Dear NL team,
I’m Shobhit, a subscriber, and I finally decided to let go of my inertia by the virtue of rest (i.e. Laziness and Self-consciousness) and write in to you. I’m not gonna get into all the (frankly tired) congratulatory praises you as an institution usually get, much deserved though they are. I also don’t want to comment on the ephemera that our weekly political circus is. It is hollow and frankly, soul sucking. I also don’t care about your political positions – much like some of you, I have realised that political labels are stupid and reek of ignorance. Post- ideological era FTW!
I’m gonna split this into three parts – general comments on the gang and your content, specific comments on science journalism and ideas for Let’s Talk About(LTA).
On the Gang and your content* and some questions for you all
* I share the contempt some in your profession have about the word ‘content’. Ugh.
Deepanjana – I wonder if you get tired with the entire obsession over your accent. I know I would. For the record I’m completely agnostic about your accent. I didn’t initially warm up to Awful and Awesome (A&A), but I absolutely love it now. You and Rajyasree are great hosts and you seem to have found your groove. I think you should have guests on your show. Crack a few jokes with Aditi Mittal. Dish out the many pitfalls of film criticism with Anupama Chopra. Shed tears (preferably while laughing) about India with the Aisi Tesi Democracy gang. Interview Jerry Pinto. Talk books with Chiki Sarkar. Mix it up, girl!
Question – What would you like to improve abut A&A?
Manisha – It’s refreshing to this 80 year old cynic in a 27 year old’s body to see a certain kind of idealism – as foolhardy as that might be. People call it innocence, I call it strength. More power to you. You are also the one person who still surprises me – usually the flow of conversation on table is rather predictable. But I do wish I could get recommendations from you that didn’t get published in the Indian Express.
Question – What does NL do better than Business Standard and what does Business Standard do better than NL?
Madhu – Trehans are kinda rare, I believe. I wonder if we are related (that would be awesome and I would readily name drop like an empty-headed Delhi boy! Jaanta hai meri distantly related grandmother kaun hai?). However, I am not going to pay obeisance to your legend, because all this heroine worship is nauseating, which I suspect you might agree with. I hope people inculcate your work ethic, forthrightness and the wherewithal to hold one’s own instead of dishing out empty lip services to your legend. I know I try to. As a matter of criticism, a couple of your articles hug the very thin line between brilliant articulation and insipid rambling. Maybe the editor needs an editor?
Question – Who are some writers that have completely changed your opinion about something? What were those writings?
Anand – I find your lack of belief in continuums and overdependence on moral and philosophical discretization troubling. PAGE gels and NMR spectra plots hold objective truths. Socio-political phenomena? Not so much. You are an enigma, one I have fun arguing with in my head.
You mentioned the amendment to Article 19(2) and Nehru again last week and I wondered if you had read this interesting article on Nehru’s role in the first amendment and the very nature of the first amendment:
Also, I was baffled by your initially elliptical, borderline trolling statement, about whataboutery. But YKW, I am really looking forward to a more fleshed out treatment on this. Philosophical binaries aside, your writings are truly why I pay to ‘keep news free’.
Question – What are some of your favourite scientific papers?
Abhinandan – I love that you cuss – speech denuded of cuss words is a sad sight (or sound?). I like that you often hold politically incorrect opinions. You need to work on your moderation though. I often find it to be scattered. I really hate that you mispronounce words and names in other languages – and then express pride in your ignorance when you criticize other people for their ignorance. If you are talking about people and what they are doing, you are expected to know how to pronounce their names. I also found your comment on the supposed demise of French language cinema incredibly ignorant. When auteurs like Audiard, Ozon, Carax, Dolan and Denis are working on full steam, I wonder what facts do you possess to base your claims on? Heck, Godard made a film just three years ago. Iranian cinema may have been damaged by the Ayatollahs but Jafar Panahi still manages to make great films under their yoke. Asghar Farhadi is producing classics every other year. Did you see Ana Lily Amanpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night or Babak Anvari’s Under The Shadow? Kiarostami’s untimely death doesn’t help, but Iranian cinema stills breathes. Nay, it shouts. It forces you to wallow in hopelessness about Hindi cinema.
That being said, Question – What are some of your favorite French and Iranian films?
On Science Journalism and Why You Should More
I don’t think I’m overstating my case when I say Science journalism has been reduced to the capable but lonely hands of Palav Bagla in India (Our nation routinely turns its lonely eyes to him) and is in need of dire expansion. You are in a unique position with your standing to create a Science desk at some point. But that shouldn’t stop you from doing collaborations. For example, A couple of researchers in NCBS, Bangalore are active on Twitter and write for The Wire. You should look for similar collaborations. Or you could do a profile on Team Indus. You can find them on Twitter.
NCBS and possibly other institutions hold Science journalism training courses. You should go recruiting there. You could also collaborate with scientists on your deep dives.
Let’s Talk About the following:
- Tobacco lobbying in India.
- Anand should host this – a series on Infectious diseases and how well does Indian infrastructure fare in R&D, prevention and treatment.
- Anand should also host this – a series on Evolution.
- The publishing industry in India and why doesn’t it serve the regional languages well? What can digital platforms do to help?
- Healthcare reform in India – what is the road ahead?
- Why LGBT rights in India tend to flow in fits and spurts and can courts bring about the change we need?
- Global Climate change and Ocean Acidification – equally evil twins.
- India’s Cold Start Doctrine.
- Aadhar – a security nightmare?
- Universal Basic Income
Some suggestions regarding LTA:
- Like Radiolab, try getting local musical acts to produce music for your show to match your content. That would be cool!
- I, and I feel a lot of people, would prefer that Abhinandan keeps personal comments away from LTA. While I concurr that Mr. Swami is a total wacko, the Kashmir episode was not the place to air that view. Extremely unprofessional.
