# Episode 052 - American Dinners, Indian Cricketers & Italian Directors

An episode of [Are You Quizzing Me?](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663104901), 13 Jan 2024, 50 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/d7afa960/podcast/play/81234983/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2024-0-13%2Fb91dba6f-5c78-b4e0-37e0-28ed414fa75d.mp3

Do you know which 2 ingredient dish did Jefferson once serve as a state dinner? Do you know who was the first ever Indian cricketer to feature in an ad? Do you know how Caribbean pirates altered the course of American history by attacking one specific ship in 1793? 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

## Transcript

[0:00] And we're back for episode #52 of Are You Quizzing Me?
[0:04] Your Favorite Quizzing Trivia Podcast Show?
[0:08] Before we start our usual proceedings, there is an
[0:10] announcement I have to make. Just like last week, this
[0:13] episode will also have a poll on Spotify.
[0:17] Please go to that poll and vote whether we should retain our
[0:20] opening music or just discard it forever.
[0:24] Now that we've got that out of the way, let me start off
[0:27] today's proceedings with our usual audience question.
[0:31] And this is something I'm fairly sure that most of you will get
[0:35] by the end of the episode. So the development of this movie
[0:40] began back in 1994 and filming was supposed to start in 1999.
[0:47] However, the director did not do so because According to him, the
[0:53] necessary technology was not yet available to make it.
[0:57] He said his inspiration was every single science fiction
[1:00] book he had read as a kid, and he wanted to update the style of
[1:04] Edgar Ice Burrows John Carter series.
[1:07] Which film am I talking about? I'll reveal the answer to this
[1:12] question at the end of today's episode, and we now move on to
[1:17] our old faithful Aditya, who will be answering the question
[1:21] that he asked last week. All right, so my question last
[1:25] week was the Indian equivalent of the Raspberry Awards.
[1:31] Raspberry Awards being the tongue in cheek parody of Oscars
[1:35] in Hollywood. So what would the Indian
[1:37] equivalent of the Raspberry Awards be?
[1:40] And here I was thinking of something fruity vegetable along
[1:46] those rinds because the Raspberry obviously is Berry.
[1:49] So I thought, why not a coconut but not a coconut Award?
[1:56] It would be called a Nariel Award because it is not real.
[2:01] It's not real. A Nariel Award is what the
[2:05] Indian equivalent of a Raspberry Award should be called.
[2:07] A Nariel Award. OK, now that is quite an answer,
[2:14] but I couldn't get past the fact that you were saying that a
[2:18] Raspberry award is a Tongue in cheek award when we made it
[2:22] quite clear last week that the Raspberry is a sound that you
[2:26] make when your tongue comes outside your cheek.
[2:30] Beneath I was editing that episode, and you have no idea
[2:34] how entertaining it was to hear us do that.
[2:37] I think I replayed that part of the podcast multiple times.
[2:40] It was just a lot of fun. So if anybody, any of our
[2:42] listeners have not heard the previous episode, this is the
[2:45] moment to go here and just to hear us blow our Raspberry.
[2:48] Yes. So I'm going to start off
[2:51] today's regular questions with a food based question, something
[2:55] we've not done in quite a while. The origins of this dish can be
[2:59] traced back to casseroles of 14th century Italy and medieval
[3:04] England. James Hemmings, A classically
[3:09] trained French chef enslaved by U.S.
[3:13] President Thomas Jefferson, was instrumental in bringing the
[3:17] recipe to the United States after Jefferson encountered it
[3:21] in Paris. Jefferson actually drew a sketch
[3:25] of one of the major components of the dish and wrote detailed
[3:29] notes on how to make it. In 1793, he commissioned the US
[3:35] Ambassador to France, William Short, to actually purchase a
[3:39] machine for making it. Evidently they were not able to
[3:42] do so and the machine was not suitable as Jefferson later
[3:46] imported both the major two ingredients and in eighteen O 2
[3:51] Jefferson served the dish at a state dinner.
[3:56] Which dish am I talking about? Sorry, what are the two
[4:01] ingredients? No, I've not mentioned the two
[4:03] ingredients. OK, so he actually drew the
[4:07] shape of one of the ingredients and he gave his chef detailed
[4:12] instructions on how to make it. He even imported a machine to do
[4:16] so, but in the end, none of that worked out.
[4:19] So he ended up having to import both the two major ingredients,
[4:23] and he served it at a state dinner to, you know, Heads of
[4:27] state at a state dinner at the White House in eighteen O 2.
[4:32] Jefferson. Right.
[4:32] Yes, Thomas Jefferson. So you're saying shape and
[4:40] you're saying he imported a machine?
[4:42] I shouldn't have said shape. I'm wondering if it is some sort
[4:47] of a pasta. You would not be wrong.
[4:51] OK, so then it leads me to one of the fancier looking pastas.
[4:58] Is it that that the butterfly one?
[5:00] I'm going to butcher the pronunciation.
[5:03] Papa del. Papa Del Papadela.
[5:05] Right. Papadela.
[5:07] Papadela. Oh, that's wrong.
[5:10] So the best Italian impression is Papadeli.
[5:12] So is it? That no, it's not.
[5:16] OK. Are we talking like a tortelloni
[5:20] tortellini? No, no.
[5:22] No, no, no, no, none of. Those.
[5:24] OK, so we're not that fancy a shape.
[5:27] It was it just a simple lasagna? No.
[5:30] Lasagna sheets? No, no.
[5:32] You know that there are hundreds of types of pasta.
[5:35] You'll have to. Yeah, this doesn't seem like I'm
[5:37] going on the route. Oh, you know what, since you
[5:39] said two ingredients. Yeah.
[5:42] Could it be a Mac and cheese? Yes, it is indeed a Mac and
[5:46] cheese, something that we associate as being comfort food.
