Hi NL Team,

I have been a subscriber since July and a follower of Newslaundry for the past year or so. The reason for my subscription is the Hafta podcasts, mainly. I find the discussions very insightful. There is always a balanced view on all topics that are discussed.

In the last podcast, there was a letter from an anonymous writer requesting Hafta to have a panellist from South India to give people more inputs on news from down south. I found the response very un-Newslaundry like.

For some reason, I found Abhinandan’s comment in bad taste. I generally find his banter/jokes funny but something was off about this one. So I went back and listened to it multiple times.

The banter begins at about 38:18 and he starts about the rationale of milk being poured for Rajinikanth films and all the crappy movies in south India. He confuses Dr Rajkumar with some Tamil actor and the panel continues to generalise the south with a few more examples.

I don’t want to make a South v/s North comparison as that would be moot to the point I am trying to make. Abhinandan did mention that people are more civilised in the south compared to the north, to his credit. But what did not make any sense to me is why read a letter if you want to have a laugh about it or poke fun at the person writing the letter.

I guess the point in the letter was to have a panellist from the South who would bring in a diverse point of view and have better inputs regarding news from the South. The way Abhinandan reacted (not responded) to the letter made the point mentioned in the letter clear.

South India is not just Chennai and Tamil Nadu. It includes other states like Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra, Telangana… it’s not just Tamil, there are other languages like Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Tulu, Kodava, Konkani, etc.

So please stop generalising and making yourself look bad. You and Anand are as much South Indian as Slumdog Millionaire is an Indian/Bollywood movie. How many news items from the south get picked up in NL Hafta each week? There is so much to know more about.

In previous Haftas, where you’ve had panellists from the South, the discussions have always had a new perspective. I think the letter from anonymous had a very valid suggestion which got belittled due to the way the letter was written.

I am a subscriber, I pay so that I get to read, watch and listen to good content. There is enough garbage out there for free. I pay because I feel that NL gives me good and credible news and views and if a subscriber is requesting something, please do not belittle him.

It would be a great value-add if you brought in panellists from the South regularly, and covered more stories from the region. You talk about the subscriber model and I, as a subscriber, demand that this be taken into consideration. I would like more stories from the South being covered and experts from south or people who have experience covering South India on the panel.

The subscriber model is simple – I pay for what I like and if I don’t like what I get, I stop paying and move on to the next thing. Eagerly waiting to see what response I get to this. Hope this is not shunned away as another unimportant opinion from a Madrasi.

Regards,

Ujval.

(I am from Mangalore by the way, not Madras.)