Last year, when Manju Ghimire went to Pokhara city to attend the birthday party of a teenage acquaintance, she was full of hope and excitement. It was the 17th birthday of Khagendra Thapa Magar, Nepal’s boy-wonder measuring just 22 inches, who became an international celebrity overnight after seeking to be recognised as the shortest man in the world by the ‘Guinness Book of World Records’. Although Khagendra’s application was turned down on the ground that the 17-year-old would need to wait until he turned 18, on October 14, 2010, the record will almost certainly be his, especially with the recent death of He Pingping, a Chinese, who at 2 ft 5.37 inches held the official title of being the world’s shortest man. “Dwarfs like us revelled in the attention given to Khagendra,” says Ghimire, a 29-year-old actor and dancer, who measures 33 inches. “We thought the government would wake up to the fact that there are hundreds of little people like Khagendra in Nepal and that it is the responsibility of the State to provide for them.”newsblaze