Nepal, April 12 -- 'One early morning, we heard the ambassador's wife cry out, "Ram, Ram, Ram!" A disaster has befallen Nepal!" She had heard on the radio that a fire had consumed Singha Durbar."

This is not about the arson attack on 9 September 2025, but the one on 8 July, 1973. It started in the South Wing of the then single-largest building in all of Nepal. It took two days to bring the blaze under control, requiring the use of explosives to demolish one wing to protect the imposing western facade.

As Bhekh Bahadur Thapa recalls in the English translation of his memoir A Life in Public Service: Nepal from Autocracy to Democracy, he was then on leave from the Nepal government serving with the IDRC in Ottawa.

He had already served as...