When Yogesh Rai failed the selection test for the British Army’s Brigade of Gurkhas in 2007, his childhood dream was crushed.
He was already 21 years old, and would not be eligible to apply again.
“I wanted to turn my disappointment into success for others, so I took the advice of some retired soldiers and decided to start a pre-training centre for aspiring candidates,” says Yogesh.
For the last 200 years, Nepali youths have been recruited into the Britain’s forces. The brigade takes its name from the home state of king Prithivi Narayan Shah, the unifier of modern Nepal.
His armies beat back an invasion by the British East India Company’s forces in 1814, impressing the British by their resolve. The subsequent treaty allowed for the recruitment of Nepali youth into the army of the British trading monopoly.
“When the British left India in 1947, a tripartite agreement on the recruitment of the Nepali soldiers was struck. Of the 10 serving Gurkha regiments, six remained in India, and four were moved to England,” says Rajesh Kulung Rai, secretary of the Gurkha Research Council.
The regiments chosen by the British included a majority of the indigenous mountain people like the Rais, Gurungs and Magars. Still today, joining the British Army is a dream that Nepali boys grow up with.
At the Gurkha Pre-Training Centre in Kathmandu, 18 men from different districts, between the ages of 17-21 are training for the selection test. They run for an hour along the capital’s Ring Road, breathing in the city’s dust and smog before arriving back at the centre for further exercise.
“We have sit-ups, press-ups and heaving practices for two hours every day,” says 20-year-old Rakesh Rai. “Along with six months of physical training, we also have three months of maths and English lessons.”
Rakesh has failed the selection once, but that has not deterred him from trying again, because he says being in the British Army is a special opportunity.
“It’s a matter of pride to be a British soldier and this has also helped the hill tribes fight poverty.” Amber Shing Sunuwar has also failed the selection once, and he too is persisting this time around.
“I felt bad for myself when my cousins got through last time, but I was also happy for them,” says Sunuwar. “It’s a life-changing opportunity.”
Sunuwar comes from a village in Ramechhap district, where lack of higher education pushes people into foreign employment. One of his elder brothers works in Malaysia, another in Saudi Arabia.
“But I want to be a soldier,” he says. “I grew up watching my uncles and my cousins in the uniform and I have always known this is what I want.”
In the villages inhabited by the indigenous tribes, every young man is expected to make an attempt at the selection.
There are set criteria for the aspirants, mostly relating to physical fitness. The first round takes place in Dharan in eastern Nepal.  Those who make it, go through a more rigorous two-week selection, during which they are tested physically and psychologically.
“Besides passing the maths and English-language test, we need to cover 2,400m within 9 minutes, 40 seconds. We carry a wicker basket with 25kg of sand and run 5km uphill within 46 minutes,” explains Rakesh.
“There’s an entertainment test, too. We sing, dance, play the guitar.”
Each year, around 5,000 young highland men apply, out of which fewer than 2,000 get past the first round. Out of those, 230 are recruited for the British Army and 80 for the Singapore Police, which is also part of the same recruitment process.
“The British took the Gurkha in because they were good fighters in the mountains, and then built a mystic story around their bravery. This was the British imagination. Hence the perception that Gurkhas are fearless,” says anthropologist and writer Deepak Thapa.
Following several rounds of protests, in 2004 equal pensions were announced for the British Gurkhas who retired after 2000. But hundreds of them who retired before 2000 are still demanding equal pensions.
“It (the recruitment) has done Nepal very well, as it provides good employment. Also in retirement a lot of the men who served in the British Army can work as security guards around the world,” explains Thapa.
For the young men in the hills, being a ‘lahure’ - in common local parlance - is a cherished aspiration, which can bail their families out of hardship and poverty.