Beetle & The Beatles

My memory takes me back to early sixties, when March was the time for annual exams in schools and the results were declared on 1^st April.At about the same time , small insects called beetles appeared all over from nowhere and were strangely enough called ‘tota’ or ‘totay’, strangely because, these bore no resemblance to ' tota’ or parrot as we know it. In between the waiting time , i.e. the time between the conclusion of exams and declaration of results, we used to catch a stray beetle and place it on the back of the hand , where it would creep and crawl.

We would keep repeating- totay totay main fail ki pass - and as it reached the tip of the finger nail and would fly off, we jumped with joy as it meant that we would pass . This was quite contrary to the Hindi idiom – hathon ke totay udna – which would mean total destruction and dejection. . About the same time, we saw the advent of The Beetles or The Beatles – the British Rock Band , consisting of Paul Mcartney, John Lennon , George Harrison , and Ringo Starr that rocked the music world for almost a decade till early seventies.