udyard Kipling lived an extraordinary life. The English novelist, poet, and short story writer particularly beloved for his Just So Stories, was born in Bombay India on December 30, 1895. Though he spent most of his life outside of India, like his parents he thought of himself as "Anglo Indian." He referred to his early days in India as the days of strong light and darkness[1].

Keeping with custom, Rudyard and his younger sister were returned to England to receive an education when Rudyard was five years old. They were boarded with Captain Pryse Agar Halloway and Mrs. Sarah Halloway, who acted as custodians for British Nationals serving in India. While his sister seemed to be a favorite -- she later married the Halloway's son -- Rudyard was treated harshly at the boarding house. He credited the experience in his autobiography for sparking his literary career,

"If you cross-examine a child of seven or eight on his day’s doings (specially when he wants to go to sleep) he will contradict himself very satisfactorily. If each contradiction be set down as a lie and retailed at breakfast, life is not easy. I have known a certain amount of bullying, but this was calculated torture — religious as well as scientific. Yet it made me give attention to the lies I soon found it necessary to tell: and this, I presume, is the foundation of literary effort". 
When he was old, and his treatment under the Halloway's was known to his family, his aunt asked why he had not made his suffering known at the time. He recorded: