In this installment of the memoirs of veteran Gurkhas we begin 89-year-old Bharati Gurung's story this week. He fought in the Northwest Frontier Province in present day Pakistan and Afghanistan, and during World War II. His story is part of Lahurey ko Katha that records the lives of 13 retired Gurkha soldiers, most of them over 75 years old. Published by Himal Books, this fortnightly column has been translated from Nepali by Dev Bahadur Thapa for Nepali Times. Bharati Gurung remembers fighting fearsome Afghans, daring German soldiers and how Gurkha soldiers were thought to eat the flesh of dead enemy soldiers.
I arrived in Dehradun after my enlistment on 20 October 1932. In the course of our six-month training, war had broken out in Afghanistan but we hadn\'t taken the oath of allegiance. There were strict orders from above not to send recruits to the front if they hadn't sworn allegiance. so, a few days after that notice, we all took our oaths at Landikotal in Pakistan. The war lasted till 1934 and afterwards we were sent to Dehradun. In 1934-35 fierce fighting began again at Landikotal in Baluchistan, which is now in Pakistan. In that war Subedar Mehar Singh Gurung of Parbat was killed. His brother Prem Bahadur Gurung of the same regiment came through unscathed. In 1937, we were once again sent back to rest.
Three notorious countries of the world, Germany, Italy and Japan joined hands to crush England and America. Gradually, a full-scale world war started in 1939. Initially, it was just a propaganda war. Hitler made a propaganda film depicting the sky filled with their planes, every inch of the land filled with their tanks and the sea with their ships. This went to the extent that quite a few viewers could not bear to see the whole movie and left the cinema. For their counter- propaganda, the British made Gurkha soldiers shave their heads except for a tuft at the back to resemble a wireless antenna. They spread rumours that these soldiers ate the flesh of fallen enemies. There also was a regiment from Africa about whom similar lies were spread. 
The Germans showered us with leaflets in Italy and Africa from their planes, telling our soldiers that their lives were worth only Rs 16 and called us to sit and eat with them. The greatest battle was fought in Africa. In Tunisia we fought or three years against Hitler's troops. His men were daredevils, brainwashed by Hitler.
The Germans did not marry short women and always looked out for tall, healthy mates. While it is customary among our men to select and seduce women, with them it was the opposite. The women folk looked out for men who were tall and young. In general, their men married by 35, the women by 25. The parents are happy with their daughters\' choice.
Only robust men were selected for the army. In this system the same person would, as the occasion arose, fight from the air, fight on land, work as a clerk and cook as and when necessary. In short, they were adept in all sorts of works and nothing remained undone.
Nobody can say exactly where and how many of the troops died in any war. The first war was in Afghanistan, and even today there is some unrest there. The Pathans resorted to guerrilla tactics. A few soldiers emerge, the bulk remain hiding. The women grazed cows in the ravines and the men had armed reconnaissance exercises in the mountains. They snatched weapons and rations from British troops and passed the loot on quickly through their women so none of us knew where it went. True, they had farms but the harvest was meagre. They carved out rocks to make dwellings. When sons separated from their parents, they carved out another cave. Donkeys and camels were the only animals they reared.
There was a United India when British ruled for 104 years. Sri Lanka, Burma, Maldives, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan were all part of United India. The British had the notion that coloured people could not run such a vast subcontinent and so carved small states out of it.
Now we will talk about the fighting that took place at Landikotal. Altogether 22 regiments were stationed there. If the officer posted there was from Gurkha, they would establish Gorakhnath, Kalikamai and Manakamana temples (pickets we called them) inside the barrack compound and if he happened to be from Syangja, then the pickets bore the names of famous deities of that place. A picket was something like house made of stones that no bullet could pierce. However, that too was attacked. There was a Jamdar called Kokale from a place called Gounda in Lamjung. He was a daring soldier who cut the ropes of enemy tents, entered it and killed them with a bayonet.
Once, Sergeant Mitralal Thapa from our company captured an enemy machine gun that could fire 22 rounds per second. He was promoted to Subedar Major. The fighting force was rotated every two years. One regiment relieved another. Our own Gurkha regiment had 20 battalions. They were granted leave from time to time but shorter leaves had to be spent in the unit.
