It has been estimated that migration and colonisation of the world took place during the last 50,000 years. The spoken language came into use from about 10,000 years and the written word from the last few thousand years. This is all stated in the former Indian President’s Website: abdulkalam.com. In a book “The Return of the Aryans”, there is reference to a “silent tribe” that had no language. When the question came as to which sound to teach them first, the vocal sound selected was Aum or Om. In the Book of Genesis in the Bible, there is reference to a Tower of Babel in Babylon for a congregation of different tongues. God is supposed to have confronted this plan and scattered the people, speaking the different languages, to the different corners of the world. It was but natural that when means of travel were limited and took a long time to reach one’s destination, it was in order for each community to have its own means of communication. In the fight for survival or of conquests of foreign lands, it was the winner who called the tune or dictated the terms. The spread of Sanskrit, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch, English and Chinese have all followed this rule. We in Nepal have now to confront a language problem. Do we want to divide our country on the basis of ethnicity and language? Or do we want to do this in term of a limited number of North/South units that are financially sustainable? The Vice President’s oath in Hindi has dominated the media headlines for some time. Many countries allow oaths to be taken in different languages just as they allow swearing on different religious books. The United Nations Organisation has six official languages viz, Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. However, when Mr. Atal B Vajpayee wanted to address the organisation in Hindi, he was allowed to do so. The enlarged European Union has a total of 23 official languages. There are 18 official languages in India. We in Nepal have as many as 126 spoken languages. Considering that Nepal is a founder member of SAARC, is it not time that we address this problem. Should not all the languages of the component countries of SAARC be made official languages? In this way, English too will be an official language of Nepal as it is accepted as an official language in India. One of the reasons that English has become a world language is because of the development of paperbacks, the English/American films and the computer which now has a world wide usage. To use the computer effectively, it is essential that we Nepalis who have to look for jobs all over the world must be able to adapt to the conditions existing in the different lands. As we may even be termed as a ‘Nation of Migrants’ from time immemorial, our capabilities in English in this day and age has surely to improve. Some have even suggested that in this modern age we ought to implement the Gregorian calendar rather than continue with the Vikram Sambat which was introduced into Nepal fairly recently for no rhyme and reason. Whilst retaining the Devanagari script for Nepali, there is much to be said to take the internationally used numeral one, two, three, four which is in fact of Arabic origin. A lot of the European languages use the Latin script of 26 letters. George Bernard Shaw had expressed that this was not adequate to express the different sounds and had campaigned to change this. As far as Nepali or Hindi is concerned, being derived from Sanskrit with its many vowels and consonants we have no problem regarding this. I am given to understand that in Italian and Spanish many of the words are very similar and it is the endings that tend to be different. Two persons, one speaking Spanish and the other Italian can understand a considerable percentage of the conversation and make do. The position of Hindi and Nepali is similar. Now a situation is coming when Bollywood films are now stooping to conquer. Whether we like it or not, Hindi books, TV programmes or films attract a lot or readers, listeners and viewers in Nepal. Claims are being made that the lingua franca of the Terai is Hindi. What is a reality is that many of the words are very similar as both are being derived from Sanskrit. Why not take all this positively and with optimism. We cannot dream of the Greater Nepal just as our Southern neighbour cannot contemplate an Akhanda Bharat in this day and age. What we can do is try to communicate in our Khas Kura or Nepali right across the Himalayan belt stretching from Kumoun, Uttaranchal, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and parts of Assam. There is a sizable population in this wide corridor and any marketing expert will agree that there is a big market for reading, eating, wearing, listening and viewing materials and commodities. The query that I have is: Why we in Nepal are so limited in our horizons? Is not the USA the ‘Big Brother’ of the smaller countries of the Americas just as Germany has that role in Europe? Why don’t we accept the fact that we will always have to exist with Big Brothers on our Northern and Southern flanks!