photo: Mo Riza
Do do anna lekar aana popat ko lekar jana. (Bring two two anna and go away with a parrot (take along a parrot with you).
An anna—an unit of currency was 1/16 of an Indian rupee. In my early years we could not afford much other than the basics, but it made me very happy when the parrot seller came by with a beam full of paper parrots and hollered (parroted) the above in Hindi. I never got to buy one of his parrots but always appreciated the skill of the popatwallah ("parrot man”; seller of those handcrafted parrots).
An anna—an unit of currency was 1/16 of an Indian rupee. In my early years we could not afford much other than the basics, but it made me very happy when the parrot seller came by with a beam full of paper parrots and hollered (parroted) the above in Hindi. I never got to buy one of his parrots but always appreciated the skill of the popatwallah ("parrot man”; seller of those handcrafted parrots).
