Joy of Urdu’s first book is a bilingual retelling of three stories from the Gulistan-e-Saadi,
one of the great works of world literature and a centuries-old wellspring of
character-building stories for children.
In these times of cultural drift, the great classics of our own civilization provide the best
guidance for our next generation: hence our choice of three ‘hikayat’ (fables) from the
Gulistan-e-Saadi illustrated in Mughal miniature style.
These “wisdom tales” were traditionally used to transmit cultural values and etiquettes to
children. Urdu is not just a language, but a “Tehzeeb” or civilization, and traditionally
this book was a foundation for learning. We hope it will be a foundation for learning
Urdu by providing an alternative to Urdu pedagogy and perception: how the language is
taught and perceived.