Kathmandu, July 16 -- The #1 print edition ofNepali Timesof 19-25 July 2000 shows that even though much has changed in Nepal in the past two decades, a lot has remained the same.Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. Reports and op-eds published in that very first hardcopy issue are as relevant today as they were then. Most of the protagonists are the same.

The front page analysis of the first edition looked at the impending state visit to India by Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. Among the contentious issues he was going to take up with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee: the Kalapani territory occupied by India.The dispute flared again this year, and sank bilateral ties to a new low.

Then, as now, the Indian media had ...