April revolution’s vocal victim Narendra Raule warns leaders from his hospital bed.
janaandolan -2 vivtim warns leader
By Narendra Raule
Janaandolan-2 (Peoples’ Movement) Victim

On Baishakh 9 (April 22), sea of humanity was marching from Koteshor to Tripureshor. I joined it from Tinkune. The peaceful protest was marching forward despite the barriers placed here and there. The street was abuzz with anti-monarchy slogans.
At 3 pm, the mass reached Tripureshor.Then it headed towards Tundikhel. But, some vigilantes tried to vandalize the king’s statue and put fire on the hoarding boards that have king’s message. At that moment, Armed Police Force personnel opend fire on protesters. My left hand was injured by a gunshot. There was nowhere to run or hide. The area was surrounded by security forces. I ran towards Eye Hospital in Tripureshor. There too I found an army barrack. Army was still firing, numerous shells of tear gas were fired on demonstrators. A doctor affiliated to Redcross saved my life. Then, the Redcross people carried me in their ambulance to Model Hospital. My left hand was operated the same day. After operation, I was admitted to a bed. Other patients had a number of visitors but I was lonely, no one paid me visit. It made me homesick.
Two days after the operation, a doctor not only insulted but also tried to discharge me. The wound had not healed yet. Moreover, I had nowhere to go. Those kith and kins of ministers and MPs were treated differently. I said, I can not move my hand. But, to add salt to my wounds, they remarked that it was not an asylum or a shelter. Later, comedian Haribansa Acharya helped me out. An NGO named TEWA was instrumental in treating me.
The patients were not given good food. It was again TEWA that brought food and care. I am grateful to Durga Thapa, Renu Lama and TEWA’s Anita Chaudhari, Sunil Basnet, Mina Gurung and Shital Shakya for their succour. Many leaders including RPP’s Pashupati Shamser Rana came to see the patients. But, they only conveyed the raw formalities. Their wishes didn’t work for me; I am having tough time coping with miserable life.
My wound is still painful, it has not healed yet. Similarly, martyrs’ families are still in deep sorrow. But, the dirty game to grab power is increasingly becoming evident. The leaders seem to forget the people power. The same people who paved way for them to the power can also knock them out.
Translated by Deepak Adhikari from today’s Kantipur daily.

janaandolan

Worst Time for Uttam: Uttam Pulamimagar, a farmer from Ghartigaun, Kavre, who was injured in Banepa sees his future bleak as he lies in Model Hospital bed no:230.

forgotten fighters of April revolution

Meeting half a dozen Janaandolan (People’s Movement) victims who are trying to cope with post-treatment life, our blogger probes beneath their dreams, desires, anxieties and sorrows and concludes that they have become forgotten heroes.
By Deepak Adhikari

When one enters into the building of people movement victims’ residence managed by Janaandolan Martyrs and Victims Welfare Forum in Gongabu, one doesn’t fail to notice the helpless and hapless victims of erstwhile Royal regime and now the SPA government. A former boarding school has been transformed into a shelter for the victims in Gongabu where during the April Uprising massive baton charging and firing resulted in huge numbers of injured ones.

All Smiles: Narendra Raule, an RR Campus journalism student

and victim of Janaandolan attends his practical exam in June 27.

Its ironical that the same people who fought for loktantra are neglected after achieving the goal. Forums’ president Kailash Timilsina, a B Sc student in Patan Multiple Campus narrates tales of state’s negligence to accommodate and apathy towards their woes. In July 25, some 40 victims were arrested from Putalisadak and taken to custody in Singhdarbar Ward Police Station. They had to stage fast-unto-death to grab the government’s attention. Finally, Speaker Suwash Nembang made it to the Police Station and promised to form a parliamentary committee to help solve their problems

MP Jagannath Khatiwada is heading the parliamentary committee. He says that the committee’s responsibilities, working procedures and authorities are not clearly mentioned. The Model Hospital initiated Fund and an NGO called Tewa have however done superb job in treating and taking care of patients.

