# Episode 137 - Movies, Media & Mumbai

An episode of [Are You Quizzing Me?](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1663104901), 7 Apr 2026, 1 h 02 min.

Audio: https://anchor.fm/s/d7afa960/podcast/play/118107072/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-3-7%2Fdad22dd4-d690-67b6-4332-70c2e5eb0509.mp3

Do you know what is this a list of: Ice Candy Man, Kramer vs Kramer, Romeo & Juliet, Breaking Away, On The Waterfront, It Happened One Night? Do you know who was the editor of The Bombay Chronicle, who later went on to co-found the popular tabloid Blitz? Do you know a whole bunch of trivia related to just a single spot in Mumbai, Flora Fountain?? Tune in to the episode to find out!! You can reach us at Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/areyouquizzingme/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/areyouquizzingme Email: areyouquizzingme@gmail.com Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/areyouquizzingme Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@areyouquizzingme/podcasts

## Transcript

[0:00] During England's 1648 Civil War siege of Colchester, royalists
[0:06] positioned a massive gun atop St.
[0:09] Mary at the walled church tower, crewed by sharp rooter one eyed
[0:14] Jack Thompson to hammer parliamentarian lines for 11
[0:18] weeks until a counter strike demolished the wall beneath it,
[0:22] sending the weapon and the tower crashing down.
[0:25] Irreparably Simple question, why am I sharing this with you on a
[0:30] quiz show? So give me the fun back.
[0:32] This is the audience question for episode #137 of Are You
[0:36] Quizzing Me? Your favorite quizzing and
[0:38] trivia podcast show to the music.
[0:41] Welcome to Are you quizzing me? I am Vineet Nair with my Co host
[0:45] Aditya Kashyap. This is a quizzing trivia
[0:48] podcast show. Join us as we dive deep into
[0:51] history, science, pop culture and so much more.
[0:55] Let's get quizzing and we're back for episode #137 what you
[1:00] just heard tired to the musical stage was the audience question
[1:04] for this, because some question which I will answer at the end
[1:06] of today's episode. Now it's time for the audience
[1:09] question. Part deal or audience question
[1:11] junior. Or Simply put, the Instagram
[1:14] audience question that Aditya put up last week.
[1:16] So Aditya, who was the fastest finger first?
[1:19] All right, so the social media audience question SMAQ.
[1:23] Smack. You want to call it Smack?
[1:27] Do we have a name? I think we have a name.
[1:30] I think we have a name. We officially have a name,
[1:32] Smack. The smack of episode 136 that I
[1:38] am revealing now in episode 137 was a picture of two famous
[1:43] people meeting. One of them clearly visible is
[1:46] Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi and the other
[1:49] person was a big fan of Gandhi and really wanted to meet him.
[1:53] He managed to do this when Gandhi was in London in 1931.
[1:58] Gandhi had no idea who this famous person was before he met
[2:02] him, which is very surprising because I'm sure almost
[2:06] everybody listening to this podcast has heard of this
[2:09] person, has seen this person, probably has specific memories
[2:13] associated to this person. The question was who this person
[2:15] was. And before I tell you what the
[2:18] answer is, props to Nitin. Nitin got the answer right on
[2:23] Instagram. Well done Nitin.
[2:25] The answer was Charlie Chaplin. Charlie Chaplin was the man in
[2:29] question who thought really highly of Mahatma Gandhi and
[2:33] really wanted to meet him. Managed to do that in London in
[2:36] 1931 and Gandhi for the first time ever heard of this person.
[2:40] We have asked questions in the past about Mahatma Gandhi's
[2:43] adventures with cinema and apparently there are only two
[2:47] films that he ever watched and neither of them were Chaplin
[2:49] films. So not too surprising that he
[2:51] had not heard of him. But yeah, from our perspective
[2:54] in 2026, it seems ludicrous for someone to have not heard of
[2:58] Charlie Chaplin. In any case, that is the
[3:00] historic meeting that happened in 1931.
[3:03] So well done, Nitin. Good crack.
[3:05] Yay. Well done, Nitin.
[3:07] And if I'm not mistaken, I believe it's my turn to start
[3:10] off the questions, but this week.
[3:12] I honestly don't care, don't remember, don't know.
[3:14] But I have another audience question because today I have
[3:18] done one of my rabbit hole moments where I've gone down one
[3:21] Wikipedia article and it ended with me three days later,
[3:26] hungover, no food, no sleep, and with way too much trivia.
