Episode 134 - Strings, Swords & Scholars

0:00August 2nd, 2011 was observed as the first and only celebratory day dedicated to which technology. Let me repeat the question. August 2nd, 2011 was observed as the first and only celebratory day dedicated to which technology. This is the oldest type of audience question that we have, one which I will answer at the end of today's episode. Welcome to episode #134 of are you quizzing me, your favorite quizzing and trivia podcast show. Let's quiz music.

0:37Welcome to are you quizzing me. I am Vineet Nair with my Co host Aditya kashyap. This is a quizzing trivia podcast show. Join us as we dive deep into history, science, pop culture, and so much more. Let's get quizzing and we're back for episode #134 of our view Quizzing. Me, Aditya and I are back for another round of quizzing. But before we get to the regular round of quizzing, Aditya had asked a question for the audience. For lack of a better name, I'm calling it audience question part do.

1:12So Aditya, who answered the audience question last week first. And what is the answer? OK, Vineet, you know what? I have not yet posted the previous question on Instagram or on social media, but by the time we release it, I will know who it is that has answered. So insert the person's name here. Avi Shankar, right? Amazing. Congratulations to this insanely smart individual. He or she or they have truly blown my mind with their promptness to this audience question and I'm throwing out salutes in their direction. And for the rest of us who perhaps did not know what the answer was, I would have been that person because I am not a music aficionado, but Vineet, but definitely have known the answer.

2:01This is the very famous Abbey Road where The Beatles have been pictured crossing it and that makes for such an iconic album cover. Vineet, I'll take your opinion on this. Is it the most famous album cover? I actually personally believe that the most iconic album cover of all time would be Pink Floyd's cover for The Dark Side of the Moon, which has the very famous picture of a prism and light fracting through it and just splitting into a rainbow. That I think would probably be the most recognizable, even though Happy Rd. is also quite I think all the same level. But personally, I feel that's a more iconic one because many people have seen that image and they just know it, even if they don't know the album cover.

2:47Probably top three. I think Abbey Road would be top three. I'm also thinking of the baby in the swimming pool chasing the Nirvana. Nirvana. Yeah, that's probably also a pretty famous one. Yeah. Yeah. We should maybe do a rundown of these at some point. I'm sure there are very interesting stories behind all of them. In any case, this picture that I posted on social media, it was of The Beatles by the side of the road preparing to crossover. So because I blanked out the faces, I would encourage our listeners to go check it out on Google or whatever, or probably post it on the are you using the Instagram account as well?

3:22That's the Audience Junior question. The audience question, but. I feel like we still have to settle on that name, all right, but beneath what we don't have to settle on is some great trivia because we can dive right deep into it. Who is it starting this time? I think it's my turn. Just making stuff up. Sure, go for it. I am going to hijack it because I have a few cracker questions this week. Let's start off. I'm not going to be surprised if you don't know the answer directly, but hopefully you can answer some of the adjacent questions and then I can give you the straight trivia itself, right?

4:01Because actually the adjacent portion of this is more exciting than maybe the actual name of the answer. So let's get to it. X is a traditional a bowed instrument built around a simple but distinctive design, A bamboo neck fixed to a hollowed half coconut shell, stretched with good skin to form a resonator. Its strings, often made from horse hair, are played using a wooden bow sometimes or donned with small bells. For generations, this instrument has been performed by the Popas of Rajasthan, particularly while singing and narrating long epic traditions such as heroic folk tales. Music historians believe that this folk instrument is not just culturally significant, but also historically important, often described as an early ancestor of another, more familiar instrument.

4:56Why? So I want you to tell me the original instrument and the other instrument which many music historians believe was inspired by this stringed instrument. And Rajasthani stringed instrument, nothing in my limited knowledge of musical instruments comes out to me, jumps out to me. You said bhopas of Rajasthan. Is it Yes. OK, interesting. I haven't heard of this particular community, but I I think bhopa is also the word for horn or maybe it's similar sounding.

5:26I'm sorry if if I'm off the mark on that, but I think Hindi or it's some some sort of a Hindi adjacent language has that I've already being used. In any case, this doesn't sound like a wind instrument, this sounds like stringed instrument. I am assuming the original instrument might be some sort of isoteric term or very specific thing that a general lay person like me might not. Know you may have heard of it. OK. But I'm going to try to guess first the more common instrument that is inspired by it that you said, OK. And for that I'm going to say.

5:59The veena. No, no, no. We are looking at something a little more commonly known than the veena. More than the veena. Okay, I don't know how in the hierarchy of general public awareness would you place veena and sitar? So I'm assuming sitar is also not the right answer. It's not the right answer. I specifically mentioned something about the instrument which I thought was a giveaway. Maybe you didn't catch it. You can still give one more guess before I give you that. Clue.

6:25OK, so we're out with Veena, We're out with Siddharth. You want to repeat the part that I missed or ignored? See kids, This is why you should pay attention in class. So I'm going to repeat the question again. X is a traditional bold instrument built around a simple but distinctive design. Bamboo neck fixed to a hollowed half shell. Coconut shell stretched with good skin to form a resonator. Strings often made from horsehair. Played using a wooden bow, sometimes adorned with small bells.

6:55OK, OK, OK. No, I did hear that. I don't know why I ignored that part. A bold instrument played, played with a bow. It's. Oh my God. This is that thing Which Which looks like a very mini sitar only I guess, or whatever similar to that. And then then they hold it and they play it with that bow or whatever it's called in the local language. OK, I know this. I know this just just I'm it's slipping my my mind right now. Give me a letter or something because I do know this. Oh God, what is it?

7:25I want to give you another clue. Think the Ramayan. It's not just like featured in the Ramayan. It's a direct connection to the Ramayan. The name has a very direct connection to the Ramayan. OK. Is it named after one of the characters in Ramayan? Something Ram, something Sita Lakshman. It is named after one of the characters in the Ramayan. No. OK, then I don't know this then I'm maybe off the mark then I don't know. Let's just say that there is a character in the ramen whose name translates to the one who causes to roar or terrifying screen.

7:57Isn't that Ravan? Very good. So what instrument is named after ramen? Have you heard of it? No. Then I'm off. Then I don't know what it is. Fair. You may not have heard of it, but guess which instrument it is supposed to have inspired. Any I can only think of that one small handheld violinist instrument that is in India. I can't think of any other Indian Angela, unless it's not an Indian instrument that it inspired. It inspired an internationally known instrument, let me put it that way.

8:24Oh, that common instrument. OK, OK. That's why I was off with the veena and sitar. OK, I was thinking Indian instrument then. Then the violin, because I know what you're talking about. It's the violin. Yes. Oh, so the instrument that I'm talking about, or X which I've been describing is the Ravan Hatta. OK, vaguely familiar. You may have heard of it. OK, now the name Ravan Hatta basically is supposed to be a corruption of the term Ravan Hasta Veena.

