A young Nepali boy came late for the candle-lighting ceremony at Maiti Ghar on the eve of the World Peace Day. The congregation was going home, but the boy lit his candle as we watched, held it in the cup of his hands hands for a long time and prayed. A violin mourned the passing of ten thousand Nepali souls since the start of the Maoist insurgency.

The country's overpowering yearning for peace was displayed in moving ceremonies this week: a large gathering against violence at Basantapur, the release of doves and balloons at Ratna Park and diyo lighting at Baudha.

These were spontaneous events by city citizens, a response to the violence that shrouds the whole country. They represented the moral rejection of violence and reasserted the belief that peace is second nature to human beings-that is why the words 'humane' and 'humanity' mean what they do. The spontaneity displayed by citizens' groups this week in Kathmandu and elsewhere were the result of the inability of the political parties as well as civil society organisations to fully represent them, their fears and hopes.

Nepalis are by nature disorganised. We tend to suffer in silence, waiting for a better day. At a time when representative politics has vanished from the land, we struggle to find a collective voice. And when civil society is itself programmed to only rise up with support from donors or on partisan issues, the people have nowhere to turn to.

Political parties that used to at least speak with one voice for the restoration of representative democracy are now divided. One major party is in government and the another at Ground Zero in Ratna Park. Neither seems to be doing much to fulfill the overwhelming national desire for peace and national progress. There were about 200 participants taking part in the dove releasing ceremony at Ratna Park on the World Peace Day on Tuesday, but there were thousands rallying nearby to demand an end to 'regression'.

When are our political parties going to unite against war? When will they stop using the conflict to undermine each other, and instead learn to respect the Nepali people's longing for an end to this senseless conflict?

As the monsoon gives way to Dasain, let us give the people back their voice