Most of the victims I spoke to were full of praises for comedian duo Haribansha Acharya and Madan Krishna Shrestha. But, their angers were apparently towards the leaders who while visiting them in Hospital bed promised a lot but vanished once they were discharged from the bed. The follow-ups, the rehabilitation and the livelihood are their major concerns as many of the victims are breadwinners of their families with two or three dependents. Why is the government turning deaf ear to their just demands?

citizen journalism

Day by day the number of bloggers increasing in Nepal. Every student had started blog.They improve their writing and they get many more knowledge by the help of blog.so i started blog.I wrote about it in 'YUVAMANCH' magazine in 2064 chaitra(2008) .Dinesh wagle an earlier blogger of Nepal ,i post his article in my blog.
editor www.raulestreetjournal.blogspot.com

New kind of journalism in Nepal
By Dinesh Wagle
Wagle’s Web Log
Since the government order following the Royal Proclamation suspended the civil liberties, among others, we were in a great dilemma…as to what exactly to write and not to write in the paper, Kantipur, of which I am a reporter, and well, at times, an editorial writer too.
All reporters were looking towards Narayan Wagle, the Editor. I think that day, that moment was one of his decisive moments in his life, in his career as a journalist and as an Editor. Dito with Prateek Pradhan, Editor of the Kathmandu Post, sister publication of Kantipur. It was rumored that Editors of several newspapers were summoned to the palace and given instructions, if not intimidated, as to how they should go in the days to come. Some Editors were even threatned of their life if they dared to go against the government wish. As New York Times reportes in it’s Feb 7 issue that “the king’s press secretary told some editors last week that he would not be able to help if the military decided to “disappear” them for a few hours, according to one editor who spoke on condition of anonymity.”
I saw Kanak Mani Dixit, publisher of Himal Khabarpatrika Magazine and Rajendra Dahal, Editor of the same magazine visiting the offices of Kantipur Publications. Communication was totally disrupted and Editors badly needed to consult eachother at that time, I guessed. [In the same evening, Kanak gave a powerful comment to BBC’s Nepali Service. He was strongly against Royal move. I liked him and his comment and thought, from tomorrow, BBC Nepali Service will be taken off air from various FM stations aound the country. That is exactly what happened the following day and FMs are now barred from broadcasting anykind of news.]I was also confused. I hadn’t faced such situation before. I belong to the breed of journalists who started their carreer in a democratic society, who were raised in a democratic environment. As of now, after 10 days, I am learning to live and behave in a new atmosphere/situation.
It was not unusual, in any way, for thousands of readers of Kantipur, Nepal’s most influential and largest circulated daily, to expect a hard hitting and opinionated front-page editorial on the (well, in fact blasting the) Royal Takeover. But since the basic rights were suspended, the paper, its management and the editor couldn’t have risked the future of the newspaper and hundreds of jobs provided by the publication. Then came my utility.
Correctly sensing and judging the situation, Narayan Walge, editor, summoned me to give this order: “Dinesh, write an editorial on Charumati.” In Kantipur, reporters are encouraged to write articles and editorials on their respected field of reporting. On the very same day, an article written by me about a dance-drama appeared on the Arts and Style section of the daily. The dance-drama was based on Emperor Ashoka’s Nepal visit and his daughter Charumati’s love affair with a Nepali hunk. Satya Mohan Joshi, 85, the legendry writer and culture expert directed the ballet. So, the issue itself was perfectly suitable for an editorial.Here I go… Hey folks out there at New York Times or the Guardian, don’t laugh at me. We are habituated with that kind of journalism where, not so long ago, a single man would be a publisher, reporter, editor and a hawker. The situation is slowly changing after the arrival of big newspapers with large number of staffs. But we still have long way to go to have a separate department of editorial writers who are gray-haired and expert on what they editorialize.
