London, Feb 12 (IANS) A parrot in Britain leaves visitors amazed when he utters various words in Urdu, Arabic or English. Rocket, the parrot, is just as likely to squawk "Hello, how are you?" as "Arg yahaan" -- Urdu for "they're here". The blue-fronted Amazon has also mastered saying "Assalamu alaikum" -- Arabic for peace be upon you -- in his multilingual home, The Sun reported Tuesday. "He (Rocket) is in the living room and always around us so he's picked up different languages. He's got quite a vocabulary together," says owner Ehsaan Mahmood, 18. "We're trying to teach him more English and Urdu so he can give my gran (grandmother) Ghulam company. She sits there talking to him anyway." It's been two years when Mahmood's father Tariq, who kept parrots in Pakistan, bought the bird to Greater Manchester. Rocket's first word was "hello", but "are you alright" and "bye" soon followed in English - spoken with an Asian twang. The parrot also mimics the family's cat and chickens and perches on Tariq's shoulder when the latter goes for a walk in Oldham town, Greater Manchester. In summer, the family puts Rocket in the front yard in a cage. According to Tariq's son Mahmood, Rocket "can get quite an audience when he's in the mood to talk". "He sometimes says things even we don't understand!"
|