{"id":24203,"date":"2024-04-30T13:29:55","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T07:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dorjegurung.com\/blog\/?p=24203"},"modified":"2026-02-12T09:31:40","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T09:31:40","slug":"on-the-path-to-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/2024\/04\/on-the-path-to-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"September 18, 2021: On the Path To Recovery Finally…After Eight Years"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eleven years on since facing the most harrowing and traumatic twelve-day experience of my life–in police custody in Doha, Qatar for allegedly insulting Islam–I can say I have finally recovered from it. But, returning to Nepal following that back in 2013, I struggled immensely for a long time with the challenges of recovering from that compounded by the woes of repatriation — I had spent most of the preceding twenty-five years abroad, among other things. It wasn’t until eight years on, in 2021, that I decided and\/or realized that I was finally on the path to recovery.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sept. 18 of that year, I made a post on Facebook<\/a> about just that. On November 20, 2021, I reproduced the post on Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following is a reproduction of that post and a little more.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

* * * * * * * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eight years…after eight years of struggles, I finally feel that I am, truly, on the road to recovery from that #traumatic<\/a> 12-day experience in Al Rayyan Police Station in #Qatar<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(I believe it’s taken so long mainly because I have had to do it alone; I have not had a single person in #Kathmandu<\/a> around me helping me for any significant length of time.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do I know that? Two reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. I don’t cry alone as easily and as often as I used to (see images 1 and 2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Image 2.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

2. The urge to scream my lungs out, one perpetually fueled by the rage and the fire burning inside, has subsided, considerably. (See image 3 below, which is of a WhataApp text message I sent a good buddy of mine back in June 23, 2020 about that).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Though that urge has ALWAYS been there, I gave vent to it only twice. The first time was in #MonumentValley<\/a>, UT, USA in the Summer of 2015 (of which I have a recording!), and the second time was in #Goa<\/a>, India in October, 2019 (see image 4 below).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image 4.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first eighteen hours I spent in the private cell in Al Rayyan Police Station had been, until that point, the loneliest and probably the darkest and the most despair-filled<\/a> time in my entire life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strangely enough, or surprisingly, the journey from when I was released on May 12, 2013 to now has also been a lonely, lonely, lonely one, some periods even very dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless, from at some point, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as it were, I have been chugging along, steadfastly, heading towards it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a journey it has been…what a journey! It’s been an excruciating, revelatory, and liberating one all at the same time, among others!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It can only get better from here…I believe so anyway!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

* * * * * * * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NB<\/strong>. “Al Rayyan Jail” has been replaced with “Al Rayyan Police Station” because I was in police custody and never convicted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional Notes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. When it came to my crying, while I did that mostly in private. One time in Nepal I was overcome with emotions during an interview with the DPA (Deutsche Presse-Agentur) journalist Pratibha Tuladhar in January 2018. She ends the article Nepalis pursue overseas employment despite risks<\/em><\/a> thus:<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \n

    \u201cI had it easy,\u201d Gurung said as tears welled up in his eyes. \u201cBut there are thousands out there who have lost everything.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    However, I felt comfortable sharing the details of crying with the public in the form of a blog post called Freedom Cries<\/a><\/em> only into the fourth year of my return to Nepal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As for the March 19, 2019 Facebook post about the Iranian lawyer, I had actually read the article around 1:30 AM in the morning (see image below) while hanging out at a restaurant sipping beer, listening to live music, scrolling through social media, and had actually made a Google note about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Here’s the note that I had intended to share on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n

    Story of Iranian lawyer jailed for 38 years and over hundred lashes…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This is going to be my first really emotional Facebook post of mine! I have resisted making emotional posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I first came across links to this article some time ago but I refused to follow it and or even acknowledge it personally because even if it sounded really really unjust it was just too wayward. But of course I know too well about such \u201cwayward\u201d crimes and punishments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    And yet here I am, at 1:00 am, at a bar in Thamel, reading the article, unable to hold my tears!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    And I have to ask myself, who in Nepal would care? Who in Nepal could care?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Yes, I appreciated the fact that so many in Nepal cared and campaigned on my behalf and got me out of Qatari jail!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    https:\/\/womenintheworld.com\/2019\/03\/11\/iranian-lawyer-who-defended-womens-right-to-remove-hijab-gets-38-years-148-lashes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Could you care? Should you care? Would you care? If you did, why?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

    As you can see, what I did end up sharing was a little different. Additionally, the link to the article is broken; click here<\/a> for the archived version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. There was more to the WhatsApp exchange with my dear friend than what I shared on Facebook. Here they are. I share them here because they do contain more information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Urge<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Eleven years since the most harrowing and traumatic twelve-day experience of my life in Doha, Qatar, for allegedly insulting Islam, I can say I have finally recovered.<\/p>\n

    However, it wasn’t until after eight years of struggles with the fallout that experience, in September 2021, that I realized I was finally on the road to recovery. and shared that fact on social media. This is a reproduction of that post including some additional information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":24220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[160,31],"tags":[288,579],"class_list":["post-24203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-personal-stories","category-qatar-academy","tag-facebook","tag-trauma"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/on-path-to-recovery-featimage.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Jbro-6in","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24203"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24203\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28202,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24203\/revisions\/28202"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dorjegurung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}