My Deepawali

This weekend was so special that I felt at home in the UK for the first time...

I was invited to a Dashain-Tihar celebration organised by the Srinjshil Nepali Samaj in Aldershot. The annual event featured Nepalese cultural programmes, food, drinks and a short formal session involving some speeches. And of course, the event gave emphasis on the informal gathering of the Nepalese people, which was indeed useful and most enjoyable of all.

This Dashain, Nepalese equivalent of the X-Mas in the US and UK, was the worst in my life because I was alone in Oxford busy with series of induction programmes. My wife and son were in Kathmandu and my parents were in Gorkha. I am sure everybody in my family missed me and did not enjoy this Dashain very much. It was particularly hopeless for me because I did not have an opportunity to celebrate the day with anybody from Nepal.

In such a sad situation, I was blessed with an invitation to attend this event. And I really enjoyed the whole event. No word would suffice my gratefulness to the organisers.

It took me nearly an hour (or more) to get to the place by train from Oxford. On arrival, I felt as if I had actually gone back to my country. One would almost always bump into Nepalese people on the streets. I knew it was one of the Nepalese hubs in the UK as a result of having a Gurkha establishment there for a long time, but I did not know that so many Nepalese live in the area! Thousands of Nepalese, mostly Gurkhas, live in Aldershot and nearby Farnborough areas.

The President of the organisation, Sher Bahadur Sunar, himself a former Gurkha, was somewhat different from many other Gurkhas. He was well aware of the political developments in Nepal and was in fact involved in politics. He was close to the Nepali Congress party, and had high level contacts in the party leadership, as evidenced by visiting Sher Bahadur Deuba (former PM of Nepal) visiting his house recently. Sunar is enterprenual as well. He runs a restaurant which features lok dohori, particularly over the weekends. I thought he is doing an emulative work of promoting Nepalese culture in the UK.

When he launched his organisation in 2007, many had advised him to label it as a "Dalit" organisation. Many had also suggested him to limit the association to his own caste group - Bishwakarma. But he rejected both ideas and named it Srinjalshil Nepali Samaj (a creative Nepalese society). I rather prefer this alternative not least because "srinjalshil" is potentially a better replacement for the term "Dalit". It evokes a more forward-looking and positive image of the so-called low caste. Needless to state, our tradition is one of creativity, without which societies in the past would not run. We are a bunch of people with craftsmanship in our blood. This is still the case with most low caste in the rural parts of the country, although the feudal social systems have deliberately projected our traditional occupation as profane.

And his effort to include people from across the caste groups is something to be learnt by everyboday. One of the reasons for the failure of so-called Dalit movements is our inability to rise above the caste, partisan and familial interests. We still have not learnt to get united; divided as we are, our case is bound to remain feeble and uninfluential.

The cultural programme was also quite good. It was good to know that the young kids who have been here for a while had not forgotten their culture and tradition. We must indeed make sure that the cultural package from our society/civilisation comes with us and stays with us for many generations. Our culture defines who we are and where we come from. If we lose our culture, we fear losing our identity.

It was also an opportunity to see for myself how the Gurkhas had settled in the UK. This is a relatively recent development. British Gurkhas are considered fairly well off in our society in Nepal. It was clear that many of them wish to go back at a certain point, possibly when their children would be able to look after themselves. They badly miss their good life back home. They were frustrated that they had to work hard once again, even after retirment, to make a living in this costly land. Specially, the spouses had an unusually hard time compared to their much-privelaged life in Kathmandu or Pokhara or Dharan. Lahureni has become an icon for the extravagant women in Nepal.

It was however, sad to learn that the Nepalese people settled in the UK still have not given up their stereotype against the people of so-called low caste. They explicitly or implicitly show their casteist behaviour, an extreme form or undeclared racism. The UK is a country where you can not discriminate against people on the basis of their race or coolour or origin. But the Nepalese people's habits die hard. This is an issue that deserves serious attention. I am sure the UK Government would be willing to look into it if the residents made complaints formally in an organised manner. I am not sure what the situation is in other European countries and across the Atlantic.

Anyway, this was such a great time for me to be able to see so many Nepalese people from my own community. Much of my homesickness appears to have gone after the event.

It was quite late at night when the programme ended. I was taken by one kind Gurkha to his house and looked after well. Sunar also joined me the next morning. I returned after a nice dal- bhat meal.

Thank you Sunar-jee! Thank you Srijanshil Samaj! Thank you all friends for the wonderful time! After all, I had never imagined that I would be celebrating this Deepawali in the UK!

Happy Mood.