On one side stands Yogi Adityanath’s strong government, tough law-and-order image and gleaming expressways. On the other are unemployed youngsters, exam-paper leaks and a strange new slogan roaring across social media: “We are cockroaches!"

Do you remember that dark night in March 2020? The screams of ambulances cut through the silence. Deserted streets, closed airports, locked schools, and queues of people waiting anxiously outside hospitals. A cough became a cause for fear; a sneeze became a disaster. People were confined to their own homes. Families were separated. Doctors and nurses were pushed to the breaking point. Many people could not even touch their loved ones for the last time.

The biggest story in India is not what television debates shout about every night. It is what they carefully avoid.

“Jayati Jayati Bharata-Mata!” What a simple, sweet and deeply Indian invocation. Yet, after Independence, when the young nation was searching for symbols of its new identity, why did this beautiful Sanskrit song never make it to the national stage?

A handful of protesters wave placards at Jantar Mantar; a phone catches thirty seconds of it, and by evening a whole generation stands convicted. Lazy. Distracted. Addicted to their screens. Incapable of finishing a thought without checking a notification.

The clouds refused to come. Karnataka looked up at the sky. Then the government looked in two directions. One team turned to aircraft, weather data and atmospheric science. Another turned towards a temple, sacred fire and ancient mantras. And, believe it or not, both were official responses.