Jana Bibi’s Excellent Fortunes by Betsy Woodman

Janet Laird is a Scottish woman who has been living in India for most of her life. She inherits her grandfather’s run down house in a remote hill town in northern India in 1960. She moves there to start a new life with her ayah, Mary, and her Indian Ringneck Parakeet, Mr. Ganguly. When they arrive they find a town full of eccentric characters and a town that is being threatened by the plan to build a dam nearby. Janet, Mary, and Mr. Ganguly are soon part of the plan to make their new town such a popular tourist attraction that no one would dare destroy it.

This is a fun, light book about the clashing personalities of the people in this town and how they have to work together to try to save it. Janet becomes the fortune teller Jana Bibi to do her part in making it a tourist destination with the help of the bird, who picks the cards.