Writing for the young: Uran Tashtaree aims to revive writing for children

Editor says there is a dearth of content in local languages.

LAHORE:

Barely six months into its conception, Uran Tashtaree, the debut publication of the Children’s Literature Festival, is all set to publish its third edition.

Uran Tashtaree (the flying saucer) is a multilingual, bi-monthly children’s magazine already being distributed in schools as supplementary reading material.

The third edition will be published on October 27.

Uran Tashtaree will also be featured at the 7th Children’s Literature Festival (CLF) being held in the City on October 30.



Amra Alam, the editor, says this is not her first venture in children’s literature. She was previously the editor of a monthly children’s magazine, Suntra.

She says the name Uran Tashtaree struck her as imaginative.

“You often hear the word in children’s stories,” she says. “It makes sense to name a magazine after something the children find familiar.”

Alam has writtem more than 50 books for children.

She says children are more inclined to read things they can understand easily.

“It’s not all about knowledge,” she says. “They key is to learning by reading something fun.”

The 64-page magazine, priced at Rs100, carries stories, poems, jokes and articles.

It also carries small illustrations.

Alam says most publications for children are often had poor paper quality, badly printed and lacking “fun and humour.”

“And then we wonder why children abhor reading,” she says.

She says in age of the internet and gadgetry, children have other more fascinating options.

The first edition of the magazine was published in May. It is an initiative aimed at generating better reading content for children through the festival’s platform in collaboration with the Oxford University Press and the Idara-e-Taleem-o-Aagahi.

Publications coordinator Saba Sultan says the young team has learnt a lot.

“We have been receiving all kinds of feedback. It helps us shape our content accordingly,” she says.

She says the biggest challenge had been learning how to promote the magazine.

She says the magazine team has decided to make it available at major book stalls in cities across the country and to take it to schools.

“We thought why not take our publication directly to our reader and get a firsthand review,” she says.

She says the team has held free sessions at more than 40 private and public schools in Karachi and Lahore and encouraged children to write, read and recite poetry.

“The aim is to inculcate a love for literature,” she says.

Sultan says they now aim to expand their operations to Islamabad, Quetta and Peshawar.

Alam says the magazine being used as supplementary reading material at several schools, including the Karachi Grammar School.

Alam says the magazine also aims to instil love for regional languages in children.

She says only 20 per cent of the content is in English.

She says the magazine provides a range of old as well as new literature for children.

“We cannot leave out our classic children’s literature,” she says.

She says the dearth of contributions from new authors in local languages is disturbing.

She says the first two editions each carried a piece in regional languages, including Sindhi and Torwali.

She laments that the latest edition will have none.

“We are helpless on this count,” she says. “Children’s writers just aren’t working in regional languages.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2013.