Ramish Safa, a business-graduate-turned-digital-artist, has recently come up with an interesting way to make learning Urdu fun. Fusing pop and desi culture, Safa explains the Urdu alphabet using characters from HBO's popular series Game of Thrones (GoT).

In an email interview with Dawn, Safa shares how the idea came about:

"I love GoT and I have been doing a lot of fan art since the show aired," he said. "I just figured doing mugs would be an interesting way to put a constant reminder in people's daily lives of how awesome this show is. A mug is something that can stay with you for a while. It can be there on your kitchen counter, or your computer desk or your workstation."

Safa's love for the show becomes more evident as he adds: "I even did a GoT inspired invitation card for my wedding! That's how much I love the show."

The idea was well received as the mugs quickly went out of stock.

"I think it's fair to say that people adored the idea. And they want more."

A glimpse of Safa's wedding card. – Photo courtesy The CariCature Shop Facebook page

Safa shares that these mug series are in fact a teaser of his upcoming book. Titled UrduAikSoAik, the book is set to launch in 10 days and, as Safa puts it, is a modern day take on the Urdu qayeda.

"The pages of the book have been composed exactly the same way as the illustrations on the mugs. I figured pairing relatable content with Urdu alphabets would be a cool way for people to come back to the script that seems to have faded away into the back of the shelves with old Urdu books."

He opines: "I feel this is going to revolutionise, at the very least, the way people think of Urdu."

With pages like "Sheen say Shahid Afridi" and "Jeem say Justin", the book is bound to elicit fits of laughter.

Safa shares a few pages from the book exclusively with Dawn.

A few pages from Safa's upcoming book, "UrduAikSoAik".

Safa has previously worked on a number of exciting projects. Pappu, a social enterprise that provides education to the under-privileged children of Pakistan, was Safa's first "company", which led to his popular comic series Kachee Goliyan.

"It was a great experience that came into existence solely for the purpose of wanting to watch underprivileged children get access to education," Safa shares. "From what we learned from Pappu, we put into Kachee Goliyan which in itself was an incredibly big project.

"Everything that I do today – as an entrepreneur and as an artist – is because of what Kachee Goliyan taught me. I might have gone to business school but Kachee Goliyan was where I got my degree from."

He adds: "And mind you, I still haven't received my real degree yet."

"Game of Thrones" inspired mugs created by Ramish Safa. – Photo courtesy The CariCature Shop Facebook page

Speaking about how he moved from studying business to art, Safa said the love for art runs in the family: "My father is an artist so drawing was a very commonplace concept in the house."

Though Safa has always been passionate about art, he admits he had to work on his composition skills.

"It was only when I got in to business school that I realised I had to undergo formal training or at least some degree of informal training to be able to draw better. I would take drawing lessons for hours on YouTube. I got books and research papers and followed several professional artists online," he said, adding that a business school background helped him understand how to market his products.

"And let's be honest, seeing people pay for something you create is beautiful," he said.

Being a student, ready cash was an issue but Safa didn't let that get in the way. He chose digital as his medium to save on material cost and also because it helped open up a much bigger platform for him to interact with the audience.

Speaking about what inspires him, Safa said: "I am a sucker for influencing mindsets. It doesn't matter how small or big the idea is, if I can manage to change the way people think, I sleep well at the end of the day."

What's next for you?

"Let's see where the tides take us," he said.