# Episode 136 - Boulders, Bureau & Bollywood

An episode of [Are You Quizzing Me?](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663104901), 1 Apr 2026, 1 h 08 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/d7afa960/podcast/play/117790188/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-3-1%2F6b7a6d9e-c1d8-06d4-1186-b7bc21a5c6aa.mp3

Do you know what is this a list of: Burden of Dreams, Return of the Sleepwalker, Arrival of the Birds, No One Mourns the Wicked? Do you know which fictional character is both a law enforcement officer and a medical doctor, who inspired many young women to pursue STEM careers? Do you know who Tarun Kumar, the author of 'Abhisapto Chambal', is related to, given that his book inspired Amjad Khan in his portrayal of Gabbar Singh? Tune in to the episode to find out!! You can reach us at Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/areyouquizzingme/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/areyouquizzingme Email: areyouquizzingme@gmail.com Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/areyouquizzingme Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@areyouquizzingme/podcasts

## Transcript

[0:00] Around 150 CE, Greek scholar Ptolemy dubbed a certain
[0:05] location in India by the name Heptanesia in his famous Atlas.
[0:10] What spot earned that ancient tag?
[0:13] This is the audience question for today's episode, one that I
[0:16] will answer at the end of the episode.
[0:19] This is are you quizzing me? And this is episode #136 cue the
[0:24] music. Welcome to Are you quizzing me?
[0:27] I am Vineet Nair with my Co host Aditya Kashyap.
[0:31] This is a quizzing trivia podcast show.
[0:33] Join us as we dive deep into history, science, pop culture
[0:38] and so much more. Let's get quizzing.
[0:42] Welcome back ladies and gents to Are You Quizzing Me, your
[0:45] favorite quizzing and trivia podcast show With Aditya and I,
[0:48] we are on again back for another round of quizzing.
[0:51] But before we get to that, there is the small matter of the
[0:54] audience question baat do or audience question junior that
[0:59] Aditya had asked last week. So Aditya, what was the
[1:01] question? What was the answer and who
[1:04] answered it first? The question that I asked as the
[1:08] audience question or maybe in Serum question we are still
[1:11] workshopping the title was a visual question and for that I
[1:15] would recommend going and checking it out on either
[1:17] Instagram or Reddit where I have posted it.
[1:20] It is a picture of a ticket stub or an admittance ticket I guess,
[1:25] or whatever that was called to a movie preview and this was a
[1:30] Stanley Kubrick film. What I have blanked out in the
[1:33] image is the name of the film and the reason why it was
[1:37] delayed or postponed. Turns out that our audience
[1:41] can't be thwarted. They are very much on the mark
[1:46] with the answers because I posted it and within a few
[1:49] minutes, we had people answering it.
[1:52] There were a bunch of people who answered it, but the first
[1:53] person to answer it was Vijay Lakshmi Maithili.
[1:56] So thank you so much, Vijay Lakshmi.
[1:57] She has, I believe, emailed both of us also with some listener
[2:00] questions. Both of us will get to it at
[2:02] some point in the future. Thank you so much please, and
[2:04] keep sending in whoever is listening.
[2:06] If you have some trivia that you think we should ask on this
[2:08] episode. We love receiving those emails.
[2:10] But coming back to the question, that movie was Stanley Kubrick's
[2:14] Doctor Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and
[2:17] love the Bob. The reason it was not held was
[2:19] because JFK, John F Kennedy, the president of the United States,
[2:23] was assassinated quite close to the date of the preview.
[2:28] So they postponed it. I believe it was held the next
[2:31] year instead of the year it was originally supposed to be
[2:33] released in. And this is in Kubrick's own
[2:35] handwriting, which I think kind of made it cool.
[2:37] So go look at the actual image. You can Google it.
[2:39] It's available on Google, of course, and that is the audience
[2:42] question. There are a bunch of other
[2:43] questions also related to the episode.
[2:45] You can try those out. Those are kind of spoilerish, so
[2:48] maybe listen to the episode first and then try out those
[2:51] questions. OK, great.
[2:52] Now that you've gotten that piece of housekeeping out of the
[2:54] way, let's start with our regular quizzing.
[2:57] Aditya, I believe it's your turn, so help you with your best
[3:00] shot, but nothing too difficult. Oh, Vineet, I actually.
[3:04] Don't know but this this to me. If you had asked me, it would be
[3:07] a very difficult question, so I'm going to throw it in your
[3:11] direction. All right?
[3:12] It's a list, and I know how much you love those.
[3:15] Oh. I hate those.
[3:17] OK, OK, this is an exhaustive list.
[3:21] However, this list has people sometimes debating whether
[3:26] certain things belong here on it or not.
[3:29] All right, but I'm going to give it to you based on as much of A
[3:32] consensus as there is to this list.
[3:35] The list goes. Burden of Dreams, So Dang Swole,
[3:40] Return of the Sleepwalker, Alfane, Megatron, Black Flip,
[3:47] SDS, Spots of Time, Shaolin, Arrival of the Birds.
[3:54] No One Mourns The Wicked, The Big Slam, Mount Doom, Realm of
[4:00] Torment. Those are 13.
[4:02] In case you are not counting 13 items that I listed.
[4:07] That is an exhaustive list. Like I said, some people do
[4:09] debate whether certain things belong on this list.
[4:12] Certain should be removed, maybe others should be added.
[4:14] But let's go with the vast consensus as there is.
[4:17] Most people agree that this is what the list should be.
[4:20] So I mentioned 13. Vineet, what is this a list of?
[4:25] It's a very eccentric and eclectic list of things.
[4:29] Megatron Mount Doom, Something torment you were saying?
[4:33] Realm of Torment. Poetic.
[4:37] And it's all part of a list of 13 things.
[4:39] Which is an exhaustive list, correct?
[4:41] Is this something related to music?
[4:43] Like I said, some people argue that maybe some of these don't
[4:46] belong on the list, so the number is probably not what you
[4:48] should go by. Like it's not that like this
[4:50] list will always have 13. And no, it doesn't have anything
[4:53] to do with music. Now obviously Megatron is, is
[4:56] it, you said Megatron or is it Metatron?
[4:58] Because one is an Angel, the other is a transformer.
[5:02] I was talking about the transformer Megatron.
[5:05] OK, give me the list again. I'll give you the list again.
[5:07] I'm not sure if one of them might spark something in your
[5:10] memory. I don't know though.
[5:12] If you have not heard of any of these previously, it's difficult
[5:15] to crack it from just the name, so maybe hints might help.
[5:17] But let me repeat the list one more time.
[5:19] Burden of dreams, So dance. So all.
[5:23] I don't know how to pronounce that one.
[5:24] The return of the sleepwalker. Alphine Megatron.
[5:28] Blackflip, SDS. Spots of time.
[5:32] Shaolin Arrival of the Birds. No one mourns the wicked, The
[5:37] Big Slam. Mount Doom.
[5:40] Realm of Torment. I honestly thought that this
[5:46] might be something album related, like a list of album
[5:48] songs or a soundtrack or something, but he said it's not
[5:50] music. No, not music at all.
[5:52] Are these like fictional things? No, very much real.
[5:56] OK, so then they're named after fictional pics.
[5:59] I guess some of them are my Megatron.
[6:03] I guess. Megatron, yeah, Yeah, but then
[6:06] Shaolin. Not really a fictional thing.
[6:09] Realm of Torment I don't think is a pop culture reference, but.
[6:13] There could be some kind of OK torment maybe?
[6:16] Is that a Hellraiser reference? Pinhead and.
[6:19] Could be, could be. But again, like Shaolin, yes,
[6:21] it's a pop culture reference, but more than that, it is
[6:24] something cultural rate. So I don't think it's definitely
[6:28] not exclusively fictional and probably not all of them have to
[6:32] do with pop culture. Some of them, obviously.
[6:34] Some of them probably not. I need some.
[6:37] Additional boost. OK, I'm going to throw a few
[6:39] names at you that are associated.
[6:41] All of them have a name associated to it.
[6:43] I'm going to throw some names. Again, the names might not be
[6:46] directly a clue, but hey, maybe something might park an answer
[6:50] in you. So the most popular name on this
[6:54] list associated to a few of them was Will Bossy, Nathaniel
[6:58] Coleman, Sean Bailey, Aiden Roberts, Sean Robert.
[7:02] Oh, also occurs a few times, Daniel Woods.
[7:06] And I'm giving this out of order.
[7:08] I'm just trying to see names which are honestly easy to
[7:11] pronounce for me also. So yeah, these are the names on
[7:13] the list. Do do any of them spark an
[7:15] answer? Or a guess?
[7:17] No, no, no, no. I don't think I know what this
[7:20] is. You'll probably have to give me
[7:21] the answer to this, but if do you have any other clues?
[7:24] All right, so I'm going to give you another clue before I give
[7:26] you the answer. This has a graduation attached
[7:31] to it as well. So I've given you names, I've
[7:33] given you the names of everything on the list.
[7:36] I've given you people's names associated to it, though not I
[7:39] have not connected it to each and each of them has one name.
