A BLAST FROM THE PAST - THE PROCLAMATION

JUNG BAHADUR RANA AND THE DANCING DAMSELS - THE SOJOURN IN FRANCE

P rime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana left England for France with a rich treasure trove of memories and an ambition his experiences in Britain had fueled for his own poor and backward nation. He was heartbroken too as he had to leave behind his paramour Laura Bell. Far from the complexities of ruling a highly destabilized country coming so soon after the tumultuous Kot and Bhandarkhal episodes, Jung had truly relaxed in England and had grown fond of the young Irish lass. He wanted to stay longer but the situation back home was unfavourable. Jung was seething with anger that his brother Bom Bahadur who he left behind as officiating prime minister had not been able to take a firm grip on the affairs of state. Even in faraway England he got reports that his enemies were again trying to rear their ugly heads, he would have to smite them with the power of his ingenuity once more. He knew he could not trust his ambitious third brother Badri Narsing...

Hippies, Hashish and 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna'

Hippies, Hashish and 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna' - Kami Kanetsuka Kami Kanetsuka is a traveller and writer based in V ancouver, Canada. During the 1960s and ‘70s, she travelled all over South East Asia and lived in Nepal for many years. I did a piece on her husband's restaurant and posted it on by blogsite earlier. https://historylessonsnepal.blogspot.com/2012/08/eating-around-world-in-kathmandu-first.html ********************** Kathmandu in the 1960s and ‘70s was a serene, peaceful and cosmopolitan place that attracted travelers, seekers and filmmakers. A still from "Hare Rama Hare Krishna" The year 1971 was marked with several ‘big victories’ – in politics, cricket and in war – all of which had long term implications for India. The national mood was buoyant, even if the country continued to struggle with endemic problems. Fifty years later, we look back at those times and evoke some of that mood. In a series of articles , leading writers recall and analyze ...

A TALE OF TWO CITIES IN JUNG BAHADUR'S LIFE & TIME

"It was the best of times it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." Charles Dickens, from A Tale of Two Cities. I have always been curious to find out what Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana of Nepal might have seen and heard during his storied visit to London and Paris in 1850 A.D. The European powers, especially Great Britain, were at the zenith of their expansionist adventures overseas. The sun never set over the British Empire under...

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