Dear NL Team

I would like to start by saying, despite all the technological challenges and roadblocks I managed to become a subscriber. Love your shows, panels, articles and would like to truly appreciate the complete NL team for their herculean effort going into the weekly creating content and putting it out there. While I do have some technical peeves and suggestions on improving and polishing the process and certain areas which I believe stop the show from getting the immense traction it deserves, but that’s an email for another day, as my reason for writing this email to you had a bigger purpose which kept knawing on my mind.

This was also something that was discussed in Hafta 120 & 121…Kashmir

Now before I go into my thoughts, I am just copying pasting a status update by one of my friends. While instances like this are rampant across the country but the addition of the word Kashmir to this dimension has truly disturbed me. Do note that I have re-dacated some of the text containing names and locations to protect some of the identities as this was a personal share.

Here goes:

Something has deeply and terribly saddened me off late. The knowledge that a man who works at a reputable brand as the Manager has been unable to find a house for himself from August 2016, which is more than nine months now, in the city that I have given a considerable amount of my life to- XXXXXXX.
His only crime- he’s a Kashmiri Muslim.

Apparently, in this secular, democratic, socialist, republic of a country that I proudly call home, it is a crime so heinous and terrible that even before anyone considers letting this educated, well-paid person a house, the reputation of his religion and region reach them first and they refuse to even have a dialogue.

In my own little way, I have tried to help. And unfortunately, that hasn’t worked very well either. I cannot force someone to trust him and give him a chance. But if anyone out there can help him find a small house preferably around XXXXXXXXX we will both be forever indebted to you in helping us restore our hope in this country.

May we have more sense than we have in these prevailing times.

Bless us!

This post has stayed with me for days. They say social media breeds negativity (and in a way, it’s kind of right considering the depressing shit you keep regularly coming across). Nevertheless, I can go on and on about the stone throwers, Pakistan, the army, our (social media), patriotism & our governments, the unfortunate part is we always tend to forget the Human Beings who reside in the state called Kashmiris and the way the rest of the country treats them.

Imagine their plight (and the example above), they are legal citizens of the country and want to assimilate into society. But even so-called “Patriotic” Indians indulge in this subliminal racial profiling and deny them their basic requirement, and why? Because they are Kashmiri? I am extremely uncomfortable when I listen to my own educated friends tout their patriotism by asking everyone to be shot for throwing stones and go to (which is a favorite place of visit) Pakistan. Why are we instead not saying or asking

Why are the Kashmiris so angry?
What are the short term and long term solutions for getting the population within “Indian” society?
What are we doing to encourage employment in the valley?

I was very interested in the Chinese solution that Madhu offered in Hafta 120, while not the most ethical method, at least that method does not involve killing people or getting killed. Why is that not been suggested as a doctrine? Pakistan will be Pakistan, and the government’s and army’s plans have to factor that element within their solutions. But the continual isolation of the population (cutting of social media/internet is a joke with Kashmiris now) is not going to do India any favors. While our social media patriotism will continue unabated, I fear we will see an oppressed population beaten down psychologically to such an extent that it does not become surprising that Pakistan or Militants utilize this pent up anger to create the new wave of suicide bombers or militants. India, being such a great and smart nation, can’t we see the obvious?

A worried Indian
Edgar Theodore

Hi NL Team,

I have written to you before and am also a subscriber. But I am writing again since there were a few things I heard on Hafta 121 & Media and Modi Video which kind of had me – Hey Wait a minute !

But before all that a few pointers of unfinished deliverable s at the NL end –

1) Did the doctors agitation piece and video interview get published ? Guess I use the Phone app and hence did not get to see it.

2) The Rohtak Rapes – Is it coming out soon ?
3) The RSS story in Kerela ….. Yeh Kya ho raha hai bhaiiiiiiiii

Now coming to the hey wait a minute pieces !

1) A fellow human and NL subscriber spoke about a gay sexual scene on a program. For which Abhinandan “apologised”. I am not gay but I support Gay rights but does an apology help ? I mean doesn’t an apology actually make gays – The Other and not our very own. I have always felt being gay is a matter of orientation/preference/choice. Would you apologize every time you had Non-vegetarian food in front of a veggie or vice versa (which is rare), if you were expected to, then I think its a form of shaming and if you felt obliged to – then its treating the veggie / non veggie as “the other”. Yes there is no equivalence between food preferences and sexual preferences, All I am doing is equating “preferences”. This is not a rant Abhinandan, its just a thought !

