The past three decades have been momentous in the life of Nepal. From the attenuated democracy of the 90s, still under the shadow of the palace, Nepal has emerged as a republic and sought to give itself a long-denied constitution. The people have gone through untold sufferings during the ten years of Maoist insurgency and have lived through the trauma of the palace massacre by a demented prince. A determined effort by a monarch to reverse the wheels of history has been thwarted, literally, by the people’s will in jana andolan II. In an unique achievement, armed insurgents have been persuaded to join democratic politics.