[3:30] So I'm going to try to fit all of it in into this one episode,
[3:33] and I'm going to do audience question part, Duh.
[3:35] It's the actual part, duh for the audience question.
[3:39] We're really confusing our audience at this point with the
[3:41] names. Yeah, OK.
[3:43] Smack them with questions. Smack them.
[3:46] Oh God, we need this is one of the winning moments of this
[3:49] podcast. Raja Vijay Sen, the Raja of
[3:52] Mandi which was a former princely state in present day
[3:55] Himachal Pradesh in the late 1800s, wanted to gift his wife
[4:01] something he married a bunch of times.
[4:02] One of the wives he really wanted to give something special
[4:05] to. What did he gift her that today
[4:09] is considered very iconic? Very iconic for I would say most
[4:15] people in India, definitely people in my city of Mumbai.
[4:19] What did Raja Vijay Sen give his one of his wives in the late
[4:25] 1800s that we would consider Mumbaikers would consider
[4:29] iconic? A lot of Indians would also
[4:31] consider it iconic. Think about the question.
[4:34] I'll tell you the answer with Vineet at the end of the
[4:36] episode. But yes, Vineet, take it away
[4:38] with your first question of the podcast.
[4:41] I'm going to tell you a list and obviously you have to connect
[4:44] with a common factor between all of them.
[4:46] The movies, there's a some of them are we, Some of them are
[4:49] books, some of them are plays. But there's a common connect
[4:52] with all of them. Ice Candy Man, Romeo and Juliet
[4:56] breaking away. Kramer VS Kramer on the
[4:59] waterfront. It happened one night.
[5:01] On the waterfront, Kramer VS Kramer, Romeo and Juliet.
[5:06] Yes, and we're assuming this is one of the older Romeo and
[5:09] Juliet's. There have been a bunch.
[5:11] This is candy, man. What is Candy man?
[5:13] Ice candy, man, that's a book, I'll tell you that.
[5:16] That's a book. Oh, oh, OK, because I was
[5:21] initially thinking this could potentially be Oscar nominations
[5:25] for both the leads. And now it.
[5:27] Sounds vaguely familiar that Meryl Streep got an Oscar nom
[5:31] nod for Kramer versus Kramer, but OK.
[5:33] Yeah. But OK, I'm off then.
[5:36] I'm missing one on the list. And so there was the Candyman,
[5:38] there was Romeo and Juliet, there was On the Waterfront
[5:41] those Kramer was Kramer and breaking away.
[5:44] And it happened one night. Familiar names, nothing jumps
[5:48] out. No idea at all.
[5:49] Completely blank. Give me a clue.
[5:51] There is only one possible clue I can give you, which is fairly
[5:54] something of a Guinea, but I think Indian cinema.
[5:57] All of them have had remake in Indian cinema I assume.
[6:01] That I think was fairly obvious from the crew, but I need you to
[6:04] be little more specific. Figured Romeo and Juliet think
[6:08] of Ram Leela but I don't some of them are.
[6:10] Inspirations. Some of them are proper remakes,
[6:14] and this is not an exactly 100% exhaustive list.
[6:17] Ramleela is definitely something that was an adaptation of Romeo
[6:22] and Juliet. I know there's a Creamer versus
[6:24] Creamer Indian version also. Romeo and Juliet I think you can
[6:29] say inspired is a better option. I know the Creamer versus
[6:32] Creamer remake or whether it was remake or it was inspired by I,
[6:37] I think it, if I'm not wrong, I don't say Aamir Khan was in it.
[6:41] I don't quite remember the name. Very, very close.
[6:45] Let's just say that. Have they all been adapted into
[6:47] some Aamir Khan film? Very good.
[6:50] So these are all remakes which starred Aamir Khan in one role
[6:53] or the other. Which Romeo and Juliet film is
[6:56] Aamir Khan? Apparently Kaamat Tak was
[6:59] heavily inspired by Romeo and. Juliet style.
[7:02] Oh OK, fair enough. That's why I.
[7:04] Said I don't I won't say it's complete remake, but it's a
[7:06] remake. It's a so let's see if you can
[7:08] get which movies have Obviously the I left out the obvious ones
[7:12] from this like Forrest Gump. Yeah, Larsington the show, Yeah.
[7:16] Yes, and I left out Memento. Designee.
[7:19] Sure. Yeah.
[7:20] Can you tell me ice candy man? This is the hardest of the lot,
[7:22] so I'll leave you up and let's get that out of the way.
