Kurt talked a lot — in this he was a typical Yank — and he might have been annoying, but somehow he wasn’t. He had something about him that Vincent liked immediately, against his better judgement. Americans, by definition, were agents of imperialist capitalism but Kurt, who had been among the thousands watching Abbie Hoffman trying to make the Pentagon levitate, was far more politically astute than Vincent had assumed, and more radical.

‘You shoulda seen it,’ Kurt had told them. ‘I nearly got trampled to death by Buddhist monks.’

‘And did it actually levitate?’ Mitch asked credulously.

‘I swear to God,’ Kurt laughed, holding up his fingers to indicate maybe a quarter of an inch.

Vincent had tried to remember what year that had been. 1967? ’68? ’69? Abbie Hoffman was an inspiration to them all. They raved about other things. Ram Dass. Tim Leary. The psychedelic experience.

This was all at the Leopold Café, that first afternoon.

Vincent had been sketching rough portraits of the people around him, seated at a table by himself, trying not to look lonely but listening in, secretly, to the conversation that was taking place beside him. Kurt was recounting a complicated story about the Hindu gods and their vehicles. Finally, Vincent had summoned the courage to ask if he could join them.

‘Absolutely,’ Kurt had said, moving his satchel from the unoccupied chair. ‘You’re from Australia, right, let me guess …’ He closed his eyes. ‘Melbourne?’

Vincent was taken aback. ‘How can you tell?’

‘Shit man, you can tell a mile off,’ Kurt said, beaming.

‘Really?’ No one he’d met in India knew anything about Australia, let alone Melbourne.

Kurt laughed, pointing. ‘It says it on your T-shirt. “Melbourne Paranoid Degenerates Against the War”. Nice one.’

Vincent laughed too. He had forgotten he was wearing that T-shirt, which Astra had made for his birthday two years earlier. Red and black. He shook hands with the Canadians — Mark and Mitch — and took a seat.

‘So,’ Kurt said, turning to him with a look of genuine interest. ‘Tell us the story. What brings you to Bombay?’