I wrote the editorial on the ballet. When it was published, people were kind of surprised and shocked to read that peace. As I said already, they wanted an editorial about the Royal decision. So, many of the readers still read the write-up expecting that the editorial, in some way of other, might satire about the event. The topics themselves were not unsuitable for the editorial but the timing made them so.
The next day’s editorial dealt with how to internationalize out archery. Then followed a peace about Nepali cricket. All subjects, in my opinion, were suitable for an editorial but people expected different topics on that situation. Kathmandu Post ran an editorial about socks: what kinds of socks to wear, which color and brand etc. Nepali Times, a weekly, wrote about the sudden fall of trees in the city and called upon the concerned authorities to restore the greenery in the valley.
Now, international media including BBC World Service started reading between the lines. They saw a kind of revolt, hidden meaning in those editorials. The Post’s headline was “Socks in the Society”. Was that metaphoric? Well, for some, yes. For many, all those odd editorials were metaphoric. They were speaking the papers disapproval of what Kind did a day ago…
Political reporters in different media, including Kantipur, were joking that they will be jobless in a few days if the situation continues. Some columnists were of the opinion that they won’t be able to continue their column in future. Many columns, including ‘Peepalbot.com’ of Narayan Wagle in Kantipur are still off the pages. Even satirical column like that of ‘Under my Hat’ (Nepali Times) of Kunda Dixit seem to have sensored.
I have slightly different opinion on this regard. I think that this (restriction) will help the Nepali journalism on the long run. Do I seem like a reactionary? Sorry, if I did. I am a democrat by heart and support multiparty democracy system in the country. That will help expand journalism for sure. But the current restrictions over political reporting will help us to find different topics, social ones that are directly related to readers…to people. Why write or publish repeated interviews of ‘corrupt’ leaders as Kusum suggested in his letter? Lets write about sports, lets write about village life, about peoples plight.
Political freedom is the ultimate goal of Nepal and Nepalis. No one can block that from coming in to Nepal. Even King, in his TV address, has repeatedly promised to restore multi-party democracy in Nepal. So, let’s not worry about that guys. Now, in the mean time, lets try to write on other topics…. By Dinesh WagleWagle’s Web Log
Since the government order following the Royal Proclamation suspended the civil liberties, among others, we were in a great dilemma…as to what exactly to write and not to write in the paper, Kantipur, of which I am a reporter, and well, at times, an editorial writer too.
All reporters were looking towards Narayan Wagle, the Editor. I think that day, that moment was one of his decisive moments in his life, in his career as a journalist and as an Editor. Dito with Prateek Pradhan, Editor of the Kathmandu Post, sister publication of Kantipur. It was rumored that Editors of several newspapers were summoned to the palace and given instructions, if not intimidated, as to how they should go in the days to come. Some Editors were even threatned of their life if they dared to go against the government wish. As New York Times reportes in it’s Feb 7 issue that “the king’s press secretary told some editors last week that he would not be able to help if the military decided to “disappear” them for a few hours, according to one editor who spoke on condition of anonymity.”
I saw Kanak Mani Dixit, publisher of Himal Khabarpatrika Magazine and Rajendra Dahal, Editor of the same magazine visiting the offices of Kantipur Publications. Communication was totally disrupted and Editors badly needed to consult eachother at that time, I guessed. [In the same evening, Kanak gave a powerful comment to BBC’s Nepali Service. He was strongly against Royal move. I liked him and his comment and thought, from tomorrow, BBC Nepali Service will be taken off air from various FM stations aound the country. That is exactly what happened the following day and FMs are now barred from broadcasting anykind of news.]I was also confused. I hadn’t faced such situation before. I belong to the breed of journalists who started their carreer in a democratic society, who were raised in a democratic environment. As of now, after 10 days, I am learning to live and behave in a new atmosphere/situation.
