I watch the political scenario unfolding before our eyes as the newspaper comes flying in on its parabolic journey, a precise trajectory from the delivery boy's fingers. How many more killed yesterday in encounters? How many more washed away by landslides? How many roads blocked? How many more micro-entrepreneurs created?

Here in Birganj, sipping "Nepali Special Chai" and munching on a suspiciously orange-tinted bhajiya I went through spectres of speculation.

What speculation! What Expectation, What Titillation!
Behind Closed Doors:
A banging of the mace, an angry face, pacification, justification,
Behind Closed Doors:
Decisions taken, Strategies Forsaken, False Political Smile, Every once in a
while.
Behind Closed Doors:
The Maoist Plight, all planned hindsight,
Behind Closed Doors:
Do you know what to do? I sure wish I knew.

The sparrow is hopping and pecking at the gravel under my feet. All the while, great heads are rising, great minds awakening to begin the day at loggerheads. Somebody bumps somebody off, while the opposition stands at the stump. I look at my watch and hurry off, clasping by bag and my subservient steps to the minister's beck and call. Yet I have had my moment of bliss, the simplicity of a roadside encounter.

There is hope as long as there are enthusiastic people like the young micro-entrepreneur Pappu K Singh , Class Eight, the bangle seller of Mina Bazaar. His father is the manger of the Gemini Circus, and is always travelling. Pappu sits in for his mother and is the man of the house, wheeling and dealing with the ladies, who are all set to buy the requisite bangles for the pious month of Srawan.

He gauges the customer and, poker faced, quotes different prices for the same product, ranging from Rs 10-16 depending on the customer. I sit silently and watch him negotiate. He looks at me and says "You should reduce in one item and increase in the other, auntyji." He plans to expand and diversify his bangle shop, a bigger place with a wider range of products.

Or maybe it is the women, who come daily selling exotic greens and chillies, colourful cotton saris draped over their heads, protecting them from the afternoon heat. Contributing to the family's well being.

How do foreign exchange reserves and budget lines matter here? It is the survival of the smallest micro-entrepreneur. Maybe we should go their way. A paper presented at a National Seminar on Micro Enterprise Development in Nepal, jointly organized by MOICS and UNDP Policy Needs in Micro-enterprises in Nepal in May had this to say:

" Micro enterprises are an effective means for poverty alleviation by engaging the rural poor in economic activities and employment promotion, they help convert local savings into productive investments, and focus on women. Entrepreneurship development has contributed to women empowerment."
Tell that to Pappu K Singh.