Feathers in the Wind Read online

  ‘It’s called the Palace. You’ll feel at home here, princess,’ Peter said, winking at her.

  Aesha groaned. ‘You’re so boring, Dad,’ she said.

  ‘But while I hold the purse strings, you’ll have to be nice to me,’ he responded.

  ‘It’s just like a palace, isn’t it?’ said Joe, who had been gazing around in awe. ‘Look at all those statues.’

  ‘They’re Hindu gods and goddesses.’ Binti walked towards them and pointed at one that resembled a monkey. ‘This one here is called Hanuman and is worshipped as a symbol of physical strength and perseverance. The one with the elephant head is Ganesha, the Hindu god of success. That’s where my knowledge runs out, I’m afraid.’

  ‘You know the animal ones because you’re a vet,’ observed Joe.

  ‘I like the female one,’ said Aesha. ‘She’s beautiful.’ She was standing in front of a smiling figure holding a flower in two of her four hands and sitting cross-legged in a large lotus flower.

  ‘She is Lakshmi, our goddess of wealth, beauty and prosperity.’ A hotel attendant had joined them. He led them along the row of statues and named them all in turn. ‘And this is Shiva,’ he said when they reached the final statue.

  Joe stared at the blue face, the third eye in the middle of its forehead and the cobra round its neck.

  ‘His role is to destroy the universe in order to recreate it,’ the attendant explained. Then he added, ‘Welcome to our country. I hope you will have an enjoyable stay.’

  Chapter 5

  Joe was relieved to find cereal and toast on offer for breakfast the next morning. He had enjoyed the meal the previous evening – a selection of different curries that allowed him to pick and choose – but he was ready for something sweeter and more familiar. A local coordinator from the Animal Aid Service, which was closely involved in vulture conservation, had arrived at the hotel in time to join them for breakfast, and Joe watched him tuck into a plate of rice and spicy vegetables with obvious enjoyment. His name was Sachin. He was young and good-looking, sported sunglasses perched on his head, wore jeans and a lumberjack shirt and spoke enthusiastically in impeccable English. Joe immediately decided he was the coolest person he had ever met, especially when Sachin wanted to know all about him.

  ‘How old are you, Joe, and what do you want to be when you grow up?’ Sachin asked.

  Joe told him he was nine and wanted to be a photographer.

  ‘Nine’s a good age,’ Sachin responded. ‘At nine you can do most things and you can have big dreams.’

  Aesha pulled a face. Joe thought she was going to say something derogatory, but she lost the opportunity when Sachin continued, ‘When I was nine I wanted to be a pilot or a doctor, but I fell in love with animals and now I’m training to be a vet like your mother.’

  ‘I might be a vet too,’ Joe added hastily.

  ‘Then perhaps one day we will be working side by side.’

  Sachin grinned encouragingly at him, before turning his attention to Aesha. Joe was amused to see his sister blush and for once she seemed unsure of herself, though it didn’t stop her mentioning that she wanted to swim for her country, an ambition which clearly impressed the young Indian. Joe was keen to regain the spotlight and asked if he planned to fly a kite during the festival.

  Sachin shook his head. ‘I’ll be too busy helping your mother and the other vets and volunteers with the injured vultures. It’ll be a very long eighteen hours or more for all of us.’

  ‘No sleep for the virtuous, eh?’ said Peter. ‘Or do I mean vulturous?’

  Aesha groaned loudly. ‘You’ll have to excuse our father,’ she said to Sachin. ‘He cracks the worst jokes.’

  ‘Will I be able to help?’ Joe aimed the question at his mother, even though he knew what her answer would be.

  ‘No, Joe,’ Binti replied. ‘From what I understand, this is a frantically busy time for everyone. There won’t be any opportunity for you and Aesha to be involved. Besides, you’ll want to be watching the kites.’

  ‘And taking photos,’ Peter reminded him.

  ‘Have you ever flown a kite?’ Sachin looked questioningly from Joe to Aesha.

  Joe shook his head immediately, while Aesha muttered something about having tried to fly one at a friend’s house and failing miserably.

  ‘Then you must learn,’ said Sachin. ‘Tomorrow, if you like, I will show you how.’ He sought approval from Peter and Binti.

  ‘That’s very kind of you,’ said Binti. ‘I’m sure they’d love to.’

