It hasn't been easy for 14-year-old Amita Sakya to think of herself as an ordinary girl.

Revered as Kathmandu's Living Goddess for a decade from 1991-2001, she was anything but ordinary. Even today, below Swayambhu where she lives with her family, no one addresses Amita by her name. It's always either the honorific Dyo Majhu or Kumari. Amita smiles politely at neighbours who bow to her in the alley. She understands that they are proud of her and feel blessed that she was picked from amongst them.

There is a serenity and calm self-assurance about Amita that sets her apart from her classmates at Ganesh Boarding School. Her teachers say she is a good student, if a little reticent. She doesn't mingle easily and prefers solitude.

"It was really difficult when I first had to leave Kumari Bahal," she says in measured tones. "This was a totally different environment and adjusting to it isn't easy." Amita's closest friend is her elder sister, and despite her father's displeasure she occasionally stays overnight at Kumari Bahal.

Amrit Sakya is his daughter's greatest champion. He fought to convince the palace that the Kumari had the right to a good education and a regular allowance. He had constant battles with Amita's caretakers to hire a professional tutor for his daughter. "The Kumari is worshipped by the nation but for me she is still my daughter and her education comes first," Amrit says. Till that time little was done to equip the Kumari for a return to normal life. His constant queries and suggestions irritate Amita, and this in turn hurts him. All he wants is for the former Living Goddess to "act like a normal daughter".

Walking home from school, Amita says she has no concrete plans for the future. "I like life the way it goes," she says as she skirts a muddy patch. Ideally that would mean going to school, coming home and sitting quietly on her own. She constantly ignores visitors and lets her parents do the talking. She makes a brief appearance and politely takes her leave almost immediately. Occasionally she attends special functions where she is feted as the guest of honour. She is not tempted to leave Nepal, not even when an American benefactor offered to sponsor her education in the US. "I said no," recalls Amita. "I could never leave my spiritual motherland."