Episode 29 - Kim by Rudyard Kipling

This week we’re reading the first half of Kim by Rudyard Kipling

Kim is an odd tale of an Irish orphan from the Indian city of Lahore. He is known to the people of Lahore as “Friend of the World” and Kipling shows us the varied peoples that consider Kim such a friend. The main arc of the story begins when Kim meets a Holy Man from Tibet, known to us as llama. This man is searching for a great River which will wash away his sins and release the llama from the Wheel of Life, coincidentally Kim also has a prophesy to fulfill, he must find a Red Bull in green grass which portends war. Off Kim and the llama go in search of the River over roads and on trains, the llama impressive in his forbearance and wisdom, Kim in his sly trickery. Until Kim comes upon a British regiment which turns out to be the regiment of his now deceased father. Kim is captured by the soldiers and sent to a school far away to be trained as a learned British subject - will Kim escape, does he even want to, and what happens to the llama? We’ll find out next week in this  strange fairy-tale of a story.



Or will we?