Rudyard Kipling

From Sea to Sea Rudyard Kipling

Except for those who, under compulsion of a sick certificate, are flying Bombaywards, it is good forevery man to see some little of the great Indian Empire and the strange folk who move about it. It isgood to escape for a time from the House of Rimmon-be it office or cutchery-and to go abroadunder no more exacting master than personal inclination, and with no more definite plan of travelthan has the horse, escaped from pasture, free upon the countryside. The first result of suchfreedom is extreme bewilderment, and the second reduces the freed to a state of mind which, for hissins, must be the normal portion of the Globe-trotter-the man who "does" kingdoms in days andwrites books upon them in weeks. And this desperate facility is not as strange as it seems. By thetime that an Englishman has come by sea and rail via America, Japan, Singapur, and Ceylon, to India, he can-these eyes have seen him do so-master in five minutes the intricacies of the IndianBradshaw, and tell an old resident exactly how and where the trains run. Can we wonder that theintoxication of success in hasty assimilation should make him overbold, and that he should try tograsp-but a full account of the insolent Globe-trotter must be reserved. He is worthy of a book. Given absolute freedom for a month, the mind, as I have said, fails to take in the situation and, aftermuch debate, contents itself with following in old and well-beaten ways-paths that we in Indiahave no time to tread, but must leave to the country cousin who wears his pagri tail-fashion down hisback, and says "cabman" to the driver of the ticca-ghari. Now, Jeypore from the Anglo-Indian point of view is a station on the Rajputana-Malwa line, on theway to Bombay, where half an hour is allowed for dinner, and where there ought to be moreprotection from the sun than at present exists. Some few, more learned than the rest, know thatgarnets come from Jeypore, and here the limits of our wisdom are set. We do not, to quote theCalcutta shopkeeper, come out "for the good of our 'ealth," and what touring we accomplish is forthe most part off the line of rail