[7:42] We can go look it up later. And this also has some sort of a
[7:45] graduation attached to it. It can be graded in a French way
[7:48] or an American way. The French graduation is called
[7:52] font grade foie gras. I don't know.
[7:54] I don't know what the French way of saying it.
[7:56] Spell that please. Font and grade, and the American
[8:00] is V grade. If you were doing the American
[8:04] 1, you would call it V-17. If you're doing the French 1,
[8:07] you would call it 9A, so V grade would be V-17.
[8:11] All of these are V-17. If you were doing the French
[8:14] one, all of these would be font 9.
[8:16] A Nope, not ringing any bells. My guess would have been like,
[8:19] if you when you gave me this clue, my guess would have been
[8:22] this is some kind of piano piece or some kind of musical piece,
[8:26] and you're grading it by difficulty because these do
[8:29] sound like musical pieces, song names or compositions.
[8:33] Fair enough, fair enough. This very honestly, if you've
[8:35] given me exactly the same question that I've given you, I
[8:37] would have no chance of answering it because all of
[8:40] these things are completely new to me.
[8:41] And it's so fun when you just discover something that is out
[8:44] there and people know about it. A whole group of bunch of people
[8:47] know about it and you don't. I'll just give one last group
[8:49] before we give you the answer and I'll give you some specific
[8:52] ones, which I think the words itself might lead you to the
[8:57] cracking the question, right. I'll fame the Big slam, Mount
[9:02] Doom, and maybe Realm of Torment as well.
[9:05] These 3/4 of these words specifically if they spark
[9:08] anything. There are a list of mountains
[9:10] with this name. I would honestly speaking, not
[9:12] bragging, but if there were a list of mountains with this
[9:14] name, I would know. But there are no mountains with
[9:17] this name. Well, Mount Dome is, but this is
[9:20] not part of Able. I was thinking of triathlons
[9:22] and, you know, really hard. But then if the Iron Man's also
[9:25] not part of that list, then that's.
[9:26] Not what you are. You are dancing around the edge
[9:29] of it. You're you're tantalizingly
[9:30] close. I'm not going to torture you
[9:31] anymore. I'm going to give you the
[9:32] answer. You said triathlon.
[9:35] This is a physical activity. The graduation was a difficulty
[9:38] to the physical activity. I I specified mount.
[9:41] I specified alphane because because it also gives you a
[9:45] mountain kind of sense Alpine Alphane.
[9:48] I don't know if the exact etymology.
[9:50] These are what are called bouldering problems.
[9:54] Have you heard of the phrase bouldering problems?
[9:56] Vineet. I have not.
[9:58] The physical activity of bouldering has what we call a
[10:02] bouldering problem and then solutions to it.
[10:05] So all the names that had mentioned of the people, these
[10:08] are the most professional, the most top of the game boulders, I
[10:12] guess out there. And they are the ones who have
[10:15] claimed that this, these particular bouldering problems
[10:18] as they exist out in the world, should be given the highest
[10:21] grade of 9A or V-17, as I mentioned, because more of a
[10:27] personal experience. Sometimes somebody goes back to
[10:28] it and does it again and they're like, you know what, It's not a
[10:30] nine A, it's probably an 8C or it should be upgraded,
[10:33] downgrade, whatever. There are there are discussions
[10:35] about it. There are debates about it.
[10:37] Some of them have only been done by one person.
[10:39] That person has claimed it is 9A.
[10:41] Nobody else has done it since. So if somebody else goes back,
[10:44] they might change the graduation.
[10:45] That kind of stuff happens. All this was completely new to
[10:47] me, by the way. I had no idea that this world
[10:49] existed. I knew a bouldering because it
[10:52] is pretty much like like the the cousin or sibling of climbing,
[10:56] right? Yeah, that's what I was going to
[10:57] ask, because when you started asking me, I was like, this
[11:00] could not possibly be a complete list because I've seen free solo
[11:05] with Alex Honnold climbing El Capitan.
[11:08] So then I was like, if El Capitan's not on the list, then
[11:11] how can you tell me this is the complete list?
[11:14] So free climbing and bouldering are two different, very closely
[11:18] related, but two different activities.
[11:20] In fact, it's so confusing because their conditions also
[11:22] has some similar name. So there it's a small F that
[11:25] they use here it's a capital F that they use in the graded.
[11:28] It's a little confusing honestly, I'm not interested
[11:32] enough in this field that I read them research too deeply about
[11:34] it. But I found out and the names
[11:37] are very interesting to me. That's the reason I wanted to
[11:39] ask this question because some of the names are very cool.
[11:41] Burden of Dreams is the first one that was graded A9A in 2025.
[11:45] By the way, for the first time ever a 9A plus boulder ray
[11:49] bouldering problem has been claimed.
[11:52] It's called Exodia, so I did not added that.
[11:54] This technically the top of the list right now.
[11:56] The rest of them would follow after that.
[11:57] So Exodia and then the next 13 and then there is 8C8B8A 765.
[12:02] So you'd have lower grades as well.
[12:04] Didn't go into any of that. And these are all naturally
[12:06] occurring boulders out there. They try to solve it.
[12:09] It's also the jargon behind it is also interesting that some of
[12:12] them claim that a sit start would be a 9A, but a standing
[12:15] start would not be a nine A. There are videos of it, people
[12:19] actually some of the a lot of these boulders, they practice on
[12:22] a surface that they have recreated somewhere and then
[12:25] they go and attempt it in the actual surface.
[12:27] And bouldering is not does not have as much to do with the free
[12:32] climbing. The free solo has a lot more
[12:34] height to it. Bouldering can be just a big
[12:36] boulder somewhere that they need to somehow figure out how
[12:40] they're gonna climb, but scale it however it is.
[12:42] OK, Yeah. So that's bouldering.
[12:44] And yeah, you did not know the answer.
[12:46] I did not know about it before. But here's something new for you
[12:49] to discover, and for our listeners to go.
[12:51] Definitely a rabbit hole. Digging down you have to climb
[12:53] up this particular tree. A nice question, nice question,
[12:58] something completely new, which is great.
[13:01] I mean like we usually have some connect to some kind of question
[13:03] or field or something and honestly we don't go out of our
[13:07] comfort zone much when it comes to these kind of questions.
[13:09] Kudos that you did actually find something which is completely
[13:12] out of. This as close to bolting as I'm
[13:13] going to get bolting happening in my life.
[13:17] But yes, all right, hit me. So the next question that I have
[13:21] isn't a question that was sent in by one of our listeners, one
[13:23] of our regular contributors, Ayush Dash was sent in this
[13:27] question. And to those others who also
[13:31] send in questions, please understand that we can't ask all
[13:34] the questions on the podcast. And there are some cases where I
[13:38] already know that Aditya knows the answer to this or that he
[13:41] knows this particular piece of trivia.
[13:43] So those I can't include as well.
[13:45] And some are just not suited to the podcast format.
[13:48] Very sorry. But please keep do sending in
[13:51] questions but whatever possible we will be including it on the
[13:54] show. So to the question, I have
[13:56] rephrased this question a little bit.
[13:58] The question goes as follows. A popular TV show featured a
[14:01] character who was both a medical doctor and a law enforcement
[14:06] officer. She became a major role model
[14:08] for young women, especially in STEM and law enforcement, and
[14:12] even inspired what became known as a specific cultural effect.
[14:17] Can you identify the show and the name of the effect?
[14:21] You said doctor and law enforcement officer.
[14:24] I would have said Meredith Grey, but I don't think she's ever had
[14:28] any law enforcement experience. The other one I would say is
[14:31] Doctor Bones. Oh, no.
[14:34] Good. But no.
[14:35] Oh, well. All right.
[14:37] It's not Doctor Bones. She's called Bones.
[14:39] It's Temperance Brennan I believe is her name.
[14:43] I've not seen the show, but I know she's called Bones.
[14:45] I thought it was her last name. All right, OK, cool.
[14:47] No, no, no. That would be that revert
[14:51] question we asked about how people with the surname end up
[14:54] doing jobs that are related to it.
[14:56] Nominative determinism. It was implied that she is a
[14:59] fictional character, right? She is a fictional character,
[15:01] yes. There was an Indian TV show.
[15:04] I want to say it was Mandira Bedi.
[15:06] I'm completely blanking on the name right now.
[15:08] Which Indian TV show? I think it was Duku Darshan TV
[15:11] show. It'll come to me later.
[15:12] OK. Is it an Indian show?
[15:15] Indian character? It's not.
[15:17] It's not an Indian character character, nor is it an Indian
[15:20] show. Then you would not ask me
[15:22] anything which is either not Indian or in the English
[15:25] speaking world I'd be hard pressed to know about.
[15:29] I don't know the Dutch fictional characters.
[15:34] Oh does Joanne Watson I believe is the name elementary?
[15:39] Joan Watson. Joan Watson in the American
[15:42] version of the Sherlock Holmes store where they gender swapped
[15:45] Watson. No, it's not Joan Watson.
[15:47] She's a surgeon in that she's a lab surgeon, somebody who's
[15:50] given up the practice of surgery, but she's not
[15:53] technically a law enforcement officer.
