# Episode 111 - Military, Mythology & Movie

An episode of [Are You Quizzing Me?](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663104901), 28 Jul 2025, 1 h 00 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/d7afa960/podcast/play/106079096/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2025-6-27%2F404652456-44100-2-c9a1f70f7f49c.mp3

Do you know which are the largest militaries in the world (with a whole lot of tangential questions and caveats)? Do you know which legendary hero in Persian mythology, whose life and work was immortalized in the Shahnameh, has become part of a common Hindi phrase? Do you know what trope was used in movies as a way to avoid any real life 'nuisance' but was effective only till 1994? BONUS: Also, do you know how Are You Quizzing Me came to be? Tune in to our very first video 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] Which is the longest river in the world with no bridges?
[0:05] Let me repeat the question. Which is the longest river in
[0:08] the world with no bridges? That's the audience question for
[0:12] today, which I'll be answering at the end of today's episode.
[0:15] So you have the whole episode to try and get the answer.
[0:17] In the meantime, welcome to episode #111 of Are You Quizzing
[0:22] Me? Your favorite quizzing and
[0:24] trivia podcast show, Cue the Music.
[0:26] Welcome to Are You Quizzing Me? I am Vineet Nair with my Co host
[0:30] Aditya Kashyap. This is a quizzing trivia
[0:33] podcast show. Join us as we dive deep into
[0:36] history, science, pop culture and so much more.
[0:40] Let's get quizzing and we're back for episode #111 which is
[0:46] our first ever video episode where we're actually sitting
[0:50] down and recording video. I am very nervous to say the
[0:55] least. Aditya however, is the
[0:57] professional here, so maybe he should be taking this forward
[1:00] because I have no idea how to do this.
[1:02] Oh no, no, no. In case this does go out as a
[1:06] video, hopefully it does. I want to clarify that I wore
[1:10] this T-shirt thinking it, you know, it's Superman T-shirt.
[1:13] The movie just came out recently and and it's a good fit.
[1:16] Turns out I have put on too much weight recently so it's not a
[1:20] good fit. Oh yeah, right.
[1:22] Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's been bulking in the gym and
[1:24] that's him putting on like. Sing a little.
[1:26] Yeah. Oh yeah.
[1:28] It's just a really old picture. It's like a decade old and I
[1:32] think it's just gotten to small for me.
[1:34] And more importantly, Superman, the movie which I believe you
[1:38] just told me you haven't seen yet.
[1:39] I did watch it. No, I didn't.
[1:41] Yeah, it's not a pop culture recommendation because I was
[1:43] super impressed, but if you haven't seen it and you're a
[1:45] fan, then I would say go check it out.
[1:47] It's not. It's not a bad movie by any
[1:48] means, It's just not. It didn't blow me away, though,
[1:52] I must say. There was this amazing bit, and
[1:54] not really trivia, but this piece of pop culture knowledge
[1:58] that I unearthed recently scrolling through Instagram,
[2:03] where in some interview, the guy playing Superman, he was asked
[2:06] why did they decide to go with the underwear outside the pants
[2:10] thing? Because.
[2:10] Because Zack, Zack Snyder dropped that, right?
[2:13] Yes. Yeah.
[2:13] Henry Cavill didn't do it. James Gunn spoke to Snyder about
[2:17] it. And Snyder was like, you know
[2:18] what? Just didn't fit the vision.
[2:19] It didn't work for me. And Gun was also like it.
[2:21] It just doesn't work. Like, how do you justify a
[2:25] superhero wearing such a ridiculous outfit?
[2:27] And then the actor and the director had a conversation
[2:30] about this, and they finally decided to go with it because
[2:32] Superman is so powerful, he's dressing like that so
[2:35] subconsciously people don't take him too seriously.
[2:39] Like at some level he just wants to come across slightly
[2:42] ridiculous just in case people are are too afraid of how a
[2:49] powerful a being he is. Because it was an interesting
[2:51] choice as an artist. Like if you have to justify the
[2:54] underwear on the pants look, that was their justification for
[2:58] it, which I thought was quite interesting.
[3:00] I think that's reaching a little bit, but whatever.
[3:04] I'm like, I'm not some, I'm not one to question James Gunn.
[3:06] He's made some phenomenal movies from things that have no reason
[3:11] to walk. Guardians of the Galaxy, for
[3:12] example. That's I I always thought it as
[3:15] an unfilmable comic, but he managed to pull it off, and not
[3:18] just once, thrice. So we have digressed.
[3:22] Massively. What was the audience question
[3:25] though? Just just to remind our audience
[3:26] one more time. For our newcomers, this is a
[3:28] question we ask at the beginning of the episode so that you can
[3:30] try and get the answer by the end.
[3:32] And the question for today was, which is the longest river in
[3:35] the world with no bridges? So let's get on with our regular
[3:40] quizzing. For those again who are watching
[3:42] us on video for the first time, I'm Vineet Nair and he is Aditya
[3:46] Kashyap. That is true.
[3:47] I am, he is. The Aditya Kashyap and I am a
[3:50] Vineet Nair. Let's start off the regular
[3:54] round of quizzing. So I have a very interesting
[3:55] question. I love it.
[3:57] Aditya. This question is in three parts
[3:59] and all three are like fairly connected.
[4:01] Which are the five countries, the top five countries with the
[4:07] highest number of total military personnel.
[4:11] So if you're going to rank countries by total military
[4:14] personnel, which are the top five?
[4:16] Now let me just clarify, I'm not including paramilitary, just
[4:21] active military and reserve military.
[4:23] So which are the top five countries which come to mind,
[4:29] including Active and Reserve? I know the Chinese army is one
[4:34] of the largest employers in the world but that includes non
[4:37] military personnel as well. But I'm gonna take a guess and
[4:41] say the Chinese military probably has enough military
[4:44] personnel also to be in the top five.
[4:47] The Chinese military is at #5. Ah OK #1 is probably India.
[4:52] Oh, India is on the list, but it's not at #1.
[4:56] I think because of the reserves, maybe so.
[4:57] OK, But the reserves thing is interesting.
[5:01] Let me just for now give you who I think is the top five.
[5:04] We'll rank them later. India is probably there.
[5:06] The US has to be there. No, it's not.
[5:09] US is not in the top five. No, the US is not in the top
[5:12] five. I'm tempted to say North Korea.
[5:14] One of the Koreas, it's not the North Korea 1.
[5:17] So obviously, you know. Oh, sorry, South Korea has.
[5:19] South Korea has compulsory service also.
[5:23] Yeah, North Korea because population is probably much
[5:26] lesser. That's why not.
[5:27] Which is why I was for a moment even considering Singapore.
[5:30] Because just because all men under the age of 35 are
[5:34] technically still in reserve. Yes, but you also have to
[5:38] consider the fact that the population of Singapore is quite
[5:41] small, so you wouldn't be able to have a very large standing
[5:44] army so. OK.
[5:47] Israel has compulsory military service and there did.
[5:51] It's not just for men, it's for women too, I believe, yes.
[5:53] So I'm tempted to say Israel also including the reserves
[5:56] then? Actually, Israel is not even in
[5:58] the top 10. Oh wow.
[6:00] OK. Yeah.
[6:02] So we have South Korea, we have China, we have India.
[6:05] Yes, Russia, very good. So you've got four out of five.
[6:08] You said #1 is not India, so I'm going to place India at #2.
[6:12] I'm going to say Russia is #3. I'm going to say South Korea is
[6:14] 4 and China is 5. OK, so China is five, Russia is
[6:19] 3. OK.
[6:20] South Korea is 22I is #4 on the list?
[6:25] What? OK, you're missing #1.
[6:28] Then this is a country which probably has a lot of reserves
[6:30] then, because I can't think of. Yes, you're right.
[6:33] Active military being larger than the other four.
[6:37] You're right. Some of the Scandinavian
[6:40] countries I believe have reserves as well.
[6:45] It's a famous Swiss coat. All my soldiers will come once
[6:48] to shoot twice and go home because they have that many
[6:51] people in reserves. But again, population wise, not
[6:53] a huge number. Oh, actually, wait, you know
[6:55] what I'm going to say? Somewhere in Southeast Asia.
[6:57] Oh, very good. Because of population it's
[7:00] either Thailand or it's Malaysia or maybe Indonesia also.
