KFBL celebrates Urdu magazines for children

Pakistan News & Features Services

It is a common knowledge that Urdu literature for children has generally been promoted through storytelling sessions, awards, and publications. The monthly magazines like Naunehal, Anokhi Kahaniyan, Bachon Ki Dunya and School Life, among others in Pakistan, are rated among the finest in the promotion of Urdu literature. 

Urdu is the national language of Pakistan. Globally, it is spoken as a first language by nearly 70 million people and as a second language by more than 100 million people. 

It is spoken, understood and written in the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States besides many other Middle Eastern, European and North American countries. 

The Urdu readership, contrary to general belief, has continued to grow with the digitalization of contents and the advent of smartphones but life has indeed become more challenging for the print editions of books and magazines to survive, despite multiple benefits they offer to the children community in particular. 

The Karachi Festival of Books and Libraries (KFBL), co-founded by Aziz Memon and Syed Khalid Mahmood in 2024, has made it a point to promote the print editions of books and magazines in particular to facilitate the readers in enjoying the pleasure of reading in the truest sense of the word. 

The KFBL recently invited a couple of famous writers and authors for children, Hanif Sehr, Editor, School Life, and Mahboob Elahi Makhmoor, Editor, Anokhi Kahaniyan, for a session at Delhi Montessori and Primary School, Karachi. 

Chaired by Syed Khalid Mahmood, co-founder, KFBL, the meeting was also attended by Muhammad Nazakat Ali, Chief Editor, Karachi Observer, Abdul Hamid, Convenor, Friends of Libraries Pakistan (FLP), Syed Rashid Mahmood, Coordinator, KFBL, and Syed Arshad Ahmed, Member, KFBL Central Committee.

It turned out be a very absorbing and enlightening session in which the participants shared their views candidly and there was a consensus about sustaining the momentum of KFBL in order to achieve the cherished goals.