[5:50] And nowadays it's commercialized and commoditized that you get
[5:53] powdered Mac and cheese, which is an abomination of nature in
[5:57] my opinion. But it first made its appearance
[5:59] in America, where it's considered a comfort food as
[6:03] something for the president, and in the White House and being
[6:06] served at state dinners. So I found that dichotomy quite
[6:10] interesting. Very cool.
[6:13] I love it. Mac and cheese being served as a
[6:15] state dinner? Who would have thought?
[6:18] All right, so for my first question of the week, I will
[6:24] take help from a regular listener.
[6:27] And this is a listener who reached out to us on e-mail.
[6:30] Lovely point. To remind any of our listeners
[6:32] right now that you can do the same.
[6:34] Send us an e-mail on are you quizzing me@gmail.com?
[6:38] You can tag either of us, whoever you want it to be asking
[6:41] the question, Tag them in the subject and they will ask the
[6:43] question. So Arjun Srikumar, this
[6:46] gentleman reached out to us and he tagged me in the e-mail and
[6:50] he asked me to ask you 3 questions actually.
[6:54] So a lot of my heavy lifting for the week is done by Arjun.
[6:57] Thank you, Arjun. He has also given a source for
[7:02] two of those questions, which is his unofficial pop culture
[7:06] recommendation, something else that he enjoys from our podcast.
[7:09] So I guess I'll share that on his behalf.
[7:11] Great. So Vineet, this is a cricket
[7:13] based question and I'm so glad Arjun asked me to ask you
[7:17] because I second these as well. Oh God, people can't see my face
[7:21] right now, but my face literally just fell.
[7:25] No, no. Let's make this as easy as can
[7:28] be made for you. The first question, the first
[7:31] ever instance of an Indian Test cricketer featuring in an
[7:35] advertisement was in an edition of Mohammadi, A Bengali monthly
[7:41] journal, in 1938. The tagline for the product ran
[7:47] for a life full of vitality. Name the cricketer and the
[7:51] product, by the way, for a life full of vitality was in Bengali.
[7:54] I'm translating it to English for the purpose of this
[7:57] question. Name the cricketer and the
[7:59] product. Would it be?
[8:02] Fair. If I asked, is it a cricketer I
[8:04] would have heard of? Because you know how poor my
[8:09] cricketing knowledge is. Fair enough.
[8:13] I guess. I don't know how much you do
[8:15] follow cricket. Not a lot.
[8:16] I imagine this particular cricketer, and I'll give you a
[8:20] hint that Arjun has very kindly provided us, has AT20 tournament
[8:25] named after him. It's a domestic T20 championship
[8:30] held in India and it's named after this particular cricketer.
[8:35] OK, I think I have a better chance of cracking the product.
[8:39] Yeah, OK. So you know what?
[8:40] I'm going to help you along slightly more.
[8:42] I'll give you one more hint in case you don't get it.
[8:43] I'll just give you the name of the cricketer and then you can
[8:45] help me crack the name of the product.
[8:47] The second hint for the cricketer is that he was the
[8:49] first Indian to hit an away Test 100, first ever Indian to hit an
[8:56] away Test 100. He scored 112 against England at
[9:00] the Old Trafford in 1936. Maharaja Ranjit Singh?
[9:04] No. Ranjit Trophy Ranjit Singh?
[9:06] No. Obviously not.
[9:07] Yeah. No.
[9:07] Ranjit Trophy is not AT 20 tournament anyways.
[9:11] OK. OK.
[9:11] OK. Let me just try the product,
[9:14] right. We're looking at a product which
[9:15] is sold in India in the 30s, right.
[9:17] And the tagline was for a life full of vitality.
[9:23] So my first and frankly only guess at this point is it
[9:27] Cadbury Bourn Vita? How?
[9:30] How did you get it? Vita Vitality.
[9:32] Oh God, that was so easy. I was trying to think of hints
[9:37] that I'd have viewed for Bourn Vita, but oof, that was.
[9:40] No, because I know the Bournvita is a really old product.
[9:44] I've seen older ads of Bond Vita, the cans of Bond Vita, and
[9:48] the Vitality thing kind of gave it away.
[9:49] Beneath You don't have to justify that you're smart.
[9:51] It's fine, We get it. Just just bask in the glory of
[9:55] how insanely good you are at tracking these questions.
[9:59] And now? And now I will be humbly brought
[10:01] back down to the earth by the fact that I do not know the name
[10:04] of this apparently legendary cricketer.
[10:07] Oh God. For any of our listeners who are
[10:10] cricket fans, they probably have heard of this gentleman's name.
[10:14] For both of us, it is a TILI guess it is Saeed Mushtaq Ali.
[10:19] Oh, I have heard of him. Oh, OK, but only by name.
[10:22] I don't know anything more about him, but the name is familiar.
[10:25] I have heard the name when I attend quizzes and people more
[10:29] intelligent than me and sports keep answering questions.
[10:31] I've heard this name somewhere over there.
[10:34] Possible Person, His son and his grandson also played first class
[10:38] cricket. The domestic T20 series is named
[10:41] after him. He lived a pretty long life.
[10:44] He passed away at the right old age of 90.
[10:46] So yeah, he was around for a while and definitely left quite
[10:50] the mark on the Indian cricketing scene.
[10:53] Nice. So he was the first cricketer to
[10:57] endorse a product. First ever ad by a cricketer in
[11:01] India was by Syed Mushtaq Ali. Yeah.
[11:05] Nice. Nice.
[11:08] OK, So Broken Horses is a 2015 crime thriller film directed by
[11:18] X and starring Anton Yelchin, Chris Marquette, Vincent
[11:24] d'onofrio, Maria Valverde, Thomas Jane, and Sean Patrick
[11:29] Flannery. The film was a remake of a 1989
[11:35] crime thriller, which is also directed by the same director
[11:40] who was last nominated for an Oscar in 1979.