[7:03] What Indonesia? None of the three that you
[7:06] mentioned. Then Vietnam.
[7:09] Very good. It is Vietnam.
[7:11] Vietnam. Yes.
[7:12] So Vietnam's at #1, South Korea's at #2, Russia's at #3,
[7:16] China #4 and #5 sorry, now China's at #5 and India's at #4.
[7:20] Now second part of this question, like I excluded the
[7:24] parametry forces from this right now, if you include the
[7:27] paramilitary forces, what's the top five?
[7:30] Please tell me the US is included in that.
[7:33] Oh no, the US is at #8. What is happening?
[7:35] OK, what are the top five? Is India then in the top five
[7:41] still? Yes, II is still at #4.
[7:44] OK, how many of these countries are still there and how many new
[7:47] countries do I have to figure out?
[7:48] South Korea is still on the race list.
[7:50] Vietnam is still on the list. India is on the list.
[7:52] Russia is on the list. South Korea, Vietnam, India and
[7:55] Russia. So China is not on the top five.
[7:57] Yes, China goes down to #6. There's one more which comes up
[8:01] because of paramilitary. Yes.
[8:04] Brazil. Brazil is at #7.
[8:07] Oh OK, close. No, no idea what what could How
[8:11] could paramilitary shoot some country up?
[8:13] Very true, but the answer is North Korea.
[8:16] I should have guessed that. OK, makes sense.
[8:18] Makes sense. Now, I said this is a three-part
[8:19] question an I absolutely don't think you'll be able to answer
[8:24] all five in the next list. But no, I'm not.
[8:29] I'm. No, no, no, let's be real.
[8:31] Let's be real, let's be real. I didn't even answer the top
[8:33] five in the first two lists. Need a lot of.
[8:36] Help. But you, you got 80% of the way.
[8:39] Let's be fair, you got 80% of the way and buy the list.
[8:41] So give me the top five countries when considering
[8:44] active military per thousand people in the population.
[8:47] So you're looking at percentage of people who are in the active
[8:50] military? Per thousand.
[8:52] So this is a percentage of population.
[8:55] There's a number of people per thousand.
[8:56] So technically it's, you know, not percent per meal, maybe per
[9:02] milli I think it's meal. Meal is French, not meal.
[9:05] Yeah, so so. Singapore, probably.
[9:07] No. Oh, still not there?
[9:10] OK. No active military personnel.
[9:12] We're talking active military. But there's still compulsory
[9:15] service, so all men do go through it.
[9:17] There is, there is, but then they don't all go at the same
[9:19] time. Fair, fair percentage or
[9:21] whatever a version of percentage.
[9:23] That's why big countries probably go out.
[9:25] I don't think India or China would be in it.
[9:28] Very good. India or China not.
[9:29] The US also probably then doesn't make sense.
[9:32] Oh, absolutely not. OK, Israel.
[9:35] Israel. Is it still there?
[9:36] Israel is in #4 very good. Currently, I guess Ukraine I
[9:40] mean. Ukraine is in #3.
[9:42] OK, North Korea, probably. Yes, that's number one.
[9:46] OK, so. You need now #2 and #5 you're
[9:49] probably not going to get it, no offense to you.
[9:54] OK, fair as a percentage of population, let's say Vatican,
[10:00] Vatican City, if you count the guards.
[10:03] OK, I wasn't it Stalin who said how many battalions does the
[10:06] Pope have? No, I don't remember this but.
[10:08] And the answer is 0. Fair.
[10:10] I mean I'm just counting the guards but OK, it makes sense.
[10:12] The Swiss Guards. You're talking about the Swiss
[10:14] Guards? No.
[10:14] Technically no. Swiss Guards.
[10:16] No. So I'll give you a couple of
[10:18] figures. So North Korea has 48.7 active
[10:22] military per thousand population.
[10:24] Wow, OK. So 48.7 per thousand.
[10:27] Yes, Ukraine has 20.5. South North Korea is around 5%
[10:33] new Ukraine is around 2%. Wow, that's a pretty big chunk.
[10:36] Yeah, Israel is 1.18.3 per thousand.
[10:42] Almost 2% also. OK.
[10:44] Yeah, so the one you're missing at #2 has 47.6.
[10:49] Almost 5%. It's very close to North Korean
[10:52] numbers and #5 has 14.8. I'll give you clues.
[10:58] Go for it please. So the country at #2 is an
[11:02] African country and it was formed in the mid 1990s.
[11:07] So before South Sudan. Yes.
[11:10] Is it by any chance Eritrea? Was Eritrea that recent?
[11:14] Very good. It is Eritrea.
[11:16] Eritrea, yes, Eritrea spoke of from Ethiopia and it was a
[11:20] Italian colony, I guess. Yes.
[11:21] So that's it. And #5 has a ruler who's been on
[11:26] the richest men lists quite a lot.
[11:28] The ruler has been the richest men's list.
[11:30] Then I want to say it's one of the Gulf states.
[11:32] It's not. OK.
[11:34] He's a Sultan. Of Brunei, then Brunei.
[11:38] Yes, Brunei, Yeah. Brunei has that big military
[11:43] percentage. Yeah, percentage wise, so active
[11:46] military per capita Brunei has 14.8.
[11:50] That's very interesting. So and it has around 5% of its
[11:53] population is active military personnel.
[11:57] Active military, Yes. Yeah.
[11:59] That's an insane number. That's an insane number.
[12:02] Yeah. OK.
[12:04] Well, I have a segue, a pretty decent segue.
[12:08] I have a decent segue. Yeah, like, I've been doing well
[12:11] on my segues recently. OK.
[12:13] X is a legendary hero in I, I I noted the sigh, by the way, when
[12:19] I said I'm doing well on segues and there was a sigh over there,
[12:22] I noted, OK. X is a legendary hero in Persian
[12:31] mythology, the son of Zal and Rudaba, whose life and work was
[12:38] immortalized by the 10th century Persian poet for Daozi in the
[12:42] Shanma OK or the epic of kings. It's considered one of the most
[12:46] important books in Persian history in Iranian history,
[12:50] which contains pre Islamic Iranian folklore and history.
[12:55] OK the the roots of this narrative are actually much
[12:59] earlier. They're they're much older of
[13:02] X's legend, the hero's legend. OK X is best known for his
[13:07] tragic fight with Esfan. They are another legendary
[13:11] Iranian hero. Yes.
[13:13] And for his expedition to Mazandaran, OK, he's also known
[13:19] for the story of his seven laborers.
[13:20] So these are some interesting anecdote story, folk tales,
[13:25] parables about this particular hero in Persian mythology.
[13:30] In one of his fights, initially he did not display a lot of
[13:35] prowess. Still, at some point when it
[13:38] came to the epic climax, the culmination of the battle, it
[13:42] turned out that he was a lot more powerful than he was
[13:44] initially displaying and defeated his opponent.
[13:48] OK, how is his name today very commonly recognized in Hindi?
[13:55] Or in common conversation it how might it be recognized?
[13:58] How is his name more recognized in Hindi?
[14:02] When you started with a question I was about to say Sohrab or
[14:05] Rustam. Ah.
[14:08] Is it Rustam? Yes.
[14:09] OK, alright. In what I'll give it to you,
[14:11] Rustam is X, but what is the way that it's recognized in Hindi?
[14:15] The movie there was a movie called Rustam, right?
[14:17] No, that was the Nanavati case and they they fictionalized it
[14:20] slightly and they named the character Rustam.
[14:22] So that's why it was called Rustam.
[14:24] It I don't think it had anything to do with this particular hero
[14:27] per SE. Rustam OK.
[14:29] So what part of Hindi language employs Rustam's name that.
[14:35] See this is it? No.
[14:37] No, you've probably heard of it. I.
[14:38] Chupa rustam. Chupa Rustam.
[14:40] Chupa Rustam is named after the hero Rustam because he hid his
[14:45] powers for the first part of the battle.
[14:48] Ah. OK.
[14:50] Till it eventually was shown K oh it what a chupa rustam
[14:53] Nikola. OK, got it.