[7:24] Ice candy, man. No context at all to the story
[7:30] or the neighbors. Also so mysterious.
[7:32] Ice candy man. Give me a genre maybe?
[7:36] Oh, very serious cinema Sarfarosh.
[7:39] No, no, even more serious like that is Aamir Khan series.
[7:41] This is Aamir Khan has a small role in this movie.
[7:44] It's not the lead Dobi guard. No.
[7:47] Oh, what? OK.
[7:50] I'll give you one last clue. This will probably say, but it's
[7:52] a Deepa Mehtak. Oh my God, no, I don't remember
[7:55] what is which one is it? Earth.
[7:57] I was thinking is it? I know it's not fire, but OK
[8:00] Earth it is the one. We already mentioned Romeo and
[8:03] Juliet breaking away 1979 movie it was remade to that I just.
[8:09] Got to get because it sounded like breaking away cycling,
[8:13] yeah. Creamer versus Creamer 1979
[8:16] remade to. It's some.
[8:18] Amar Khan and Manisha, Kerala. Very good.
[8:23] I was about to say, Very good soundtrack.
[8:24] Very good soundtrack. Yes.
[8:26] I was about that was going to be very close on the waterfront
[8:29] 1954. Oh interesting, I had no idea
[8:35] before this question that it is the case, but just because vague
[8:40] parallels in the story, I'm going to guess Ghulam.
[8:43] Very good. It is Ghulam.
[8:44] It is Ghulam. OK, so you have got most of
[8:48] those. Let's see.
[8:49] The last one on our list was It happened.
[8:52] One night it happened. One Night is like a Is it a noir
[8:55] film of the 50s? I don't quite remember when it
[8:58] is from. ROM com actually.
[9:00] Oh, it's not a thriller. OK.
[9:02] And it's a 1934. Film.
[9:03] But no, I had then. I have no idea at all.
[9:05] Then this movie dil hai Ki mantan nahi.
[9:09] It's dil hai Ki mantan nahi. Dil Hai literally can only think
[9:14] of the title track, but apart from that I have no idea what
[9:17] this film was about. There's one more movie I left
[9:19] off the list, but let's see if you can get it.
[9:21] An affair to remember. An Affair to remember Not seen
[9:25] the original, so no, I haven't. I don't know what the genre is.
[9:29] It's. Month.
[9:29] I should have just trusted my gut.
[9:31] I was literally going to guess one just because of random word
[9:35] affair to remember. I don't know.
[9:37] Anyways, yeah, okay one. There's one more on the list,
[9:40] but I didn't put it in because frankly thinking it's a little
[9:42] bit of a stretch to say that it's an inspiration.
[9:45] You can just try to see if it's something that you can guess the
[9:49] prestige I. Don't even want to answer this
[9:51] question because when I watched the movie I was so annoyed.
[9:54] I remember there was a review, this guy literally reviewed the
[9:57] film, the one in question which I shall not name and he said if
[10:01] you have not watched the Prestige then this is an 8 on 10
[10:04] but if you watch the Prestige this is a six on 10.
[10:06] And I'm like how do I unknown? It's a 5 on 10 in any.
[10:11] Review that Also, I don't know why it was an 8 on 10 if I've
[10:13] not seen the prestige, but how do you deprive yourself?
[10:17] In fact, if anything, every review just should just say go
[10:20] watch The Prestige instead. It was it was such a step down
[10:24] from the second part because I generally think the second part
[10:26] was good. I think it's a good popcorn
[10:29] masala film. It's fun to watch.
[10:31] It's over the top in a in a fun way.
[10:35] I'd like the first two films. The third one is annoying.
[10:37] I shall not name the film. We shall move on.
[10:40] Yes, yes, yes. It's just suffice to say that
[10:42] there is a loud sound three times.
[10:46] Moving from that, you know what? Hitting you right back with
[10:48] another list. But but because I like you,
[10:51] there's going to be surrounding information around this list
[10:53] before we get to the list. OK, tell me the identity of X
[10:57] who is XX landed in present day Kerala many many years ago.
[11:02] I'm not telling you the timeline right yet.
[11:05] Many years ago and was eventually martyred in Mylapore
[11:10] which is near Chennai. A large community of people do
[11:14] believe this to be the case. There is a list of places in
[11:18] Kerala that is associated to X. You have to tell me who X is.
[11:24] Here's the list. I don't know.
[11:26] Why I'm doing this to myself, but let's try Kodungallur,
[11:29] Kodungallur. Kodungallur.
