‘Frogs’ legs.’ Anima laughs at Feroze’s eager expression. Then says quietly, ‘The latest estimate is 25,000 dead.’

‘Anima, please. Can we not speak about the tsunami for this one day at least?’

Shekhar and Sharada are a little late in starting. Shantanu has not slept all night. The sudden chill in the air has given him a cold. They don’t want to take him to Matheran. So Shekhar’s mother has been called to babysit. She has had to hurry through her own chores before she can come over. Despite the late start, they are at the foot of Matheran a little before Ashesh’s Padmini winds her way there.

Once all there, they set off on foot up the incline to Feroze’s uncle’s bungalow. ‘Why did your Hoshi Uncle have to build a house at the other end of town?’ Shekhar is already panting.

‘He didn’t build it. It belonged to a Britisher. Hoshi Uncle bought it from him.’

By the time they get to Sylvania, it is lunchtime. ‘When I was a kid, this place was dense jungle,’ Feroze tells Maya. ‘By the time you got to the berry bushes your feet were in tatters.’

‘What berries?’

‘I’ll show you if there are any left.’

She nods and strides ahead. Haridas shouts after her, ‘Watch out for snakes and elephants.’

She turns around and says, ‘I’ll have them for lunch.’

In the evening Feroze takes them to his favourite ‘point’. The road is long and difficult. When they finally arrive at the ‘point’, they flop on the scattered boulders, completely done in. The wind funnels up the valley, whistling. The sun is about to set behind the hills. Feroze wants his friends to watch the drama that is about to unfold. He puts his finger to his lips to hush them. As the sun dips, the shadow of one hill slides slowly across the face of the other. While gold dust still gilds the tops of the hills, their rugged rock faces are turning slate grey. The men and women on the boulders hold their breath as the rims of the hills dim, looming against the sky like monsters in black. An enormous shadow climbs swiftly up from the valley to hug their feet.