[14:55] The guy had had not revealed his true potential and powers in the
[14:58] initial battle of fight or whatever it was till he
[15:01] eventually did. I know there was an interesting
[15:03] trivia just because I had like somebody used Chuparastham
[15:06] earlier today and I was like oh I wonder who this Rustam is that
[15:09] it's named after. I'm going off of it just because
[15:12] it felt like a good piece of trivia but I haven't found the
[15:15] most credible sources of information so if any listener
[15:17] does, I would please do share it with me.
[15:19] Which reminds me by the way, a listener had sent pictures of
[15:21] the Abefaryas statue in Goa. Yeah, I know, I know this.
[15:25] Particular man, he went to Goa and on a trip and he's like,
[15:28] hey, listen, listen to your podcast.
[15:30] I was in Panjam and here this foot of a statue.
[15:33] Yeah that was very sweet. He shared it on the Reddit page
[15:35] as well and he DM D it to me on Instagram.
[15:36] So yeah. Well, if you do encounter any
[15:39] trivia we share in real life, please go share it with us.
[15:43] I love that. No, there was a famous poem I
[15:44] think we studied in school about Sohrab and Rustam, father and
[15:48] son meeting each other on the battlefield, neither knowing the
[15:51] other. Oh, so I don't remember which
[15:53] was which, Whether Sohrab was. Is Saurabh is Rustam's son?
[15:57] Yeah, So I think, yeah. So Saurabh, when he's dying, he
[16:00] tells Rustam that my father is the great Rustam who will avenge
[16:03] me or something like that. And that's when Rustam realizes
[16:05] key, this is my son. Great question.
[16:09] Great question. On trivia I'm.
[16:11] Going to leave the segues to you.
[16:12] Basically, you're the one on the roll.
[16:16] This question is from the early 21st century, long, long time
[16:22] ago. OK, so in the early part of the
[16:26] OR in the mid 2000s, let me put it that way, there was something
[16:31] which was considered to be a diplomatic set back for India on
[16:35] the world stage. And at the time, due to certain
[16:40] things in the news, people assumed at least in India, that
[16:45] the Chinese were behind the set. Back then in the mid twenty 10s,
[16:50] there was a revelation that it wasn't actually the Chinese who
[16:55] were behind this diplomatic set back that India faced.
[16:59] It was entirely due to the actions of the US and it's
[17:04] foreign policy interests with another Asian country.
[17:09] Now, normally this kind of thing would have been taken up at the
[17:12] highest levels by the Indian PM, but the matter did not figure
[17:17] prominently in consecutive meetings between Manmohan Singh
[17:21] and George W Bush due to a much more significant bilateral
[17:26] matter with historic implications.
[17:30] OK. What set back am I talking
[17:33] about? What and what is the other most
[17:37] crucial issue that took precedence in this case?
[17:41] So the the huge historical historically significant deal
[17:49] I'm guessing is the nuclear non proliferation treaty, I guess
[17:54] that they were negotiating. The Indo US nuclear deal.
[17:57] I'll give it to you. It's the Indo US nuclear deal,
[17:59] yes. Nuclear deal, yeah, Yeah, so.
[18:01] What was it that was put on the back burner due to this Indo
[18:06] nuclear deal? What kind of set back?
[18:07] Or at least it would have been historic in another sense if
[18:11] that set back had not happened. This is a very random guess.
[18:16] I'm going to say FIFA World Cup. Oh no, no, you're way off.
[18:21] Oh OK, OK. I was going to say because Korea
[18:24] hosted it and South Korea is a is AUS ally.
[18:30] China initially was suspected of it, so I'm I was guessing that.
[18:34] It is the South Korea so, but it's not the World Cup.
[18:38] Oh, OK. Something much more prestigious,
[18:41] I would say, but something much more prestigious.
[18:43] Interesting. Oh wow, I chanced upon South
[18:45] Korea randomly then. OK, so India was sidelined in
[18:50] favour of South Korea, but for something not the World Cup.
[18:55] So the clue here is that there was a post that India was vying
[19:00] for. Oh.
[19:02] But which was effectively blocked by the US.
[19:05] OK, say as AUN Secretary General.
[19:09] Little more specific. Ban Ki Moon was chosen as the.
[19:13] Very good. A person instead of somebody
[19:15] Indian. Oh yes, so when it came to the
[19:17] votes it was at #2 nobody effectively vetoed this person,
[19:22] but the US did put a discourage vote.
[19:26] Was it Doctor Kalam? No.
[19:28] OK, there's a lot more obvious answer I feel.
[19:31] Not Shashi Tharoor. Exactly.
[19:33] It was Shashi Tharoor. Yes, Shashi Tharoor was up for
[19:37] the US Secretary General post in 2006.
[19:41] Wow. And he went through, I think
[19:43] there were not 4 rounds of voting.
[19:44] He went through all of them until the US did give their
[19:48] discouraged vote, after which he withdrew from the election
[19:53] because without the support of the US, practically nothing gets
[19:55] done. And immediately after that, the
[19:57] Chinese representative to the United Nations.
[20:01] Put out an upset in a press conference that it's now obvious
[20:04] that the South Korean candidate for secretary general will be
[20:08] the one to win the election. So people in India at least
[20:11] assumed that this was, you know, China's machinations behind the
[20:16] screen. But I think it was in 2014 or 15
[20:19] something, there was a magazine article which kind of brought
[20:22] everything into the forefront. Right.
[20:25] Yeah. You know what I've realized by
[20:27] the way, I've always envisioned at some point in the future of
[20:30] are you accusing me? We are going to have super cut
[20:32] episodes, right? We are just going to combine
[20:34] like best of cricket trivia, Best of American trivia.
[20:39] Absolutely not going to happen when we have an intern.
[20:42] When we are an intern is when this is going to happen.
[20:45] I feel there could be a best of Shashidharu trivia because I
[20:48] feel Shashidharudha is featured multiple times.
[20:51] Oh yeah, he's featured quite. Yeah, man, is is responsible for
[20:54] a lot of trivia. We can effectively do Shashi
[20:57] Tharoor. We can do The Beatles.
[20:58] Oh, Beatles. Absolutely.
[20:59] Yes. Yes, yes.
[21:01] Yeah, we can definitely do The Beatles.
[21:02] Just a super cut of you talking about The Rolling Stones being
[21:05] better than The Beatles. I think can also be a super.
[21:08] I said the Rolling Stone. Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry.
[21:10] The Rolling Stones. Is the is the soundtrack of the
[21:12] 60s? Yes, yes, yes.
[21:14] That's my line and I'm sticking to it.
[21:17] And please don't like massacre me in the comments or anything.
[21:20] It's just my opinion. Let me just have my opinion.
[21:22] I'm just an old guy. I see.
[21:24] So that was my question and segue away.
[21:27] Very weak segue. Ah, you broke my, broke my
[21:30] streak. But Speaking of, I guess
[21:33] historically significant things, Indian staples like Shashi
[21:39] Tharoor, I guess, God, there is a West Indian cricketer from the
[21:45] from the 20th century who was very important in so many ways.
[21:51] He was by the way considered along with two other W Indians,
[21:55] the three most path breaking cricketers of his time and this
[22:00] was in the 40s and 50s so this is a while back.
[22:04] A trophy that is named after him is awarded to the winner of the
[22:07] frequent Test series between Australia and West Indies.
[22:10] After his cricket career, he also spent some time studying
[22:14] economics and he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of
[22:19] Fame in 2009. He is widely regarded as the
[22:22] Nelson Mandela of cricket. Like that has.
[22:25] That is how prestigious or or important this man was.
[22:30] Now this man is responsible for having been the inspiration for
[22:36] the name of something that every Indian today is familiar with
[22:41] and interacts with. I'm putting quotes around
[22:44] interact interacts with on a pretty regular basis.
[22:48] Which West Indian cricketer am I talking about and what is it
[22:52] that is named after him? You.
[22:54] Might as well give me the clue just now, because I have
[22:56] absolutely no idea. OK, so I'll tell you, maybe his
[23:02] last name might ring a bell. We're not the biggest cricket
[23:05] fan I know, but just in case, his name is Dash Worrell.
[23:11] OK, so it's his first name that has inspired what I'm talking
[23:14] about. His last name is Worrell and
[23:16] when I said that two other cricketers he's considered the
[23:19] the main three of the era, this was Everton, Weeks and Clyde
[23:23] Walcott. Walcott.