8:52OK, hand Veena, it's quite close. OK, nice, nice, nice. The legend states that Ravan attempted to lift Mount Kailash to please his mother, but Lord Shiv basically trapped him beneath the mountain. The legend goes that he used one of his toes to apply pressure to the mountain. It kind of trapped Ravan underneath the mountain to beg for mercy and to sing Lord Shiva's praises. Ravan crafted the first Ravan Hatha using one of his own heads and arm and his.

9:30OK, I've heard this legend in two ways. One version of the legend says that he used one of his hair as strings. Another one is that he used one of his nerves or veins as a string. Wow. So that's where you get the term Ravanhatta. As I mentioned, it's a cultural heritage of Western India, specifically Rajasthan and Gujarat. It's utilized by wandering folk bards and St. musicians and they use it while telling stories. Now, music historians often considered this instrument, which is quite ancient, to be a direct ancestor of the Arab rabab, which is also a very similar board instrument, and it may have basically inspired what we currently know as the violin.

10:15So some sources suggest that between the 7th and 10th century ADS, Arab traders brought the Rabhan Hatta from India to the Near East or what we call as the Middle East today, where it provided the model for the Arab Arab Rabab and later on the violin when it went to the West. Say Arab rabab like five times in a row quickly. OK, nice. That is insanely cool. I had no idea. Ramanatha. Maybe I've heard, maybe I'm not, I'm not sure. But of course I've heard of a violin, yes. So technically Shah Rukh Khan in Mohabbate was playing Ravan Hatha.

10:52A descendant of the Ravan Hatha. The original Ravan. Let's be let's be honest, Shah Rukh Khan was not playing anything in Mohabbate. He had some of the most outrageous. If he was not playing anything, how was he winning hearts? Vineet, did you not know of the number of women and a fair bit of men across the country who who gave up their heart to Rajarin Balotra? Let's also be fair, that had nothing to do with the violin. That's true. That's true.

11:23It just has to has to do with the Shahrukh Khan Fair. Yeah. From that, a very unnecessary tangent, let's move on to the city where Shahrukh lives. I'm talking about of course, Mumbai who is associated to the South Court mansion which is on long Malabar Hill. Is it an individual or a family? Whereas most families are there is this one prominent person in that family. And then of course, there were other people around it as well. But if you give me the person, I'll consider that the right answer. For those who don't know, by the way, Malabar Hill is perhaps one of the most bougie or the most affluent neighborhoods in Mumbai.

12:02It's synonymous with big money. s s Court Mansion is a big house there. Tell me who is associated to South Court Mansion in Malabar Hill? I'm not sure whether the Wadia family currently holds it, but I'm fairly sure you're talking about Mohammed Ali Jinnah's residence. Wrong answer. Okay, yeah, well that is very well cracked. Very quickly cracked. I didn't expect to be very honest. I thought I'll have to give you some hints about the ideas. Let's run the audience pass the trivia because they might not be as smart as you or Vineet.

12:41OK, because the bungalow was built by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the father of the nation for our neighboring country Pakistan in 1936 at the then exorbitant price of guess how many rupees? 20,000. So I guess you don't know everything because it was ₹2,00,000. 2,00,000 Well I was off by zero so. You're off by zero. Fine, fine. Yeah, All right, we'll we'll give it a pass. All right ₹2,00,000. Pretty insane amount. I haven't done the math on it. I would imagine this would be just the inflation would make it at least a few crores, but given the property prices along Malabar Hill, this would be easily like 10s, if not maybe close to 100 crores. I don't know.

13:23And this was built when Jinnah had returned to Bombay from England and he was going to take charge of the Muslim League. So, right. Pretty much when his political career was going to shoot up, he was going to get into prominence. And a pretty interesting history there played, of course, a huge part in the partition of India. This house he left right before he moved to Pakistan. And he decided that he's never going to come back again. And there has been a fair bit of controversy since then as to what this House is meant to be in today's world.

13:54But I'll take you back to 15th August 1946. And this was exactly a year before India gained independence. Obviously, there was a round of talks that were held between Jinnah and Nehru. This was one of the topics of discussion. They were deciding what to do and due credit that these men were apparently not on the best of times. They were definitely not the best friends. But when he requested Nehru, the then Prime Minister, to allot his house to any foreign consulate, preferably European, as he wished it to be given to European family who'd appreciate the architecture, Meru acceded to his request and offered him some rent on it as well. You know what?

14:29Like even even between, if not enemies, at least people who there was no love lost, he still wanted to respect and honor his request. Jinnah died before that could be finalized, so it was never truly given to anybody. Government of Pakistan has asked them to like, kind of, you know, figure out if there can be a way to to for them to have some sort of a consulate or some version of a government body over there in the house. India hasn't really accepted that. Fair enough.

14:56I understand why India wouldn't. And that is the history of this particular house. So it's currently unoccupied. I didn't mention this. It's an unoccupied house in Malabar Hill. Jinnah also owned another house in Delhi, but he had managed to do the paperwork for it before he passed away and before he moved to Pakistan and passed away later. Do you want to try to guess what's there today? The Pakistan consulate? No, but it is a consulate. Any other?

15:20I mean, it's a shot in the dark. Any other consulate, European consulate that you wanted there? The English consulate, The British one. That would be funnier with some sort of weird poetic justice injustice. I don't even know. No, it's. The other shot I would take was Bangladesh. No, it is European. It is the government of Netherlands. It's the Dutch consulate that's there, yeah. I feel like the Bangladesh consulate wouldn't want to be associated were given there is still in Pakistan also. I remember reading that apparently Jinnah did not expect that post independence that there would be this level of animosity between the two countries. So again, this is off the top of my head. Apparently he did buy a property in Shimla, which he expected to be able to visit even after the partitions. Yeah, so he did have multiple properties. He was quite a rich man with a very good practice as a lawyer. I'm sure, I'm sure the description of this place also sounds like he put a lot of heart into it. So maybe it was close to him.

16:22And as you very clearly alluded to, the Wadia family is traces it's roots back to Jinnah because his only child, the Jinnah was married twice. He had a child with the second wife and that is Deena Wadia. Deena Wadia, the only child of Jinnah, was a British born Indian American. Very interesting. Decided not to go to Pakistan, was married here, decided to stay in India, decided not to leave. Was married to a Parsi person. So I think Wadia has a Parsi surname.

16:51I think they're all very old shipbuilding family. Pretty big industrial contacts and connections over there. I think there were contentious relations between the father daughter duo, but at the end, if I'm not wrong, they did reconcile it. Especially when I think Dina Wadia had kids of her own and I think Jinnah was at least played some sort of role in that. And yeah, Deena Wadia married. And of course we might. Cricket fans might know of the Wadia family because Kings 11 Punjab was at one point owned by Ness Wadia, the very handsome looking man.

17:26Debonair, I believe is the term that you should. Be debonair. Debonair indeed, indeed, indeed. And I think at that point he was dating Preeti Zintai and that was the IT couple from Bollywood and the business sector of Mumbai. That is the same family that traces root back all the way to Jinnah. And Jinnah's house is in Mumbai still unoccupied. So anybody looking to go asserts quarters rights. This is not legal advice. Don't follow me. Please don't listen to me at all.

