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Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936

"From Mine Own People"

You would credit anything about Russia's designs on India,
or the recommendations of the Currency Commission; but a little bit of sober
fact is more than you can stand!

BEYOND THE PALE.
"Love heeds not caste nor sleep a broken bed. I went in search of love and
lost myself." Hindu Proverb.
A man should, whatever happens, keep to his own caste, race and breed. Let the
White go to the White and the Black to the Black.
Then, whatever trouble falls is in the ordinary course of things--neither
sudden, alien, nor unexpected.
This is the story of a man who wilfully stepped beyond the safe limits of
decent every-day society, and paid for it heavily.
He knew too much in the first instance; and he saw too much in the second. He
took too deep an interest in native life; but he will never do so again.
Deep away in the heart of the City, behind Jitha Megji's bustee, lies Amir
Nath's Gully, which ends in a dead-wall pierced by one grated window. At the
head of the Gully is a big cow-byre, and the walls on either side of the Gully
are without windows. Neither Suchet Singh nor Gaur Chand approved of their
women-folk looking into the world. If Durga Charan had been of their opinion,
he would have been a happier man today, and little Bisesa would have been able
to knead her own bread.


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