‘The Municipal Corporation of Delhi is planning a slum eviction drive on the banks of the Yamuna—’

‘For fuck’s sake, not slums!’ Ed explodes. ‘How the fuck is that going to sell our newspaper, Ragini? We are called Tabloid and not the Times of Slum India! And the MCD has been doing these evictions since 2004, there’s nothing new or interesting in that story,’ Ed says scowling.

‘But Ed, 200,000 people are expected to be displaced—and it’s all so that new apartments can be built there. The MCD is saying that the slum-dwellers are going to be shifted to the buildings. However, I have spoken to some social workers and they’ve filed a Right to Information and have found out the apartments will be sold. That’s why those people are being evicted,’ Ragini says passionately.

‘Then we shall do a story once those people have been evicted and not before. Anyway, having a slum eviction story in the same issue as the Saif-Kareena wedding will make the paper look hypocritical,’ Ed says with finality.

‘Hypocritical? How can a bloody actor’s wedding be more important than people losing their homes and livelihoods?’ Ragini says rather loudly.

‘Are you trying to tell me how to run this paper?’ Ed asks coldly.

‘Sorry to interrupt you again, Ed—Mita has done a feel-good story on slum kids being taught English—perhaps it could carry a small box with the data Ragini’s collected?’ Sinha asks.

‘My story deserves more than a box!’ Ragini says furiously.

‘All news pages have already been allocated,’ Ed points out.

‘It can be carried in one of the Features pages—’

‘But that’s Features Ragini, yours is a news story,’ Sinha says wearily.

‘I can tweak it to read like a Features article! I can interview one of the families being evicted and make it a human-angle story—what’s the lead you’ve got on Features?’ Ragini asks Comma.

Comma doesn’t look too happy with the question or Ragini’s tone.

‘Sorry but our pages are also full this week. We have the blogger story as the lead—it’s Polly’s first story as well,’ Comma answers icily.

‘There you go—the blogger story is not dated, it can always go next week—I’m sure Polly won’t mind if she doesn’t get a byline for another week. Tell them, Polly,’ Ragini says, staring at me.

I am quite taken aback at Ragini’s presumption. It’s my first story in three months and I would like to see my name appear in the paper. While I understand she has an important story, deciding what goes in the paper is not my prerogative.

‘Polly does not decide the Features pages,’ Comma says irritated.

‘Neither do you,’ Ed says to Ragini.

‘Please give whatever information you have to Mita and it will be included in the paper,’ Sinha adds.