17:58Very nice, Very nice question. I am going to move to the same time period. This is roughly 1943. So in April of 1943, Allied Code Breakers faced a massive dilemma. They had intercepted secret communications revealing the exact locations of two high value enemy targets. Acting on the first piece of intelligence, President Roosevelt personally authorized the longest fighter intercept mission of World War 2 to shoot down a plane over the Solomon Islands, killing the first target. The same code breaking network had also picked up chatter about an unprecedented mid ocean rendezvous off the coast of Madagascar.

18:50A high profile civilian was secretly transferring from a German U boat to a Japanese submarine via a rubber raft. The British desperately wanted this man target #2 as he was a massive threat. However, the Allies deliberately let the submarine sail away unharmed because they knew that if they pulled off a second miraculous spin point interception in the exact same week, the Axis powers would instantly realize that their top secret codes had been broken.

19:24So, two-part answer? Cool. It was the high-ranking target number one who was assassinated in the plane crash and #2 who was the other leader or civilian who the British really wanted to kill but was allowed to escape. Interesting because when he first started talking about this I was thinking about some passenger ship or or the basically the idea that there was some collateral damage that the British British has allowed in that case because I think Enigma had broken some codes and the German U boards are going to attack something the British had knowledge of it.

20:03But they couldn't save or couldn't do a counter attack or couldn't do a preventative rather attack because pre emptive attack because then yeah, the Germans would have figured out that their codes were being broken. So I think they allowed a few people to die. I think this was featured in the movie also with Benedict Cumberbatch. I think The Imitation Game I think it was called. Yes, pretty good movie. But this sounds like a different theatre of war because America was involved. In that case, I think it was only the British who were actively involved.

20:33So somebody was let go and one person was eliminated. Yeah, so target number one was a military target. The Americans really, really badly wanted him. So Roosevelt personally authorized the longest fighter intercept mission of World War 2 just to shoot down to this person. So many. Very important. Did you mention where this happened? Yes. So this happened over the Solomon. Islands, OK. So then we're talking Pacific. I would say then somebody Japanese is more likely than somebody German. Very good, yes.

21:12Apart when I know the Japanese emperor didn't die. No, Kyohito did not. Then I can't think of any very prominent Japanese person. At least, I can't think of any prominent Japanese person right of the top of my head. Give me a hint maybe? He was the mastermind behind Pearl Harbor. Oh, that guy. I should have figured. Yeah, of course they would want him dead. This is the it's stupid thing to say. What? I'm going to say it, it's a very Japanese sounding name.

21:44It is a very, very Japanese nickname, yeah. I know, I know, I know who this is so bad. I know this is because I know him. This is so embarrassing. Oh my God, I should stop doing this podcast. It just shows me for the uncultured person that I am. I don't think I've read this in any history book. I think in Zindagina Milegi Dobara, Russian, yes, she says Yamamoto son. And I was curious. I remember going and Googling it hasn't been a famous Yamamoto as the daughter.

22:18And then I think this guy showed up. It must have been some somebody in the army, Yamamoto, I guess. Yes. So it is Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. He was the person behind the attack on Pearl Harbor. Very good, very well done. Though I am very impressed that it was through Zindagi that you came to this answer. OK, so you have the first part of the question right. This is the target Admiral Isoku Yamamoto was the military target was shot down in the plane crash. I want the second person, the civilian who was going to be transferred in an unprecedented high profile secret target who was transferred between a German U boat and a Japanese submarine via a rubber raft off the coast of Madagascar. The British really wanted this person dead. They really, really wanted him dead. But because the the Allies did not want the fact that they'd cracked the codes to become to be known to the Axis bars, they had to decide to let this person go already survive. OK.

23:23From the Japanese U boat. Sorry. From a German U boat going to going over to Japan somebody German 1943. Was it Himmler or somebody trying to escape? Not Himmler. This person. I'll give you a clue. This person was known to be a master of disguise, known for disguises. Interesting. Yes and no. I don't think the name is gonna come to me. Tell me something a little. So maybe give me the answer, I don't know. OK, I'll give you the name of an actor who has portrayed this person on screen. OK, probably the most well known actor who's portrayed like this. Actor's person has been portrayed multiple times on screen by multiple actors.

24:02But I will tell you the name of the actor, the most recently, the one that I can remember off the top of my head because I had not prepared any other clues for this Rajkumar Rao. Rajkumar Rao played this, so it's not a German person. I did not say it's a German person. You're the one who said it's a German person. Rajkumar Rao has portrayed this person. Yes. The British want Subhash Chandra boasted. I don't know if Rajkumar Rao has played Bose. Yes, so very well done.

24:27It is Subhash Chandra Bose. Yes, this is a fascinating story. Rajkumar Rao did play Subhash Chandra Bose in a web series produced by Ekta Kapoor called Bose Dead or Alive. By early 1943, the Allies had cracked the Japanese Navy's top secret codes through a program called Magic. This let them read military orders in real time. In April 1943, the Americans intercepted a message detailing Admiral Yamamoto's exact flight itinerary. Yamamoto, who was the mastermind of the Pearl Harbor attack, was flying from Rabaul to Balali airfield near Bougainvillea in the Solomon Islands for a morale boosting visit to his troops. President Roosevelt personally greenlit Operation Vengeance 16 U.S.

25:14Army P38 Lightning fighters flew 600 plus miles from Guadal Canal, the longest fighter intercept mission of World War 2. On April 18th, 1943, the ambushed Yamamoto's twin engine Betty bomber and two escorts over the jungle covered Bougainville. The Admiral was killed instantly when his plane crashed and Japan kept it secret for a month to avoid panic. Just 10 days later, on April 28th, 1943, the same code breaking network lit up again. This time the British intelligence learned of something unprecedented.

25:49A German U boat U 180 was rendezvousing with a Japanese submarine I 29 in the middle of the Indian Ocean of Madagascar. The cargo Subhash Chandra Bose, India's most dangerous anti colonial leader according to the British intelligence at the time. Both had escaped house arrest in India, reached Germany and was now heading to Japanese occupied Southeast Asia to lead the Indian National Army against the British. He was transferring wire rubber raft in rough seas, the only known civilian handoff between submarines of two different Navy.

26:24In World War 2. The British desperately wanted Bose. He was plotting to spark mutiny across 2.5 million Indian troops under British command. Capturing or killing him would have crippled the independence movement, but they did nothing because Yamamoto's assassination was too perfect and too precise. If the Allies now magically appeared to intercept both the submarines of the exact coordinates and timing just 10 days later, the Axis powers would instantly realize that their codes had been broken.

26:55So the Allies prioritized their code breaking advantage, which was shortening the war by years and saving countless lives. So they let Bose go. He reached Tokyo, met Emperor Hirohito, broadcast the famous speech Give Me Blood and I Shall Give You Freedom from Singapore Radio, and then led the INA against British forces in Burma and Infar. That's incredible. Yeah. I would not have gotten to Bose without the Indian connection. That's insane. That's really cool.

