While driving through Saddar on my way to school every morning I would always glance up at the large birds that were circling various tall buildings. There was hardly ever a day that went by without listening to the distant, shrill cry of a kite, the annoying "kaw-kaw" of a crow, or the soft "crrroooo-crrroooo" of a pigeon. I always wondered what they were saying, and what it was like to live up among the clouds.

As the early morning light fell across my face I tried to hide my face under my wing to be able to sleep just a little bit longer, and just when I was falling back to sleep I was nudged awake by my friend Cheekoo.
"Wake up sleepy head! It's already dawn!"

"Cheekoo, just because you wake up so early, do you have to come around and disturb me?"

"Come on, it's a beautiful day, and who knows what adventures we'll come across today. We could end up searching for kidnapped hatchlings, or soar through the sky in pursuit of a thieving Falcon.but first breakfast."

"All you ever think of is your stomach"; I yawned and stood up, ruffled my feathers and stretched my stiff legs.
"Well now that I'm up, we might as well get something to eat. So what will it be this morning? Shall we surprise a few plump, sleepy pigeons, or should we go to the dump behind Empress market to scrounge at yesterdays' treats?"

"I don't know about you, Panchi, but I'm craving a fat rat followed by a nice, juicy mango!"

So away we flew towards the back streets of Soldier Bazaar. Those dark alleys were crawling with rodents, Kites have very sharp eyesight and can see things hundreds of meters away. The rats didn't have a chance. After seizing them with our feet we carried them off to the top of the Holy Trinity Church where we could eat in peace.

"Now for some fruit," said Cheekoo, licking his beak.

"I'll race you, last one there is a buzzard!" I said as I dove off the steeple towards Empress Market. I stopped at a telephone pole just before the dump and let Cheekoo catch up.

"Hey, no fair, you cheated!" puffed Cheekoo,

"You know I can't race after a big breakfast, and besides you started before me!"

Every morning hundreds of kites and crows would flock to this particular dump, where shopkeepers would throw out overly ripe fruit and vegetables, and if we were lucky, some yummy scraps of chicken and fish. I had no idea why people would throw away such delicacies; but then again mother always said that humans were weird.
"I hope there are some mangos left over", whined Cheekoo. He always worried about there not being enough food, but there was always more than enough to feed everyone, but not today. There were a large number of birds circling above the dump, but none were feeding on the ground. I flew up next to Kohar, our head kite, and asked her what was wrong.

"When we arrived here about half and hour ago the dump was empty. The humans must have cleared it early this morning."

"Where could they have taken it?" I asked.

"Our night scouts have informed us that they saw a large Balla (better known to you as a truck) come while it was still dark and take everything away. They followed it for a while, it went in the direction of the Field of Plenty." said Kohar.

On the outskirts of Karachi was a large landfill known as the Field of Plenty. Every bird dreamed about going there, for it was said that there was enough food there to feed all birdkind for centuries. However, going there wasn't something most birds wanted to do. You see the Field was guarded by an ancient race of birds known as the Egyptian Vultures. They were big, ugly and horribly smelly birds, plus they weren't very kind to strangers. Now don't get the wrong idea; not all vultures are unfriendly birds. The Cinerous Vultures for example, have been our friends and neighbors for centuries. Kohar told us that an emergency meeting had been called at the Tower of Silence for all of Karachi's birds, at noon.

I flew back to Cheekoo and told him what I had heard, and we started spreading word of the meeting around. At noon we flew towards the Tower of Silence. The Tower was one of the oldest feeding grounds for all birdkind. It was a tall tower that has an opening at the top, from where we entered. There was nothing edible in the tower, as there had been no recent human deaths, but the walls were covered with birds of all kinds; crows, kites, mannahs, koels, vultures and even pigeons perched on every ledge available. At the bottom of the tower sat the High Council, which was made up of the head birds representing different groups of birds.

"Noble kites, dark crows, melodious manna's, peaceful koels, fellow vultures and fuzzy pigeons; welcome." said Shakkar, the wise old vulture. "We are here today because the humans, in a sudden surge of cleanliness, have moved their garbage away from the usual dumps and to the Field of Plenty. We sent a messenger to the Ancient Ones to ask for free passage into their domain to collect food, but so far we haven't heard from any of the messen."

Just then a pigeon fluttered into the tower and landed on the ground with a thud.
"Silence, please be silent," said Kohar, "tell us little friend what was the answer from the vultures."

"Those nasty birds! They made me wait hours in a room that smelt horrible and then two guards took me to their leader. After arguing with me, he told me to leave and dared us city birds to try and enter the Field."

It seemed that there was a problem because even though these vultures were smaller than the Cinerous vultures, and weren't very intelligent, there were still a lot of them. After much debate and argument a solution was reached, we would challenge them to a duel. Not a violent duel, but one involving riddle and puzzles. Vultures loved riddles but aren't very good at them. Now they needed someone to be the riddler. Everyone looked around at each other not wanting to volunteer.

"Since no one is willing to come forward themselves, we will have to determine the identity of the riddler using the spinning wheel." said Kofu, the eldest of the crow clan. Kohar blindfolded herself and flew halfway up the Tower and began spinning, around and around . then she stopped and flew directly towards me!

"It seems our riddler will be Panchi!" I gulped hard, I didn't want this job, but I had no choice.

That evening I returned to my nest on the roof of an apartment building. I had a hard time going to sleep; I was too busy trying to remember all the riddles that the council had told me to memorize. I fell asleep just as I was thinking about what would happen if I didn't win. The next morning I woke to the sound of thunder, but there was no rain, just dark clouds and smog.

When Karachi started growing, the amount of air pollution increased. At first the number of birds in the city decreased. However, after a while some got used to the fumes and smoke (like the crows), or left to live in the city outskirts, where the pollution was less intense (like the Egyptian Vultures).

The next morning after not being able to find anything but a lizard or two to eat, I made my way to the Tower. I flew with Shakkar towards the Field and waved goodbye to Cheekoo.

We flew into the Vultures main hall through the skylight, because the smell was so bad I had to hold my breath. Shakkar came along to act as an interpreter since I didn't understand vulture-talk. The head vulture, Lamar, was the most intelligent and largest Egyptian Vulture and he was to be my opponent. If I won the city birds could come and feed at the Field, if I lost I was in trouble.

I started with a riddle:

"Alive, but not breathing
Wet, but not soaked
My lips move and yet I don't speak,
What am I?"

Lamar thought for a while and finally yelled out,
"A fish, a fish, it has to be a fish!"

Then he said:

"Howling without a voice,
Touching without hands,
Moving without legs,
Blowing without breath."

I had to admit I had no clue what he meant, but just when I thought I'd lost, a strong breeze blew through the hall. "It's the wind! " I said and Shakkar flapped his wings in approval. I thought for a while and then said:

"I lay eggs and have a beak,
But I'm not a bird,
I swim, yet I'm not a fish,
And my furry coat keeps me warm."

The confused vulture thought and flew in circles around the hall, but he couldn't guess what I was talking about. Finally he gave up and both Shakkar and I cheered.

"Will you now let us feed here in the Field of Plenty?" asked Shakkar.

"Oh.alright, you have free passage into our lands," grumbled the disappointed vulture, and as we were turning to leave, he said,

"Wait a moment little kite, what was the answer to that riddle you asked?"

"The duckbilled Platypus, of course!" I said over my shoulder as we flew out of the hall.

Well, you know what happened next? We, city birds flew to the Field for food and the vultures didn't stop us, and after a while we got used to the smell.

You know those vultures aren't really all that bad once you get to know them.

by Natasha Kamal