A case against nostalgia

The past would seem better if one belonged to the upper castes or were associated with royalty.

There is wide consensus that Kathmandu Valley—and its cities—were in a better shape in the past. Pictures of a bucolic past, with green fields, clean rivers and emptier roads flood social media on a daily basis. Such nostalgia extends to other places—from "untouched" trekking trails and regions such as Mustang to towns like Pokhara—and ideas of governance and politics (it is no longer uncommon to hear a nostalgic ode to royal rule vis-à-vis the current political state of the country).