What was the idea behind Dhere Bolo? We are all teachers and wanted to develop a curriculum for Urdu which was fun for kids. Our mentor Hareem Atif Khan, who is a curriculum developer, used to say that if you want someone to learn how to swim you cannot offer them a puddle to swim in. So if we want children to learn how to read, we must give them books they can fall in love with.

We began with songs. Zair Raza Zaidi who used to work as a music teacher and now manages all music-related programs for Dheere Bolo, wrote and composed the songs for children which later became our song books. Each song book is really a curriculum box and includes a song, a chart with lyrics and three weeks of activities.

For example we have a song called `Paishay` (careers), we sing about careers and learn about them. Then based on the song, we also learn about masculine and feminine for each career.

Each book includes illustrations that are beautiful to look at but are also very Pakistani. We want kids to look at a book and see themselves in it. The characters are made relatable. We want to tell Pakistani stories, in Pakistani languages because these stories are just as beautiful, if not better.

What do you think the medium of instruction should be for primary school students? Every Pakistani child has the right to learn a foreign language whether it is English, French or German but there is a lack of honesty in what we want our teachers to accomplish in English. We are forcing them to operate in a language which is not their own.

As a teacher if you asked me to teach in a language that I don`t know very well, I wouldn`t be very good at it. If my English is weak and my Urdu is very strong and my student`s Urdu is also very strong but you are notallowing us to use Urdu to learn, it is unfair.

In upper middle class homes, there is an anxiety towards learning English because it affects future job prospects and careers. However, in our attempt to teach English, we have stopped teaching Urdu, which is unnecessary. My grandmother`s generation spoke fluent Urdu, Farsi and English, it`s not like they were unable to learn one because they learnt another.

What are your plans for the future? We have a lot more books coming out. There are story books and series in the pipeline such as Alia Chalia series and Bahadurshah Bano. Alia Chalia is a girl who lives in Gujrat. Her grandfather owns a grocery store and her grandmother is a retired Lady Health Worker. Alia can also talk to animals and teams up with them to solve mysteries. But since she also works at the store, she knows units of measurement and she uses the herbs and spices sold at the store to make potions. We are hoping to use the story to even develop math books.

Bahadurshah Bano is another series in the pipeline and centers around a little girl Bano who thinks she owns Lahore. Zair also wants to take this project and make it as big as Disney or Pixar. There is no publishing house, no television programs or music for children in Pakistan and we hope to fill this gap.

We have also sent our books to the National Book Foundation and some government schools and have gotten a great response.

We are also participating in the Saturday Storytelling Session at Kuch Khaas and plan to invite students from underprivileged schools to these sessions.

-Text by Shiza Malik