Review Details
Here is a gripping saga of intrigue and ambition, jealousy and compassion, spies and villains, secret caves and mysterious sky holes. Only, it is set in the bird kingdom and the drama begins in Rose Garden, the home of Shikar, the squirrel.
Sky bird Kabul, the bulbul, is on a secret mission fraught with dangers. She hurriedly explains the location of this mission to the scout birds, the two doves, Lovey and Dovey, before she leaves. However, she hasn’t noticed Mike, a shrike, who is a newcomer to the area, eavesdropping nearby, until it’s too late.
The scout birds are perturbed when Kabul doesn’t return from her mission. According to her instructions, if that happens, they must fly five days later to a lake set in the middle of a sky hole, which is a kind of crater. This would take them a couple of days to reach.
What happens after they set off? Lovey and Dovey notice that Mike is trailing them. However, they don’t anticipate the dangers they will face. Instead of following Kabul’s instructions they change direction to look for her, when suddenly, there is an attack from birds in the sky. The scout birds find themselves being escorted towards a place called Stork-pur. Here there is a gathering of hundreds of flamingos, godwits, parakeets and herons, guarded by ospreys and storks on the ground, and harriers in the sky. Will the birds attack them?
They are taken prisoner, and the ’Master’, a black-necked stork ‘with a grotesque beak and pink legs’, advances imperiously towards them. He wants to strike a deal. The doves can buy their freedom if they disclose the exact location of Kabul’s destination. Otherwise Kabul, who they learn was also a prisoner there with a broken wing, will be executed within a week.
