Joy of Urdu brings its first bilingual book of stories

The cover of Three Stories From Gulistan-e-Saadi. — Joy of Urdu

A bilingual book, Three Stories From Gulistan-e-Saadi, for children and adults will be launched today (Sunday) by Joy of Urdu — a volunteer-run, bilingual organisation working to promote Urdu language and literature.

With the launch of the book, the women-led initiative will conduct a soft launch of their publication company, which is scheduled to be held online today at 7pm Pakistan time via Zoom, as part of their 10-year anniversary celebration.

The publication is the fruit of the Joy of Urdu's many years of work by a dedicated team of volunteers, advised by experts in the field.

The book has been proofread and approved by Dr Arfa, and the organisation's team of advisors including educationists and socio-linguistic experts, while the illustrations for it were specially commissioned original miniature paintings by acclaimed contemporary artist, Shah Abdullah Alamee, which were composed and painted especially for the book.

Pages from the Three Stories From Gulistan-e-Saadi. — Joy of Urdu

Through its publication initiative, Joy of Urdu aims to produce books with an international level of high production quality and age-appropriate content and vocabulary. The books for adults on art and culture will, similarly, be bilingual and will target Pakistani adults and students as well as the diaspora.

The first aforementioned book, under the banner of Joy of Urdu, has been edited by Zarminae Ansari and contains a foreword by Dr Arfa Sayeda Zehra, its bilingual translation team comprises Aleem Zubair, Kazim M Saeed and Zarminae Ansari.

The volunteers and coordinators steering Joy of Urdu include Kami Kidwai, Muzna Malik and Zahra Ali, while its advisors and patrons comprise Ambassador Attiya Mahmood, Bee Gul, Beena Sarwar, Kerem Durdag, Moneeza Hashmi, Naazish Ataullah, Qasim Jafri and Ruby Haider.

"Joy of Urdu’s first book is a bilingual retelling of three stories from the Gulistan-e-Saadi, one of the great works of world literature and a centuries-old wellspring of character-building stories for children," a statement read.

Explaining the intent behind choosing the stories of Gulistan-e-Saadi, the Joy of Urdu stated: "In these times of cultural drift, the great classics of our own civilisation provide the best guidance for our next generation: hence our choice of three ‘hikayat’ (fables) from the Gulistan-e-Saadi illustrated in Mughal miniature style."

It added that these "wisdom tales" were traditionally used to transmit cultural values and etiquettes to children.

"Urdu is not just a language, but a 'Tehzeeb' or civilisation, and traditionally this book was a foundation for learning. We hope it will be a foundation for learning Urdu by providing an alternative to Urdu pedagogy and perception: how the language is taught and perceived."

The curated discussions and storytelling sessions by Joy of Urdu are targeted to different demographics, age groups, and proficiency levels. Our list of distinguished advisors and patrons can be found in the attached information sheets.