In the footsteps of Kipling’s Kim

Preparing a tour of Northern India and Central Shrines

Literature and travelling. The two can have quite many similarities. Empathy, a receptive mind, reflection, and observation are all common experiences related to “good travelling” and “good fiction”.
Literature is also a good way of exploring a place before even leaving your home. In this regard, travel literature and historical fiction have been by far my best guides in understanding a country or inspiring me for new explorations.

The trip before the trip

“Kim”, by Nobel Prize Rudyard Kipling, is one of those books.
Kim is a British orphan, a street child of Lahore (now Pakistan). When 12 years old, he crosses paths with a Tibetan Lama, a holy man travelling through India in search of enlightenment. Fascinated by the genuineness of the holy man, with curiosity as sole motivation, relying only on its own strength, Kim leaves the familiar streets of Lahore.

A trip from West to East, from Pakistan to Varanasi (Benares in the book), the spiritual capital of India. His adventure will take you through an exciting, diverse India of cultures, colours and landscapes.

The thin air refreshed him, and he sat on the edge of precipices with the best of them, and, when talk languished, flung pebbles into the void. Thirty miles away, as the eagle flies, lay the next range, seamed and channelled and pitted with little patches of brush— forests, each a day’s dark march. Behind the village, Shamlegh hill itself cut off all view to southward. It was like sitting in a swallow’s nest under the eaves of the roof of the world.

Through Kim’s eyes, I’ve experienced a country of adventures, superstitions, magic, prophecies, amulets and conspiracies. A seductive mix of contradictions, colourfully depicted by Kipling’s rich descriptions.

Kim’s friends and role models are Teshoo Lama, a Tibetan Lama, Mahbub Ali, a Muslim horse trader, Colonel Creighton, a British Army officer and ethnologist, Lurgan Sahib, a Simla gem trader and magician.

The ‘Little Friend of all the World’ (as Kim is called by his friends) is surrounded and nourished by diversity. He embraces it. As the ideal traveller should, he finds novelty intriguing and fascinating, and India is the perfect setting for his adventure.

We find a people conscious of their roles, conscious of their power and separateness, yet at the same time fearful of expressing their delight at their situation: they are all burdened by responsibilities.

The plot unwinds around two stories in which Kim plays a major role:

The Lama’s “quest to free himself from the Wheel of Things by finding the legendary River of the Arrow“.
The Great Game, the strategic conflict between Russia and Britain for the influence over Central Asia.

Kim has in him those attributes that I aim to as a traveller.

He accepts diversity, he is moved by curiosity and enthusiasm, he has no judgment on different cultures, he finds his way thanks to his kindness and empathy and he is attracted by the unconventional and open to learning.

While he’s open and willing, his senses are always on alert to catch opportunities and avoid risks. Whether it is helping a Lama in his spiritual search or playing the dangerous game of spies, Kim is appreciated for his craftiness and wit.

He’s strong and independent and can walk the world with confidence and curiosity. His journey, as yours should be, is a trip of thousands infatuations.

‘A fair land— a most beautiful land is this of Hind— and the land of the Five Rivers is fairer than all,’ Kim half chanted. ‘Into it I will go again if Mahbub Ali or the Colonel lift hand or foot against me. Once gone, who shall find me? Look, Hajji, is yonder the city of Simla? Allah, what a city!’

Kim’s itinerary

Kim leaves Lahore by train with the Lama with the idea to go East to Varanasi, “the holiest of the seven sacred cities (Sapta Puri) in Hinduism and Jainism”, which also played an important role in Buddhism.

They first get e train to Ambala, where they decide to continue afoot on the Grand Trunk Road.

A scene from the Ambala cantonment during the British Raj.

And truly the Grand Trunk Road is a wonderful spectacle. It runs straight, bearing without crowding India’s traffic for fifteen hundred miles—such a river of life as nowhere else exists in the world.

Not long after Kim meet his destiny. Before arriving in Saharanpur, the prophecy of the “Red Bull on a green field” resolves when the two cross paths with a British regiment. Kim is identified as the orphaned son of an Irish soldier and held. He’s then sent to Lucknow, further East, to attend Saint Xavier school, where he will be educated as a cartographer and his role in the Great Game is set.

During the years of his education, Kim manages to escape school several times. During this period he meets the Lama and travels India in all directions during his holidays, visiting many cities, including Delhi and Patiala.

A key episode of the book is when Kim meets Lurgan Sahib, in Simla. Lurgan is one of the main players of The Great Game. He has a central role in Kim’s life too as he inspires Kim and recognizes his potential.

