By Rtn. Major Gopal Bahadur Gurung, MBE – Charter President
When I retired from The Gurkha Reserve Unit in 2001, I had dreams of relaxing and enjoying life after having served almost 40 years in the British Army and with The Gurkha Reserve Unit in Brunei. This was not to be as I was approached by Captain Ash Bahadur Gurung who had retired from the 2nd Gurkhas and had amongst other activities joined The Rotary Club of Mount Everest. He was well versed with what a Rotary Club could do and during our frequent meetings urged me to form and lead a Rotary Club consisting of retired personnel from the Brigade of Gurkhas. The idea sounded very productive as we were all well-disciplined people and did not have much to do and we could actually do good to the communities where we were born. This was the seed that Captain Ash Bahadur Gurung planted and it has now grown into a solid tree capable of weathering all types of weather.
The initial steps of forming a club began in earnest in Captain Ash Bahadur’s house. Frequent meetings were held with Captain Ash Bahadur Gurung doing most of the taking as he was the one with the experiences of how a Rotary Club should be run. The search for potential members was not a problem but the rules and regulations that had to be followed when establishing a Rotary Club was alien to us. Initially we needed a well established Rotary Club to sponsor us and in this we were adopted by The Rotary Club of Kathmandu North with the District nominating The Governor’s Special Representative GSR, now known as The Assistant Governor, to show us the correct ways of running a Rotary Club. It should be noted that all rotary clubs of Nepal came under the rotary district of Calcutta and all the Nepali Rotary Officials were very interested and keen in establishing the right number of clubs and only then could we have our own Rotary District. We were assisted greatly by the DG Dr. Tika Man Baidhya and District Secretary Dilendra Shrestha. The duo visited our club very frequently and gave us all the assistance we needed in negotiating the Rotary minefield. The Rotary Club of The Himalayan Gurkhas was, is and will remain grateful to them for all their help and guidance during our infancy. With all the preparations ready the club was chartered on 10 September 2003 with His Excellency The British Ambassador as the Chief Guest at the Radisson Hotel. We thought it very appropriate to invite him as the club consisted of 99% retired personnel from the Brigade of Gurkhas.
With our sheltered life over we ventured into the big world looking for projects to help the people in our respective villages in improving their lives be it minutely but it was not as easy our Gurus lead us to believe. Apart from a few medical camps nothing significant was achieved. Undaunted we continued with our Rotary journey falling, stumbling and at times running!!After my three year’s stint as the Charter President I was replaced by Major Yam Bahadur Gurung, BEM and he took on the new job like fish to water and with his International contacts, primarily from the UK, minor projects started rolling in with a few Major Grant Projects. The sagging flag of the Rotary Club of The Himalayan Gurkhas started fluttering strongly in the wind once more and the morale definitely took an upturn!! He too carried the flag for a further three years and handed over his responsibilities to Major Lilbahadur Gurung, MBE who took the club performances to a new height. During his three years tenure as President of the club our international players grew in numbers and we managed to get many more minor grants and considerable number of major/global grants. It was during his Presidency that he managed to finance and supervise the construction of The Rotary Chautari in his village of Sirubari in Syangja. Rotary Chautari depicts the story of the improvements that Rotary has been able to make to the rural areas of Nepal where our efforts have been concentrated from the very beginning. From the beginning till the present date we have had 11 Presidents who have all given their very best to further enhance the reputation and the name of the club. I feel that I must mention the first class job that our PP Siri Prasad Gurung has done for the club. He has much improved the relationship with our International partners as well as our relationship with the district officials. It is through his efforts that our club is now well known as one of the very active and vibrant clubs.
So far we have managed to complete a large number of major/global and minor projects in the rural areas of Nepal. Our motto from the very beginning was that we would bring a smile on the face of the poor village people where our roots lie and I am very confident that we have succeeded in fulfilling our commitments as per our motto.
I can not end this short article without thanking Captain Ash Bahadur Gurung for his vision, foresight and insistence without which The Rotary Club of The Himalayan Gurkhas would not be in existence today. Thank you AB Saheb. I would like to end by saying that our club members can be justly proud of our achievements over the last 20 years and as the Charter President of the Club I am proud to belong to such a vibrant club.