[23:25] Walcott, probably the three WS. So Waddell, Weeks and Walcott
[23:29] were considered the three WS of West Indian cricket.
[23:33] It's also called the Dash Waddle Trophy, by the way, which is the
[23:36] winner of the frequent Test series between Australia and
[23:38] West Indies. So what is something that was
[23:42] inspired by Waddell's first name that every Indian is familiar
[23:47] with? Most Indians are familiar with.
[23:49] OK, give me a context in which the familiarity would take
[23:52] place. Like is it like food or culture?
[23:56] OK so when I said interacted and I put it in quotes, yes I meant
[24:01] food. It's why I didn't say consumed.
[24:03] I just interacted. But yes, it is food that I'm
[24:05] talking. Something West Indian and food
[24:11] in India that we would consume. It's not West Indian per SE.
[24:16] So is it like a coincidence that his name and the name that we
[24:19] have in India are the same or is it named after him?
[24:22] He had nothing to do with its origin, just the person who came
[24:26] up with it loved this cricketer so much that he named it after
[24:29] him. Wow, is it Parle or something?
[24:33] No. No, that's named after Vele
[24:34] Parle, right? Parleji is named after Vele
[24:37] Parle. The location, yes.
[24:39] Something that Indians and I, I would have had it.
[24:44] OK, it's a street food, so how often do you eat chaat?
[24:46] I guess it's similar to that. This is Kerala, I don't eat
[24:50] chaat at all. What's the street food that you
[24:53] eat in Kerala? Parotta, Kerala Parotta.
[24:56] Yeah, it's definitely something you've heard of multiple times.
[24:59] In fact, the most famous brand that makes it is named after the
[25:04] guy who came up with this in the 1st place and who named it after
[25:09] the cricketer. If you like ask Me one street
[25:13] food that everybody's heard of all press around India, I would
[25:15] say Panipuri. Good, yes, but no Panipuri,
[25:19] clearly the name is very obvious.
[25:20] Not yeah, that's not it. So.
[25:22] Which is exactly why I can't think of anything else.
[25:25] Walid's first name is a very common English name, so an
[25:27] English sounding name to a dish. This is really weird.
[25:33] OK. OK, I will give you maybe a
[25:36] couple more hints before I give you the answer.
[25:38] A gentleman by the name of Amarjit Singh went to Beirut.
[25:42] Beirut is in Lebanon, for anybody who doesn't know.
[25:44] And he liked something there that he tasted.
[25:48] And he was like, oh, I want to bring this back to India.
[25:53] Oh, a Frankie. A Frankie is the answer I was
[25:58] looking for. The cricketer's name is Frank
[26:00] Worrell and a Frankie that Amarjit Singh Tib.
[26:04] By the way, his name is Amarjit Singh Tib Tibbs Frankie, one of
[26:08] the most famous brands that you would have heard of, was named
[26:12] after Frank Worrell the cricketer because Amarjit Singh
[26:15] Tibb thought he was a very impressive man and fantastic
[26:19] cricketer. So as a tribute to his
[26:21] cricketing idol. See this is this is the thing
[26:24] about Mumbai cuz you know, you think that everything that's
[26:26] available in your city is available everywhere around
[26:28] India. Listen, OK, it is, it is
[26:31] Frankie's are available, yes. You say kati roll.
[26:34] I think people would still. So here's the deal.
[26:37] Frankie is a trademark name. Technically nobody else is
[26:41] supposed to use it. Everybody uses it.
[26:42] It's become their one of those things that that has become
[26:44] synonymous with the product itself, which is why maybe the
[26:48] name itself is more popular in Bombay.
[26:50] But the food item is something everybody has had is like roti
[26:54] and something. Yes, but we call it a kati roll.
[26:57] Fine, BB, that person. You've heard of a Frankie?
[27:00] Yeah, because I've heard. Of a Frankie because I've come
[27:04] to Mumbai. You ask somebody who's never
[27:05] come to Mumbai, they might not know what a Frankie is.
[27:08] They might think he's a go and musician for God.
[27:10] Sake. OK, you know what?
[27:14] Guilty as charged. This one goes just from my
[27:16] Mumbai listeners. You know, I mean it.
[27:18] Fair enough. Most people might have heard of
[27:20] a Frankie at least, but thing but I didn't know it was named
[27:22] after a cricketer. That's Frankie.
[27:25] Frankie Worrell that he said his name is Worrell, right?
[27:27] Frank Worrell. Frank Wall, OK.
[27:30] Tibbs Frank, Yeah, again, Tib is I must I've seen Tib is in Delhi
[27:34] also, so I'm assuming it is at least in the major cities in
[27:37] India. So one of the famous brands that
[27:39] makes Frankie and was a trademark name that technically
[27:42] they own the trademark to. So nobody else should be using
[27:44] but but people do use it and it's, it's like for anybody who
[27:49] doesn't know, it's basically a roll, some sort of bread,
[27:54] usually a roti or a paratha, and inside of which there is either
[27:58] meat or vegetarian stuffing, usually on the spicier side.
[28:01] So he was inspired by a shawarma I'm guessing?
[28:05] Yeah, yeah, Peter, Ola shawarma that he had in Lebanon that he
[28:09] thought was worth bringing back to India, but obviously he
[28:12] Indianized it and he added an egg, which is very iconic for a
[28:15] Frankie, then egg inside of it to to bulk up its protein
[28:19] content to protein content macros for anybody who's
[28:23] counting. If you come to Kerala, a
[28:26] shawarma is probably one of the most common St. foods, or at
[28:29] least foods that you'll find. You'll find more restaurants
[28:33] serving broasted chicken, mandi rice and shawarmas in Kerala
[28:40] than probably any other cuisine. Makes sense because of the
[28:43] connection to the Middle East. Yeah, I think Lulu's was first
[28:47] opened in Kochi, right if I'm not wrong.
[28:49] The first hypermarket was yes in in was in Cochin.
[28:52] The first Indian branch, Yeah. Sorry for again, anybody.
[28:56] Again, I'm assuming people know because I've lived in the UA.
[28:59] Lulu's is a very big supermarket chain from the UA, which I think
[29:02] was started by a Malayali guy over there.
[29:07] Yeah. Then when they started it in
[29:09] India, they first opened Kochi. Now there's one in Lucknow.
[29:12] A huge one. It's a huge, it's a huge, huge
[29:14] one in Lucknow. Huge one.
[29:17] So we've now finally have nothing in common with car with
[29:19] our hometowns like there's a Lulu's, there is a Lulu's here
[29:22] that. Is true.
[29:25] OK, so moving from West Indians to the US OK, close enough.
[29:35] Let's put it that way. Yeah, close enough.
[29:38] Yeah. Yeah.
[29:39] Pathetic, but still. So the use of X in movies was
[29:45] standard practice in the US because X was not used in real
[29:49] life. However, that was no longer the
[29:53] case after 1994. Today, many scriptwriters still
[29:59] continue the use, probably because of habit, but it's no
[30:03] longer actually supposed to be used.
[30:08] What am I talking about? Random guess without any
[30:11] context, with too much confidence that is unknown.
[30:15] Is it happy birthday song? No, it's not, no.
[30:20] So it it was specifically used in movies because it's not used
[30:25] in the real life. So happy, but it doesn't make
[30:27] sense. Sorry.
[30:28] Yeah. Yeah, so that was prior to 1994.
[30:31] Now post 1994 X started to be used in the real world.
[30:36] So technically they should have stopped using it in movies, but
[30:41] scriptwriters still do. Interesting, there's something
[30:46] fictional that was probably used because there was no real world
[30:50] version of it, and then there became a real world version.
[30:52] So they should have stopped from 1994 but they haven't because of
[30:56] habit. Yes.
[30:58] I'm going to say cigarettes. Is there a fictional brand of
[31:01] cigarettes that they use in films?
[31:03] No, no. I was thinking of Tarantino, but
[31:06] yeah, nothing. I don't think that makes any
[31:08] sense. Oh, 1994, yeah, again, doesn't
[31:12] make any sense if it was used prior to that because I just
[31:14] thought of Forrest Gump and then.
[31:17] Baba shrimp. Yeah, Baba's shrimp.
