A day after Gyanendra Shah left Narayanhiti Palace...

So, these are the headlines of major broadsheet dailies published from Kathmandu on Thursday.

I came to office little early today and went through major dailies. It was interesting that stated-owned dailies--Gorakhapatra and The Rising Nepal--have not given as much importance as they should have given to the former king's exit from Narayanhiti palace. On Wednesday, Radio Nepal and Nepal Television also did not broadcast former king's press conference live while all private TV channels and FM stations did it from the venue of the conference itself. Since the Ministry of Information and Communication, under whose jurisdiction they work, is headed by the CPN(Maoists), I could guess there must be some sort of directives from Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara himself in this regard.

Well, the former king Gyanendra left Narayanhiti Palace at about 9:45 pm wednesday amidst tight security. While Gyanendra and his spouse Komal were escorted from the palace to Nagarjuna Durbar, hundreds of people, especially youngsters, were rejoicing the historic moment outside the Palace. There were also some people, mostly elderly men, women and sages, expressing their grief to the abdication of Gyanendra. They were seen crying to their heart.

Unlike what many were apprehensive about things today are ok except serpentine queues seen in front of gas stations in Kathmandu Valley. Even as the government made sharp increase in the prices of petroleum products two days ago, there are no signs of improvement in the supply of petrol, diesel and cooking gas as yet. Looking at the serpentine queue my friends have to be in just for filling four liter petrol, I feel I made a right decision not to get a motorcycle. [During day time I have so many public vehicles on the streets for travel, while in the evening there are office vehicles to drop me to my home! ......silly idea anyway...]

Frustrated over having to be in queue to fill petrol in his two wheeler for hours in scorching sun, one of my colleagues in the office commented, "I have nothing to with republic or monarchy. All I need is the availability of basic things with ease and effective law and order situation. I have no concern at all as to who is in the helm of power---be it Prachanda, Girija, Madhav Kumar or even same old naughty boy Gyanendra!