Chapter 21: Gurkha

Henry was all ready to leave for Gorkha region now and he had already given Sajit $100 in advance so the man wouldn't be too worried about his family.

Gorkha region was relatively close to Kathmandu, however, the terrain made the journey longer and was downright inhospitable to most transportation.

Henry had been advised by Sajit to rent a donkey-drawn carriage for them to use in traversing the narrow and bumpy roads that led to Gorkha, and so only the two of them shared a peaceful journey together as they rode the slow cart that rocked with the road.

Sajit had already been told by Henry about the purpose of his visit to Gorkha, this led to Sajit's relaxed mood today as he had been worrying about the orphans of his tribe for a while and was rather happy that Henry came along them was willing to take care of the orphans.

Gorkha Tribe was a Tribe located in a considerably remote mountainous region. Due to this, they are nearly isolated from civilization. Sickness was considered a very serious thing for natives of this area.

Once one was sick, many more get sick since the medical practices of the Gorkha were old fashioned and their medical facilities were practically nonexistent.

These people were not the type to stick to conservatism and were rather open to ideas. It was just unfortunate of them since only very few visitors from the outside ever come and visit them.

Since then, the Gurkha tribe had been considering learning from outside their borders about new ways on how to make their lives better.

This led to many many young men like Sajit to go outside the tribe in a hope to stop their people from living such a backward civilization forever. Sajit had gone out of his tribe nearly 10 years ago, but he still occasionally came back and visit every 3 years or so to see how the tribe was doing and tell them about the things he has learned of the outside world.

Sajit keeps thinking about these things as they rode the cart in silence, hoping that Henry could somewhat alleviate the suffering of his people better.

The journey keeps going as Sajit tribe is still far away and Henry could feel the insurmountable boredom as he found nothing entertaining for him to do in the small carriage that only held Sajit and himself.

So he figured out that the only way to entertain himself is just chatting with Sajit about various stuff.

He tells Sajit about how the United States looks like and Sajit describes everything about Gurkha, a basic conversation about the good and the bad things.

Henry soon found himself interested at the topic at hand as his ears perked up upon hearing the various details surrounding the Gurkha Tribe.

If he was going to recruit these people, after all, it would be better to know them well, down to the last detail.

After hearing the majority of what he needed to know, the topic slowly lost Henry's interest as it could not match up to the insurmountable heights that the mountains of his boredom had peaked upon.

As Sajit soon found that Henry had lost interest, he shut his mouth and kept the carriage moving in the silence between them.

The mountains hummed with life, trees swayed in the wind as their leaves rustled, birds sang songs as their wings fluttered. The rivers glistened as they flowed from the mountains and to the rest of the plains in the distance.

The golden specks of sunshine caressed Henry's cheeks as they peeked through the canopy of leaves, leaving a warm tingling sensation on his skin.

Yet Henry was still bored out of his wits.

Henry was still unsure of what to do with himself until he came across a dilapidated Nepali house where a family was living in it, singing songs as the children ran barefoot, crunching along a carpet of dead leaves, where a woman was washing clothes on the nearby river as it gushed with the comforting sounds of running water.

Henry remembered his house and imagined living with Susan, their children run around in circles, roasting turkeys on Thanksgiving, all the good stuff. Henry just shook his head in embarrassment as his cheeks flushed red.

Henry was still preoccupied with himself but later found himself caught at the sight of a massive Hindu temple.

Nepal is heavily influenced by Indian culture, leading to many aspects of Nepali culture having contained some trace of Indian influence.

Hinduism is very strong here, maybe even stronger than in many places in India.

As Nepal was surrounded by mountains, it acts as a natural barrier. Many people have not even know how the outside world looks like as many places still not yet have electricity. So this caused Nepal to have a very backward civilization compared to its peer country now.

Henry immediately realized the extreme poverty showed throughout the journey, the dilapidated houses, the rocky road, the lonely temples.

Henry saw how beautiful the place was. It was teeming with resources that were left to rot on the side when they could have developed into so much more. No wonder the like of Sajit go outside his tribe.

This discovery made Henry a little relieved as he feels it's easier to recruit people, yet his shoulders feel heavy as he can't help about poverty here, at least not now as his wealth not yet reach where he can squander it on things that did not directly benefit him or his company.

His career is just started, he needs a lot of money to support it. He is not some saint that help without considering anything, on the contrary, he is a greedy capitalist. Not the kind that sucks people blood till their death, but in essence, Henry is still a capitalist.

Maybe when his wealth reaches adequate height, he will be helping those in need. But now his purpose come here is to recruit the Gurkha.