[11:32] Palayur. Kotakavu in brackets it says and
[11:36] let me just get through it. If there's no point you
[11:38] correcting me everything, you're going to get it right.
[11:40] Kotakavu in brackets is Paravur, so that might have been the
[11:44] historical name, I'm not quite sure.
[11:46] Kokamangalam, I think I got that right.
[11:49] Niranam, Nilakkal, Kollam and Thiruvitham code, yeah.
[11:57] It's the top of my head. I'm tempted to say something
[12:02] like a Saint Thomas. Too easy?
[12:03] Was it too easy? I'm.
[12:05] Thinking of Saint Thomas. Making mincemeat of my question,
[12:10] I had no clue. I had absolutely no idea that
[12:13] Saint Thomas the Apostle is considered by a large sect of
[12:18] Christians in India to be the first person to have brought
[12:21] Christianity to it, like pretty much as oggy as it gets if not
[12:26] for Jesus. So if Saint Thomas the Apostle,
[12:29] the Doubting Thomas as he was also called, was the man who
[12:33] brought that Christianity to India, as some communities very
[12:37] strongly believe, that means that Christianity is pretty old
[12:42] in India, as old as it is in anywhere any other part of the
[12:45] world. If this is, if you take this as
[12:47] a historical fact, it's actually prudent to say that Christianity
[12:51] came to India before it went to Rome.
[12:53] Take that, white people, okay? And to clarify, I live in
[12:58] Paroor, OH. St.
[13:00] Thomas Church is like. Yeah, damn, that was too easy.
[13:06] That made it too easy for you. But I figured that the Kerala
[13:09] collection connection might make it simple for you.
[13:11] I do apologize. I know there are supposed to be
[13:13] only seven in the list. I mentioned 8, so I think I
[13:17] might have counted something twice.
[13:19] There is, and this time please feel free to correct me.
[13:22] Kodungallur. Kodungallur, also known as
[13:25] Kragenor, which is the older British name for it, is also the
[13:28] site of Cheramanpally, which is the oldest or actually the first
[13:33] mosque in India. OK, interesting.
[13:36] Yeah, I know there is a lot of interfaith communities that
[13:40] exist and. So the legend goes that the
[13:43] chairman Perumal, the king of that particular small region,
[13:47] actually travelled to Arabia during the time of Muhammad and
[13:51] converted. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[13:52] I've heard of this as well. Pretty insane if that is true.
[13:54] So Kodangalur, there is Kollam, there is Palayur, there is
[13:59] kottakayal. Kottakayal.
[14:01] How's it pronounced? Ortekil.
[14:03] Kottakkil. Oh my God, that the English
[14:05] betrayed me. Then kottakkil.
[14:07] There is kokum. Mangalam.
[14:09] Did I get that right? I, I, I have no idea which place
[14:12] that is. You'll have to kind of spell
[14:14] that out for me a little bit so I can.
[14:15] K OK KAMANGAL AM. Ocamangalam OK kokum.
[14:21] Kokumangalam Niranam. NIRAN AM.
[14:25] OK, but I'm not very familiar with that particular place name
[14:28] but. Yeah, Nilakkal.
[14:29] So these are the seven places, Nilakkal, Nilakkal, Nilakkal,
[14:33] which also in brackets his child for some reason, I'm not sure
[14:36] what that is Anyway. So these are the seven places
[14:40] which are considered to be the seven churches that were
[14:46] established by Thomas the Apostle by Saint Thomas
[14:50] Christians. These are literally the group,
[14:52] the the community, the denomination that believes that
[14:57] Thomas the Apostle brought to Christianity to India the first
[14:59] person to bring it, they're called Saint Thomas Christians.
[15:02] So not only is the landing in Kerala establishing all these
[15:07] churches which I assume are are pretty religious sites, till
[15:10] date even his death is presumed to have happened in India.
[15:15] This happened instead of Kerala. This was closer to Chennai.
[15:18] So this was according to Syrian Christian myth tradition.
[15:22] Thomas was killed with a spear at Saint Thomas Mount in Chennai
[15:26] on 3rd July, 72 AD or 72 CE, however you call it.
[15:31] And his body was entered at Mylapore.
[15:33] So this, this very deep connection to Christianity.
[15:37] Somehow I had no idea. Maybe because you're from
[15:41] Kerala, you live in these places and you have, you have grown up
[15:43] with that. Maybe it is something you knew.
