Fatema Tambawala dissertation

Transcription

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Reinventing of Urdu Nursery Rhymes and Stories
through Digital medium for Children
By
Fatema Tambawala
Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture
2013
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Reinventing of Urdu Nursery Rhymes and Stories through Digital medium
for Children
By
Fatema Tambawala
This Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
BACHELOR OF COMMUNICATION DESIGN, from Indus Valley School of Art and
Architecture.
Internal Advisor : Hassan bin Hassan
Mahrooh Haider
Gemma Sharpe
Arshad Farooqui
External Advisor :
DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION DESIGN
INDUS VALLEY SCHOOL OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE
KARACHI PAKISTAN
2013
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‘Would having animations and interactive smartphone applications of
Urdu nursery rhymes and stories, could increase and interest amongst
children in this generation?’
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Abstract
This dissertation examines the importance of Nursery rhymes and stories for young
minds, and how it can help preserve a tradition, culture and language. By observig a child’s
needs and interest in today’s generation how can we come up with ideas and new and
improved mediums for them to be encouraged and respect our Urdu language and Culture
through Urdu nursery rhymes and stories. As from now children are more drawn towards
cartoons like Doremon, Dora the Explorer and many other cartoon, which teach their own
native or local cultural to children sub consciously. The research was carried out through
interviews, participant observation, site visits and analysis to achieve in depth insights of
what actually is the problem and what have been and can be done about it. The dissertation
challenges that there are new upcoming animations and smartphone applications done for
Early Education for children in Urdu. But not many people are aware of their efforts and their
emergence due to various reasons and problems that this research paper discusses in depth
and have come up with a different opinion.
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Acknowledgement
I would sincerely like to thank my teachers Macros Ali, Gemma Sharpe and Hassan bin
Hassan for guiding me throughout my dissertation. Their patience and support motivated me
and made this dissertation possible.
Also, I would like to specially thank Rumana Hussain, Zahra Mumtaz, Aiyaz Kidwai and
Numair Abbas who were so generous with their insight on this matter.
Lastly, I would like to thank my family specially my mother, without whose patience and
support, writing this dissertation would have been a tedious task.
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Contents
1. Introduction
1-3
2. Literature Review
2.1. Language
4-5
2.2. Importance of Nursery rhymes and Stories
6-8
2.3. Evolution of books to animation
8-14
2.4. Smartphone applications
14-18
3. Research Methodology
19-21
4. Findings and Analysis
4.1. Language, Culture and Teaching of Urdu
22-29
4.2. Digitalising Urdu traditional rhymes and stories for children
30-35
5. Conclusion
36-37
6. Bibliography
38-42
7. Appendices
7.1. Interview of Rumana Hussain
43-51
7.2. Interview of Zahra Mumtaz
52-57
7.3. Interview of Aiyaz Kidwai
58-61
7.4. Interview of Numair Abbas
62-67
7.5. Participant Observation
68-69
7.6. Animation Seminar by Game Loop
69
7.7. Capitalism Seminar by Tariq Amin Khan
70
7.8. A site visit to Turkey
71
7.9. Smartphone Applications screenshots
72-74
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Introduction
Ever wondered, that the language and culture that we have been taught or learned from
our environment and society are basically a progressive manner of what we have learned in
our childhood. Our basics of language and culture are what make us stronger when we grow
up.1 Now noticing in our generation with all the social media and animation that interests
children more than books and are mostly influenced by west, makes it harder for them to
learn the basics of Urdu language and culture. This could be referred to as cultural pedagogy,
as the power is organized and deployed through libraries, television, internet, magazines etc.2
For example these days children are more interested in watching Doremon, a Japanese
cartoon (which is dubbed in Hindi), Dora the Explorer, Blue’s Clues, Baby TV (which has all
the animations of classic English nursery rhymes), Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon and the
new Hindi cartoon ‘Chota Beem’. These cartoons and children’s educational programs are
more influential of their own culture and language by which Pakistani children are exposed to
very much.
We had ‘Sim Sim Hamara hai’, an Urdu version of Sesmae Street, which taught children
the Pakistani culture and language through skits, song segments and had Pakistani celebrity
appearances. As Sesame Street is more of a Puppetry show which can also be called another
form of animation where unnatural characters appear and act. Through financial resources the
1
Carl J. Dunst. Diana Meter, and Debora W. Hamby. "Relationship Between Young Children’s Nursery Rhyme
Experiences and Knowledge and Phonological and Print-Related Abilities." Center of Early Literacy Learning
4.1 (2011): 1. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.
<http://www.google.com.pk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CC0QFjAA&url=http%3
A%2F%2Fwww.earlyliteracylearning.org%2Fcellreviews%2Fcellreviews_v4_n1.pdf&ei=UEP8UKKZCYu4hA
e4g4Fo&usg=AFQjCNHoU2fM_lVJQENmpe_l3XFpNCtXA&sig2=zExp2OFD7j73VtzBV6lv6Q&bvm=bv.41248874,d.d2k>.
Sadlier-Oxford. (2000). Nursery rhymes and phonemic awareness (Professional Development Series, Vol. 3).
New York, NY: Author. Zuralski, A. (2005). The fascination of nursery rhymes. Duisburg, Germany: University
of Duisburg-Essen.
2
G.S. Cannella, & Kincheloe, J.L. (Eds.). (2002). Kidworld: Childhood studies, global perspectives and
education. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc.
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Urdu version of Sesame Street didn’t stay for long3 to see the results of how many children
were attracted to the show and how they could have learned their beloved Pakistani culture
and traditions and moral values in their society. By which it is believed that this is lacking a
lot in our generation as may be the children are more encouraged in watching Western
cartoons or reading English illustrated books or reciting English nursery rhymes to be
admitted into a good school. May be the schools are encouraging children to concentrate on
English as it is a Universal language and will be needed more in their life than Urdu. The
other reason could be that a child’s mother tongue isn’t really Urdu but Gujrati, Sindhi,
Pushto, Punjabi or Balochi. May be Urdu has become secondary for them and is not being
concentrated much as they might not be speaking a lot other than going to a shop and
bargaining with a shop keeper or just going to buy a packet of chips. This way Urdu is not
being more learned or practiced or encouraged in writing or debating.
The research would be based on about what would happen if we reinvent those classic
children’s Urdu stories and poems in animation and new digital medium could encourage
children to be interested in learning Urdu. Also keeping up with technology and the media, as
how fast it is going with new inventions and interest,4 that could help preserve Urdu a
nation’s language which feels like dying in Pakistan and not being cared about.
The research would be conducted through the history of children’s Urdu books which
were being illustrated and how they were made compulsory in schools specially preschools,
then how they are dying out ( meaning not being read by children much) as there is media
and new mediums of education for children which are much more interesting. There will a
3
Fasih Ahmed Shah,Benazir. "Pakistan Loses Urdu-Language Sesame Street." The Daily Beast.
Newsweek/Daily Beast, 18 June 2012. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.
4
L. Arthur (2005). Popular culture: Views of parents and educator. In marsh (Ed), Popular culture, new media
and digital literacy in early childhood (pp.165-182). New York: RoutledgeFalmer.
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thourough research on if there are any other companies or organizations looking into this
problem and if they are doing something about it?
The hypothesis of this research is that, the reasons that Urdu is not being encouraged
amongst children are because parents are encouraging children to be more proactive with
English as they will be going abroad to live there. Other reasons are that Urdu isn’t really a
mother tongue for most children5 and the language they speak at home is different and in
school are more efficient with English, that Urdu might be getting crushed between them. On
the other hand that teachers and parents cannot teach Urdu language as it is not being
reproduced in new mediums that interest children more and could encourage them.
5
Shafqat Tanvir Mirza. "What about Children`s Literature?" DAWN.COM. Dawn.com, 16 Oct. 2010. Web. 19
Nov. 2012. <http://dawn.com/2010/10/16/what-about-children-s-literature/>.
Published in Dawn newspaper
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Literature Review
Language
In this section I would like to talk about the diversity of languages we have in Pakistan
and the effect that has created on people living in this country.
An article was printed in Dawn on 24th April 2012, ‘More, better Urdu literature for
children urged’ written by Shazia Hasan. The article has discussed about an event that was
held on Urdu literature and many well-known scholars and educationist had attended this talk
called ‘Kitab: meri Humdum, Meri Dost’ and a couple of interviews were conducted
regarding what these guest thought about our Urdu literature in this generation.6
The article noted about a novelist, Nadeem who was from Quetta and he loved writing
especially Urdu literature. While he said that he started reading classics not from very young
age than what he was supposed to because Urdu was not his mother tongue and the
obtainability of Urdu books lacked in his native province Baluchistan. This brings me to
another point of this article that was published in Dawn newspaper on 18th August 2011,
‘What about Children’s literature?’ by Shafqat Tanvir Mirza. The author talked about how
there are more Punjabi speaking students enrolled in Punjab University than Urdu speaking.7
Moreover the article talked about students preferring Punjabi language more than the Urdu
language. Furthermore the author believed that the Punjabi should be introduced as one of the
official languages in the universities on demands of the students, likewise the article goes on
talking about making Urdu the second official language in the universities and also in high
6
Shazia Hassan. "More, Better Urdu Literature for Children Urged." DAWN.COM. Dawn.com, 24 Apr. 2012.
Web. 19 Nov. 2012. <http://dawn.com/2012/04/24/more-better-urdu-literature-for-children-urged/>.
7
Shazia Hassan. “More, Better Urdu Literature for Children Urged.” Dawn.com, 24 Apr. 2012.
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schools.8 The article added in about cities like Ganga Jamuna Doaba have folk literature,
particularly folk songs in Punjabi and other native languages but Urdu is the only language
which has no folk tradition.9 On the other hand the article talked about Indus Valley and their
treasurers of folklore which are best for children but they are all in different languages but
Urdu. 10
With the article we have to agree that Urdu is not mother tongue language for everyone in
Pakistan and that they prefer to talk to in their own native language than Urdu. But we also
have to believe that Urdu was introduced or chosen as Pakistan’s official language only for
people with different mother tongues to communicate in one language.11 People of Pakistan
speak different languages as the provinces changes the language changes, Sindhi, Pashto,
Punjabi etc. what we should believe is that Urdu was introduced to bring a unity between
these diverse language and cultures and traditions.12 Also we have to agree that their mother
tongues also should be practiced as they hold history and culture and tradition too. But then
again we need to keep Urdu as a cohesive language too as it is one of our nations beloved
language which brings together everyone as it is a mixture of multiple languages.
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11
Fahim Patel. "Role of Urdu In National Integration." Guesspapers.net. Guesspapers.net, 9 July 2010. Web. 19
Nov. 2012. <http://www.guesspapers.net/1826/role-of-urdu-in-national-integration/>.
After Independence Quaid-e-Azam said in clear cut words that the National language of Pakistan would be
Urdu.He said: “Let me make it clear that the national language of Pakistan is going to be Urdu and no other
language.Without one state language no nation can remain tied up solidity together”.
12
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Importance of Nursery rhymes and Stories
In here I would like to talk about why we should give importance of Urdu nursery rhymes
and stories to children and what advantage we can get from it.
Reading is an intricate work, where it is still not clearly acknowledged, exactly how we
do it or we learn it.13 Nursery rhymes help children in language development, cognitive
development,14 physical development and social/emotional development. A study was
conducted by Bryant, Bradley, Maclean and Crossland, on how one of the exercises of
spoken language could lead to learning to recognize and use of sounds that can effect on
learning to read. Thus their study looked at how nursery rhymes encourage the development
of spoken and written language. Furthermore the research revealed a couple of points on
children’s learning, one specific point that I would like to elaborate is, children chose to listen
to nursery rhymes from a very young age.15 In my opinion after reading about the study,
there was a point of realization that children chose nursery rhymes because rhyming words
make sort of a song, where children would do actions accordingly by which they
subconsciously learned something out of it. In conclusion to the findings of the study
suggested that informal learning of nursery rhymes by children at a very young age has an
effect on their language skills.16 Thus if we assume, that the results of the study works on all
children whether living in America or China, we can encourage children living in Pakistan to
13
P,E. Bryant, Bradley L., Maclean M., and Crossland J. "All the King's Horses and All the King's Men...,
Nursery Rhymes, Phonological Skills and Reading. Journal of Child Language (1989), 16, Pp 407-428."
Introducing Psychological Research. 2nd ed. New York: PALGRAVE, 2000. p403.
14
Definition: Cognitive Development is the process of acquiring intelligence and increasingly advanced thought
and problem-solving ability from infancy to adulthood.
15
P,E. Bryant, Bradley L., Maclean M., and Crossland J. "All the King's Horses and All the King's Men...,
Nursery Rhymes, Phonological Skills and Reading. Journal of Child Language” p 403
16
P, E. Bryant, Bradley L., Maclean M., and Crossland J. "All the King's Horses and All the King's Men...,
Nursery Rhymes, Phonological Skills and Reading. Journal of Child Language” p 405
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give equal focus and importance on Urdu nursery rhymes and stories, we could help them
learn reading, writing and speaking of Urdu language more thoroughly . Then subconsciously
in the later stage of their lives these nursery rhymes would be originators and bases of later
