Talk:Rikki-Tikki-Tavi

notable for its frightening and serious tone

This statement near the top of the article has been in the article since 2006 but I just read the story and I was struck by its child-like tone. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.15.88.9 (talk) 18:06, 23 October 2014 (UTC)

(Merge of Darzee into RTT)

Article merged: See old talk-page here. - Fuzzygenius (talk) 22:12, 17 May 2010 (UTC)

   Fg's explicit addition permits verification that all the prose content from Darzee was merged into the accompanying article (tho in their next edit they discarded all but four words of it, presumably as duplicative or overdetailed).
   The subsequent blanking of talk:Darzee, the target of their piped lk, offers mostly confusion, which its history can dispel.
--Jerzy•t 06:19, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

(Editor reviews)

i had to read rikki tikki tavi at school (7TH grade) and i thought the story was very well written and was very life like.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.179.30.184 (talk) 21:14, 2 November 2009‎

The content of the following box is actually the net result of five edits on a day in Nov. 2011, and two on a day five months later. All six, except the one duly made (in November) by Signbot, were made from three IP addresses within the same half of the 74.179... block of 65K IPs.
One of the 5 IP edits has the effect of obscuring the fact that an earlier one of them

1. stored approximately 47,000 bytes of text onto the en:WP servers (on which it presumably remains accessible to all), and
2. purported to place it under Wikimedia licenses (which in the US at least, IIRC, gain their force from the fact that in the US there is always a copyright).

^{--Jerzy•t 06:19, 18 October 2012 (UTC)}

Me too. However, something has always kept me wondering about the story. Whatever happened to that last cobra egg? It was never reported as destroyed. So what if it WASN'T? In fact, my school book actually raised that possibility. Anyway, I've made a whole wiki of my ideas. I intend to publish this. There's no copyright.

Rikki-tikki-tavi 2 138.87.163.79 (talk) 00:53, 6 April 2012 (UTC)

Books - A modern yet ancient book?

"Paul Vaderlind, Richard K. Guy, and Loren Larson wrote a mathematical book and an ancient book about Cleopatra, The Inquisitive Problem Solver, that references Rikki Tikki Tavi in several problems"

You cannot publish "an ancient book" in 2002. Also "wrote a mathematical book and an ancient book about Cleopatra" suggests that they wrote two books.

Ileanadu (talk) 13:54, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

House unoccupied

   A colleague found

two .. cobras, ... who had the run of the garden while the house was unoccupied.

and without comment edited the last word to "occupied". I am restoring "unoccupied", believing that the text implicitly suggests that, and does nothing to suggest the opposite.
   First, i assume that the use of "while" refers to concurrent time, and not contrast between conditions: One can say "I am human, while Rikki is a mongoose", because human and mongoose are inherently in contrast. But a contrast between cobras in garden and house occupied is not suggested here; those two past situations were causally (and temporally) harmonious, as are the two current ones, since it is the people occupying the house who interfere with the cobras' having the run of the garden. There is no reason to treat "while" as suggesting anything more than "same time".
   Near the middle of the Adelaide e-book are an illustration and a caption “In the Dark He Ran Up Against Chuchundra, the Muskrat.” The next dozen or so 'graphs after them have dialogue, until one beginning "Rikki-tikki listened." The 4th one following that begins "“But are you sure...”" The dialogue between the cobras continues:

Everything [is to be gained]. When there were no people in the bungalow, did we have any mongoose in the garden? So long as the bungalow is empty, we are king and queen of the garden; and remember that as soon as our eggs in the melon bed hatch (as they may tomorrow), our children will need room and quiet.”

“I had not thought of that,” said Nag. “I will go, but there is no need that we should hunt for Rikki-tikki afterward. I will kill the big man and his wife, and the child if I can, and come away quietly. Then the bungalow will be empty, and Rikki-tikki will go.”

   All their concern is that people attract the mongoose (as Rikki's mother counseled regarding people, or at least Europeans), which is bad for the cobras. They want the run of the garden, and show no interest in the house except as the place to go in order to drive the people away.
   If it's i (and the numerous previous editors who found no fault) who is mistaken, you're going to have to overcome this evidence.
--Jerzy•t 07:26, 18 October 2012 (UTC)

TV adaptation by USSR SOYUZMULTFILM

Please somebody insert this youtube video in to main article, thank You ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRryHN--Za4

37.6.24.129 (talk) 16:54, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

Not in Jungle Book.

Rikki Tikki Tavi is NOT in The Jungle Book. It is its own, separate story and was published separately. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 104.188.113.221 (talk) 22:28, 29 December 2019 (UTC)

Species?

Does anyone know what KIND of mongoose he intended Rikki to be? I see statements identifying it as this-or-that-species, with utter certitude, all over.

The identifications are not the same.

They seem to be mostly Indian Gray Mongoose, Javanese Mongoose, and Indian Small Mongoose...

Perhaps someone with more familiarity with mongoose could help identify it? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tabbycatlove (talk • contribs) 22:24, 21 September 2021 (UTC)

According to https://indianexpress.com/article/express-sunday-eye/why-does-the-mongoose-always-beat-the-snake-6602400/,

> There are six species found in India; four mainly stay in the forests of the Western Ghats, the other two – the Indian grey mongoose and the small Indian mongoose – have more or less spread everywhere and adapted their lifestyle to live alongside us, enjoying scrub jungles, fields, villages and even the desert.

The story of Rikki-tiki-tavi starts as follows:

> This is the story of the great war that Rikki-tikki-tavi fought single-handed, through the bath-rooms of the big bungalow in Segowlee cantonment.

Segowlee (now Sugauli) is in the northwest of India, right up against the Nepal border. Since the Western Ghats are (unsurprisingly) along the west coast of India, I think it's safe to assume that this was either the Indian grey or the small Indian.

The article, however, has more to say about mongooses.

> At around 3 ft long, the Indian grey mongoose is the larger of the two and is the one to have made its name as a cobra killer.

Sounds about right. Let's see what the article about the Indian grey mongoose says.

> This species is known for its ability to combat venomous snakes. It primarily achieves this through tiring the snake out, by enticing it to make multiple strikes which it acrobatically avoids.

which nicely matches up with the description in Rikki-tikki-tavi:

> Rikki-tikki was bounding all round Nagaina, keeping just out of reach of her stroke, his little eyes like hot coals. Nagaina gathered herself together, and flung out at him. Rikki-tikki jumped up and backward. Again and again and again she struck, and each time her head came with a whack on the matting of the verandah, and she gathered herself together like a watch-spring. Then Rikki-tikki danced in a circle to get behind her, and Nagaina spun round to keep her head to his head, so that the rustle of her tail on the matting sounded like dry leaves blown along by the wind.

Guess it's the Indian grey mongoose, as currently stated in the article.

Hope that helps.

User44654 (talk) 22:01, 30 June 2022 (UTC)