Letter From Kathmandu: It's Bad to Be the King

As a violent revolt threatens to end the monarchy, Nepal eyes an anarchic future

Rohit Bhandari isn't a natural rebel. He has a good job as a technician in a Kathmandu medical laboratory and is the son of a bureaucrat and mid-level leader for Nepal's pro-monarchy Rashtriya Prajatantra Party. And yet Bhandari, 26, found himself in a mob of thousands last week demanding "King Gyanendra, leave the country, or we will kill you," part of a tide of violent protests ripping across the mountain kingdom. Bhandari isn't sure why he is risking his life, beyond an unformed belief in "freedom" and a burning sense that Gyanendra, Nepal's absolute monarch, is keeping his country in the dark...

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