[31:19] Yeah. But no.
[31:20] But this is this is not related to just one movie.
[31:23] This is related to a lot of movies.
[31:25] That's what I was thinking. There has to be in multiple
[31:27] films. This was a trope.
[31:28] When people say trope very common lot of movies, one of the
[31:32] things that mine goes to is the Wilhelm scream but again that
[31:35] doesn't make any sense because the real world it won't be used.
[31:38] No, I saw the Wilhelm scream in a movie recently where somebody
[31:41] got sucked out of an airplane. Man of Steel, actually, yeah.
[31:44] OK, no, give me maybe some context.
[31:48] Is it like a food item or something?
[31:49] No, it's not a food item. OK.
[31:51] I'll give you one clue, this is somewhat a self indulgent clue
[31:56] and it's also a pop culture recommendation even though I've
[31:58] recommended it in the past. Have you seen the movie Last
[32:00] Action Hero? Last action hero.
[32:02] I'm not, but I remember you talking about it.
[32:04] Yes. So it's a Shane Black movie,
[32:07] Fantastic chain black scripts, always great.
[32:10] You have a character, a kid who gets a magic ticket, and using
[32:15] this magic ticket, he is transported into the world of a
[32:19] movie which stars Arnold Schwarzenegger.
[32:23] While he's in this fictional movie world, he tries to
[32:26] convince Arnold Schwarzenegger's character that he is in a movie.
[32:31] So he points out a lot of things, like, look at everybody,
[32:35] All the people are beautiful. There's no ugly people here.
[32:39] To which Schwarzenegger's replies, this is LA.
[32:41] Then there's a cartoon character walking around, and he's like,
[32:45] look at him, That's a cartoon character.
[32:46] He's just walking around and he's like, yeah, he should be.
[32:49] He works here. There are many tropes that he
[32:52] points out out of which this was a specific trope.
[32:55] OK, It's a slightly big clue. You've not seen the movie, so I
[32:57] don't know how much of A clue it's going to be, but yeah.
[33:01] I'm thinking it has to be some sort of a brand.
[33:04] I don't know why I'm feeling it is some sort of brand name that
[33:06] is probably didn't exist before 94 and now does.
[33:09] No, no. OK, So let me, let me just put
[33:11] it this way. Say for example, you see
[33:14] something on screen. OK, sometimes you have the
[33:17] notion. Let me just try that in real
[33:19] life. OK.
[33:21] The reason they used this was because you couldn't use it in
[33:26] real life, that it wouldn't be a nuisance if you tried it in real
[33:28] life. Yeah, no, this makes a nuisance
[33:31] that is. Yeah, it's a It'll be a
[33:33] nuisance. I'm thinking, is it something
[33:35] violent? I'm thinking of guns, some sort
[33:37] of. Oh, no, no.
[33:39] OK, no, no idea at all What is what is this thing?
[33:45] I'll give you an example. In Indian context, it's a
[33:48] different example, so it's not the same thing.
[33:50] Now say for example, if I were to watch a movie and I see a
[33:54] specific license plate number, I can Google that license plate
[33:58] number and find out who owns it, right?
[34:00] Or at least Parivahan. I can go to Parivahan and find
[34:03] the details of the car. Now put that in a different
[34:05] context. Oh, so this is a phone number.
[34:08] This is a phone number that they used to use that that didn't
[34:10] exist. I know this, but also 94 onwards
[34:13] this phone number did exist and people still end up using it in
[34:16] the script sometimes. Yes, so specifically 3 digits.
[34:20] I'm looking for three digits specifically.
[34:23] Just try to remember any movie when they tell you a phone
[34:25] number, they specifically use one particular area code. 111 I
[34:31] don't know. They always used 555. 0555
[34:35] doesn't exist 5. 55 did not exist prior to 1994.
[34:38] They started allotting numbers to A555 error code after 1994.
[34:43] So post 94 you started having numbers with the 555 area code.
[34:48] Right, right, right. So if you look at movies in the
[34:51] 80s, all phone numbers start with 555.
[34:54] Doesn't matter if the movies taking place in Texas or if it's
[34:57] taking place in LA or in New York.
[34:58] The numbers always start with 555 because the 555 did not
[35:02] exist most of the time. I'm not saying all of the time,
[35:06] but most of the time. If you look at numbers of
[35:10] license plate numbers in Indian movies, they sometimes
[35:13] correspond to RTOS which don't exist.
[35:15] Ah, OK. OK.
[35:16] So fake license plate numbers makes sense, Yeah.
[35:19] Now knowing a license plate number, not an issue, just
[35:21] imagine if you're going to put a real number, right, right,
[35:23] right. I think there was a movie in
[35:25] India where they specifically put a phone number of a law firm
[35:27] and then on in the movie. And if you call that number,
[35:30] that'd be a recording of the actor saying that this you have
[35:33] reached so and so. People have used this as a
[35:35] marketing tool. I know this like, you know,
[35:38] where they'll flash a number on on the fictional world and then
[35:41] if somebody actually calls it, the character might respond that
[35:44] I know How I Met your Mother did this where I remember this one
[35:46] episode where Barney is holding up a number and looking for
[35:51] dates or whatever women to go out with.
[35:53] And that actual number, Neil Patrick Harris's voice responds
[35:56] in Barney's character and and whoever called it in their life
[36:00] would get to hear that. So, yeah, marketing tool.
[36:02] But yeah, now that we say 555 is very common and I that but I
[36:05] didn't know. I just knew there was some
[36:07] trivia here related phone numbers.
[36:08] That's very cool. OK.
[36:09] OK. That makes a lot of sense.
[36:11] Yeah. So it's 555 if you put it in
[36:14] American way. They never say 555 or 55.
[36:16] It's always 55 or 555. With the accent?
[36:20] With that accent. No, absolutely not.
[36:25] Second, let's not, let's not put you in that spot.
[36:28] And since we are, we are talking about pop culture staples in the
[36:33] US Perfect segue once again, Boo.
[36:35] Yeah, because I'm going to ask you something that is a pop
[36:38] culture staple in the US even today.
[36:40] OK. This pop culture staple is
[36:42] connected to a Canadian American filmmaker.
[36:46] Let's call him XX was a Canadian American filmmaker, advertiser,
[36:50] writer, and cartoonist. OK.
[36:52] He was known for his work on many different types of short
[36:55] films. OK 1962, The New Yorker ran an
[36:58] advertisement that was written by this gentleman X.
[37:02] So he has done a few things. He also worked on many
[37:04] documentaries and films. OK?
[37:06] This particular man, X, who was born, by the way, in 1919 and
[37:11] passed away in 1996, is immortalized in American pop
[37:17] culture. Something, anybody and everybody
[37:21] who has at any point been in touch with American pop culture
[37:25] probably has heard of X. OK.
[37:28] How is X immortalized? I have absolutely no idea.
[37:32] Canadian American. Canadian American filmmaker who
[37:35] did short films and documentaries.
[37:37] I'm not I'm guessing he this immortalization is not because
[37:40] of his work as a director. I'm guessing it's he's an actor
[37:43] or something. Smart.
[37:45] So the first part of your guess is correct.
[37:47] It's not because of his own work that he's immortalized.
[37:51] It actually is technically not even his acting or any of his
[37:55] entertainment related work that he has been immortalized.
[37:58] OK, to be very honest, it wasn't even him who immortalized his
[38:03] own name. Somebody else did for him.
[38:05] Somebody else did it for him. In the same way that that Amar
[38:09] Singh Tib did it for Frank Worrell in the naming Frankie
[38:12] after him. OK, I need a clue.
[38:14] I need some other clue. OK, I'm going to give you a
[38:17] clue, a big one. The name was immortalized by
[38:20] something his son did. Is this Matthew Perry's father?
[38:24] Matthew Perry's father was a model.
[38:27] He was a model. He was in those Old Spice ads.
[38:29] I forgot what his name was. Again, exactly right.
[38:32] So you don't remember Matthew Perry's father's name?
[38:34] Oh yeah, so that. Something that the son did that
[38:37] were made the father's name extremely famous because he
[38:41] named it after his father. Did Pierre Trudeau ever direct
[38:47] short movies? Something.
