Nepe wrote: "गएका सालहरुमा गणतन्त्रको केवल शब्दोच्चारणले मात्तै पनि यसमा ल्याएको उत्साह, जनसहभागिता र चासोलाई हेरेर भनेको हो ।" God knows from where Nepe saw all this उत्साह, जनसहभागिता र चासो, but what I, as a mere sidewalk darshak near my then office, saw in Kathmandu last spring were people who were so bored on many occasions that comedians such as Manoj Gajurel had to be brought in to perform their routines to entertain the agitating crowd in Ratna Park. And there were students who were throwing rocks at innocent passers-by and vehicles for days on end from the kaushi of Tri Chandra College. Sure, there were laathi charges, and dauda-daud, and massive pictures opf the crowd in the dailies in the the first few days. But as photographer Usha Tiwari (no relative of mine!) and other amateur film-makers captured in their camcorders (these films were subsequently shown as 'shorts' in Kathmandu), for most people being a part of the julus was just a big, ramailo if confusing ramita. No wonder the whole thing fizzled after a few weeks. But don't take my word for it. Even our fire-breathing friend Khagendra Sangraula -- who did everything to EXAGGERATE the effects of all those ramitas even when the realities were quite different at Ratna Park -- FINALLY, finally and at last appears to have reached similar conclusions, if his today's (Jan 12) Kantipur piece is anything to go by. But Nepe, being Nepe, would refuse to believe any of it, of course. He has a simple formula, which is hypotenthical at best, but he talks as though it held the key to all of Nepal's problems. Having said that, I now await a verbal tsunami from Nepe -- branding me as a pro-monarch person and much else besides :-) oohi ashu