Bird Speak: The story behind ‘Tota Wali Gali’

One of the deceased pet parrot could speak and also recite the Holy Quran.

KARACHI: A little lane in the Sakhi Hasan graveyard has been named ‘Tota Wali Gali’ for quite some time after a pair of pet parrots. Just inside the entrance there are two little graves, each with their own tombstone. According to the grave digger, a man brought a dead parrot which was wrapped in a piece of cloth and asked for it to be buried in the grave yard. He had said that his deceased pet parrot could speak and also recite the Holy Quran and was like a member of the family. The man claimed that the parrot could talk like humans and he paid for the burial. The second grave is of the pet parrot of the grave digger’s children. It died after it got caught in a ceiling fan. The children lovingly placed tombstones on each of the graves and come often to clean them and place flowers.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2012.