Aharsi, the big Bengal tiger, was having a good think.

It was winter and he was still

getting used to the feeling of ice on the pads of his paws. He shivered a little,
missing the warm ooze of mangrove mud.

Aharsi was missing lots of things. He missed the way the sun made his coat glow a
regal orange, or how the glare of midday brightness made his black stripes look so
bold and striking like black lightning bolts. He missed dozing in the evening heat and
catching the last shafts of sunlight as they cut through the jungle vines. He wondered
if he would ever again hear Doyel birds chattering in the trees, or catch the scent of
ripe mangoes on the breeze. It was these fleeting, poignant moments that the
Bengal tiger was trying so hard to picture in his mind. Aharsi missed his home.

His whiskers bristled as he let out a big sigh, sending the starlings that had been
pecking at the frozen ground scattering up into the grey sky. Three hours had
passed, and even though he thought very hard, all the tiger had managed to
remember was some vague half images of mangoes and mangroves. He was
worried that he was forgetting all about his old home altogether.

When Aharsi first arrived at the zoo in England with his mother and father, everything
was so exciting. He lapped it all up; his amber eyes burned with curiosity as he
jumped from tree to tree or smelled each flower or pawed at each tiny insect.

‘Now just calm down, Aharsi,’ his mother would say. ‘You have come a long way.
There is plenty of time to explore; now you must rest.’

But the young tiger was too busy to rest. There were new animals to meet, new trees
to climb. There was so much to learn about his new home. Before the sun went
down on that first day, Aharsi had bounded around all of the animals’ cages, asking
them question after question, absorbing the strange exotic colours of the paradise
birds and smelling the sweet and unfamiliar smell of the hay in the rhino stalls. But
the more he explored, the more Aharsi realised how different his new home was to
where he’d come from. And now the young tiger was worried that he’d lost all of the
precious memories he had of his homeland. He was worried that he'd forgotten all
about being a Bengal tiger.

Aharsi squeezed his eyes closed and flicked his tail purposefully from side to side.
‘Remember,’ he told himself. ‘Try to think harder!’

Hours passed, the day grew dimmer and the rest of the animals started to settle
down in the twilight. After a while, Aharsi felt someone looking at him. He opened
one eye, keen to stay as focused as he could; trying to remember, just trying to
remember. It was Zody the Leopard.

‘What are yooouuu doing?’ came the deep, purring voice.

‘I’m remembering,’ Aharsi answered. ‘Now if you don’t mind…’ Aharsi closed his eye
once more and tried to concentrate even harder.

‘Reeemembering?’ asked Zody.

‘Yes. I’ve forgotten all about being a Bengal tiger, and where I’ve come from, so I’m
trying to remember it before it’s all gone forever. Now if you don’t mind…’

Once again Aharsi squeezed his eyes shut and tried to summon images from his
homeland.

‘You won’t get faaar with your eeeyes closed,’ said Zody.

Aharsi opened his eyes wide and looked quite annoyed. ‘I won’t get anywhere unless
you leave me alone to think!’ he said. ‘You wouldn’t understand anyway, you’re not
even a tiger, let alone a Bengal tiger! You’re a leopard!’

‘You silly animal!’ said Zody, rattling with laughter. ‘Look there!’ She pointed to a
shiny slick patch of ice on the hard ground.

Aharsi stared back at Zody in some confusion. ‘I think you may have gone a bit
bonkers, Zody,’ he said, and just then he almost wanted to laugh himself.

‘If you want to remeeember how to be a tiiiger,’ said Zody in a kind voice, ‘just look!’

‘Fine, if you’ll leave me alone then I’ll look.’

Aharsi bent his neck a little and peered into the glassy ice mirror on the ground. Zody
purred over his shoulder.

‘What beauuutiful stripes you have,’ she said. ‘When I look into the mirror I see myyy
spots. Nobody else has spots quite like mine. My mother had spots, and my mother’s
mother, and my mother’s mother’s mother… all the way back to when my great-
great-great grandma prowled the grasses of South Africa!’

Aharsi noticed Zody’s eyes getting brighter as she pictured the sun-baked savanna
and lush green jungles of her home. ‘When I see my spots,’ she continued, ‘I see my
whole history. And I will always have my spots.’ She winked at Aharsi. ‘After all,’ she
said, ‘a leopard never changes its spots!’

‘But don’t you ever get homesick or sad?’ the young tiger asked in a slight mewl.
‘Everything is so different here.’

‘We all get homesick,’ Zody replied while pawing at the ice, ‘but look here at our
reflections. We are not sooo very different. You are from Bengal and I am from
Africa, but see how we have the same whiskers. And see here…’ Zody cut an
impressive jagged line in the ice with her sharp claws and then raised them up so
that they shone in the fading light. ‘We both have theeese,’ she said with a grin.

Just then there was a great trumpeting sound from the elephants’ enclosure in the
east corner of the zoo.

‘Well that’s not so amazing,’ said Aharsi. ‘We are both cats. But I’m nothing like the
elephants over there, am I?’
Zody giggled. ‘They might look different and sooouuund different, but I’ll bet even
elephants get homesick too. That is something you have in common.’

Aharsi looked unsure, as he thought that the elephants were far too big and strong to
ever be sad. ‘I bet they still remember where they are from,’ he said. ‘My mother told
me that an elephant never forgets.’

Zody hissed and giggled and rolled around on the hard ground. ‘That’sss true!’ she
admitted. ‘An elephant never forgets!’

‘And I bet the zebras don’t get scared,’ Aharsi continued, still a little bit sulky but
starting to smile at his friend’s antics.

‘Haven’t you seen them running from the zookeeper’s tractor?’ asked Zody.

‘And… and the crocodiles? Do they get scared and sad too?’ Aharsi asked.

‘Haven’t you seen them hiiiding beneath the water?’ Zody replied as she gave her
friend a playful bump with her nose. ‘We aaall miss home sometimes, Aharsi. But
that is why we all look different. We are different so that we can remember. Look at
me. I have this beauuutiful tail which reminds me that we leopards are the best at
balancing up high in the trees.’

Aharsi felt much better and soon began to rumble with a deep purr. ‘And I will always
have my stripes for hiding in the tall grass. We tigers are the best hunters in all of
Bengal!’

‘Your stripes go wherever you go, Aharsi,’ Zody said with a smile.

‘And when the elephants feel sad they can look at their trunks to remember that they
are the best at splashing in the water,’ said Aharsi. ‘And when the crocodiles feel sad
or scared they can look at their webbed feet and remember that they are the fastest
in the river…’

The young tiger trailed off a little, his eyes were growing heavy and he yawned
without noticing. It was evening now and the zoo was alive with the crooning calls of
countless animals. Some were stripey, some were spotty. Not any one of them was
the same as the other. As night fell and a million stars filled the sky, Aharsi began to
understand that though all of the animals were different, they all felt the same
sometimes. That is when he knew that he would never be alone, and that is when he
knew he would always carry his home in his heart forever.