27:25Yeah, of course, Of course. He was considered very dangerous. And props to Sebastian Ribose for being single handedly being such a pain in the part of the British Empire. I love it. It's it's and all the freedom fighters, obviously, they're fighting for a tremendous cause. Every single person who fought and lived to see their fruit of their efforts and so many of them who died along the way. But I generally have a very soft spot for Subhash and Ribose because this man was just like out there. I don't know if it qualifies as guerrilla warfare, but he was just out there really raising hell for the British and they deserved it.

28:07Of course Bose being from Bengal, I don't know if if the treatment of of Bengal during the famine and stuff also instigated him. And if anything, Churchill can go screw himself and whatever pain Boss caused him, he totally deserved it. And I was as a child, I think it was the first conspiracy theory I encountered was that Boss is alive, he survived the plane crash or never he was on the plane or whatever he parachuted out. There are a few of those theories and I think the child in me truly wanted it to be true because I I thought he was such a cool to cry. So I would I also have a soft spot for Subhash Chandra post because we both shared a birthday. Wow.

28:48That's nice. OK, that's nice. You know who I share my birthday with? Vineet. I share my birthday with a very smart tech billionaire and also potentially paedophile Bill Gates. We don't want to get screwed. Yeah, that's screwed. Sorry. Let's let's just say Bill Gates has been associated with with definitely a terrible, terrible man who was also a paedophile Epstein. So yeah, maybe Bill Gates was innocent, but I would hold my reservations on that. OK, so we need the school and associated to Sebastian the boss and I want to forget that I'm associated to Bill Gates via my birthday and I don't feel too good about it.

29:36So let me talk to you. That makes Let me talk to you about something that does make people good, and that is etymology. Oh God, OK, it's been a long time since we had an etymology question. Yeah, I think a lot of questions are etymology questions disguised when this case I'm telling you straight up, it's the etymology question. All right? The Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society. Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society has a name in Mandarin. Person in the American army went by the name of Evans.

30:05Carlson spent a few decades in China and while he was doing his active tours of duty in China. This was between First World War and Second World War. When he was deployed there. He of course ended up encountering the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society working with them closely. He misunderstood an Chinese acronym for that name, and that inspired a common English phrase. Tell me what phrase it is this that I'm talking about? American English that I'm talking about?

30:39That was technically a mistranslation of the Mandarin version of Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society. So a modern day phrase which has its origin because somebody misunderstood the translation of the Chinese Industrial Cooperative society. Yes, it was shortened. It was made into an acronym, but yes. Does this have anything to do with all the tea in China? No, you will not see any China in this phrase at all. And and a lot more famous. I I don't think I've heard or seen too much of all the tea in China being used in in whatever in in written form, or heard it anywhere but this one, probably a lot more commonly used. Any contextual clues you can give me? Like where would I use this phrase? I'll tell you what, He misunderstood it as OK, because while this acronym was referring to the, once again, Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society, I just feel like that's how the person belonging to the society might have said it. But Carlson, he misunderstood it because he thought they were saying something along the lines of working together. While the current usage of this phrase would not mean working together, it does have a sense

31:53of, let's say, enthusiasm to it. Enthusiastic dung ho Oh, that sounds basically vaguely Chinese. It is. Well, you're right, because this was this American man butchering the Chinese pronunciation as well. You and I have been guilty of butchering so many different pronunciations over the years. And yes, this was Carlson A Very well cried. By the way, this was Carlson Carlson's version of the Chinese name. The Chinese name, I'll tell you, it's Zhongguo. Zhongguo means China Zhongguo Gonggui Hitsuo shei. OK, I'm so sorry if for all our Chinese speakers. How did he get Gongguo from that? Because Gonggui, which means industry and here so which means cooperative, so sweetly talking about this in still cooperative society.

32:43That's all it was talking about. He thought because people would talk about it and he's like this means working together. Amazing. That's what you guys mean. So true red blooded American fashion. When he wanted to rally up his troops, he did some cultural appropriation and he's like, instead of saying Mong gay or whatever the Chinese way of saying it was, he was like, guys, gung ho, let's work together gung ho. That is, that is, that is, that is the most American together world, right? Now, and that became a common phrase amongst his platoon or trooper, whatever his soldiers, much like, you know, in in Uri where, where Vicky Kaushal's character says Josh, how's it Josh?

33:24It became popular. Yeah. It becomes a common phrase and a common way of getting the enthusiasm up. In this case, they used it completely misunderstanding what I was talking about. To me, it's so funny because anybody of the Chinese Industrial Cooperative Society, even if they vaguely understood that he was referring to them, like why are they shouting our names when they are reading themselves for battle? Like it makes no sense. So basically, if I understood this right, he took the second part of it.

33:54So he didn't even take the Chinese part, right. The Chinese you mentioned was Zong or something. Zong. So he. Would have known that China basically Zongo or Chinese, he would have known that. So he took the other part, which he assumed meant like Chinese working together or something like that. OK, so basically he would there kind of, I don't know, war cry. What do they want to call? It rally, war cry, whatever. Yeah, they want to was like. Industrial cooperative exactly. And mind you, this is a few decades early of the Cold War when the capitalist America was very much fighting the communist Russia and well, China as well, and the idea they were shouting industrial cooperative.

34:37No, this is this is. This is so perfect because, like they say, it's the military industrial complex. Yeah, the US sits. The man was a visionary. Maybe he knew this was coming. Maybe he was putting in clues. It's like the Chinese army being like Lockheed Martin in the bat. God, thank you for that. That was a very good palate cleanser of a question. Very nice. Let me take you back a few 100 years. Between 1793 and 18 O 5, the British East India Company faced one of its most humiliating and protracted military ordeals in the entire subcontinent during the Koteyutu War in Kerala, OK.

35:25The rebellion was spearheaded by Kerala Varma Parisi Raja, a warrior king of Kottayam, who turned the mist shrouded hills and dense forests of Wayanad into a killing ground for British columns, deploying lightning guerrilla raids that repeatedly shattered East India Company detachments. So formidable was the resistance that Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, future Prime Minister, the man who would go on to crush Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo, and widely regarded as the finest British military mind of his era, he was personally dispatched to suppress it, only to find himself out manoeuvred and humbled by Pashiraja's warriors time and again. After over a decade of costly and embarrassing failure, the British finally prevailed only upon Parishi Raja's death by betrayal in November 18 O 5.

36:21Determined never again to face such ferocious indigenous resistance, the colonial administration moved swiftly in eighteen O 4 to ban a deeply rooted socio cultural practice. What did they ban? Some sort of practice that was banned in eighteen O 4 to prevent any such future uprisings by the British. I'm assuming because this particular ban Kotem Kotem in Kerala has to be some sort of malou cultural thing. Is it in present day India? Yes, it did have its renaissance.

