My daughter Monica's debut novel is now available on Amazon and in bookshops in India and Nepal. https://www.biblionepal.com/products/the-paths-we-choose?srsltid=AfmBOorLGIb20ZmOqnA-Xszj_dBuijCH4bKHos5PUoB7PvdkwxLBKmBX  

T he child was just 2 years old when his father Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana received an invitation from the East India Company to visit England in 1850 A.D. Her Majesty Queen Victoria would be receiving him at court! The household was in a frenzy preparing for this arduous journey. Palpable excitement was in the air. The delegation had to be finalized, supplies and rations to be ordered, modes of transportation to be chartered, decorations and gifts to be sorted out to offer to the gracious hosts, et all. No ruler from the sub-continent had been invited by the Company until this instance. Too, dire premonition was weighing heavily on the newly blessed "Rana" family despite the auspicious date of travel charted by court astrologers and birth-chart diviners. Would the young thirty-four year prime minister and de facto ruler return safely after crossing the black waters? "What would happen to the young child if he didn't?" lamented his pregnant mother Nanda Ku...

B ishnu Shumsher was born with the proverbial golden spoon in his mouth. The eldest son of Maharani Bal Kumari Devi, the second wife of Maharajah Chandra Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana of Nepal, Bishnu was the first son born after Chandra inherited the post of Prime Minister of Nepal and Maharajah of Kaski and Lamjung in 1901 A.D. Chandra already had five sons from his first Rani but they had been born when Chandra was emerging as the pre-eminent force in Nepali Rana politics. Unfortunately, Rani Loke Bhakta Devi died in 1905 A.D. only 4 years after he ascended to the highest post in the land. It is said that the Rani had beseeched Chandra to re-marry as she had young children to be taken care of. Her youngest, Krishna, was only 5 years old.  Major General Bishnu Shumsher J. B. Rana Bishnu was born on 13th November 1906, an apple of his father's eye. Early childhood was spent in the opulence of Singha Durbar, the palace his father built after coming to power, a veritable Versailles in ...

C olombo has been in the international shipping lane linking East and West since time immemorial. The Portuguese landed there and called the island Selan alluding to the many herbs and spices found there. The Arabs called it Serendip when, perchance, they sailed to it. The word 'serendipity' entered the English lexicon from it. The British called it Ceylon and the name remained so until 1972 A.D. when she became Sri Lanka. The ship of Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana of Nepal docked in Colombo on his sea voyage to England and back in 1850 A.D. Much later in 1956 A.D. Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew visited Colombo and, bowled over by the beauty of the land, vowed to transport Singapore in its image.  Independence Square with statue of the country's first prime minister Rt. Hon. Don Stephen Senanayake I had the fortunate opportunity of visiting Sri Lanka recently taking time off during the Dasain holidays, a much deserved sojourn having survived two lock-downs brough...