Fragments of Memory: A Nepali National's Reminiscences

by Satish Prabasi

In 1949, the author left his remote village in the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal, traveling by ox-cart, to pursue an education in newly-independent India. This book is the unlikely story of his life from his birth in Nepal, to his days as an activist academic in the Netherlands, and later as a global traveler and official of the United Nations. Few have experienced the equivalent of two centuries of transformation in one from a feudal society to the digital age. Ultimately, his life and journey have been guided by a love for learning and a quest for a purposeful life.

232 pages, Paperback

Published October 6, 2020

Reviews

[Christine Eberle · Rating 4 out of 5]

"You have made me known to friends whom I knew not. You have given me seats in homes not my own. You have brought the distant near and made a brother of the stranger." These words of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore have taken flesh in the questing soul of Satish Prabasi. Now a doting Manhattan grandfather, retired diplomat, and citizen of the world, Prabasi takes us all the way back to his childhood in Nepal—where he reached the age of nine before experiencing any mode of transport not based on animals. Then he brings us forward with him, tracing the extraordinary and improbable circumstances through which he attained an education, a career, and a family. At each turn, we see how Prabasi opened his heart to new people and places, as he opened his mind to new ideas and experiences. Fragments of Memory can be enjoyed as a travelogue, a love story, or a “rags to (modest) riches” tale, but above all this memoir is a spiritual treasure hunt. Prabasi’s insatiable thirst for wisdom is the golden thread running through all his reminiscences, drawing the fragments of memory together into one beautiful tale.