The Gen Z phenomenon manifested itself in the form of a political movement in Nepal, which led to the collapse of a government exercising near to two-thirds majority almost overnight. The Gen Zees movement had initially begun to seek an end to the corruption spreading like a bush fire in the country. Nepal's ranking at 107th among 180 countries of the world in the Corruption Perception Index reflects this scenario very vividly.

Corruption can be defined in a number of ways, but one of them could be the acceptance of something which is unacceptable. It often manifests itself in the form of kickbacks and commissions primarily by politicians and bureaucrats.

Corruption, however, goes back to times immemorial. The fiercely fought war in the mythic epic Ramayan was because Ravan indulged in corruption. He kidnapped Sita, the spouse of Ram, and he thus accepted the unacceptable. The more deadly war of Mahabharat had emerged because Duryodhan again accepted the unacceptable by denying the property due to the Pandavs.

Great empires have fallen, but corruption has been occurring with amazing continuity. It even troubled legendary Chanakya who was so honest that he would immediately switch to a privately-fueled lamp while attending to private affairs by extinguishing the state-sponsored lamp while discharging the national duty.

Chanakya said that it was difficult to see the bribe siphoned by the bureaucrats in the same manner as it is difficult to see when the fish drinks water or the bee eats honey from the hive. After being fed up with this social ill, he is said to have recommended for the transfer of bureaucrats to a different place after two years, a practice which is still prevalent in Nepal in government service. He contended that corruption could be prevented once the corrupt are sent to a different place before they develop a congenial environment.

Prithvi Narayan Shah, the father of the nation, was similarly disappointed by the corrupt activities of his bureaucrats. He said that both the taker and giver in corruption are equally responsible, and it would not be sinful even if capital punishment was handed over to the verified corrupt.

One of the latest descriptions of corruption has been made in an offbeat style as seldom before in a memoir written by Dr Kamal Rijal entitled Beyond the Boundaries: Inspiration, Change and Hope. Dr. Rijal has dealt with several themes such as student activism and Nepali democratic awakening, regional cooperation across the Hindu Kush Himalaya, Global energy and climate debates, youth-o-cracy or yuba tantra: a toolkit for change as well as Vision 2050: from ashrams to algorithm in this book. But his observation about the paradox of development and corruption in South Asia is perhaps the most attracting.

He says that corruption is no longer confined to scams and scandals but has become a system in Nepal. Instead of preventing corruption, democracy in Nepal has provided patronage to it. Slogans of zero tolerance on corruption became like the elephant's teeth only to show.

He has also presented a circus metaphor of corruption where the brokers became the ring masters who designed the projects. The ministers were reduced to clowns making speeches drafted elsewhere. The people had been further shrunk to the role of spectators, clapping or lamenting, because they were helpless as they could not halt the show in anyway.

According to Dr. Rijal, ordinarily considered as a breach, corruption invariably became the benchmark as the estimates were padded, contracts inflated, and technical proposals reduced to rubber stamps. The extravagant spending of the ladies during the Teej festival, a traditional fast kept for the good health of their husbands, in stark contrast to the modest salary of their husbands on one hand and the funding of their children for an elite education on the other bear testimony to this harsh reality. As a result, corruption, which was otherwise a crime in the past, became a culture at the present. Consequently, democracy got hallowed with honesty being mocked and cunningness rewarded. Legitimacy which forms the spine of democracy was not owned but bought.

Though these are some of the dark pages of the book reflecting despair, they often flip onto the bright ones as well showing dazzling hope. He thinks that this problem can be solved through reform in the party democracy, rescue of the governance from the clutch of the brokers, and the mobilisation of the youth and volunteers as the engines of change. Though not a medical doctor, he has made an exhaustive diagnosis of the ever-spreading malady of corruption in Nepal duly providing a prescription as well exercising academic and professional rigour.

The book may appear as an autobiography at first glance. But it mirrors Nepal in particular and South Asia in general in miniature. It takes the readers not only to the hallowed corridors of famous international organisations like the National Planning Commission, ICIMOD, and UNDP but also to the the pristine rural districts of Bardia and Ilam in Nepal along with those of Thailand and India. It thus landed him in the cusps of development, democracy, and global change for more than five decades

It has been possible because he not only participated in students' democratic movements but performed an academician's role at the Engineering Institute, finally serving as a policy maker in the aforesaid organisations. He has brought all these experiences in this 139-page book available on Amazon. It is written in a lucid style that can be flipped in a single seating thereby making it an interesting reading for both the commons and connoisseurs alike.