  Joe nodded eagerly. He was excited at the thought of learning to fly a kite in a strange city hundreds of miles from home. This would surely be the start of a big adventure. He secretly hoped Aesha would turn her nose up at Sachin’s offer, but she too appeared enthusiastic.

  ‘We’ll go tomorrow after breakfast, before I’m swept away in a flurry of broken wings.’ Sachin spoke lightly but frowned at the same time. ‘And now I must sweep your mother away to show her where she’ll be based during the festival.’

  It was then that Joe understood just how much work there was to be done in saving the injured vultures. Binti and the other vets and volunteers would be up all day and all night during the festival and only able to snatch the odd half an hour of sleep in a guest house close to the rescue centre. While he and his father and sister slept in their plush hotel, his mother would be saving birds’ lives in what he imagined would be a hot, smelly, crowded room. He wished again that he could be there doing whatever he could to help. It must be so rewarding being a vet, he thought. It must be such a good feeling to save an animal’s life.

  ‘And I’m going to sweep you two away to see the sights of Ahmedabad on a normal day before kite fever takes over,’ Peter informed Joe and Aesha. ‘First stop Gandhi’s headquarters, second stop a textile museum, third stop a temple, fourth stop Science City. How does that sound?’

  Joe looked at his sister and could see that she was as dismayed as he was. It sounded so boring!

  All Joe wanted to do was fly kites and help his mother with the vultures. He had never heard of Gandhi, and he really wasn’t interested in a textile museum. Joe was relieved when his father said that perhaps they should save that bit for when Binti could be with them. He perked up even more when Sachin told him Science City was structured like a theme park. He could cope with a temple if it was followed by a thrill ride.

  Chapter 6

  Ravi was outside the hotel waiting for them bright and early the following morning. ‘I will be your driver and guide for the day,’ he said.

  He obviously relished his role. He took them off the beaten track on the way to the popular sights, so they were able to see people going about their daily lives – hanging out washing, feeding children, scrubbing doorsteps, grinding spices, or simply sitting and watching the world go by. Joe was struck by how poor some of them seemed to be, and felt a bit uncomfortable peering out at them from the plush velour seats of the car. But passers-by waved at them and Ravi wound down his window to chat animatedly with anyone who flagged him down.

  ‘Everyone wants to talk about the kite festival,’ he explained to Peter. ‘I am telling them to watch out for the vultures and to keep their kites away from them.’

  Peter nodded his approval. ‘The more people are aware, the greater chance the vultures have of surviving,’ he said.

  As they drove to Gandhi’s headquarters Peter explained that Gandhi was a great Indian leader who had led the struggle for Independence. Joe was shocked by the spartan conditions in which the great leader had lived. He and Aesha were amazed to learn that Gandhi had even refused to eat in protest at the way in which his people were treated. The pictures and photographs that formed a record of his life made them wish the world were a better place. There was even a letter Gandhi had written to Hitler, asking him not to go to war.

  ‘It’s a pity there aren’t more leaders like Gandhi,’ said Aesha, and Joe found himself agreeing.

  They continued on, visiting a templ
e and a mosque, which were completely different both from each other and from any sort of building Joe had ever seen before. The temple was made out of white marble which was so ornately carved that Joe thought parts of it looked like a wedding cake. The mosque had two minarets, which, Ravi told them, would shake if a small amount of pressure were applied to the top of one of them.

  ‘Nobody knows how this happens, but if you shake one minaret, the other one starts to shake as well, even though the passage connecting the two of them remains firm. It’s a complete mystery, but it helped them survive a serious earthquake in 2001.’

  Joe took one photograph after another, following in his father’s footsteps and trying to be creative with angles and shapes as he snapped away at cows sitting in the middle of the road, women carrying baskets on their heads, vegetable vendors with bullock carts and people sitting under canopies weaving garlands of flowers.

  ‘At this rate, I’ll have to buy you a new memory stick.’ Peter grinned at him. ‘When I mentioned there was an amazing photo to be taken every few seconds, I didn’t mean you to take every single one.’

  When Science City finally opened out ahead of them, it looked like another world.

  ‘It’s vast!’ Peter exclaimed. ‘I didn’t expect that.’

