Enjoyed reading this. Thanks, Jhilka. It's time Girija, Deuba, Madhav Nepal et al stepped aside and let younger (even if untested) Nepalis to take party-political leadership. As long as these failed netas are around in leadership positions (and we can say that even as we respect their past contributions), in a country like ours where more than 80 per cent of the 25-million population is under the age of 40, there is simply NO hope for any move forward. Unfortunately, there exists simply NO institutional mechanism for new, fresh and relevant-to-these-times leadership to emerge in any political party anytime soon. And that has been the greatest tragedy of our multi-party democracy -- that it made party-leadership so entrenched and so powerful (i.e. dictators in the parties) and it left no room for the process of peaceful competitions for leadership positions. Rather than compete for leadership positions, ambitious young politicians have to either break away and form their own parties or be called rebels for having differing views. As a citizen, I really see no hope except sitting around and waiting for these aged netas to naturally die off one by one and thereby clearing the path for younger ones. Some might say that that's an optimistic view. :-) oohi ashu