[38:48] Again, I don't know if Pierre Trudeau's name is not really
[38:51] immortalized by Justin. Pierre Trudeau was famous in and
[38:54] of his own regard. Yeah, if anything, Justin wrote
[38:57] the coattails of his father's fame.
[39:00] Yeah, he was an Appo baby. An Appo baby.
[39:02] Yes. Have you have you seen the video
[39:05] of Justin Trudeau doing his party trick?
[39:07] It is one of the funniest videos ever.
[39:10] He's doing this this thing where somebody's come to interview
[39:12] him. And this is where young Justin
[39:14] Trudeau. OK, So he looks very cute, very
[39:16] funny, very young. And he's taking this this news
[39:20] reporter around at his house and he's like, you know what?
[39:22] I do this cool party trick when people come to my house for
[39:24] parties, and he opens the door to his basement and he pretends
[39:28] to fall down the stairs. And he falls down the stairs and
[39:31] he's like, this is a party. And the reporter is just
[39:34] flabbergasted. He's like, what is this man
[39:36] doing? And this is just Justin Trudeau
[39:38] falling downstairs and being like, cool party trick, right?
[39:41] It makes no sense. Oh, God.
[39:45] Young, young Justin before he started wearing cultural
[39:49] appropriations of outfits. Oh yeah, I know he mentioned
[39:55] Canadian American. His son is American.
[39:59] Son is American Canadian American film maker.
[40:04] Not only did his son immortalize his father's name, he also
[40:08] immortalized his mother's name. He also immortalized his
[40:12] siblings name. Is this Everybody Loves Raymond
[40:16] or something? A lot more famous than that I I
[40:19] can't name all the characters from Everybody Loves Raymond.
[40:21] I haven't seen it, but I can probably name all these
[40:24] characters from this particular thing, and I think a lot of
[40:27] people can. It's probably as famous.
[40:31] I'm going to take a stab here and say it's probably as famous
[40:34] as naming like Chandler, Monica, Joey, Ross, Rachel and.
[40:38] Phoebe, I was about to say, is it Friends?
[40:41] But it's not OK, no. No, no it's not.
[40:44] But it's as famous as naming the six of them.
[40:46] Pop culture American where you can name the characters those.
[40:52] And most people can, is what I'm saying.
[40:54] But most people can't name all the characters like if I if I
[40:57] asked you about. Cheers.
[40:59] Yeah, I wouldn't know. You wouldn't be exactly my
[41:01] point, but it's one of the big it was at least one of the
[41:03] biggest shows of all time. So it was Frasier.
[41:04] So it was a Seinfeld. Now that now that we're in the
[41:08] realm, I'll just clarify it is ATV show.
[41:11] I have no clue dude, I can't think of any show other than
[41:13] friends where if I asked somebody they would be able to
[41:16] name all the characters. Let me, let me, let me help you
[41:20] out one more time, OK? Not only is it, it's not like
[41:23] random characters were named. It's not like, oh, Chandler is
[41:26] the name of my father, Ross is the name of my uncle, and Monica
[41:30] is the name of my mother. And that's why I named random
[41:32] people like that. It is those people exactly as
[41:35] they are in relation to the creator that they were named for
[41:38] the shows as well. So the father in the show is
[41:42] named after his own father. The mother in the show is named
[41:45] after his own mother. The siblings in the show are
[41:46] named after his own siblings. And you can name all these
[41:49] characters. Most of them.
[41:52] I'm pretty sure you can name the mother, father, and at least
[41:54] maybe one or two siblings here. I gave up.
[41:56] I have no clue. I'm going to give you the first
[42:00] name of his son. OK, Matthew.
[42:03] Son's name is Matthew. He created though the show.
[42:06] He started his career as a cartoonist.
[42:09] He started his career as a cartoonist and his name was
[42:13] Matthew. Matthew groaning Does the
[42:16] Matthew Groaning groaning? Does that help you?
[42:20] Oh God, it's a Simpsons. It's a Simpsons.
[42:25] It's always The Simpsons. I forgot the first rule of
[42:27] quizzing. It's always The Simpsons.
[42:31] I. Yeah, yeah.
[42:33] No, I understand that face. This is just bad.
[42:38] But yeah, I mean, like, even I can name all The Simpsons.
[42:40] Homer, Marge, Lisa. Exactly.
[42:43] Matthew Grunning. Yeah, I should.
[42:45] I should have got that. That's.
[42:46] Oh God. Matthew Grunning is the creator
[42:51] of The Simpsons and also Futurama for fans and Simpsons,
[42:56] one of the longest running TV shows of one of the most popular
[42:59] ones, literally shows up in pop culture all the time.
[43:02] Has predicted the future God knows how many times.
[43:04] Allegedly, the main characters are named after Matthew
[43:08] Grunning's own family members. So Homer Simpson is named after
[43:12] Homer Philip Groening Groening. And I hope I'm pronouncing that
[43:15] right. I'm just saying, I'll say
[43:16] grening. Grening.
[43:18] Actually, that my probably is probably the right
[43:19] pronunciation. Yeah, I'm going to stick to
[43:21] that. Homer.
[43:21] Philip Grening was the person who was the cartoonist in
[43:27] question who passed away in 1996, whose son is Matthew
[43:30] Grening and who created Simpsons and named Homer Simpson after
[43:33] his own father. Homer.
[43:34] By the way, Grening was named after the poet Homer.
[43:38] Yeah. His own mother's name was
[43:40] Margaret. So Margaret, Ruth, Marge.
[43:43] In the cartoon character, March, by the way, is short for
[43:45] Marjorie. Marjorie, OK.
[43:47] The miscreant child, Bart, Lisa Maggie.
[43:51] Maggie is also his sister, so Lisa is also his sibling.
[43:57] So all of these are siblings and mom and dad from his own family
[44:00] that he named it after. Bart is named after himself
[44:04] because he didn't want to give it the name Barton Lemieux, the
[44:07] name Matthew. That would have been too
[44:09] obvious. He says he named it Bart as an
[44:11] anagram to BRAT, which was referring to himself.
[44:14] Like he is the brat. So Bart, man.
[44:17] You know what's really, really sad?
[44:19] Once you started telling me this, I just remembered that
[44:22] I've read this somewhere. I just blow it just completely
[44:27] skipped my mind. OK, baka baka.
[44:33] It's, it's, it's the, the pressure of being in front of
[44:36] the camera is, is, is tremendous.
[44:38] I understand. Yeah.
[44:38] I mean, like this is, it's a completely different experience.
[44:40] I'm very, very conscious. Conscious of the fact that you
[44:43] have recorded. Yeah.
[44:46] Before we end this episode though, I did promise one of our
[44:50] listeners that I we will share how this podcast started.
[44:54] Oh yeah, so. Are you pushing these traces its
[44:57] roots back to 2000 and I want to say 13, when there was a group
[45:01] called Quizzing at Singapore. Yeah.
[45:03] Which I was a part of. It's a Facebook group, by the
[45:05] way. And I was part of, yeah.
[45:07] I used to be one of the people who was very, very active on
[45:11] their group, always trying to answer questions, doing well
[45:13] sometimes, not doing so well on the other occasions.
[45:16] And for some reason, after a while, there was this other man
[45:19] in the group who was answering a lot of questions in Singapore.
[45:23] The Indian community is not that big, and most of the people who
[45:25] are from my colleges. So I was like, who is this guy?
[45:28] Vineet Nayar who showed up does not Vineet.
[45:30] There's no connection to National University of
[45:32] Singapore, to Singapore or to anything, or that's the only
[45:37] connection he has is to cuisine. And somehow he was part of that
[45:39] group and he was probably more active than me.
[45:43] He was answering questions and doing much better than me on
[45:45] most occasions. And so at some point, I think
[45:47] Vineet and I started talking. And I remember this one time
[45:50] that I was it you who was going, I think I was going onto a
[45:54] flight and I just posted a question.
[45:55] The the the rule was that if you post a question, you give some
[45:58] time for people to answer. The first person who answers,
[46:00] you acknowledge that, OK, you got this answer, right.
[46:02] Yeah. So I gave Vineet the answer to
[46:05] my question and be like, hey, listen, if anybody answers while
[46:07] I'm in the flight, just acknowledge it and make sure
[46:09] that people know that the answer is that.
