# Episode 084 - Genes, Games & Geography

An episode of [Are You Quizzing Me?](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663104901), 23 Sep 2024, 56 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/d7afa960/podcast/play/92058599/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2024-8-23%2F7f585887-1ad1-2c68-719c-90a2b86750c6.mp3

Do you know what software error which we all face, caused names of genes to be reported erroneously in multiple studies? Do you know which party game invented in Russia in the 1980s was based on the fact that an informed minority would always win over an uninformed majority? Tune in 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] Welcome to Are you Quizzing Me. I am Vineet Nair with my Co host
[0:04] Aditya Kashyap. This is a quizzing trivia
[0:07] podcast show. Join us as we dive deep into
[0:10] history, science, pop culture and so much more.
[0:14] Let's get quizzing and we're back for episode number 84 of
[0:21] Are You Quizzing me? Your favorite quizzing and
[0:24] trivia podcast show. Aditya and I are back for
[0:27] another round of quizzing, and let's start off today's episode
[0:30] with the audience question. Today's audience question is a
[0:33] little long, so bear with me, dear audience.
[0:36] In the mid 1970s, X worked at the Department of Interior
[0:40] Design at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest.
[0:43] He sought to find a teaching tool to help his students
[0:46] understand 3D objects. So X invented something which
[0:50] carries his name and for which he really received a patent.
[0:54] The first Test batches of the product were produced in late
[0:56] 1977 and released at Budapest toy shops.
[1:00] In 1979 a deal was signed with Ideal Toys to bring it to the
[1:04] Western world, and the product made its international debut at
[1:07] the toy fairs of London, Paris, Nuremberg, Nuremberg and New
[1:12] York. The Guardian Knot and Impa Gold
[1:16] were the other names considered, but it ended up being marketed
[1:19] under X's own name. So who is X and what did he
[1:23] invent? So this is the audience question
[1:26] for this week, which have an answer at the end of today's
[1:29] episode. Let's start off with our regular
[1:31] round of quizzing Aditya. Why don't you start us off with
[1:34] a question from? AU All right.
[1:37] I would love to start us off with a question that once again
[1:42] caters to your interests perhaps.
[1:45] So we are talking about this field of medical research.
[1:50] The moment you say medical researcher pathology or
[1:53] something like that, the pressure becomes immense because
[1:55] the I, I, I I just cannot not answer this.
[1:59] Yeah, I was going to guess that's true for you.
[2:01] This is why very smartly I've decided to not have any fixed
[2:04] career of so you can't corner me in anything.
[2:09] OK, cool. Do you know the gene symbols
[2:12] septin 2 and membrane associated ring finger C3 at C41?
[2:18] OK. You're familiar with these genes
[2:21] numbers? No, no, I'm not familiar with
[2:23] that particular nomenclature. Maybe in another form or it has
[2:26] shortened names. Many genes have multiple names,
[2:28] but I'm not familiar with the one that you just mentioned.
[2:30] Yes, so. That's a shame.
[2:32] I don't know. I actually have no clue or no
[2:34] context to these things except in the trivia that I'm about to
[2:37] get to. So these are genes amongst
[2:41] others that have led to a certain problem and very common
[2:46] problem across scientific papers.
[2:49] So one in five genetics papers contain errors because of genes
[2:55] like these. Can you tell me what error that
[2:59] was covered by Science magazine? They they described how one in
[3:05] five genetics papers contain errors.
[3:07] What error is this that is encountered because of genes
[3:11] like this? Can you repeat the names of
[3:13] genes again please? Of course first one is called
[3:16] Septin 2, second one is membrane associated ring finger C3 at
[3:23] C41E3. Ubiquitin protein ligase,
[3:27] ligase, ligase, ligase are there.
[3:31] Oh that's that's a big ass name. Wow.
[3:35] Are errors in scientific papers because of these genes?
[3:39] Is. It something to do with the
[3:41] nomenclature of the genes itself.
[3:43] Yeah, you wouldn't be incorrect in assuming so.
[3:46] I'm assuming that that these genes themselves have alternate
[3:50] like shortened versions. Like we don't go around saying,
[3:53] you know, saying the entire name of the gene itself.
[3:56] We always kind of, you know, shorten it 2-3 or four letter
[4:01] acronyms. So did this share an acronym
[4:06] with another gene which nobody noticed until much later or
[4:11] something like that? I would say that this is an
[4:14] error that perhaps a lot more of us have encountered in a
[4:17] slightly different way, but but something we have all
[4:21] encountered in our work life, even perhaps some of us in our
[4:26] personal life than just gene researchers, a very, very
[4:30] similar era. So it isn't that the gene just
[4:33] shared its name with another gene.
[4:35] That would be a very genetic researcher specific error.
[4:39] Saying that this error is probably something we all have
[4:41] encountered. Nope, I'm going to need some
[4:44] other kind of clue because this is too vague for me.
[4:48] All right, so as I mentioned, this was an issue that Science
[4:52] magazine itself pointed out. It was actually first published
[4:57] in first published by researchers as an analysis in
[5:02] genome biology. And they said the issue can be
[5:06] fixed by changing one specific value in a software that you
[5:13] use, or using an alternate software altogether.
[5:17] So it's something to do with the tech side?
[5:21] OK, has this got to do with the ASCII character set or the
[5:28] hexadecimal representation of genes or something like that?
[5:33] Like I said, this is an issue or an error that we all have used.
[5:36] Oh, OK, we all wait, wait, is this like an uppercase I
[5:40] lowercase L situation? No, but I don't know why would.
[5:43] That affect. No, because many fonts, the
[5:46] uppercase I and the lowercase L look almost exactly the same.
[5:49] Yeah. Yeah, but no, not the case.
[5:51] This is a specific software that almost all of us, especially
[5:55] people with white collar jobs. So I'm guessing it must be Excel
[5:58] at some point. Yeah, Excel will be there, right
[6:03] software. But what about these genes
[6:05] specifically was causing an error?
[6:09] The name, what are the names again?
[6:10] Septin 2 and I'm going to make you say that again the.
[6:14] Other one is it's super long I'm going to probably screwed up
[6:18] entirely but here goes. Membrane associated ring finger
[6:22] C3 at C41E3 ubiquitin protein ligase are lovingly called
[6:27] bablu. OK, but you people, it's not
[6:31] called bubble. OK.
[6:34] Does this have something to do with the cell references in
[6:36] Excel like A1, A2B, 1B2? No, no, no, no, no, no.
[6:42] Something even more, even more basic, even simpler in Excel.
[6:46] That is an error that perhaps all of us have seen or
[6:49] encountered or yeah, try to resolve at some point.
[6:54] Like you try to type a date sometimes like you try to type a
[6:57] number or you type, you know, 11:50 and it comes as 12th
[7:00] October for some reason or October 2012, 2012.
