Adil Najam
The Pakistani Piggy Bank (from Flickr.com by Umair Mohsin; by the way, Umair has a very interesting blog of his own called ‘Writings of an outsider looking in‘).
These baked clay ‘kujjas’ or ‘gallaz’ are the first piggy banks for many children in Pakistan; certainly was for me.
Since money could only be retrieved by breaking the entire artifact, there was always an incentive not to break it too soon. I wonder if it will still be around now that metal currency is being phased out and a note-only economy is on its way. Don’t know if I will miss the coins; but I already miss my ‘kujja’.
Thks for posting such a beautiful picture. It sure took me on the memory lane when the urge to spend a few paisas would prompt me not to break the Ghalla , but to pry out a paisa or two for the ‘goodies’ from the mohalla shop. I did succeed many a times in my effprt, but believe me it was a hurclean task
and the feeling of triumph could be compared to a breaking in a bank.
Hey Thanks for Dropping by… am honoured that you felt my picture was good enough to put up here. :)
Umair.