ekka

plural ekkas · alternative ecka · alternative ekha

1. IndiaA small vehicle used in India, pulled by a single horse.

   He said that he was ‘going to shoot big game’, and left at half-past ten o'clock in an ekka.

   1888, Rudyard Kipling, “Thrown Away”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio Society, published 2005, page 19

   1 more example

   Throughout India the ekka is the ordinary vehicle in which the natives travel, and until recent times was the only one available to Europeans.

   2007, J.A. Hammerton, Peoples of All Nations: Their Life Today and Story of Their Past (in 14 Volumes), page 2779

1. Australiacolloquialchiefly QueenslandThe Royal Queensland Show.

   Hundreds came to Rock Against The Queen (on the Queen's Birthday) or the Ekka (on Exhibition Day in August).

   2006, Andrew Stafford, Pig City: From the Saints to Savage Garden, page 231

   2 more examples

   The Queensland Chamber of Commerce questioned the Ekka (the Exhibition - Brisbane′s annual show) public holiday, complaining of loss of productivity.

   1995, The Bulletin, numbers 5977-5985, page 98

   At this point the Exhibition Grounds remained the only reasonable choice but when the Queensland Royal National Association also refused permission, the Queensland Cabinet declared a State of Emergency in order to acquire the ground and to counter union boycotts which may have threatened the Ekka, the agricultural exhibition to be held in August.

   2008, Jennifer Clark, Aborigines & Activism: Race, Aborigines & the Coming of the Sixties to Australia, page 226