[15:55] She the this particular character is a Leo.
[15:58] A Leo, by the way, is the acronym for Law Enforcement
[16:01] Officer. Never heard that use it before.
[16:03] Very cool. OK, then I have no clue.
[16:06] I can't think of any other character that is a doctor and a
[16:10] law enforcement officer. Let me put it a little more
[16:13] specifically, it might get you to the answer faster.
[16:15] This character was both a medical doctor and an FBI
[16:19] special agent. Is I have not seen the show, but
[16:22] is this Priyanka Chopra's character in Quantico Quantico?
[16:27] No, you're, you're actually going a little too recent with
[16:30] the shows. This is slightly older TV show.
[16:32] This is an older TV show and. Then there's a chance I might
[16:34] not have seen. Wait, wait.
[16:40] I think I know what you're talking about.
[16:42] I think we are talking Star Trek.
[16:46] My God, this is so embarrassing. The one who who kissed Captain
[16:54] Kirk. No, I think you mean the one who
[16:56] kissed Captain Picard. Was it Kevin Picard?
[16:59] Was it it Captain Kirk? Yes.
[17:00] You're thinking of Beverly Crusher.
[17:02] You're speaking to a Trekkie. You're thinking of Doctor
[17:04] Beverly Crusher. But she was not a law
[17:08] enforcement officer. Is it, is it a black lady?
[17:13] No. Oh, OK.
[17:14] There was somebody, there was a black woman who kissed Kirk.
[17:18] And that became one of the first two interracial cases, right?
[17:21] That was the character Uhura that was in the original TV
[17:23] series, but she was a communications officer on board
[17:26] the USS Enterprise. True Trekkie inform.
[17:31] I love it, the doctor. And that's why you keep saying
[17:35] law enforcement officer, not a cop, but you have said FBI, but
[17:41] FBI and Star Trek now. Now it's not Star Trek.
[17:44] It's not Star Trek. Why are you letting me do this
[17:47] thing? You went down the rabbit hole.
[17:51] I was like, OK, let's see how deep he goes.
[17:53] OK, so let me give you a clue, a little more relevant clue, which
[17:57] will probably give you the answer.
[17:59] Academy Award winner Ryan Coogler is rebooting this
[18:03] particular TV show. No, I I don't know anything
[18:07] about Ryan Coogler's future plans.
[18:09] FBI Special Agent. Oh, is it Silence the Lambs?
[18:13] Sterling. What's her name?
[18:15] No, it's not. It's not.
[18:17] It's not that it's the Lambs. It's not Clarice Starling.
[18:20] No. OK, I think I've given some
[18:22] fantastic guesses and none of them are landing.
[18:24] It's annoying me now. None of them are landing,
[18:27] unfortunately. I'll give you an additional
[18:29] clue. This TV show, many people may
[18:31] not have seen the TV show, but they know about the show and
[18:35] they definitely have heard the theme music.
[18:37] No, Yeah, tell me the answer. I think I've completely lost
[18:40] now. OK.
[18:41] I am going to give you one last clue.
[18:46] The tagline of the show is. The truth is out there.
[18:49] Nope, doesn't ring a bell at all.
[18:52] OK, fair enough, fair enough. Maybe this is a show that you've
[18:55] not particularly watched. So the show in question is The
[18:58] X-Files. It was a massive phenomenon in
[19:02] the 90s, and it's like Mulder and Scully are still probably
[19:08] the best example of partners who have a will they won't take in
[19:13] relationship. Throughout the show, where
[19:14] Mulder is a true believer, Scully is the skeptic.
[19:17] She's a doctor and an FBI agent, played very ably by Gillian
[19:23] Anderson. So the character we're talking
[19:25] about is Dana Scully, and the effect is called the Scully
[19:29] Effect. The theme music for The X-Files
[19:32] is very iconic. You've probably heard that piece
[19:39] of music. So let me just put everything
[19:41] together. The character referenced is Dana
[19:43] Scully, who's a medical doctor and an FBI special agent played
[19:47] by Gillian Anderson on The X-Files, and she's the skeptic.
[19:50] She relies on logic, analytical thinking and empirical evidence.
[19:54] At the time, was one of the rare female STEM characters in a
[19:58] predominantly 1990s prime time television role.
[20:01] The Scully Effect refers to the real world phenomenon where Dana
[20:05] Scully's character inspired a generation of women to pursue
[20:09] careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics,
[20:11] which I've been calling STEM for short, and law enforcement.
[20:15] A comprehensive study by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender
[20:18] and Media confirmed this impact, finding that 63% of women
[20:22] familiar with Scully reported that she's significantly
[20:25] increased their confidence to excel in male dominated
[20:28] professions. It was Dana Scully in The
[20:33] X-Files. And thank you Ayush for this
[20:35] question. One write up my pop culture
[20:38] alley because this was a show I binged when I was a kid.
[20:42] By binged I mean watched it regularly every week when it
[20:45] came out. So quite the opposite of binge
[20:47] then? Yeah, that was binging in those
[20:50] days, you know that. You watch it, you don't miss an
[20:52] episode. Fair enough.
[20:54] I had not heard of this particular character.
[20:57] I know of X-Files because it is something that is referenced in
[21:00] a lot of other pop culture. That's how I know of it, but
[21:03] I've not watched the show. I've not watched a single
[21:05] episode. It's glaring omission in my
[21:08] consumption of pop culture. But yeah, interesting.
[21:12] Now I have something new to kind of go and look at and watch and
[21:16] be inspired, I guess. Right.
[21:19] Very cool. Lovely question.
[21:20] I am gonna to do a clean segue, and since you took me down some
[21:25] American pop culture, I'm going to take you down some American
[21:28] pop culture as well. It's a simple question.
[21:30] I got a list question, but this one should be easier for you
[21:33] because this is a filmography. I'm going to give you the
[21:35] filmography. Tell me who the actor in
[21:38] question is. The first film is George at the
[21:41] Jungle. Lovely film.
[21:43] OK. I expected applause, but the
[21:46] lack of applause is very disheartening.
[21:48] We need you. Do you want me to applaud for
[21:51] saying George of the jungle or rather saying George, George,
[21:55] George of the jungle? Well, that's such a nice memory.
[21:58] You just jogged there. Just I think applause for
[22:01] Brendan Fraser whenever he comes up, just just applaud things.
[22:03] All right, cool. Moving on.
[22:05] George of the Jungle, Doctor Dolittle, American Pie.
[22:09] And then I'm going to skip ahead because there are a bunch of
[22:12] lesser known films, or at least films that I didn't know, but
[22:15] I'm going to skip ahead to the more of the famous ones.
[22:17] There is Doctor Dolittle Tool, the sequel is there Malcolm in
[22:20] the Middle. There's Garfield the movie.
[22:23] There is fun with Dick and Jane. There is Night at the Museum.
[22:26] There's 310 to Yuma Community, the TV show Hangover part, you
[22:33] would call it Big Bang Theory, Zookeeper.
[22:37] There is a Hangover Part 3 as well.
[22:40] Night at the museum, Secret of the Tomb.
[22:43] So a bunch of these films. In 2019 there is a Bollywood
[22:48] debut, a Hindi film debut with Total Hamal.
[22:51] Not a great film, not a good film.
[22:53] I have not watched it but I assume it's not a good film.
[22:57] But that's the Bollywood debut and a more recent film.
[23:01] A very famous film that was pretty lauded at the Oscars.
[23:05] Also I believe the fable man's. So this is the filmography.
[23:10] Tell me, who is the actor in question?
[23:13] I would have to say I don't think there's any actor common
[23:18] to all these people. So I'm guessing maybe this is
[23:21] somebody from the technical side.
[23:23] But you did mention actor, then you didn't mention actor.
[23:25] I didn't mention actor. Because I've seen almost all of
[23:30] these movies, I haven't seen Total Tamal.
[23:32] Proud of you. Proud of you.
[23:33] Yeah, Thank you. But I have seen George's Jungle.
[23:36] I have seen Doctor Doodle. I'm guessing this is the
[23:37] original Eddie Murphy Doctor Doodle, right?
[23:39] Yeah. Yeah, So I've seen that.
[23:41] I've seen that at the museum. I've seen that at the museum
[23:42] too. There isn't any actor common to
[23:44] in your common to those. I can, with a fair degree of
[23:47] confidence, say that there is no actor common to all of those.
[23:49] Well, sucks to be you because in this moment you are so wrong.
[23:55] OK, couple of quick hints. Let me start with a very simple
[23:59] quick hint. When I said actor, I used it in
[24:02] a general sense. It is a female actor.
[24:05] It's an actress. Now, I was also thinking of
[24:07] actresses, Brian, don't think there's anybody common to all
[24:10] the movies you're talking about. Again, sucks to be you, Pardew,
[24:14] because oh shit, there is someone in common.
[24:17] All of them. OK, neat.
[24:18] Let's do a very small tangent. Do you know of the top Hollywood
[24:22] talent agencies? If you asked me to just mention
[24:25] them off the top of my head, I wouldn't, but if you mentioned
[24:27] names I'd probably recognize it as a title thing I.
