Although a beautiful piece of writing, the contents kinda threw me off. I had been one of those illiterate (when it came to history anyways) students who visited the basantapur museum when I was escorting my cousins who had always lived abroad. When I entered there, unlike the writer's feelings, I had nothing but respect for our rulers, and my heart swelled with pride. Tribhuwan's hand watch with saraswati symbol on it, the old pen he used to create amazing poetry with...the bicycle he used to ride - I gasped for breath - suddenly- i wanted to learn more n more....Similar were my feelings when I visited the Patan Revisited museums. Why should we look back at the past with such vehement pessimism? During the rule of Shah Dynasty (atleast until Late King Birendra) - people were HAPPY...I think the writer is simply trying to play with people's current distorted image of "rulers n leaders", and create a overly dramatic "story" out of it... By the way, about the attic - the one in Patan, the 'bardali' that overlooks the 'inner chowk' is scary (i'm afraid of heights), but the view is awesome :)