the Maoists are now engaged (successfully) in a major publicity blitz targeted at both domestic and international audience. if you read between the lines, this piece is just a part of this campaign... this one focused more on rapport building, primarily, with the elderly in nepal... the sheer grief that mr. bhattarai has expressed (over his mother's death) is less significant than what he's trying to accomplish with this article... pretty interesting read though. sorry to hear about ms. bhattarai's death.