[11:45] The film that had a mostly negative reception from critics.
[11:50] However, X had one of the best reviewed films on IMDb in 2023.
[11:58] I want you to identify the director, so I'll just go
[12:02] through the facts once again. Broken Horses is a 2015 crime
[12:06] thriller film directed by X, starring Anton Yelchin, Vincent
[12:11] d'onofrio, Thomas Jane, Sean Patrick Flannery.
[12:14] It is a remake of a 1989 crime thriller also directed by the
[12:19] same director, and this director was last nominated for an Oscar
[12:22] in 1979. The film Broken Horses received
[12:26] mostly a negative reception, though.
[12:29] X, the director had one of the best reviewed films on IMDb in
[12:33] 2023, so I'd want you to identify the director.
[12:38] All right, so 1989 was the original, 2015 was Broken Horses
[12:44] 2023, one of the highest rated films on IMDb.
[12:49] Was directed by this same director.
[12:52] OK, nice. Long, prolific career. 30 years,
[12:55] More than 30 years. Broken horses.
[12:58] The cast sounds very international.
[13:01] Thomas Jane from The Punisher series.
[13:04] Sean Patrick Flanery, I think, was in The Boondock Saints.
[13:08] Anton Yelchin famously played, I think Chekhov in the Star Trek
[13:11] remix. Wow.
[13:14] OK, so 2023, one of the highest rated films, but you also said
[13:20] that his last nomination. So let me just put it in
[13:23] chronological order. 1979 he was nominated for an Oscar.
[13:27] He's never received an Oscar nomination.
[13:28] After that. He made A Crime Thrill in 1989
[13:32] which is very well received and then in 2015 he made a remake of
[13:37] the same film called Broken Horses and in 2023 he directed a
[13:41] film which is one of the most best reviewed films on IMDb,
[13:45] which has also been sent for the Oscars.
[13:49] You're saying nominated. Should I assume that he has
[13:51] never won an Oscar, so that nomination didn't rely?
[13:53] No, he did not. He did not win the Oscar.
[13:55] OK. And that nomination was as a
[13:58] director. Yes, As a director, Yeah, he was
[14:02] OK, I'll give it to you. It was a short movie category.
[14:05] Basically, you will be nominated as a director.
[14:07] There is no specific director nomination, but it was for a
[14:10] short film. It was called An Encounter with
[14:13] Faces. Seems very indie, sounds very
[14:17] indie, but yeah, doesn't ring any bell.
[14:20] Any other hint? OK, let's see.
[14:25] OK. You know what, Let me ask.
[14:28] Do you think I've heard of the 2023 film at least?
[14:31] Yes, I've know you've seen the 2023 film.
[14:36] I know you've seen the 1989 crime thriller.
[14:39] I know for a fact you know this director, But I also know that
[14:43] you've not seen Broken horses. OK, I definitely haven't seen
[14:48] broken horses. The rest of it, I'll have to
[14:50] take a word on it that I do know.
[14:52] And. OK.
[14:53] The 1989 film, when it was screened for the producers and
[14:58] the distributors, they had a suggestion to the director.
[15:04] So it's a very tragic crime thriller.
[15:06] Anyway, the original 1989, one of the major stars and the
[15:11] female lead in the movie are killed.
[15:14] The director was asked by the producers and the distributors
[15:19] not to do that, as in don't let the main lead and the female
[15:25] lead die at the end of the movie.
[15:27] But he stuck to his guns and it turned into be a classic.
[15:31] Saying crime thriller 1989 around the time I think
[15:35] Goodfellas is around that time. I don't know why I'm going to
[15:37] Martin Scorsese, but I know Broken Horses not a film Martin
[15:40] Scorsese has made. I also know he has got an Oscar
[15:43] nominations post 1979. Yes, not Scorsese.
[15:48] The 2023 film, I think when I last checked it had a rating of
[15:51] 9.2 on IMDb. What?
[15:56] You have seen this film. I can't remember any film from
[15:58] last year that I loved that much.
[16:00] No, no, definitely you've seen this film.
[16:03] I know that for a fact. Which are the best films of 2023
[16:07] that you've seen? I can't think of a single
[16:12] Hollywood film that I love that much.
[16:13] I thought Oppenheimer was decent.
[16:15] I thought Barbie was OK. OK, I'll give you an additional
[16:20] clue. The 1989 crime thriller that was
[16:27] directed by X was not in English.
[16:31] Oh, wow. That's that's a little
[16:35] curveball. You threw me there.
[16:37] I've been thinking of all these American directors or Hollywood
[16:39] directors. OK, yes, All right.
[16:42] That opens up the field a little bit more 2023 films that I liked
[16:46] then. Hmm, non.
[16:48] I loved past lives. But I know that was a
[16:51] directorial debut, so it can't be the Korean director.
[16:55] She is phenomenal. But that was her first feature
[16:58] film. Is it an Indian director?
[17:03] Oh yes, it is an Indian director.
[17:06] Just because you said I love this film, and if you know that,
[17:09] I know there are very few films that I've told you I loved from
[17:11] last year. Is it 12th field then?
[17:14] Yes. So then who would the director
[17:15] be? Vindu Vinod Chopra?
[17:19] Yes, it is Vindu Vinod Chopra. And so, which is the 1989 crime
[17:23] thriller then? Oh, it's.
[17:28] Parinde. Parinda, Parinda.
[17:32] Parinda. PARINDA Sorry, yes.
[17:34] Let me just put it in a neat little package for our audience.
[17:37] Vidhu Vinod Chopra and is an Indian director.
[17:40] He was nominated for an Oscar in 1979 for his short film An
[17:44] Encounter with Faces. In 1989, he directed this cult
[17:48] classic crime thriller Bollywood movie by the name of Parinda.
[17:53] The distributors really did not want Anil Kapoor and Madhuri
[17:56] Dixit to die. They wanted Jackie Shroff to
[17:58] die, but he stuck to his guns and that just made it a classic.