After dinner, Lurgan Sahib’s fancy turned more to what might be called dressing-up … He could paint faces to a marvel; with a brush-dab here and a line there changing them past recognition. The shop was full of all manner of dresses and turbans, and Kim was apparelled variously as a young Mohammedan of good family, an oilman, and once—which was a joyous evening—as the son of an Oudh landholder in the fullest of full dress. Lurgan Sahib had a hawk’s eye to detect the least flaw in the make-up; and lying on a worn teak-wood couch, would explain by the half-hour together how such and such a caste talked, or walked, or coughed, or spat, or sneezed, and, since ‘hows’ matter little in this world, the ‘why’ of everything.

Expectations

I do a great deal of imagination work on people, literature and countries. Expectations are built easily in me and as easily broken or mutated, in a process of demystification that I consider part of my personal growth.

In regard to India, Kim is only the last of the sources that grew in me the current Idea of India.

From my youth, I bring unfading memories of pirates, tigers and underground tribes (the Thuggee) infesting the Sundarbans in “The Mystery of the Black Jungle“, by E. Salgari.

My current read will be hardly forgotten. Be sure not to miss the vivid descriptions of the slums of Mumbai, the controversial philosophy of necessity and acceptance, and the spiritual and human experience and the realism of “Shantaram“, by G. D. Roberts.

In short, I’m looking forward to this trip. I’m looking forward to meeting the India of my imagination, facing confronting situations, building new ideas, to be surprised and touched.

My Indian itineraries

Now, I’m not the kind of traveller that wants to plan in advance. My guidelines are more or less:

Meet locals.
Be open (to changes).
Improvise.
Get lost.
Indulge.
Given these, planning is rather a limit than an advantage.

Since we’re talking about India, which to me is a synonym for adventure, I would rather say that based on Kim’s itinerary, I’ve figured out two areas and identified some points of interest that I may possibly visits, if I won’t be too engaged in meeting awesome new people.

I left out the apparently awesome Rajasthan and Delhi because they are barely mentioned in the book.

Northern India

Squeezed between Pakistan, China, Tibet and the Himalayas, this is an area of treckings, yogis, Buddhism, monasteries and, unexpectedly to me, startups!

While I’m not very excited about temperatures hitting often 0°C (travelling in February), jumping from Stockholm's holdback/posh tech community to a monasteries-cluttered fast-growing tech scene is quite appealing!

Punjab

The Harmandir Sahib (The abode of God), known as the Golden Temple

Punjab is the homeland of Sikh community (well known for their welcoming attitude and their fierce fighting with the Indian army). Food is taken seriously here. This area gave to the world chicken tandoori and butter chicken.

Amritsar’s Golden Temple is the holiest place of worship for Sikhs.
Nek Chand Rock Garden, Chandigarh. Connected to Delhi by Grand Trunk Road.
Patiala and its Bahadurgarh Fort.

Himachal Pradesh

The more I read about this corner of the world nestled in Himalayan foothills, the more this area seems interesting.

Are you looking for outdoor adventures? Architecture? Nature? Technology? Spirituality? Well, you’ll find them all here.

Shimla is an Indian popular holiday retreat and former summer capital of British India. Kipling’s favourite summer destination.
McLeod Ganj, Sidhbari and Dharamshala. This area is home to the Government of Tibet in exile, many Tibetan refugees, the Dalai Lama in person, spiritual retreats and a lively startup scene.

Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh

Yapola River (also known as the Wanla river), Wanla village, Zanskar

Jammu is a pilgrimage destination for Hindus. Kashmir is a Muslim region well known for its alpine sceneries (and political instability). Ladakh is a Himalayan home for Tibetan Buddhists. Three words in a mountainous corner of the earth.

Leh, High-desert Himalayan town. Renowned for its palace modelled on the famous Potala Tibetan palace in Lhasa.
Srinagar. Lakes, rivers, gardens, Islamic shrines. A dreamy destination ideal for honeymoons.

The Central Shrines

A probably more touristy path is to take east from Delhi, down to Kolkata or up to Darjeeling. Trains serve this area, as others, very well. Indulge in slow and peaceful travelling through cities that played major roles in Hinduism and Buddhism.

Uttar Pradesh

Agra. A must-do, is the Taj Mahal, the iconic mausoleum.

Varanasi. On the Ganges, is one of the seven holy cities for Hinduism. Colourful and chaotic, it is a city of pilgrimage.
Bodhgaya. Buddha reached the enlightenment
Sarnath is another key site for a Buddhist itinerary.

West Bengal and Darjeeling

The Himalayan mountains are in the background of the Darjeeling railway.

Kolkata is India’s cultural capital and former capital of British India. Ideal for foodies interested in Bengali cuisine or excursions to the Sunderbans.
Darjeeling, a hill station immersed in the tea plantations. It can be reached with the famous “Darjeeling Himalayan Railway“.