I’m trying to recall the title of a children’s book which told the story of Thambi in a rural village in India trying to earn enough money for something he wanted by bringing a “Merican” (American) lady local flowers to paint. She asked him to find what were orchids, but possibly not called orchids, and one of the older village men told him to look in the trees in the forrests that lined the slopes of a local mountain called “the bearded one.” He found the orchids, brought them to the lady for painting, earned his money but bought a blanket for his family rather than what he wanted. The shop keeper saw what he had done and promised that the book or whatever it was he wanted would be there when he had earned some more money.

Can anyone remember this book?

Note: It has been identified as  ‘Pinneyo Rama?’ (What then, Raman?) by Shirley L Arora, published in 1961.