Robbie
Certainly agree with you about the view from Mussoorie - one can certainly
see Dehra Dun and the the plains spread out before one. A memorable sight it
is too.
A quote from Carrington:
The most delicate passages in the Jungle Books, notably 'The Miracle of
Purun Bhagat', were written under the fastidious eye of Lockwood Kipling,
always his son's severest critic.
If RK's memory let him down, why did Lockwood let this geographic fact go
uncorrected ?
Regards
Michael Jefferson
-----Original Message-----
From: Robbie White <[log in to unmask]>
To: Kipling Rudyard <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Saturday, March 18, 2000 5:05 PM
Subject: The miracle of Purun Bhagat
>Dear fellow members
>
>Before I ask the question, may I quote the paragraph from "The miracle
>of Purun Bhagat".
>
>The last time he had come this way it had been in state, with a
>clattering cavalry escort, to visit the gentlest and most affable of
>Viceroys; and the two had talked for an hour together about mutual
>friends in London, and what the Indian common folk really thought of
>things. This time Purun Bhagat paid no calls, but leaned on the rail of
>the Mall, watching that glorious view of the Plains spread out forty
>miles below, till a native Mohammedan policeman told him that he was
>obstructing traffic; an Purun Bhagat salaamed reverently to the Law,
>because he knew the value of it, and was seeking for a Law of his own.
>
>I lived in Simla for year, and celebrated my sixteenth birthday there.
>I have to tell you that the Plains, as stated in the above paragraph,
>are not visible from Simla. My mother and father have confirmed this.
>One only has to look at a map of the area to see that Simla has forty
>miles or so of foothills between it and the Plains. I can tell you
>that Purun Bhagat could not have possibly seen the Plains from the
>Mall. No way! However, I went to school in Mussoorie, another hill
>station, when I was 9 years of age. The Plains are clearly visible from
>there. (Look at a map). Perhaps Kipling, who wrote this story when he
>was in America, confused the two. I would welcome comment from the
>members on this subject.
>
>Cheerio and all the best
>
>Robbie White
>Western Australia
>
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