Vedantic Tales : The Discipleship
        of Ajay : The Osprey

After that first day, Sanyal seemed to take no special interest in Ajay, yet from time to time Ajay felt the novice-master closely watching him, and as the months went by, Sanyal's promise to him became a reality: he was learning to do easily what had seemed impossible; he was becoming expert, and soon he was promoted from freshman to sophomore. This meant that Sanyal was no longer his housemaster; but it also meant that they could now treat each other as friends, and whenever there was a holiday, the two young ospreys flew off together, wheeling and looping, sliding down the wind, and chasing one another in the brilliant air. At such times, free from the daily routine, Ajay keenly remembered his glimpse of the Infinite, and a great longing for It seized him; nothing else seemed to have the least significance.

At the end of Ajay's junior year at the Himalayan College he had an experience of quite a different kind. He had become as adept in aerial acrobatics as any student and, for that matter, any instructor barring Sanyal, whose flying skills were unsurpassed and seemingly unsurpassable. To the intense displeasure of the seniors, Ajay was judged fit to graduate with them, skipping his final year. It was obligatory, of course, that he take the display examinations with the graduating class. Sanyal urged him to do so, and Ajay himself, eager to start his career in the world as an accredited performer, felt elated by the chance, but he was nervous as well, for the older birds, against whom he would compete, still dazzled him with their own growing expertise particularly the falcons, and among the falcons, particularly the one that Sanyal three years earlier had called that show off. His name was Ahmad.

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