A day in Pondicherry with me - 6- The Fortune teller & his parrot

Of all the things I have come across during my travels, this was the last thing I expected to see. There I was lost in thoughts, walking along the road and what do I see- 

A man sleeping on the sidewalk. Nothing surprising about that, right? 

Well, he was using this box as a head rest.. Again, nothing unusual about that, right?

Here comes the twist, there was a parrot inside the box. 

Now, that caught your attention, right?

Looks like he is a fortune teller, one of those who uses a parrot to predict the customers' future. 

I also pondered about the paper he was lying on, it has this image of a happy child on it. Did he spend time making sure the paper was laid out in this particular manner? Or was it a random act? 

The parrot was pacing about inside the cage.. wondered if he was hot or hungry.. Anyways, not  wanting his privacy I walked on...  

I have seen these before. The parrot steps out of the cage when he lifts the lid, struts over to a pile of cards, picks one from the lot and hands it over to the fortune teller

He in turn, opens the card, shows the image and then goes on to share what lies ahead for you... 

I dont really believe in these- and am always curious as to how the bird seems to know what card is meant for you. Sometimes it picks the one right on top, and other times it will kick aside many before settling on a card. 

I guess this fortune teller was resting his eyes for a while, since it was off season and not too many customers around. During weekends and holiday seasons, you will see quite a few of them, including Kuri josiyam folks walking around the beach area. They will try to lure you to take them on by saying you have the face of Sridevi or Mahalakshmi or your future is bright.. I have tried this once, the lady went on to say "Pay if you feel I was right".. Some of what she said seemed true, some very generic. 

Coming back to that day in Pondicherry, I paused, waiting to see if the guy would wake up so I could chit chat, but he dint. I walked on and let him catch some sleep..