You will find articles, poems,musings, essays by the author Satis Shroff, who is a lecturer, poet, author and singer (MGV_Kappel) and artist. He loves the Schwarzwald, Himalayas and the Alps.He loves to read, write, cook,sing with his croonies from the men's choir in Kappel. 'Life is beautiful, so flourish' is his message.He writes about mutual respect for Prakriti (i.e.humans, animals, plants), Miteinander (togetherness), tolerance, peace,meditation,love.
Wednesday, 14 May 2014
The Gurkhas - Full (Courtesy YouTube). Posted by Satis Shroff
Well the colonial wars are long over but the Gurkhas still fight under the UK flag, the Indian flag and, on peace-keeping UN missions, under the UN-flag. It's a great men's tradition but the Nepalese mother would rather that her sons would go to school pass his exams and do further studies instead of cutting other people's throats in uniform. Others fight for their countries but the Gurkha still fights under foreign flags. After being pensioned, the Gurkhas are in demand as security personell around the world thriving on their reputation and a loyal and martial people. I know many Gurkhas who dropped out from school due to financial reasons and enlisted either in the British Gurkhas or the Indian Gorkha regiments. Nevertheless, it is heartening to note that a lot of Nepalese now study abroad and want higher qualifications. In Freiburg alone there are over 30 Nepalese students in diverse faculties. Nepal's future is youth and education is the best way out of the misery, nepotism and corruption that has its grip on its people. Educated minds, not well-instructed ones, mind you. (Satis Shroff)
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Savvy a Letter From Nepal in Nepali (devnagari) script? From my dear Dada & Deviji (Patan Dhoka)..'Nepali stands at the end of a long string of dialects stretching along the foothills of the Himalayas, its nearest neighbour being Kumaoni; but, like the others, it has been open to the influence of the languages of the Tarai and the Plains of the South. In it too we see the development of a purely local dialect, of the district of Gorkha, into the language of administration for a whole kingdom...Nepali is a sturdy, vigorous tongue, capable of poetry--you have your poets--and of strong, simple, nervous prose. Hindi is one language, Nepali is another. Do not let your lovely language become the pale reflection of a Sanskritised Hindi.' (Courtesy: Sir Ralph L.Turner, concluding an address delivered at the British Embassy, Kathmandu, on the occasion of the coronation of His majesty King Mahendra Bir Bikram Shah Deva, 1955). Well it's 2014 now and the nationa has seen the emergence of the maoists in a decade long Himalayan civil-war in which a great many Nepalese were injured or died. The Shah family have been ousted from the Narayanhiti Palace, which has been turned into a national museum, and this once forbidden kingdom is now a federal republic. What remains are the old wounds and trauma of a nation that'll take time to heal. To this end I'd like to wish my former countrymen and women all the best. The best thing you can do for your children is to give them a good education, and not a khukri. This was denied to generations of Gurkhas by the former British governments because they practiced a policy of non-inclusion in the daily life of Britain and treated them as merely mercinaries that you could hire-and-fire at will. I hope that in the future the Gurkhas and their families will be integrated in the British society in police and security forces, and also in civilian life, like the other members of the Commonwealth, which were Britain's former colonies.Nepal had special a special relationsship and was subtely excluded from the Commonwealth. Some 'special relationship' indeed, the consequence of which had to be shared by generations of Nepalese children who lost their Dads who died for the Union Jack. When an injured soldier wanted medical treatment due to injuries that occured while fighting for England's glory they were denied medical treatment by the MoD and NHS in England. No, Britain doesn't want Gurkhas with gerontological problems either. What a cheap solution for cheap fighting men from the Himalayas. It's only in recent times that the Gurkhas have started going to court and winning legal battles against the formidable, heartless, bureaucratic MoD based in London. So much for the still colonial master-servant relationship between the Brits and their Johnny Gurkhas.
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