[15:45] I don't know if most Indians do know this.
[15:47] It's it's common knowledge here. Yeah, I imagine in Kerala, but
[15:50] hey, for those of us not in Kerala and not near Mylapore,
[15:54] this was hopefully ATIL for you Vineet.
[15:56] I'm not going to let you go though with just this part of
[15:58] the question. I have a follow up question to
[16:00] this. So there is a Saint Thomas
[16:02] Cathedral in Mumbai. This is a 300 year old cathedral
[16:07] that is made in honor of Saint Thomas the Apostle.
[16:11] OK, I think it's Apostle. The T is silent.
[16:14] It's been bugging me. You're kidding me.
[16:16] I have always called it Apostle. OK, Apostles.
[16:19] I believe the T is silent. All right, swallowed this.
[16:27] Yeah, I tried to Fact Check Vineet and Karma got feedback
[16:30] because it indeed it is Apostle. And I also swallowed my mic for
[16:34] a second there. I wonder how that sounds in the
[16:37] final edit. Anyways, moving on.
[16:40] Apologies to the listeners who were also bugged.
[16:43] St. Thomas the Apostle, St.
[16:44] Thomas the Apostle's cathedral in Mumbai is called Saint Thomas
[16:47] Cathedral. Vineet.
[16:49] My question to you is how would Mumbaikers know of Saint Thomas
[16:53] Cathedral? Apart from the fact that of
[16:54] course it is still a famous cathedral, what else on the map
[16:58] of Mumbai has Saint Thomas Cathedral left an imprint?
[17:03] Can be banned, right? It's no, that's no, that's not
[17:05] bad. No Mumbai's geography and things
[17:07] like that. No, I'm not immediately.
[17:11] Completely fair. I don't expect you to know
[17:13] Mumbai's geography. I don't expect you to know where
[17:15] it is in relation to Andheri and Bandra and and the other.
[17:19] So that's not the point. But I think there are certain
[17:22] names that most people know if they have visited Mumbai.
[17:25] And this name, I would say is probably one of the top five
[17:30] names that you heard when you were in Mumbai if you ever
[17:32] visited Mumbai. Bandstand.
[17:34] But no, no bandstand is in Bandra.
[17:36] This is in South Mumbai. Not Nariman Point, obviously,
[17:39] like you're talking about top five places.
[17:41] I'm just going about top five places.
[17:42] Like when people go to Mumbai, you're like, I have to go there.
[17:45] Bandra Valley ceiling, No. Then there's Marine Drive,
[17:47] obviously the promenade. What?
[17:50] Else, not as much as a place that you have to go, but you
[17:53] probably will go because it is just central to a lot of things.
[17:56] Like Toyota. I mean, that's not, that's got
[17:57] nothing to do with this. Victor Terminus was the old
[18:00] name. CSMT is the current name.
[18:03] Current name yes. Chitrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
[18:05] Not for CSMT, the other major train station that you might end
[18:10] up at. So okay may I don't know if this
[18:13] is perhaps slipping your memory right now.
[18:15] How does the name Church Gate ring a bell?
[18:18] Church Gate No. That's.
[18:21] Stupid I Church cake, Of course. Church cake.
[18:24] Why were they thinking Coral? Church gate?
[18:26] Yeah. Church Gate Station, Yeah.
[18:27] Saint Thomas Cathedral, I'm. Officially an idiot.
[18:30] Saint Thomas Cathedral was one of the oldest cathedrals in
[18:33] Mumbai. It was inside Mumbai Fort.
[18:36] There was a gate that led to the church and that area, that gate,
[18:41] everything surrounding it was called the area Church gate.
[18:46] That's where the name church gate comes from.
[18:48] Interestingly enough, in the, I think mid 19th century,
[18:52] somewhere around that point, the walls of Mumbai Fort were
[18:55] demolished and so the gate went away with it.
[18:58] So for all close to 200 years, that gate has not existed.
[19:02] Instead, a very iconic fountain is there, which is called Flora
[19:06] Fountain over there where Flora Fountain is today.
[19:09] People of Mumbai would perhaps be amused, perhaps be titillated
[19:13] to know that an actual gate to a church existed.
[19:17] The church in question was Saint Thomas Cathedral.
[19:19] Church Gate was the place in question.
[19:22] Yeah, I, I, I feel really stupid.
[19:25] Church Gate was quite obvious. I should have just thought I
[19:27] kept focusing on the places that you have to go.