[7:04] Is it a date? No, but that's that doesn't make
[7:06] sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[7:08] Actually you're quite close. You're pretty much had the
[7:10] answer. Oh wait, what?
[7:12] Just wrap it in. Sept oh September, Sept 12,
[7:16] September 12 and with the other will be March something.
[7:20] Yes, exactly. So some of these gene names like
[7:25] you said at the very beginning are shortened for ease of use.
[7:29] So Septin 2 becomes Sept. 2. And membrane associated RING for
[7:33] the C3 at C41E3 ubiquitin protein like GAS becomes March
[7:37] 1. So gene names like this, when
[7:41] they come into Excel are automatically converted to
[7:44] dates. And that is why a whole lot of
[7:49] research that has to do with genetics has errors in the
[7:54] scientific literature just because at some point if they've
[7:56] used Excel and have used these genes.
[7:59] And very interestingly, the way to solve this problem, and
[8:02] that's the hint that I was giving you, was suggested by the
[8:06] researchers themselves. They said the issue can
[8:08] obviously be fixed by formatting Excel columns as tech.
[8:12] They just pay attention format to test text, don't let it be
[8:15] formatted automatically to a date, or switching to Google
[8:17] Sheets where gene names are stored exactly as they're
[8:20] entered. Google isn't paying me to say
[8:22] this, but apparently Google Sheets really knows what they
[8:25] are doing when it comes to genetic research.
[8:28] It was because they really don't mess that up.
[8:31] Or it's like a really dumb software, it's not smart enough
[8:34] to try and recognize. It sometimes Microsoft is too
[8:40] smart, but it's not good, I guess then in this one case.
[8:43] But yeah, I thought this was a piece of trivia that you might
[8:46] enjoy the researcher in you. And it is.
[8:51] Quite interesting. I will keep note of that to, you
[8:55] know, belt it out at some gene researcher party that I meant.
[9:00] Yeah, those don't exist. Yeah, just hanging out talking
[9:03] about no, those don't exist. And that's where you bring up
[9:07] no, Yeah, You know, this actually reminded me my next
[9:10] clue was going to be a joke. What is the one thing that is
[9:14] common between in cells and Excel?
[9:19] The cell. Yes, that that would be the we
[9:25] need to approach the joke, but what is common between an in
[9:28] cell and Excel is that both sometimes incorrectly assume
[9:32] that something is a date. Oh, that is beautiful.
[9:35] Oh, that is probably has. That has to be the best joke
[9:38] you've said on this podcast ever.
[9:42] Ever. That that's a bit, that's a bit
[9:45] heartbreaking because it's not my joke, but I'll take credit
[9:49] for repeating it, yes. OK, that was a nice one.
[9:53] That's one a nice one. Let's move on from gene editing
[9:59] to something that has absolutely nothing to do with gene editing.
[10:02] Let's go to the city of Chicago. So Chicago, like all other
[10:07] cities at the time, was struggling financially because
[10:11] of the Great Recession of 22,000 and eight, right?
[10:14] So they were having a lot of issues because of the grand, the
[10:17] stock markets crashing, a lot of companies closing, the housing
[10:20] market, you know, completely bottoming out in the US.
[10:23] So because of this financial desperation, the city rushed to
[10:28] take a $1.15 billion loan offer from private investors, OK,
[10:36] including the Dubai Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi.
[10:40] So the basically investors from Abu Dhabi and Dubai along with a
[10:43] few other private investors from the US, they are offered a $1.15
[10:47] billion loan to the city of Chicago.
[10:50] In exchange for the loan as repayment, they wanted control
[10:56] of X for 75 years. OK.
[11:01] Once the ink was dry, the deals finer details came into focus.
[11:05] The city's Inspector General concluded that X had been sold
[11:09] off for $1 billion under its actual value.
[11:15] The investors have since made out like bandits.
[11:18] Within eleven years, that is. By 2019, they had made back
[11:22] their initial investment of $1.15 billion plus $500 million
[11:29] in profit on top of that, and they still have 60 plus years to
[11:34] go. My question is, what in the city
[11:37] of Chicago did the investors buy the rights to for 75 years?
[11:42] This will have to be parking spot.
[11:46] More specifically parking meters.
[11:48] But yes, you're right, they did by the rights to these parking
[11:52] meters, all the parking meters in Chicago for a period of 75
[11:57] years. How the hell did you know this?
[12:00] When you initially started describing, I was going to say
[12:02] something like airport, like O'Hare or something, but then I
[12:05] remembered and it's the voice of, I want to say Roman Mars in
[12:09] my head. It's a 19 Pi episode.
[12:12] I think it's a 99% invisible episode that I've heard this on.
[12:15] It's either that or it's This American Life, so it's Ira Glass
[12:19] or it's Roman Mars, one of these two men who whose voice I hear
[12:24] very frequently describing this particular problem in Chicago.
[12:28] And it just blows your mind as to how much money they're going
[12:32] to make off of this deal. Not just that.
[12:35] So what happened is they the moment the ink was the dry on
[12:39] the deal, these investors hiked up parking prices in Chicago,
[12:44] making it one of the most expensive cities in the US to
[12:47] park in. So they actually got more money.
[12:49] They got back their $1.15 billion plus the 500 million.
[12:53] They'll make God knows how many more billions of dollars over
[12:57] the next 60 plus years. And there's a clause in that
[13:02] deal which makes it very difficult for the city to take
[13:07] back control of any of these parking meters for any reason
[13:11] whatsoever. So, for example, the city wants
[13:13] to go green if they want to build in a like a bike lane,
[13:17] right? Or they want to create some more
[13:19] form of sustainable transport mechanism and for which they
[13:23] want to use an existing parking spot, they have to buy back one
[13:28] of these parking meters. And I think it's around $78
[13:32] million that they have tried to spend for buying back a few,
[13:37] like a couple of these parking meters because the deal looks at
[13:42] their potential value and loss over the next 60 years and
[13:46] charges a rate dependent on that.
[13:48] And the city has 36,000 parking meters.
[13:52] Oh my Lord, that's insane. That is absolutely wrong.
[13:56] Just imagine if if we obviously we wouldn't be included in the
[13:59] deal, but if we had invested, we would have made enough money for
[14:04] our grandchildren to enjoy like guaranteed income for the next
[14:08] 70 years. Hey, you and I would have a lot
[14:11] more time to do a lot more podcasts, not to worry about
[14:16] anything else in life. No, that, that is true.
[14:17] That is insane. And yeah, I can't imagine just
[14:22] such a such a ridiculously 1 sided deal.
[14:27] And I live in Mumbai, a country and a city which is known to be
[14:32] very, very lopsided when it comes to the rich and poor.
[14:34] But there you go. USL is capitalism.
