Ashu, It's a matter of pleasure to find you and myself sharing a similar view. As a matter of fact, I think, barring from the matter of domestic politics, we probably share similar, if not identical, views on great many things. Even in case of domestic politics, there is an interesting, if not bizarre, similarity between the approach you often have emphasized for dealing with the King and the one I am taking here for dealing with India. I would probably be saying the same thing you are saying about how to deal with the King, had it not been for a small difference I see between India and the King. With India, we have issues that can not be fought most efficiently with what can be called 'moral strength' of the issues alone. On the contrary, our issues with the King is of the nature that can be (and I would say, must be) fought with it's 'moral strength' alone. I think this is what our difference basically is and all that you and I are fighting are mere details of that. *** *** *** You wrote: >I say that we have to find ways to ride the Indian (and the Chinese) boom. Absolutely. Although I have not read in words, I feel many of us might be banking on the automatic SPILL OVER effect of the Indian/Chinese economic boom. However, (you are in a better position to caution these people on this) with their relative stability as compared to us, Myanmar, Bangladesh and other SAARC countries might take our share (of opportunity) if we fail to become a stable country soon. Still, stability alone won't be enough. Our people will have to acquire more sense of entrepreneurship and sharpen their cross-border trading skills. When I was "on the same page" with you during our debate on the curriculum of Nepali language a while ago, I was actually thinking about this very issue. We better spend our valuable time to train our students to make them internationally more competent rather than encouraging them to write better Nepali poems. *** *** *** On Nepal's diplomacy, I feel like crying when I see our ambassadors. Sometime ago, our ambassador in DC, Mr. Kedar Bhakta Shrestha, wrote a rebuttal to an article published in a local Newspaper. The letter was so poor that the editor had to reject it for publication ! The poor embassy was forced to circulate the letter by emails and Nepali websites. Even the darling boy of both Panchayat and Prajatantra, Dr. Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, disappoints. Wasn't he saying once that he has not studied the constitution of Bhutan and that is because he thinks that particular knowledge is not important in dealing with the case of Bhutani refugees in Nepal ? This is how our best diplomats are. >Meantime, Nepal's best and the brightest go to the West, and stay there, >with their face forever pressed against the outside glass looking on in Nepal. I believe our population pool is big enough to allow us to afford losing a fraction of it's brain to "drain". And I would rather celebrate than pitying whatever small small things, including sentimental attachments, these drained brains could do for Nepal. *** *** ***