India Dark by Kirsty Murray

Author:Kirsty Murray
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: JUV000000, book
ISBN: 9781742692319
Publisher: Allen & Unwin Pty Ltd
Published: 2010-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

34

WAYS OF SEEING

Poesy Swift

I lay under a tree in the Maidan as tiny yellow and orange petals fell on my face. Charlie lay beside me, and we watched as the Lilliputians picnicked on the grass. The warmth of a lazy afternoon made me feel far away from my body. I listened to the sounds of bells and people’s voices speaking words I couldn’t understand. Somewhere a man was singing, but it was more like a wail, not a song, at least not one I had ever heard before. I didn’t have a name for his song, or for anything in the park. Everything was familiar yet strange – the trees, the birds, the flowers, even the people. It was as if I would need a whole new language to describe India, not just words.

‘What are those birds called?’ I asked Charlie. ‘Those blue-black ones that are everywhere and the bigger, raggedy ones that circle over the zoo and the gardens. And the tiny little squirrels – they must be Indian squirrels. They don’t look anything like Squirrel Nutkin in the story. I thought squirrels were very English animals.’

‘Maybe those birds are vultures,’ said Charlie. ‘There are so many vultures in India that the Parsees put their dead on towers and then the vultures eat them. It only takes minutes. But I don’t think there are many Parsees in Calcutta. When we get to Bombay, we can go and see one of their towers.’

I didn’t tell him this made me feel squeamish. I simply stared at him.

‘You don’t believe me?’

‘Of course I believe you,’ I said.

‘It’s true, you know. I’ve learned a lot about India. They have real magicians here, not just ones that do card tricks, but ones who do real magic. Snake charmers and snake jugglers and avatars and sadhus. I’m going to find one, a genuine fakir, who can show me how to grow a mango tree in an instant and conjure a rope that I can climb until I disappear, and get him to teach me everything he knows. You wait and see. By the time we leave India, I’ll be a sorcerer, not simply a boy magician.’

‘I heard Mrs Besant talk about seeing that rope trick here in India. She said the fakirs were mesmerists. I’m sure they’d do a better job of it than Tilly but I suppose I’ll never get a chance to find out. We can never see anything when we’re only going back and forth from the theatre, and half the time that’s in the dark.’

‘You only have to look around you. I’ve seen plenty. Yesterday, I saw a fakir sitting on a bed of nails. There are always fakirs in the marketplaces. They’re amazing. I saw one that had kept his hand above his head for years and it was all shrivelled, like a little wizened stick.’

I screwed up my nose. I didn’t like to even think of them, these people with all their bits missing or mangled.

‘Don’t be like that, Poesy,’ said Charlie.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.