The joy is here... Nepal is a republic!!

Whole Nepal, save a minor group of people, are on the streets celebrating Republic Nepal. 240 years of monarchy has been abolished formally... and all I can think about is going inside the Historic Museum aka the Narayanhiti 'Raj Durbar'! Yes, the Nepalese people have done it. They have proved that they DONT NEED Gyanendra or any so called 'symbol of unity'.

Yesterday was the day... Jestha 15... everything changed... and all I could feel was "God, I am so lucky..."

The morning passed as usual... there was a public holiday and my office was closed. I had no plans as such, so as Soo came to my place after attending a programme at NTB, we went to New Baneshwor to see how the things were going on. The first meeting of the constitutional assembly was scheduled to be at 11 am but then as anticipated, it was postponed until 3 pm.

At Baneshwor, the environment was awesome. Everyone I noticed had a happy mood... they were zealous, enthusiastic, full of energy... with this big smile on their face :) and I was like... God, people are so happy!!

The sun was intolerable... it was extremely hot but did people care?? No they didn't. From a small kid to elderlies... everyone had hopes in their eyes... hope of a brighter tomorrow, hope of a secure tomorrow and hopes that they wouldn't have to go through the same torture and instability all over again... Finally, the day had come... people won and the king?? People were calling names to him with an open heart... no fear, no regrets... what more could they ask for?

People were singing, dancing, embracing one another congratulating for the victory... some were just looking at others, with the same amount of joy reflecting in their faces... I was one of them... While Soo was taking pictures, I was just looking around... amazed, stunned, excited, curious, all sorts of emotions at the same time.

I really loved to see a group of people who were dancing beautifully making a circle, and singing. In the middle of a circle was a small kid who was dancing joyously. There was no fear in his eyes, no shyness...nothing except happiness and energy. I felt like joining the group and dance to their tune... actually dance to 'our' tune, but I was too shy!!

Badri Pangeni, as always, had already started to mesmerize the crowd with his beautiful voice and equally wonderful songs. People sang, clapped and danced...

Those who were tired didn't seek a clean place to rest. I could see people sit in any space possible. They were completely lost in their own world... why wouldn't they?? Their dreams had come true... I even saw some women with crown on their head. It was truly fantastic. 'The crown is on people's head' was written in the crown. True indeed!!

After observing the whole environment for a couple of hours, we were dehydrated. So we bought a mountain dew from a near by store and what a relief it was to drink that!

Then we headed home... and in the evening, we rejoiced watching news in the television- that finally, Nepal was declared a republic.

There were three bomb blasts yesterday in the valley- one in Khulamancha and two in Baneshwor... but as Yurgan dai puts it, "there is some labour pain before any delivery"... so true!!

At the end, the most important thing is "Unity"...