Feathers in the Wind (3 page)

‘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 temple 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 their 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.

Poor Aesha, fancy staying in bed and missing this
, he thought as they chugged along a narrow backstreet where chickens skedaddled and children waved excitedly as they passed.

Eventually, they left the city centre behind and came to a vast open area of scrubby grassland. Sachin stopped the rickshaw.

‘Here we are,’ he said. ‘There’s plenty of space here for us to practise, though when you’re an expert you’ll be able to fly a kite from the smallest rooftop.’

He helped Joe from the rickshaw, grabbed a holdall from the front and brought out a red and blue kite that opened into the shape of a diamond. Joe had been hoping for something more elaborate and his disappointment must have been obvious, because Sachin explained that it was best to start with something simple.

‘We need to attach the line and then we’re ready.’

He showed Joe how and where to tie the string and, once it was secure, handed him the spool.

‘This string hasn’t got glass on it, has it?’ Joe was anxious to know.

Sachin shook his head. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘The vultures are safe with us. Now, hold on tightly to the handles of the spool while I walk away from you with the kite.’

Joe did as he was told, watching the line unravel as Sachin moved away in a direction he had chosen by wetting a finger and holding it up in the air.

‘Can you feel the wind blowing from you to me?’ Sachin asked him.

Joe wasn’t sure he could feel any wind at all, until a gentle breeze tickled the back of his hair.

‘There’s not much wind,’ he called.

‘It’s enough,’ Sachin called back. ‘Now, I’m going to let go of the kite and I want you to pull on the line, not too hard and not too soft. Try to pick up the wind.’