Of plebeians, plutocrats and populists

There are laws in place that proscribe usury, but their enforcement is fraught with institutional hurdles.

The colloquial term “ meterbyaji ” is difficult to define—the closest analogy to the process of interest compounding upon fraudulently increased principal would probably be the water supply gauge in Kathmandu Valley where the meter swirls even when all that is gushing out of the pipe is merely pumped air. But to understand its ruinous effects upon the lives of plebeians ensnared in the web of falsified documents, usurious interest rates and exploitative methods of recovery, a mere look at the faces of meterbyaji victims is perhaps enough.