  Ravi beamed across at him. ‘It is a modern jewel in India’s crown,’ he said proudly. ‘Please enjoy.’

  Joe couldn’t wait to go inside. This is the coolest-looking place I’ve ever been to! Everything was so awe-inspiring. He was more excited than ever when Peter picked up a programme and read out what there was to do. When he listed the thrill rides, Joe was adamant they should start with one of those, but Aesha argued that they should see the musical dancing fountain first.

  ‘What’s so great about a musical dancing fountain?’ he demanded.

  ‘I think you might be surprised,’ their father intervened. ‘But just to make things fair, I’m going to choose. Besides, we won’t get round everything today, so we’ll come back with your mother.’

  He strode off in the direction of the Hall of Space, which Joe decided would be all right as a starting point, but which left Aesha dragging her feet in protest.

  ‘Who cares about space?’ she grumbled. ‘Nobody goes there any more, anyway.’

  Even she began to enthuse, though, as they played with robots, entered a lunar capsule, found out what it was like to work in a TV studio and saw how a satellite operated. At every new interactive station, Joe found himself revising what he wanted to be when he grew up. When they went upstairs to the Hall of Science, with its multitude of handles to turn, buttons to press, peepholes to look through and experiments to perform, he was determined that they would come back and spend a whole day in this amazing place.

  Once outside again, at Aesha’s insistence they made their way to the musical dancing fountain. Joe’s jaw dropped when he saw it. This was nothing like he had imagined. Reading from the programme, Peter informed them that it was composed of 113 water jets with 2,073 nozzles. The pond area was massive and the water, which was lit by 935 coloured lights, spurted up as high as a ten-storey building. The water was choreographed to ‘dance’ to music and light and the whole thing was run by a computer.

  ‘Now do you see what’s so great about a musical dancing fountain?’ Peter asked Joe.

  Joe nodded. He was completely dumbfounded. He took as many photographs as he could, but he knew that none of them could possibly do justice to what he was seeing in front of his eyes.

  ‘Mum would love this!’ Aesha cried. ‘It’s a-ma-zing! I wish I could swim in it.’

  ‘If you do, I won’t be the one to fish you out,’ chuckled Peter. ‘And don’t worry, we’ll most definitely come back. And now, to finish off a brilliant day for all of us, I think it’s time for one of those death-defying simulator rides, don’t you, Joe?’

  Joe didn’t need to be asked twice. He raced ahead in the direction of a large bright-red metal capsule. A short wait later and they were seated inside it, listening to the noise of engines revving loudly. Joe found himself gripping the arms of the seat as they plunged into a volcano at breakneck speed through plumes of smoke and fire. He heard Aesha scream and the squeals of several younger children. It was all so realistic, it was difficult to believe they weren’t really surrounded by red-hot lava. Joe turned to his father for reassurance and saw that his father’s face was tense as well, which made him want to laugh.

  When, after what seemed like hours, the trip was over, they staggered out of the capsule and made their way to where Ravi was waiting for them.

  ‘Have you had a good day?’ he asked.

  ‘Exhausting,’ Peter replied.

  ‘Brilliant!’ Joe and Aesha said.

  ‘I have one more thing to show you,’ their guide told them. ‘It’s on the way home.’

  They settled back into the comfort of the Wolseley. Joe struggled to keep his eyes open, even though he was desperate not to miss any of the sights they were passing. He was drifting off to sleep when he felt someone tugging at his sleeve and realised that the car had stopped.

  ‘Look up in the tree,’ his father said.

  Ravi had got out of the car and was pointing upward. ‘Vulture,’ he said proudly. ‘Always there.’

  Joe leapt out of the car, clutching his camera, and stared up through the leaves. There was a large nest of sticks embedded in the fork between two branches and on it sat a vulture.

  ‘Wow!’ he exclaimed. ‘It’s so big!’

  He aimed his camera and fired off several shots, just as a blast of warm air peppered him with dust.

  ‘That’s an occupational hazard,’ observed his father, who was taking his own photographs from the other side of the tree. ‘Rain, sun and wind can all wreak havoc in a photographer’s life.’

  Joe pulled a face and played back the shots he had taken. In one of them, the vulture’s wing feathers were displaced by the breeze, making it look curiously misshapen.

