A little birdie . . .

    told my fortune today.






A green parrot sifted through a pile of blue-bound cards, plucked one out and dropped it at the feet of his assistant, a big human guy in white. The card, surprisingly enough, displayed a portrait of Jesus. The big guy used the card to look up my fortune in a frayed booklet written in Tamil.



The birdie said I have good friends, good health and will live until I'm 91. For 40 rupees, I'll take it.

This all occurred at Dakshina Chitra, a museum in Chennai that features reconstructed homes and crafts from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.