The reading library
People learn languages by reading them. Start on the first shelf.
People learn languages by reading them
Start where you actually are
Real Punjabi, shelved by how much help you'll want beside you. Every reading gives the original in both scripts, a translation, and vocabulary you can tap. Start on the first shelf; the library grows with every update.
First readings
single words & sentences
Word of the day
One word daily, fully unpacked — the gentlest possible reading habit.
1 min · daily
Word studies — ਵਤਨ & ਇਸ਼ਕ
Two words taken apart at full depth: homeland, and love with consequences.
8 min · both scripts
Proverbs in the archive
Akhāṇ — field-tested wisdom one sentence long. Search the word archive and read the example sentences aloud.
2 min each
Growing confidence
verses with help alongside
Bulleh Shah — Bullā kī jāṇā
The kafi that refuses every label, stanza by stanza: original, transliteration, literal and natural translation, and the Sufi context under each verse.
15 min · lyric explorer
The same words, twice
Read one passage in both scripts side by side — the fastest bridge exercise there is.
10 min · both scripts
Full texts
the literature itself
Heer — Waris Shah, 1766 · the Parallel Reader
The opening of Punjab's greatest qissa in an annotated, tap-every-word edition. Original and English side by side; save the words you don't know.
20 min · interactive
Tere Ishq Nachaya — Bulleh Shah · the Parallel Reader
The great Sufi kafi of love as a dance the lover cannot refuse, in the same annotated, tap-every-word edition — Gurmukhi or Shahmukhi beside the English.
8 min · interactive
Sohni Mahiwal · Mirza Sahiban · Sassi Punnun
The other great romances, in the same annotated edition — the Parallel Reader is built to hold them all.
in preparation
Folk tales & children's stories
Prose shelves for gentler long-form reading — including Dulla Bhatti, told for young readers.
in preparation
Before the shelf, or alongside it
If a line stops you
Nothing here needs to be read in order, and nothing here expects you to already be fluent. Two doors back, for whenever a page is heavier than you wanted it to be.