Don't fuck with Gurkhas

Rico says, courtesy of his friend Bill Champ, this splendid little story about Gurkhas:

Gorkha soldiers have long been known the world over for their valor and these kukri-wielding warriors winning the British many a battle have become folklore.
A retired Indian Gorkha soldier recently revisited those glory days when he thwarted forty robbers, killing three of them and injuring eight others, with his kukri during a train journey. He is in line to receive three gallantry awards from the Indian government.
Slave girl Morgiana in the Arabian Nights used her cunning to finish off Ali Baba´s forty thieves, but Bishnu Shrestha of Baidam did not have time to plot against the forty train robbers. He, however, did make good use of his kukri to save the chastity of a girl and hundreds of thousands in loot.
Shrestha, who was on the Maurya Express going from to Gorakhpur from Ranchi on 2 September, returning home following voluntary retirement from the Indian army, saved the girl who was going to be raped by the robbers in front of her helpless parents, and in doing so won plaudits from everybody.
“He will be provided a special honor for doing Nepal proud on the international stage,” Finance Minister Surendra Raj Pandey said after a cabinet meeting. The government, however, has yet to declare what the honor would comprise of and when will it be given.
The Indian government is to decorate Shrestha with its Sourya Chakra Bravery Award and Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Medal and the 35-year-old was leaving for India to receive the first of the awards on the occasion of India´s Republic Day on 26 January.
“The formal announcement of the awards will be made on Republic Day and on Independence Day on 15 August,” said Shrestha, whose father Gopal Babu also retired from the same platoon of the Gorkha Regiment around 29 years ago.
His regiment has already given him a cash award of R50,000 (Indian rupees), and decided to terminate his voluntary retirement. He will get the customary promotion after receiving the medals. The Indian government will also announce a cash bounty for him and special discounts on international air tickets and domestic train tickets.
The band of about forty robbers, some of whom were travelling as passengers, stopped the train in the Chittaranjan jungles in West Bengal around midnight. Shrestha, who had boarded the train at Ranchi in Jharkhand, the place of his posting, was in seat number 47 in coach AC3.
“They started snatching jewelry, cell phones, cash, laptops, and other belongings from the passengers,” Shrestha recalled. The soldier had somehow remained a silent spectator amidst the melee, but not for long. He had had enough when the robbers stripped an 18-year-old girl sitting next to him and tried to rape her right in front of her parents. He then took out his kukri and took on the robbers.
“The girl cried for help, saying ´You are a soldier, please save a sister´,” Shrestha recalled. “I prevented her from being raped, thinking of her as my own sister,” he added. He took one of the robbers under control and then started to attack the others. He said the rest of the robbers fled after he killed three of them with his kukri and injured eight others.
During the scuffle he received a serious blade injury to his left hand, while the girl also had a minor cut on her neck. “They had carried out their robbery with swords, knives, and pistols. The pistols may have been fake as they didn´t open fire,” he surmised.
The train resumed its journey after some twenty minutes and a horde of media persons and police were present when it reached Chittaranja station. Police arrested the eight injured dacoits and recovered around 400,000 Indian rupees in cash, forty gold necklaces, two hundred cell phones, forty laptops, and other items that the fleeing robbers dropped in the train.
Police escorted Shrestha to the Railways Hospital after the rescued girl told them about his heroic deed. Mainstream Indian media carried the story. The parents of the girl, who was going for her MBBS studies, also announced a cash award of Indian rupees 300,000 for him but he has not met them since.
“The veins and arteries in my left hand were slit, but the injury has now healed after two months of neurological treatment at the Command Hospital in Kolkata,” he said, showing the scar. “Fighting the enemy in battle is my duty as a soldier; taking on the dacoits in the train was my duty as a human being,” said the Indian army nayak, who has been given two guards during his month-long holidays in Nepal. “I am proud to be able to prove that a Gorkha soldier with a kukri is really a handful. I would have been a meek spectator had I not carried that kukri,” he said. He still finds it hard to believe that he took on forty armed robbers alone. “They may have feared that more of my army friends were traveling with me and fled after fighting me for around twenty minutes,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Shrestha is finding it difficult to reach out to all those who intend to honor him for his courageous act. He has already been honored by around a dozen private firms, mothers´ groups, local political leaders, and schools, while many are preparing to honor him. Some firms from Kathmandu have also invited him for felicitation.
“My son is finding it difficult to manage time to accept all the honors,” said Shrestha´s elated father Gopal Babu who had also retired around 29 years ago from the same 7th Platoon of the 8th Gorkha Regiment, in which his son served. “We had never thought that he would be honored at this scale,” Gopal Babu expressed his happiness.
Agni Air, Rastriya Paropakar Mahasangh, Shantipatan Tole Sudhar Samiti, the Miteri Mothers´ Group, the ward committees of the Nepali Congress, and Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist, Tal Barahi Higher Secondary School, and others have already honored him. “He could not travel to Kathmandu due to lack of time,” his father said.
On most occasions he was felicitated with a shawl, vermillion, and dhaka topi, and given certificates. Agni Air has given him an honorary life membership and announced a limetime free air travel. “Some of my friends from India even called me to congratulate for his bravery. Everybody should honor such brave persons,” said Sushil Basnet of Agni Air.
The soldier was happy about all the appreciation he has received from different quarters and thanked the media for covering the news. “The Indian media brought the incident to light and the Nepali media too gave it due importance. I may have even been sent to jail on the charge of robbery had the girl and the Indian media not come forward to my support,” Shrestha said. “I was hardly recognized even in Baidam. Now the whole country knows me.”

Rico says the spelling of Gurkha and kukri are variable, but he likes his choices better...