[46:11] Yeah, that is the first time I think I DM because I was like, I
[46:14] I don't want to do this to anybody else because you
[46:16] probably already know the answer.
[46:17] I don't want to ruin the game for the rest of the people.
[46:20] I think I did know. Do you remember the first
[46:21] question of yours that I answered?
[46:23] Oh, you bring and I don't remember the first question that
[46:27] of mine that you answered. No, I don't.
[46:30] Just 12 years ago. Then I I remember it because I
[46:33] was very impressed with myself. I remember the moment I answered
[46:36] it, I was in 7-11 and I was buying something and I was then
[46:41] with my then girlfriend and she was buying something and I was
[46:43] so distracted. I was on my phone and I was
[46:45] like, oh, we need this poster, a question.
[46:47] I need to see what the question is.
[46:48] And for once I immediately, because usually I'd have to
[46:51] think about it, maybe after a clue or two then I'll get it.
[46:55] But this one time I posted it and I immediately got it.
[46:57] And you had said connect these 4 kings, Julius Caesar, King
[47:02] David, Alexander the Great and Charlemagne.
[47:05] I think I was the person who answered it.
[47:07] And I said the four kings on a deck of cards.
[47:09] The suits of cards, yeah. The suits of cards.
[47:11] And that was your question that I answered.
[47:13] The first ever question you asked that I answered.
[47:15] I think the first time you ever DM me was when I when you put up
[47:19] a connect question it was with relation.
[47:23] I know this question. Oh, God.
[47:26] I'll tell you what the connect was.
[47:27] I like 17, Ocean's 11. Yeah.
[47:30] And one more movie which has the number and number in it.
[47:34] And I think that is why I posted that.
[47:36] I was like, connect these few things.
[47:38] And you immediately got it. And I was so surprised because I
[47:41] was like, this is going to be a tough question and you
[47:43] immediately got it. And the answer, by the way, for
[47:46] listeners was Catch 22, because when Joseph Heller was trying to
[47:51] name his book, he initially wanted to name it Catch 11.
[47:54] And the publishers like, oh, Ocean's 11 has just come out.
[47:57] He considered 17 with Starlight 17.
[47:59] Was there a movie, a famous movie?
[48:01] So he went through a few numbers, and then 11, he doubled
[48:04] it. He named it Catch 22.
[48:05] So that's how he came up with the number Catch 22 for the
[48:07] book, Catch 22. And you got it immediately.
[48:10] And I remember asking like, how the hell did you get it?
[48:12] DMD I was like, how did you get it so quickly?
[48:14] This is such a random piece of trivia.
[48:16] And I remember you said this thing where you're like, oh, I
[48:18] don't play the quiz, Play the quizzer because I had told you
[48:22] at some point Catch 22 is my favorite book.
[48:24] Yeah. So you remember that piece of
[48:26] trivia, and that's why you answered that question.
[48:27] So this was after a while, after we had known each other for a
[48:30] while. So I already knew my favorite
[48:31] book. Oh.
[48:32] Yeah, yeah, you're right. This is way back when, and then
[48:34] we lost touch. I remember at some point you got
[48:36] married and I remember I messaged you and congratulated
[48:37] you for that. Yes, yeah. 20/16/2017 is when
[48:40] you got married somewhere there. 2016, yes.
[48:42] I remember I saw it on Facebook. I messaged you and I was like,
[48:45] oh, I haven't spoken to you in a while.
[48:46] And again, we lost touch and then I moved back to India and
[48:48] that's when you messaged me because you saw me in some
[48:50] quizzing yes post or something. When was that?
[48:53] So I saw I think you were doing guest gigs as a quiz master.
[48:57] Yeah, yeah. For some quizzing company and
[49:00] quite randomly I saw this Instagram post of this company
[49:04] and it's a very familiar face sitting as a quizmaster and I
[49:07] was like, wait, what is he doing in Mumbai?
[49:09] I thought he was working in Singapore.
[49:11] So then IDMD you and you were like, hey, yeah, I'm back in
[49:16] India and I'm an actor and I'm like wow, OK, so that's great.
[49:21] So for those who don't know, I'm a pathologist by trade, I'm a
[49:23] doctor. So I, this was just after the
[49:27] main first few waves of COVID and at that point of time I'd
[49:31] been heavily involved in COVID and I, nothing had happened.
[49:34] Like I'd never contracted COVID while I was heavily involved.
[49:37] After the waves kind of settled, then I got COVID and I got it
[49:41] pretty bad. Post that for a few months I had
[49:47] something like a brain fog and I was speaking to a, a colleague
[49:51] of mine and he kind of suggested, you know, get back
[49:54] into something active, something like learn a new language or
[49:57] something like that. I was too lazy to learn a
[49:58] language. So then I was like, OK, I'll get
[50:00] back into quizzing. For some reason.
[50:04] I just thought, OK, why not do something different with
[50:07] quizzing? And then I had this idea, or if
[50:10] you ask me the inspiration, I have no clue.
[50:12] I just thought, OK, let's do a podcast because I've always been
[50:14] interested in podcast. And by the time I've gotten
[50:16] really into podcasts, and that was around the time we got back
[50:20] in touch on Instagram. And then I was like, hey, why
[50:24] not just do a podcast? I already know a guy who's damn
[50:26] good quizzes, so why not just put him on the podcast?
[50:29] And then we discussed it. And two months later, I think we
[50:32] were discussing it in November. And then in, I think the first
[50:34] week of January, we released our first episode.
[50:37] Yes, we did. Yeah, that was actually a very
[50:38] quick turn around. Yeah, I remember we were also
[50:40] discussing names. Yeah.
[50:42] What is brain juice? I think names is brain juice.
[50:46] We we could narrow down some tapas.
[50:50] I don't know why I feel like those are trivial tapas or
[50:52] something like that. We look at food and drink.
[50:56] Yes. And are you quizzing me was
[50:58] Aditya's suggestion. And I was like, yeah, I don't
[51:00] think I can top that. So now the question that I have
[51:04] been asked is how do you say are you quizzing me?
[51:08] Is it like are you quizzing me or is it are you quizzing me?
[51:13] Are you quizzing me or is it are you quizzing me?
[51:17] Where's the emphasis? I think the reason I came with
[51:20] it was because very often when somebody gives you great piece
[51:23] of trivia, it's like, are you kidding me?
[51:25] Yeah, exactly. It's the response.
[51:26] And then it go, that's what I changed it to.
[51:28] Are you quizzing me? Which is, I think, an app title
[51:32] because there are so many times I actually, every time I edit
[51:34] the podcast, I noticed the number of times we do say, are
[51:36] you kidding me? Yeah, yes, we do, because there
[51:40] is trivia that. Blows our mind.
[51:42] And we're like, are you kidding me?
[51:43] Yeah. Do you also remember the first
[51:45] question you asked me on the phone call when you called me up
[51:48] to explain the idea for this podcast?
[51:49] Oh dude your memory is phenomenal.
[51:51] I can't remember. I remember this because the last
[51:56] episode you said that people have complained that we don't
[51:58] have Bollywood trivia. Yeah.
[52:00] And the first question you asked me ever on a phone call when you
[52:03] were like, hey there, let's do this.
[52:04] And here's a sample of a question that we can ask each
[52:06] other. Oh wait, do you know the answer?
[52:09] Yeah. OK.
[52:09] So question is as follows. Amitabh Bachchan goes to
[52:12] director, producer Mahmoud's house, and story goes that
[52:17] Mahmoud was high on Campos tablets.
[52:20] And so Amitabh went with a friend of his to meet Mahmoud.
[52:24] Mahmoud saw this felony. He was like, this fellow is a
[52:27] fantastic looking man. He's a leading man material.
[52:31] So he immediately takes out like, some ₹10,000 from his
[52:33] cupboard and offers it to the guy and says, this is my signing
[52:36] bonus. You're going to be the hero for
[52:37] my next movie. Then there was like, an awkward
[52:40] silence. And Amitabh then reintroduced
[52:43] his friend to Mahmoud. And then Mahmoud very sheepishly
[52:46] took the money back. And the question is, who was
[52:48] Amitabh's friend? And yeah, I think you remember
[52:50] you answered the question at that point of time.
