Kathmandu, April 3 -- Once in a while, amidst all this gloom and doom, we detect a silver lining, a light at the end of the tunnel, a ray of moonshine. I am, of course, referring to the heartening piece of news this week that Nepal is now self-sufficient in chicken and eggs.

Although we should not be counting our chicken before they hatch, this is a phenomenal piece of good news. It means we will finally be putting to rest an answer to the scientific riddle that has bedevilled mankind since the dawn of human history: which came first, the chicken or the egg?

We have it on good authority that it was neither. What came first was the rooster that impregnated the hen. I know, many of you are itching to ask, so where did the rooster come fro...