Once in a while, I recount to my students my boyhood adventures of sloganeering and stone-pelting in the heady days of the mid-2000s when I had rallied behind leaders of seven parties, calling for the establishment of a “new” Nepal. King Gyanendra had taken absolute power into his hands, thrown political leaders behind bars, posted his army men in newsrooms, and blocked the Internet. “Leave the country, you thief,” I often shouted, along with thousands of others, calling for King Gyanendra to abdicate the throne. The king relinquished the throne indeed, but he chose to stay on in the country, in the Nagarjun jungle on the outskirts of Kathmandu valley. He descends to the valley once in a while at the slightest hint of political unrest, as if he were an old jackal trying to steal chicken from households. He fails to make a kill and returns to his jungle mahal, but not quite before ruffling a few feathers.