[14:38] Yeah. And now The thing is, I also
[14:40] want to like applaud the brain of the investor.
[14:43] Like they could have asked for a lot of things, right?
[14:46] Like you said, they could have asked for operation like to her
[14:48] airport. They could have all asked for
[14:50] like the Chicago Bean, all the proceeds to the Chicago Bean or
[14:54] something like that, or the orchestra, whatever.
[14:58] But they went with parking meters because volume.
[15:03] Smart, Very, very intelligent of these investors.
[15:06] I love it. Chicago is also the city of
[15:08] improv, improv as it's currently known as born.
[15:11] And I can't imagine any person who decides to pursue improv
[15:15] having the money to pay for stuff like this.
[15:18] Well, to be fair, they probably don't even own cars, so it's.
[15:23] It's good for them, I guess. Yeah.
[15:24] It doesn't affect them either way.
[15:27] OK, so go find this episode. It's a pop culture
[15:31] recommendation. I guess I did This American Life
[15:33] or 990. I both of them phenomenal shows,
[15:37] normal podcasts themselves. OK, but I will move on to
[15:41] something else. And again, this is from the
[15:44] field of research and specifically a doctorate student
[15:49] who in sociology and psychology wanted to prove his thesis and
[15:54] prove his thesis by actually combining his duties in research
[15:59] along with his duties of teaching high school students or
[16:02] some some students. So he came up with X to prove
[16:08] his thesis that informed minorities always come out on
[16:13] top. If there's an informed minority,
[16:16] they succeed overwhelmingly. What did this PSD student in
[16:22] Russia come up with? What is X?
[16:28] So he came up with X because to prove that an informed minority
[16:34] would always come out on top. Yeah.
[16:37] What's the time frame on this? So the name of this person is
[16:40] Dmitri Devdoff, a Russian, a Russian guy.
[16:44] And this was in the spring of 1987 that X was first tried out.
[16:52] This. This can't be Tetris, right?
[16:57] No, it's not Tetris. Tetris also came around the same
[16:59] time from the Soviet Union, probably a bit earlier.
[17:03] Tetris is a bit. Earlier so informed minority.
[17:06] Is this some kind of game? Yeah, yeah, you are actually
[17:11] pretty on the mark for that. It is some sort of a game and
[17:14] the first game of X happened in spring of 1987.
[17:19] Informed minority always comes out on top of that is like that
[17:25] should be giving me the answers. I'm trying to guess what that
[17:30] could be. Do you have any other clues that
[17:33] you could throw my way? I'm assuming if you don't know
[17:36] it by now, you probably haven't heard of this, but let me try.
[17:41] So there's this guy called Andrew Plotkin, also known as
[17:45] Zarf, who's the central figure in the modern interactive
[17:49] fiction community. So IF community is software
[17:54] simulating environments in which players use text commands to
[17:58] control characters and influence the environment, that is
[18:01] interactive fiction community. So he was one of the central
[18:05] figures in that particular community.
[18:07] He is the one who gave the name and well, modified the rules
[18:12] very slightly when this when X came to America around 1997.
[18:19] So he gave it its alternate version, which is also fairly
[18:23] popular, popular both X and its alternate version, let's word Y
[18:28] are fairly popular across the world.
[18:30] I myself have played both X&Y more X than Y, but yeah, pretty
[18:37] common. And then there are variation and
[18:38] version of this game I imagine a number of times over and over.
[18:44] I like a lot of the role-playing games in the 80s were like, you
[18:47] know, text based, right? You have to type in commands and
[18:51] that included Zelda also. But I don't think this is
[18:54] nothing to do with Zelda. I'm fairly sure because I was a
[18:56] Nintendo. So that's nothing to do with
[18:57] that. It's really like a turn, turn
[19:00] based game, right? It's actually a multiplayer
[19:02] game, not a two player game. It starts off multiplayer.
[19:07] OK dude I'm just completely blanking.
[19:10] I the games that are coming to mind are all much older.
[19:13] Like Risk is much older. Yeah, this isn't as much of a
[19:17] board game, though there is I think a board game version of
[19:19] this is more of considered this more of a party game.
[19:22] A party game is it Never Have I ever?
[19:24] No, I thought, it can be never have I ever?
[19:26] No, that doesn't have anything to do with informed minorities.
[19:30] Yeah, I guess you are an informed minority because you
[19:32] know what you have. Done.
[19:33] Yeah, that. Doesn't work.
[19:35] Is this spot the liar? I'm not sure spot the liar is,
[19:41] but I don't think that is the case.
[19:43] But it's similar I guess because there are versions of this game
[19:46] that have existed since then and like a very rudimentary version,
[19:51] probably existed even before. But the current popular version,
[19:55] I think I'll give it to you because you if you have not
[19:57] heard of this, you probably can't correct this.
[19:59] Is this game called Mafia? Have you played Mafia?
[20:01] I have not played mafia. I have heard of it tangentially,
[20:04] but I don't know much about it. Oh, so again, it's it's a
[20:09] question that is perhaps close to my heart because many an
[20:12] evening was spent in my hostel dorm room with all of us wasting
[20:16] it away playing round after round of Mafia.
[20:21] So Mafia is this party game. And this is an explanation, for
[20:25] those of you in the audience who might not have heard of it, is a
[20:28] party game also known as, by the way, Werewolf.
[20:31] That's the name that it became popular in the US because Andrew
[20:34] Plotkin gave it the werewolf theme, arguing that the mafia
[20:37] had less cultural resonance and we will fit the idea of a hidden
[20:42] enemy much better. So the idea is of this game is
[20:45] that there are two phases, a day and a night phase.
[20:48] During the night phase they inform minority, in the first
[20:51] case mafia and in the second case werewolves.
[20:53] They get to kill one of the uninvolved citizens.
[20:56] Or villages? Yeah, yeah.
[20:58] And then during the day phase, you have to figure out who they
[21:00] are and then eliminate them. So it turn by turn, either a
[21:04] citizen gets killed during the night phase and during the day
[21:07] phase somebody gets voted out, which will be either a mafia or
[21:10] a citizen. And that's how the game
[21:12] progresses. Still.
[21:13] Either the mafia are equal in number, two citizens, or all the
[21:18] mafia have been eliminated. Very, very rudimentary
[21:20] explanation played at your next party that you do.
[21:23] It's a pop culture recommendation, I guess.
[21:25] And so when Andrew Plotkin was trying to rework it, he realized
[21:29] that the idea of somebody killing at night and hiding in
[21:32] plain sight during the day, that idea fit wheels better than
[21:37] Mafia. Which I kinda agree, but I've
[21:38] played more Mafia than I've played wheels.
[21:40] There are actually many, many variations and versions of this.
[21:43] A lot of them involve board games, because then you can of
[21:47] course make it slightly more complicated.
