No matter which part of the town I am in, there is no escaping it. Not even in my own house. I feel as if someone is constantly pushing me on my back, prodding me towards it. Can’t these people understand that I want no more of it? I am talking about politics. Of course. Name a place in Kathmandu that is completely free from some sort of political influence and I will give you a thousand bucks. Posters of a chubby fella with handle-bar moustache dots every city wall. Slogans are smudged in every available wall and pylon.

That’s the digestible part. What’s not: I am being denied a chance to study. To have a little fun. My college’s closed virtually every other day. With it, all the hangouts are shut down too. As I write, the famous Pink Floyd number is playing in my head. “We don’t need no

education...” No, we do need education. That education we are being deprived of. What we don’t is dirty politics.

Can’t these so-called guardians of people grasp that they only manage to make themselves hated even more through their display of selfishness and chavunism? They are fast losing the modicum of respectability that “people” might have had. Once. I have started hating politics, in its every hue. What kind of a country am I living in where students don’t get to study, youngsters are prevented from having fun, people are busy plotting against one another?

I used to take a lot of pride in my country. The land of Mt. Everest and Gautam Buddha. Sita and Bhrikuti. Now, I don’t even know how I should feel about being a Nepali. What is there to be proud of? This has turned into a land of strikes and jams, protests and killings; where young desires are crushed, old hopes dashed. So little hope. So little to look forward to. All I can think about is finishing my college so I can run away to a distant land. I am sick and tired of the hypocrites and knaves who have made my life a living hell.

Why does every youth look forward to leaving the country at the first opportunity he gets? Why does a person like me who used to take such pride in being a Nepali feel dispirited, listless — with only bad words for my fellow citizens? So many questions. So few answers.