37:03It's quite popular. It's quite visible. I don't think it would be Jelly. Cut to the bull bull race, I think. You know, that's more Tamil thing rather than a Malayali thing. This is very very essentially care like. My apologies to our listeners. Moving on. Moving on very swiftly, there is a version of a boat race, right? That happens. Vallam Kali, as it's called. The Nehru Trophy Snake Boat Race, which happens on the second Saturday of every August. Pretty sure that is in Kerala, so something to do with that. This was in the hills of Wayanad, which is as far as away from the shores lines that you can get in. Kerala.

37:46Fair enough, Fair enough. I thought maybe some naval attack also but OK. Fair is more inland now. My lack of knowledge of Malou cultural practices shows I'm not sure of any other things that would fit the bill. OK, so I will give you a clue. Think Vidyut Jamwal. There are there are a lot of other people. Yes, very good calorie Paita, I thought. I was thinking of an event. OK, makes sense. Practice. Not an event or occasion. Got it. Got it. No. Pretty cool.

38:14Yeah. So Calorie Paita, the ancient martial art of India, was banned by the British in eighteen O 4. For those who don't know, Calgary Pipe is recognized as one of the oldest surviving martial arts in the world, with its origins tracing back over 3000 years. Distinct from purely military combat systems, it was deeply embedded in the social religious fabric of Kerala. It was not merely about weapons training, but in comparison to physical discipline, Ayurvedic healing, knowledge of vital pressure points and ritual worship.

38:43For centuries, it formed the foundational military training for the region's traditional warrior casts, primarily the Nyers, the training grounds known as cutleries, which is what he said. Cutlery, if we say it for shortest, cutlery, but it's actually cutlery. Pied to is the art form. And the training grounds are called cutleries. Yeah. So they function the centers of both Marshall prowess and cultural identity. This ancient Marshall infrastructure became the backbone or during the Kotyat War. The rebellion was led by Kerala Varma Parshiraja, a warrior king who, facing the superior firepower of the British, retreated into the hills of Wayanad. Utilizing fighters heavily trained in Kalidipaita A comprising of Nair militias and local Kuruchiya tribal Archers, Parshiraja launched a devastating guerrilla campaign. These warriors utilized their mastery of close quarters combat, stealth and agility to execute lightning fast ambitious on British columns, inflicting heavy casualties and repeatedly shattering East India Company detachments, such as the slaughter of British forces at the Pedia Pass in 1797. The resistance form proved so

39:49formidable and humiliating that the British deployed Major General Arthur Wellesley, who would later achieve global fame as the Duke of Wellington. Despite his tactical brilliance, he struggled against the unconventional warfare, facing multiple setbacks in the unforgiving terrain of Wayanad before eventually leaving India. Recognizing that the martial art was the engine of this fierce resistance, the British colonial administration to desperate measures to prevent future uprisings by enacting A strict ban on colorify to practice in Eighteen O 4. They shut down Kaladi schools, confiscated weapons and criminalized the practice, forcing Kaladi Paitu entirely underground where it was practiced in secret until it's revival in the 20th century, long after Parisharaja's death in eighteen O 5.

40:34Now this was not the only instance of the British having done this with the traditional Indian martial art. There are other examples such as Silambam or Silambatum which is in Tamil Nadu which was done after the Poliagar wars which is a ban following the Anglo Manipuri war, Ghatka Mardani Khail and Paika Akada. All of these were traditional martial arts that the British banned after a resistance from the local populations. If you want to watch like a miniaturized version where you can see all of these martial arts, I would I would recommend that you watch Hanuman kinds run it down music video in which all of these except for Pika Khada I believe is not mentioned. It's not shown in that, but they do show Gatka they should Tanta which is fascinating martial art from Manipur. So Hari Pyaito was banned because of all of this and I believe I may have mispronounced the name of the battle of the war in the beginning.

41:33It is the war. Impressive piece of Indian history. I love it. You know what I am feeling? A fervor of anti colonial, a zeal inside of me. As as Americans in China might have said, they're gung ho about it. No. No, no society vibes are are being incited in me. I love that. I love. I love how through many, many years, decades and centuries in fact, of colonial rule, we never quite stopped fighting as a country, as a group of people who believed in some sort of self determination.

42:07I love that. OK, let's move from a group of impressive people to another group of people. And this group of people made a movie which was an adaptation of perhaps one of the greatest novels ever written, or at least a lot of people acknowledge it as one of the greatest novels ever written. Don Quixote. OK, there was an adaptation of Don Quixote, a film adaptation of Don Quixote, in 2022. It was made in Brazil. The director is Leonardo Cortez is a specific group of people who were acting in this film. Do you want to tell me who this group was? And interestingly enough, what did they name this adaptation of Don Quixote?

42:492020 adaptation of Don Quixote directed by Cortez in Brazil you said yes and it featured a particular group of people yes is it like the indigenous tribes of. I'm trying to find the right way to characterize this group of people without giving up with the answer too quickly. I would say they don't have any common historical connection, that there's no like cultural historical connection to a place. OK. So it's not like an ethnic group. And that's actually a better way of putting it.

43:24I'm pretty sure it won't be classified as an ethnic group. OK, because my next guest was going to be Spanish speakers in Brazil, because Brazil is a predominantly Portuguese speaking nation and Don Quixote is famously a Spanish novel. And that's a pretty decent guess, but no. No, I need some kind of clue. OK, and the reason I'm smiling is because we literally encountered this piece of trivia, I want to say, 2 episodes ago. Or you asked me a question rather, which is pretty much an answer for this piece of trivia, and this was a question that was close to your heart. I'm going to first start from that. I think you'll probably get it from just that as a hint. John Langdon questions.

44:08Indeed, indeed, John. Langdon Down. Down syndrome. Perfect, that is the answer I was looking for. So the entire cast in this adaptation 2022 adaptation is full of people who have Down syndrome and I assume like a lot of these diseases, I'm assuming there's a spectrum. Not a medical professional, don't know too much about it. But in any Case, No Down syndrome is. Specifically, just like there's one condition, Trisomy 21, those are Down syndromes. Autism spectrum, yes, that's like, that's a neurodivergent spectrum you can have from, you know, mild autism where it's the person's completely functional, absolutely no problems except for a few quirks, two very two kind of nonverbal savants and things like that, and Asperger syndrome somewhere in the Middle East. Right.

44:54In this case, I would imagine then there's it wouldn't be anything outside of people with Down syndrome because Leonardo Cortez, who's also playwright, director and screenwriter, he founded the Adit Theater Group within ADIT, which is association for the integral development of Down. So it's specifically caters to people down with this particular condition. And for 23 years, the ADIT group has maintained an uninterrupted production of theatrical shows inspired by the great classics of world theatre.

45:21I couldn't find any other ones that I mean, I found a few, but I couldn't find anyone which tickled me as much as this one because the name that they chose was such a fun, cute name. So tell me, we need word name. Did they choose for the adaptation of Don Quixote? So I'm guessing it's down Quixote. Down, Quixote, it's such a lovely name. I love that. I love that. I love the fact that it's just, it's in your face. It's right out there. All of them have Down syndrome and they own it and they celebrate it and they made a movie out of it.