[24:30] Think if it was like shows like Entourage and stuff, These names
[24:33] pop up right? There is a WME, WME is William
[24:37] Morris Endeavor. There is CAA, which is Creative
[24:40] Artist Agency, there is UTA, United Talent Agency, and this
[24:44] is all just going off of whatever AI has shown to me.
[24:47] Right in front of me. There's apparently a premier
[24:49] Beverly Hills based agency which is called Gersh.
[24:51] OK, This actress is not handled by any of them.
[24:55] This actress is handled by BAU. OK, that's my second.
[24:59] Hand, the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI.
[25:04] And that's that's a call back. No, it's not.
[25:07] OK, let's move on. All right, I told you, actress,
[25:10] I told you not handled by any of these top four agencies and yet
[25:13] yet appeared in a bunch of big, big feature films handled by
[25:17] this this company, this agency, whatever it is called, BAU, I'll
[25:22] tell you this actress was born 1994, which means at the time of
[25:28] its debut in 1997, only three years old.
[25:32] So George at the Jungle was 1997.
[25:34] So 3 years old in George at the jungle, correct?
[25:36] Is this like a baby in some background shot?
[25:39] But why would they credit a baby?
[25:40] It wouldn't be a credit if it's not, if it's a baby.
[25:42] Also, I, I'm a little worried about you being a doctor now
[25:46] because I don't know if you know this, but babies grow up like,
[25:49] it's sort of like they just have like a growing person for the
[25:52] last 30 years. No, what I'm saying is if you've
[25:54] got a three-year old baby in the background shot, they're not
[25:58] going to credit a three-year old baby in George at the Jungle.
[26:02] Well, in this case, this is an actress who has appeared in all
[26:05] of these films. The first appearance was as a.
[26:07] Player There is a an interview of Brendan Fraser, I think it
[26:15] was the Graham Norton Show where he talks about his experience
[26:20] shooting George at the jungle. And how about the fact that he
[26:23] hated the monkey that he had to have scenes with?
[26:29] There is a monkey in Doctor 2 Little one and Dr. Little Two.
[26:33] There are multiple monkeys in Night of the Museum.
[26:37] Is this a monkey let? Me introduce you to Crystal the
[26:40] monkey. Oh, you.
[26:42] Absolutely. Crystal the monkey is a female
[26:48] tufted capuchin and animal actress.
[26:51] Listen, that's what the Wikipedia faith says.
[26:53] You. Cannot call though.
[26:54] OK. And trained by birds and Animals
[26:58] Unlimited, Hollywood's largest supplier of animals.
[27:05] So, so pissed at you right now. Stop it beneath.
[27:07] Do not, do not be a little baby monkey when it comes to this
[27:12] question. I know you want to fling your
[27:17] thesis right now, but don't, OK? Her acting career began as a
[27:22] baby monkey in Disney's 1997 film George of the Jungle.
[27:25] She has portrayed the monkey Dexter in Night at the Museum
[27:28] franchise, a drug dealing monkey in Hangover Part 2, and Pet
[27:33] monkey Benny in Steven Spielberg's 2022 semi
[27:36] autobiographical film The Fable. Man's All right.
[27:39] So been in a bunch of these films which had monkeys, which
[27:42] had animals in it. I didn't mention all the other
[27:44] ones, which is animal practice. That is a zookeeper.
[27:47] We bought a zoo. All of them are better than
[27:49] that. Oh OK, we bought.
[27:50] A yeah, total Damal featured monkey apparently, and Crystal's
[27:56] role was Prachi's friend slash security guard.
[27:59] Again, not interested in watching the film so we'll never
[28:02] know what the role. Was neither am I.
[28:04] But yeah, I was very impressed with the fact that this same
[28:09] actress has appeared in so many films.
[28:11] It truly shows that people just want to get an experienced
[28:16] animal on board when they have animals in the film because
[28:20] probably pretty well trained at this point.
[28:22] So Crystal the Monkey also went to San Diego Comic Con in 2012
[28:28] as a it's own separate, her own separate fanbase, I imagine.
[28:32] And that is the filmography of Crystal the Monkey.
[28:36] To hear Brendan Fraser say it, not a very good Co actor.
[28:40] To be fair, she was a three-year old then.
[28:42] Like like let's, let's not be harsh on her for that. 3 year
[28:46] old in monkey years. But before, before we move on,
[28:49] I'm going to give you another question, which is also animal
[28:51] related, which is also animal and film related.
[28:54] And this time I'm not going to torture you.
[28:55] I'm going to simply ask you that at the Cannes Film Festival,
[28:59] which is which happens every year, there is a yearly award
[29:02] presented by the International Film critics to the best
[29:07] performance by a canine or a group of canines.
[29:10] And this could be live or animated.
[29:11] All right. OK, tell me, what is the name of
[29:14] this award? Name of the Khan's award for
[29:17] best dogs acting. Best performance by a canine?
[29:21] Yes. So this is not obviously the I
[29:27] was going to say that it's obviously not the palm door, but
[29:32] then knowing you, knowing you, Aditya and your love of all
[29:37] things funny, is it the Palm Dog?
[29:41] It is the Palm Dog award. So it was very well cracked.
[29:46] I'm very impressed at how quickly you got that.
[29:49] Very nice, very nice. It was honestly speaking, I was
[29:53] just going to make a crack about, OK, obviously it's not
[29:56] the palm door. And the moment I said palm door,
[29:58] I'm like, great, this is Aditya. Obviously it's God going to be
[30:02] the palm door. It's going to be the palm dog.
[30:04] Pandora is spelled with the small D.
[30:06] There's that apostrophe capital ORI.
[30:09] Wish that spelled dog also like that, but in the award, at least
[30:14] how I've seen it, that is PALM and not even PALMEPALMDOG.
[30:19] So this pyramid. But you know what?
[30:21] I hope they pronounce it Palmdog, not Palmdog.
[30:25] There have been some famous movies on it.
[30:27] One of the ones that I actually really liked was the 2023 film
[30:30] Anatomy of a Fall and the dog was pretty significant in the
[30:34] plot of it. Also, for whoever has not
[30:36] watched it, go do check it out. Great film and yeah, it 2023
[30:41] award went to messy who played Snoop in anatomy of a fall.
[30:45] So Pam Duog award is the IT happened at the Khan Film
[30:49] Festival. There's also I think there was a
[30:51] potential for a canine can there over over there somewhere.
[30:56] Canis, which is I think the Latin for dog.
[30:59] Correct. Anyways, back to you.
[31:02] Moving from movies in the West, which kind of and crystal the
[31:07] monkey who did act in Bollywood to something completely
[31:10] Bollywood. Actually, let's just say that
[31:13] this is about something that's Bollywood legend to prepare for
[31:17] the role of Gabbar Singh in 1975's iconic smash hit Sholay,
[31:23] which is also his big break. Amjad Khan.
[31:27] I read Abhishek Chamble, a book on Chamble decoys by Tarun
[31:32] Kumar. Tarun Kumar is the father of X
[31:36] Amjad and X have worked together in two films.
[31:41] I want you to identify who X is. The offspring of Tarun Kumar who
[31:47] wrote the book Abhishek Chamble which was Amjad Khan's guide to
[31:52] the dacoits of tumble, which informed and inspired his
[31:56] performance. His iconic, slightly demented
[31:59] performance as Gabbar Singh. What a phenomenal performance,
[32:03] truly. You said that Tarun Kumar.
[32:06] So let's try the most obvious route of thinking of actors who
[32:10] have the last name Kumar and roughly the same age as Amjad
[32:15] Khan. Ashok Kumar is definitely older
[32:18] and knowing you, this would be somebody famous.
[32:20] So I'm because I have a vague feeling there is somebody called
[32:23] Manoj Kumar. Yeah, I just give you one clue
[32:25] right now. You are on the right track that
[32:28] the actor, I'm being gender neutral here so that you don't
[32:33] don't read into anything I'm saying.
[32:35] So it could be an actor, it could be an actress, but let's
[32:37] just say the actors that we are talking about does share a last
[32:41] name with the author. OK, since it's gender neutral
[32:45] actor, female actors included. Oh, and you said last Mr. and
[32:51] Kumar have another last name or something?
[32:53] Kumar is technically his middle name.
[32:55] He does have another class name. That makes yeah Kumar is often
[33:00] used middle name kind of thing playing with me and my feelings.
[33:03] I see you are upset about Crystal the monkey, no?
[33:07] No, I'm upset about bouldering. Bouldering was truly out of Let
[33:13] feel listen. It was fun.
[33:15] It was fun. I'm kidding.
[33:16] I'm just it was out of five. Tarun Kumar, some of the last
[33:21] name, Don't know what could be the name.
[33:22] Let's try Amjad Khan's. Four stars.
[33:26] It should be too easy if it was in Sholay, but is one of the
[33:30] things that they share Sholay? Yes, so that was going to be my
[33:33] second clue that Amjad Khan acted with this person in two
[33:38] movies. 1 was Sholay and the other one was Deshpremi.
