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‘He must be either mad or a Gurkha’

Sample this: “... as the battle was raging, a single Gurkha soldier appeared behind the British lines. He was holding his jaw, which had been shattered by a bullet, and indicated he wanted it bandaged up. No sooner had bandage been tied in place than the soldier requested to be permitted to return to his own side to continue to fight – That is the Gurkha way.”

This memoir is one soldier’s story of living the life of the Gurkha – imbibing its values and its way of life through courage, honesty and pride. Written to celebrate the Gurkha’s 200 years of unbroken service to the British crown, Colour Sergeant Kailash Limbu gives a personal and straightforward account of his experiences as a Gurkha soldier serving the British army. He recounts his life from a small Nepalese village to protect Afghan civilians from a Taliban siege.

The book has been written keeping the lay reader in mind. The author covers the ongoing happenings there dimensionally – the physical environment or what is going around him; what he is thinking – the mental struggles during a battle or remembering his family; and explaining what certain terms mean, and why they are doing what they are doing. The use of dialogue gives an urgency and life to the battleground scenes.

The reader is enlightened about the manners and customs of the Gurkhas – the way they like to kill a goat for dinner, how swearing is considered bad, but they still do it at times; and how valuable their history is for them.
Read this memoir for an illuminating account.

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