45:52I haven't seen it. I haven't really found any resources that I tried to find somewhere I could watch it. I without without legally watching it. I would love for the people who made it to be at least recognized without me pirating. So yeah, I'll try to find a way to watch this movie. In any case, those of you who have access to it, go ahead and watch it. Enjoy it. It's sounds like a cute, fun piece of movie, and it's down. Quixote in 2022. I haven't watched the movie so I can't be sure, but I believe I've seen the trailer of Sitares.

46:25I mean. But I think also has an extensive cast of Down syndrome actors. Is it just Down syndrome or are there other? Because I've not watched the movie, I've just seen the trailer. In of course, that is, I mean the cast is across the spect. Like there are of course neuro divergent people, but neuro typical people, definitely Aamir Khan is there. So all of those actors who don't, I think in this movie, because I saw the trailer, I saw some other short clips, I didn't see a single actor who did not look like their Down syndrome. So I think they just took a cast entirely, people with Down syndrome, which I love, which I think is such a nice way of, you know, making art, which which speaks to beyond just their typical viewer.

47:05It's very nice, it's very sweet, it's actually quite sweet, very heartwarming. Let's bring the dial back to India again. I have very history heavy questions today for me. I don't think you ever move the dial, at least on your end, from India. In India only. This is also India history related. I don't. I don't do very many contemporary India questions. For some reason it's history that fascinates me and we have a lot of it to mind. That is true. OK, so this is a fairly simple question.

47:33I am almost 100% sure you will get it in one, maybe 2 guesses. That's it. No pressure. In 1919, while staying at the Lahore home of Ram Bhuj Dutt Chowdhury, X formed an intense relationship with his host's wife, the formidable Sarla Devi Choudharan, which lasted until mid 1920. Notably, his letters to her underwent a telling transformation, shifting from the formal salutation my dear Sarla Devi to the intimate dearest and being signed off with love.

48:13X famously referred to their bond as a spiritual marriage, with his secondary dubbing it an intellectual wedding. Fearing public ruin and scandal, associates of X like C Rajagopalajari, who would become the first Indian Governor General of India, eventually intervened to end the infatuation. I want you to identify X who was this person who had, let's call it infatuation. Maybe something more soft spot. Definitely a soft spot. Way beyond a soft spot. Trust me.

48:50OK, I. Don't want to crack an inappropriate joke just in case this is somebody that I'll get cancelled for for making inappropriate jokes about. I don't know who was popular amongst women definitely had that kind of a vibe, but I is it him by any chance? I would have expected nothing less but the most obvious answer It's not Nehru. If it is not Jawaharlal Nehru, oh, OK. You know what, I'm going to try to take a guess. Was this some sort of an industrialist? No.

49:22OK. I was going to say some Tata or something. OK. Good guess, but no. Prominent people from that part of history, I can't think of any freedom fighter like none of the Bhagat Singh and all. They had much bigger fish to fry. They were very much devoted to the cause of independence. But you could say that this person was also devoted to the cause of independence. This person was devoted to the cause of independence. Let's not beat around the Bush with that.

49:49OK, OK, so some freedom fighter. Interesting. I'm OK, I'm just going to play this by process of elimination. I don't think Subhash Chandra Bose had any time at all to be doing any of this. You already said no to Nehru. I'm I'm going to straight off the bat eliminate Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Subdev, Shekhar Azad, Abul Kalam Azad. Is it him and Chance? No, no, no. Because he did say Lahore. Lahore was part of a British India at that point. No, I'm just.

50:19Thinking currently Pakistan, probably some sort of a Muslim person because there was obviously a more significant Muslim population there. Now, I would suggest that you go with the following clues that I mentioned that in the end some of his closest associates like C Rajagopalnachari had to intervene. Mahatma Gandhi by any chance? Yes, this was Mahatma Gandhi. Not react to that. That would have not been on my radar at all. Ma man specifically. Why I asked this question.

50:51Now let's get to the meat of this. All of this is factual, by the way. The year was 1990. Gandhi was visiting Lahore in the aftermath of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. He stayed at the home of a prominent lawyer and freedom fighter named Rambuj Dutt Chaudhary. She was in jail at the time for this political activities but his wife was home. Her name was Salla Devi Choudhrani. She was the niece of Ravindranath Tagore. She was highly educated, A fierce feminist who founded India's first national level women's organization, and a brilliant singer.

51:26She was also a revolutionary who believed in militant action against the British. When Gandhi met her, he was utterly mesmerized. He believed she could be the ultimate female leader for this Swedishi movement. But very quickly, this political admiration turned into a deeply intense personal infatuation. Gandhi and Sallah Devi began travelling together across India, drawing massive crowds. When they were apart, Gandhi wrote to her obsessively. Historians have recovered these letters, and the shift in his tone is undeniable. He went from starting his letters with the former My dear Salah Devi, to calling her dearest. He began signing off with love.

52:05Things escalated to the point where Gandhi explicitly called Salah Devi his spiritual wife. In fact, his closest aide and secretary, Mahadev Desai, nervously referred to their bond as an intellectual wedding. Gandhi even considered making a public declaration about their relationship, believing that because their bond was spiritual and not physical, it transcended earthly marriage vows. But his inner circle was terrified. They knew that if a man preaching strict celibacy and moral purity was seen carrying on an intense emotional affair with a married woman, the British press would destroy him and the Indian freedom movement would collapse. Biographer BM Pallah in Kasurba Gandhi, a biography, notes that this was a distressing period for Kasurba. Gandhi's open infatuation with Salah Devi was widely discussed in the ashram, causing her intense anxiety. She felt an undignified rejection by her husband, especially since Gandhi was simultaneously writing impassioned letters to Esther Faring, a Dutch missionary, while obsessing over Salah Devi.

53:12According to British Intelligence Files, the Bombay Secret Abstracts of 1920 and public Records, Gandhi openly stated during speeches such as the one in Hyderabad in July 1920, that he was travelling with Sarla Devi because, quote, she better understood his swadeshi principles than his wife. Finally, his closest political allies stepped in. The most prominent among them was C Rajagopalachary. He wrote Gandhi a devastatingly blunt letter. He warned Gandhi that pursuing Sarala Devi would, quote, bring unmentionable shame and ruin to you. Destroy all saintliness, all purity, and all of India's hope in you.

53:51End Quote the intervention work. Gandhi, realizing the political and moral catastrophe he was walking into, pulled back. He confessed the emotional turmoil to its inner circle, calling it an experiment that almost led to Hellfire. He stopped travelling with her and over time, the intense correspondence cooled off. Today, historians view this as a brief, you know, humanizing moment of God, that before he was immortalized as a flawless St. he was also a human being.