[18:02] He remade Parinda in Hollywood in 2015, calling it Broken
[18:08] Horses. It's kind of like a Western.
[18:10] However, the movie bombed. He picked himself up and in 2023
[18:15] he made what in my opinion is one of the best films of the
[18:18] year. It's called 12th Fail.
[18:20] It has a very high rating on IMDb, very emotionally engaging
[18:24] film, and it's also been independently sent for the
[18:27] Oscars. The director and producer team
[18:30] are campaigning independently for the Oscars because the
[18:32] Indian Do you know, which is the Indian submission to the Oscars
[18:37] this year for Best Foreign Film. Oh no, no idea.
[18:41] It's a Malayali movie. It's a Carolite movie by the
[18:44] name of 2018. It's a movie on the 2018 floods.
[18:48] It was shot on a shoestring budget.
[18:50] And when you watch that movie, you wouldn't believe.
[18:53] It's just brilliant. So coming back to it, the answer
[18:56] is Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Very cool.
[19:01] That is a very fun question. And he has remade Parinda.
[19:04] I had no idea. Yes, he did remade Parinda.
[19:09] And 12th Field was, I believe, one of my recommendations for
[19:11] pop culture recommendations in our episode.
[19:13] I remember that. Yeah, I really loved the movie.
[19:16] I was in tears by the end. Same, same.
[19:19] And when I recommended it, it wasn't generating as much of a
[19:22] buzz because it had just come out.
[19:25] Now it's such a obvious recommendation.
[19:29] OK, lovely, lovely question. Thank you for asking that.
[19:32] That's a lovely TIL for me. OK, let's go back to Mr.
[19:38] Srikumar's questions. Arjun has another question from
[19:41] the world of cricket. This one actually is a really
[19:44] fun question. You know, I I know why he sent
[19:47] it to you. I have a feeling this guy hates
[19:49] me. We've made it quite obvious on
[19:50] this podcast that I don't know anything about sports in
[19:54] cricket. So he specifically sent those
[19:56] questions to you so that you could torture me with them.
[19:59] I do want to remind you, Vinit, that I also suck at this.
[20:01] So I think he just made a judgment call on who sucks
[20:04] lesser. If anything, he's vouching for
[20:07] you right now. OK, I'm rooting for you.
[20:10] I think you can crack this one. Rabhi Ajnabi The was a 1985
[20:16] movie starring cricket stars Sandeep Patil and Saeed Kirmani.
[20:23] Now if you're aware of these two cricketers, they were both in
[20:27] the 83 squad. So in 1985, this movie was
[20:31] creating a lot of buzz because it was a Bollywood debut for
[20:35] Sandeep Patil and Saeed Kirmani. So everybody was very excited
[20:38] for it. The movie didn't do too well
[20:39] though. Patil played a cricketer in the
[20:42] movie. Apart from these two, which
[20:46] other cricketer had a role as an extra in this film?
[20:51] Which as the cricketer had an X role as an extra.
[20:55] Going by the era, my first guess would be Kapil Dev.
[21:02] No. Mahindra Amarnath.
[21:04] So nobody from the 83 squad. Wait wave.
[21:09] Richards used to have a some connections to Bollywood and
[21:13] things like that, right? He had an affair with Neena
[21:15] Gupta at one point. So is it Viv Richards?
[21:19] No, it isn't Vivian Richards either, this cricketer.
[21:23] Let's speak about his filmography.
[21:24] So he has been part of films since then as well.
[21:28] And a lot of those films have been documentaries or docudramas
[21:32] about his career. There's a 2023 film also, this
[21:36] particular film was a fictional film.
[21:39] In 2017, there was a documentary that was also released based on
[21:43] his career and his life. So these are the different films
[21:46] that he has done over the years, apart from the 1985 film that I
[21:50] mentioned, Kabhi Ajnabithe. The recent one you said was
[21:54] fictional, right? Yeah, the 2023 film.
[21:57] Not very famous, but yeah, it is part of his filmography.
[22:01] I remember Azruddin had a movie come out recently, right?
[22:03] But there was not 23. I think Emraan Hashmi was
[22:06] playing him. That wasn't Azaruddin.
[22:11] Let me give you a little bit more of a clue over here.
[22:15] In this scene where this cricketer is featured and he is
[22:18] featured as an extra, Sandeep, Patel's character has to meet
[22:22] some young cricketers and that's where he meets this particular
[22:26] cricketer. This is somebody who was young
[22:28] in the 80s. Correct.
[22:32] Any other clues that you could possibly give me an age range or
[22:36] when this cricketer played? Honestly, the only thing I can
[22:39] say is Vineet, you have no excuses.
[22:42] You can be the least involved and least knowledgeable about
[22:46] cricket. I don't care.
[22:48] But if you don't get this Cricketer's name, it is just.
[22:54] OK, oh OK, but wait. You said there are documentaries
[23:01] made about this person and you also said that there is no
[23:04] excuse for not knowing this person's name is Sachin
[23:08] Tendulkar. Sachin Tendulkar.
[23:11] It is Sachin Tendulkar. I love this.
[23:13] It's a really cool piece of trivia.
[23:15] I would have never known this. He acted in a movie.
[23:18] As a 10 year old was an extra in this film.
[23:22] As a young cricketer who is meeting Sandeep Patel's
[23:25] character in the film, how freaking amazing is that?
[23:28] That is a bomber piece of trivia.
[23:30] Thank you, Arjun. Thank you so much.
[23:31] That's it was worth getting tortured for that, but it is
[23:34] really, really an amazing piece of trivia.
[23:38] By the way, Arjun's pop culture recommendation is The Great
[23:43] Indian Cricket Circus, which is a cricket book by Joy
[23:46] Bhattacharjya and Abhishek Mukherjee.
[23:49] And this is the source for both those questions.
