visit to Haran Minar

Interestingly visited Haran Minar for the first time in early September with visiting friends from US. It was a muggy hot day. 

Had a golf buggy ride from the parking. These rides were available at Minar I Pakistan too to the Fort and around.  Charges are reasonable and kind of a guided tour.  Anyway it was a great disappointment to see haran Minar in decay and completely closed. Toured the outside area around, nice garden and fountains.

Bata Shoes Museum

At “Bata shoes Museum “ Toronto! 

Abidarahmani@yahoo.com 

The name Bata shoes reminds me the famous,comfortable and an affordable shoe brand for us back in Pakistan. 

In Canada or North America there’s no Bata shoes store however there’s this fabulous museum that provides us almost whole history of shoes!

How a Personal Passion Grew Into An Internationally Acclaimed Collection

 

Sonja Bata’s involvement in the global shoe industry enabled her to build one of the world’s finest collections and to create North America’s foremost shoe museum. Within our stunning building lies a wealth of fashion lore and invaluable information.

Shoes are an indication of personal taste and style. Yet shoes can also tell us much about the world’s technological development, and can mark shifts in society’s attitudes and values. Footwear illustrates entire ways of life, reflecting climate, religious beliefs and the development of trades, and how attitudes to gender and social status changed through the ages.

In 1979, when Mrs. Bata’s private collection had outgrown its home, the Bata family established the Bata Shoe Museum Foundation. Over the years the Foundation funded fieldwork to collect and research footwear in communities where traditions are changing rapidly – notably North America’s Indigenous cultures and circumpolar groups in Canada, Siberia, Alaska and Greenland. These field studies have resulted in many academic publications for the Foundation, from The Typology of Native Footwear to Spirit of Siberia: Traditional Native Life, Clothing and Footwear.

The main objective of the Foundation, however, was to establish an international centre for footwear research. The result was the Bata Shoe Museum, with its unrivalled collection of over 14 000 shoes and related objects.

On May 6, 1995, the Bata Shoe Museum opened its doors at 327 Bloor Street West in downtown Toronto, in an iconic building designed by Moriyama and Teshima Architects. As a unique, world-class specialized museum, it has become a major destination point for visitors and residents alike.