Nepal, Oct. 19 -- Dashain arrives this year with mud still on its boots. The floods that surged down the Bhotekoshi on August 26 and the Budhigandaki on October 11 have left the festival a muted affair for those living in their path. Gaiety will not come easily to them. And yet the heart keeps its own stubborn arithmetic: families must gather, come what may, and joy must be sought even when grief sits closer to the fire. So the swings go up, the kites climb, the fairs fill, and songs drift from one hillside to the next. They stitch the country together. If that warmth could be turned into shared purpose, rather than left to fade with the last tika, Nepalis would be the stronger for it, and the road to prosperity a little less steep.

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