What it means to be a boy

Cover picture by Hengki Koentjoro

I was given a new book - a birthday present from MYD - and couldn't put it down. A beautifully written though somewhat strange story a bit like although less substantial than Kafka on the Shore. The author pulls images from all manner of and random sources and mixes them all together into the mind of a seven year old boy, recounted when he is middle aged and his memory has become sketchy. And then, last evening we watched the new Netflix Mowgli. One cannot help comparing it with Favreau's Jungle Book or to Kipling's original stories but we enjoyed it none the less. The common theme is what it means to be a boy. I too have largely forgotten that richest part of my life story but small episodes come to my remembrance every so often - like watching the world go by perched on a dangerously rusty corrugated iron roof in blatant defiance of the Adults, or tinkering with ancient radio sets in my workshop in the Top Garden and the joy of finding that my recently constructed oscilloscope actually worked, or loitering in Drove Lane praying fervently that one or other of my boyhood would-be sweethearts would actually like me too. Nothing like as exciting as Mowgli.

All the Mowgli stories

My parents had a large blue case-bound book "All the Mowgli stories" being the two Jungle Books in one edition. I loved the stories, I loved the illustrations.

Prompted by the film The Jungle Book I have just finished re-reading these stories and at the close I cried and cried. I have to admit that the original stories far exceed the film in depth and emotion, great as Jon Favreau's production and Neel Sethi's acting was.  Kipling was a master story teller: the film was in 3D but the stories have many more dimensions. I can only hope that Favreau uses more of the original material in the much anticipated sequel.

The original stories are now, of course, public domain and can be downloaded from the internet free of charge.