literacy and language abilities.17 In my opinion if we assume these results could work on any
child, then it could be a fact to consider upon.
Additionally, Seth Lerer an expert in the history of children’s literature has said that
nursery rhymes preserve a culture.18 By this he meant that traditionally the nursery rhymes
are passed down through generations, from grandparents to parents to children. In which I
presume that a sense of belonging and traditions are passed down through generations which
are to be learned, practiced and taught. Moreover I can say that if Urdu nursery rhymes that
are more related to Pakistani culture and practices that are taught and given importance to
children of Pakistan, we can say that we might be preserving the culture and heritage of
Pakistan intact. As Alderman said that this could be done only if parents are teachers then and
teach children through orally since birth.19 As research has shown that children learn the most
and preserve their knowledge are in the first eight years of their lives.20 Considering this we
17
Carl J. Dunst, Diana Meter, and Debora W. Hamby. "Relationship Between Young Children’s Nursery
Rhyme Experiences and Knowledge and Phonological and Print-Related Abilities."
18
Michael, Sizer. "The Surprising Meaning and Benefits of Nursery Rhymes." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 20 Jan.
2013. <http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/reading-language/reading-tips/the-surprising-meaning-andbenefits-of-nursery-rhymes/>.
Michael Sizer is an Assistant History Professor in the Department of Humanistic Studies at the Maryland
Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore, MD. He puzzles over nursery rhymes while reading them to his
daughters every night
19
Unknown. "Rhymers Are Readers: The Importance of Nursery Rhymes." © 2010 KBYU Eleven. All Rights
Reserved. This Document May Be Downloaded and Copied for Non-commercial Home or Educational Use.
Ready To Learn®; View, Read & Do®; and Learning Triangle ® Are Registered Trademarks of the Public
Broadcasting Service Corporation. (n.d.): n. pag.p3
Http://www.kbyutv.org/kidsandfamily/readytolearn/file.axd?file=2011%2F3%2F2+Rhymers+are+ReadersWhy+Important.pdf. Unknown. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.
[Alderman, K., & Alderman, D. Why nursery rhymes? Retrieved from
www.dannyandkim.com/WhyNurseryRhymes.html]
20
Unknown. "Rhymers Are Readers: The Importance of Nursery Rhymes.p3
Monro, F. (Senior Speech-Language Pathologist). Nursery rhymes, songs and early language development.
Interior Health Authority.
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can add that if we focus on persuading children in learning, understanding and creating
interest of Urdu nursery rhymes and stories they might be better readers and writers of Urdu
language and be proud of their Pakistani culture in their later age.
On the other hand some countries like England, a study was done on parents, on how
much they remember their nursery rhymes and the results showed that comparatively they
knew more than less than they should be.21 Furthermore the study suggested that the reason
for this was the new trend of pop culture and songs were the most songs and tones they could
recall more. I cannot say these results could imply on Pakistani parents as a lot of factors
differ in the research but I can talk on fact that the influence of media and modern culture is
not only here in Western world but also in Pakistan and they too are coming up with new
culture and identity than what they had in the past throughout their generation.
Evolution of books to animation
An article ‘ Three decades later’ by a children’s Urdu stories illustrator, Rumana Husain,
published in May 2010 issue of the monthly Himal South Asian magazine, published from
Nepal.22 The article talked about how the oral traditions of storytelling from grandparents to
parents to children were told. And how children’s literature written in book form has recently
emerged comparing with other countries’ children’s literature. As Paul Hazard said ‘England
21
Laura Clark. "Why Nursery Rhymes Are in Danger of Dying out." Mail Online. N.p., 14 Jan. 2009. Web. 20
Jan. 2013. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-467070/Why-nursery-rhymes-danger-dying-out.html>.
22
Rumana Husain. "Thre Deacdes Later." Www.karachiwali.blogspot.com/. Www.karachiwali.blogspot.com/,
21 June 2010. Web. 20 Nov. 2012. <http://karachiwali.blogspot.com/2010/06/following-article-was-publishedin-may.html>.
the article was published in the May 2010 issue of the monthly Himal Southasian magazine, published from
Nepal.
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could reconstruct entirely from its children’s books’.23
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Furthermore the article talked about
the publishing of Urdu weekly magazine in Lahore that contributed to Children’s literature
before the partition. After the partition of the Sub Continent, Hamdard Naunehal was
published in 1953. Then later on Ferozons a publishing house came into being. Moreover,
the article talked about the Alif Laila Book Bus Society (ALBBS) which was commenced by
Basarat Kazim an educationist which was aimed of providing meaningful education to
children. But ALBBS lacked in good illustrations that could interest children, instead it
failed. In addition in our time of our childhood we were given good illustrated children’s
Urdu story books that were very interesting as they were colorful, showed movement and
were fun to read for instance the ‘Chacha Chahkan’ stories and the ‘Jalebi’ story. These
stories were well illustrated. But then again in our childhood time we did not really have
animated cartoons which were more culture related.
The article further talked about the invasion of foreign books that came into Pakistan
from China, Russia and India which were all translated in to Urdu but the impact it had with
children were the good quality illustrations and the content was something that were in
children’s interests. Likewise, the author argues about how the characters of these books were
alien to these Pakistani young readers as they were not familiar with their culture or
environment. Which we can all agree with, that translating foreign books into Urdu language
could encourage children to adapt foreign country’s culture, environment and would want
their kind of society around them. The other thing that the author talked about was that, from
which we can all agree is, the children love to read something which has images and
illustrations and that they can more relate to, specially animations where moving colourful
23
Rauf Parek. "Masood Ahmed Barkati — Committed to Children`s Literature." Editorial. Dawn [Karachi] 20
June 2011: n. pag. DAWN.COM. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. <http://dawn.com/2011/06/20/masood-ahmed-barkaticommitted-to-childrens-literature/>.
“ENGLAND could be reconstructed entirely from its children`s books”, wrote Paul Hazard. But Henry Steele
Commager found “truth in the statement as well as exaggeration”. Commager, in his intro to `
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images can attract them more, this is where I can use Vygotsky’s theory about encouraging
teachers and parents to help children by giving them a tool of interest to the particular field of
education.24 Over here I can assume that the tool could be anything from acting out a nursery
rhyme to showing images or moving images in this case animation. In an agreement with
Husain is that, yes the Urdu literature for children were emerging but also they were dying
too as comparatively these local children’s books were nothing in front of these imported
good quality books of foreign countries that had their own culture related moral stories and
environment.25 But more recently I believe are western influence of the media and technology
that has emerged, has drastically changed in children’s moods and interests from books.
Husain talked about children being interested in moving objects and sounds and
animations, a study was conducted by Chee Ho Lum26 where he talked about home musical
environment for children in Singapore. He concluded that children’s engagement in play was
in some ways affected consciously ( for example breaking away from the unusual sounds that
come from television that they are attracted towards) and unconsciously humming tunes just
heard from the television.27 Then he mentioned that funny voices and unusual or sudden
effects in cartoons attracted the attention of three to five year olds.28 Over here we can say
that as in our generations children are very much exposed to television a lot and that too we
24
Kevin Davis "Adapting to Differences in Cognitive and Linguistic Development." Education Psycology:
Developing Learners. Ed. Kevin M. Davis. 2nd ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995. 89. Print.
Vyotsky, I,S. (1962). 'Thought and Language' (E. Haufmann & G. Vakar, Eds and Trans). Cambridge: MIT
Press.
25
Rumana Husain. "Thre Deacdes Later." Www.karachiwali.blogspot.com/.
26
Chee Hoo Lum. "Home Musical Environment of Children in Singapore: On Globalization, Technology, and
Media." Journal of Research in Music Education 56.2 (2008): 101-17. Sage Publications, Inc. on Behalf of
MENC: The National Association for Music Education Stable. Web. 7 Oct. 2012.
<http://http://www.jstor.org/stable/40343718>.
27
Media."
28
Media."
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do not realize much because as television has become a part of our culture too, it is there in
our daily lives and we use it every day without a fail. What we do not realize is that children
too are using television to watch without a fail and might be picking up tunes or hums or
some acts that they might have seen in television which is not appropriate or maybe that is
related to some other country’s religion or culture that we do not practice. This draws a line
for children who need to be shown or taught those classic Urdu nursery rhymes or
educational songs in their age where their basics could get stronger. We can believe that this
is the point that draws the line where children can be influenced by and be more encouraged
to by picking something up from foreign culture than reciting our Urdu poems and children’s
stories which has no moving images or sounds to go with.29
In addition to what we talked about foreign books coming to Pakistan and being
translated into Urdu and their culture were shared amongst Pakistani children who read these
books became a problem as Pakistan’s own culture was beginning to get lost amongst
children then. In the study that was conducted by Chee Ho Lum,30 he observed that most
children were engaged in watching cartoons and children’s programs on daily basis. And in
these daily basis cartoons were traced to American, Japanese, Australian and British
sources.31 These cartoons might have been dubbed into multiple languages or may be all of
them are in English. So that can mean that children were getting more associated with
English language, may be with different culture like for instance a Japanese culture. We can
all believe a confusion of identity and individuality can be concerned here. At such a young
29
Media."
30
Media."
31
Media."
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age children can pick anything to what they are exposed to that can create a problem in later
life for instance the dying Urdu language and culture in the context here.
A study indicated that early exposure to age appropriate programs that were designed
around an educations learning can give better learning experience for a child in cognitive
development than a violent programs which shows a poor cognitive development.32 Here we
can assume and support the argument about why and how children can be influenced by
western culture and language and can be so little know about their own culture and heritage.
Moreover Rumana Husain has written a blog about this small and emerging group called
Toffee TV.33 Their aim is to make Urdu nursery rhymes and stories fun by acting out. This
brings us to talk about social cognitive theory where psychologists proposed that people can
acquire new ways of behaving simply by watching and imitating the responses that others
make.34 The idea is progressive by modelling, another perspective of learning and observing.
By which we can assume that it is a better and longitudinal learning for children at this age
and they are more open to mind and grasp whatever they talk.35
In addition Husain talked about Toffee TV on creating 2D animations of Urdu nursery
rhymes and stories that depict our local culture and heritage.36 Which I believe is a big step in
32
Heather L., Ellen A, Wartella, and Daniel R. Anderson. "Media and Young Children's Learning." JSTOR.
Princeton University, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. P2
Source: The Future of Children, Vol. 18, No. 1, Children and Electronic Media (Spring, 2008),
33
Rumana, Husain. "Have Your Toffee and Eat It Too." KARACHIWALI. N.p., 8 July 2012. Web. 20 Jan.
2013.
Published in The News on Sunday on July 8, 2012: http://jang.com.pk/thenews/jul2012-weekly/nos-08-072012/enc.htm#3
34
N.E. Miller & Dollard "Usin Multiple Perspectives of Learning." Education Psycology: Developing Learners.
Ed. Kevin M. Davis. 2nd ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1995. 207. Print.
N,E,Miller & Dollard, J,C (1941). ,Social Learning and imitation'. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
35
Unknown. "Rhymers Are Readers: The Importance of Nursery Rhymes.p3
36
Rumana, Husain. "Have Your Toffee and Eat It Too." KARACHIWALI
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doing this as local culture related animations are hard to produce considering there are low
budgets or people don’t want to take risks in such investments.
To support my argument, I would like to give an example of ‘Sim Sim Hamara Hai’ a
version of Seasme Street but it was designed in Urdu and Pakistani culture related, it did not
do well when it first started and was promptly shut in couple of months due to some finance
problems.37
The other reason I would like to elaborate is that in Pakistan there have been couple of
animation companies that have been emerging in the market38 but are all working for the
international clients due to cheap labour and big investments in Pakistani animation
companies.39 Whereas I would like to talk about Numerical Studios who have made a
Pakistani culture related animated series called ‘Apartment Complex’ but they have been
looking for investors and sponsors and producers for about past two years to make it an
official television series.40
37
Fasih Ahmed Shah,Benazir. "Pakistan Loses Urdu-Language Sesame Street."
38
Saad Afridi. "Animation Industry of Pakistan." Scribd. Unknown, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. P22
<http://www.scribd.com/doc/57594976/Animation-Industry-of-Pakistan>.
39
Saad Afridi. "Animation Industry of Pakistan."
40
Unknown. "To Infinity and beyond – Part I: Numairo Uno." DAWNCOM To Infinity and beyond Part I
Numairo Uno Comments. Spider Magazine, 24 Jan. 2012. Web. 20 Jan. 2013. <http://dawn.com/2012/01/24/toinfinity-and-beyond-part-i-numairo-uno/>.
Q. Tell us more about the untitled animated sitcom Numerical Studios is currently working on. A. The show has
a name; it’s The Apartment Complex. [The concept behind The Apartment Complex is that] we need to be able
to make fun of ourselves, at least before other people do! This show is a chance to laugh at all those things on
which we say “this happens only in Pakistan”. When you watch the show, you’ll see that in the stories. The
Apartment Complex itself is a metaphor for our country, and all the tenants are the people who live here. We are
now looking for media investors who would like to collaborate with us to promote and distribute this fantastic
