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KARACHI, Pakistan: “Dram,” meaning a measure of whisky. “Turm,” describing a cavalry unit. “Taupie,” a foolish youngster.
Not words in a typical teen’s vocabulary, but all come easily to Pakistani prodigy Bilal Asher, world under-14 Scrabble champion.
Despite a musty reputation, the word-spelling game has a cult youth following in Pakistan, a legacy of the English language imposed by Britain’s empire but which the country has adapted into its own dialect since independence.
In the eccentric field of competitive Scrabble, Pakistan’s youngsters reign supreme — the current youth world champions and past victors more times than any other nation since the tournament debuted in 2006.
“It requires a lot of hard work and determination,” said 13-year-old Asher after vanquishing a grey-bearded opponent.
“You have to trust the process for a very long time, and then gradually it will show the results.”

Karachi, a megacity shrugging off its old definition as a den of violent crime, is Pakistan’s incubator for talent in Scrabble — where players spell words linked like a crossword with random lettered tiles.
Schools in the southern port metropolis organize tutorials with professional Scrabble coaches and grant scholarships to top players, while parents push their kids to become virtuosos.
“They inculcate you in this game,” says Asher, one of around 100 players thronging a hotel function room for a Pakistan Scrabble Association (PSA) event as most of the city dozed through a Sunday morning.
Daunters (meaning intimidating people), imarets (inns for pilgrims) and trienes (chemical compounds containing three double bonds) are spelled out by ranks of seated opponents.
Some are so young their feet don’t touch the ground, as they use chess clocks to time their turns.
“They’re so interested because the parents are interested,” said 16-year-old Affan Salman, who became the world youth Scrabble champion in Sri Lanka last year.
“They want their children to do productive things — Scrabble is a productive game.”
English was foisted on the Indian subcontinent by Britain’s colonialism and an 1835 order from London started to systematize it as the main language of education.

The plan’s architect, Thomas Macaulay, said the aim was to produce “a class of persons, Indian in blood and color, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.”
It was instrumental in creating a colonial civil service to rule for Britain according to Kaleem Raza Khan, who teaches English at Karachi’s Salim Habib University.
“They started teaching English because they wanted to create a class of people, Indian people, who would be in the middle of the people and the rulers,” said Khan, whose wife and daughter are Scrabble devotees.
British rule ended in the bloody partition of 1947 creating India and Pakistan.
Today there are upwards of 70 languages spoken in Pakistan, but English remains an official state language alongside the lingua franca Urdu, and they mingle in daily usage.
Schools often still teach English with verbose colonial-era textbooks.
“The adaptation of English as the main language is definitely a relation to the colonial era,” PSA youth program director Tariq Pervez. “That is our main link.”

Loquacious lingo

The English of Pakistani officialdom remains steeped in anachronistic words.
The prime minister describes militant attacks as “dastardly,” state media dubs protesters “miscreants” and the military denounces its “nefarious” adversaries.
Becoming fluent in the loquacious lingo of Pakistani English remains aspirational because of its association to the upper echelons.
In Pakistan more than a third of children between the ages of five and 16 are out of school — a total of nearly 26 million, according to the 2023 census.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared an “education emergency” last year to address the stark figures.
“People are interested in Scrabble because they can get opportunities for scholarships in universities or for jobs because it provides the vocab,” said Asher’s sister Manaal.

But the 14-year-old reigning female number one in Pakistan warned: “You’ve got to be resilient otherwise Scrabble isn’t right for you.”
In the Karachi hotel, Scrabble — invented in the 1930s during America’s Great Depression by an unemployed architect — is an informal training program for success in later life.
“The main language of learning is English,” said Pervez.
“This game has a great pull,” he added. “The demand is so big. So many kids want to play, we don’t have enough resources to accommodate all of them.”
At the youngest level the vocabulary of the players is more rudimentary: toy, tiger, jar, oink.
But professional Scrabble coach Waseem Khatri earns 250,000 rupees ($880) a month — nearly seven times the minimum wage — coaching some 6,000 students across Karachi’s school system to up their game.
In Pakistani English parlance “they try to express things in a more beautiful way — in a long way to express their feelings,” said 36-year-old Khatri.
“We try to utilize those words also in Scrabble.”
But when Asher wins he is overwhelmed with joy, and those long words don’t come so easily.
“I cannot describe the feeling,” he says.