All right. I’ll sign out. Hope you take up on some of these ideas.
My congratulations to the production team. You do good work.
Regards,
Shobhit Trehan
Hi Newslaundry team,
I am a subscriber and welcome your move to get behind the paywall. It goes without saying that I have enjoyed your podcasts and much of the content that NL puts out. I am writing this mail for couple of reasons. Firstly, you seem to be reading multiple letters from the same subscribers. I do not want the new listeners to get an impression that your subscriber base is that small. Secondly, most of the letters are not critical enough despite you explicitly demanding them to be. I hope this letter fills that need. I do hope the criticism is taken constructively even though I start ranting at a few places.
Let me start with the issue of sahayak system in army. I was aghast to hear that Miss Manisha Pande supported it. Lt. General Panang’s article makes it clear that there is no economic rationale to it and that there is rampant abuse of the system. Even if there is no abuse, the moral argument is quite clear to abolish this colonial practice. We have a professional army and we should expect them to behave professionally within their ranks.
As for Dr. Anand Ranganathan, I find he uses a holier than thou attitude to take a high moral position. He then ends up taking up causes that can surely be defended logically but end up no more than mental masturbation. Lots of people have already commented on good Muslim, bad Muslim article and let me not comment on that. Consider his recent tweets (yes, I follow you on twitter) regarding Prof. Paranjape. I am quite sure his case is genuine and his grievance should be widely known. But from someone who is so close to the JNU institution and knows the different challenges being faced by the institution, is that the cause to take after? Go ahead and accuse me of whataboutery but in my defense, I will quote my uncle, idhar gaon main aag lagi hai aur yeh roh rahe hain ki meri bhains doodh nahin de rahi.
In a similar vein, I would like to criticize his position to support NOTA. Politicians, like everybody else, follow incentives. Picking the least offensive candidate pushes ALL candidates towards that position irrespective of whoever wins. Otherwise, even the decent sounding politicians drift towards the other extreme. This also explains the crazy positions taken by Arvind Kejriwal. He saw in 2014 that people forget all sins if you are a winner. Now, he seems to be following the Modi (and other successful politicians) model. Thus he has been removing all critical voices, picking up fights with more powerful people including Election Commissioner and the prime minister. It also explains his picking of candidates based on caste loyalties, candidates from other parties and candidates with money to spend in elections.
It is people like you who preferred to not vote at all rather than vote for Hillary. I met many people in US, where I live currently, who would say that Hillary is corrupt (and yes, she is in many ways) but they did not see any difference between Trump and Hillary. Both were equally bad and disqualifying in their eyes. Half of them are now marching around the airports still trying to act holier than thou not unlike Dr. Ranganathan. Here at least Trump had to get close to half the votes. In a multi-party system where even 31% vote can get enough seats for person like Modi, what is your excuse for NOTA?
On the other hand, I really enjoyed your stories on Ambedkar, caste system and demonetization.
Miss Deepanjana, I listened to one episode for awful and awesome. It was the year end episode, one with Abhinandan. You discussed the best Indian movies of the year but did not find space for movies like Aligarh and Sairat?
As for Miss Trehan, respect. I cannot forget sneaking in our neighbour’s house to watch on tape the episodes of newstrack. We were not allowed by our parents to watch it. These were the times of Mandal Commission and Babri Masjid. My only complaint was her initial views on the national anthem issue. It was great to see that she has updated her views over the past few months from running behind Abhinandan if he does not stand to not forcing people to stand.
I really enjoy the haftas where you bring external voices from different parts of the country. Somebody from UP in the next few weeks with the elections there?
Mohit
ps: I do hope that you got your app made for cheap. It is one of the buggiest apps that I use and certainly could use major upgrades. I can provide specific feedback if you want.
Hello NL team,
My name is Bhavesh and I am an Indian born Civil Engineer working and residing in Australia. This is my first letter to NL. I have been following you guys since last two years. Didn’t missed any episode of the Hafta. I will not write too much about the panellist instead just summarise it in one sentence that you guys have made me change my positions on many issues. That’s how influential discussion is held on Hafta. My favourite is Abhinandan and my position is almost same as him on all the topics except one. Any guess… yes you guessed it right.
Anyway, today I want to put forward something for your discussion and view. The topic is “Sustainability of Nationalism in its current form globally”. To initiate I would use following example;
One boy migrated with his parents in Australia from Germany in 1970. His family eventually became Australian citizen. The boy studied and graduated here. At the age of 27 he found a job in Silicon Valley of USA. He moved down there. There he met a Srilankan girl who works in the same company. Both fell in love and got married. They both worked hard and reached at higher position in that US Company. That US Company then sent the couple to UK to operate a newly opened division. So they both moved to UK. There they had a child. As they stayed there couple of years, child grew up and studied there. He is now in the College and dating a Muslim girl with Indian origin. Now can anyone tell me towards which country this family’s nationalism weighs on?
Should they be nationalistic towards the country of their birth, towards the country where they earn money and pay taxes, towards their partner’s country? Perhaps towards all or perhaps none.
My point is that we are slowly moving towards the situation where sense of nationalism in its current form (my country is the best etc etc) is dying. Not so much in the sub-continent but in USA, UK, Australia, Canada this is the current scenario. This is the sole reason why young Britts have opposed Brexit, and Americans have taken the streets in USA on Trump’s Muslim ban. Everyone here is connected to people from other countries and ethnicity in one or other way. And for them this nationalism just doesn’t make sense.
I hope I have explained my point of view clearly. I wish you spare some time in Hafta to share NL team’s point of view.
PS: Has any one guessed on what topic I don’t agree with Abhinandan? The answer is – his indefensible defence of Arvind Kejriwal.
Regards,
Bhavesh Bhatt