Namaste London!

If given a chance, which place would you like to go?" Well, if this question had been posed to me a year back I would have endless list of places within a couple of seconds on my mind: right from our very own mystique Manang to the ever so popular Paris. But thanks to the British government I now only want to go to one place - LONDON.

Ever since the law has been passed enabling the ex-British Gurkhas to settle in UK I dream of only going to London. It is not because of its high fashion or anything but because of the fact that with each passing month I have been losing out my friends and relatives to UK.

Earlier it was only the young Nepali men who were moving to UK, and that too temporarily. But now a staggering number of Nepali families are moving there permanently.
Over the last few years, hundreds of ex-British Gurkhas and their family members have left for the United Kingdom with the hope of a better future. And there are still many of them who are trying to get there and join the Nepali Diaspora.

The majority of those trying to get British visa have actually abandoned their very comfortable lives here in their own country for a future in a far away land. It is both ironical and amusing that people are ready to give up everything and start it all over again from a scratch. I guess that is what happens to people when they are blinded by the spell of living abroad.

Similarly, age is no bar when it comes to grabbing the opportunity of living abroad. Parents of teenagers to the grandparents of infants, everyone is eyeing on getting to UK. The enthusiasm seen in the people to settle there permanently is overwhelming. The housewives are busy taking crash courses to improve their English. Besides this, they have resorted to beauty parlors. Not just for their personal maintenance but to learn a thing or two about beautifying others and oneself too. After all, it may just come in handy when you are planning to settle in one of the most expensive places in the world.

The families that have jumped at the prospect of residing permanently in UK seem to be focusing only on how to get there. The life thereafter is not a cakewalk. Most of them know this fact. However, they do not seem to be fully prepared to face the subsequent challenges. And this shows that old habits die hard.

Amidst all the hustle and bustle of settling abroad, it is the children who get caught between two conflicting cultures. It is most likely that they will have an extremely hard time to be amalgamated smoothly into the British way of life. But nothing is going to stop them from making every possible effort to land in their dreamland despite their different culture and life style