Thursday 11 August 2016

I copied kiplings story telling style

Okay folks, I told you why I wrote in Jim Corbetts story telling style. Now lets move to Rudyard Kipling and his famous Jungle book. That includes famous stories like Rikki Tikki Tavi. In my previous blog I told you about the history of the British colonial era building I inherited. The railway bridge that was constructed by Doorman and Long Company is just a stones throw away. It was constructed in 1860 and replaced in 1911. So during this period, passengers had to get down at my home town called Lakhisarai, ford the river with the help of porters, cross over to the other side to Kiul railway station and catch the train to Calcutta. Now Kipling was travelling in this area during that period. So he must have visited my town to ford the river to catch the train on the opposite side. And he must have interacted or socialized with the owners of my bungalow who were the only Britishers in the area. Before the railways, the main mode of travel was by boat up and down the Ganges. The British had newly established their summer capital in the Himalayan foothills in a village called Darjeeling. During the summers the entire Calcutta administration would flock to that Himalayan village. They would board boats on the Ganges, travel up the river, then travel up the Kursela river to a town called Purnea(Where lady Canning, the governor generals wife, was infected by Malaria) which was on the edge of the Terai Jungle. This was the dicey part. From Purnea, the English would dash across the Terai Jungle braving malaria to the safety of the cool Himalayan hill station of Darjeeling. Purnea is just 60 miles from where I live and 45 miles from where Jim Corbett worked in the ferries. Britishers in transit to Calcutta or Darjeeling would spend a week in Purnea recuperating from the long river journey or the dash through malaria infested Terai jungles (those days malaria was known as Purnea fever). So Rudyard Kipling stayed here on his way to Darjeeling and back to Calcutta. It was during his stay here that he got the idea for his famous Jungle Book and the equally famous Rikki Tikki Tavi (the are is infested with cobra snakes). The names of the characters in the book are very similar to local names in the area. The village he chose to place his story in is in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Folks I did a lot of snooping around this town(Purnea) as I have some land there. The old colonial buildings are too regal for such a small town. Now you will understand why I copied Kiplings writing style. Here are the links of two of my books which have similar characters.
https://www.amazon.com/Eating-Tiger-Chitwan-Ashok-Kumar-ebook/dp/B01H2JEUZW/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1470972867&sr=8-8&keywords=ashok+singh%28kindle%29

https://www.amazon.com/Killer-Elephant-Ashok-Kumar-Singh-ebook/dp/B00JDM962E/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1470972956&sr=8-4&keywords=ashok+singh%28kindle%29
Man Eating Tiger of Chitwan by [Singh, Ashok Kumar]

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