[21:49] One of them is secret Hitler. I think it's a similar kind of
[21:52] concept, the idea always being that somebody or the other.
[21:55] Is is an imposter? Is an informed minority yeah.
[21:58] Is an imposter of some sort and that's how the game goes so that
[22:04] is I guess among us is also there like that yeah.
[22:07] So the viral game from during pandemic that a lot of us might
[22:12] have played online with our friends.
[22:13] So all these games came from a very simple idea of trying to
[22:17] combine psychology, sociology, research with teaching duties,
[22:21] high school teaching duties, and trying to prove the fact that
[22:24] informed minorities always come out on.
[22:26] Top Nice. I thought that was a pretty cool
[22:29] origin story. Very nice, very nice.
[22:32] And you said this originated in Russia.
[22:34] Yeah. That's right, yeah.
[22:37] OK, so let's move from Russia over the border to Sweden.
[22:40] Now that's a segue. Inter IKEA Systems BV, commonly
[22:47] known and trading on the stock market as IKEA, which is spelled
[22:52] IKEA, is a Swedish multinational conglomerate that designs and
[22:57] sells, ready to assemble, furniture, kitchen appliances,
[23:00] decorations, home accessories, and various other goods and home
[23:03] services. Started in 1943 by Ingvar
[23:07] Kamprad and currently legally headquartered in the
[23:10] Netherlands, IKEA has been the world's largest furniture
[23:14] retailer since 2008. The second highest selling IKEA
[23:21] product is a bookcase. Very Scandinavian looking, tall,
[23:26] no frills, white bookcase open called the Billy bookcase.
[23:31] Like the name is not important, the brand name is not important,
[23:34] but their second highest selling product is a bookcase with one
[23:40] being sold every 5 seconds. I don't like the look on
[23:43] Aditya's face. I think he knows where I'm going
[23:45] with this, but I'm going to, you know, put my head in the bat
[23:48] trap anyway. If this is the second highest
[23:51] selling product that IKEA sells, what is the number one best
[23:55] selling IKEA product? Always play the player.
[24:00] It would not. It would not be something
[24:03] obvious and knowing we need to be something unexpected.
[24:09] So no, I don't know this particular piece of trivia, but
[24:11] I'd have to guess it is a hot dog.
[24:15] Is the IKEA hot dog the highest selling IKEA?
[24:18] It's not a hot dog. But I'm assuming it's a food
[24:21] item. It's the meatballs then.
[24:23] Yes, yes, you guessed it. Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
[24:27] I'm going to be a sore loser from now on every time you get
[24:29] an answer, right? This is not fair.
[24:31] You shouldn't have practice so quickly, but yes.
[24:35] So for those who don't know, IKEA has this huge kind of
[24:39] assemblage of furniture company, which has these very large
[24:43] showrooms where they've served food since the 1960s.
[24:48] And in 1985, Swedish chef Severin Jostet, I think I'm
[24:52] pronouncing completely wrong, created a meatball that was
[24:56] delicious, affordable, and easy to serve based on the
[24:59] traditional Swedish meatball. After 10 months of testing and
[25:03] tasting like it took them ten months of testing to arrive at
[25:06] what we currently call the IKEA meatball.
[25:09] And they sell one more than 1 billion of those a year.
[25:15] Oh wow. More than 1 billion and during
[25:18] the lockdown, during the COVID lockdown, IKEA will have these
[25:22] very iconic designed instructions for assembly of
[25:26] their furniture released a kind of digital pamphlet explaining
[25:30] how you could make their meatballs at home.
[25:34] Oh, OK, that's interesting. I think I've seen this.
[25:37] Yeah, you're right. And that brings a bit.
[25:38] So IKEA, this furniture conglomerate, sells more like
[25:43] more meatballs by multiple orders of magnitude than they do
[25:47] furniture. I read 1 figure.
[25:49] I'm not exactly sure if that's right, but apparently around 13%
[25:54] of IKEA's top line revenue comes from food sales.
[25:57] Oh, OK. I have read this somewhere and
[26:00] again, might not be exactly accurate, but the revenue might
[26:03] be very high. But they apparently make a loss
[26:07] on a lot of the food items. And the directive from the IKEA
[26:12] board or whoever it is making these decisions is that that is
[26:15] OK. Do not shut that down, do not
[26:17] cut it out because it's subconsciously makes the
[26:21] consumer associated things which are very cheap with IKEA.
[26:25] So on the small products that you might make a small loss,
[26:29] that is fine to take the head because on when you have to buy
[26:31] a bookcase or when you have to buy a sofa or when you have to
[26:33] buy a bed, you'd come to IKEA and that's where they'll
[26:36] recover. Then money, and money more so.
[26:39] Yeah, Interesting, interesting, Will, is the trivia the hell of
[26:42] that. Yes, yes, you crack that way too
[26:44] fast. You know, I've I've come to the
[26:46] stage where I have to make I have to make questions without
[26:49] any clues in them. Just so that you know, I can
[26:52] stump you a little longer because this podcast is becoming
[26:55] so much that earlier I remember when we started three questions
[26:58] each and we would run out of time.
[27:00] There are now episodes where we go 5 questions each and we still
[27:03] have to blabber on for another 5 minutes before we end up with
[27:06] time. So I have to make this tougher
[27:09] for you, that is. Fun.
[27:11] That was a good question. And you know what, I I think you
[27:14] don't have to make the questions tougher.
[27:16] You just have to overhaul your personality because at some
[27:19] point I think the. Easier thing to do.
[27:20] We are both See, we are at episode 84.
[27:27] Hopefully we hit 3 digits and beyond.
[27:29] It's going to become much tougher to come up with tougher
[27:31] questions. So hey, really just overall
[27:33] personality, you know what, it's long overdue.
[27:35] Both of us can do that for ourselves, just become new
[27:38] people. Yeah, OK with me.
[27:41] OK, so you crossed a border and I'm going to ask one of these
[27:46] geography questions, which which is just a fun little piece of
[27:49] trivia. This is this is not going to be
[27:50] a very long trivia question. Do you know which border marks
[27:55] the greatest terrestrial time zone difference on?
[27:58] The French border. No, it's not the French border.
[28:03] You. What are you thinking in South
[28:05] America? The French, what do you call it?
[28:07] French, French Green Order, French, French Guyana and
[28:12] France. So that crosses like a gazillion
[28:14] different borders, right? Time zones.
[28:17] So I'm talking about a border between 1:00 country and the
[28:19] other. So you're you were saying French
[28:21] Ghana and France the mainland? No, no, I'm guessing.
[28:23] I think French Ghana is technically part of France, so.
[28:27] Yeah, but I'm pretty sure they do not use the French time zone.
[28:31] That would be absolutely ridiculous.
[28:33] Yeah. So then in that case, so you're
[28:37] talking about two countries who share a single border, right?