first-of-its-kind show.
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On the same note I would also like to talk about interactive smartphone applications that
are emerging in the market quickly.41 Thus in my opinion it is also becoming an attraction
and new toy for little children who are constantly playing with it. In addition cell phone
companies for instance Mobilink have been encouraging Pakistani people to take their
workshops on learning to develop smartphone applications42 that can be sold internationally.
The question arises that why these well emerged companies like Sharp Image, Ice
Animations and Mindstorms do not look in to making games and applications that are more
Pakistani culture related promote it nationally and internationally and have some pride in
their culture. The problem is that the investors and creators do not see profit or market
emergence in this sort of applications and they are more directed towards world audience
than just Pakistani audience.43
Smartphone Applications
In this section I would like to talk about the blog, magazines and online magazines
reviews I have come across of these two apps ‘Duddoo Aur Dhobi’ by Jugnoo Media and
‘Toffee TV’.
‘Duddoo Aur Dhobi’ is a nursery rhyme smartphone application designed for children
between the ages of one to three years old, for South Asian people (Pakistanis and Indians). 44
‘Duddoo Aur Dhobi’ is a fun and interactive way of engaging children with Urdu classic
Nursery rhymes. In each frame of their app they are able to hold a toddler’s attention with its
41
Unknown. "Mobile Game Development in Pakistan: An Interview with Umair Javed, CEO of TkXel."
TechLahore RSS. Innovation, SW Industry, Telecom, 1 Feb. 2010. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.
42
Unknown. "Mobilink Reaches out to Mobile Game Developers." Technology Article And Science News For
Pakistani Scientists. Technology Times, 22 May 2012. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.
43
44
Saad Afridi. "Animation Industry of Pakistan."
Rabia Hassan. "Duddoo Aur Dhobi – Urdu/Hindi App for Kids." Fuchsia. Fuchsia, n.d. Web. Apr.-May 2013.
<http://fuchsia.com.sg/?p=1326>.
Tamba| 15
engaging music and interactive illustrations.45 The article further talked about the limitations
of the smartphone application. For instance the flexibility of moving in and out of the
sequence of the application, limited to teaching counting from one to ten in Urdu (not much
variety for children to learn after a while), and the application is only in spoken Urdu/Hindi
and not written.46 While the article gave four stars to the ‘Duddoo Aur Dhobi’ App and a
strong recommendation for readers to download the app on Apple app store.
The article further noted the reviews of parents both negative and positive, like Saadia
Aqeel said,
“My son likes animals, so it really appealed to him… When it actually comes to counting
numbers, he has not managed to follow it through, maybe because that portion comes at the
very end, and he gets a little distracted by too much happening in that frame. The counting of
clothes does seem very pronounced and is not repeated… Since children have a short
attention span, the visuals of the learning content, whether numbers or alphabets, should be
bigger and more colourful. Even more repetition would be better.”47
While Shazia Habib said,
“Initially I felt that the application had too much happening in it. Every tree, rabbit, butterfly
could be tapped on, and I felt it might just be another fun activity for my child, minus the
learning. However, it has been a week now and my son has not only played with Duddoo Aur
45
Rabia Hassan. "Duddoo Aur Dhobi – Urdu/Hindi App for Kids." Fuchsia. Fuchsia, n.d. Web. Apr.-May 2013
46
47
Tamba| 16
Dhobi an umpteen number of times, but surprisingly he has caught on to the counting from 110 in Urdu!... ”48
In Jehan Ara’s blog, she posted a quote made by Sadia Khaan who is the COO of
Autosoft Dynamics and she quoted that
‘…I give it top marks on engaging kids. Both of my kids for the first time in a long while
want to play with the same app. I have even caught myself unwittingly humming the duddoo
and dhobi song – …’49
Furthermore Jehan Ara explained in her blog why Jugnoo Media was named Jugnoo.
Jugnoo is an Urdu word for firefly. Traditionally when the creators of the Jugnoo Media were
children, they used to catch fireflies and used them as light indicators in small jars, sort of a
hobby for them and more culturally in the streets of Lahore.50 But after the constructions of
buildings and roads the fireflies have been extinct thus to keep the memory of their childhood
they kept the name Jugnoo. Jehan Ara ended her blog by the reference of globalisation and
culture which said, ‘Local culture, heritage and languages are on the defensive; being
squeezed out by the massive global culture which emphasizes cultural homogenity at the
expense of cultural diversity. It tends to be more material than spiritual and is devoid of local
context.’51
While in Tribune article, it quoted some facts from one of the founders of Jugnoo Media,
Zia Imran saying that ‘English nursery rhymes are easily available on all major platforms; it
48
49
50
Jehan Ara. "In the Line of Wire." Web log post. In the Line of Wire. Wordpress, 21 Feb. 2013. Web. Apr.May 2013. <http://jehanara.wordpress.com/2013/02/21/jugnoo-media-launches-duddoo-aur-dhobi-an-app-forsouth-asian-toddlers/>.
51
Jehan Ara. "In the Line of Wire." Web log post. In the Line of Wire. Wordpress, 21 Feb. 2013. Web. Apr.-May
2013.
Tamba| 17
is not as easy to find quality content in Urdu’ Furthermore Imran said to Tribune that the
price of one smartphone is decreasing from Rs.8000 to Rs.5000 in Pakistan’s market and
these is a more flexibility for people to afford a smartphone. Thus this leave to developers
with a bigger audience if they ever want to market a more culture related app. Additionally
the article quoted again of one of Imran sayings that, ‘If we don’t produce local language
content based on our stories and characters, we will not be able to preserve our tradition and
culture in the long run,’ Moreover article quoted Rabia Garib, one of the founders of Toffee
TV that, ‘Based on visitors stats on our website and our apps, there are more than 110
countries that frequently light our analytic map,’
On the other hand another of the Tribune blogs and articles talked about Toffee TV,
which is an online initiative based on promoting and encouraging the Urdu language and
culture through animated videos of traditional Urdu stories and poems.52 While in one of the
articles of Tribune they interviewed Rabia Garib the founder of Toffee TV. Garib came up
with the concept of Toffee TV after singing Urdu and English songs to her niece and
nephews and she could not find a good resource online for a child friendly website for Urdu
rhymes and songs.53 The article further noted that Garib wants more families to spend more
time with their children at the youngest age as possible and share Urdu stories and songs with
them. While Garib quoted, ‘There is just so much influence of other languages that it is easy
for children to quickly move far away from their roots. It’s time to bring them back.’54
52
Farooq Baloch. "Duddoo Aur Dhobi: New Mobile App Introduces Urdu Nursery Rhymes." The Express
Tribune Duddoo Aur Dhobi New Mobile App Introduces Urdu Nursery Rhymes Comments. Tribune, 27 Feb.
2013. Web. Apr.-May 2013. <http://tribune.com.pk/story/513072/localising-technology-new-mobile-appintroduces-urdu-nursery-rhymes/>.
53
2013. Web. Apr.-May 2013.
54
2013. Web. Apr.-May 2013.
Tamba| 18
Furthermore Garib gave another reason for Toffee TV’s initiative that, ‘Education doesn’t
seem to be fun for children. What they can absorb through songs and activities will never be
replicated through rote learning. Stories and fables are an integral part of any culture when it
comes to teaching morals and values but we seem to be pushing out very warped messages
through very heavy textbooks. Education begins at home and is supplemented in the
classroom. Teachers and parents are both at fault because they treat ‘learning’ as an incident
that only occurs in one location at one time.’55
55
2013. Web. Apr.-May 2013.
Tamba| 19
Research Methodology
To investigate what the current market for animations and the future Urdu language in our
country Pakistan. My research is based on Qualitative data. As I felt that I will be having
more room to talk about the possibilities and can formulate a new opinion out of the findings.
I interviewed Rumana Hussain, who is a well know author and illustrator in Pakistan. She
has published many books in Urdu for children and also illustrated them. She is one of the
members of the Children’s Literature Festival (CLF). She was able to give me inputs on rise
and fall of Urdu language and the problems the children are facing with teachers and parents.
Also she has been part of making Laddu, a character or a mascot for Pakistan which has been
designed by the charitable foundation called Butterfly Affects from Netherlands. Laddu is a
monkey, representing Pakistan culture and its inheritance of Pakistan for children through
books, songs, animations and toys.
In addition I interviewed Zahra Mumtaz an educationist and an author and illustrator of
children’s literature in Oxford University Press (OUP). She is famously known for her phonic
system of Urdu language all over Pakistan schools that use OUP books for their curriculum.
She was able to give me insights of what OUP has been planning to digitalise learning
material for children to keep up with the technology trend. She also gave out her views on
design and learning part for children, of other people who are working on turning Urdu
nursery rhymes and stories animated.
On the other hand I interview Aiyaz Kidwai, one of the founders Jugnoo Media, who
designed Duddoo Aur Dhobi smartphone application for children. He was able to give me
insights of the idea of the application was come and why. He was helpful to give me his
views of others applications that are found on Apple app store that were related to children’s
Tamba| 20
Urdu nursery rhymes and stories. He also told me the reasons they and other developers have
a problem making such applications for children of Pakistan.
Moreover I was able to interview Numair Abbas who is also an animator and a son of
Nigar Nazar (Pakistan’s well known cartoonist). Numair has his own animation company
called Numerical Studios, and he has been creating local animated TV series for past couple
of years which haven’t been on air yet. I was able to get insights on his new upcoming
projects and also this thought behind the Urdu Qaida animation he made in 2004 that won a
Pasha award.
To get some solid evidence on the teachings and how influence on a child is encouraged I
did a site visit to Nasra School which is a non-government public school. I observed their
school environment and the settings and took pictures.
I also attended, Tariq Amin Khan’s seminar on capitalism and culture diversity. Tariq
Amin Khan is a professor of politics and public administration at Ryerson University. He
made some points on culture dominations and illusions of choice that made me feel was
somewhat related to my topic when we have so many language and culture diversity alone in
Pakistan and the confusion that is created in young minds.
I also visited Turkey and was able grasp how people of Turkey see their language and
culture in contrast to what Pakistani people see in their language and culture. I was able to get
some pictures of signage, advertisement graffiti, etc. to give a solid ground for my argument
in contrasting language and culture diversities in Pakistan.
Moreover I was able to attend a seminar by an animation company called Game Loop. I
was able to observe what their target market was and why, when they create smartphone
Tamba| 21
applications. I was also able to question them of what they thought about creating something
local or culture related and was able to get a very diverse answer from them.
I did a participant observation of my two and a half year old nephew. By showing him
smartphone applications of Urdu rhymes and stories that were I found on Apple app store and
did a few days observation of which application attracted him more, which he felt was more
fun and he could relate to and which application hold his attention span the most.
To balance everything off, I did analysis of the smartphone applications that I found on
Apple app store. To analyse and contrast them with each other and see which has a better
content, which is well designed and user friendly especially for children and which
application is well illustrated. This is to an overall look of what people are going through and
improving as they are going along the way.
However, I had some limitations for instance, I didn’t have any proper academic papers
written on my particular topics specially about Pakistani children, so mostly my literature
review is based on articles and blogs by reliable sources. On the other had, if I tried to
conduct a primary research on children’s mind and interest could become very vast for my
topic and may take to me to a different direction. Likewise children think differently and their
interests and moods differ a lot from each other. So I have limited myself to just people who
write, illustrate or work for children and their learning, as they will be having a more
experience in talking about children and know what they want and need.
Tamba| 22
Findings and Analysis
Language, Culture and Teaching of Urdu
When I talked about how Urdu language and culture is dying and how children of today
are not being encouraged to talk or write in Urdu. I was faced with a suggestive look that
Urdu is not dying.
When I spoke to Rumana Hussain about language in Pakistan she said that in her time
there were many languages that were taught properly in schools as secondary languages and
not just Urdu. They were teaching Gujrati, Persian, Sindhi and many more.56 She pointed out
that whether you are in public school or in a prestigious private school, most children of
today are clueless about Urdu literature.57 From which I believe it’s true we have not read
Manto or Ismat or Ghulam Mustan and other great Urdu writers and poets, most of all I
cannot even recognise or tell the masters of Urdu literature. In contrast to Hussain’s statement
Zahra Mumtaz says that the biggest market in selling books in Pakistan is Urdu, regional and
mother tongue languages.58 When speaking to Mumtaz she pointed out that you need to learn
the basics to know what you are learning,59 like Hussain had mentioned that they were taught
Persian as an elective in many schools of Karachi because Persian is the root language of
Urdu, if you learn Persian well you will know the basics of learning Urdu.60 As Mumtaz says
56
Rumana Hussain interviewed 23rd March 2013 [Interview was conducted in person and was recorded and
transcribed]
57
Rumana Hussain interviewed 23rd March 2013
58
Zahra Mumtaz interviewed 28th March 2013 [ Interview was conducted in person and was recorded and
transcribed]
59
Zahra Mumtaz interviewed 28th March 2013
60
Tamba| 23
‘You have to lay stress on the basics as that is where you will be learning properly with a
meaning’.61 In this generation Urdu is only used in a conversation with your domestic staff.62
When in conversation with Hussain she made me realise that most of it is due to
upbringing of children. Which I believe it is true that many household families whether from
an elite family or a lower middle class family they speak in their regional or mother tongue
language. I myself speak in Gujrati at home as I was brought up like that, we don’t use
English or Urdu to communicate in my own home.
The attitude of parents and teachers towards children is important in bringing interests in