[33:43] Deshpremi, no idea what the film is, it could be one of the non
[33:50] lead female actors but let's assume it's from the leads which
[33:54] means it's Hema Malini or it's Jaya Bachchan who in this case
[33:58] it would be Jaya Bhaduri if if it's her dad's last name.
[34:03] I know Hema Malini comes from South India so father's name
[34:07] being Tarun Kumar is unlikely. Which means I'm going to go with
[34:10] Jaya Bhaduri. Is it Tarun Kumar Bhaduri?
[34:13] Yes, very well. Very, very, very, very correct.
[34:16] It is Dharun Kumar Bhadri and it is Jaya bhadri Ulf Jaya
[34:21] Bachchan. I don't think we can say ulf
[34:23] what, what's the, what's the, the, the, the, the Hindi word
[34:27] way of saying, you know. Like we say, knee.
[34:29] The knee? Yeah, the knee.
[34:30] How do you say that? In Hindi, the maiden name you're
[34:32] the upwala. You should be able to tell me.
[34:34] Oh well, I have actually no clue.
[34:37] In our society, women unfortunately don't get to even
[34:41] hold out to their identity and and it's completely forgotten.
[34:44] So I don't know if there is any way to acknowledge the fact that
[34:46] they had a name before they got married.
[34:49] But yeah, let's let's just say the maiden name.
[34:52] We were talking about Amjad Khan and Jaya Bhadri.
[34:55] To prepare for his iconic big break in Sholay.
[34:58] He read the book Abhishek Chambal, which was Tarun Kumar
[35:02] Bhadri's book on the Chambal dacoit.
[35:05] Tarun Kumar Bhadri is the father of actress Jaya Bachchan or Jaya
[35:09] Bhadri. Prior to marrying Amitabh
[35:11] Bachchan, Amjad Khan and Jaya worked together in only two
[35:16] films, Shoday and Desh Premi, one in 1975 and the other in
[35:21] 1982. I think Jaya Badhuri criminally
[35:25] underrated as an actor. Like her performances in a lot
[35:28] of films are so good, so reliable as an actor.
[35:32] Like even if you put her in something as as over the top
[35:36] like Rocky Rani, she still delivers.
[35:39] I'm just talking recent films. I think I loved her in Sizza,
[35:42] recent being in the last 20 years, I loved her in Kalona.
[35:45] So a lot of these films, which I think she has, she has played
[35:48] the mother role and she's done a pretty great job.
[35:51] Arguably, I could say holds her own against Amitabh Bachchan.
[35:54] It's not even a notch higher, just that actresses have not
[35:58] I've been showcased as much. But yeah, pretty pretty solid
[36:01] actor. Anyways.
[36:03] I also have a feeling, Can you imagine a day or the first day
[36:07] of shooting? And Jayawardi is like, oh, you
[36:09] know what, you should buy my father's book just to prepare
[36:12] for the role. And I'm just.
[36:13] This is awkwardly. Like OK, I guess I'll pay for
[36:16] this. He's doing some side sales for a
[36:19] dad's book. That's a very funny coincidence,
[36:23] if not lovely. Since we are in India, I am
[36:27] going to move to another question based in our country.
[36:31] Do you know which brand in India translates to Gentleman's Shop?
[36:38] Which brand in India translates to Gentleman's Shop?
[36:41] Yeah. No, I don't know.
[36:43] I thought that would be the easiest way into it and if you
[36:47] cracked it then I would have gone in a different direction.
[36:48] But since you don't know the answer, let's try this.
[36:50] X was an Indian businessman and entrepreneur who was born in
[36:56] Sialkot, which would be present day Pakistan.
[36:59] His father had a business there. After a partition, the family
[37:04] moved to India. They moved to Delhi.
[37:07] They lived in pretty dire circumstances.
[37:10] X. Had the burden of providing for
[37:13] the family because he was becoming a young man.
[37:14] He had dropped out of school at a very young age of 9 or 10.
[37:19] He decided to be a rickshaw Tonga driver.
[37:22] He he has mentioned in some interviews how he went to New
[37:27] Delhi railway station and Qutb Road and Karol Bagh, all these
[37:31] very famous places. And he would try to, you know,
[37:34] get passengers on his Tonga. And he found the other Tonga
[37:38] wall as uncouth and realize there's not much money in it.
[37:42] So he moved away from that. He tried a couple of other
[37:46] ventures before he found his footing in the venture that made
[37:49] him famous, the business that he started.
[37:53] The name in the Indian language, if translated to English, would
[37:58] roughly translate to gentleman's shop.
[38:01] Tell me, Vineet, who X is. Or you could tell me what is the
[38:06] name of the company he started. In my mind, right when you
[38:09] mentioned this, no, I will thought you were going because I
[38:12] couldn't understand how that was connecting to gentleman's shop.
[38:15] But I thought you were going to connect it to Rosa because they
[38:18] had like a similar story family split up, comes to Delhi and set
[38:21] up the manufacturing unit there. Like their brothers. 1 decides
[38:24] to say in Pakistan, one decides to come.
[38:26] But then when you mentioned poor and all of that, that's not the
[38:29] same. OK.
[38:30] I don't know if this translates to MDH because I don't know what
[38:35] MDH is standing. For God, this is how I.
[38:39] Don't know what MD stands for. How?
[38:41] If you don't even know what MD stands for, how did you get it?
[38:44] There are certain stories that you hear about people who have,
[38:48] you know, after, especially after partition.
[38:50] It was a kind of big thing because even my, the company
[38:52] where I worked with, which was founded by Doctor Arora, his
[38:55] father also famously, you know, moved across the border into
[38:59] India for partition. And he's told me that story
[39:02] multiple times. And because of this and other
[39:04] reasons, I have gone into the kind of rabbit hole of
[39:06] businesses is set up in India post partition.
[39:08] But there are a lot of these kind of businesses here like I
[39:10] told you about. Then there are so many others
[39:12] like Moti Mahal, you know, the chicken, water chicken, the
[39:16] entire story around. I remember seeing this and I
[39:20] remember this guy. He was extremely poor that I
[39:23] remember that. I don't remember his name.
[39:25] Some gulati, right? What was his full name?
[39:28] Vineet, unfortunately you're completely wrong.
[39:30] That's not the answer to this. No, I'm kidding.
[39:32] You're right. You're right.
[39:33] I'm so annoyed that he wanted so quickly.
[39:37] No, but. I don't.
[39:38] I don't remember what him did. There's a very famous quiz
[39:40] question where they show the picture of his shop, the black
[39:44] and white picture of his shop. I remember that and it's a very
[39:48] stark contrasted picture. I remember that.
[39:50] I remember this guy, he lived a very hard life.
[39:53] I remember his last name is Gulati.
[39:55] I don't know his first name and I don't remember what MDH.
[39:58] Stands for Solid solid, solid memory, Phenomenal crack just
[40:04] out of the world. Especially if that's why I
[40:06] started with Gentleman's Shop, because it's like, if you know
[40:08] that piece of trivia, then the rest of it is moot because you
[40:11] already know the answer. But yeah, you nonetheless bested
[40:16] me. And I'm very impressed.
[40:18] OK, here's the fun trivia behind it.
[40:20] You got it right. It is MDH.
[40:24] And if you had let me give you a clue, I would have told you MDH
[40:28] stands for Mahashiya Dihati. Oh, it's Punjabi.
[40:32] X is Dharampal Gulati who's also known as Mahashi Dharampal
[40:36] Gulati. So his father was also given
[40:40] that that honorific title of Mahashay or or whether it was
[40:44] styled or whether it was given, I'm not quite sure.
[40:45] But in any case, and there was Mahashaya, I guess the plural or
[40:49] Mahashaya, the hatti being gentleman or an honored man or a
[40:53] prestigious title to given to a man is Mahashaya and Hatti is
[40:56] shop. So gentleman's shop is what you
[40:59] were loosely translated to in English.
[41:01] That is what MDH is. I also did not know this till I
[41:05] recently found out. I was like wow, how did I not as
[41:09] such a trivia hound? I never bothered finding out
[41:11] what MDH stands for. It is named after Maharshay
[41:14] Dharambal Gulati and his father. Interestingly enough, they had a
[41:18] spy shop in sealcoat where they used to call it Maharshay the
[41:21] Hati and they were also famous with the name of Degi Mirchwale.
[41:26] It is Degi Mirch which is also very commonly associated to MDH.
[41:31] Right. It's it's just a very
[41:33] interesting story. Such a rags to riches story for
[41:35] this man who was literally at the very rock bottom that a
[41:40] person could be in their life, early life and then made such a
[41:43] huge fortune. Yeah, very interesting piece of,
[41:47] let's say a strange coincidence that happened.
[41:50] He passed away in 3rd December on 3rd December 2020.
[41:53] He had by the way received the Padma Bhushan before he had
[41:56] passed away. Spice King as he was called.
[41:59] He passed away 3rd December 2020 due to complications I believe
[42:04] from COVID. I think there was some
[42:05] complication of COVID that made him pass away.
