Wish Me Luck

Bharat Mohan Adhikari, Taranath Rana Bhat, Lokendra Bahadur Chand, and Sharad Chandra Shaha are all staying at the same hotel: The New Yorker by the Penn Station. To me that is a total godsend.

I am going to try and meet all of them, singly, and in groups. The idea would be to hammer them into this: Proposed Constitution.

Bharat Mohanji is a leading UML person. He could potentially be the interim prime minister.

Taranath Rana Bhat is not exactly in good favor within the inner circles of the Koirala Congress, but he is a Congressia nevertheless. What's more, he is still Speaker.

Lokendra Bahadur Chand is a statesman. He helped bring democracy in 1990. Maybe he will help again.

Sharad Chandra Shaha has the king's ears: that's for sure. A week or so back I was frantically searching for Paras' email address, phone number, anything. I was trying to know if he will come to the city with his father. I failed. None of my classmates seem to have it. But it might be much better to talk to Sharad Chandra Shaha. That would be more professional.

This is what I will tell him: "Sharadji, I am not a politician. I came to New York City over three months back to cultivate my business ideas. But it has been all Nepal all the time for me. Rescue me. Let's bring peace and democracy into Nepal so I can go back to working on my business ideas. And hopefully I will make money. And you will likely be living the life of a private citizen. A few years down the line I would want to engage in some kind of a partnership with you. You are a person of proven people and management skills. And both of us seem to have a thing for information technology. And I do not mean this as a favor to you. Given the right policy framework for foreign direct investment in Nepal, the rate of return in a young economy like Nepal tends to be much higher than in a more mature economy like the US. Let's make each other money down the line. But for now, let's bring peace and democracy into the country. I think we could bring it as a Dashain gift to the Nepali people."

I just printed out a hard copy of the document on my Estonian roomie's printer. No, I don't own one. I am a paperless office, online person. I am so online, I don't even have Excel on my computer.

I am going to make half a dozen copies. And then I am going to meet the hoteliers.

The guidelines are simple:

1. Go through the document and make three columns.
2. All the items you agree with.
   
3. All the items you disagre with.
4. All the items you would like to add, subtract, modify.
   

This is practically like giving each person a blank page to write down their wish list. My document is just a framework.

Wish me luck. This is important work. Peace making always is.

And the leaders in Kathmandu are only a phone call away. Himtel might end up making some good money.

Even if they go to Kathmandu with a near finished document, that will still be something.