The poverty of conversation in Kashmir’s podcast boom
inam ul rehman In Kashmir it is said when a trend catches up it is done to death by all. At present we are witnessing three trends: opening up of eateries, everyone becoming a social media influencer, and launch of videocasts or podcasts. Kashmiris love to chatter patter. We love to give advice on everything to everyone even if we have never travelled outside our own district. We interfere without permission in everyone’s affairs. So, podcasts are ideal for the Kashmiri propensity for discourse. But there is a catch: we love to hear only ourselves not others. For the past many months, I have been surfing podcasts hosted by Kashmiris. And not to my surprise I saw many, many podcasts on YouTube. In fact, it will not be an exaggeration to state that Kashmiri podcasts reveal not a hunger for meaningful dialogue but a preference for safe and familiar ideas. Here I look at some of them that caught my attention. As happens often many of these, at present seem, are just for ...