A Review of #NLhafta from Nishan, Mazahir Plumber and Rahul Pande

Hi NL team,

Congrats on the new website! It looks sweet.

I am probably one of your least qualified subscribers, just a regular software engineer working in Boston. I really like your podcast and interviews with the nuanced points raised by all the panelists. From recent memory, I think Abhinandan’s interview with Tathagat Sathpaty on the Free Speech Bill was awesome. His interview with Chetan Bhagat and Madhu’s interview with Justice Katju were enjoyable too.

And I would request Abhinandan, not to try and curb his language and use of expletives. Just fuck anyone’s opinion on this and use the words you want to.

I have also recommended the other stuff you guys do (like Clothesline, the Chase series and Can You Take It) to my friends and cousins and I always urge them to subscribe, especially now that most of them have jobs and have started earning. While I like almost all things NL does, I would like to point out a few things that I don’t.
Note that I said that I really like your podcast (and not podcasts, the plural). And that is because while I love listening to NL Hafta and my Saturday mornings do not feel complete without it, I just can’t stand The Awful and the Awesome Entertainment Wrap. I don’t have anything against Dipanjana (who I like during the Hafta and interviews) and Rajyasree, but they come across as wannabes to me in their podcast. Just because two liberal women are hosting the podcast, it does not mean that they have to discuss sex, drinking and smoking necessarily. I am not saying they should not do it, but I feel like they overdo it. And don’t even get me started on how insanely stupid they sound when they talk about feminism. I kind of felt Abhinandan wanted to bang his head against a wall when he and Rajyasree discussed the new ad featuring Indian cricketers with their mother’s name on the jerseys on the last episode. So, my suggestion is to just keep it normal like in the Hafta. And before they start judging me, let me be clear that my views are like Abhinandan’s on feminism, that I honestly don’t understand it and therefore I am not one.

Your other podcast, Just Sports is good, but too short!

A small suggestion for Clothesline too: Please lose the fake laughter in the background. It just kills the joke.

I would also like to point out that the last Hafta was probably the worst until now. And not because of the quality of discussion because that was top notch as usual, but the editor did not do a good job at all. It lacked the flow and I guess that was probably because most of the usual people were missing and Kishlaya also left in between.

I am eagerly waiting for the Deep Dive podcast series and hope it is up soon. And if I am not mistaken, a few weeks ago I heard on Hafta that you guys are planning a discussion on religion (or similar topic) with Anand and Madhu. I really do hope that happens because both of them usually have fascinating arguments. Although I side with Ranga Uncle on this particular topic, but with Madhu’s sheer experience, her arguments will be worth listening to.

In the end, a special mention to all of you for suggesting articles, videos, podcasts each week. They are always fascinating. Especially some scientific ones suggested by Anand are just mind blowing.

Cheers and keep up the fight for keeping media independent.

Regards,
Nishant

Hi guys,

I’m not a subscriber yet, but not for the lack of trying. I had originally tried to subscribe a few times when you originally began the accepting subscriptions a couple of years back, but that time also there was something wrong with your payment gateway, and it wasn’t accepting credit cards for abroad(mine was form the US).

I tried subscribing again a coupe of weeks back after getting tired of being called a ‘mofat-khor’ over and over, but your payment gateway still has the same issue, it says that my subscription was successful and get a confirmation email, but nothing happens after that, the charge doesn’t hit my credit card, and I’m assuming you guys don’t see anything on your payment gateway side either. So please fix that, if you want my money. Also, I choose not to use paypal, so that’s no go for me.

About the last hafta in which you guys were discussing Bombay, I felt that you guys had very stereotypical views about city, so much so that while you were discussing Bombay, I had already guessed which song you were gong to play at the end of the podcast and I was right.

Your views may have had some merit 20-25 years back, and that’s why Madhu in spite of having grown up in Bombay and I’m guessing lived out of Bombay in the last couple of decades, concurred with the rest of the panel’s stereotypical views about the city.

Now I, myself haven’t lived in Bombay in the last 8 years but I was born and raised there and my family and friends still live there. I can say that, Bombay has changed a lot and it’s at a point where there are all kinds of people, that there is no specific character that you can pin point, that the city has. Let’s just say there’s room for everybody form the Raj Thakreys to the Medha Patkars.

I have come to terms to the fact that Bombay is not a great city(nor is any other city in India),even though I love the city, but mostly for nostalgic reasons. This whole Bombay vs. Delhi argument reminds me of a tweet I had read which goes something like, “arguing over which Indian city is better than the other, is like arguing over my stockholm syndrome is better than yours”.

Anyways, keep up the good work, enjoy listening to the podcasts every week, and please fix your payment gateway so that I can get rid of the mofat-khor kalank.

PS: If you guys had been from Bombay, the first thing you would have done, is make sure your payment gateway works flawlessly.

Regards,
Mazahir Plumber
(Not a scientist or anything fancy, but also not an IT guy in the US)

Hello Team NL,

Shubh Deepavali to you and your listeners (and many congratulations on crossing 1000 subscriptions!)

I am a subscriber and have tried, quite unsuccessfully, to rope in my friends to subscribe.

This Hafta had some really sane voices of Jaggi and Ranga uncles explaining us how the Bad Political Parties has more to do with perception created by the airtime given to the loose/ill-willed comments by Ruling party members (not governing- because, Ranga uncle rightly said, you may not like to believe it but the parties in power believe in ruling, always).

And then towards the end, you guys collectively broke my heart by venting out your anti-Mumbai biases. It was probably the first time when I concurred entirely with Deepanjana’s views- she was trying to bat it out for Mumbai, when the rest of you just had made up your mind without any logic or reason, powered by a handful of anecdotes.
Please guys, any city is a conglomeration of individuals in their personal and social setup- and that is true for Mumbai, Delhi or any other place. So even if you have a few examples/personal experiences, you are still only giving us a part of the entire Mumbai effect, not the entire picture- synecdoche doesn’t work in this case.

And it was also the first time when I strongly disagree with Madhu ma’am. Your views on rare but serious life threatening illnesses was tantamount to pure scaremongering. There is an aphorism in medical world-
‘The rarest forms of common illnesses are still commoner than the commonest forms of rare illnesses.’

You may consult Dr. Trehan whether it makes any sense or not.

I empathize with the sufferers of the rare illnesses, but that doesn’t mean that people should start checking for rare diseases 24×7. This is the kind of scaremongering that has led to a humongous rise in the defensive and screening medicine which has resulted in the healthcare cost to become unaffordable by a common person in the USA (Ok, this and the bounty hunting lawyer fraternity there made it possible together).

Instead of being worried excessively about every disease under the sun and going doctor-shopping- consulting various type of specialists, it would have a much greater impact on one’s health if he/she selects one good (reliable) family doctor and try to stick with him/her. Please don’t advice such skewed (Ranga uncle may agree about the statistical insignificance of ‘rare’ diseases) articles which might have some literary value, but end up in scare-mongering.

I am still an ardent follower of your work, Madhu ma’am.

Keep it up, team NL!
(Also, thanks Kartik)
– Rahul Pandey.