Pakkay Dost – Bilal Maqsood’s Urdu puppet show is a brilliant effort to bridge cultural, educational gaps for children

Pakkay Dost, Bilal Maqsood’s Urdu puppet show is a brilliant effort to bridge many cultural and educational gaps for children with fun.

The channel Titled ‘Pakkay Dost’, is now available on video sharing platform YouTube.

The four-episode show features eight skits and 13 songs.

It’s amazing to see each episode averaging a 15-minute duration aims to provide special content to Pakistani children in the Urdu language.

The content also has a character named after famous writer Fatima Surayya Bajia, who presents various skits for the nourishment of children.

There are songs and sequences on subjects such as friendship, sharing, and values.

The episodes also feature tracks such as how to learn the Urdu alphabet and the names of the days in a week.

And it’s a brilliant effort masterfully done, something that will go a long way in helping our children learn Urdu in a better and fun way.

We all know how children are quick to pick up things from cartoons and other educational series, and that was certainly lacking in terms of Urdu content.

Here is what Bilal Maqssod says about Pakkay Dost

“I dreamed of this 25 years ago,” Bilal told reporters after the launch of the Pakkay Dost YouTube channel at Karachi’s Arts Council of Pakistan last week. “

When my son Mikael was born I realized that we don’t have Urdu poems. Even we don’t have any tune for Huroof-e-Tahajji [Urdu alphabets].”

“We grew up listening to Sohail Rana’s music. Even today, when we hear his songs, it takes us back to our childhood. These songs keep us connected to our values and our culture. But when my kids were growing up, there wasn’t any such thing. They instead listened to Sesame Street and Mary Poppins,” he added.

He lamented that children were learning English poems instead of Urdu, however, he expressed hope that Pakkay Dost would fill that gap with puppet shows, poems, and songs.