Kim and Real Life

I really enjoyed reading Kim. It is a great story describing India, not from a superficial point of view, but from how things happen in the country behind the scenes. It is written from the perspective of a young teenager, Kim, and shows three years of his life and the adventures that take place during this time mixing battles, Tibetan monks, the life of Sahibs and the mysterious Great Game. I read most of Kim after my trip to India, and I saw a few links between it and my trip. I also did a bit of research and found that the story has quite a few connections to the life of its author, Rudyard Kipling. These are a few of the links between the story of Kim and the life of Rudyard Kipling: They were both born in India, but Kipling left at age five. When Kipling returned at age 16, he went to Lahore, the city where Kim grows up and where the book begins. While in India, Kipling visited Simla for summer breaks, another place where Kim went, and he used the train (or terain) like Kim. Other links include Mahabub Ali, one of the main characters, being a real person that the author met, and the man in the wonder house was extremely similar to Kiplings father. I did not see as many connections with my own trip, although I wholeheartedly agree with Kim about one of his observations: Benares struck [Kim] as a peculiarly filthy city1. As in the book, I also found that religion was extremely important in India. Much of daily life is used for praying, appeasing the gods and practising rituals so that you are not cursed. Something that I did not see during my trip that took a big part of the book was when Kim meets people. He grew up in India, is extremely smart at getting what he wants and is very witty so he ends up learning the people he meets whole life story and becomes their best friend in a few minutes. When we went to India, we went as tourists, so we did not talk a lot with the natives. The exception was when we were on the train, we did exactly what he was so good at doing. Kim was very well written, and shows Kipling had a deep understanding of life in India. He includes many allusions and metaphors to show how different a place India is compared to the Western world. A few quotes that I like from Kim: The Woman of Shamlegh had given [the money] to him; and it was only fair, he argued, that her men should earn it back again2. till Kim, who had loved him without reason, now loved him for fifty good reasons3. and Kim kindly allowed a village of hillmen to acquire merit by giving him a rough blanket coat4. my soul was darkened, and the boat of my soul rocked upon the waters of illusion5.

Kipling, Rudyard. Kim. United Kingdom: Macmillan & Co. Ltd,1901. iBooks. Web. October 30, 2013 p.458 2 Kipling, Rudyard. op. cit. pg.652 3 Kipling, Rudyard. op. cit. pg.523 4 Kipling, Rudyard. op. cit. pg.566 5 Kipling, Rudyard. op. cit. pg.636

Mediography
Rudyard Kipling. Kim. iBooks. https://itun.es/ca/_k3Kx.l http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_(novel) http://www.himalayanclub.org/journal/kipling-and-kim/