Most of us plan carefully for our futures. How to earn for our families, what to do for our kids, how to make a more comfortable life for ourselves.

But consider this alternative: a life with nothing personal, no private property, no individual desires, no personal decisions, not even your own dreams. You work for your community, share and share alike, and live under its gaze. You and your fellow commune-members are fully accountable to each other.

It's been done before, from California to China, and now our very own CPN-Maoist is promoting communes in its heartland of Rolpa. On a recent visit we were taken around the model Ajambari Jana Commune in Thabang.

"We do everything collectively," explains Comrade Pratap, who is responsible for the commune. "We are 140 people from 32 households and we all live together, work together, cook and eat together, and make decisions together."

Collective living requires considerable micro-management, Pratap tells us. The members are divided into work groups. For example, one group of five people looks after the commune's eight buffaloes and its milk requirements. Another group takes care of the 12 mules and deals with local traders and businessmen, hiring out the pack animals to raise much-needed cash. Some run cooperative shops and hotels in Rolpa, and many work on agriculture projects including paddy fields, vegetable plantations, and apple orchards.

The commune has the blessings of the party and remains its baby. It costs about Rs 70,000 a month to run, but Pratap says that their income cover just about 60-70 percent of the budget. The party pays for the rest.

A person or family wishing to join the commune must first join the Maoist party. The next step is giving it all up-turning over all your cash and property to the commune and party. You can't keep an inch of land, not a rupee of cash.

If you've got nothing, you've got nothing to lose, but perhaps something to gain. "If we take on the property of individuals, naturally we have to accept the loans too," Pratap says proudly of this brave new world, where new members' outstanding loans are often repaid. The commune or the local party committee investigates the reasons why the loan was taken, and its terms and conditions, and then, usually, repays it. Perhaps this will soon become a good option for all our bankrupt or defaulting businesspeople.

The model commune strives to be a good choice for Nepali women too. The 72 women in the 140-strong commune have more decision-making powers than the men, says the comrade-in-charge. "Our party has always been in favour of women's empowerment and in fact, they run the commune, though I am the in-charge," Pratap told us. Strong words, and perhaps true, but then why not make one of these women the official head?

Individual communes may be small, but the Ajambari Jana Commune means to enclose the entire world in an amoeba-like embrace. The ultimate aim is a global commune. "Ajambari means immortal, we aim to keep growing. We started three years ago with just 20-25 people from five or six households. Now, in addition to the 140 members we have, 60 more people from ten households are being processed. There's also another commune in Jelbang, and one in Rolpa," says Pratap.

Seeing us unswayed by hard figures, Comrade Pratap tries rousing rhetoric: "We are moving step by step. To start with, we'll turn Rolpa into a commune, then Nepal, and finally, the world. We're convinced we'll make it."

There's plenty of idealism here-everyone we spoke with at the commune is convinced that the peace process will cause a surge of interest in such communities, because living in a commune is so clearly the superior choice.

Comrade Pratap says that despite common property and all that, there will be room for individual tastes and needs. Apparently, anyone wanting something out of the ordinary just has to ask and argue their case. I'm sure everyone is looking forward to justifying their desire for new socks.