Then Thomas Varughese came to Nepal from Kerala to teach in a missionary school at Luitel Bhanjyang in Gorkha, he knew he wanted to raise a generation of well-educated Nepalis who would be dedicated professionals in their fields.

What he didn't realise is that the values he and his wife, Mary, inculcated in the young minds of the children of Gorkha would also turn them into revolutionaries-especially one particular class.

Two of his brightest students-Baburam Bhattarai and Upendra Devkota-went on to stand first and second in the whole country in the 1970 SLC exams and may soon be sitting face to face across the negotiating table to find an end to the Maoist insurgency. What was so special about the Amar Jyoti Janata School in Gorkha that it produced so many brilliant minds?

"I think we tried to teach the children life values, the concepts of honesty, integrity, social justice," explains Thomas. "You embed these values in a person's mind, you nurture the seeds and watch them grow with the individual."

After leaving Gorkha in the early 1970s, Thomas and Mary set up three schools in Kailali. The Maoists' ideological campaign against the country's education system badly affected the Gorkha school as well as those in Kailali. The Maoists closed down two other missionary schools in Gorkha and Thomas' Kailali school was bombed and torched last year, although the Maoist leadership denied responsibility.

The Keralite couple haven't met Baburam for 15 years. Earlier this month Thomas went to the Maoist rally at Tundikhel to listen to his former student's fiery oration but did not meet him face-to-face. "I was impressed," he told us, "it was a good speech and the crowd was with him." In that speech, Baburam took a dig at his former classmate when he said: "The constitution is sick. There is a doctor in the cabinet, but even he won't be able to revive it." That was a reference to health minister Upendra Devkota, who ironically, had said soon after his appointment that the constitution wasn't worth the paper it was printed on.

Mary ran into her student Upendra Devkota at Bir Hospital last year, and remembers that the doctor knelt on the ground to touch her feet. "He took me around the neurosurgery ward, and said 'it was because you taught me honesty and hard work that I can do this.' He looked like a real missionary doctor!"

In interviews, Baburam Bhattarai has paid tribute to his Keralite teachers, saying it was their simplicity, integrity and commitment that laid the foundation of his life. Thomas and Mary are hoping to meet Baburam soon. What is the one question they want to ask him? Thomas says: "I will ask him, Baburam, where do you think you went wrong?" And he even has an answer for his own question, "His goals are good, but the end never justifies the means. Violence begets violence, he is a smart boy, he should learn from history."