Soldier Heroes No More

Tenzing Sherpa the climber, Bhanu Bhakta the First Poet, and Gajey Ghaley the soldier. These were the text-book heroes of Nepali school children in the 1950s and 1960s. Above all, the feats of Jamadar Gajey Ghaley, VC, captured their. The sketchy biography in Nepali Sahitya primer recounted how a bullet-ridden Gajey attacked enemy tanks and immobilised the m almost single-handedly. A hillman, a son of impoverished parents, he rose to receive the ultimate award a soldier could aspire for, the Victoria Cross. He hailed from the other side of the border, but that did not matter: he was a Nepali hero.

Today's children do not know the meaning of "VC", and their role models are different. Most Nepali children are not told and do not know who are the latter day Gurkha heroes, such as Ram Bahadur Limbu, who received his VC for valour during the Brunei Confrontation (1962-66).