There is one book in Pakistan that has never changed from the day of its inception, some 45 years ago. The parents of all young children in the country are a hafiz of this book. There is no limit to the joy of parents when their children start parroting voices from the text of this book, the stepping stones of great knowledge and wisdom. Children get rewards for memorising this book and are then proudly asked by their starry eyed parents to recite it in front of guests. Yes, you have guessed it; it’s the Urdu al-Qaeda and English al-phabet book.

When I look at Kindergarten books, I always feel they are very old-fashioned and need to be revised. This book in particular has been in circulation as far back as I can remember. The symbols with the alphabets are usually the tanga, lutoo etc, but have been replaced with motorcars and YoYos or their meanings have changed entirely. It’s usually said that this new generation of children are much smarter than the older generation. Here is my small contribution to update this al-phabet book, so that the children of this country might know what kind of a world they are about to step in to.

The first image was always an Apple and still is an Apple but on an iPhone. Pakistani batsmen have been unable to use the Bat for some time now so that should be replaced with Batman. And now the Cat has acquired new meaning after Imran Khan left his past behind him and found religion and politics.

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