[52:52] I answered the question and it took me maybe a little bit of
[52:55] time. And then I was like, oh, is it
[52:56] somebody famous? Must be somebody of that era.
[52:59] And I was like somebody handsome, somebody most people
[53:01] should have known. I went with Rajiv Gandhi, which
[53:03] turned out to be the right answer.
[53:05] It was the right answer, yeah. And here's the thing, I was very
[53:07] impressed with myself. And your response was, I know
[53:10] this was an easy question, but in the episode we'll have
[53:12] tougher questions. I was like, what the hell, man?
[53:15] I was so impressed with the answer and this man just, he
[53:18] brushed it away like, oh, that was an easy question.
[53:21] It probably was an easy question just to me.
[53:23] I had not known this previous. I was like, oh it is so smart.
[53:27] There's something else that most people don't know is that our
[53:29] very first episode that we recorded is actually unreleased.
[53:32] Oh yeah, that is true. Yeah, Yeah.
[53:35] So we, because we recorded this episode, we were very new at
[53:37] this and we didn't have any idea about editing or doing anything
[53:40] else. So we were trusting an online
[53:42] platform which shall not be named.
[53:45] And we recorded it and then when I went back to edit it, it was
[53:50] completely out of sync and nothing I did was able to make
[53:53] it get back into sync. Now I might go back at some
[53:56] point and try and see if I can manually splice it together to
[53:59] create a special episode out of it.
[54:01] It'll be fun. It was a pretty good episode.
[54:04] We had some pretty good questions. 88 if I If you know
[54:09] what it is, you know what it is. Aditya knows what it is. 88 Yes,
[54:13] yes, of course. It is a good episode and I was
[54:15] feeling very good about myself and then I went to edit it and I
[54:17] was like, oh God. And then we recorded a first
[54:21] episode again. Do.
[54:22] You remember this one time that I was supposed to press record
[54:24] and I forgot to press record? Exactly.
[54:26] I was about to say that. I was about to say that we went
[54:29] through like 2-3 questions before I realized that Aditya
[54:32] had forgotten to press record and all those questions and, and
[54:35] it's and it's always really good questions, really good.
[54:39] Questions. Those are really good questions.
[54:40] I was so hurt that we didn't record it and because of our our
[54:43] inherent need to be ethical about this, we don't repeat
[54:46] questions. And I've had many people come up
[54:48] to me and be like, you guys rehearsed this, right?
[54:50] This must be completely rehearsed.
[54:51] Absolutely not. If it was rehearsed, I'd make
[54:54] myself look much better. Oh so much smarter.
[54:56] I would not look this ridiculous.
[54:58] Seriously. You would get Homer Simpson much
[55:00] faster than that. You would get Homer Simpson much
[55:02] faster. Oh, that was embarrassing.
[55:05] That was really embarrassing. Oh God.
[55:07] To be fair to any listener, we do edit out pauses sometimes and
[55:12] sometimes very long sidetracks that we go into.
[55:15] We have nothing to do with the question.
[55:16] We sometimes do reduce that, but that's only to keep the timing
[55:19] in control. Yeah, but no, we never rehearse
[55:22] it. We never know each other's
[55:23] questions in advance. Most of the times we don't even
[55:25] know our own questions in advance.
[55:27] I am guilty of that. I cope with questions very much
[55:29] on the fly so but hey, this was a good walk down memory lane and
[55:35] a good first hopefully video episode if it edits correctly.
[55:38] Yeah. So before we wind up, there's
[55:41] the audience question that I'd asked at the beginning of the
[55:42] episode, which was which is the longest river in the world with
[55:46] no bridges? No bridges at all.
[55:49] Not even like a. Like a.
[55:51] Absolutely noble. Not even like a wooden bridge or
[55:53] something. Not even a rope bridge?
[55:57] No, apparently not. That makes no sense.
[55:59] You would need a bridge over most long rivers.
[56:01] No, and it's pretty long, so that's a clue.
[56:04] It's a very, very long river, but no bridges.
[56:07] Let me just put it this way. Why would you not build a
[56:10] bridge? The river floods very often.
[56:13] Very good. And the Nile floods very often.
[56:16] Not so much anymore since April, the dams and whatnot.
[56:19] Amazon. You're right, it is the Amazon.
[56:22] No way. The Amazon River does not have
[56:24] bridges because of sad reasons that, you know, it's very wide
[56:28] at most points and during the year during the rains, it's very
[56:33] unpredictable that way. It's just not practical to have
[56:36] bridges. So the Amazon River does not
[56:37] have bridges. I was also shocked to know this.
[56:40] Yeah, I mean, I guess it's a huge river, but it's just like
[56:43] it goes to the rainforest at some point, even the indigenous
[56:46] tribes. Yeah, but it's too big to build
[56:49] a non concrete bridge I guess. OK, so before we wind up the
[56:55] your pop culture recommendations.
[56:57] I don't think I've recommended this in the past, so I'm going
[57:00] to do so now. Arrested Development.
[57:03] A phenomenal show that I'm re watching right now and it's just
[57:08] so funny. The first three seasons.
[57:10] Don't bother with the last two. Nowhere close to the greatness
[57:13] of the first three seasons, but such a good show, such a funny
[57:16] show. Some and considering this was on
[57:19] TV in 2003, 2004, 2005, or somewhere around that time when
[57:23] most people on TV were watching Friends or How I Met Your
[57:26] Mother, soon thereafter, Big Bang Theory and Modern Family.
[57:30] Most of these were at least How I Met Your mother.
[57:32] Friends were were sitcoms with like, you know, a laugh track
[57:35] and stuff. And I said when I was doing
[57:37] something so different, so creative, it it really blew my
[57:41] mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[57:42] Such clever comedy. Absolutely must watch if you're
[57:45] looking for a comedy show to watch.
[57:47] It holds up. Most of the comedy holds up.
[57:49] Some of it is maybe not not culturally appropriate anymore,
[57:52] but most of it does hold up. OK, so my recommendation would
[57:56] be a Netflix show called The Residence.
[57:58] I watched it a few months ago but it never got around to kind
[58:01] of recommending it. Fantastic detective show.
[58:05] Just watch it. I mean, like, it's quite
[58:06] different from the regular material you see on television.
[58:09] So that's there. And now that Superman has just
[58:12] released, at the time of recording, Superman has released
[58:15] last week. So Jura #2, which stars Nicholas
[58:19] Holt, who plays Lex Luthor, that was also quite a good movie.
[58:24] I really enjoyed it. So Jura #2 and the Residents on
[58:28] Netflix, go watch that. Uzo Aduba, who plays the lead in
[58:33] The Residence, the main detective first shot to fame in
[58:37] Orange is the New Black. Phenomenal show, and she is
[58:39] phenomenal in that show as well. A very different character in
[58:43] this particular show and just both shows I've watched The
[58:45] Residence as well. It's a very good actress.
[58:48] So check out Audience New Black also.
[58:50] Yeah, yeah. And that's all the time we have
[58:55] for this episode. Thank you all for tuning in.
[59:00] If you liked what you heard, please subscribe to our podcast.
[59:04] And if you're watching this on YouTube, hit that subscribe
[59:07] button and the notification bell and follow us so that you know
[59:12] when every time we release a new video or an episode, you can
[59:16] reach out to us for anything, for feedback, for suggestions
[59:19] for trivia. You can do that at
[59:21] areyouquizzingme@gmail.com. Especially if you want questions
[59:24] asked on the show, all you got to do is send us a mail.
[59:27] We have a Reddit community R slash, are you quizzing me?
[59:31] We have an Instagram page again at Are you quizzing me?
[59:35] Reach out to us on any of these platforms and we'll get back to
[59:39] you again. You can leave comments on this
[59:41] YouTube video as well. We'll also try to connect with
[59:44] you there. And that's about it.
[59:47] I'm doing the spiel in front of a camera for the first time, and
[59:51] anybody who's listened to my spiel can understand how nervous
[59:54] I am. So forgive me.
[59:55] I'll get better at this. That's all.
[59:58] We have the time for this episode this week.
[1:00:01] See you guys next week. You use my tagline.
[1:00:04] So yeah, have a great day, guys. Oh God, yeah, yeah.
[1:00:09] So have a great day. And he says.
[1:00:12] See you guys next week. Bye.

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