[42:07] Guess who else passed away just a couple of weeks or months
[42:11] before him? Also related to spices.
[42:14] Yep, Yep, Everest. Vadilal Shah, the founder of
[42:18] Everest Spices passed away just a few months before the Rampal
[42:23] Gulati passed away. So it's just a such a
[42:26] interesting sort of trivia there right there that Everest Spices,
[42:31] the man who founded that also a similar story.
[42:33] He was Gujarati, of course, not not Punjabi, but he was also
[42:38] somebody who kind of made his own fortune started Everest.
[42:41] He looked at how people, both of these men kind of figured out
[42:44] that what people need were people at that time used to
[42:46] grind, grind their own spices at home and like using, you know,
[42:49] the mortar person and they were like, what if we could just give
[42:52] them those ready mixes? I think in the case of he
[42:55] noticed how people would choose, they would take the basic spices
[42:59] and then they would make a mixture out of it at the store
[43:02] itself and then take it back because they're making choli
[43:04] that day, so they want those specific spice mix.
[43:06] So he would just then he started promoting that spice mix itself.
[43:10] Similarly, the imperiality kind of decided that, you know, if
[43:12] you package it well, if you, if you put it in a good box and you
[43:16] appeal of course to to women who very often are buying these
[43:20] things, you will be able to make good business out of it.
[43:22] So Everest is the business leader, is the industry leader
[43:25] in India and MDH is the I think it's a close second.
[43:30] These are the two top companies with the founders passed away
[43:33] very close to each other in 2020.
[43:36] And that's a little bit of history of spices and of your
[43:39] kitchen if you're Indian. There are, I think, other big
[43:41] spice brands down South, some of them with a lot of big
[43:45] pedigrees, but those are also related to certain questions
[43:48] which I have in mind. So I'm not going to reveal those
[43:52] as now I want to keep them in my pocket.
[43:54] Interesting, perhaps I don't know too many about too much
[43:57] about the South Indian spices or the companies over there, but
[44:02] then I am surprised that Everest is the market leader.
[44:05] I think I read somewhat 30% which is pretty significant.
[44:08] And if I'm not wrong, MDH is a 15.
[44:11] I remember going to a Broad Tree Youth leadership conference
[44:15] sometime in the early, very, very early 2000s, and I remember
[44:20] one of the people who came to speak and inspire had mentioned
[44:23] that AVT, which was had tied up. He mentioned that AVT had tied
[44:28] up with McCormack and AVT McCormack was the largest in the
[44:31] world or something. But I think those are just like
[44:33] plain spices. I don't know if there's a splice
[44:35] blends and I don't know if it's true anymore.
[44:37] We'll have to look this up again.
[44:38] Don't take my word for it, but I believe at that point of time he
[44:42] had mentioned it to us. I remember and I had the reason
[44:44] I remember it very well is because AVT, the company was
[44:48] also the initials of one of my classmates, Abhilash V Tayil.
[44:51] So AVT. So I've never forgotten that
[44:53] fact because of that. So AVTAVT McCormack, apparently
[44:56] Mukammak was an international company.
[44:58] They merged with the Indian one and became AV team a comic and
[45:01] they were the biggest in the world.
[45:02] And he mentioned that, but I not sure if there's a spice blends
[45:07] or other just, you know, packaged spices.
[45:09] So I'll just have to look that up.
[45:10] But yeah. Cool piece of trivia, cool piece
[45:12] of history, and something to know now next time you are
[45:16] cooking in your kitchen. But to be honest, I don't use
[45:21] Everest or MDH spices. We don't generally tend to buy
[45:27] packaged blended spices. We try to make our own most of
[45:30] the time. When I do like OK, I tend to
[45:31] make my own spice blends rather than buy prepackaged ones.
[45:36] Fancy man. And before I forget, I want to
[45:39] just point out in case somebody doesn't know this already, the
[45:42] man who's featured on MDF, that is the Arampal Gulati.
[45:44] Just just in case there was any confusion, the man with those
[45:48] very luscious mustache that is the Arampal Gulati.
[45:52] It featured him sun kissed skin and sun kissed skin.
[45:55] I think he, I think he was featured in a lot of the
[45:58] advertisements that you might have seen on TV as well.
[46:01] He passed away only in 2020, so I'm sure he was there in the 90s
[46:03] ads and stuff. And I believe now it's his son
[46:06] who features in those ads. I don't know.
[46:07] And if they've updated the picture on the packaging as
[46:09] well, then I have to check that. But that is, yeah, that is a fun
[46:13] little piece of trivia. But Vineet, let's get on to your
[46:16] question. OK, so this is the last question
[46:17] for today's episode, at least of the main cuisine block of
[46:20] questions that we had. Aditya, I don't know if you may
[46:24] get the answer. You may immediately or it
[46:27] depends upon how much you know about South India Island.
[46:30] All right, so I'm done. I'm gone.
[46:32] That's cool checking out right now.
[46:36] But this is a fascinating piece of trivia, so even if you don't
[46:39] get the answer, it's just let's just This is a trivia delivery
[46:42] mechanism rather than things, OK?
[46:45] A monumental gateway leading into an 11th century Tamil Nadu
[46:52] temple complex bears a name meaning Destroyer of Kerala, a
[46:58] title honoring the Chola king who ordered its construction
[47:03] following a major victory over the Cheras who used to rule
[47:07] Kerala at one point. This specific entrance known as
[47:11] the Keralanthagan Gopuram, Keralanthagan literally meaning
[47:15] and the ender of Kerala Destroyer of Kerala.
[47:18] This specific entrance is at the center of a famous political
[47:21] superstition that any leader who passes through it will soon meet
[47:27] political ruin, illness, or death.
[47:31] This belief became deeply entrenched in local lore
[47:35] following events in 1984 when both Prime Minister Indira
[47:40] Gandhi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MG Ramachandran used
[47:45] the entrance during a state visit.
[47:47] Shortly afterward, the Prime Minister was assassinated and
[47:51] the chief minister suffered A devastating stroke.
[47:54] Fear of this curse is reportedly so strong that during a 2010
[47:59] cultural celebration at the site, the state's chief minister
[48:04] opted to enter through another unassuming side gate.
[48:09] I want you to identify this UNESCO World Heritage Site where
[48:13] the this magnificent and feared gateway is located.
[48:18] I was really hoping you won't ask that because I know for a
[48:25] fact I'm not going to get this answer my anyways.
[48:28] My knowledge temples is very limited.
[48:30] Only temple in South India that I know is Tirupati.
[48:34] Have been there once. That's but I'm pretty sure
[48:36] that's not the answer. Did you mention you said it is
[48:38] Kerala antagam? Antagam antagam?
[48:41] Kerala Antagam. That's just the name.
[48:43] I'm just giving you the name. If you have heard of the name,
[48:44] that will probably give you a lead you to the answer.
[48:46] No, no. But you did you mention where it
[48:48] is which which state it is? It's in Tamil Nadu.
[48:51] Tamil Nadu, I know. Has some temples.
[48:55] Thanjavur has a lot of temples. It's Thanjavur by the way.
[48:58] Knew this was going to happen. I I don't want to do this
[49:00] anymore. Felix is fitting back up a mold.
[49:04] I'll give it to you. It is, It is in.
[49:05] It is in Thanjavur. It is in Thanjavur, yes.
[49:07] Thanjavur. How did I mispronounce it so
[49:09] badly? OK Thanjavur.
[49:10] No Sir, I am at a loss. Tirupati is where I have pretty
[49:15] much limited my knowledge too. OK, so there.
[49:18] This temple is known for its incredible engineering.
[49:21] If you've ever seen it, there's a massive monolithic Nandi
[49:24] statue weighing roughly around 25 tons.
[49:27] Wow. And there is an imposing 216
[49:31] foot vimana that's a tower constructed entirely from
[49:35] granite and topped with an 80 ton single stone capstone.
[49:41] I'm pretty sure I must have seen this then.
[49:42] The entire temple is built using interlocking stone techniques
[49:46] without modern cement. No mortar, just interlocking
[49:50] stones held together by their own pressure and friction.
[49:53] Some hardcore engineering. I love it.
[49:56] Any ideas? Because you probably know this.
[49:58] The know the name or you don't know the name.
[50:00] It's it's it's like that. Is the Meenakshi temple.
[50:03] No, that's Madurai. That's Madurai.
[50:05] Oh, OK, no, yeah, I'm tell me the name.
[50:08] Probably little, of course, embarrass me once I hear it,
[50:12] because it will be something I must have heard of before.
[50:14] Yeah, Wait, sorry, Rameshwaram is different, right?
[50:18] No, Rameshwaram is different. Yes, Rameshwaram is quite far
[50:21] away. OK.
[50:23] Not been there. Fair enough, you may have heard
[50:25] of it if I give you the answer. The trivia is fascinating, so we
[50:28] can jump to that quickly. The temple is the Brahdeshwara
[50:31] Temple. Have you heard of it?
[50:33] Yeah, I have. I have heard of it, yes.
[50:35] The name is familiar. I'm going to interlink a
[50:38] fascinating list of stories for you.