If Henry helps those in need here, many people soon will know it. Henry wealth would not enough to squander if whole Nepal knows about it. Even if Henry helps out a few people, other people that don't get the help will be envious of those who got it..

After Henry leaves, those people that receive Henry's help will be robbed the things that Henry gave to them by the people who were not able to receive it.

This is not helping them, instead, it will harm them. If Henry wants to give help to people, it must not in the form of money, food, or physical thing as it just one-time help.

A backward country like Nepal did not need just one-time help either, they need something that can benefit all people but it can continuously provide it. The one that will help them is Education, Transportation, Health Care, and many things that will provide them with sustainability in the long run. If Henry wants to help like that, his wealth is indeed not enough right now.

The carriage keeps going steadily as poverty showed within such a short journey was breathtaking.

All the people begging for help, the orphans whose parents died in the war, the widows that dragged heavy baskets of firewood to sell. The elderly and the sick that were laid on the side of the road, waiting days for a cart to take them to the nearest hospital across the mountain range.

Henry swallowed his thoughts to himself and closed his eyes in a struggle to make the voices stop.

---

<3 Days Later>

Henry and Sajit finally approached the tribe. Now the position both of them is in the deep of Himalayan mountain range.

To reach here, one must go through many difficult terrains. Even in the last 4 hours, Henry and Sajit must ride the poor donkey to reach the tribe as the carriage can't go anymore.

After 4 hours of riding, Henry finally saw a village in the side of the mountain. The deep parts of Himalayan are snowing, so the village is coated by white sheets of cold snow. This under normal circumstances, people would be tucked away in their blankets in this kind of weather, yet Henry can still see many people busily walking around.

Perhaps it was because the people were not afraid of cold, or that it was warmer now in the afternoon that they arrived, Henry did not know.

Sajit then instructed Henry to stop right here as he must talk with the tribe as Henry is an outsider.

Sajit then enters the village with his donkey and Henry just sat there.

Henry saw the villagers come to surround Sajit and talk to him. Henry was a little nervous right now, fearing that the villagers may not welcome him.

Henry can even see Sajit be surrounded by a number of burly men and quarrel about something as they yelling at each other, their voices even reaching as far as Henry was standing.

This makes Henry more nervous. But after about 10 more minutes of arguing, the commotion stopped.

Sajit then approached with an old man from the village.

"Henry, this is the village chief Ahupathi. I already told him your purpose, but he said you must pass their test if you want to recruit them." Sajit then introduces the old man beside him "Of course not a physical test, but a series of questions."

Henry then relaxed as he fears they will not welcome him if he was too tense.

"Greetings, Chief Ahupathi, my name is Henry William." Henry then greets Ahupathi with his simple Nepali language.

Ahupathi then talks in the Nepali language. Henry did not understand most of it, but he can faintly perceive Ahupathi command him to go to the village. Then 3 of them quickly go to the village.

Then Ahupathi brought Henry to a building like a village hall with open space.

Henry can already guess what is going on.

There were a big table and many chairs in the center, Ahupathi then takes the middle chair. Many people had already surrounded the hall as they looked curiously at the new visitor of their tribe. Even Henry can see many guardsmen here had a kukhri strapped to their waist.

Sajit tell told Henry to sit opposite the Ahupathi and that the text would begin soon.

Sajit would act as a translator between Henry and Ahupathi so the test would go smoothly.

Ahupathi then begins talk slowly and Sajit was quietly listening to him. Then Sajit quickly translated it to Henry.

"Ahupathi asks why would you like to recruit children from the tribe ?"

Henry then calmly answered.

"To train them as a bodyguard. Tell the chief to not worry as they would never be used as a war tool. On the contrary, I will treat them better and shaped them into an elite." Henry replied honestly.

Sajit then translated Henry answer without cutting anything.

Ahupathi then went silent for a minute before beginning the second question, which Sajit then translated it to Henry.

"Ahupathi says he would like to know where you going take them."

"I will take them to the United States." Henry answered. "I have already made the necessary preparations for their training and residences."

After Sajit relayed the message, Ahupathi immediately shot Henry a sharp glance and spoke.

"The Chief says the children are future of the tribe, so if you going to take them, how are you going to ensure the prosperity of the tribe." Sajit politely translated.

Henry then contemplated for a little bit before he answered.

"Tell the chief that if they want, I can take all of the tribe with me to the United States."

Sajit then translated it to Ahupathi, making the elder silent for a few minutes in contemplation.

After what seemed like forever, Ahupathi closed his eyes and looked at Henry straight in the eyes.

Henry did not waver and steeled his gaze to meet Ahupathi's eyes.

It did not take long before Ahupathi smiled at Henry.