Kathmandu, Feb. 4 -- Thanks to the Nahal-Depal faction of the Nepal Commissary Party, those of us nostalgic about this country's glorious past could on Thursday once more relive some of our fondest memories of a wholesome, old-fashioned bund.

Once again, there was the familiar smell of a tyre bonfire at the Thapathali intersection, the uplifting sight of heroic agitators cremating a vegetable vendor's bicycle in order to defend the Constitution, and a taxi undergoing spontaneous combustion in Gongabu. Hadn't realised how much we missed the good old days, but here we are: back in the roaring nineties once again.

Those who say Nepal has been pushed back a decade are wrong: we are exactly where we were 30 years ago. Just as Sir Issac Newto...