This could happen after May, in the year 2024!

 “There’s something wrong!” I see myself shouting.

 “What’s wrong?” asks the wife.

 “I have been cheated, swindled, a fraud has taken place!”

 “What fraud?” asks the wife, “you don’t have money, so nobody could have robbed you, your car is ten years old, so nobody would want to take it away!”

 “I have been cheated by the newspaper boy, where is he?”

 “He just left on his cycle,” says a bewildered wife.

 “Call the watchman, tell the boy to come here immediately. I will not tolerate cheating!”

The wife, calls the watchman, who hurriedly calls the newspaper delivery boy as he is just beginning to start off on his cycle and completed his rounds. He comes to my house looking scared, “Sahib,” he says, “if I have done anything wrong, please forgive me!”

 “You have cheated me!” I tell him.

 “No sahib, I have not. Last month you did not pay the bill, but I have added no interest, even when you did not pay last November, I did not add interest!”

 “You have cheated me, and I don’t like being cheated.

 “What has he done?” asks the wife, “I had no idea you had not paid him last year, what did you do with the money? Poor little fellow he climbs these stairs daily and you don’t pay his bills?”

 “Listen,” I tell her wearily, “That is not the point, this boy has cheated me today. He didn’t give me my correct newspaper!”

 “There it is husband right there in your hand!”

 “Yes sir, that is today’s newspaper!” says the newspaper boy brightening up.

 “This is not the newspaper!”

 “It is!” shouts the wife.

 “It is!” whispers the boy.

 “Open it and see,” I tell them triumphantly as both of them scramble and open the newspaper, “Do you understand what I am saying? Do you see, I’ve been cheated? Look at the news. Not a single rape, no robbery, no lynching, no journalist murdered, no farmer protests, no arrests for sedition! You expect me to believe it is today’s paper? I have been swindled! Do you see what I am saying?”

The ambulance man was rough as he pushed me onto the stretcher, “Where are you taking me?” I asked.

 “To the psychiatrist ward,” he said.

 “What am I suffering from?” I asked the doctor.

 “Breaking news hangover!” he sighed, “After Rahul became PM, and there is no breaking news like before, people are growing hysterical with withdrawal symptoms..!”

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