Kathmandu, Oct. 3 -- For just over four years, Naveen Srivastava was among the most closely observed residents of Kathmandu. As the Indian ambassador to Nepal, journalists tracked his movements, rival envoys tracked his meetings, and every handshake was parsed for its meaning. When he wasn't inside the embassy, he would travel across the country, often on hiking trips. A Nepali diplomat who worked closely with him called him "a simple man" who preferred to not wear a suit and a tie.

But it turns out that in all that time, nobody thought to ask his excellency what he was watching.

Srivastava, an electrical engineer by training who joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1993, arrived in Kathmandu in the summer of 2022. This week, his term e...