Page 27 - CONTENTS

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from the uplands of Himalayan rural poverty have been put behind
them: what a courageous step they have taken.
Some time later I was invited to visit the family and I went to their
home in north London. His job entitled him to a house in what had
been a quite decent patch of RAF quarters and they had a semi-
detached house with Brits the other side. The house was as spick and
span as you would expect, furnished with all the essentials to modern
living, mainly electrical items, but with no ornaments or pictures.
The father said that the family maintained their religious practices at a
Hindu temple some little distance away. He and others in UK from
this area of Nepal have formed an association of gaunles who
frequently get together, at camping weekends in the summer and
barbeques in the winter, and they have set up a community website
which seems very comprehensive and of which they are very proud.
They also raise funds which are sent back to the village and are
currently trying to improve the school building. (See also page 44)
I was shown the various testimonials to the two boys’ school
achievements in science and mathematics; the elder had been one of
two students from north London invited to attend a centralised special
course in advanced mathematical theory. The boys said they played
football with other lads of the patch on the games park behind the
house.
I asked about any problems over race or ethnicity. “No,” they said.
“Once people hear we are Gurkhas they run a mile thinking we carry a
big knife on our belts!” The father told me that his experience is that
many Europeans who see an oriental face assume him to be a Kung Fu
expert, and keep their distance!
I had been very much looking forward to a jolly good Nepali curry
lunch of fresh spices and flavours. But so much had the family become
anglicised that even the meal was from Sainsbury’s!
Post Script