Amid a flock of foreign writers at a weeklong book exhibition in Hong Kong last month there was one unexpected Nepali face: Tim I Gurung, an ex-Gurkha solider-turned-writer.
Gurung is not very well known in Nepal because he writes in English and has lived abroad. In addition, he left for Britain as a teenager to join the British Army, and has been living in Hong Kong for the last 20 years.
At the festival organised by the Hong Kong Business Development Committee Gurung was busy autographing his books: Missionary Or Mercenary, A Tree Called Tenelpa, Five Steps, Afterlife, The Cursed Nation and A Nation For Refugees.
Gurung was born in Dhampus of Kaski district and comes from a long line of Gurkha soldiers in the British and Indian armies. But six years into being a soldier he realised that it wasn’t for him, and his true calling was writing. He finally retired after 13 years in the service and went on to work in China.
The road ahead wasn’t easy. There were language problems, discrimination, and having to work twice as hard as local employees to gain recognition. Still, he made a place for himself and now owns a furniture manufacturing company in China which his son now runs. With retirement, and after years as a soldier and then as a businessman, Gurung has now finally reunited with his passion. His time in the army is providing him with the subject matter to write about. So far his fiction books have been set in Okinawa, Japan, Kashmir and he is planning to publish a novel based on Hong Kong soon.
“True, the army is a profession people like me are born into but I didn’t quite fit in, I’ve realised that the pen is indeed mightier than the khukri.”
For someone who has only completed high school it was a challenge to write in English. Gurung’s knowledge of the language was limited to what he had learnt while in the army but he has to write well in English. Although he spent much of his life in Hong Kong he hasn’t forgotten his roots. “Last year I decided that I never want to work for money again but give back to Nepal,” he says.
Gurung is already helping underserved children with education in his home district with money from the sales of his books. And to sustain the funding, he plans to write two books a year.