[50:40] OK, this is really, really interesting.
[50:41] That's cool. The myth surrounding the
[50:44] Brahatishwar temple largely stems from the story of its
[50:48] chief patron, the Chola K Raja Raja Chola the 1st and his
[50:52] spiritual mentor Karura Siddharth.
[50:55] If you are not familiar with Raja Raja Chola, if you have
[50:58] seen the movie Punni and Selvan Mani Ratnam's magnum opus, which
[51:02] was released in two parts. The character of Arun Muri
[51:05] Varman played by JM Ravi. He eventually goes on to become
[51:11] Raja Raja Chola. So that's the person we are
[51:14] talking about, OK? According to traditional law,
[51:17] the king and his guru had a severe disagreement regarding
[51:20] the rituals and the timing of the temple's consecration.
[51:23] Some versions of legend says that Chola engineers could not
[51:26] fit the massive Shivalinga into its space until Karura
[51:30] intervened. He was so furious over the
[51:33] ideological clash that he cursed the temple.
[51:36] He allegedly proclaimed that any ruler or person in political
[51:40] power who entered through the main gate, that is the
[51:42] Keralantagan Goburam, would soon lose their mandate, fall ill or
[51:47] die. This superstition is fuelled by
[51:50] historical ambiguities. There is no clear historical
[51:53] record or epigraphical record detailing how Raja Raja Chola
[51:57] died. Some folktale suggest that he
[52:00] jumped to his debt from the Tom temples.
[52:03] Towering Vimana while others claim he was assassinated.
[52:08] Immediately after Raja Raja's death, his son Rajendra Chola
[52:11] abruptly shifted the capital away from Thanjavur to Gangai
[52:16] Konda Cholapuram, an act that many locals interpreted as an
[52:19] attempt to escape the cost grounds.
[52:23] Past history Now we come to modern day 1984.
[52:26] I've already mentioned about Indira Gandhi and MG
[52:29] Ramachandra. Mgr. suffered a massive stroke
[52:32] and severe kidney failure. In the same year, Indira Gandhi
[52:35] was assassinated and though MGF suffered for a few more years,
[52:38] his health was permanently ruined and he passed away while
[52:40] still in office in 1987. Three years later, OK.
[52:43] In 2010, during the heavily publicized Millennium
[52:47] celebrations of the temple's completion in September 2010,
[52:50] the late Chief Minister M Karunanidhi attended the event.
[52:56] Despite being the leader of the rationalist atheist Dravidian
[53:00] movement, Karunanidhi blatantly avoided the main Keralantagan
[53:04] gopuram. Acting on warnings, he entered
[53:06] the temple complex through a secondary southern entrance near
[53:09] the adjacent Shivaganga Park, deliberately avoiding a line of
[53:13] sight with the main sanctum. However, believers in the myth
[53:16] were quick to point out that despite this precaution,
[53:19] Karunanidhi's DMK party suffered A crushing defeat in the
[53:22] subsequent 2011 elections. Now there is another one.
[53:26] You have Edappadi K Palaniswami skipping the consecration 2020.
[53:31] The fear of the curse is so deeply entrenched that even
[53:33] modern politicians have the same problem.
[53:35] In February 2020, the Brahdeswara temple held a
[53:37] massive Kumbhabu Shekhar for the first time in 23 years.
[53:41] The sitting chief minister at the time, Edappadi K Palaniswami
[53:44] or EPS, conspicuously skipped the grand historic event.
[53:48] While he remained in Chennai attending routine meetings at
[53:50] weddings, he sent his cabinet ministers to Thanjavur instead.
[53:54] Political commentators and local media widely reported that his
[53:57] absence was driven by the prevailing superstitions that
[53:59] visiting the temple while in power would cause him to lose
[54:02] his upcoming state elections. However, he did indeed lose the
[54:07] assembly elections that came after that.
[54:11] There is even more. Further compounding the temple's
[54:13] dark reputation in modern time. Was that the previous Kumbhabi
[54:17] Shekhar? So I mentioned in 2020, there
[54:18] was a Kumbhabi Shekhar done for the first time in 23 years.
[54:21] The previous Kumbhabi Shekhar was held in 1997.
[54:24] Hours before the main ceremony, a stray spark from a firecracker
[54:28] ignited the patched roof of the Yagashabha and the resulting
[54:32] fire and subsequent Stampede led to the tragic death of over 48
[54:36] devotees. Because of the string of
[54:40] coincidences, tragedies and electoral defeats, practically
[54:43] all ruling pollutions in Tamil Nadu today either avoid the
[54:47] Brahadushara temple entirely or use an, you know, side gates if
[54:51] a visit is absolutely mandatory. Fascinating firstly.
[54:55] Wow, surprised that this has completely escaped my my deep
[55:01] dives and my rabbit holes but love this piece of trivia.
[55:04] I'm also curious because you said it of course allegedly
[55:08] affected Indra Gandhi and that's what you were assassinated.
[55:11] The curse and the curse also affected assembly elections you
[55:14] mentioned at some point. So it covers a range of
[55:17] political levels. I wonder how low does it go,
[55:20] right? Like does it also like a gram
[55:22] panchayat level? Or does it also affect like if
[55:24] you're like the housing society president in your building,
[55:30] student body council president in your university, are you also
[55:33] going to lose power if you go to the table?
[55:35] I wonder how that works. People who are listening to this
[55:38] podcast, there are increasing number of videos that you see of
[55:42] entitled uncles, retired people in societies who abuse their
[55:47] power as members of the society, leadership or whatever.
[55:51] So my suggestion to you is sponsor their trip to Viswara
[55:55] Temple. Please do tell them to make go
[55:58] through the main gate and they will be out of all within the
[56:01] next few weeks. Totally, Imagine Aditya Dhar
[56:05] making a spy filled word like assassinating the annoying uncle
[56:09] by taking him through this door he called Durandor I guess.
[56:15] Oh God, no no, no, no. I have nothing to do with this
[56:18] joke. Durandor, the re Hinge.
[56:23] Oh, we're so going to get cancelled for this.
[56:25] OK, OK. Oh, but lovely, lovely piece of
[56:28] trivia. I love it.
[56:29] It's so cool. I love that.
[56:31] Yeah. And got to make my way there
[56:33] someday before I become the Prime Minister of India, of
[56:35] course. So need to go there as a non
[56:38] politician first. That's all we have our regular
[56:41] round of quizzing. Let's move on to the audience
[56:43] question, which I had asked at the beginning of today's
[56:45] episode. Because the question was around
[56:47] 150 CE, Greek scholar Ptolemy dubbed a certain Indian location
[56:52] Heptanisia in his famous Atlas. Which spot earned that Asian
[56:56] tag? So do you have an answer?
[56:58] I did think a Heptanesia has to be 7 and I was thinking seven
[57:02] islands. So in India, obviously the
[57:04] answer has to be Bombay, otherwise I would have guessed
[57:06] something like Japan or something.
[57:08] But of course it has to be Bombay then.
[57:09] Yes, you're right, it is Bombay. The Greek geographer Claudius
[57:14] Ptolemy labeled the Mumbai archipelago as Heptanesia,
[57:18] meaning seven islands, in Book 7, chapter one of his Geography
[57:21] around 150 CE. He drew from accounts and trader
[57:26] reports and named the place as Heptanesia.
[57:29] These were originally swampy Isles such as Colaba, Old
[57:32] Woman's Island and Bombay, separated by creeks, with the
[57:35] Portuguese and British progressively reclaimed from
[57:38] 1661 to the 1840s, merging them into a single landmass.
[57:42] Heptanesia is Mumbai, land of the cutting chow.
[57:47] Very cool. Love that.
[57:48] OK, I guess that leads me to my audience question of the
[57:55] audience of the Instagram, of the part there.
[57:58] And this is yet again a visual question.
[58:03] In this case, I'll blank out the face of one of the people and
[58:07] the other person's face is visible.
[58:09] This was a historic meeting that happened in London in 1931.
[58:14] The person whose face is visible is going to be obvious
[58:17] immediately. It is of course Mahatma Gandhi.
[58:20] I want you to tell me who was this other famous person who was
[58:25] a huge fan of Gandhi, wanted to meet him When Gandhi went to
[58:28] London in 1931, Indian history fanatics would know that Gandhi
[58:32] visited London in that year and this particular famous person
[58:38] could not miss up the opportunity to meet his idol and
[58:42] when to meet him. Funnily enough, Gandhi had not
[58:46] heard of him. Even though the other person is
[58:48] very very famous, Gandhi had not heard of him before this
[58:50] meeting. So identify who this person is
[58:54] who came to London to meet Gandhi in 1931.
[58:58] This historic picture captures both of them.
[59:01] Tell us in the comments. OK, fantastic.
[59:03] And you know, fastest fingers. First.
[59:06] You will get a shout out if you are the first one to answer it.
[59:09] Right? Let's now move on to the matter
[59:12] of the pop culture recommendation.
[59:15] Aditya, have you watched anything good recently?
[59:18] I have two film recommendations. 2 very different films.
