Description
'The Gurkhas are proud sons of a blessed land, where the mountains and the flowers, the rivers and the scents, all seem to talk an eternal language of beauty and peace. They are also sons of a world where nothing comes about without the pain of hard work and hungry days. Often at night I listened to the stories of the old men, talking about the hurts and fears of leaving their homes and their families to go in search of a better life in remote, unknown lands. And then I remembered the tales my parents told of southern Italy, of our villages without men, of the long and lonely wait of our mothers for their long lost sons, and everything somehow seemed to acquire a new meaning. There was a mystery; it had been unveiled, and become a fact of life.
'One day, at a British Gurkha centre, I met a boy who had walked for 13 days, alone, to go to the mythical British Army. He came from Rukum, in the east of Nepal, he had no clothes other than what he was wearing, he knew nothing about anything, except maybe how to tend his sheep or collect wood and water. Still he smiled, with the strange gentleness of the Hill people.
'To him, whether he was recruited or not, to the people of Nepal, to the British officers who give such a remarkable example of fair-ness, dedication and love to their "men", this book is intended as a small tribute.' - Sandro Tucci
