Manjil Pokharel, 23, stood at the police barricades near Nepal’s Parliament, swaying under the force of the heaving crowd around him. Moments later, at 2.15 pm, the barricades fell and he erupted in a joyous dance. Around him, hundreds of protesters chanted “Long live Gen Z”, a throbbing, collective voice that shook the heart of Kathmandu and brought the government down on its knees. Pokharel knew he had done his bit — as much for himself as for a larger cause.

“We were fed up with the corruption that we saw around us,” says Pokharel, who runs a hardware shop in Jhapa, a district in Koshi province of eastern Nepal. After his Class 12, he hoped to travel abroad, but failed to get a visa and now wants to enrol in a Bachelor’s course.