Hindi ABC
Ahana Seth
In a country like India, where for many families buying books is not an option, many children never gain access to books. The few available Hindi alphabet books are all standardized and repetitive. As a result, children today are lacking much-needed thinking skills. If they are told to read the facts, write the same on a piece of paper, get great marks and be called intelligent, why would they take the initiative to think and innovate? Thus, there is a desperate need to step away from this and focus on developing a child’s curiosity and their ability to think.
This thesis draws on creativity, individuality, play, and media to craft as an engaging guide to understand that creative thinking skills are not a luxury, but a necessity.
Designed for Hindi speaking children, Hindi ABC is an interactive book that provides a much closer look at the alphabet by breaking down the intricate letterforms, to provide a better understanding of the complexities of the letters, while also promoting creative thinking. Following the order of the ‘Varnmala’ traditional Hindi alphabet chart, it uses a variety of interactive techniques like pop-up shapes, flaps and pull-tabs allowing children to engage with the book and also experience the magic of one letter transforming into another.
Hoping to find its way to schools, libraries and book stores across the country, perhaps even in different Indian languages, the goal is to create a richly diverse range of books that promote creative learning at an early age.