Far From Fact

A UPSC aspirant’s wife has left him because he used to ignore her. The lads bite into this juicy piece of domestic ‘news’ from Madhya Pradesh but quickly take off into outer space to unravel the peculiar case of identity theft, nothing out of the ordinary, except it was committed in space. Quick orbit around Crazyville and they are back in Palghar, Maharashtra to split hairs over the recently launched ‘AC Coffins.’ Enjoy.

+ Music credit - Simon D’Souza+ Write to us - [email protected]

The lads take you for a spin around Mumbai traffic, or more accurately, the city’s new traffic tech. Needless to say, their disdain gets the better of them, faster than they can say, “Bandra-Worli sea link.” They follow it up with the peculiar story of a chain snatcher who proceeds to eat said chain, and finish you off nice and high on the moral high ground of eco-consciousness. Courtesy, IRCTC with its carpet ban on single-use plastics starting 2nd October. 
+ Music credit - Simon D’Souza+ Write to us - [email protected]

The lads bounce back with their trademark imbecile solutions for erring bureaucrats, farmers and vegetable vendors, in an episode that spans Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai and Kenya. Catch the story of an 85-member Kenyan delegate where other Nations sent teams of upto 6 people. Followed by the bizarre story of a sabziwala washing carrots with his feet inside a drum, and lastly the 200 cows that went to school for all the wrong reasons. 
+ Music credit - Simon D’Souza+ Write to us - [email protected]

The lads step out of their comfort zone for this one. In this episode, they try to inform themselves and listeners alike, the many changes that are taking place in Jammu & Kashmir. With hardly any laughs, they actually clean up good, in this rather grown-up, sense-making, information load of an episode. Don't say we didn't warn you.
Segments:1) Summary of the situation and abrogation of Article 3702) Government's reasons for doing this3) PM's speech on the matter and BJP's strategy4) Why Article 370 existed in the first place5) How the Government went about with the abrogation6) Potential impact of this on the people of J&K7) Reasons for insurgency in J&K8) Potential method to gauge success or failure of this move
Additional content for those looking for a deep dive.Shekhar Gupta’s analysis of the PM’s speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPx9PO1hSPU&t=631s

The PM’s speech itself is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0bNYhPJnxk&t=716s

+ Music credit - Simon D’Souza+ Write to us - [email protected]

Additional music credit - Burhanuddin

The lads get up close with indie musician Mali aka Maalavika Manoj, as they discuss her latest single Mango showers. But first they must do us the service of fixing the ageist lawsuit that IBM is staring at, because it fired 100,000 senior employees to appear ‘cool’ and ‘trendy.’ They follow this up with the ridiculous story of a human marrying a dog, but no story too ridiculous till the lads get their 2 cents on it. 

Mango showers video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKu7KFLRgFk

Full uncut Mali interview https://www.farfromfact.in/episode-56-uncut-mali-tapes/

+ Music credit - Simon D’Souza+ Write to us - [email protected]

Indian tourists are going places, possibly even prison, if this story from Bali were to be considered. But first, the lads must consider the pros and cons of the new automated driving tests being employed in Delhi. Up to 70% of new driving license applicants failed the test, that was monitored by humans earlier. ‘But will this make our roads safer?’ is what the lads want to know. In other news, a bull ran over an intern inside the IIT Mumbai campus. #StraightFace  Bali resort thieves - http://tiny.cc/qr9gaz IIT bull attack - http://tiny.cc/xp9gaz  + Music credit - Simon D’Souza + Write to us - [email protected] 

Technology takes centre-stage this episode. We have the lads dissecting Faceapp, the viral sensation from Russia and their privacy policy that has got the whole world and their lawyers talking. Then there’s Instagram’s new test to ‘hide’ likes, in certain markets, in an attempt to better mental health and combat the negative effects of the platform. And lastly, they lament about the poor smuggler who got caught with 1/2 a kilo of cocaine under his wig. 
+ Music credit - Simon D’Souza+ Write to us - [email protected]

There are two things that get the lads going, food and crime. So when the Kerala prison decides to sell biryani via Swiggy, they had to go to town with it. This episode is them salivating over prison biryani, followed by them contemplating the concept of dark tourism, thanks to the Ukrainian government’s decision to open up Chernobyl as a destination. And lastly, they try to make sense of the 400,000 American nut-jobs who want to free aliens from Area 51. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
+ Music credit - Simon D’Souza+ Write to us - [email protected]

The lads are off to Indonesia with this interesting piece on gender inequality. But first they must address things at home, the Capital to be precise. Catch them as they employ their trademark ignorance to understand why we have a budget in the first place. Next they hop on to a Shatabdi to Mathura, only to have the chain pulled for an emergency train stop. Oh! and it’s been a year, take a bow lads!

+ Music credit - Simon D’Souza+ Write to us - [email protected]

It’s monsoon here in Mumbai, and the lads have an episode featuring the rains for a backdrop. The internet is heart-broken, thanks to a picture of a mama bird feeding a cigarette butt to a baby bird. The lads jump to the opportunity, and give us a well-rounded view of the story. We also see them cackle about the phenomenon of young adults growing horns on the back of their heads, before they try to make sense of India’s ambition of developing a home-grown chat app, mostly for administrative use.

+ Music credit - Simon D’Souza
+ Write to us - [email protected]