WASHINGTON: Tom Blackburn was so proud of his Tesla, he even bought one in bright red to stand out. But with company CEO Elon Musk’s foray into US politics, he’s sworn never to buy from the electric carmaker again.
Musk has already divided Americans by helping President Donald Trump slash government spending in moves denounced as illegal and immoral by critics.
Now the controversy may be ricocheting against Tesla — his pioneering brand once adored by environmentally conscious buyers.
“I’m just a little embarrassed to be driving it at this point,” retired attorney Blackburn told AFP of the Tesla he bought more than a decade ago. “I have pretty much soured on Tesla as a brand.”
A bumper sticker reading “I bought this before I knew he was crazy” has adorned his car since last year.
The 76-year-old from Virginia jokes: “Now I think I need something stronger.”
Musk became chief executive of Tesla in 2008, overseeing the company’s rise to the world’s most valuable automaker in terms of market capitalization.
But analysts say Musk’s political endeavors — including backing far-right parties in Europe and sharing conspiracy theories online — could isolate Tesla’s traditionally liberal market base.
“I think he will have a long-term damaging effect on the brand and the business,” said Daniel Binns, global CEO of Elmwood Brand Consultancy.
He said that Tesla needs to “disassociate” from Musk in its marketing, warning of a “perfect storm” looming as an aging lineup of cars puts it at risk of losing customers to rival companies.
“The brand on so many levels is not aligned with its audience and the market is filled with fantastic competitors,” Binns told AFP.
Tesla’s share price slumped by nine percent this week as it reported disappointing sales in Europe, which traders at least partly attributed to issues with how buyers view Musk.
However, investors are yet to see strong evidence that the billionaire’s politics are hurting Tesla’s business.
“Increased political activity does create a risk that Tesla may alienate some consumers from buying a Tesla, but it’s too early to say there is an impact to the company,” said Seth Goldstein, equity strategist at Morningstar.
Controversies generated by Musk, including what resembled a Nazi salute — he said it was not one — at a Trump rally, have nonetheless already prompted a backlash.
Kumait Jaroje, a physician from the Boston area, told AFP he is trying to sell his Tesla Cybertruck to avoid harassment after a note reading “Nazi F*** Off” was stuck on it.
The 40-year-old, who supported Trump in November’s election, bought the futuristic-looking vehicle in gold last year to advertise his cosmetic surgery, but said he has since been sworn at and cut off by other motorists.
“I’m avoiding driving it,” said Jaroje, adding that “Tesla has become a label for people who like Musk — which is not true.”
Around 54 percent of Americans hold unfavorable views of Musk, according to a Pew Research Center poll, though the results are split on party lines with Democrats far more critical than Republicans.
Some are showing their opposition to Musk by protesting at Tesla showrooms and encouraging owners to “Dump your stock” to devalue the vehicles.
American singer Sheryl Crow sold her Tesla in protest of Musk this month and said the proceeds would go to NPR, a US radio network that faces cuts in its government funding.
Yet Luis Garay, an independent who voted Democrat in the election, told AFP he can separate Musk’s political views from Tesla.
“We love Tesla cars, we don’t like Elon Musk’s political views,” said the 68-year-old from Maryland.
For self-described liberal Margaret Moerchen, from US capital Washington, it is crucial she makes clear that “our driving a Tesla does not endorse Elon Musk.”
Her Tesla, which she bought in 2015 to reduce her carbon emissions, is now covered in stickers reading “Up with EVs, down with Musk” and the LGBTQ pride flag.
The 45-year-old astronomer said she won’t be buying Tesla again and instead cited her interest in competitor Rivian.
“Tesla’s not the only game in town anymore,” she said.