It was not unusual, in any way, for thousands of readers of Kantipur, Nepal’s most influential and largest circulated daily, to expect a hard hitting and opinionated front-page editorial on the (well, in fact blasting the) Royal Takeover. But since the basic rights were suspended, the paper, its management and the editor couldn’t have risked the future of the newspaper and hundreds of jobs provided by the publication. Then came my utility.
Correctly sensing and judging the situation, Narayan Walge, editor, summoned me to give this order: “Dinesh, write an editorial on Charumati.” In Kantipur, reporters are encouraged to write articles and editorials on their respected field of reporting. On the very same day, an article written by me about a dance-drama appeared on the Arts and Style section of the daily. The dance-drama was based on Emperor Ashoka’s Nepal visit and his daughter Charumati’s love affair with a Nepali hunk. Satya Mohan Joshi, 85, the legendry writer and culture expert directed the ballet. So, the issue itself was perfectly suitable for an editorial.Here I go… Hey folks out there at New York Times or the Guardian, don’t laugh at me. We are habituated with that kind of journalism where, not so long ago, a single man would be a publisher, reporter, editor and a hawker. The situation is slowly changing after the arrival of big newspapers with large number of staffs. But we still have long way to go to have a separate department of editorial writers who are gray-haired and expert on what they editorialize.
I wrote the editorial on the ballet. When it was published, people were kind of surprised and shocked to read that peace. As I said already, they wanted an editorial about the Royal decision. So, many of the readers still read the write-up expecting that the editorial, in some way of other, might satire about the event. The topics themselves were not unsuitable for the editorial but the timing made them so.
The next day’s editorial dealt with how to internationalize out archery. Then followed a peace about Nepali cricket. All subjects, in my opinion, were suitable for an editorial but people expected different topics on that situation. Kathmandu Post ran an editorial about socks: what kinds of socks to wear, which color and brand etc. Nepali Times, a weekly, wrote about the sudden fall of trees in the city and called upon the concerned authorities to restore the greenery in the valley.
Now, international media including BBC World Service started reading between the lines. They saw a kind of revolt, hidden meaning in those editorials. The Post’s headline was “Socks in the Society”. Was that metaphoric? Well, for some, yes. For many, all those odd editorials were metaphoric. They were speaking the papers disapproval of what Kind did a day ago…
Political reporters in different media, including Kantipur, were joking that they will be jobless in a few days if the situation continues. Some columnists were of the opinion that they won’t be able to continue their column in future. Many columns, including ‘Peepalbot.com’ of Narayan Wagle in Kantipur are still off the pages. Even satirical column like that of ‘Under my Hat’ (Nepali Times) of Kunda Dixit seem to have sensored.
I have slightly different opinion on this regard. I think that this (restriction) will help the Nepali journalism on the long run. Do I seem like a reactionary? Sorry, if I did. I am a democrat by heart and support multiparty democracy system in the country. That will help expand journalism for sure. But the current restrictions over political reporting will help us to find different topics, social ones that are directly related to readers…to people. Why write or publish repeated interviews of ‘corrupt’ leaders as Kusum suggested in his letter? Lets write about sports, lets write about village life, about peoples plight.
Political freedom is the ultimate goal of Nepal and Nepalis. No one can block that from coming in to Nepal. Even King, in his TV address, has repeatedly promised to restore multi-party democracy in Nepal. So, let’s not worry about that guys. Now, in the mean time, lets try to write on other topics….

