DANG, July 2 -- Perhaps, my mother would still watch my photo over and over. In my memory, perhaps, she would cry a river.

Kalpana Adhikari often sings this wistful lament of a child's longing for her mother before her classmates. Her poignant rendition never fails to make her listeners sad.

Most of the students at Martyrs' Memorial Boarding School in Tulsipur, Dang, can relate to Adhikari's song.

Adhikari is among the 450 students who study and live at the school for the children orphaned during the decade-long Maoist insurgency.

Adhikari, who is originally from Gothimula village in Bharta Rural Municipality-3, arrived at the school six years ago.

Her father, Nainaraj, who was a Maoist functionary, was killed by the police in 2002....