  ‘Feathers in the Wind’, Joe thought to himself. That’s what I’ll call that photo.

  ‘I still think they’re ugly,’ Aesha muttered, as they returned to the car.

  ‘I hope it’ll still be there after the kite festival,’ Joe said.

  Chapter 7

  Binti was already back at the hotel when they returned. Joe couldn’t wait to tell her everything they had seen and done.

  ‘The robots and the thrill ride and the musical dancing fountain were so cool,’ he said, describing them in detail over dinner. ‘And we’re going there again with you and – guess what, Mum – we saw a vulture!’

  ‘You did?’ Binti asked. ‘Do you know where it was?’ She aimed the question at Peter rather than Joe, but it was Joe who answered.

  ‘Up a tree,’ he replied.

  ‘Helpful,’ Aesha groaned.

  ‘Ravi would be able to tell you,’ Peter said. ‘Is it important?’

  ‘It would be good to know whether or not it’s been tagged,’ said Binti, ‘and what sort it is.’

  ‘How was your day, Mum?’ Aesha asked. ‘I felt sorry for you having to work while we were having fun.’

  ‘I enjoy my work, so it’s not a problem, though I definitely can’t go home without seeing Science City after what you’ve told me.’

  ‘And Lake Kankaria,’ Joe added. ‘Sachin told me about it and said we should go there for a picnic.’

  ‘And you won’t want to miss out on the textile museum,’ said Peter.

  ‘It looks like you’ve got it all mapped out for me.’ Binti laughed. ‘I’ll have to make sure I finish my work in good time. I’ve been showing the local vets how to deal with the sorts of wounds vultures are likely to receive from the kites and how we can make sure they survive. It’s my aim to save every single injured bird.’

  ‘You can do it, Mum,’ Joe said confidently, and that night he dreamt of rows of vultures, all of them sporting bandages, including one with an elaborate head bandage that looked like a turban, and all of them nodding the
ir thanks to Binti and her team.

  The following morning, Joe woke with a knot of excitement in his stomach. Another day of adventure was opening up before him! Sachin was going to show him how to fly a kite and Sachin was the coolest man on earth. Joe dived out of bed, just as his father appeared through the door from the adjoining bedroom.

  ‘You’d better hurry down to breakfast,’ said Peter. ‘Sachin’s waiting outside for you with a bit of a surprise.’

  What sort of surprise? Joe wondered as he scrambled into his clothes.

  He arrived in the dining hall to find that his parents had already eaten, but there was no sign of his sister.

  ‘Where’s Aesha?’ he asked.

  ‘She’s tired and has decided to have a lie-in,’ said Binti.

  ‘She’ll miss out on learning how to fly a kite!’ Joe was incredulous. He couldn’t believe his sister would prefer to stay in bed than to go out with Sachin.

  ‘Our princess needs her beauty sleep,’ said Peter. ‘So I shall wait for her to arise while your mother goes off to work and you go off to play.’

  Joe was secretly pleased at having a solo kite lesson. He bolted down his scrambled egg on toast.

  The surprise revealed itself the moment Joe stepped through the hotel’s front entrance. A green and yellow autorickshaw was parked outside. In the driver’s seat was Sachin, who jumped up as soon as he saw Joe.

  ‘Are you ready for some fun?’ he asked, beaming.

  Joe nodded, turning to his father for confirmation that this was all right. Peter had his camera out and snapped him before he knew what was happening.

  ‘Take good care of my son,’ he said to Sachin. ‘He’s the only one I’ve got.’

  ‘I will take very good care,’ Sachin replied.

  Joe climbed into the back of the rickshaw and they were off.

  The ride was scary and exhilarating at the same time, like being in a bumper car, Joe thought, but – touch wood – without the bumps. Sachin wove his way expertly in and out of the traffic, the rickshaw bouncing and heaving on the uneven road surface. Joe hardly dared look to either side. They passed so close to other vehicles, at times he felt he could stretch out a hand and touch their occupants, especially when they were driving along neck and neck with another rickshaw. Sachin loved using the horn, which was so high-pitched and squeaky Joe doubted anybody could hear it above the cacophony of other noises. He turned occasionally to grin at Joe and shout something about places and people they were passing. Joe struggled to make out what he was saying, but he was thrilled at the magical mystery tour he was being treated to.