Kipling, que nació en la populosa ciudad de Bombay en 1865, recibió desde su primera infancia las vivídas impresiones de este mundo inagotable. Su trabajo como periodista le obligó a viajar por todos los rincones de la India y le abrió las puertas de los más diversos
ambientes. Gracias a ello, Kipling supo retratar con profundidad la vida de la sociedad Britanica y la variopinta mezcla de gentes y costumbres de la India ( )

(1890) Just recently, Kipling's horror stories were recommended to me. This one is quite excellent.
The 'mark of the beast' here has nothing to do with Satan. It's a bit more literal than that...

Some wealthy British men in India are out late at a party. One of their number gets falling-down drunk, and two of his associates take it upon themselves to get him home. However, on their way, the drunk man gets aggressive, and before his friends can stop him, in a move of total douchebaggery he intentionally desecrates a shrine of Hanuman that they happen to be passing. Religious services were in progress and the less-drunk men fully expect to be physically attacked in punishment for their serious transgression. Instead, the only thing that happens just then is a strange encounter with a leper at the temple.

Later, however, they realize that they might not actually have gotten off as easily at it seemed.

Kipling often gets a bad rap for his colonialism and belief in Manifest Destiny - but this story, while it may not portray Hinduism accurately, has a pretty strong message about having respect for belief systems that may differ from your own. ( )

A collection of short stories from Rudyard Kipling that was of some interest, but turned out to be very uneven. “The City of Dreadful Night”, on Lahore, “The Dream of Duncan Parrenness” on the loss of innocence, and “The Mark of the Beast” were all pretty good, but there were many others that were poor (“In the House of Suddhoo”, “Haunted Subalterns”, “By Word of Mouth”…).

Just a couple of quotes:
On growing up, from “The Dream of Duncan Parrenness”:
“Yet there be certain times in a young man’s life, when, through great sorrow or sin, all the boy in him is burnt and seared away so that he passes at one step to the more sorrowful state of manhood…”

On work, from “The Phantom Rickshaw”:
“Heatherlegh is the dearest doctor that ever was, and his invariable prescription to all his patients is, ‘Lie low, go slow, and keep cool.’ He says that more men are killed by overwork than the importance of this world justifies.” ( )