There’s been too much of surround sound on Punjab, especially during — and now even after — the farm agitation. And that surround sound by propagandists bends the line between reality and fantasy.

But I try to look at the quiet byways of the state. I try to hear its rural voices.

DON’T WRITE OFF THE BADALS

Dec 15: And a political reality dawned on me while we were having our meals at a highway eatery, Kashmiri Dhaba, run by a Punjabi Hindu gentleman along Majari village.

“Sir, the Congress is a divided house. The Captain and his friends in the BJP want to divide the people. The Aam Aadmi Party has no (CM) face till now. Who is the most organised then?” the dhaba owner asked in chaste Punjabi, looking at us through his dilapidated kitchen as he fried the lentils.