Ek aadmi gadhe ki peeth par potli mein chudiyan bandh kar le ja raha tha. Gaanv ke ek dabang ne potli par lathi se maar kar poocha, “Kya hai re teri potli mein?” Darte hue aadmi ne kaha, “Ek lathi aur maar de bhai, kuch bhi nahin.”

The man was carrying a cloth bundle tied to the back of his donkey. Inside the bundle were glass bangles.

A local strongman stopped him, struck the bundle with his stick, and demanded,

“What have you got in that bundle?”

Frightened, the man replied,

“Hit it once more, brother. There’s nothing in it.”

That little village story from western UP seems strangely familiar these days.

Only the village has become a television studio.

The bundle is now a complicated case.
The donkey is public opinion.
The stick is a microphone.

And the strongman is the television anchor.

“What is in the bundle?” the anchor demands.

Nobody knows.

But that has never stopped a television debate.

BREAKING NEWS: WHAT IS HE HIDING?

The bundle is hit again.

“Look at his face! He looks nervous.”

Another blow.

“Why is he silent?”

Another.

“Silence itself is suspicious!”

By the fifth blow, the channel has solved the case.

Every extra blow creates a new headline.

And after enough blows, people begin to believe there must be something inside.

Because surely, if television has shouted about it for three days, there must be something.

The only problem is that the bundle was never opened.

It was hit often enough to make everyone believe it contained something.

And somewhere inside it, the glass bangles are still quietly clinking.

Photos and text by Prerna Jain