Nepal coverage in US media is encouraging
Manish Swarup/
Associated Press via The New York Times
Head of the wonderful American family that is hosting me in this alien land of New Jersey, half an hour drive from downtown New York City, was pleasantly surprised by what he saw on the front page of the New York Times. A big photo, actually four columns, with a boldfaced line under it: “Conciliatory Gesture by King of Nepal Does Little to Halt Violence.” Just below that line goes on the main body of the caption that explains the horrific photo to hundreds of thousands of Americans. “Police officers used clubs to break up an antimonarchy demonstration yesterday in Katmandu (Kathmandu as we spell). King Gyanendra said later that he would turn over power to a prime minister chosen by the political parties, but his statement seemed to bring little relief in the national crisis.” Then the Times wanted its readers to turn to Page A6 where there was yet another four-column photo with a six-column news story. The caption of the black and white photo read: “A photograph of King Gyanendra landed in a ditch yesterday with other items tossed there by demonstrators in Katmandu, the Nepalese capital”. The front page color photograph is credited to Manish Swarup/Associated Press where as the second one is clicked by Tomas van Houtryve for The New York Times. “It’s rare that I see Nepal on the front page of the Times,” my host said. (As I am writing this blog, I can see another report on Nepal is the leading news on the Times web site.)
A few minutes later his wife enthusiastically showed me the World Page of a local daily newspaper of the town that had given nearly quarter page long report on Nepal. “Oh..this is rare,” she said pointing out to another small piece of news about another country. “Before, this paper would give only this much of space. Today it’s big.” Yes, my hosts aren’t the only people surprised by the sudden increase of Nepal coverage in the US media in the last several days. No doubt, the coverage of the Times (by its reporters Somini Sengupta and Tilak P. Pokharel) is the best coming out from Nepal. And the same was observed by prominent media personalities of the US in an international conference of journalists from around the world. “The Nepal coverage of the Times is wonderful,” said Walter Isaacson, former CEO and ex-managing editor of Time Magazine: “It has fallen into the hands of very good reporters.” Isaacson was moderating a panel discussion taking part by celebrated American journalists including the legendry former Washington Post executive editor (now vice president at-large of the Post) Benjamin C. Bradlee. Gwen Ifill, a journalist with ABC, agreed.
“We have been working very closely with India. We welcome the proposal [put forward by the king]. Now [the arrow has been] turned to the political parties. Now they should form the government. That is extremely important.” -American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
The panel discussion was organized in Washington D.C. as part of an International symposium in which about 129 journalists, including myself, from around the world participated. All of those journalists were visiting the United States at the invitation of the US State Department. They went to different American cities, discussed about journalism and American society with American professors in different Universities (I went to University of Southern California along with the South Asian, South East Asian and English language African groups) and observed how their American counterparts work in different media houses. The symposium was also addressed by the American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Responding to a question on the recent political situation in Nepal, especially the royal address, Rice said, “We have been working very closely with India. We welcome the proposal [put forward by the king]. Now [the arrow has been] turned to the political parties. Now they should form the government. That is extremely important.” She also mentioned of American ambassador’s consultations with Indian foreign secretary Shyam Sharan.
Pic by Tomas van Houtryve via The New York Times
Let me return to the Nepal coverage on American media. Many of the major newspapers including Chicago Tribune are carrying the reports by international news agencies like Associated Press. Even local papers like Los Angeles Daily news and regional papers like Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are giving significant space to the political development in Nepal. According to many whom I talked to about the Nepal coverage in US media, this is the first time that Nepal has got so much attention. An editor with the LA Daily News told me that the paper generally covers nothing about Nepal but this time around the situaition there is getting worse.
