Hafta letters: Malayalam movies, hijab verdict, digital media subscriptions

I am a South Indian who can speak Hindi well and read it with some difficulty – this to say that I am not opposed to learning the language.

If Hindi is imposed as the national language, you are consciously creating a new class who will be socio-economically disadvantaged. This from a group which is already under-represented and discriminated against. The worst affected would be the most underprivileged.

In my opinion, having a national language is against the very idea of India, just like the concept of Hindu Rashtra is against the very idea of India. I say national language, because although link language sounds more diplomatic, it means the same.

Every Sunday my Malayalam speaking mother welcomes my Hindi speaking husband to "iniyum oru idli". We don’t need a link language as proved by my husband’s weight gain.

Sneha

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Hi, you don't have to read out this mail.

I'm from Kerala and as someone who is totally into movies, especially from the south, I can assure you that there is a lot of quality content from Tamil, Kannada, Telugu as well. You can check out movies by Vetrimaaran from Tamil starting with Visaranai (about custodial deaths). C/o Kancharapalam is another example I'm reminded of from Telugu.

Coming to Malayalam, it is definitely top-notch with regards to the themes explored and would love to suggest a lot more. The minor quibble I have is with regards to Malayankanju. I don't quite agree with Paul or Nidhi about it being fantastic, the themes explored are great but it failed to elicit proper emotions. Nevertheless, it was a great attempt.

Also, the high noise thumping mass movies exist across all languages :P, just that I feel if it's really poorly made, the movie fails in the box office for Malayalam movies despite having any huge superstar.

Love your work,

Vinay

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Hi NL Hafta team,

This letter is about the hijab ban verdict by the Supreme Court. I understand the need for female education and empowerment and also the feminist perspective. I believe that girls below 18 should be required to go to school without hijab, so they can grow up free of the regressive conditioning and then adult women can make up their minds of they want to follow the practice. I know this is probably not possible but we all know how pervasive subversive patriarchy is. A conditioned mind is not a free mind to make free choice.

Shipra Garg

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Actually wasn't sure where to send this. The Back In Time show is such a great concept. Please, please give us more video content like this. I hope it's not a one season thing and you keep coming back with more seasons, more episodes <3

PC

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Hello NL team, this is Balajee from Portland, Oregon. I’ve been a subscriber for five years now. To me, the relationship with Hafta is personal. In 2019, I’d recently separated from my partner. The only companion on my arduous 1 7-hour drive while I moved from Boise to Phoenix was Hafta, keeping me spirited. Since then, Hafta has become an integral part of my life. I listen to y’all every Saturday morning on my hikes without fail and I enjoy everyone’s point of view. Specific cheers to Manisha, Anand and Mehraj.

Additionally, I’d appreciate if you could include more LGBT-oriented topics or guests. We Indian-origin gay men/women lack visibility in large parts of the mainstream. Hoping Hafta can help change that.

Furthermore, in Anand’s absence, please include another right-leaning voice to maintain balance. Hafta is my only source of Indian news and I’m hoping for a well-rounded balanced view. Lastly, kudos to Jayashree’s well-elucidated points on the language debate from a fellow Tamizhan.

Balajee

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Abhinandan, what precisely do you mean by the statement that your "bloody bartender" in the Netherlands drives a BMW? Is your bartender not entitled to a living wage and the choice to drive whatever vehicle they fancy?

Eldrich

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Hello NL Team,

In one of the letters, someone mentioned that NYT (digital) offers a cheaper subscription in India. That is true, it is currently offering Rs 600 for a year for new users. WSJ (digital) is offering a three-month trial and a subscription for Rs 360 per month for new users. Even a magazine like the Economist is offering its digital subscription at Rs 10,000 annually. All of these are dirt-cheap compared to their offerings in the west. They may get expensive after 1-2 years for existing users.

I used to be in charge of subscribing to all foreign digital news outlets in my former organisation. I have noticed that many of these are focusing on the Indian market and maybe that's why they are offering such subsidies. There seems to be an interest in English digital news subscriptions within India. This should be a cause of optimism for NL as this market is seen as competitive and has space for growth. Would love to know the panel's view on this.

Regards,

T-800