books, language and culture.63 Hussain blames the teaching of language whether it is English
or Urdu. For instance in government or Matric based schools in Karachi they teach Sindhi as
a compulsory part of the curriculum but children still do not know how to read and write
Sindhi after they are taught, which makes Hussain to comment, that it is shameful on teachers
that they are not teaching children what they need to learn.64 None of the languages are
taught well and you end up learning English because most of the books of the curriculum are
in English.65 I am also one of the victims of not learning Sindhi at all when it was compulsory
from grade three to five in Matric system. I barely could learn a sentence or recognise or
pronounce words and alphabets because my teachers didn’t show enthusiasm when teaching
us Sindhi.
61
Zahra Mumtaz interviewed 28th March 2013
62
63
64
65
Tamba| 24
Most of the teachers and parents complain that their children are not learning and they
end up blaming each other or worst blame the child for not learning. Which brings Hussain to
say about that the material and everything is given to children but how are the teachers and
parents are conveying it to them? How are they handling the situation to bring interest in
children?66
Hussain further pointed out that if you visit any school you will not see any posters or
something exciting in Urdu put up.67 Because of her comment I visited Nasra School, which
is a public non-government school and offers both Aga Khan Education system and Matric
system. And I noticed not a single poster or something which was in Urdu.
Figure 1 shows one of the corridors of Nasra School taken by me, and you can see that
the boards are filled with a lot of fun facts about animals and is colourful but overall looks
very Western influence and a lot less you can see a local culture related facts.68 Like the next
image which is Figure 2 is a diorama of the season winter and they have snowmans and
penguins and little cut-out of children wearing winter clothes. In my opinion people living in
Karachi do not experience snowfall and that is not how they depict winter as actually.69 And
generally all over the world in winter season Penguins and Polar Bears don’t come out they
are only found in South and North Pole only. So there are wrong facts depicted and not much
of culture influence you can see in this picture.
66
67
68
Photographed by me [Fatema Tambawala] mid of April 2013
69
Tamba| 25
Figure 1
Tamba| 26
While on the other hand you can see in
these three images. In Figure 3 you can see
that the classroom looks bright and delightful
but very Western influenced and see nothing
has something related in Urdu language.70
Figure 3
While in the same delightful classroom, in
Figure 4 you can see that, the teacher is
teaching Urdu on the blackboard in the
second image. With not very good hand
writing and looks boring the way she is
Figure 4
teaching.71
While the third picture (Figure 5) shows
the overall look of a classroom and you can
see it is very colourful and cheerful but not a
culturally influenced look that children could
actually relate to it and have some pride for
it. 72
Figure 5
70
71
72
Tamba| 27
I would also like to point out a little of what our country Pakistan, itself is not
encouraging in promoting their language, that is Urdu. If you step out on streets you will see
big billboards and signage and they are all written in English. You will hardly come across a
sign saying in Urdu or a billboard entirely written in Urdu. Even if the target markets are elite
people of Karachi it doesn’t really mean they are foreigners to the country and they can only
read in English. This is called culture domination73, where the capitalism as a system has
particular tendencies with respect to culture and identity. 74 By not encouraging Urdu in our
country we are portraying that Western culture professes to be modern, but the modernity that
is offered in linear and one dimensional.75
In addition to this, I visited Turkey and what I noticed was that people had a pride in
their Turkish language, Turkey is a very active country in tourism, but their language comes
first amongst all languages whether spoken or written. Turkey a country which lays in both
Asia and Europe, but the street signs to a restaurant menu cards to billboards and
advertisements they use their Turkish language and hardly will you come across a signpost
which is in English or an advertisement which is in English (as below you can see some
examples Figure 6, 7, 8, 9).76 Or hardly will you see people of Turkey who are serving you or
selling you, talk to you in English but rather sell it to you just by speaking Turkish. When I
asked the tour guide that most of the people living in Turkey where tourism is so popular why
do they not attempt or try to speak in English to communicate better, and he said that because
they have a pride in their language and they prefer talking in Turkish than try talking in
English. For instance the employees of the Prestige Hotel that we were staying in, none could
73
Tariq Amin Khan (Ryerson University) spoke in Seminar 31st November 2012 [ points were noted down]
74
Tariq Amin Khan (Ryerson University) spoke in Seminar 31st November 2012
75
Tariq Amin Khan (Ryerson University) spoke in Seminar 31st November 2012
76
Photographed by me [Fatema Tambawala] in Turkey, end of May 2013
Tamba| 28
speak in English but rather I used to talk to them in sign languages to at least get my point or
needs across them or I had to call an interpreter to translate what I am saying. In support of
this I would like to add Hussain’s point that language has its own politics and the politics
informs you and how we bring attitude towards a language.77
Figure 7
Figure 6
77
Tamba| 29
Moreover Hussain pointed out that you will not come across a single person speak in a
single sentence without mixing it with other language like you won’t see someone saying
‘Khattak’ which means gate in Urdu. 78 In my opinion Hussain made a strong point that we
won’t see anyone around speaking proper English or proper Urdu we always end up mixing
both. In my case I end up mixing three languages which are Urdu, English and Gujrati and I
might also end up making words for a description. On the other hand Mumtaz pointed out
that Americans have awful writing, she said that their spellings are lousy and their sentence
construction, their grammar, if you compare to other countries like Europe and UK they are
far behind.79 What she really was talking about was the slang language they have created in
their culture like write ‘ur’ and not ‘your’ or ‘u’ and not ‘you’. She then pointed out that you
should learn correct first and then look for shortcuts because children are learning from
shortcuts and how will they end up knowing the correct information or the meaning behind
what they have learned.80 Mumtaz called this surface learning which has no depth.81
But coming back to Urdu and a little contrast of what Hussain said that it is okay if the
Urdu words are conversing but then it means Urdu language is alive.82 If you try to pure it
too much then the language would die just like Gujrati or Latin. 83 Basically she said that it is
okay that Urdu spellings and words are evolving because then only people would keep on
passing on, or else if you keep it as old as before they might just leave it behind.
78
Rumana Hussain interviewed 23rd March 2013.
79
Zahra Mumtaz interviewed 28th March 2013.
80
81
82
83
Tamba| 30
Digitalising Urdu traditional rhymes and stories for children
Coming back to the teaching part, Zahra Mumtaz is an author and illustrator of Urdu
language books especially for children. She said that her books are the first ones to be
produced digitally with sounds and visuals for teachers and children to know the right way to
teach and learn through Oxford University Press of Pakistan. She believed that when teaching
basics to children, first comes the sound then, comes the shape and then form of that
particular sound and then comes the writing bit.84 Supporting this Numair Abbas had design
Urdu Qaida an interactive animation on CD which won a Pasha award in 2004, said that the
only reason he designed this animation was to help children learn Urdu Qaida in a fun way
with colours and sound.85 Because he himself had trouble remembering the order of Urdu
Qaida but then he realised a lot of people, mainly his friends also did have problems. I myself
have a problem remembering Urdu alphabets correctly in order because I never got a proper
chance to apply it somewhere or I did not learn it open heartedly because it was not
interesting for me.
84
85
Numair Abbas Interviewed 13th April 2013 [interview was conducted through email, recorded].
Tamba| 31
Toffee TV is a company recently launched in
Karachi last year focusing on animated videos of
Urdu rhymes and stories for children and they have
been going around schools and places to perform
small performances for children (Figure 10).86 Which
I think is a great step towards keeping children
involved in learning and reciting and just having fun
with their songs. When asked Hussain about their
project and purpose she said that Toffee TV are
doing a tremendous job and they are actually
reaching out to children specially today’s children
Figure 10
who don’t speak Urdu or has anything to do with Urdu is suddenly drawn towards it.87 On
the other hand Mumtaz’s views were not so pleasing; she said that Toffee TV could be more
aesthetic or child friendly.88 Her statement confused me as Toffee TV had animated songs
and stories and a delightful treat for children to be attracted towards. She said that the
illustration of the animation should be perfect in a sense that a child needs softness,
roundness in order to feel confident and familiar, angular and pointy things could hurt and a
child would avoid it.89 For instance a child needs friendly shapes like a teddy bear or a bunny
or a balloon. She said that the comfort of a child’s capability is child centred; see it through
86
iPhone screenshot by me [Fatema Tambawala] mid of March 2013
87
88
89
Tamba| 32
child’s point of view.90 Furthermore she said that Toffee TV do not have a proper rhyming or
the right kind of music and very noisy and not comforting.91 Which I think she might be right
in her point of view but the response of children towards this project has been tremendous
and they are actually interested in listening to their songs and watching animations on iPad or
online.
Similarly, Aiyaz Kidwai also commented that Toffee TV may be doing a good job
specially their concept and content is amazing.92 But he said that their animation and the way
voices are recoded are very under processed.93 Which made me think too because when I was
going through Toffee TV’s animated songs and stories their animations and the illustrations
were not that great. For instance they had an animated song about a fish and they have done a
stop motion by making origami paper fish, but my two n a half year old nephew had a
problem recognising it as a fish and refused to believe it was wish. Also in the song or
rhyming, the voices were not recorded nice or properly and had a lot of pitches in the voice.
For instance Mumtaz mentioned when she was recording her audio visual books, she made
sure to hire a calm and inviting trained voice for her audio so children don’t get scared and
feel comfortable listening to it.94
Also there are smartphone applications of Urdu nursery rhymes and Urdu Qaida done by
Qurtaba. I believe that are not very attractive as also mention by Kidwai. If you compare a
90
91
92
Aiyaz Kidwai interviewed 26th March 2013 [ interview was conducted through phone, recoded and
transcribed].
93
94
Aiyaz Kidwai interviewed 26th March 2013.
Tamba| 33
Qurtaba application to Jugnoo Media’s application and Toffee TV’s effort, it looks very bad
and unprofessional in front of it. Kidwai said that they have done it very half-heartedly.95
Recently, in February a smartphone
application for IOS was realised by Aiyaz
Kidwai and Zia Imran the founders of
Jugnoo
Media
for
children.
The
application is called ‘Duddoo Aur Dhobi’
(Figure 11)96 an Urdu rhyme and it is child
friendly for ages 1 to 2 years old. Kidwai
produced this application solely because
Figure 11
his daughter was getting very influenced
by angry birds and Dora the Explorer and
he could not find anything which was
culturally related.97 When I had shown this
app to Hussain she loved it and wanted me
to send her a link so she can forward to her
granddaughters
Shanghai.98
who
(you
are
can
living
see
in
another
Figure 12
screenshot of the app in Figure 12) 99On the other hand Mumtaz hated it and told me to stop
right in the middle and asked me to not to show it to her. She said that the words in the song
95
96
97
98
99
Tamba| 34
are not right and do not rhyme and is completely wrong for the child to learn it.100 She said
this application has no correct information, furthermore she said that if you have to teach and
you have to use these gadgets or methods at least should have actual, visual and correct and
not incorrect knowledge. In my opinion I would disagree with Mumtaz’s views towards
Duddoo Aur Dhobi, I would say that at least there is this initiative and a hard work is put
behind creating which is more local culture related. The animation and illustrations look
finished and not under processed like Toffee TV’s. In addition it has great parent reviews that
are mentioned in the Fuchsia article.101
On the other hand Numair Abbas has been working on Apartment Complex an animated
sitcom made by and for Pakistanis. He said making a feature film of a locally made television
is not noticed internationally, so he decided to make it a TV series.102 While the show is
targeted towards 18-45 years of age Pakistani people and not for young children. The reason
for this was he wanted to break the stereotype medium of Pakistani dramas and entertainment
and wants to bring something new and fresh.103 Animated for children or for adults, Abbas
faced financial problems. He said the sponsors, distributors and channels have a fear of
failure and do not want to invest in something new and different that they cannot predict a
future with it.104
On this note, that is what Kidwai was facing when he launched the Duddoo Aur Dhobi
app, he said nobody wants to experiment something new which is local and thus they have a
100
101
Rabia Hassan. "Duddoo Aur Dhobi – Urdu/Hindi App for Kids." Fuchsia. Fuchsia, n.d. Web. Apr.-May
2013.
102
Numair Abbas Interviewed 13th April 2013.
103
104
Tamba| 35
finance problems in production and marketing department. 105 As also asked Game Loop of
don’t the make a culture or local content, they said is straight forwardly that there is no
market and we won’t make money out of it.106
More or less Kidwai also mentioned even it’s a local culture content; the target still
remains world but a limited market.107 He mentioned that Desis108 are not just found only in
India and Pakistan but they also live in other foreign countries and love to see something
which is culture related because they feel a self of belonging.
105
106
Raheel Zubairi from Game Loop spoke in an animation seminar mid of November 2012 [ points were
noted].
107
108
Definition: People who are from Pakistan or India living in any foreign country and follow a culture of
language or originated from are called Desis.
Tamba| 36
Conclusion
As majority of people living in Pakistan do not consider Urdu as their primary language.
As they are more comfortable to adapt and give importance to their regional and mother
tongue languages. However Urdu is national language of Pakistan and it should be given
importance to. By which I strongly believe that people of Pakistan do not have a pride in their
country’s culture and language. By which I think that this is getting lost.
If people themselves do not associate with Pakistani culture and language, then the future
