The first farmer, a grizzled man named Sukhchain, leaned in. “Not for me. For my son. He’s in Ludhiana. But the Union says… download the card. PDF.”

The café fell silent. The cricket game on screen paused. Someone’s phone rang—a tinny ringtone of Raghupati Raghav .

The pale morning sun struggled to pierce the dusty windows of Netra Pal’s internet café in Muzaffarnagar. For most of the day, the three ancient computers served as gaming rigs for village boys playing Cricket 07 . But today, a queue stretched outside.