When King Gyanendra of Nepal was a boy, he was sent to school in Darjeeling in neighbouring India. A story from his time there sheds light on the character of the man who this week sacked the entire government of Nepal and seized back the absolute power of a medieval king. Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister of a newly independent India, was to make an official visit to Darjeeling, and one of the stops on his itinerary was at the school. Gyanendra and the other young Nepali princes were told they would have the honour of presenting the visiting dignitary with a flower. But Gyanendra refused. "I won't do it," the precocious prince is said to have told the headmaster. "I am higher than he." The man who this week seized back absolute power in Nepal is a man who believes in royalty, who believes that from his birth he has been "higher" than other people.