for children of this generation who can easily associate with Western culture through media,
then that child will not be able to preserve or respect his own local culture and language.
Thus another thing that I learned was that being not able to speak English does not mean that
you are no liberated, or uncivilised or uneducated. It is the mind-set that our society have
imposed upon us that we start thinking so narrow minded.
However there are a lot of people think that this is a problem and the whole generation of
traditions and culture can get lost. So people are coming up with new ways and technology to
help children engage and respect their culture in more exciting way. They are the fun
illustrated books to animations to songs and music. I know they are not perfect music or song
or a rhyme of one of the classic Urdu stories but I believe it is a start to something great and
wonderful if they keep on going. Though the animators and developers have a fear that they
will not be able to produce a lot due to finance problems, but I believe if they keep on the
enthusiasm and determination they can come up with better ways to produce and market their
product to wider audience.
What I also came across is that the audience for such children’s games are not just
Pakistani people but also for people living in India. As we have our traditions and culture
come in from Sub- continent so we share a lot of language and culture. While also the grater
Tamba| 37
audience are the Desis living all over the world and how these animators and developers can
easily reach out to through a simple way that is internet? What these people think that they
are only limited to the 25% of Pakistani people who hold a smartphone in their hand.
In my opinion I would say why not just promote our culture to the world? If you are
making best and popular smartphone application and have some local elements in it, you
might be promoting our culture and heritance to the world and then maybe the world would
be more aware and appreciative of the Pakistani culture of bright colours and language. For
example Dora the Explorer promoted Spanish language not just to the children of Spain but
practically everyone who watched Nickelodeon all over the world and in it my two and half
year old nephew is also included.
Tamba| 38
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Tamba| 40
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Tamba| 41
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Tamba| 42
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Tamba| 43
Appendices
Interview of Rumana Hussain in person (transcribed)
23rd March 2013 4:23 PM
Me: Children today are more influenced by western School of thought. So, because of that,
Urdu language and culture is dissolving. So I am looking at, what if we had Urdu nursery
rhymes and stories animations and smartphone applications to bring interest and encourage
children to speak Urdu. Do you believe that Urdu language and Culture is getting lost among
children in this generation?
Hussain: Certainly, languages are getting lost and some are already extinct, they are gone.
For example Gujrati, we change the script from what it was, so entire generation lost the
literature, whatever was written in that particular script. And so far as just spoken Gujrati is
concerned maybe people are still speaking it but as far as script is concerned and reading of
Gujrati is concerned, the original Gujrati in the Bohra community is lost forever but in the
other communities as well because Bohras are not the only ones that speak Gujrati but the
Hindus speak Gujrati, Parsis speak it and others who are from the State of Gujrat in India.. So
even them, they are only perhaps converse. There was a time in Karachi some schools that
were teaching Gujrati and that changed, so there were no more teaching of Gujrati. Similarly
when I was growing up we were given and elective subject which was Persian which is also
the root for Urdu. So if you studied Persian, you would then have a better grasp of the Urdu
language. Now Urdu literature as such, whether you are from a public school or whether you
are from the best of private schools, most children of today’s Pakistan are clueless about
Urdu literature. You have not read the masters. So it is only again used for conversation and
those who go to the English medium schools, there is a mind-set which has unfortunately set
in our times that was not so, we had equal proficiency. I went to an English medium school
Tamba| 44
but my proficiency in Urdu is as such that I write books in Urdu as well. So it is also, I think
to do with your immediate family, the kind of teachers you have, so my father always
encouraged me to read Urdu literature and by the time I was in 10th grade, I had read Manto,
Ghulam Mustafa, Krishna Chand and all of Ahmed Nadeem Kazmi, you name it and all those
masters I had read, all on my own plus my inspiration from my teachers who would say if
you want to read one Urdu book then read Quratulain Haider’s Aag ka Darya. And when I
was 14 it obviously went above my head but it is a classic and it was book which had a huge
canvas and what was the age of Quratulain Haider when she wrote it? She was hardly 30- 32
that describes a 20500 year canvas.
I think a lot of it has to do upon your upbringing about your interest in books in general.
Me: I was showing a kid and Urdu rhyme app on my phone. The mother stopped me, saying
that do not teach him Urdu Rhymes, he has to remember English nursery Rhymes or else he
won’t get an admission in school.
Hussain: That is the problem; it’s the attitude of the parents towards English medium school
going children. Then the teaching, I would put a lot of blame to the teaching languages
whether it is Urdu or English. I mean look at Sindhi, public and government schools both
teach Sindhi and yet the non-speaking Sindhi speaking child cannot converse in Sindhi even
after learning it for x number of years, which is shameful, because you know it is just not
taught in a way which will interest those children. So none of the languages are really taught
well and that is the problem. You end up learning English because you got an English
medium school and all your subjects are in English, its okay you put two sentences together
as far as writing and reading is concerned. But with Urdu you need to….you know the
schools and teachers say or the parents say that the children are not learning Urdu, they are
not interested in it. I always say to them that is given okay so stop complaining about that
Tamba| 45
they are not doing it. What are you doing? To make this situation, that is a challenge so how
do you deal with that challenge. I don’t see a single information or poster or something
exciting in Urdu in your entire environment of the school. So, I mean you don’t pay any
emphasis in fact you reinforce this thing in the child that Urdu is only spoken with the
servants, with the domestic help in your homes if you are coming from fluent background
with the domestic help you only converse with them and the rest of it is unimportant.
Now, the spoken language, I think we all do it, are we able to speak a single sentence without
mixing it with another language,
[At this point I was feeling ashamed because I myself cannot speak in a proper English or
Urdu sentence; I always end up mixing both languages]
The purity has kind of disappeared, we call this table [she was point at the coffee table], we
don’t call it ‘maze’ anymore we just call it table. So that is also fine, we don’t call ‘Kattak’
we call it gate. Now, those things are also acceptable in a sense that some of the vocabulary
will change with time and that to purify too much then the languages die.
I think with Urdu, your question whether it will remain alive, whether it is still alive, whether
it is endangered, I would say it is a mixture, it’s still long way to become totally extinct and
gone because I think it is such a rich language and so much literature is there and there are so
many writers.
[a couple of minutes were skipped as the conversation drifted off]
Theatre people are also playing a good role in this, because they are doing plays like NAPA
and Therek n niswa has been doing Urdu plays and there is one happening tomorrow at the
Arts Council auditorium for children……. Plus I think the television dramas they have also
created this, they were very good when we only had one channel which was PTV but with the
Tamba| 46
advent of the 80 channels or whatever we have and few that are the entertainment channels
that are casting Urdu plays, I think they are able to also hold the attention many it is woman
but irrespective of that you know they are able to engage their audience.
Me: but this for all adults and my focus is children, what about them?
Hussain: your focus is children, Toffee TV which is a good and positive thing which has
lately happened. So Rabia Garib and Talea Zafar, I think they are doing a tremendous job,
every time I see them they say that you are so kind, you say these things and I say, you have
no idea what you are doing is phenomenal, you are reaching out to children and the ‘Burger’
crowd, though are you know they have their own website and have this animations of stories,
songs and everything is in Urdu and I think it is wonderful. I also recorded my stories for
them and other things but what I am saying is that this is something your iPad holding child
now who is a affluent who does not want to speak Urdu, does not want to do anything with
Urdu is suddenly drawn in, they hold these sessions and event, whether it is at T2f, whether it
is at Mohatta Palace and also they are doing something at NAPA. So you they are really
bringing about a big change. Yes they also have an iPhone, Nokia and Android app. So you
know, that is absolutely a good news, their only draw back is that they are in Karachi and the
event are of course for small/ limited number of children attend. But the online version, my
two granddaughters live in Shanghai and they are little of ages 6 and 4, and I am always
sending them these links to watch it. So I think it is a wonderful contribution but what needed
to be done was for a television channel so we could have an exclusive channel for children.
Me: there is person working on something familiar for a couple of year…..
Hussain: yes Wazir –e- Azam’s brother has been working on something for two year but it
has gone nowhere….
Tamba| 47
Me: I was talking about Nigar Nazar’s son Numair working on something….
Hussain: yes Nigar Nazar a very old from Art School, again the ‘Gogi’ cartoons she has been
doing these animations….. anyway there are these individual efforts going…..
Me: what must be the problem then? If they are working for two years..
Hussain: the problem is finances unless you have big money you can’t start a television
channel it’s as simple as that, and to attract advertisers. You see the problem is also being,
that many many years ago, I was involved with a children’s series on television and
Mohammad a good friend of mine and was also the writer, we were working together, and we
were kind of really hoping that it will go somewhere, the channel also applied for fund and all
but it didn’t materialised. And you know ever since television in this country you have seen,
that none of your top actors would want to act something which is for children, they don’t
want to lend their voice, they don’t want to do music. I mean Sohail Rana was an exception,
what he left behind is a legacy for this country so all his songs and stuff for children. But
other than that you know people think that if they work for children it somehow bring you
several notches below and you are not that important.
Me: Like we had a launch of ‘Sim Sim Hamara Hai’ last year only, that didn’t work out …
Hussain: well for various reasons… like Faizan who was my friend too, lost his life because
of that, he was under so much stress and also Pakistan has lost a great creative mind….. So I
am just saying that there have been efforts, there have been problems, there have been all
kinds of things happening and there have individuals who have stuck it out and you know
doing things for children in Urdu. Now it becomes, you are talking about Urdu, but I am
saying why can’t all the other languages that this country have also have an opportunity
whereby flourish. So you know we need things, whether it is Duru sharksi Persian, Dari,
Tamba| 48
Pashto, Balochi, Sindhi, Punjabi and memani, I mean there are so many languages that we
have . And that, you know there are when I was working on my book Karachiwala, I asked
people at homes I visited families because it was diversity in Karachi and I said what is the
language that you speak and I also have an diagram in this book which shows about which
was the language they used to speak and now this is the language they are speaking. So by
enlarge it has become Urdu , which is again a shame because I feel that there are other
languages which are also getting lost….
Me: But isn’t the purpose of Urdu, when the Sub continent partition happened there were
already so many languages, so Urdu was chosen as one of the main language for
communication between each other
Hussain: well a big mistake by Jinnah because after all the East Wing of Pakistan had a
larger population than the West Pakistan had, so ideally it should have been Bengali as the
national language of Pakistan and that is where the whole problem started and we parted.
You see language has its own politics; it is a very political thing. But politics informs you and
how you bring attitude towards a language. So I feel that Urdu can still be, I mean I am still
hopeful and it needs to be encourages more and I think the more avenues open up whether it
is more books for children, whether it is, but in the schools, well I coming back to the earlier
argument that unless the teaching is done in such an interesting delightful way and that can
also be done when the texts are also delightful and engaging for children, they are only going
to be teaching the morals because that is what we do best ‘naseehat karna jo hai na who
hamarey khoon mein shamil hai’ and I feel that the children have to be looked down upon ,
we are always on the pedestal and always give that crap, not really understand what a child
needs are. So I think in the West, the Western English speaking what has happened is that
they resolved this problem long time ago because they know the child psychology, they tend
Tamba| 49
to work with people who write for children who draw beautifully for children, they have
every concealed rules and subject assigned which have been produced in a a form books for
children. They have libraries to encourage reading, they have Shows on television, they have
songs, they have films for children, we don’t have literature for children, we don’t have films
for children we don’t have decent program for children. So obviously it is not such a surprise
that Urdu has suffered, because it was coming but I am just saying that it can still be salvaged
and there are individuals who have been consistently working towards it. It is a start…..well
maybe not a start but a continuation of what they have been doing but it is for the younger
generation. If your friends and you are saying that this is what they need to look at and lets do
something about it then you are the hope we are the dying lot now. So it is up to the younger
generation if they will take up, feel the need to do it, then there is hope and it will continue.
Me: I want to ask you about ‘Laddu’, what is the whole project about?
Hussain: this is the project by the Netherlands, Amsterdam. And… there is this character
called Miffy, Miffy have been around for 50 years now, Miffy’s creator is a writer and an
artist, Dick Bruna and he created hundreds of Miffy books that are small squar-ish books and
