Hafta letters: Bitcoin, female role models, RSS feeds for podcasts

Congrats NL team for your 10 year journey and hope you grow to greater heights. I have a suggestion. If possible, keep a kind of excel sheet containing dates, big news channels’ debate topics with their hashtags, plus what NL thinks is being ignored the same day. So, at the end of like six months or more, anyone can look at this and easily understand what all topics are the legacy media groups trying to divert attention from. (Newsance explains this but visible data is much more powerful than listening passively.)

Another request. If possible, a report on how freebies can affect the financial health of a state like Andhra Pradesh. The salaries and pensions of government employees are withheld till minimum 10th of every month, so they can first distribute their freebies with much fanfare. Plus, every month, funds are brought as loans in some form or the other. Some people receiving the freebies in tier two and three cities are even investing in cryptos, expecting faster returns after watching half-baked ads.

Avinash

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Hi NL team,

Abhinandan recently mentioned that he has no female role models and could use some suggestions, so sharing my two cents about my role models. Late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is one of my idols. I would highly recommend checking out the movie On The Basis Of Sex. Without her, I cannot imagine having the rights that I do today in the US.

A couple more suggestions would be to read about Ida B.Wells (book suggestion: Ida B the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells) and Pauli Murray (book suggestion: Pauli Murray: A Personal and Political Life). Both of them are prominent (yet underappreciated) civil rights activists.

I would also recommend reading about the suffrage movement (book suggestion: The Women's March) both in the US and in Britain. The movement is filled with women who had the courage to risk (and eventually lost) their lives to gain the right to vote.

Lastly, could you please share Jayashree's suggestions for the same with the listeners, so we could benefit from it as well.

Sai

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Congratulations on turning 10. Since there was some brainstorming in the last Hafta on the way forward for NL, I would like to plug in mine. If it's okay with the guest-writers and NL reporters, please ask them to mention their caste and gender identity in their stories. I am not suggesting calling out anybody. This is purely for archival interests and to know who's telling whose stories. Hope the suggestion will be taken in a positive spirit.

Best wishes from a long-time subscriber and a consistent NL Sena soldier struggling to find space for all those mugs (there HAS TO BE a way for opting out).

S

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In response to my request to NL that podcast RSS feeds should be provided to all subscribers, Abhinandan had promised to do that.

This was months ago last year. I'm disappointed that you still don't provide RSS feeds.

Anon

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Dear Hafta team,

Many congratulations on the 10th anniversary. I have been a viewer/subscriber since the days of Clothesline and Dhobi Ghat, so in a way congratulations are in order for me as well. It was a delight to have Mehraj back on Hafta and good to know that he has been enjoying beers in my neck of the woods, ie England. Wonder who leaves first, BoJo from Downing Street or Mehraj from England for the "partygate".

Raman Sir's experience with a shopkeeper in Kashmir reminds me of my first ever trip to a supermarket in Israel. The girl at the checkout counter asked me (very authoritatively) to bring her an apple from the stands. When I gave her a bewildered look, she drawled, "Whaaaat I am hungry, can't go there, go get me an apple, I will pay for it." So it is not always laziness, sometimes it is chutzpah. The three years that I spent there made me re-examine all my notions of politeness and formality. Now in England, I miss Israeli informality.

Best,

Chhaya

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Hello NL team,

Congratulations for completing 10 years. Regarding the hijab issue, I wanted to write earlier in the week. However, the issue is way muddier than it was discussed.

We see that the case is now being referred to a larger bench and the drama continues. However, I think it is a usual distraction created by the ruling party during elections. This issue is way more nuanced than most of the population thinks. Can you discuss it in a detailed manner? Not just from the religion perspective, but from freedom of expression, personal laws, discrimination (caste, religion, race, etc) and how it takes society hundreds of years backwards.

Avdhut Pawar

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I may have missed that Mehraj was on a sabbatical and I thought he left Newslaundry. Can Mehraj develop a podcast or article on his work with Reuters?

Rahul

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Manisha,

Please be a journalist and not a “gotcha” reporter. All your points and questions are with an agenda of proving that BJP = BAD, nothing else.

Kindly refrain from this kind of coverage in your entire touring. I have been watching your coverage for the last week and have been meaning to write this email.

Keep up the good work and be safe.

Regards,

Vishal B Zade

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Hello, ever since the topic of crypto was first brought up on Hafta and I wrote in that 2,400-word letter, I've been wanting a longer and proper discussion on Bitcoin.

Just like Abhinandan had travel shows before they were a thing, had a subscription driven news website which everyone said wouldn't work out – I see Bitcoin in the same vein.

Can we have a separate podcast just about Bitcoin and crypto which I would love to be a part of, as I have been studying and using it for almost two years now (I changed my subscription to Gamechanger as a form of bribe to be part of the podcast).

PS: I am also sending in a book for everyone to read about why we need Bitcoin :)

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The reason for the hijab row is to show Muslims their place.

Everybody on Hafta was talking about hijab being patriarchal and regressive. First of all, if that’s the case then Muslim women will voice out their problems. Similarly, if pagdi on a Sikh is regressive then the Sikh men will try to find out their way. Over here, educated women travelling on their individual transport to college, are demanding to wear the hijab. How does wearing a hijab cause any problem to any non Muslim or a college?

Abhinandan, you always talk about perspective on Islam's issues given by those who aren’t from the Muslim community. Please get Ms Yasmin Mogahed on your show or else interview her separately on hijab. Please, it's a religious issue so get our religious perspective. Our religious scholars are not like the Hindu scholars Meghnad and Manisha interviewed. To prove his point, he resorted to lying. From 40 percent Hindu population in the Netherlands, he came down to two percent. Actually, it's close to one percent.

Saquib Shaikh