2) Manisha and Atul in Hafta talked about sanitary pads not being under GST exemption probably because the government thinks that sanitary pads are an urban phenomenon, as in rural woman probably dont use them. I do not agree that this might have been the thinking. Google Arunachalam Muruganantham. If you call yourself a feminist and dont know him, chulu bar pani mein doob maro. Listen to his Ted Talk as well as interviews. Not sure where but I remember him saying that everything (raw materials) for sanitary napkins is imported, Would you then not have GST for it ? I mean if it is GST exempt, would you not then have to make it custom duty exempted as well ? As a government would you do it ? Yes I know it should be but lets look at the economic aspect of it. Again I might be wrong, this would be a Fantastic idea for a story, why not just interview Arunachalam Muruganantham.

I had signed a change.org petition which 300,000 have signed and needs 200,000 before submission to Arun Jaitley. It has been raised by Sushmita Dev and also “might have” been endorsed by Maneka Gandhi. And by the way change.org also told me about a National Policy for woman, did any of you give any ideas ?

3) Last time I emailed, I called Ranga Uncle the head of science desk, which has kind of a disappointment, Ranga Uncle just go and speak to Profs in IISc or IIT’s you will get so many stories. I was reading this story about an attempt on regeneration of Mammoths in Pleistocene Park in Siberia (April Print Edition of Atlantic by Ross Anderson). I read about a genetic coding program called Crisper and I was like “yeh kahin sunna hai”. It was on the Science Desk article on genes. See people are reading !!!! So guys chop chop get rolling. If you think you dont have ideas, then let me give you some (mainly on the renewables world) – Google Elon Musk’s latest Ted talk on underground systems, Elon trying to get Tesla to India, Google for John B Goodenough – ( Wont tell you what he is done, you all need to know who he is, your life today is dependent on something he invented). And what the hell you guys have 14 partners for news collaboration, dont they have science articles. Bahut ho gaya – I want articles, I also want a Hafta type podcast – a monthly one at least. In fact, why dont you just ask readers about science articles they have read and found mind blowing and you can get the rights and publish it. Not possible ? I mean there is no breaking news pressure on “Science Articles”.

4) Abhinandan, I am not sure where you had recommended “Get Me Roger Stone”, nonetheless it was brilliant. 3 Presidents trying to make “America Great Again”. Is that not an irony. Closer home – Garibi hatao and its million subtle variations ! Haritosh in Media and Modi said that the attack on the Media is incredible and went on to say things on the lines of Modi is autocratic etc etc … Caveat 1 – I do support Media; Caveat 2 – I do support independent Media. Ok now you will shout that this is a contradiction ! No on the same video Poornima said that Modi has been able to find the soft spots in the media and manipulate it. And this is true for the Non BJP media space and supporters. Why am I not using “Liberals” because I agree with Haritosh that the constitution is liberal and thus the labeling is irrelevant and redundant. Giving a cricketing example, West Indian fast bowlers in the 80’s were called the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.And Andy Roberts famously said – If you cant take the heat, get out. Matlab ki – stop whining and find a way to beat the conservatives. I mean reporters nahin hai, Pan India coverage nahin hai, editors are contractors blah blah blah ….. How many people did you have working for you guys when you did Newstrack ? I will refer another article from Atlantic April Edition – Making Athens Great Again. Very relevant to this discussion since its an article on the wrongful death of Socrates, Plato’s exile and eventual return.

5) The fake news saga. Now in the industry I work in, it is advised that if anybody notices anything that will lead to an unsafe working environment, the job needs to be stopped regardless how important it is. Now on Hafta, there was a bit of we did discuss that “dont think Arundati would have said that”. I think the minute the thought came in – it was a good reason to give a check for authenticity. No I am not fault finding, I am just giving you solutions. Like the Science Desk articles, I dont think you have an obligation to carry partner articles on the day it was published. Does it matter if you publish them a week later ?

Again as I said earlier none of this is a rant against NL. Neither am I going to sugar coat it by saying its constructive criticism. Criticism is criticism – whether its constructive or destructive is dependent on the giver and the taker’s perception of it. But I would like to say that it is because we who consume NL content believe that NL definitely look at our emails and do the necessary to improve , resources and constraints notwithstanding.

I am a big movie buff and recently started listening to Awful and Awesome, could I suggest if you could kind of recommend movies of value. For example I will recommend 3 movies you all should watch – Conversations (1974), American History X (1998), The lives of Others (2006).

Keep up the good work guys.

Best Regards,
Dhiraj