G writes: " Gagan Thapa still hasn't passed a litmus test." Fine. Who says he has to? And whose litmus test does he have to pass anyway? Certainly, not mine. I would think that there are two ways to judge potentially first-rate people: Potential (when they are young) and delivery (when they are older). Right now, I, for one, am NOT at all concerned about GT's delivery.That can wait for now. He's young enough to still take some years to sharpen his potential to be a great leader. That's because, right now, regardless of whether one agrees or disagrees with his politics, there's no argument that GT shows a lot of potential (in the Nepali political space) -- and that's what has excited a lot of young Nepalis about him. In days and months and even years ahead, let GT MAKE HIS SHARE OF various MISTAKES (you know, the type of mistakes that -- if you read the various biographies of great people jump right at you -- end up toughening up future leaders . . . loving the wrong person, trusting wrong friends, making wrong decisions about events and places, surviving the harsh glare of public light, having the wrong self-discipline and so on and on) AND LEARN FROM THEM VERY QUICKLY so that he can process the lessons and turn all his mistakes/errors/misjudgements into pathways for greater success. [And, I suppose, it's best to make all these kind of mistakes when one is young so that there is time for reflection.] Viewed this way, at this point, I'd worry ONLY if GT came across as a super-perfect person who has done nothing wrong in his life. Such a GT would be a boring and an improbable person. But I'd be comfortable if he made lots of mistakes (now), accepted that he has made mistakes, really learnt from all his mistakes, and then processed the lessons to move on to greater public challenges. That, to me, would mark his journey from potential to delivery. Greate leaders, after all, do not come out of some anti-septic vaccum to live other people's dreams. They come out of their own lives . . . out of how they have handled their own life's successes and failures, and found a way to go ahead when all others said no or impossible. oohi ashu