As far as I know, Rishi has never claimed to be a saint. Nor has he propped himsedlf up as some sort of a "role-model journalist". He does what he does. He acts; other react. Given how utterly biased - and I would say, irrelevant -- journalism prizes are in Nepal, Rishi will NEVER win any of those mainstream prizes. That's fine. [Will Matt Drudge, for instance, ever be be given a Pulitzer Prize for commentary?] I judge Rishi -- whom I know only through his work and NOT personally -- by one result only. That is, in an ideologically balkanized Nepal where one group of people never talk to another group of people just because they have different ideas, and in a place were because fragile egos, all sorts of jhagada and kich-kich going on and on, this guy gets all kinds of people to come and speak at his Reporters' Club on issues of national importance. Sure, he's a self-promoter. But so what? Sure, his educational credentials are not that great. But so what? Since when have we started requiring our newspeople to have their PhDs? Sure, he has hung out with all sorts of people. But so what? As a reader, I'd rather have a journalist who has access to all sorts of sources and people than the one who only has a few predictable sources. My point is simple: As a consumer of journalism, I accept Rishi as a vital part of the eco-system of Nepali journalism. He has created a unique niche for himself, and that's great in a back-biting, dog-eat-dog, nasty and ideologically riven world of a Nepali profession. oohi ashu