October 17, 2004

THE Book Group’s textbook for children in class 4, Khattay Meethay Falsay, has an array of colours and lures you into the kaleidoscopic world of children. Adults may deem it improper to pick up a children’s book to read. But this book full of anecdotes, stories and rhymes should tempt them to treat it as an exceptional case. For this is a kind of book which lets you unwind and sends you down memory lane to the days of childhood when absurdity in life somehow held more meaning.

Also Abhi Batao, Jaldi Batao, a funny short book of 14 pages, is a fun read that doesn’t say much, which to me is the beauty of it. For I get quite tired reading out to my kids stories with unwavering morals. Sometimes absurdity teaches something unbeknownst to you. That is also the beauty of life. For instance, “Abhi batao, jaldi batao, kya whale ban ker ghoomo gay aur samandar main gaao gay; ya kekra ban ker gehray samandar mein ghar banao gay,” may not make sense to me but children cheer up instantly when this is read out to them.

Absurdity also releases creative juices producing a work of art. Khattay Meethay Falsay is an amalgam of soft and hard topics made mild and less intense. Stories, like “Chand mein suraj ka rang bhar diya” for example, unlock the imagination and make children wonder whether something as impossible as this could really happen; while other stories like “Ammi jab kehti hein” is a nice little heart-to-heart tete-a-tete as to what to construe when mothers speak their pet words. Yet some stories like “Khattay angoor” are the usual ones that every child has had his brimming fill of. “Ching Cho aur Hamza Kamal” discusses the elaborate family tree with an assortment of family members we have around us.

With fun and absurdity are also morsels of information in geography and science. Children learn about things like “Pehla Jahaaz”, “Pathay” and “Payyay” only sketchily until they study them at length in their respective course of study. Information on how the aeroplane was first made or how big some animals are, or how the wheel was invented is packaged with enticing illustrations and a splash of colours to let the child just indulge in it.

Publishing Urdu books with such exhilaration for children is indeed a commendable job, which is crucial for our children. As research has proved, children who grow up in the comfort of their own language are much more confident than the confused lot that we are producing in the name of bi-lingualism.

 

Khattay Meethay Falsay

Stories and Poems by Amira Alam, Atiya Naqvi, Farah Furrukh, Seemi Kamal, Rukhshi Niazi, Sofia Umar, Kashifa Samad, Zeeshan Waheed

Illustrations by Shirin Saeed, Mehreen Zuberi, Naila Ahmad, Farah Furrukh

ISBN 969 8556 85 0

67pp. Rs150

 

Abhi Batao, Jaldi Batao

By Fatimah Qazilbash

Illustrations by Farah Furrukh

ISBN 969 8556 91 5

14pp. Rs35

Book Group, 187/ 2-C, Block 2, PECHS, Karachi

Tel: 021-4310641, 4538221

Email: info@bookgroup.org.pk

Website: bookgroup.org.pk

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