A passion for the Subcontinent’s cherished Urdu language and a love of comics resulted in Urdu Kidz Cartoon, a first of its kind website featuring Urdu comics for children. Riyadh-based civil engineer Syed Mukarram Niyaz founded the website that presents famous comics, such as Archie, Phantom, Tom and Jerry, Dennis the Menace, Garfield and Bugs Bunny — all translated into Urdu by his wife, son, relatives and friends.
“Urdu is a refined language, unlike the language used in Hindi movies/serials. I want to regenerate the original Urdu culture among our new generation,” said Niyaz.
He hails from Hyderabad, India, which has the second largest community of nearly 150-200 million Urdu speakers, after Pakistan.
Niyaz grew up reading comic books in English, Hindi and Urdu in Hyderabad and knows that comics are a great way to initiate a child into the habit of reading.
What Niyaz has done apart from providing a fun Urdu reading platform for children is that he has revived the spirit of old Urdu magazines. He talks of a foregone era as he recalls the 1970s and 1980s when India had many children’s magazines and comic books in Urdu, such as, Khilauna, Phool, Kalyaan, Payam-e-Taaleem and Noor, which published cartoons and comics.
Niyaz feels that many newspapers published in Urdu in his country neglect children by not publishing a single cartoon for kids.
As he found out, translating the comic strips to a much refined and traditional language, while keeping the humor alive is no mean task.
“While translating comic strips I always have to alter a lot according to traditional Urdu tahzeeb (culture). I prefer to avoid slangs such as buddhu, kaminey and gadhey. Instead, I use words like Kambakht, Ahmaq, Khabees and Na-hinjaar etc,” he said.
The 43-year-old father of five looks to his children to help him choose material for the site. His wife, a teacher, helps him select the exact Urdu phrases based on a child’s understanding.
Also in the cards is the introduction of new characters on the website such as Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Flash Gordon, Mickey Mouse, and Laurel and Hardy, in addition to classics such as Cinderella, Puss in Boots, and Hansel and Gretel.
Niyaz said the website makes a special effort not to publish stories that promote hatred toward any culture, religion, language, caste, creed and specific religious stories that have contradictory points with respect to basic Islamic principles.
Niyaz’s website also introduces the use of Urdu fonts, a feature not common in most ‘Urdu’ websites, which are mostly image-based, where searching even a single word in the whole content is impossible. It is created by his venture Taemeer Web Development that specializes in the creation of Urdu unicode-based websites.
Launched in February 2012, the website currently features nearly 150 translated stories and 20 comic characters. The response, though, is still less than desirable. Niyaz says it is such because of a lack of marketing.
“There are nearly 5,000 visitors per month; I hope it increases to 5,000 visitors per day,” an optimistic Niyaz said.
The website gets the most number of hits from Pakistan, followed by the US and the UK. The Gulf countries, such as, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, follow next, with India in the fifth position.
Where Tom and Jerry speak Urdu
Where Tom and Jerry speak Urdu
Adelaide Writers’ Week cancelled after backlash over disinviting Palestinian author
- Writers withdrew after AWW dropped Randa Abdel-Fattah
- Abdel-Fattah slams board’s apology, ‘adds insult to injury’
DUBAI: The Adelaide Writers’ Week 2026, a milestone event in the Australian literary calendar, has been cancelled after more than 180 authors and speakers dropped out in protest at the decision to disinvite the Palestinian-Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah.
The Adelaide festival board announced that the event, which was scheduled to begin on Feb. 28, would no longer go ahead.
According to The Guardian on Tuesday, all the members of the board have resigned, with the exception of the Adelaide city council representative, whose term expires in February.
The decision to cancel the AWW entirely came five days after the board announced it had dropped Abdel-Fattah, citing “cultural sensitivities” after an attack at Bondi Beach, that resulted in the death of several people, including Jews.
On Tuesday, the board apologized to Abdel-Fattah “for how the decision was represented.”
“(We) reiterate this is not about identity or dissent but rather a continuing rapid shift in the national discourse around the breadth of freedom of expression in our nation following Australia’s worst terror attack in history,” it added.
“As a board we took this action out of respect for a community experiencing the pain from a devastating event. Instead, this decision has created more division and for that we express our sincere apologies,” the board stated.
In a statement, Abdel-Fattah said she rejected the board’s apology, accusing it of being “disingenuous” and saying it “adds insult to injury.”
She added: “The board again reiterates the link to a terror attack I had nothing to do with, nor did any Palestinian.
“The Bondi shooting does not mean I or anyone else has to stop advocating for an end to the illegal occupation and systematic extermination of my people — this is an obscene and absurd demand.”
Several people were killed in last month’s shooting on Bondi Beach, where a Jewish Hanukkah celebration was also taking place.
Sajid Akram and his son Naveed have been accused of opening fire at the famed surf beach, killing 15 people in a shooting spree reportedly inspired by the Daesh group.