they are for preschool children from 3-6 years of age. So a lot of very, naughty things
happened with Miffy around and Miffy is also helping children to learn things whether it is
colours or shapes or numbers or whatever. So Dick Bruna’s Miffy has been translated in over
50 languages around the world, now since he is 85 he just felt that with his whole philosophy
of limited colour palette and minimalistic drawing of Miffy, and the frontal pose, he would
like now to leave this behind as a legacy for other countries and he said that he engaged his
company with Butterfly Works which is an NGO and asks Butterfly Works to take it to
Venezuela but not to translate, so he wanted Venezuelans to create their own character not
Miffy, not the rabbit, but to write their own story. The second country they came to was
Pakistan, so they found me and wanted me to have on board, so we met and discussed
Tamba| 50
whatever details and then they put together four other people team, for two weeks we had an
intensive workshops to illustrate the character and write the story for the first book. We had a
lot debate and discussion which animal to choose, so we listed about 8-10 animals, they also
had CAP (Citizen Archive of Pakistan) to do a rough survey in few schools to see what
children draw when they are told to draw animals. So we had all these animals listed, we had
four best choices so we had a cow, donkey, parrot and camel. Now further elimination had
and came up with Camel and named him Laddu. OUP was also come on board for printing
and publishing. After some discussions and progression Butterfly Works had to leave in
December back to Netherlands, they some discussions over there and they felt that the camel
wasn’t really enough a cuddly enough animal. And incidentally we were going to have
Children’s literature Festival in Peshawar and I am one of the core members, Butterfly Works
asked me to get a feedback from the thousands of children who will attend the CLF and get
their response on which animal they prefer, so much difficulty we added monkey to the four
animals that were chosen, so booklets were printed and distributed to the children and they
had to vote for which character they preferred, they ended up doing a comprehensive survey
in Peshawar, Bahwalpur, Swat and other regions, ultimate decision was that the Monkey won
but the name Laddu will be the same as they all liked the name. I have written both the
English and Urdu rhyming versions, everything is done, it has been sent to OUP for printing
and publishing. I think 2% of work is left.
Me: how will this be distributed to Children around Pakistan?
Hussain: CLF has said that they will take it on too and also OUP will printing as distributing
… and also Butterfly Works also wants few thousand copies distributed free to
underprivileged schools and children…. And later on there will be products of Laddu because
Miffy has products….. Also maybe they will be animations.
Tamba| 51
Me: are you aware of other iPhone apps done for Children in Urdu?
Hussain: No I don’t, no idea, I don’t have an iPhone and have not heard anything about it.
[ I then showed her ‘Daddu aur Dhobi’ iphone app on my phone and she loved it and enjoyed
it and wanted me to send her link so she can forward it to her granddaughters in Shanghai
but she wasn’t so keen about the Qurtaba apps that I showed her as they had a really bad
voice and not very attractive.]
Tamba| 52
Interview with Zahra Mumtaz in person (transcribed)
28th March 2013 3:00pm
Me: My topic is about, Urdu rhymes and stories, from generation to generation passing on
traditional, but now in this generation children are more interested in Dora the Explorer and
Doremon. So do you think our Urdu language and culture is suffering amongst children? Are
we keeping up with technology and making animations in Urdu language for children to keep
up the encouragement and interest?
Mumtaz: I am very fortunate that my book is the first one that is being produced in this
medium in Pakistan. Through my publishers that are OUP. So they asked which book they
would like to produce so they said to start from the bottom that is the basics. That’s how the
whole structure is based upon. If you don’t limit yourself to the cosmopolitan life, 80 per cent
of them are not living in cities, who are not using the English language are only relied on
Urdu and regional languages, Yes Mother tongue. So if you think of readership in that
context then they figure far from experience, the most and biggest market in Pakistan is Urdu,
regional and mother tongue. So the bulk of the sales and supplies are for those. Mine has
been chosen and you can call it a primer for learning of any language. Even when you start
reciting Quran Sharif you start from learning the letters first then you start reciting but joining
and relating to it. My Urdu primer’s title is ‘Alif Bay Pay ke Geet or Awaze’
[She then shows me some of her published books which are all translated and produced
digitally too so when someone wants to know to go about reading this book can easily rely on
the cd that is given with it]
The Urdu primer is based on the phonic system, what we teach the children are not just the
shape and the look and the name of the letters but also the sound.
Tamba| 53
[She carried on explaining how the phonics works in Urdu and made me listen to how the
Urdu alphabets sound in phonic system]
First you learn to read to the children,…. I call it the Three Rs
R: Recognising letter
R: Relating them to sound or pictures
R: Remembering/ Reinforcement
In the formal educations the three Rs are Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, but according to
my experience with pre-primary education which is early learning and in school its 3-5 years
of age but at home a child can start learning, recognising the sounds, imitate actions and they
will learn to hum and sing. So, because the sounds are so important, I have recorded those
sounds on the CD, these books are available in bookshop of Oxford. The way we did it, the
methodology was the lead voice which was very trained and very pleasant and very practiced
voice would be in the role of teacher so it would like a classroom situation. The teacher
would say one sound, rhyme or a line and the children would repeat and those children were
about this age which this learning is applied and they just responded very naturally in their
own way some were singing in the high pitched and some in a low and some of which will be
out of tune but that’s natural in a classroom. So this is how we recorded it, one line from the
teacher and the class would repeat. The Cd follows the text in book exactly, so it is not only
the child is looking at but also learning side by side.
[she then talked about the teaching methods of phonic system of Urdu alphabets]
Me: I want to ask you that it is both CD and the book…
Tamba| 54
Mumtaz: you should call it Audio Visual…we just show this teacher she would not know
how to use this text but by hearing it from the CD she can pick it up… and also it has pictures
and I have wanted them to be Pakistani, colourful and humorous . It not factual like those
other text books, it should have a little bit of fun it.
Me: okay, when did you realise that you need an Audio Visual method for teaching children?
Mumtaz: when I started to use the Phonic system, these phonics without sound are
meaningless…
Me: having the sounds and recording it into a CD and make it more fun and interactive how
did this thought came about?
Mumtaz: because phonics is audio as well as visual, so for an audio if there had not been
recording how I would get the message across to them the printed book doesn’t get across to
you…
Me: what about the interest of children? Did it increase after this?
Mumtaz: Yes because it is easier drawn sounds… than to try to spell it….
Me: do you know about Urdu Qaida, and animation done on Urdu alphabets which won a
PASHA award for best Educational learning in 2004 by Numair Abbass, son of Nigar Nazar?
Mumtaz: Nigar Nazar the cartoonist….. no I haven’t come across that material
Me: do you think that OUP will produce iPhone or iPad app?
Mumtaz: well yes the iPad app they are producing, they are already working on it and it will
be in the market soon. So yes it is under process.
Me: And also that OUP already has a name and well established….
Tamba| 55
Mumtaz: yes and the distribution system is fantastic and almost every school uses their
published books and the popularity and usage of the books increases because schools pick up
from each other of which method works better.
[she started talking about which method of learning suits children…e.t.c]
Me: Have you heard about the Toffee TV?
Mumtaz: Yes
Me: have you seen their animations?
Mumtaz: Yes
Me: What do you think about them? Are they any helpful?
Mumtaz: they could be more aesthetic, child friendly, I think small child needs softness,
roundedness, in order to feel confident, familiar and it’s not a threat to him, angular and
spoky and pointy things can hurt and the child avoids them. I mean there are friendly shapes
like a teddy bear is cuddly, a bunny, a balloon…. So there are things that have a level of
comfort…..comfort and capability… should be child centred and see it from the child’s point
of view and not what you think which is good for them. I forgot what was the question……
First the look of it, it could be better, the other thing is their songs, I am afraid that they are
very sub-standard but idea is good like how to wash the hands, but the lady who has written
the song…. From the music point of view it is not acceptable, the ending words don’t
rhyme….. but there are no books or charts, worksheets or paintings, other material to that
they can produce.
Tamba| 56
Me: But I think they are more focused towards reaching out to children and having more
fun….I think they are not focusing on books because now in this generation people have
online books and more digitalised…
Mumtaz: You know that is all very good, but like in America there writing is awful, their
spelling is lousy and their sentence construction, their grammar, if you compare to other
countries Europe and UK they are far behind, what the now call in UK back to basics, you
have to lay stress on correct formation of letters, correct spelling of words and correct
sentences. Now in our systems young men and young women are supposed to be graduates
and are there for jobs but they cannot write one paragraph in correct English, they cannot
even write correct sentence without making a mistake.
Me: like the slang languages
Mumtaz: Exactly, why are they looking for shortcuts, your is ur, you is u e.t.c…I mean you
must learn the correct first then look for shortcuts, over here children start from the shortcuts
so when are they going to learn the correct form. It teaches you instant information without
you mind and efforts apply it, the child is not putting any effort so where is the learning and
all of it is then surface information. But what about the depth (meaning) and the in depth
information…. Like I said they know what it looks like they know what it looks like but
where does it come from…. America is known for labelling things and making them short
forms…..
[I then had shown her the ‘Daddu aur Dhobi’ iPhone app on my phone…. The first 2 seconds
she told me to shut it off as she hated it and said that this not the write way to teach children
Tamba| 57
and the rhyming is all wrond and the illustrations are not good and why is there a frog.
Generally she had a lot of problems with the app]
Mumtaz: this has no correct knowledge/ information, this is misinformation, well that is a
flaw, if you have teach and you have to use this gadgets or methods at least say what is
actual, visual and correct and not incorrect knowledge, you are creating confusing in child’s
mind. Giving things that he can actually observe and see and experience and confirm what he
has been shown, reinforce knowledge, don’t confuse them, and don’t misinform them.
[There were some breaks and drifting from the conversation so I have just recorded the
relevant things she said later]
Mumtaz: everybody confirms to the same dressing and talking, now if you were watching a
show on television and you just close your eyes and you just hear what its being said
[Mumtaz then does a fake American accent]
You wouldn’t know if it is a Japanese child or a German child or a French child because they
are all using the same word structure/ accent, the way of saying things. So only when you
look at them you might say it’s a Chinky eyes, or dark colouring or a blonde and then you
know this is European this is African this is Indian…if you just your eyes and just listen you
cannot tell who comes from where ….so people do confirm and not be themselves and be
different from each one…..If everybody is going to give up their own language and culture
and dress and the way of doing things and even their feelings…it is going to be a dull and
boring world to live in…….
Tamba| 58
Phone interview with Aiyaz Kidwai (transcribed)
26th March 2013 8:00 pm
Me: how did the idea of ‘Daddu aur Dhobi’ come up?
Kidwai: well me and my wife have a 5 year old daughter, when she around 2 years old we
had an iPad at home so she used to use one of those kids apps and she used to interact with
them , these apps were for kids in English. And my friends also who have kids are also fond
of this medium and at the same time there was nothing on the app store that was cultural in
any way. Where it is Pakistan or India there was nothing Desi apps available. Later on there
were some companies did come up with some apps. The thing is that we were looking at the
apps which were for kids younger than 3 years old… because when my daughter was 1 ½
years old she was using iPad and it is so easy to use it, at the same time there was nothing
worthwhile on app store, you see this is where the idea came from both me and my wife are
both graphic designers and have graphic design studio by name of Carbon Copy. We have
been doing things kind of…..above average work and we thought why not someone actually
make such an app… so that was the point when we seriously started thinking about rather
waiting for someone from abroad or some company that need to be set up who has some sort
of foreign investment so we just started to work in to it…. We didn’t know where or how to
go about it what to do, we just started making visuals and its almost 3 years ago we
started….. there phases in the middle where put it in the storage and not think about it…..
then last July I met up with Imran and now my partner in Jugnoo Media, he is in the lead of
programmers, I just talked to him about my idea and he became all excited about it and the
rest is history.
Me: I think the app is a really good idea. Are you planning to make more apps for children?
Tamba| 59
Kidwai: Yeah yeah, of course, why not, I mean we already started working on our second
app and then again something for children from 1-3 years of age Urdu nursery rhyme app….
It is similar to what we have done in Duddo aur Dhobi…. Most likely a paid app or there will
something like a trail version and premium version to access the whole app. We are still in
the concept development stage so I really don’t know how we will go about it.
Me: when did you launch this app officially?
Kidwai: We launched this app in mid-February
Me: So up till now how was your response of the viewership and the popularity?
Kidwai: response I don’t know whether it has been good or bad… you see we have more
than 3500 download and this is just for IOS I don’t know if that is good or bad. I know that
there have been apps that have millions of download in just a day… then again maybe it is
targeted for the world… you see Desi market is very limited.
Me: don’t you need to market more to have those kind of download number?
Kidwai: we have actually not marketed as such; we haven’t put in effort in marketing