54:19After her husband's death in 1923, Sarla Devi returned to Kolkata, resumed editing responsibilities for the magazine. Bharati from 1924 to 26. She established a girls school, Shiksha Tadal, in Kolkata in 1930. She retired from public life in 1935 and in Dublin religion. Here's the kick up. Her son, her only son Deepak married Gandhi's cousin Magalal, Gandhi's daughter. Radha yeah, no, I think what you said, if anything, makes me like Gandhi a little bit more because I like a humanizing moment to somebody who is otherwise.

54:52And Gandhi was clearly has a lot of historical records. Just while tremendous in again, cannot, cannot minimize his impact on the South Asian history and world history. He had his flaws. He had his moments of of human moments. He had his moments of doing. Yeah. And he did some very questionable things. And I think that is something that people who live in a country that to some extent definitely owes its existence to him should acknowledge that. I don't think there's any harm in acknowledging that.

55:23That is a very fun piece of trivia. And moving on to the last question of the day, OK, hit me. There were two mathematicians by the name of David and Steven. They both were at Princeton University, I believe, to complete their PhDs and met each other in the very beginning of their Princeton journey. The moment they met, they decided they have to absolutely write a paper together. A few years later, a little while down the road, they ended up writing this paper, and this has led to an arithmetic geometry and algorithm that holds a name to the paper that they wrote together. So tell me, Vineet, what algorithm or what paper, whatever part of this question that you think you have some handle on did David and Steven come up with together? David and Steven, mathematicians from Princeton, wrote a paper which led to an algorithm being named. After the, after the paper, after them, yeah. Mention algorithm.

56:27Would this algorithm be something that I would have heard of? No, no, I had not heard of it except for this tribute. OK. I'll tell you what, it is also right in case there are mathematicians out there. This algorithm determines whether a given set of sections provides a basis for the model while group of an elliptical surface E. Yes, I'm pretty sure I'm messing up the even the terminology, and it's a very complicated thing. It's a very niche and specific thing. It's not where the fun of this question is. And wait, wait, wait.

57:00Repeat that, Yeah. OK, I don't know how mathematically inclined you are, but I would be very surprised if you know the name by the description. But I'll repeat it, and in case this algorithm determines whether a given set of sections provides a basis up to torsion for the model while group of an elliptical surface ES where S is isomorphic to the projective line. Does any of it make sense to you? I want to say yes, but no. So you're looking for the name of the algorithm, but you've already mentioned that I may not have heard of the algorithm. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

57:34OK, Reconcile those two things. Yeah. How can I tell you the name of something I probably would not have heard of? As a great man once said, do not play the question, play the questioner. So you wanna try to figure out why I like this question? And it's not my love for Mark, it is something else. Can you tell me what this algorithm does correctly? I I have to come clean over here. This question is incomplete because if you're a mathematician, maybe you would have gotten it, but without that, it's tough for you to figure it out.

58:04And this has to do with their full names, as is often featured on papers, right? So this algorithm was first published in the 1979 article Intersection numbers of sections of Elliptic surfaces by these two mathematicians. Vineet, you might not be a mathematician, but you are definitely a man of science, and you do know a little bit about articles that are published. What is interesting about published articles and how they're named for their authors?

58:33Usually you have the first author at all. If you have more than three authors, you mentioned them as something something at all. But this has only two authors, so it's usually in those cases. If it's two authors, we usually say you can say both names, but what name do you use? Would you use David and Steven? Notice the last names in the 1st letter of the first names. If it's a paper I wrote, it will be Nair VG. Yeah, exactly. So if you and I would write a paper together, that would have to be Nair VG. Ship A no actually allowed because ship A and IVG because usually they put it in alphabetical order given everything else is equal, right?

59:05If they were equal contributions, it's a it's a common thing for it to be named alphabetically. No, I have not told you the last names of these people. OK, OK, I feel like the moment I'm going to tell you the names, this is pretty much done. OK, I'm going to tell you what the last name of of Steven is, OK? And his name was used later, so you have to tell me what David's last name is. Steven's full name is Steven. Zucker. So Zucker, Zucker and Berg.

59:32His was the second name in it. In the combination of David and Steven. Steven's last name came second. David's last name came first. Steven's last name is Zucker. What is David's last name? So something in Zucker? Yeah, yeah, something Zucker. What do you think David's last name is, as he did in the previous question. Let things get a little spicy. It's a little triple X content right here. David Something and Steven Zucker. Is basically the Dash Zucker machine. That's what the algorithm is called. Dash Zucker machine.

1:00:06The Dash Zucker machine. Do it, do it, do it No. Say it, say it say it, say. It say it, say it. No, I don't. It's something really, really dirty. Of course, say it. It's the real thing. I would not put out something explicit. You know it on my honor. I would never put out explicit content. I'm a very good man. OK, I'm I'm. I'm not going to say that it's the name of the machine. Spell it out. You can spell it out. Spell out Is it David Dick? It is David A Cox.

1:00:32Cox. Oh God. Oh my God. For people who want to go figure it out, I'm not going to say it out loud. Maybe I'll I'll, I'll spell it. It was Co X-Z UCKER. You can. They wanted to write a paper together because of their names. They guess they met as this is PhD. Should remind you these are not bachelors students. OK, it's a quick PhD in Princeton University. They met in the first year. Five years later, they did it as faculty of Rutgers University. There weren't even students at this point.

1:01:10It's like we have to follow through on this. And yeah, it's Cox hyphen in a pause. Zucker machine. That's the algorithm. I know this is not a traditional trivia question, but the moment I came across this, I had to ask. This was so funny to me. Oh yes, I am. Also, I have to admit, it is quite funny. It is quite funny. Very nice question. Very nice question. So I think that's all the time we have for question. Regular round of pissing, right? Let's start wrapping up. And let's do it.

1:01:45OK, so my audience question which I asked at the beginning of today's episode was August 2nd, 2011 was observed as the first and only celebratory day dedicated to which technology. Do you have any ideas? It was the only time, so it doesn't not a recurring event. No, it's not a recording effect. Wow, no idea, can you give me a hint? Write the date in the American format. August 2nd would be 8211 or 822011 or 08022011. 821 let's just say 80211 What? There are a lot of computer nerds who are going. Immediately somebody who worked in tech. This is embarrassing.

1:02:28No Give me help maybe. There's a standard associated with it. There's a family of standards associated which is the 802.11 standard. Oh, I've seen this. I think I've seen this in in, not in my studies, but I think in my regular usage. Is it, I think it is to do with the Internet in some way. Is it some sort of a frequency? Is it some sort of? Bandwidth gives you its Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi. Oh, nice, nice, nice. August 2nd, 2011 marked the first and only celebratory Wi-Fi day. The reason being the date August 2nd, 2011 when written in the American format is 8211, or 80211 in some formats, and it directly matches the IEEE 80211 standard, the technical designation for the widely used Wi-Fi wireless networking protocol.

1:03:17Nice. That's the reason it was celebrated that day. Adiya, what's your audience question part? But. Did Junior, the Mini. OK, All right, So the question that I'm gonna ask has to do with the instead of music fans, as we catered to last time, let's do somebody who's a fan of cinema. And here is a picture of somebody in the middle of Central Park in New York in 1974. The two men in this picture, one of them has been blanked out. You're supposed to tell me who this picture is. Some context clues.

