The parrot card readers of Mirpur

“Mithu! Hey Mithu!” calls reverberate along the length of the road in front of Shah Ali Mazar on a cool winter midday.    

Unperturbed, Mithu hops on a twig from top of a wooden box, and waits till he is brought down over a spread of envelopes.

“His name is Mintu Ahmed,” says the man sitting behind the spread. “His star sign is Libra. Pick one for him!”

Nonchalantly, Mithu walks on the envelopes, 50 to be exact, and picks one with his beak and offers it to him.

The man, Monirul Islam Mia, takes the envelope and pauses before opening it.

By this time, others started congregating. Onlookers leaned forward to see what’s inside. Mintu was the most anxious. The 25-year-old RMG worker was after all the one taking Mithu’s service, and his “fortune” now hanged in the balance -- or rather, was inside the envelope!

Mintu from Kushtia had reasons to be worried. He recently had a fight with his wife. Upset, she went back to her father’s house in Rajbari and took the couple’s six-year-old son with her.

She had also stopped receiving his phone calls. For the last few days, Mintu had been visiting the Shah Ali Mazar in Mirpur and praying for a solution. He had stumbled upon Monirul and Mithu while walking past the mazar, and decided to give it a shot.

Meanwhile, Monirul pulled out a note from the envelope. He started reading: “Though things are not working in your favour, do not lose hope. This will pass. God will help you. Assist the poor. Keep praying regularly.”

Mintu, who was sitting nervously beside Monirul, let out a sigh. He offered Tk 10 to Monirul, but he refused and pointed towards Mithu. Mithu took the money with his beak, passing it on to Monirul.

There was a murmur among the crowd. Some were asking Mintu to step aside so they could try it out.

Monirul smiled and told everyone to wait their turns, while putting Mithu back on top of the box. Mithu got busy nibbling tiny pieces of nuts next to a small can of water.

The duo -- Monirul the man and Mithu the parrot -- can be seen at the exact location every day from morning to late in the night.

Mithu about to jump into action. Photo: Hasan Meer

And they are not the only ones. There are around seven to eight such set-ups on the very road -- engaged in parrot astrology or fortune-telling.

Monirul, however, refused to term it so. “We don’t tell fortune. Is that even possible? What we do is advice people when they feel down and out,” said the 51-year-old resident of Gopalganj. “Mithu picks up an envelope and I read aloud the suggestions.”

He said he has been doing this since 2001. Monirul used to supply rechargeable batteries but the business eventually lost steam. One day he came to the mazar to pray and met a palm reader nearby, who had a parrot with him.

“He gave me some stones and took Tk 400,” Monirul went on saying. “Though I did not believe him entirely, I enjoyed the way his parrot took out the envelope from the stack.”

“I told him to teach me the tricks of the trade. And he did. I learnt within a month,” he prided. “I’ve been doing this ever since. There’s a satisfaction in it too. I like to think I help people when they’re in distress.”

He said he makes around Tk 400 a day. On Thursday and Friday, it goes up to Tk 1,000 as more people visit the mazar area. Monirul also claimed that he has been in three TV plays.

Asked if he or others face any problems, he said law enforcers know what they do and let them be. “Distressed, people come to us to seek solace and we try to comfort them by quoting texts from various religious books,” he added.

On the same side of the street, sitting beside a closed shop with two parrots, Sujan Munshi (30), agreed.

The resident of Dakkhin Bisil said he learned to train birds from a Hindu astrologer. “I stayed with him for four years, and afterwards, started on my own.”

Munshi said his wife and child live back home in Bhola with his parents. “I send around Tk 3,000 to them per month.”

“People mostly try it out of curiosity. Sometimes they get angry if their expectations are not met, but others help me out; we look after each other.”

In the middle of the conversation, trader Rubel Reza sat in front of Munshi. “I came to pray at the mazar. When I saw him [Munshi], I became curious,” said the 30-year-old.

He waited patiently while a parrot picked up an envelope from the spread.

“God will help you achieve your goals. Stay away from pretenders, they can cause you harm,” Munshi read from the note. He also informed Rubel that his zodiac sign is Libra. “Libras are short-tempered,” he said.

Rubel agreed, paid Munshi Tk 10 and said he wanted to try again.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the road, right opposite to Munshi, sat 55-year-old Saiful Islam underneath an umbrella with two parrots. The Bhola resident has been in the trade for over 26 years.

He said after passing SSC he tried to go abroad, but that did not work out. So he became a fruit vendor instead in Mirpur around 1993. “It was quite painstaking. There was a person near my business who was a ‘parrot astrologer’. I became interested and learned the craft from him.”

He said he bought the birds from Kataban and trained them for around five-six months. “We keep two; if one flies away or gets sick, we can use the other. We spend around Tk 25 a day on them. They mostly eat guava, banana and nuts.”

“It’s not the same anymore. Our expenditure has gone up, but not income. On an average, I make around Tk 400 per day,” he said.

Saiful tilted the umbrella to the right to make sure the birds stay under the shade. “I have five daughters; I got three of them married off already and sending the other two to school.”

Monirul chimed in, “We work hard, provide for our families and go back to them at the end of the day. What more could we ask for?”

Mithu seemed to agree as he started bobbing his head.