[23:52] So it is his pop culture recommendation for the week and
[23:55] we will pass it on to our audience and recommend they
[23:58] check it out as well. He does have a third question
[24:00] which I will ask you right after you ask the next question, but
[24:04] let me add on to this particular question.
[24:06] So Kabhi Ajnabithe featured Sachin Tendulkar in a cameo
[24:09] role. It also featured two other
[24:12] cricket personalities in cameos. OK, One of these cricket
[24:15] personalities is immortalized in the world of cricket, especially
[24:21] in Mumbai Vankare. Yes, it is SK Vankare Shesh Rao
[24:27] Krishan Rao Vankare who was a cricket administrator and
[24:30] politician. So he was not a cricketer per
[24:33] SE, but he was a cricket administrator and he contributed
[24:38] a fair bit to the cricket CNN in this country.
[24:41] And he was immortalized when the stadium in Mumbai was named one
[24:45] kid a stadium after him the other person.
[24:48] Well, this has nothing to do with the general world trivia,
[24:51] but one of my closest friends in school is this guy's nephew
[24:57] boyfriend at all. But this particular cricketer
[25:02] was a right-handed batsman. He played for India in 22 Test
[25:05] matches. He's also the oldest son of a
[25:10] former captain of Indian cricket team.
[25:14] His father was a captain of the Indian cricket team.
[25:17] Yeah. Mahindra Ramanath.
[25:20] No, There is a very interesting term named after him in cricket,
[25:24] after the father who was the captain, which is basically.
[25:29] But I know this this is Vinu Mankad.
[25:32] Wow, I didn't. He didn't have to give you the
[25:34] clue. Well done, yeah.
[25:35] Mankading, for anybody who might not be aware, is the practice of
[25:39] getting the non striker out if they leave the crease early.
[25:43] And one of the earliest examples, the most famous
[25:45] example is of Vinu Mankad doing that in 1947, apparently so.
[25:50] Vinu Mankad's eldest son Ashok Mankad was an Indian cricketer
[25:55] who was also in this film and is the uncle of a very close school
[26:00] friend of mine. Very nice, very nice.
[26:02] I felt, I felt personally associated with this question.
[26:06] So just to wrap it up, Kabhi Ajnabithe was a 1985 film.
[26:09] It featured Sandeep Patel and Saeed Kirmani, both coming off
[26:13] of the 1983 World Cup fame, and it featured cameos by Sachin
[26:19] Tendulkar, SK1 Khede and Ashok Mangar.
[26:23] OK, now that you've tortured me with this cricket trivia, let me
[26:26] ask you a follow up. One, I don't have the exact
[26:29] details in front of you, but I remember the broad strokes.
[26:32] A simple question, which was the first national team that Sachin
[26:36] Tendulkar played for? Saying India would be too easy
[26:43] and Vineet would not throw such easy ones at me.
[26:49] This is a technicality. It is a technicality, but I I've
[26:53] always taken it to be, you know, the whole fact, basically.
[26:57] I feel like he. Substituted it for somebody or
[26:59] something like that. I vague memory of this trivia,
[27:04] but I am also not too sure. I'm just going to take a guess.
[27:07] Is it Pakistan? Yes, Sachin Tendulkar actually
[27:10] played for the Pakistan team. Before anybody starts stoning me
[27:13] and sending death threats, let me just tell you that the
[27:16] scenario, if I remember correctly, it was the Mumbai
[27:18] Cricket club's centenary celebration or something like
[27:22] that. And the Pakistan team had come
[27:25] to play a couple of matches before they started playing in
[27:27] the official matches. There was a kind of a practice
[27:30] match going on between informal practice match going on between
[27:32] the Indian and the Pakistani teams.
[27:34] A few of the Pakistani players then left in between to go back
[27:38] to the hotel and so the Pakistan team was one person shot.
[27:41] At that point, the Pakistani captain asked if anybody could
[27:45] sub in young Sachin Tendulkar, raised his hand and asked the
[27:48] Indian team captain's permission whether he could just go and sub
[27:51] in. He subbed in and played for the
[27:53] Pakistan team for the rest of that match.
[27:55] So even though you wouldn't find any records which will tell you
[27:59] that was capped for a match with Pakistan, you could technically
[28:03] say that he played with the Pakistani national team before
[28:06] he did the Indian national team. All thoughts and opinions
[28:10] expressed by Vineet are entirely his did not represent my
[28:16] thoughts and opinions. Please, if you want to cancel
[28:20] him, make sure you do only him and I will find a new Co host
[28:25] for this podcast. Just claiming Sachin Tendulkar
[28:29] played for Pakistan is just why. Why Vineet?
[28:33] Are you? Are you done with this podcast?
[28:34] Do you want us to end? As I mentioned again it he
[28:38] didn't actually play for the team, he just subbed in for a
[28:41] small practice match, which I think a lot of people have done.
[28:45] Fair, fair. No, that's a that's an
[28:47] interesting piece of trivia. OK, so now it's my turn.
[28:51] In 1793, the USA was supposed to adopt something.
[28:57] To this end, they ordered the components essential for said
[29:00] adoption from Europe. However, the ship carrying it
[29:06] was hijacked by pirates in 1793 and it never made to the States.
[29:13] Around 50 years later, the USA finally adopted it by law, but
[29:19] it's still not used anywhere in the USA.
[29:21] So what did they adopt? The meter.
[29:27] Oh, you got that too quickly. Yes, it is the metric system.
[29:32] So I found this fact fascinating that the brand new United States
[29:37] of America in 1793, they needed a standard measuring system
[29:41] because all the different states were using a hodgepodge of
[29:45] systems. For example, in New York they
[29:47] were using Dutch systems. In New England they were using
[29:50] English systems. So they decided that they
[29:52] required to use a standardized system.
[29:55] So the Secretary of State at that time was Thomas Jefferson.