[28:42] And the time zones used by these two countries have the most
[28:45] amount of difference. Then it would have to be, I'm
[28:50] guessing Sweden and Russia. Russia has, I think 11 time
[28:53] zones. Exactly.
[28:55] So then the the difference between the border or the
[28:59] bordering whatever cities, towns, prefectures, whatever it
[29:02] could be would not be that much because Russia has subdivided
[29:06] itself. Oh.
[29:06] OK. So we are looking at somebody
[29:08] who has a single time zone. Yeah.
[29:12] OK, but technically I'm not wrong.
[29:14] The time zone in Vladivostok, Russia would be like 11 hours
[29:18] ahead of, you know, this week. But again, I meant like just
[29:24] across. So if if you were crossing from
[29:27] across the border, the highest, the greatest amount of time zone
[29:31] difference would hit. You would be in at which border?
[29:35] Is this a land border? Let me just clarify that as
[29:37] well. Yes, it is a terrestrial border,
[29:40] the land border. Would this be somewhere near the
[29:42] poles like Antarctica? All the time zones kind of
[29:45] converge at Antarctica, right The.
[29:49] All right. Yeah, I guess.
[29:51] But no, in that case also you're, you're still, it's still
[29:56] be a bit off, right? No.
[29:58] Well, anyways, it's not the case here.
[30:00] This is not a trick question at. All I'm just trying.
[30:03] I'm just trying to figure out a way to logically hit this
[30:07] without knowing every single time zone in the world and which
[30:10] country has it. So I I think you you pretty much
[30:14] have narrowed it down to the fact that it is a land based
[30:18] border. It is a place or a country which
[30:21] has a single. Time zone.
[30:25] Unlike say, the US or Russia, which have split up the time
[30:29] zones because of how vast they are.
[30:32] Oh OK then I is it India and China?
[30:38] India and China is actually not. That no, because India is
[30:40] technically has enough land mass and land area to have two time
[30:44] zones. But we follow a single time
[30:46] zone. So is that it?
[30:48] No, it's not that. OK.
[30:51] Yeah, no, in this case it's not. Wow, is this one of those
[30:55] Christmas or what you mentioned land about?
[30:57] So it's not one of the Christmas Islands or any of those islands.
[31:02] No. I'm trying to remember on the
[31:04] map where these time zones take a right degree turn for some
[31:08] countries like instead of being straight.
[31:10] You are very close. You are very close.
[31:12] You are very close. So is one of them India?
[31:16] And no the other. One is right.
[31:17] OK. But China, does China also have
[31:20] only one single time zone? China has a single time zone.
[31:23] Yeah, exactly why this issue? So is in North Korea.
[31:28] No, its on its. Its a contentious border.
[31:32] Its a very contentious border. So the contentious, the Chinese
[31:35] and contentious borders, now who, which countries could that
[31:39] be? Let me start the list.
[31:41] You know, because China, you have, they have problems with
[31:46] practically everybody, India with, Bhutan with.
[31:49] So so closer to a contentious border with India than than
[31:53] anywhere else, and close to the most contentious border that
[31:58] perhaps in this part of the. World exists because Pakistan is
[32:02] on this side of SO. Close. close enough. close
[32:05] enough. It is Afghanistan.
[32:06] Oh. OK.
[32:07] Afghanistan and China, OK. Yeah, Afghanistan and China and
[32:11] I not that I've asked this question, I feel like I maybe
[32:14] shouldn't have because it involves a lot of Gilgit
[32:16] Baltistan and this contentious regions which India, Pakistan
[32:22] and a whole host of other players have have laid claim on.
[32:26] And China of course, has its own issue, border disputes with
[32:29] India. So let me just mention that I
[32:31] have no dog in this fight right now.
[32:33] I am not I am not trying to advocate for any country right
[32:36] now. And in case, in case any Indian
[32:39] authorities are living, are listening to this, let me just
[32:42] say I am very strong devout nationalist right here.
[32:49] But as it is, as the world exists currently, Gilgit
[32:53] Baltistan is administered by Pakistan and it is controlled by
[32:57] Pakistan. And just nearby is the border
[33:00] that Afghanistan and China share.
[33:02] And that would be the world's largest difference in time
[33:06] zones. It is 3 1/2 hour time zone
[33:09] difference over 1 border. OK, OK, nice.
[33:12] One border. Nice.
[33:14] OK, that's nice. Because I was thinking, you
[33:18] know, when you mentioned time zones, I'm like, aha, this is
[33:21] France, this is France, you know, because of that.
[33:24] Or then. Yeah, no, I, I I would have also
[33:26] guessed the. Same then then immediately when
[33:28] he said I'm like, oh, it has to be Russia.
[33:30] Russia has the most number of time zones that I know of any
[33:32] country. So then they must be, but turns
[33:35] out it's not. But OK, that's a great question.
[33:37] Let's move from Russia to the UK, traditional enemies of the
[33:43] Cold War. So I'll repeat the question all
[33:47] the way. The highest selling of its kind
[33:50] in its category, X was originally made using phenol and
[33:56] something extracted from coal tar.
[33:59] Originally manufactured in the UK and popularized in the US, it
[34:03] is now no longer produced in either country.
[34:06] X is also responsible for popularizing and now common two
[34:10] letter acronym during its iconic marketing campaigns of the 1920s
[34:15] and 40s. What is X or identify the brand
[34:19] X? Two letter acronym.
[34:21] That's very interesting. I was thinking of very generic
[34:24] stuff, but I doubt this is the case.
[34:26] Like I was thinking turpentine or something like that, but I'm
[34:29] just guessing based off of very, very vague understanding of
[34:33] these chemicals involved. So is this a specific product?
[34:38] Are we talking some sort of a brand or?
[34:41] OK, let me just put it this way. Just say, for example, if you
[34:44] were talking about India. I'm giving you an example from
[34:48] another section, nothing to do with this.
[34:50] Say for example, you're talking shoes.
[34:53] You may say that Bata is the highest selling in its category
[34:56] in India. Similarly, X is to Bata as shoes
[35:01] is to the category in for. As far as this is concerned,
[35:04] you're talking about a specific brand.
[35:06] OK. So this brand which is probably
[35:08] the highest selling of. It is the highest selling,
[35:10] according according to its manufacturer's website from a
[35:13] comprehensive survey across multiple markets, it is the
[35:16] highest selling of its kind. OK, so we are taking up a brand
[35:20] specifically, you know, this, of course, if it's made from phenol
[35:24] and coal tar, it probably is Coke.
[35:26] I'm kidding. Just boiling away time trying to
[35:34] figure out the. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[35:35] OK, well you do have me stumped on this question, so I'll ask
[35:41] you for a clue. Most people, especially in
[35:45] India, might consider to be essentially Indian.
