It is only but natural that the Nepalese people are looking for a strong leader at a time of current vacuous leadership. Our present times must have had similarities in our history particularly after the demise of Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa and before the rise of Prime Minister Jung Bahadur Rana. The present scenario of our bickering troika of political parties jostling for ascendancy reminds me of the highly destabilized period following the eclipse of the powerful Bhimsen. The troika of a toothless King Rajendra, an ambitious Queen Rajya Laxmi and an irresponsible Crown Prince Surendra had pushed Nepal to the brink after they started to pull the reigns of powers themselves. The cacophony of noise emanating from the palace had bewildered the masses just as the discordant sound bites emanating from our political leaders have imperiled the future of our nation today. We see no purpose. Etching of Maharajah Jung Bahadur Jung Bahadur Rana took control of...

L ittle did the Nepalese conscripts in the Gurkha regiments of British India know that they would fight and die in foreign shores as far away as the Turkish peninsula of Gallipoli during World War I. The Treaty of Sugauly had ended the short Anglo-Nepal Wars in 1816 A.D. and the British had wrested the right to conscript the hardy mountain soldiers of Nepal into the newly formed Gurkha Regiments of British India. World War I saw the British, French and Russian Empires pitted against the German, Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman Empires. With Russia cut off from the west and Imperial Russia on the brink of collapse having suffered defeat in its western front, the western allies wanted to secure the link from the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea to supply Russia but the Turks at Istanbul were blocking the Bosphorus. British and French troops attacked Gallipoli to occupy Istanbul. The 1st Battalion of the 6th Gurkha Rifles ...