because we don’t have those resources to be very honest. Secondly what we have been doing
is very are trying to get reviews, it’s a free app so the thing is that we have gotten a quiet a
few reviews from blogs and magazines. Look it’s a free app so that we got people to write
about us, if it was a paid app then no one would be interested in buying and then write about
it. If we put in more resources hire a couple of people and to actually promote it …..
Me: I came across your interview in Tribune too…
Tamba| 60
Kidwai: that is also that our partner he knew someone so he showed him the app and then…
I am not really happy of what he wrote so that is how Tribune happened. The day the Tribune
article published the app had 200 downloads.
Me: don’t you think marketing it on Facebook and social media as today it is somewhat
number one to get the message across to everyone?
Kidwai: we do have a Facebook page…. We rely on the number of downloads if the network
is not making an impact on the number of downloads which is not bad, which is good…
actually that’s what our objective is…. See our target market, most of them are Desi and it’s
all over the place not just Pakistan…. The decision maker, who makes the decision to buy an
app? I think one needs to look at that aspect that is mostly mother who makes a decision to
actually download an app, fathers normally don’t interact with kids that much and they are
not really up to mark of what really happening… I am not saying that none of them are but
mostly fathers mostly spend time during weekends and holidays ….Mostly it’s the mothers
because we are looking at 1-3 years of age who are usually with mothers only. So the whole
market that we are not able to reach attention to the decision makers who happen to be the
mothers….. so any kind of promotion is worth promotion I mean that is true, right now we
are looking what kind of promotion… because we need to see which one is translating into
increase in number of downloads….we might be able to create a big impact we don’t really
have the resources to do that, right now and let see what happens.
[ he asked me about what exactly my research is on and told me about few other apps that
are on App store]
There is this app made by Qurtaba and if you check out their app, they have a nursery rhymes
app and I tested it by showing it to my daughter and she was not interested in it. First of all
they have 6-8 nursery rhymes in one app out of the rest only one has a different tune than the
Tamba| 61
rest of them, they don’t have any music, it’s just a girl or a boy speaking and they sound like
they are reciting a ‘naat’ and I think one character is sort of animated and the rhyme is
written in Urdu and the way it is written is like the typical Urdu composition font and
typography. Nothing about that app that is actually attractive, forget about the kids, it’s not
attracting me…. But actually they have made an effort and put it on.
Me: have you come across Toffee TV?
Kidwai: I have, the problem with Toffee TV is heavenly dependent on the Data connection
speed… I have gone through their animations, they have an amazing content….I will tell you
another thing if you know of the company called Tuk Tuk Goose, it’s an American company
they make amazing animation of rhymes…. You will see the difference they have a finished
product… these other one like Toffee TV and Qurataba their product looks very Desi and
unfinished.
Tamba| 62
Email Interview of Numair Abbas
13th April 2013
1. What was the reason of making Urdu Qaida?
It was made so there would be a fun way to learn Urdu! I didn't know the Urdu alphabet very
well for a very long time. I thought it was because I had to learn Urdu as a second language,
but quickly realized that many of my own friends didn't know it very well either. "Alif, bay,
pay... jeem, chay.. yay..." was a common stumbling response I'd get when I'd ask them. And
when I picked up exisiting Urdu Qaida's, I found them really ugly and decided that, as an
artist, I could easily draw/make them prettier. My area of specialization is animation and I
finally decided to put together all my skills in art, animation and programming to make this
CD. I wanted to make something that would be fun to watch and interact with, and be able to
learn something from at the same time. Keeping it for 3 to 5 year old's was just a way to
specify a target audience and make the finished product sell-able - honestly, it was something
I thought I would enjoy playing around with myself !
2. I know Urdu Qaida won a Pasha award for best educational animation but did it get
popular amongst children?
It did and continues to do well and responses of approval come back to me from the weirdest
of sources every once in a while. I once received an email from a lady who had been trying to
track me for more than 6 months saying that she is a teacher at a school for special children
and that the Cartoon Qaida is by far the children's most popular method of learning. She
wanted to thank me for making her job easier and making the children enjoy their lessons.
Another time I was reconnecting over Skype with a friend in Canada after years of being out
Tamba| 63
of touch. She was now married and had two children. While we were talking, I heard a
familiar tune in the background from her side. It was the Cartoon Qaida song! I asked her if
she knew anything about it, and she laughed that her children wouldn't go to sleep without
listening to the song from this CD she bought a while back. She had no idea that it was I who
had made it in the first place!
3. You have been working on some original animated Urdu Tv series like Apartment
complex and a cartoon comedy, may I know about them and the reason you are doing it?
I won a Fulbright scholarship in 2006 to study film-making in the United States. I went to
UCLA film school and chose the specialization of Animation because I knew I can draw.
Being out there, you can really see what can be possible for our country if things would move
ahead as they should. When I came back after 3 years of completing my Masters degree, I
realized how much is lacking over here in terms of animated film. Even though I was getting
job offers in multitudes of lac rupees, I decided I was at a position to make a difference for
the direction of a widely neglected side of our nation's industry, and so I set aside all job
offers and took a huge risk in setting up my own animation studio. Although it is present in
even the smaller countries in the world, the animation industry truly needs to break the ice in
Pakistan. Initially I had thought a feature film would do the job, as these are better at being
noticed on global platforms. But then I decided that although locally made Television is not
noticed internationally, it will make wider circles within the country and maybe, just maybe
convince investors in producing more locally produced content.
It was difficult, but I put together investors, as well as putting aside the award money I had
won from my previous films in the States and began work on 'The Apartment Complex', an
Tamba| 64
animated sitcom made by and for Pakistani's. I am breaking a lot of 'rules' with this show.
The show is in traditional 2-D cartoon animation, and not flashy 3-D that everyone is so
easily enamored by. The show is for 18-45 year old (intelligent) people, and not for kids which is an easier target for animated films. And the sitcom is more often about thought
provoking content, and not slapstick comedic humor nor heavy drama that might have both
been easier to 'sell'. The reason for all of this, is so we can have one go at breaking the
stereotypes of this medium in Pakistan. If this project can be even slightly successful, an
important part of the film industry can be reawakened and potential investors can be
convinced that this is something they can support. It would be opening multiple doors that
have never been opened before in our poor ignored country.
4. What are the problems you are facing in making these TV series coming to air?
With all those 'rules' that I explained we broke in my answer to question 3, we were bound to
face some trouble. Fear of failure amongst potential distributors, channels and sponsors
seems to be the most obvious obstacle in getting such an unusual project such as an animated
sitcom for mature viewers on air. No matter how many surveys are taken, they cannot know
how well something like this will do in a real world situation until they actually spend their
money to do it. Our studio has spent time and money keeping full faith that it will have at
least some amount of success and may also begin a trend of a new genre amongst viewers
here, locally produced. We do know that all our trial testing has created a buzz amongst target
viewers along with positive results. But until partners do not also take the required steps, we
cannot know.
Tamba| 65
Another problem to consider when creating a TV series is cost of the medium itself versus the
popularity amongst viewers. This is a medium that viewers need to become more comfortable
with and until then potential investors cannot become comfortable with it either. This catch
22 is coupled with how much time and effort goes into producing animation. Our studio is
currently developing techniques that can make it quicker and cheaper to produce quality
animated shows to overcome this issue.
5. Do you believe that we really need Urdu animated Tv series? And why?
There are innumerable things our country needs and doesn't have. Forget that India is making
projections to be making approx. 1.5 billion USD by the end of 2014 with animation alone
and China is making projection to be making approx. 35 billion USD by the end of 2015 with
animation - even our small neighboring countries such as Nepal have their own locally made
animation. Any field of industry creates jobs, employment, and thus national and personal
success - there's nothing wrong with that. The value of art should not be discounted either especially in such a volatile and 'poor' place such as Pakistan. The Arts are not just a nice
thing to have or to do if there is free time or if one can afford it. The Arts define who we are
as a people and provide an account of our thoughts and ideas for the people of the present and
provide an account of history for the next generation.
So yes, something as unusual as an Urdu animated TV series has the potential for starting a
little of something we don't yet have here. We might be able to reflect on ourselves with it a
little bit too.
6. Are you aware of these Iphone apps like Urdu Studio, Aliff Puzzle, AlifBAyPay and Urdu
Rhymes?
Tamba| 66
We haven't really dabbled in iPhone or other mobile phone apps that much and I'm not aware
of these projects by name, but I'm aware that there must be dozens on dozens of similar
projects around. I hope they're all unique from each other and are doing well because of it.
When we launched the Cartoon Qaida, it was common for people to go to CD stores and buy
pirated CD's of pretty much everything. At that time there were already dozens of other
teaching tools for Urdu but they were very scrappily put together. The Cartoon Qaida stood
out amongst them and that quality is a major part of the reason why it did so well. Within 4
days of putting it in book stores, we found 3 pirated copies of our own Cartoon Qaida. 2 more
days saw 2 more pirated copies. One of these pirateurs wasn't even bothered in removing our
logo - they were just copying and reselling it. But these examples doesn't mean we don't stop
for us - it just means we keep making more. As long as we can make a reasonable enough
profit making unique material, we'll keep doing it and let people follow. We're pretty dheet
that way :)
7. Can you tell me the reason why these apps are not popular among children?
Aren't they? Like I said, I'm not aware of them directly so I can't really give you a good
answer on this one. Offhand I can guess that these products are unable to compete with the
quality and/or accessibility of all the other products that are out there. And I'm not just talking
about other iphone apps but also everything around these children. TV, games, advertising,
internet, friends, family and everything else in their lives!
For what it's worth, I know that our interactive Cartoon Qaida has surveyed to be pretty
popular amongst children. The educational part has humorous bits here and there and it
overlaps with the educational games and the song is memorable even after they're done with
Tamba| 67
interacting with it. Maybe the makers of those products need to have more fun when
developing theirs?
Last note: Thank you for taking this interview Fatema. It's been a while since I looked back
and it's allowed me to reassess my direction again and put things into perspective that I didn't
realize I needed to do. It's easy to get disheartened after setbacks that come so easily in this
country but answering these questions I hadn't thought about in so long has made me go back
to my original motivations. Stay strong! :)
Tamba| 68
Participant Observation
I showed my 2 1/5 year old nephew a couple of Urdu Nursery rhymes app on my iPhone and
I recoded some of his reactions towards it.
Day 1 (beginning of February)
I tried showing my nephew one of the Qurtaba apps of Urdu nursery rhymes on my iPhone
when my sister in law said not to show all of this as he will get confused in languages and
will not get admission in school as he already speaks Gujrati at home and little bit of Urdu
but he most importantly needs to know English nursery rhymes to get an admission in school.
This way I was not able to record his interest in the app.
Day 2 (29th March 2013)
I showed him Dudoo aur Dhobi app on my iPhone. He found it very confusing as he didn’t
know where to go about it and how to play with it. So in the end he was just not interested in
looking at it. This reaction timed between 1-2 minutes.
Day 3 (mid of April)
This time I showed him the Qurtaba Urdu nursery Rhymes app. Personally I thought it had
really badly recoded voices but he was sort of into it because one of the rhymes had a car
which was coming in and going out of screen which he found it fascinating. There was this
other rhyme which has some birds and animals moving so he found that fascinating. His
attention towards this app lasted from about 5-10 minutes.
Tamba| 69
Day 4 (end of May)
I showed him again the Dudoo aur Dhobi app and this time I showed him how to play with it.
It took me 2-3 times to show him how move the frog and what to do with it. He then was
drawn into the app and his attention spam lasted from 15-20 minutes before he got bored.
Ever since he learned how to play Dudoo aur Dhobi he has been asking me occasionally to
play the app for him and he often takes about 10-15 minutes before his attention span is
diverted towards something else.
Occasionally I tried showing the Toffee TV app but it usually takes so much time to load, that
from waiting he shows no interest in looking at it. This incident happened about 3-4 times. So
no proper reaction was recorded due to slow loading buffering of the app or the videos
online.
Game Loop Seminar (mid of November in Indus Valley School, Film Studio)
Game Loop did a small seminar for Communication Design students in November on
animations and gaming at Indus and encouraging students in this field. I asked Raheel Zuberi,
one of the presenters of the seminars about making desi animations which has more cultural
elements in their apps on promoting Pakistan and he relied that our audience is everyone in
the world and he said that they cannot have a desi animated game because it won’t come in
the market and be popular because it is all about the stats in the end.
Tamba| 70
Tariq Amin Khan (Ryerson University) Seminar on Capitalism ( 31st November 2012
during Arts in politics class)
I jotted down some points that I felt was relevant to my topic when Tariq Amin Khan was
discussing Capitalism.

