Punkah wallah

A Punkha with cord, Takhat Vilas, Mehrangarh Fort Palace, Jodhpur.

In India and Pakistan, a punkah wallah or punkahwallah (Hindi: पङ्खावाला, paṅkhāvālā) is a manual fan operator.[1][2] The most desired were deaf because they were always within earshot of confidential conversations. A punkah is a type of ceiling fan used in the Indian subcontinent before the electric fan.[3] The punkhawallah was the servant who worked it, often using a pulley system. The word pankha originated from pankh, the wings of a bird which produce a draft when flapped.

In modern use, a person selling, repairing or making fans, both handheld and electric, would also be known colloquially as a punkha wala, since the term means fan guy or the guy with the fans.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Whitehorn, Katharine (30 April 2010). "Finding a punkah-wallah, and other essential Raj tips: THE COMPLETE INDIAN HOUSEKEEPER AND COOK". Daily Mail.
  2. ↑ "punkahwallah". Wiktionary. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  3. ↑ Bridge, Adrian (20 March 2018). "Michael Portillo discovers India's most beautiful train journeys". Daily Telegraph.


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