The cultural activities are in full swing as the end of the year approaches. The bright, sunny weather is persisting despite met office forecast of rains after the December 20th.
The classical concert 'Trio Quark' that was organised by Alliance Franchise took place at the Serena Hotel. It was sponsored by Serena Hotel and Spedidam. It featured Richard Malblanc Schweizer on the piano. The Trio Quark played the works of Beethoven, Brahms, Zemlinsky, Bartok, Stravinsky, Messiaen, and Takemitsu.
Christmas brings a feeling of togetherness, sharing and loving. The festivities of Christmas are more visible than ever in the Capital due to a prominent presence of foreigners that have come to Pakistan for the relief efforts. The magical Christmas tree, exchange of gifts and the delicious Christmas cake are some of forget-me-nots of Christmas.
In connection with Christmas celebrations, the Citizen's Peace Committee held a Peace Vigil for the children of the French Colony. For the past few years, CPC has been actively involved in organising special Christmas events for children of the French. The art work of the children was displayed and gifts distributed amongst them. However the venue for the gathering had to be changed as the Jubilee Park in F-7 is being developed for a mini golf club. Therefore the event was organised on the footpath right opposite Kitchen Cuisine.
There was a protest against the leasing of public land to private commercial concerns by the CDA.
This is seen to be a repeated phenomenon as football ground in F6 was the first incident which was occupied for several weeks by a restaurant, endangering the lives of little children of that area by being forced to play on the streets and roads.
All theme parks in western societies are deliberately constructed at a distance from the city centre to avoid traffic congestion but this particular mini golf club is being constructed in one of the most frequented spaces of Islamabad.
There was an exhibition of photographs titled "Blooms" by Rashid Mahmood at the Alliance Franchise Gallery.
The exhibition was inaugurated by Kamran Lashari, the CDA chairman. Approximately seventy photographs were put on display.
Rashid is the Chief Engineer for Agence France-Presse (AFP), one of the biggest news agencies in the world, and has been with the company since 1990.
He said that he had his first camera, a Yashica, which he bought when he was 13 with savings from his pocket money and that photography has been one of his favourite hobbies since then. He has spent many hours learning latest photographic techniques on the net.
The took his first professional shoot in mid 2004, where his objective was to capture nature as it undergoes changes continuously and capture the beauty of it forever.
One of his favourite subjects is flowers which are nature's most beautiful gifts to this universe that are directly relative to the feelings of people. Four of his pictures of flowers are among six that have been selected for the 2006 calendar of the Fauji Fertiliser Company (FFC). He has also done fashion photography and is planning an exhibition on the series of portraits of people of Pakistan.
PAGE partner, Sarhad Rural Support Programme (SRSP), held an Artisans Mela in which the items produced by the people of Peshawar, Abbottabad, Manshera and Haripur districts were displayed.
It was a well attended affair as it took place over the weekend.