Balkrishna Sama's portrait of the nine Rana prime ministers, 1846 - 1951 A.D. Nepalese history books tell stories of the nine Rana prime ministers ruling Nepal in unison for 104 years and the family is often depicted and reviled as one monolithic juggernaut that assaulted and consumed the sovereignty of benign kings and their happy, loyal subjects. Nothing could be further from the truth on both counts. Out of the nine one was assassinated, two were unceremoniously removed from the post by their own siblings, one resigned due to internal and external exigencies and the last one was forced to give it all up. But who were those that did not get to wear the "Teen Chand" prime ministerial crown? I often look at the fading pictures of the family to trace the hierarchy at the times they were taken. The Soviets were famous for cleverly air-brushing out the disgraced party members from chesty pictures of proletarian solidarity. The Ranas just removed them from the frames...

T he Soviets had a penchant for declaring their cities "Hero Cities" in tribute to their resilience in the face of the mighty German Wehrmacht bearing down on them with all its might. Stalingrad, Leningrad and Kiev come to mind as cities that determined not to surrender. If there is one "Hero City" in Nepal, then it must be the legendary town of Kirtipur. The town has been famous in Nepalese history as the citadel that fought the invading Gorkha army of King Prithivi Narayan Shah bravely - three heroic times. Kirtipur surrendered only after exacting a heavy price on the forces of the king, including the death of his favorite general Kalu Pandey in the first assault. In the second assault the king's brother Surpratap was struck by an arrow in his eyes thus blinding him. It was only at the third attempt did the king conquer Kirtipur in 1767 A.D. opening up the route into the valley. Some historical accounts including the accounts of the Italian Capuchin...

The first Tika Vidhya Ashram, school named after my grandmother T he school next door to our estate at Kiran Bhawan was for the children of ordinary folks in our neighbourhood whilst we, more privileged ones, were sent to English medium boarding schools in the Indian hill stations or, later, to Godavari in the south-east corner of the Kathmandu valley. When I was growing up, the school next door represented to me the "outside" world while I was "inside". I had to be careful whilst having any kind of intercourse with those kids and my minders constantly remained vigilant. A selected few, vetted by them for family fealty, would be allowed in to play with me. In the semi-feudal state Nepal was in when I was a kid this kind of selective inclusiveness was an everyday affair. Tika Vidhya Ashram in the recent past The same school has been a subject of disgruntlement with us family members as the land that houses it at today's prices would be worth over ...

General Kiran with tiger shot by Colt .45 Mr. James Stone was the project manager of Riblet Tramway Company that set up the Kathmandu - Hetauda Ropeway under U.S. Aid in 1959 A.D. Riblet took our estate Kiran Bhawan on rent for their personnel and Bill Stone, son of the manager, spent a few years of his childhood with his parents in Nepal. Bill discovered my blog and sent me this story my father General Kiran had written on his unique hunt, a copy of which he autographed and presented to Jim. It is a fascinating account and I was enraptured by it even though I was familiar with the story. By God's grace I still have the skin attached to the mounted head of the same tiger my father bagged with his Colt .45. Crayon Painting of General Kiran commemorating the unique tiger shoot.

I remember the trees groaning under the weight of those ripened fruits so prized by my father. There were rows and rows of those trees lining a plot of land near our residence inside our estate Kiran Bhawan. Father had imported those saplings from the Middle East and managed to grow them - to us at the time a strange fruit uncommon to our palate. We grew up amidst plum and peach trees dotting our orchard. Mangoes used to come to us from several sources but chiefly from a mango grove in Thulitar in Sindhu Palchowk district of Nepal inherited by us under the birta system. We also had persimmon growing in our garden, a fruit not indigenous to Nepal but first imported from Japan by Maharajah Dev Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana at the turn of the twentieth century. We Nepalese call it 'haluwabed' alluding no doubt to its sweetness. Dev was impressed by the Meiji Restoration and the ascendancy of Japan as a great power and had sent Nepalese students to study science and agriculture, I su...