[35:49] Like it's so part of the so ingrained in the Indian
[35:53] consciousness that very few people probably know that it's a
[35:57] product that was introduced in India and then became then
[36:01] manufactured widely in India and now has become almost part of
[36:04] the Indian experience. Is it some sort of shoe Polish?
[36:09] No, not a shoe Polish. Well, but I can't think of any
[36:12] market leader in shoe Polish today.
[36:15] Only when I can think of is that that black color thing.
[36:17] I think it's called cherry. Cherry blush.
[36:19] Oh, I think cherry blush. Cherry blush.
[36:20] No, I was thinking of Kiwi because I've always used Kiwi.
[36:23] Kiwi also Brandy I remember but OK.
[36:26] So not shoe Polish, but people might assume it is Indian.
[36:33] Yes, peop at least in India like say for example if you go to
[36:36] other countries where it's sold, they may not think of it as
[36:39] Indian. But in India, I think most
[36:40] people think of it as Indian, the same way a lot of people
[36:45] assume that Bata is Indian. I was just going to say Bata is
[36:48] the example that comes to mind when when you say that.
[36:52] The other thing that comes to mind is homeopathy, where a lot
[36:55] of people incorrectly assume homeopathy is Indian.
[36:57] Yeah, it's German. Yeah, yeah, no, completely lost
[37:02] right now. What almost Indian or pretend
[37:05] Indian product are we talking about?
[37:07] The ingredient which which I mentioned is was taken from coal
[37:13] tar was carbolic acid. So it was made from phenol and
[37:18] carbolic acid. I am I expected to remember high
[37:22] school chemistry because I'm very much known.
[37:25] Oh man, you know what? I'm done with my science quote
[37:30] after pronouncing March 1 and Sept into.
[37:35] I've already forgotten what March 1 stood for.
[37:36] OK no I I am a complete cardboard.
[37:39] I guess it doesn't help you at all.
[37:41] The last few please. The product was named after a
[37:44] safety device which was originally concept sketched by
[37:49] Leonardo da Vinci. OK.
[37:51] And there was something about two letter acronym also, right?
[37:55] Yes, yes. The reason I didn't focus on
[37:57] that is you may find it difficult to get that, but it is
[38:01] responsible. X was responsible for
[38:03] popularizing in now common two letter acronym during its
[38:07] marketing campaign in the 1920s and the 1940s.
[38:11] I havent heard its usage much nowadays but it's still there.
[38:15] I mean like it's still part, like people still know what it
[38:18] is if you say those 2 letters. Safety device popularized by Da
[38:22] Vinci. Conceptualized in a sketch.
[38:25] Conceptualized. He never actually invented it,
[38:27] but he drew it in a sketch like his famous helicopter thing as
[38:31] well. And that annoying man did so
[38:34] many, so many innovations and conceptualizations.
[38:37] There's stuff to narrow down, but let me say, I guess some
[38:41] sort of seat belt seems off. So I won't say seat belt, but is
[38:44] it a parachute or some sort of? I don't think you could make a
[38:49] parachute from phenol and carbolic acid.
[38:51] That is true, yeah. I'm really grasping at straws
[38:56] here and it is something people might assume is Indian.
[39:00] Indian people, I think Indian people might assume it's Indian.
[39:04] Yeah, yeah, Indian people might assume it's Indian.
[39:07] Wow. Like it's been an Indian for for
[39:09] like around 60 years, 60-70 years.
[39:12] It's been in India for for that long, maybe you know.
[39:16] What? I'm going to ask for one more
[39:18] crew and I'm going to ask for like something I've I've right
[39:20] now completely lost. Like what?
[39:21] What category am I supposed to be looking at?
[39:24] Because I tried shoe wornish and I guess I tried parachute as
[39:28] well which are not related exactly.
[39:30] So what category of item am I looking at?
[39:33] The category of item you are looking for is FMCG Fast Moving
[39:38] Consumer Goods. FMCG, yeah, you could not be
[39:41] broader with the category. For the category, this thing
[39:44] belongs in the FMCG category. What?
[39:46] What do you? Want, yeah, yeah.
[39:47] But FMCG also has like house cleaning products and as food
[39:51] and as a bunch of other things. Sir, it doesn't help me.
[39:54] Oh, because I said cleaning product.
[39:59] I don't know why, but it makes me go to Tide.
[40:02] Or is it by any chance Tide? Oh, very very.
[40:06] Not so close, but good try. Some sort of phenyl?
[40:13] Phenyl to clean the man? I have no idea.
[40:16] What kind of a brand name are we looking at?
[40:18] Is it a? Is it a cleaning product?
[40:19] It is a cleaning product in a in a way, yes.
[40:23] Yes. There's too much hesitation in
[40:27] that statement for me to take it at face value.
[40:30] Cleaning product like I'm thinking of washing laundry or a
[40:34] floor cleaning agent. Oh boy.
[40:39] Yeah. No, I think I'm.
[40:40] I'm done. I'm out.
[40:42] Give me another clue. Give me the answer.
[40:44] Either way, it's. The last clue.
[40:45] Last clue. OK.
[40:48] Like, and I keep saying last clue and I keep giving clues.
[40:50] So no, but at least this is about you.
[40:53] I have one question this week where you haven't cracked like a
[40:55] nut. This is going to be a giveaway,
[40:59] but I'm still going to tell you. So the two letter acronym that
[41:03] was popularized by this product during its marketing campaigns
[41:07] in 1920s and 1940s was? BOBO So we're talking about some
[41:17] sort of axe would be too much. I doubt it's axe.
[41:21] Is it Axe? Safety product.
[41:23] I told you it's named after a safety product.
[41:26] Oh God. Oh, so it is a type of deodorant
[41:30] but named after a safety product.
[41:32] Which deodorant is that popular? OK, let me just.
[41:37] Wait, it's not deodorant? It's not a deodorant.
[41:41] Oh my God, So Dio but not a deodorant?
[41:44] What is happening? Oh, a safety product life boy.
[41:49] Yes, is. It Life boy.
[41:52] Life Boy. Soap.
[41:53] Wow. You know, I was actually going
[41:56] to say that all at some point, but of course I was not thinking
[41:58] of the soap. I was thinking of that Deceptic
[42:00] liquid. Yeah.
[42:01] OK, OK, OK, so. For everybody's, you know,
[42:06] edification, Life Boy was a British brand of soap.
[42:09] For all those people in India who thought it's Indian, no it's
[42:12] not. It was a British brand of soap
[42:14] introduced in 1895. Originally it contained carbolic
[42:19] soap containing it was a carbolic soap containing phenol.
