The Political Plague

Many of the conversations I have, whether it be with my grandmother, a cab driver, a friend or a vendor, there are two words that are almost always uttered: “देश बिग्य्रो” or “the country is broken”. These two words mark the end and beginning of a majority of conversations I have, where the point always seems to drift back to the country and its vices. However, since the king acquiesced power to the new secular republic in 2008, Nepal has been relatively stable. The elimination of load-shedding (10–12 hours of blackouts everyday), the construction of new road networks (the highway to Bhaktapur is just one example)…