Dear Birbhadra, It gives me a sense of pride when I think of what SOME of my ancestors have fought for, the ideas they had of Nepal for Nepal. In retrospect, no matter if some of us question the intention and mode of such ideas, of the larger, I however, remain steadfast in my belief that it was for something genuine, larger and better. Your name reminds me of one such warrior/patriot in Nepal's forgotten history who directly and gallantly fought the foreign intervention and tried to preserve what was Nepal and Nepali-at that time in history. The last 250 years of Nepal's existence has been a constant struggle to reassert itself in terms of its identity, culture and existence. If the ?greater Nepal? vision of P.N. Shah was a boon that defined us by a geographical boundary, a cohesive society and a consolidated identity, later on, it nevertheless turned into a curse that was used as a tool to reduce our identity to, well, the monarchy and nothing else. It seemed that our identity survived only with that of the prevailing monarch. Somehow Nepal and ?Nepalitva? was meaningless in the absence of a King. No matter how corrupt, insane and senseless the prevailing monarch happened to be, we were destined to accept him as our lord. All the revolution or at least attempts for such in the past-- 2007, 2046-47, and Maoist?s 1996 have been to define a Nepali identity independent of monarchy. It has been to understand Nepal not only as Kathmandu but outside of it--the ?pahar?, ?bhitri-madhesh? and ?madhesh? that ACTUALLY exist outside of Kathmandu. It has been to understand and provide ?Nepaliva? not as hierarchical system of caste and ethnicity, culture of suppression/oppression and social injustices, but a universal and common playing field where everyone at least had access for a fair chance to succeed. This Birbhadra and more have been the goal and aim of most of the past and current revolutionaries. You talk about the impracticality of other ideologies besides democracy; I propose a customized democracy for Nepal. Democracy in terms of multi-party system, freedom of thoughts, expression, speech etc., those that usually accompany ?freedom?. However, to truly uplift Nepal we need several smaller ?democracies? within a larger umbrella of a Democratic Republic of Nepal. We should import ideas that make sense to a common man-be it from a communist manifesto or a socialist agenda. We need to create economic programs and policies that penetrate to the bottom-most level of economic ladder, which if we were to import the western version of democracy and capitalism and it?s ?trickle-down-effect? would fail to make way enough. Likewise, we need to implement social reforms that provide incentive to the less unfortunate and most under-represented so that they stand a chance of competing in the forming and creating of a modern Nepal-one that is proud and conscious of its history, and progressive and optimistic of its future endeavors.