[59:22] The first one is Crime 101. This movie pairs up two people
[59:29] who I think I've had great chemistry in the Marvel
[59:31] Cinematic Universe. I'm talking of course, of Thor
[59:34] and The Incredible Hulk. Chris Hemsworth and Mark
[59:37] Ruffalo. They are joined in a cast which
[59:40] is pretty phenomenal, I'd say, because there is a Halle Berry
[59:43] in it. There is Barry Keegan.
[59:46] Keegan, I think that's how he pronounces his name, and a bunch
[59:49] of great actors in supporting cast.
[59:51] So Crime 101 I think is I read some critique talk about how it
[59:57] is almost like a love story, an homage to to noir films of the
[1:00:02] yesteryear. And the film maker Bart
[1:00:06] Leighton, I have not seen any of his other films, but he seems to
[1:00:09] be a fan of the genre because he has done a very genuine, almost
[1:00:13] like appreciation in this movie to those films.
[1:00:17] So check out Crime and One. The story is very simple, it
[1:00:21] just follows a criminal a cop was on his case and doesn't get
[1:00:27] too convoluted. But there is something
[1:00:29] satisfying about watching the crime thriller noir film, made
[1:00:33] well and with good actors doing a pretty decent solid job in
[1:00:38] their performances. So check out Crime 101, the
[1:00:40] other film, which interestingly of does not have a very high
[1:00:43] rating, does not have very good reviews, but I personally really
[1:00:46] liked it. I'm not going to try to
[1:00:49] pronounce the name in Tamil, but the English name is the Adamant
[1:00:54] Girl. OK, you know what, I'm going to
[1:00:55] try the Tamil name, it is Kotukali.
[1:00:58] Kotukali, that is the Adamant Girl.
[1:01:01] It is a pretty short film. It's only 1 1/2 hours if I'm not
[1:01:04] wrong. The director is PS Vinturaj.
[1:01:07] I watched it with one of our guests, Hari Krishna.
[1:01:11] HK and I were together a couple of weeks ago in Delhi and
[1:01:15] decided to watch this film. He told me a little bit about
[1:01:17] the context. Of course, he's Tamil in
[1:01:19] himself. So he told me a little bit about
[1:01:21] the context. The lead in this film and he
[1:01:23] plays a very aggressive toxic masculinity.
[1:01:26] Suri is the name of the actor and he plays a toxic sick man in
[1:01:30] it and his background is from comedy, which I thought was very
[1:01:33] interesting and it reminded me of the Great Indian Kitchen,
[1:01:36] which I as if I'm not wrong, the lead in that also very toxic
[1:01:40] masculinity. He also has a background as a
[1:01:42] comedy actor. This was his turn to drama.
[1:01:45] Suraj I yes, I guess that's the name.
[1:01:47] So in this case, the Suri also does a similar job, very good.
[1:01:52] Like at so many points I was just either very angry at him,
[1:01:55] scared of him. So he just done a phenomenal
[1:01:57] job. And I've seen some of his old
[1:01:59] clips of his comedy stuff and that was quite funny.
[1:02:01] So kudos to him for making this, this transition, a great film.
[1:02:06] I don't want to give too much away.
[1:02:07] I'll very strongly recommend. Please, please do yourself a
[1:02:10] favor and do not read the Netflix blurb about it, or in
[1:02:14] fact, avoid any blurb about it because they gave away the plot.
[1:02:19] They gave away the entire plot. The biggest twist of suspense or
[1:02:23] whatever it was that was going to be revealed in the third act.
[1:02:26] They literally have put it in the description and it's
[1:02:30] genuinely something that they're building as some sort of it's
[1:02:32] not a mystery film, it's a drama at.
[1:02:34] But there is, yeah, there is an underlying mystery to it.
[1:02:36] You're not sure what's happening and they reveal it only later.
[1:02:40] It's so annoying that the description reveals it.
[1:02:42] So please, if you are going to watch it, it's a good film.
[1:02:44] It's drama. It talks about the social
[1:02:46] issues, especially if you're from Tamil Nadu, it probably
[1:02:49] will resonate very strongly with you.
[1:02:51] But yeah, any Indian perhaps might.
[1:02:53] Talks about female oppression, women's oppression and some
[1:02:57] great, great acting, some very interesting direction, very
[1:03:00] interesting script choices. So that's my recommendation.
[1:03:03] Go watch these two films. OK, so my recommendation for
[1:03:08] today is a Korean film. I don't know if you've heard of
[1:03:11] this movie The day it's called Killbook Soon.
[1:03:13] I have heard of it, not watched it.
[1:03:15] Oh, you definitely have to. It's a fun watch.
[1:03:19] Would I? What I really liked is because
[1:03:21] the lead character is an assassin who's about to or who's
[1:03:24] looking to retire and they actually cast an age appropriate
[1:03:29] actress. So John de Jun, who's who acted
[1:03:32] in the movie, was 51 when the movie came out and the woman
[1:03:38] ate, to use the Gentry term. She ate that role.
[1:03:41] And the aura farming is just like she doesn't do anything
[1:03:45] special, she just walks a glance and my God, what aura?
[1:03:50] Look at you using all these terms.
[1:03:54] You're you're knowledge maxing and that.
[1:04:00] And something a little bit of a throwback, which came to me when
[1:04:04] I was answering the audience question.
[1:04:05] For those who you may not have heard it, I'm going to recommend
[1:04:09] a song that you can go and check out.
[1:04:10] The song is called Mumbai. For those who don't know, Javed
[1:04:16] Jaffrey, the comedy actor that you know now is also a fantastic
[1:04:20] dancer and singer. And there is a track of his rap
[1:04:23] track of his from a ball from I think 97 movie called Bombay
[1:04:27] Boys. Skip the movie, Listen to the
[1:04:30] song. The song is called Mum Bhai.
[1:04:33] Kaneka pineka, azneka, jineka roneka.
[1:04:36] Such a fun. Song exactly.
[1:04:38] It is a it's it's a fantastic, fun song and the final movie I
[1:04:44] would like to recommend, which it has been in the back of my
[1:04:46] mind for a long bit of time, because I don't think it's a
[1:04:49] movie that you probably can will get will get made today.
[1:04:52] Or if it does get made today, it would face a lot of flak from
[1:04:58] critics and probably maybe only a Sandeep Reddy Wanga or
[1:05:02] somebody would look to make something a movie like this,
[1:05:04] maybe a Ram Gopal one by some point.
[1:05:06] But the movie I'm talking about is a Tamil action drama romantic
[1:05:11] thriller film called Parathi Veeran.
[1:05:13] Parathi Veeran was the debut film of Karthi where he's an
[1:05:18] established, you know, hero and actor in Tamil cinema.
[1:05:22] Many people might know him as the brother of Surya, who was
[1:05:26] the original Singha. So this movie Parati Veeran very
[1:05:29] raw and it features a blistering performance by Karthi.
[1:05:35] You would not believe that it's his first.
[1:05:38] And there's an equally haunting and beautifully done performance
[1:05:42] by Priyamani, who won the National Award for the best
[1:05:46] actress for her role in this film.
[1:05:48] It is not a comfortable watch. It's not a movie you would want
[1:05:51] to watch with your family. And I honestly don't think it's
[1:05:54] a movie that would probably get made today.
[1:05:57] Go check it out. But don't blame me if you find
[1:05:59] yourself a little depressed after watching the movie.
[1:06:03] Those are my recommendations. And that's all the time we have
[1:06:05] for this week's episode. Thank you all for joining in.
[1:06:09] We hope you enjoyed the show and learned something new.
[1:06:11] Please follow us on Instagram, follow us on YouTube, on
[1:06:14] Spotify, on whichever podcast platform you're listening to us
[1:06:18] on. If you want a question answered
[1:06:20] on the show, please reach out to us at areyouquizzingme@gmail.com
[1:06:24] with the name of the quizmaster in the subject line.
[1:06:26] So only that person will read and ask the question.
[1:06:29] We've also had a very good feedback from one of our
[1:06:32] listeners who mentioned that we don't have as much gender
[1:06:35] diversity as we would like on our show.
[1:06:38] So we are on the lookout for female quiz masters who may want
[1:06:41] to collaborate with us. So if you are a female
[1:06:44] quizmaster or if you know somebody who is a female
[1:06:46] quizmaster, please reach out to us.
[1:06:49] We would love to have you on the show.
[1:06:51] We're currently we don't get many female quizzes reaching out
[1:06:54] to us. We hope to change that.
[1:06:56] Please do that and check out our Instagram profile for the
[1:06:59] audience question. Park do the Instagram question
[1:07:02] or the audience question Junior, which Aditya will be posting.
[1:07:06] And you could also own a shout out on the show if you are the
[1:07:09] fastest thinker first. And obviously Aditya Hotel
[1:07:12] Sunday quiz is on Instagram every Sunday.
[1:07:14] So that's all the housekeeping for today and I am signing off
[1:07:17] Aditya. Marsha the quizzing.
[1:07:22] What? No.
[1:07:23] Assume that he said something sane.
[1:07:24] Goodbye.

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