Robert Frostji, Among a lot of things that were amazing about Jana-andolan-II was that it was neither led by any "Messiah" nor did it produce it's own "leader". Also, it did not end in an outright "revolution". Yet, it did/is doing the job of a revolution. And all this is happening without revolutionary "leaders" of it's own. At the beginning, I was thinking it was a weakness and flaw of this revolution. But as I think more and look more carefully at Nepali society, my views are changing. Now I am more and more convinced that what I thought were weakness and flaw are actually it's merit and strength. Think of it, we now have no "leaders" to let us down, to disappoint us, to push us back to our old resignation, apathy and cynicism. We are making the old jokers- Girija, Deuba, KP and others- work for us with full knowledge of their limitation and the extent of our dream at the same time. Did you get my point ? To illustrate how my views are EVOLVING, here is my two weeks old conversation with a columnist who asked me whether there are lessons to the world from our "April revolution". I wrote the following lines to him. From: Deepak To: .. Date: Apr 27, 2006 3:39 PM Subject: Re: A quick question ...-jee, I am glad you asked this question. Because I was meditating on this one. Although, I am deeply disappointed to see that a revolution was lost (postponed) when it was an inch away simply because not a single politician came forward to lead it, I am still seeing, based on how far the movement went, it as a unique test case that cleanly demonstrates "people power", that is, how much people can do on their own (without a messiah). Nepali people showed their power not only when there was no messiah, but when there were deeply resented and disrespected political leaders around. It's really an amazing triumph. Nepal now provides a precious and practical lesson to many countries fighting for democracy. The lesson is: don't wait for a messiah. And for a country that has a messiah who has failed to bring democracy yet, our lesson can still be, may be more, useful. Don't depend on the messiah. Do it yourself. That's the lessoon. Burma comes to my mind. As much as I revere Aung San Suu Kyi, I think she is the reason why Burmese people are not fighting for democracy on their own. I hope you got my point. I think it's time for Aung San Suu Kyi to tell Burmese people, she is not the messiah. Burmese people should learn from Nepalese people to fight without depending on a leader. *** *** *** Another lesson that can be drawn is from what many "analysts" found as an incomprehensible "apathy" of Nepali people to political parties "movement" during October 2002 to somewhere like May 2005. In one of my comments on one piece by Dr. Alok Bohora-jee, I had said I view this apathy rather as a "passive resistance" and "silent protest" to political parties' self-serving "movements" the purpose of which was limited to be able return to Singh Durbar. So this "apathy" was actually showing Nepali people's maturity to understand what is worth fighting for and what is not. I think Nepali people was misunderstood and underestimated not only by the politicians, but also by our intelligentsia. Among other things, many "scientific polls" that actually gave erroneous picture of what Nepalis have in their mind also misled our intelligentsia. These "scientific" poll's scientificness was limited to statistics. The questionnaires were terribly unscientific. They were political and usually full of jargons. Show the questionnaire to any social psychologist, I bet most of it will be dismissed for lack of scientific sense including lack of consideration to the specific culture of communication in Nepali society. My doubt and questioning to these "scientific" polls might sound unreasonable to many. However, if you look at the results of the polls conducted during last 5-7 years to see if the trend drawn from them could predict our socio-political development accurately, you will be disappointed. [skipped] yours, .... I guess these gives some idea about exactly what gives me optimism. Yes, the level of people's awareness, participation and vigilance. That's what makes me optimist about new Nepal. *** *** *** *** Ashu, What you are saying is, I think, a common sense and wisdom every average Nepali has with him now. Partly that's what I was talking about in above posting. And although I used the term "dream", I was actually talking about the "reality"- the real chances we have now after breaking the stalemate that continued for so many years. History does not give guarantee to anything. It only gives you chances. Take it or miss it, there are only these two choices in life. What one does and with what level of optimism/skepticism is entirely personal choices of a man. My advice is only this: have a reasonable idea of chances. Don't plan to buy a mansion just because there is a chance that you might hit the jackpot you bought yesterday and don't stay at home because there is a chance you might get killed in a traffic accident if you go out. Tetti garey pugyo ! On a different and more interesting note, you wrote: >In this lok-tantrik Nepal, and in the spirit of times, can we >expect to see you change your formidable 'Jung Shahi' >title -- with its obvious connotations of proximity to >royal power -- changed to, well, Anil Nepali or >Anil Chepang? Believe or not, this is one of many things I have in my mind for new Nepal. De-casteification of surnames is one of many minor but significant social reforms I think about Nepal. Letting people freedom to choose names, surnames, religion and everything a Nepali is entitled to is going to be among many socio-political reforms I am going to pursue (no, not limited to cyber-activism !). So, I will be promoting one broad basic right of Nepali citizen (freedom of a child from being imposed religion and surname of parents !) in the new constitution. Seriously. *** *** *** *** Kalekrishnaji, I will leave it to "experts" for formulating a more sensible economic policies for Nepal. However, I am not for too cautious and "conservative" economic thinking. Nepal will have to take some big "risky" and "ambitious" steps. That's my amateur take. The first and foremost ambitious plan Nepal needs is educating it's entire population. Everything else can wait, be on hold, get cut down, go to saving mode or whatever it needs. There are brilliant economists and expert in Sajha. So I do not want to show more of my uneducated ideas :-) . In any case, I have more to learn than give inputs in this area. Nepe