1:03:51It is 1974 Central Park. I mentioned film already. So this is somebody who has an acting background and they are in mime outfits. They're both dressed up as mimers. So they were, I suppose, busking around in Central Park doing a little bit of a mime show. And the more famous person in this picture has been blanked out. Take a guess. Think about who it could be. Look at the perhaps the way they are holding the body, the kind of work that they're doing.

1:04:19And that might maybe lead you to the answer and put it in the comments on our Instagram page or on Reddit or wherever else we might post this, Go find it and go comment. Very nice, very nice. We've done with the audience question. It's time for our pop culture recommendations very quickly. Aditya, what's your pop culture recommendation for this week? I am recommending something which has an upcoming season or if by the time this comes out, maybe the season is already released and that is Deadlock.

1:04:45Deadlock is a show that I watched a couple of weeks ago and I had to binge it. It is a murder mystery. It's beautiful, so much fun. I loved it, It was a lot of fun. There is an actual place in Tasmania by the name of Deadlock. That's where this is placed. And as happens in TV shows, which are murder mysteries, there's intrigue, there's false suspicion, red herrings, all of that. The reason I'm recommending it is also because of final reveal. Very often I'm like oh I just saw it coming, or if I didn't see it coming it feels like this is just trying to surprise me for the sake of it.

1:05:23In this case it felt like a truly well written reveal which I did not see coming and yet I did not feel cheated as a viewer. So very very rarely does it happen to me. Maybe some people might be like OK whatever, not not the best or or maybe they figure it out. Either ways you are smarter than me I guess in that scenario. Regardless, I guarantee you a very fun show. The cops or the investigators, The detectives have done a phenomenal job as actors. Everybody in the cast is great but the two leads are just so good.

1:05:54That chemistry is so much fun. This one brash cop was come from Australia and she is hilarious and the other one which is the most straight laced which is funny because she's not straight but they are the straight laced cop. She is also phenomenally well performed. Check out the show. I believe is season 2 is out soon. I'm probably gonna binge it, so you should do. Great. My recommendation is an 8 part book series by an author named Ashok Banker who's an Indian author.

1:06:27In the mid 2000s and early 2000 and 10s he wrote an 8 part version of the Ramayan. He wrote it in a completely different format that you are completely used to. It's more of a Western style fantasy structure to the novel itself, to the novels itself, which I found quite entertaining because it was I'm used to reading. I mean, like we've mentioned C Raja Gopala Chari in the in this episode. And one of my first exposure to Ramayan and Mahabharat was his very concise Ramayan and Mahabharat, which he wrote for children.

1:06:59Yep. So that's right. But this is a completely different animal. 8 books, quite big. They're available on Kindle and all other platforms. I'm basically reading it as a run up to the Ramayan releasing in 2026 Diwali. So that's one recommendation, and I'm going to go out on a limb and recommend something I've not seen. Let me guess, let me guess. Are you so random? Are you recommending to run the two by any chance? I am actually going to recommend 2 movies which are releasing on the same weekend because even though I've not seen the movies, let's just say I have a lot of faith in the filmmaker in one case and the source material in the other.

1:07:43So the first one I'm going to recommend is Dhurander 2. I have already booked my tickets for the 18. Oh paid previews my man, I like it. Yes, and the second, which is supposed to release that weekend is Project Hail Mary. Oh my God, I'm so excited. I'm so excited for that. Yes, I have already recommended that book multiple times on this podcast. That is one of the best science fiction novels of the century. I'm fairly confident you cannot go wrong with that material, and early reviews have also been apparently great.

1:08:16I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Project Hail Mary is going to be 1. Heck of a ride. So Ashok Pankar's Ramayan 8 book series, Duradar 2 Project Hail Mary. I am at this point completely sold on the notion that this is going to be a propaganda film, that it has a very strong political leaning and it's going to lean into it heavily. I do not share those political leanings at all. But by Lord, was Durander a fun time at the cinema and I truly expect the same from Durander 2 as well. Whether you agree with or don't agree with if it's a propaganda film, as long as it's entertaining, I really don't care because I don't base my outlook in life from what I see in a movie.

1:08:55That's very fair. That's obviously very fair. And I also believe that if you do believe any filmmaker out there or any person in the creative field like I am, I am as well. If you find the politics of it wrong, I don't think you silence the film. What you do is you go out there and make a film or make a project or whatever art that you think you can, which holds your own politics, and maybe make it well enough that it has the the same appeal that run the data. And of course, of course not to ignore the political climate and how there is backlash of certain ideologies. Regardless of all of that, I think there is space to make films across political ideologies. You agree or disagree?

1:09:31If it's a good film, it's a good film. You watch a movie as the maker intended it and rate it accordingly. If you feel it has adult teams or complex political teams that would not be understood by children, rate it for adults and then let only adults watch it. But don't cut out anything. I agree, I don't think there should be bans on film. I don't think there should be severe edits. Of course, edit out extreme, extreme stuff, but maybe not most things.

1:09:55And yeah, maybe just rate it and Oh my God, take off that stupid, stupid that cigarette smoking is injurious too. I'm not a smoker. I abhor smoking. I think it's it's a very stupid thing to do to your body, but please don't put it in the middle of my movies and definitely don't put it in the middle of movies which have everything else which is problematic. But if a man lights a cigarette, that's what he'll give me a warning for. And man could be doing extremely problematic things otherwise. And as an ex smoker myself, I've I quit many many years ago, let me tell you it does nothing.

1:10:27Nobody was a smoker is going to look at that and suddenly think Oh my God it's injurious to my health. I should stop right now. Oh, never going to happen. You know what, if that does happen, if somebody has ever gone through this, let us know if you've taken out a your your cigarette pack and flung it into the air in the middle of a movie theater because you're like, I'm done smoking. Because the screen just warned me that when Sanjay that smokes a cigarette, it's bad. Now I'm convinced.

1:10:51OK, so that's all the time we have for today's episode. Thank you all for joining in. We hope you enjoyed the show and hopefully you learned something new. Please reach out to us on all our social media platforms. Details are in this episode notes. If you more questions asked on this podcast, please send us those question on Gmail at areyouquizzing@gmail.com. But the name of the quizmaster in the subject line. We honestly do this blind so that he doesn't know what I ask.

1:11:16I don't know what he's asking. So mail us so that only that person will open the mail. Very often I don't know what I'm asking either, so that's. Yeah, he's not paying attention half the time. Go check out our subreddit or slash, are you quizzing me? Wherever you're listening to us on, whether it's YouTube or Spotify or Amazon or iTunes, please give us a five star rating. Follow us, subscribe to us. It really helps us the show. And I think that's about all the housekeeping that's required for this episode. Yeah, people know what to do, so do it. And I have, I have something to sign off today and that's going to be oh.

1:11:50God no. Industrial Cooperative. I could have freezed this better. Let's try that again.