Boy draws his way to Toyota City

 By Phares Mutembei

Khushil Nagda’s drawing talent is taking him places. The Standard Five pupil at Nairobi’s Oshwal Academy loves to draw -— especially cars and wildlife.
“My biggest hobby is drawing because it is a lot of fun,” he says.

Khushil Nagda at the Toyota Headquarters in Toyota City where he got to meet the President of Toyota Motor Corporation and interract with different aspects of the car manufacturer’s operations.  [PHOTOS: COURTESY /STANDARD]

Khushil, ten, was at his drawing best when he participated in the fifth Toyota Dream Car Art Contest, and won. In the competition, children from all over the world were required to imagine how they wanted the car of the future to look like and draw it.
After winning the Kenyan competition, organised by Toyota East Africa, with The Standard Group as a media partner, Khushil participated in the World Contest.

He was the only winner from Africa among the 30 children who flew to Japan last month to receive their prizes at Toyota headquarters in Toyota City, Japan.

“I was given my prize by the president of Toyota Motor Corporation Mr Akio Toyoda,” he enthused.
“We toured the Toyota Kaikan Museum. We saw how the different parts of the cars are joined to become a vehicle ready to be driven. It is a very busy factory and we saw people and robots making the cars. The robots do the welding and painting,” Khushil said.

 “We saw types of Toyota cars that they are planning to make. Many others have not arrived in Kenya yet, like the electric cars. They are called hybrid because the electric cars also can use gas and petrol!” explains Khushil.

The trip was an eye opener for the ten-year-old.

“I had a lot of fun in Japan because I met many children from all over the world,” he says.

“I also learned a lot about the history of the Toyota Company. The Toyoda family started the company many years ago. At the prize-giving ceremony, I talked to the president of Toyota. I asked him to start a car assembly factory in Kenya and he smiled,” Khushil told Generation Next.

Khushil’s dream to be an automobile engineer was fired up and he even got a chance to talk to workers who design the cars.  His mother accompanied him to Japan.

 “My mother and I stayed at Westin Nagoya Castle Hotel in Nagoya City. It is a very clean city with very tall buildings everywhere. KICC is very short compared to buildings in Nagoya,” he says.

Last year Khushi also won a drawing competition organised by European Union and was presented with the prize in Brussels, Belgium, the headquarters of the European Union.