LAHORE: Novelist and translator Musharraf Ali Farooqi has launched an online Urdu word game, www.hijjay.com, on the pattern of word scramble.

As a user logs on the game by googling hijjay.com, it shows six Urdu letters from which the user has to make 20 words to cross the first level. Each word has to have at least three letters.

The words keep adding to the list below the scramble until one completes the list of 20 words. A click on any word leads to the dictionary of the Urdu Lughat Board, which gives its meanings and usage.

The users find a new set of letters everyday and each set makes around 47 words from the vocabulary reservoir of about 46,000 words. New words are added to the reservoir on a daily basis by a team of three people, including Farooqi himself.

The reservoir of words keeps changing as does the challenge of letters on a daily basis. The familiar words of English which have become a part of spoken Urdu, like service and rent, are also added to the vocabulary.

New words can be suggested by the user also by clicking a link given in the information section.

“Many people tell me that their children play the game and learn Urdu language. Many Pakistani expats have also found the game interesting as it can be played anywhere where one finds leisure time,” says Farooqi while talking to Dawn.

He says the game leads to the dictionary of Urdu Lughat Board but in the near future, it would be linked to a new digital dictionary he is working on. The new dictionary will have idioms, proverbs, synonyms/antonyms, singular/plural forms of words as well as couplets (Ashaa’r), he explains. There will be apps for the game as well as the dictionary.

“Another development that we are working on is the children’s version of the game, which would have graded vocabulary for different grades. The children will be able to opt for their grade according to their own level.”

Farooqi says the objective of the game is to make Urdu language interesting and attractive for the younger generations and Internet users. He reveals that he first thought of the project in 2009. However, there was no platform to complete it and he worked on it intermittently.

“There is a business aspect of the project, it can be turned into eBooks and a dictionary can be integrated into that.”

Farooqi says that in the future, hijjay may turn into a network game. There would be additions of the story as well but its modifications have not been decided yet.

Farooqi did all the work on the project on his own and he wants to keep the app as well as the online game ad-free, saying that the ads mostly put the users off. However, he would welcome any sponsors if he can get any.

The game was launched in October this year and it’s being used worldwide wherever Urdu speakers are living. There are about 10,000 users across the world, according to Farooqi. He developed the game with the help of Awais Athar, the technical adviser of storykit.com, a company run by Farooqi.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2022