FREIBURGER ZEITGEISTLITERATURE (Satis Shroff)

OFF TO JOIN THE GURKHAS (Satis Shroff) There were two young men, brothers Who left their homes In the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas. The older one, for his father had barked at him, 'Go to Nepal and never come home again.' The younger, for he couldn't bear the beatings At the hands of his old man. The older brother sobbed and stifled his sorrow and anger For Nepal was in fact Kathmandu, With its colleges, universities, Education Ministry, Temples, Rana-palaces and golden pagodas And also its share of hippies, hashish, tourists, Rising prices and expensive rooms to rent. The younger brother went to Dharan, And enlisted in the British Army depot To become a Gurkha, A soldier in King Edwards Own Gurkha Rifles. He came home the day he became a recruit, With a bald head, as though his father had died. He looked forward to the parades and hardships That went under the guise ...

SAFEGUARDING PEACE BETWEEN INDIA & NEPAL (Satis Shroff) (Aquarelle(c)satisshroff) The British, French, German, Austrian and American government should be urged to safeguard peace between India and Nepal, and not to block the flow of traffic and good from India to Nepal, and vice versa. The Blockade on the Indian side has precipitated a humanitarian crisis in the Himalayan country, which is landlocked, surrounded by China and India. PM Modi has been trying to ignore the Indo-Nepalese issue as an ‘internal’ Nepalese affair, and he does not see the far-reaching implications of his indifference towards Nepal.  The Indian blockade encourages the Maoists to develop closer ties with the other big northern neighbour: China. Perhaps the China card will enable Nepal to be more developed with the help of the Chinese than by the Indians in the south, who even though they have close cultural ties with Nepal, refrain from opening their eyes and insist on a so-called 'internal'...