[42:23] Later different varieties were introduced with the medicinal
[42:25] carbolic smell and the current coral colored Life Boy was
[42:30] introduced in the 1950s. It was one of the most popular
[42:33] soaps in the US from 1923 to the mid 50s, and it was during its
[42:39] radio campaigns that the acronym Bo became quite common in the
[42:45] public consciousness, even though they didn't actually come
[42:47] up with it. A lot of people think that Bo
[42:50] was invented by Life by foreign advertising campaign but it was
[42:52] actually coined by a company that made deodorant for women
[42:56] called Odoro No in 1919. But it was Lifeboy that
[43:01] popularized the term. The Lifeboy radio ad parodied by
[43:04] several Warner Brothers Looney Tunes cartoons and MGM cartoons
[43:07] used a foghorn followed by ABO sound on the radio.
[43:12] Although Lifeboy is no longer produced in the US and UK, it is
[43:17] still being mass produced by Unilever in Cyprus for the UK,
[43:19] EU and Brazilian markets, in Trinidad and Tobago for the
[43:23] Caribbean market and in India for the Asian market.
[43:27] And according to Unilever's website, it is the highest
[43:31] selling brand of soap in the world.
[43:32] OK. OK, that is a pretty cool
[43:36] question, and yeah, it took me forever to get there, but worth
[43:38] it. I love that.
[43:40] Also, just another piece of trivia, the people who invented
[43:44] Lifeboy was or at least the company that intended Lifeboy
[43:47] was founded by two brothers, William Heskett Lever and James
[43:52] Darcy Lever, where they found what is called Lever Brothers.
[43:56] And they later basically became and merged after a lot of
[44:01] corporate things to become Unilever in 1929.
[44:04] And they, they, some of their products are still known today.
[44:09] So, Life Boy, Lux, Sunlight, Soap, Vim, these are all
[44:16] products by Lever Brothers even before they became.
[44:19] Lever products. Yeah, Very cool, Very cool.
[44:23] So I think that's all the time we have for our regular
[44:25] questions this episode. Let's start winding up.
[44:29] First, let's deal with the audience question that I had
[44:31] asked at the beginning of today's episode.
[44:33] In the mid 1970s, X worked at the Department of Interior
[44:37] Design at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest.
[44:41] He sought to find a touching tool to help his students
[44:44] understand 3D objects. He so then invented something
[44:47] which carries his name. The 1st test batches of the
[44:50] product were produced in late 1977 and released to Budapest
[44:54] toy shops. In September 1979, a deal was
[44:57] signed with Ideal Toys to bring it to the Western world and the
[45:01] product made its international debut at the toy fairs of
[45:04] London, Paris, Nuremberg and New York.
[45:08] The Guardian Knot and Inca Gold were the other names considered,
[45:12] but it was finally marketed under X's name.
[45:14] Who is X or what did he invent Aditya?
[45:17] Any ideas? That's the Rubik's Cube.
[45:21] Yes, bang on, it is the Rubik's Cube, and the inventor, of
[45:24] course, is Erno Rubik. It would go on to become an
[45:28] instant success worldwide, winning several Toy of the Year
[45:31] awards and becoming a staple of 1980s pop culture.
[45:35] To date, over 350 million Rubik's Cubes have been sold,
[45:40] making it one of the best selling toys of all time.
[45:43] It's become very famous today and there are many sizes varying
[45:46] from 2 into two, which is quite easy to solve, all the way to
[45:50] what is I think is called the Professor's Cube, which is 21 by
[45:52] 21. Oh, wow.
[45:55] OK, Yeah. So that's the answer to the
[45:59] audience question for this week, I think there.
[46:01] What's your pop culture recommendation apart from the
[46:03] podcasts that you already mentioned on the show?
[46:06] Yes. So just for everybody's benefit,
[46:08] that was the 99 Pi 99% investment hosted by Roman Mas
[46:12] and This American Life for Sylvia Ira Glass, both which we
[46:16] have mentioned multiple times in the past.
[46:18] Almost every episode is a great episode.
[46:19] Go check it out. I would recommend two books
[46:22] today and very unlike me, I think I've done two books in the
[46:26] past. I believe I have mentioned Krish
[46:29] Ashok, the guy behind Masala Lab and it's a pretty popular
[46:34] Instagram channel. He does a lot of trivia as well.
[46:38] So if if you ever come across a piece of trivia that I have
[46:41] taken or when he was taken from his from his Instagram child, go
[46:46] send him a message. I would love to get him on this
[46:48] podcast. So if enough people send him a
[46:50] message, hey, he might agree to come on this podcast.
[46:52] So I would recommend his book actually masala lab, the signs
[46:55] of Indian cooking. And that's where the name of the
[46:58] Instagram account also comes Krishna shocks book masala lab,
[47:02] the signs of Indian cooking. And it truly is the signs of
[47:05] Indian cooking. Or rather, the story of Indian
[47:08] cooking is how I would put it because he doesn't go too much
[47:10] into recipes specifically. It's not a recipe book, but it
[47:14] is a cooking book. It really talks about cooking
[47:17] from an Indian context and it it makes for a pretty great read.
[47:21] Unexpectedly, I have the illustrated edition.
[47:23] My mom bought it for herself and then conveniently forgot it here
[47:28] when she have to visit. So now I'm the proud owner of
[47:31] this particular book. And the second one is also
[47:35] cooking related books. So which is why I decided to
[47:37] recommend these two together is a is a book by Shahu Patoli and
[47:42] it is translated by Bhushan Kurgaonkar Kurgaonkar.
[47:46] It's called the Dalit kitchens of Marathwada.
[47:50] So it's an interesting history of of the Dalit community and
[47:54] the kind of food that they're made.
[47:55] Obviously because of the historical context of casteism,
[47:59] a lot of the food that they made was was either made from things
[48:03] that were cheap or very readily available.
[48:05] And the innovation that they have done with those ingredients
[48:08] is pretty astounding and not widely recognized.
[48:11] Again, because what has become popular is perhaps more upper
[48:14] caste, historically upper caste cuisines and foods and recipes
[48:19] across our countries and city. So the little kitchens of
[48:22] Marathwa actually talks about these recipes.
[48:24] And I think regardless of the cultural context, though, the
[48:26] cultural context is important. Even the food itself is
[48:29] interesting in and of itself. So both of these books, very
[48:32] Indian, very food oriented, and more than just recipes.
[48:36] So I would recommend checking it out and yeah, expanding your
[48:40] culinary world. Great recommendations.
[48:43] I actually also do on a copy of Masala Lab but a kindle version
[48:48] and not the illustrated 1. And surprisingly enough I got
[48:53] the book before I started following the Instagram channel.
[48:57] For those who don't know, I am a big foodie and have been for
[49:01] many years, cultivating a passion of collecting recipes
[49:04] and cookbooks and things like that, many of which I don't have
[49:07] time to actually cook, but I, you know, enjoy them anyway.
