I was right. My mind blew a whistle when I saw a full-size coloured photograph of our beloved bachelor boy, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, being greeted on his 75th birthday by a fellow politician who, incidentally, was ruling with great sound and fury -- and a still greater mess -- one state of our Wonderland.

There was no other news on the front page. I turned to pages 2 and 3: More pictures of the birthday baby and of course, profuse greetings. There was hardly a page which did not feature a picture or even two. Except the comic strips. Hmmm …. but there it would have been fitting. Pictures, black and white, colour, full-size, mid-size, portraits, stamp-size. Pictures in usual clothes and one in unusual clothes. No one had ever seen or even imagined BB in this attire - trousers, shirt (no tie or bow) and a double-breasted navy blue jacket with metallic buttons. This coat and the delay in the arrival of the newspaper have an intimate relationship, though 'intimate relationship' is not a very welcome expression these days.

There were greetings from ruling politicians, from mini but ambitious politicians, even from some unknown politicians, from sundry government departments, from far, from near.

All the ads from ruling politicians were paid for by public money. It was also hinted, but not conclusively proved, that not only do they not have to spend any money from their pockets, quite a sum goes into those pockets via ad agencies and perhaps newspapers too. The ads from the unknown politicians had a transparent objective: to make them known. The ad with the double-breasted coat was inserted by a mini-politician who had once aspired to become a minister, and evidently had not lost hope.

In fact, this double-breasted navy blue coat photograph was the real culprit in delaying the printing of newspapers on Christmas eve. The mini-politician had kept them all on hold till he delivered this photograph. The newspapers too did not mind waiting on a cold night because it was a full-page colour ad. The mini-politician wanted to strike a completely different note - which he did. He knew of his precious possession, but had forgotten in which bank locker he had placed it. After checking all the lockers and drawing a blank, he had lost all hope of finding it. It was ultimately discovered in a locked old trunk in a loft full of junk. Fitting, as the navy blue coat wasn't.