Apart from the newspapers, electronic media like CNN (the American edition), National Public Radio are also giving significant time for Nepali politics.
Filed under: Wagle Street Journal
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32 Responses to “Reading Nepal in American Media”
rp, on April 23rd, 2006 at 12:38 pm Said:
And did you notice the name of our capital city is spelled wrong?
BTW, latest Newsweek report said it well -
But can the Maoists be trusted? The fear is that they have made a tactical accommodation with the democratic parties and will sweep them aside and install a one-party dictatorship at the first opportunity. History is replete with examples of “bourgeois” parties that cooperated with their Leninist or Maoist counterparts only to be swallowed by a proletarian revolution. Unlike the mainstream parties—whose reformist ideas focus on bread-and-butter issues like jobs and education—the Maoists remain fixated on class warfare and radical redistribution. Even if we grant that the Maoist leadership has changed and recognizes that it cannot yet launch a revolution, the cadres will find compromise hard to swallow. A rift in the Maoist movement could create radical factions.
Anyone who thinks Moists are coming to save us is fooling oneself. They are nothing but another aspiring autocratic bunch.
Chankhe, on April 23rd, 2006 at 12:45 pm Said:
Hope, Dinesh’s journey to USA remained very fruitful. Now, I want to see Mr. Umesh Shresth, another Nepali blogger from Mysansar.com, to visit the United Staes next time. He is an another real hero journalist covering up to date live information from Nepal. If the US Ambassador Mr. Moriarty or any other embassy staffs are viewing this web, please consider him in the next similar gesture of USA-Nepal friendship.
subs (sydney), on April 23rd, 2006 at 12:53 pm Said:
The reasons why SPA has problems to go ahead with formation of New Government.
1. They have already signed 12 point understanding with Maoist which says SPA have to fight for unconditional contitutional assembly, in return maoist will accept multi-party democracy.
2. SPA will have difficult to find consesus candidate for PM. and ultimately that can break up SPA.
3. People have been killed and injured which means if SPA goes in government, then it will show the people that they are power hungry.
4. If SPA builds government, there will be still very less or not support at all from RNA, because RNA has been hold up by palace for a long time, and RNA been trained in a way that to respect king as a god.
5. There are no current articles in a constitution that says SPA government can call for CA with out parliament, even if they go for it, then king have the right to reject it.
6. Finally, people in general have been suffering from maoist, king and political forces for a long time and they want way out, thats why people want to fight for job done once and for all.
7. There is no trust between king and people, king and political forces and maoist, which make hard to SPA to run the country.
8. There is 127 article which can give supreme power to king to sack anyone at anytime.
9. Therefore, SPA cannot deliver any promises to people and maoist, which have promised, that eventually make them hard to grab the government at this situation.
However, if SPA donot come up with any strong agenda, then king won’t give up his throne easily, the fight will last long, and there comes win and loose situation. If SPA takes this oppertunity, then maoist will take their battle as usual, there will be less likely next compromise. The general election will be less likely go ahead causing same old war like situation. Finally SPA will loose faith to people and they will break up, ultimately king will grab the power again, people will be tired of fighting everytime when something goes wrong in the country and total monarchy will prevail.
Due to above mentioned reasons, the situation is not favourable for SPA to go ahead for government.
So, to solve the problem,1. SPA should talk to the king before making goverment if he is willing to give chance for CA. If not, then SPA have to hold general election , win major seats in parliament and then call for CA, which will be too late for maoist i guess.
2. second solution is just keep fighting until the end and finish the bloody war and make king to declare reinstatement of parliament or call CA., giving chance to king just to say im still nepalese ceremonial king.Therefore, first solution, seems longer to achieve but there is less blood shed. Second solution can be achieved quickly but more blood shed.
Finally, god bless all the nepalese who are fighting for freedom that they are born with.
” you can fool some people sometime but you cannot fool all the people all the time treet Journal, American Edition

