and he recommended the guests to buy it.
In the wake of the post-Covid-19 tourism, the book will serve as an ideal appetizer for those intending to visit Spain as annually 82 million people visit the country which boasts of 59 UNESCO heritage sites, said the ambassador adding the embassy though missed the National Day of Spain (Oct 12).
However, through the launch of the book, it tried to make up for that and hoped as the pandemic was receding there would be many more occasions to meet and greet.
The Spanish ambassador recalled how he came across Ammar Haider Zaidi who discussed with him the project to introduce Paris and its landmarks to the Pakistani people.
Later, the mission was accomplished with the joint support of the Spanish embassy and the JS Bank.
While thanking the Embassy of Spain and the JS Bank, Ammar Zaidi said it was a dream come true. He also paid compliments to his co-author Mawish for bearing with him.
She, though, did not travel to Spain but picked exactly what he wanted to say about a particular picture and then penned it down according to the idea, he said.