[30:01] Jefferson knew about the new French system and thought that
[30:04] this is just what America needs. So he wrote to his pals in
[30:07] France, and they sent a scientist named Joseph Dombe off
[30:11] to Jefferson, carrying a small copper cylinder with a little
[30:15] handle on top. It was about 3 inches tall and
[30:18] about the same wide. This was intended to be a
[30:21] standard for weighing things, part of a weights and measures
[30:24] system being developed in France, now known as the metric
[30:29] system, and the object's weight was 1 kilogram.
[30:33] While he was crossing the Atlantic, Dombe ran into a huge
[30:36] storm. It blew his ship quite far South
[30:40] into the Caribbean Sea. And if Jerry Brachheimer has
[30:44] taught of anything, the Caribbean were full of pirates.
[30:47] They took Joseph Dombi prisoner and they auctioned off all the
[30:52] contents of the ship and that because of that the metric
[30:56] system never reached America. Now this is the really
[31:00] interesting part. Even though America does not use
[31:02] the metric system by law, America has adopted the metric
[31:07] system. In 1866, Congress authorized the
[31:11] use of the metric system in the US and supplied each state with
[31:15] a set of standard metric weights and measures.
[31:18] However, Americans still refuse to use it, and so we are left
[31:22] with things like the McDonald's Quarter Pounder instead of the
[31:26] McDonald's 113 grams. Very interesting, Very
[31:31] interesting. I I thought it was a meter, but
[31:34] you mentioned the kilograms, so I guess I had that little
[31:36] confused. But yes, I have heard of this
[31:38] trivia. Before it is the metric system.
[31:39] If the answer was the metric system so I would have I would
[31:42] have taken either the case. But I just found this really
[31:45] interesting that America does not have the metric system at
[31:47] least now, because if they had adopted that early they probably
[31:50] would have followed it. I wonder.
[31:52] If they just weren't too keen, they were like, OK, let's give
[31:55] it a shot. And when it didn't arrive one
[31:57] time, they're like I screw it, It's fine.
[31:58] We'll just go with the more senseless system of feet and
[32:03] pounds and gallons for some stupid reason, which makes no
[32:07] sense at all. But to be honest, let's just be
[32:11] fair. While America gets a lot of
[32:13] Flack for being one of the few countries in the world which
[32:15] does not use the metric system, let's remind ourselves that
[32:19] there is a country where people are measured in stone.
[32:23] Oh, I know this. So which country is that?
[32:26] It's the UK there. A stone is a measurement of
[32:29] weight. So instead of saying that you
[32:32] weigh so many kilograms or so many pounds, people will
[32:34] actually say, oh, he weighs 7 stone.
[32:37] I mean, like, that's more ridiculous.
[32:39] Than pounds. That is, I guess, a valid point.
[32:44] Yeah. OK, now that you've asked this
[32:45] question and you brought up America and international
[32:51] treaties, so here's something very similar.
[32:56] I'm sure you have heard of the Treaty of Versailles.
[32:58] Yes. This was a treaty, in case
[33:00] somebody doesn't know, was signed right after World War
[33:03] One. It was a document that kind of
[33:06] brought about an end to the First World War, and it also had
[33:09] a few additions to satisfy the major players.
[33:13] Now, war activity in France had destroyed a lot of its economy,
[33:19] especially one of its most famous exports.
[33:24] So duplicate France in some way. Article 275 was added to the
[33:30] Treaty of Versailles. Its purpose was to prevent
[33:33] Germany from taking advantage of the situation of the decimation
[33:38] of a certain product in France and flooding the market with its
[33:42] own version. So Article 275 was meant to
[33:45] protect that and to prevent Germany from doing so.
[33:50] However, US was not a signatory to the Treaty of Versailles.
[33:55] Hence one of these key things which around the world people
[34:00] adhered to the US for the longest time did not.
[34:04] Which product am I talking about?
[34:06] Do you know what Article 275 in the Treaty of Versailles was
[34:09] added for? What is it trying to protect?
[34:14] So you said that the US was not party to it, so they shipped the
[34:18] item to France? They kept exporting the item in
[34:22] a manner of speaking. The war decimated this
[34:26] particular thing, so they didn't want Germany to flooded with
[34:29] their version, you said. Right.
[34:31] So it's obviously something that's French.
[34:34] Which has a German version. Yeah.
[34:36] Is this the hamburger? No, but you are in the right
[34:41] industry, I guess food and beverage.
[34:42] Then, because you said Germany, I would say sausages.
[34:47] All right, let's put food aside. It's a beverage, OK.
[34:51] OK, it's a beverage. It's a beverage.
[34:54] And France Champagne. I have to give to you, yeah,
[34:59] that is a great crack, but do you know the exact context of
[35:02] this? The vineyards of champagne were
[35:06] destroyed. Exactly so.
[35:08] The Champagne region was terribly affected because of
[35:10] First World War and the winemaking capacity was
[35:14] decimated in some way. Germany had wine making
[35:17] facilities, but to make sure that they did not sort of
[35:21] completely flood the market with their own version of Champagne
[35:24] or either sparkling wine, they decided that the word champagne
[35:29] can only refer to sparkling wine that is made in Champagne.
[35:32] OK, nice. However, the US, which is not a
[35:36] signatory, did not need to abide by this rule.
[35:40] So sparkling wine created in California wineries continued to
[35:44] be called Champagne and it is one of the only place in the
[35:47] world which is producing Champagne apart from Champagne
[35:50] in France. And in 2005, finally the United
[35:55] States agreed to Champagne only being referred to wine made in
[36:00] Champagne except for certain brands which had been already
[36:03] using it. So there's a little loophole
[36:06] that the United States managed to sneak into this, but
[36:09] interesting that just because the US did not sign the treaty
[36:12] over side, they could continue making Champagne, whereas the
[36:14] rest of the world had to cease and desist and could only call
[36:18] it sparkling wine and could not call it champagne.