everywhere Ganatantra in Nepal

Histori change in Nepal

some women discussing near the BICC in

the declaring day of republic Nepal

This week there was historic change in Nepal.

Monarchy who is ruling since 240 year in the country abolished.

And Nepal become Republic Now. so I will thanks all of the Nepali

people. I will try to give national and international news covering about

monarchy.

Republic Nepal

In BICC some youth celebrating republic day

The decline and fall of Nepal's last king

By Gopal Sharma
KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Not long ago he was revered as a Hindu god, waited upon by thousands of royal palace retainers. His face crowned banknotes and the national anthem hailed him.
Now Nepal's King Gyanendra is vilified, set to lose his crown and even pay his own tax and electricity bills.
A special assembly will convene on Wednesday with the abolition of Nepal's monarchy top of its agenda, bringing to an end the 239-year-old Shah dynasty and leaving Gyanendra to go down in history as the last king of Nepal.
The 60-year-old businessman-turned-monarch has only himself to blame, many Nepalis say, after an ill-judged power grab in 2005 when he dismissed the government, jailed politicians and declared a state of emergency.
Gyanendra was apparently fed up with Nepal's corrupt and squabbling politicians and decided only he could rescue the country from a deadly Maoist insurgency.
The attempt backfired, and he was forced to back down the following year after weeks of street protests that ultimately sealed his and the monarchy's fate.
"He believed that he had the best intention," said Kunda Dixit, editor of the Nepali Times weekly. "But it was his autocratic streak that did him in."
As a three-year-old boy Gyanendra was thrust on the throne in 1950 when his grandfather briefly fled to India, in the midst of a power struggle with the country's hereditary prime ministers, the Ranas.
When King Tribhuvan returned a few months later, Gyanendra retreated once more into the background, building a fortune in tea, tobacco and hotels and getting involved in environmental conservation.
Then, nearly seven years ago, his popular brother King Birendra and eight other members of the royal family were shot and killed by the crown prince, who then turned his gun on himself.
Gyanendra was back on the throne, and like many of his predecessors, he was brought up to believe he knew better than his subjects what was best for Nepal.
The massacre had broken the mystique of a monarchy once revered as incarnations of the Hindu god Vishnu, while Gyanendra's seizure of power unleashed the wrath of the people.
"I think he is getting what he deserved," said 48-year-old labourer Suntali Khatri, breast-feeding her two-year-old daughter next to a building site. "He could not ask for more."
Maoist rebels, whose main demand had been the abolition of the "feudal monarchy", have gone on to become Nepal's largest party after a 2006 peace deal and elections in April.
They say Gyanendra can stay in the country as a commoner and businessman, provided he respects the assembly's decision.
The king himself has been reported as saying he had no intention of leaving Nepal.
Instead he is likely to drive from the pink pagoda-roofed Narayanhity Palace to his own, luxurious and well-guarded private residence in Kathmandu.
OVER-AMBITIOUS?
Gyanendra went to school in Darjeeling, a hill station in eastern India, and graduated from Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu.
Mohan Prasad Lohani, who taught him English in university, said he was an irregular student -- more interested in politics than studies. "He had his own notion of how things should change. He was very ambitious," he said.
That ambition could have been his downfall, analysts say. And it has been a dramatic fall from grace.
In the last two years, the government has seized thousands of acres of royal lands, nationalised more than a dozen of his palaces and sacked his priest in a purge of palace employees.
Virtually confined to his palace, the king has had his annual allowance cut, been hit with tax demands and requests for unpaid electricity bills. He has seen his face replaced by an image of Mount Everest on the country's banknotes and praise of him purged from the national anthem.
Yet royalists who have met him say he has taken it all calmly.
They argue that a hasty abolition of the monarchy could backfire and leave the country without the anchor that it needs in times of change. But royalist parties won just four seats in the 601-member assembly.
While many Nepalis like the idea of a constitutional monarchy, few like the idea of being ruled by Gyanendra or his unpopular son Paras, who has a reputation as a playboy and a reckless driver.
"I think this is the end of the road for the monarchy," Dixit said. "Most Nepalis think it just not worth the trouble to keep any more."

