Espionage in India?!

WHOA! Kim is training to be a spy!
He's about thirteen at this point, and his friends in high places(Mahbub Ali, his friend the Colonel, and another guy called Babu),who are all spies, finally realize Kim was made to be a spy. So he goes to stay with Babu, who teaches him basic cartography, hones his memory, and, Kim's favorite, plays "dress-up." This game is where they dress in the clothes of different types of people, use makeup to look completely different, and then practice acting like those people. It sounds really fun. Having lived in the city all his life, Kim excels at this.
Kim is enrolled in the most prestigious boarding school in India, courtesy of the lama, who is wandering the country on his own. At least on the outside, the boy is well on his way to becoming a sahib, a refined English-speaking gentleman. Oh, yeah, and Kim speaks at least three languages well.
I also love this line from Mahbub Ali, explaining about espionage. "From time to time, God causes men to be born- and [Kim is] one of them- who have a lust to go abroad at the risk of their lives and discover news[...] These souls are very few; and of these few, not more than ten are of the best." (Kipling, 228). It's impossible not to read this part of the book and think of the CIA.