[49:11] So I did not make the connection between the book and the show
[49:15] until and the channel until much, much later until much,
[49:19] much later. And he goes into it's, it's a
[49:20] fantastic read. I would definitely go with
[49:23] details recommendation on that. And I will check out the other
[49:26] book that's a completely new one to me.
[49:28] That's a fantastic recommendation, Aditya.
[49:31] My recommendation for this week I'll start off with is.
[49:36] A. Movie that I saw recently, which
[49:40] surprised me because not because of any particular twist or
[49:45] anything else, but the fact that I have not seen that kind of
[49:50] story put on screen in Indian cinema much.
[49:54] I wouldn't say its like a very. Its a great movie in terms of
[49:57] execution or making, but its a its an engaging watch.
[50:00] The movie is called Berlin. Its a very slow born, slow burn
[50:05] kind of spy thriller and it is set in India in the early 90s.
[50:12] And frankly, after the movie ended, I the only thought that
[50:16] went through my head is this sounds like somebody wrote, you
[50:20] know, put a John Le Carre short story or novel on the screen.
[50:23] Because the screenplay and the story itself is a very Licari
[50:27] inspired Licari style, you know, kind of slightly nihilistic
[50:31] side, slightly cynical view of, you know, real life spies and
[50:36] the things that go behind intelligence gathering.
[50:39] So definitely give it a watch. It isn't something like a pulse
[50:43] pounding version of any spy thriller that you would see from
[50:47] Hollywood, Neither is it the bombastic spy universe that
[50:51] Yashraj seems to they see. I don't know why they keep to
[50:56] why they need a spy universe, but still it's neither of those.
[50:59] It's very, very quiet, very understated, but at the same
[51:03] time it's quite engaging. Apar Shakti Khurana gives, I
[51:06] think probably the best performance of his career so
[51:09] far. He's got a lot of potential yet
[51:11] to be tapped. So that is first my first
[51:14] recommendation for this week. Second recommendation is a quite
[51:18] old book. So I had given a recommendation
[51:22] of this movie called agenda and a motion or ARM last episode.
[51:27] And as I mentioned, it's got a very folk talesy kind of wipe to
[51:32] it, right. The story is inspired by folk
[51:34] tales and legends that come from, you know, the land of
[51:38] Kerala. So there is a an iconic book
[51:41] which is known to almost every Malayali everywhere anywhere in
[51:44] the world. Its called ID Hemala which
[51:47] literally translates to the Garland of legends.
[51:52] So it was there was a an author by the name of Kataratal
[51:55] Shankarni who in the turn of the previous century collected over
[51:59] the period of 25 years went around Kerala and collected some
[52:02] of the most popular legends and compiled them into a book.
[52:06] There are 125 of those legends combined into a book.
[52:10] So it's like this kind of treasure trove of folk stories
[52:13] and legends from Kerala. And earlier it used to be very
[52:16] inaccessible because the language was quite classic.
[52:19] It was in Malayalam. But over the past 10-15 years,
[52:22] there have been a lot of translations which have come
[52:25] into English and I would recommend you try any one of
[52:29] them. There are.
[52:30] There is a COM complete translation published by Madhur
[52:34] Bhumi Books which is available online at Amazon and there's a
[52:39] Kindle version of it. If you are a Kindle unlimited
[52:41] member, you'll get it for free. So go check out ID Hamala which
[52:46] translates to the Garden of Legends.
[52:47] It'll give you a flavor of the kind of folk culture and legends
[52:51] of Kerala and Berlin, which is a very Cold War esque lacare like
[52:57] slow burn Pythrilla. So those are my recommendations.
[53:02] Yeah, Berlin was on my watch list already, so I'm going to
[53:05] watch that and check out this book as well.
[53:07] Very cool. Yeah, So that's all for this
[53:09] episode. Thank you everyone for listening
[53:11] in. We hope you enjoyed the show and
[53:12] learned something new. If you liked what you heard,
[53:15] please consider subscribing to our podcast and please leave us
[53:18] a review on your favorite podcast platform.
[53:21] I mean, it's, it's ridiculous that less than maybe 10% of
[53:26] people who listen to our podcast actually go and review it.
[53:28] If all of you reviewed it are we would climb the chart so
[53:31] quickly. So please do so.
[53:33] It helps reach us a wire. It helps us reach a wider
[53:35] audience, allows more people to discover and enjoy the show.
[53:38] And we would love for more people to know about this
[53:40] podcast. We've been doing it for 84
[53:42] episodes. People, come on.
[53:43] We'd also love to hear from you, feedback, suggestions, even
[53:46] trivia. If you want questions to be
[53:48] asked on the show, you can just send us an e-mail with the name
[53:52] of the quizmaster that you want to ask the question in the
[53:54] subject line quizzing.me@gmail.com.
[53:56] You can reach us to reach out to us on Instagram at Ru quizzing
[54:00] me. We have a Reddit sub community R
[54:02] slash ru quizzing me and thanks to Aditya, we also now are on
[54:06] YouTube. So you can go to YouTube and
[54:08] search for ru quizzing me and we are available back episodes.
[54:11] Everything is available on YouTube as well and I think
[54:14] that's it. We appreciate your support and
[54:17] look forward to sharing more episodes with you in the future.
[54:19] Thanks again for tuning in. I like how you say that's
[54:23] ridiculous. People haven't reviewed.
[54:24] Come on, people. Yeah, drop everything else you
[54:26] have to do and go review. I mean like we have ridiculously
[54:29] long. Episodes we have episodes which
[54:31] are more than an hour if you're spending an hour to listen to
[54:34] our episode that we are thanks very thankful that you are you
[54:37] know, listening to our let us let us just make sure we convey
[54:40] our. Graduates, yes.
[54:41] This is not coming from a place of arrogance.
[54:43] This is like please, you're spending an hour, spend 2
[54:45] seconds to give us a five star review.
[54:47] It will help more people see the show.
[54:49] Yeah, that is true. I know Vineet is anything but.
[54:51] Arrogant. So yes, it is a genuine request.
[54:53] It would be great. Also, I said this last time I
[54:55] repeat it and maybe repeat it a few more times in the future
[54:58] episodes. Go share it with somebody you
[55:00] like. It's the best way for any
[55:01] podcast to grow. Word of mouth is how this word
[55:05] of mouth grows. Podcast is word of mouth.
[55:07] I guess. So yeah, please do do.
[55:11] That. I shout out again to Akanksha,
[55:14] who was the one who recommended the YouTube thing to me.
[55:17] And that's also the person who gifted me this book that The
[55:20] Kitchens of Marathwara. Nice.
[55:21] So yeah. And she's the only one who has
[55:24] commented on her latest episode saying she liked it and thanked
[55:27] us for the shout out. So I guess she can thank us
[55:30] again for another shout out. Well, thank you, Akanksha.
[55:33] And that's. All for me.
[55:35] So see you guys next week. Bye.

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