[36:24] I am now going to ask you a question about a particular
[36:28] product. In Chicago.
[36:31] A scrappy 19 year old Kentucky farm boy named Thomas Williams
[36:37] watched with curiosity as his older sister did something using
[36:42] a homemade concoction. Seeing dollar signs in his
[36:45] sister's eyes, Williams borrowed his buddy's chemistry set and
[36:50] got busy tweaking her formula, which she had dubbed The Secret
[36:55] of the Harem. After many trials and tweaks of
[36:58] the formula, he launched the product, naming it after his
[37:00] sister and putting her face on the box.
[37:04] This brand is almost a household name today.
[37:07] Which brand? It is a secret of the harem.
[37:10] That's what his sister called it.
[37:13] And what is the time frame for this 19151915 was when he
[37:18] launched this product? Yes.
[37:22] Is it something that you eat? No, it is not a food item, but
[37:28] it was a homemade item. At least the version that his
[37:30] sister was using was a homemade version.
[37:32] I see no. I'll need some sort of a hint
[37:36] over here. This brand is currently the
[37:40] world's leading brand in its category.
[37:42] This particular brand sells roughly one of its products
[37:47] every two seconds. I was going to say some cleaning
[37:54] product. I was thinking either a
[37:55] detergent or some sort of. I would advise you to pay
[37:58] attention to what his sister called the product The Secret of
[38:03] the Harem. Yeah, Secret of the Harem.
[38:05] You want to keep the harem clean?
[38:11] Well, not that if you're not talking a cleaning product.
[38:14] It's not a food or drink either. Oh, is it some sort of personal
[38:20] care? Some cream or or or makeup or
[38:23] something? Yes.
[38:26] Oh wow. The biggest makeup brand.
[38:29] I'll give you the ingredients of his sister's homemade
[38:33] concoction. That should tell you the
[38:35] product, frankly speaking. Coal dust, ashes, burnt cock and
[38:42] petroleum Jelly. OK, this sounds like a is it
[38:46] like an eyeliner sort of a thing?
[38:48] Yeah. You're very much in the
[38:50] ballpark. OK, and you said he put her
[38:54] image on the product. Yes, he named it after her as
[38:58] well. Oh, he named it after her.
[39:02] Oh, is it Mabeline? Yes, it is Mabeline.
[39:07] His sister's name was Mabel, and if you paid attention to the
[39:11] ingredients, one of the ingredients was petroleum Jelly,
[39:14] which is known as Vaseline. So Mabel plus Vaseline equals
[39:19] Maybelline. That is so smart.
[39:22] I love it. That is a really cool question.
[39:24] Nice. So if you didn't know,
[39:26] Maybelline, now owned by L'Oreal, has risen to become the
[39:31] world's leading cosmetics brand. To this day, this household
[39:35] brand sells one of its trademark green and pink packaged great
[39:40] lash mascara tubes every two seconds.
[39:43] Wow. That's the origin of Maybelline,
[39:46] ladies and gentlemen. Very cool.
[39:49] Love that question. And I guess this will be the
[39:53] last question for our episode. And I'll go back to Arjun, who
[39:58] was generous enough to give us three questions.
[40:00] So I'm going to end with one of his questions.
[40:02] Before Aditya asks this question, I'm going to
[40:04] officially request Arjun if you're listening to this
[40:07] podcast. Thank you first of all for
[40:09] sending these three questions. And then I would very much
[40:11] appreciate it if you could send me 3 exclusively very tough
[40:15] trivia questions from cricket specifically so that I can ask
[40:19] those questions to Aditya, I'd be very grateful.
[40:22] Thank you in advance. Honestly, Arjun, you could send
[40:25] anything in sports and it would be equally tough for me.
[40:28] So feel free to use football, cricket, basketball, baseball,
[40:33] any other choice of sport that you have.
[40:36] OK, let's ask you the question. What was unique about Sunil
[40:39] Gavaskar's innings in the second innings of Bombay versus
[40:43] Karnataka? Ranji Trophy Semi Final at the
[40:46] Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore during the 8182 season.
[40:52] He wasn't injured. Are you implying that really
[40:57] Oscar was always injured otherwise?
[40:59] Oh, I don't know. The 83 World Cup?
[41:02] No, I don't know. I'm just kidding.
[41:04] I really don't know this. You will have to give me a clue
[41:06] to see if I can guess this one. So the match was a very
[41:11] interesting match. What happened was Karnataka's
[41:15] left arm spinner Raghuram Bhatt was almost unplayable in that
[41:20] match. So so Gavaskar, who played for
[41:24] Bombay, realized he needed something to counter Raghuram
[41:29] Bhatt, who was clearly dominating it with his left arm
[41:33] spinning. That's when he decided to do
[41:35] something which was unique about his innings in this particular
[41:39] match. That has never happened before
[41:42] or after in his career. Did he like, play the entire
[41:45] innings? Just I think they're called tot
[41:47] balls. No, no, no, not in this case.
[41:51] It is actually a significant departure, if I may say so, from
[41:57] what would be considered Gavaskar's usual style.
[42:00] In fact, when he discussed this particular change with the
[42:03] Bombay manager Sharad Dibadkar, the latter was horrified.
[42:08] But Gavaskar had made-up his mind, so he decided to go ahead
[42:11] with it anyways. Why would he be horrified?
[42:15] Wait, was this something like where he intentionally gave up
[42:17] his wicket so that somebody else who coming up lower upon the
[42:21] order could play against him? Or something like that.
[42:25] No. In fact, what happened was he
[42:28] actually managed to stick it out through the entire innings.
[42:31] Karnataka never got his wicket. Any other clues?
[42:35] Ladies and gentlemen who are listening to this podcast?
