Kathmandu, June 14 -- It's that time of the year again when we start to fret about the condition of our roads. To be honest, we do that all year round anyway but with the monsoon almost upon us a sense of despair takes over. Where roads exist, even the slightest downpour turns everything into a dirt-filled lake and where roads don't exist, it's all just muddy slush and dangerous conditions.

Although, we sometimes get a brief respite when our hard-earned tax money is used to pave roads overnight or make the sort of temporary repairs that wash away with the first downpour. All of these small little miracles are thanks to our part time shady contractors and full time political cronies who go into overdrive towards the end of the fiscal year...