YATRALOGUE

East is east: Ilam’s pristine beauty
by PRANAYA sjb Rana

Destination: Ilam How to get there: Take a plane to Birtamod and hop a three-hour ride to Ilam Bazaar, or catch a bus from Kalanki to Ilam, close to a 24-hour journey.What to take: A nice big windcheater and water proof clothing. The rains might get to you if you don't take care.
Visiting Ilam is a treat for the senses. Covered with the tea gardens that stretch out as far as the eye can see, Ilam is nature at one of her finest. Tea bushes form a uniform pattern as they blanket the hills, making you want to roll down it like you did when you were a kid, without a care in the world. The tea bushes are waist-high and the leaves smooth to touch. Of the freshest green, a sweet fragrance emanates from the leaves, luring bees, dragonflies and people alike.
This is what Ilam is most famous for: tea. Ilam's rolling hills are carpeted with tea, sweet aromatic leaf tea that is the best in the country. And they make for a dazzling view, green on all sides as the hills dip and rise like waves.
Ilam, or rather, Ilam Bazaar, is a three hour ride from nearest Birtamod on a sturdy jeep. The ride is long but anything but boring. As the hills rise, the landscape changes gradually. At places, there are picturesque spots that seem almost out of postcard. Tall trees, elegantly shaped, surround meadows of the deepest green, and if you happen to be heading up in the evening, you can catch the setting sun, its fading rays filtering through the canopy of trees like beams from heaven.
You know you've entered Ilam when you start to see the tea plantations. At first, they're scattered and isolated, small and not very well tended. But as you progress upwards, the plantations grow and keep growing until they're the only thing you can see for miles around. "Every piece of land in Ilam has some purpose," says journalist Rohit Chandra Bhattarai, "Either there is tea, cinnamon, forests or some sort of crop. Not even one inch lies fallow." And it's true. Ilam is green, but not just green, organic green.
After a fiasco a few years back when India returned close to 30,000 kilos of leaf tea because of impurities and chemicals present, locals and factory owners alike are turning over a new leaf, literally. They've discarded the old chemicals and have gone all organic. And because of this, wildlife is slowly returning to Ilam. Now, there are snakes in the underbrush, rats, deer, dragonflies, beetles and ladybirds, some of which were conspicuously absent when chemicals were used. After factory owners started refusing tea with too high a chemical content, farmers caught on and despite the lower yield, seem happy to see the return of fauna.
Ilam grows the best tea in Nepal because of its weather and its idyllic conditions. Tea requires a minimum of 50 inches of rainfall and acidic soil to grow properly and the higher the altitude, the better the flavour. High quality tea grows slower but acquires a better flavour at altitudes of above 5,000ft. Ilam, with its close proximity to Darjeeling, grows arguably the best leaf in Nepal. "Most Nepalis prefer Jhapa CTC tea to our superior leaf tea," says RC Nepal, manager of the Himalayan Shangri-la Tea Factory, "But foreigners know better. Demand for Ilam leaf tea is growing in Europe."
Ilam's weather may be perfect for tea but sometimes can be quite an annoyance. It doesn't take long for storm clouds to gather and rain is intermittent, at least once or twice daily. The air is humid, wet with the moisture and can get quite chilly at times, but makes for great horizon watching. Sitting atop a high hill and watching the storm clouds gather can be fascinating, the speed with which they congregate, dark and angry, only to pour out bucketsful of rain and then disappear as quickly as they appeared.


Ilam's moody, melancholy weather maybe responsible for something that most residents of Ilam are not very proud of: its high suicide rate. Once notorious for having the highest suicide rate in all of Nepal, Ilam's aatmahatya has gone down in recent years. Psychologists at the BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences in nearby Dharan, offer various explanations to try and account for the abnormal rates, ranging from the weather to proximity to India.
Ilam's most popular destination is the Mai Pokhari, the nine-cornered pond that holds religious, cultural, ecological and biological importance. Mai Pokhari, and Ilam, is home to many endangered species of insects, animals and birds. Ilam, and mainly the upper East region, is also home to the elusive Red Panda. This part of east Nepal, which spreads across Ilam, Panchthar and Taplejung, is home to many endangered species of birds, insects and animals. White rhododendron is rampant and the mysterious beasts like the red panda and the spotted snow leopard are natives.
India is a hop across the border from Ilam. An hour from Fikkal to Pashupatinagar and then you're scotfree to Darjeeling. Although Pashupatinagar doesn't have a customs office so foreigners cannot cross over from here, Nepalis regularly make good use of the open border. But it's not always a good thing, as Fikkal locals report truckloads of Ilam tea being transported over to Darjeeling in the wee hours of the morning to be repackaged and sold as Darjeeling tea. After police clamped down on the trucks, mules and donkeys are now being used.
Ilam has always been beautiful and always been a very productive region of Nepal. Its lush greenery and climate perfect for a variety of cash crops, mainly: alaichi (cardamom), amleso( grass use as broom), adhuwa (ginger) and aolan (milk), the four As that Ilam is most famous for. Ilam will amaze you, from its scenery to it's sometimes heart wrenching chill. It's abundant flora and elusive fauna are something that many researchers and tourists come to see. Ilam is a mini-Darjeeling, just on our side of the border.
from wave magazine