[42:38] Please understand that I really don't know anything about
[42:40] cricket, so you will have to wait until Aditya kind of holds
[42:44] me by the hand and takes me to the answer.
[42:47] Speaking of hand, that should give you a clue.
[42:50] Wait. What?
[42:53] Oh wait, did he switch hands? Perfect.
[42:58] There you go. Really only time in his career
[43:03] that Gavaskar stepped down to the crease and decided to play
[43:05] left-handed. So that is what was unique about
[43:08] that game, that he decided to play left-handed instead of his
[43:11] usual right-handed, and he actually managed to stick it
[43:14] out. So the particular bowler, Agram
[43:17] Bhatt, who was dominating the entire innings with his left arm
[43:21] spin, was actually not able to get Cavaska's wicket, even
[43:25] though he managed to get a few other batsmen out.
[43:27] Very nice, very nice. Vineet, this was supposed to be
[43:31] the last question, but to be fair to you, there were three
[43:34] cricketing questions today. So I'm going to give you one
[43:37] redemption question and just because I'll really like this
[43:39] question as well. OK, So I read this piece of
[43:42] trivia and I had to go search for where it was originally
[43:46] from. Turns out it was in an archive
[43:49] of Cinema del Celenzio which is an Italian cinema based website,
[43:54] film based website and in the archives I found this particular
[43:58] interview. I had to translate it and it
[44:01] gave me a little beautiful piece of trivia.
[44:04] This particular director was asked why he made the choice for
[44:09] the lead actor in this film. An iconic film, Iconic director,
[44:14] iconic lead actor. But when he did choose this
[44:17] particular actor, he was practically an unknown and the
[44:21] director responded the truth more than an actor.
[44:25] I needed a mask and XX is the actor and X at that time only
[44:32] had two expressions, with a hat and without a hat.
[44:37] So I went with him. Which particular director, Actor
[44:42] combination am I talking about? With a hat and without a hat.
[44:49] Is this Clint Eastwood? Oh, that is such a beautiful
[44:53] crack. Yes, it is.
[44:54] Clint Eastwood. Eastwood got that part because
[44:57] he had only two expressions, apparently with a hat and
[45:00] without a hat. OK, so this will be the director
[45:04] of the Good, the Bad, or the Ugly.
[45:06] Sergio Leone. Sergio Leone, Sergio Leone, Yes,
[45:09] yes. The man with no name is the name
[45:12] of the character or the at least that's how he's referred to.
[45:15] And yeah, that's how Clint Eastwood got the part.
[45:19] Man with the hat. Without a hat.
[45:21] OK, I really like that one. Obviously Sergio Leonard said
[45:28] this before he saw Clint Eastwood act in heartbreak rage,
[45:32] because there he has three expressions.
[45:34] Annoyed. More annoyed.
[45:36] Less annoyed, so that I think, is all the all the time we have
[45:42] for this episode. Let me now go to Aditya and ask
[45:45] him what's your question for this week.
[45:47] OK, so you mentioned weird measuring systems across the
[45:51] world, and I wanted to ask you, what is the strange measuring
[45:56] system used for Hollywood celebrities?
[45:59] OK, so you'll find out the answer to that question next
[46:02] week. Let us go now to the question
[46:04] that I asked at the beginning of today's episode.
[46:07] The development of this movie began back in 1994 and filming
[46:12] was supposed to start by 1999. However, it was not done so
[46:16] because the director said that the necessary technology was not
[46:20] yet available to make the film. He said that his inspiration was
[46:24] every single science fiction book he had ever read as a kid,
[46:27] and then he wanted to update the style of Edgar Ice Burrows John
[46:31] Carter series. He acknowledged that X that the
[46:35] movie shares themes with films at play in the Fields of the
[46:39] Lord, the Emerald Forest and Princess Mononoke.
[46:44] Can you tell me which film this is?
[46:46] And for bonus points, who the director is Aditya?
[46:50] Are you talking James Cameron? Yes, it is James Cameron and the
[46:54] movie is there, obviously. Avatar.
[46:57] Yes. So that is the end of today's
[47:01] episode. Questions.
[47:02] Let's now move to the pop concert recommendation for this
[47:05] week. Aditya, what's your
[47:05] recommendation? So to repeat Arjun's
[47:09] recommendation one more time, the book Great Indian Cricket
[47:12] Circus, from which he had two lovely pieces of trivia to share
[47:16] with us today. Thank you, Arjun.
[47:18] One more time for sharing that audience.
[47:20] Please go ahead and send us more questions if you have.
[47:23] And for my own pop culture recommendation, Vineet, you
[47:26] mentioned a shoestring budget Malayalam film 2018.
[47:30] Speaking of films made on a very tiny budget but having an
[47:35] outsized impact, I have to have to recommend Godzilla -1.
[47:41] Oh yes, I've heard very good things about it.
[47:44] So my recommendation for this week is a book, a nonfiction
[47:48] book. Everybody's heard of Amundsen
[47:52] and Scott and their race towards the South Pole.
[47:55] Scott because of his the fact that his expedition was doomed,
[48:00] despite reaching the South Pole, and Amundsen for the fact that
[48:03] he did so quite quickly. The third party in this race to
[48:07] reach the South Pole was Ernest Shackleton, a contradiction of a
[48:12] man, someone who's not very adept while in England in his
[48:18] regular life. But the moment you put him in a
[48:20] crisis, there's nobody else you want leading the expedition than
[48:24] Shackleton himself. So I was going to recommend a
[48:26] book by another person who's also an amazing explorer.
[48:32] Probably the last big explorer of our age, Sir Ranald Fiennes.
[48:38] So the book's name is Shackleton and that's all for this episode.
[48:41] Thank you for listening in. We hope you enjoyed the show and
[48:44] learned something new. If you liked what you heard,
[48:46] please consider subscribing to our podcast.
[48:48] And please, please leave us a review on your favorite podcast
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[49:30] See you guys next week.

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