Capitalism as a system has certain particular tendencies with respect culture and
identity

Universalised culture (affect) as the West has done

Illusions of having a option

Culture domination

Western Culture professes to be modern, but the modernity offered is linear and one
dimensional

Our Pakistan culture in elite is going more modern and Western where they have an
idea that Urdu language will not take them anywhere while English woul

Pakistan has not been able to develop a culture that is universally accepted (upper
classes want to emulate from the Wests, middle and lower classes identify with Saudi
Arabia; the vast layer of peasantry are stuck and most oppressed.
Tamba| 71
A site visit to Turkey
from 19th May 2013 to 29th May 2013
As a class trip I visited turkey and I jotted some points that I notice that I can do a little bit of
comparison of sttitude towards language and culture:

The signage were all done in Turkish language

Hardly saw any billboard or a poster or an advertisement which was only in English

Turkey runs on tourism, thus a lot of English speaking foreigners everyday a normal
Turkish person would stumble upon

I was hard to talk to our hotel employees as non-spoke English but were catering
English speaking foreigners.

What I found out that knowing English dosnt really mean you are liberated or
civilised or educated. Because all this non English speaking Turks were well educated

Never stumble upon an English speaking Taxi driver

Asked my tour guide about why these Turkish don’t make an effort in speaking
English and he said that they have a pride in their culture and language.
Tamba| 72
Smartphone Application Screenshots
Duddoo Aur Dhobi app screenshots
Tamba| 73
Qurtaba app screenshot
Tamba| 74
Toffee TV app screenshots

Fatema Tambawala dissertation

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