[19:29] But again, very, very nice. It's just a related piece of
[19:33] trivia. King George the 5th and Queen
[19:35] Mary his Queen consort who they came before they went to Delhi
[19:40] Derba and Delhi Derba used to happen where the coronation
[19:43] ceremonies happened for the kings who were ascending the
[19:46] throne or were being coronated in England.
[19:49] Their coronation ceremony also happened in their Commonwealth
[19:53] countries. I imagine the rest of them also,
[19:54] India, definitely it happened and this was the third one,
[19:58] though the first one that was attended by the king himself.
[20:00] Before that, I don't think the kings even bothered coming.
[20:03] So King George fifth came before he went to Delhi.
[20:07] They came to this cathedral. There are still the two, I think
[20:11] the seats or the row, wherever they sat, they are still
[20:13] reserved with their names on it. Abuse.
[20:16] I, I don't know if it's an entire Pew, but definitely the,
[20:18] the, the place where they're sat, their names are there and
[20:22] it's still marks their appearance there in 1911.
[20:28] So that's a history of Saint Thomas Cathedral and Saint
[20:31] Thomas the Apostle in India. All right, we need back to you.
[20:35] Varanas, Varanas. I feel like a right idiot, but
[20:39] it's very interesting trivia. OK, let's stick to this kind of
[20:43] apostles and people landing on the shores of Kerala because I
[20:47] also have a question that very similar to that.
[20:50] X is the name of a vanishing group of Sephobic Jews who
[20:55] escaped Spain and Portugal in the 1400s.
[20:58] In the 1500s, after they fled conversion or persecution in the
[21:03] wake of what is known as the Alhambra Decree, which expelled
[21:06] Jews from Spain, they landed on the shores of Kerala and joined
[21:12] Kochi's older Jewish crowd, earning the tag White Jews were
[21:16] versus the local dark skinned black Jews.
[21:20] They swapped their language from Ladino for Judeo Malayalam and
[21:26] they worship solely at the ex synagogue, which is also the
[21:30] name of the synagogue. It's also the name of this
[21:32] community. The synagogue is also the oldest
[21:34] continuously active synagogue in the British Commonwealth.
[21:37] Most of them emigrated to Israel post 1948 but they shunned
[21:43] marriage with the locals and as of 2024, just one true ex Jew
[21:50] hangs on in Kochi. So my question to you is what
[21:55] title or what name is given to this group of Jews and this
[22:00] particular word the the name of their particular group is also
[22:04] representative of their foreign status when compared to the
[22:08] Malabar Jews who were already here many hundreds of years
[22:11] prior to that. So what are the name of this
[22:13] particular group? Oh, you said Malabar Jews
[22:15] already. Because I have, again, I think
[22:19] it is all of the podcasts on Amit Varma's the Scene and on
[22:25] scene, by the way, I met him recently.
[22:26] He's a very tall person. It is, it's just so funny when
[22:30] you meet your podcasters that you listen to regularly and then
[22:33] you realize, yeah, they have a physical appearance as well.
[22:35] And this is the tall guy. Never thought of that.
[22:37] Sorry. Coming back, I think he invited
[22:40] some, some historian on his podcast and they spoke about the
[22:44] Jewish community, Muslim community, the Christian
[22:46] community in Kerala. So I I if I'm not wrong, they
[22:50] were called the Malabar Jews or what they also called the Kochi
[22:53] Jews Kochi Jews. So the so the Malabar Jews
[22:57] basically represent the Jewish population who had come in from
[23:01] much earlier right into the to trade.
[23:04] These were the specific group of Sephardic Jews.
[23:07] So Sephardic Jews were those in from Spain basically.
[23:12] Oh, OK, OK, OK. So the other Malabar Jews trace
[23:15] your origin more to the Middle East and Persia and you know,
[23:18] places like that. Got it.
[23:20] OK, so when these group of Jews came in, they were obviously
[23:24] foreigner. They were lighter skinned than
[23:26] the local Jews, right? And they had like a foreign to
[23:29] foreigner status. So their name reflected that and
[23:33] so does the name of the synagogue.
[23:34] So if you ever visited Kochi and have and it's popular to
[23:38] respond, how did. I forget that I've been to that
[23:40] synagogue. It's paradesi, Paradesi,
[23:44] something like that. Very good.
[23:46] Yes, it is the Paradisi synagogue.
[23:47] I have been to the synagogue. Yeah, of course.
[23:50] No, I was about to give you Raja Hindustani clue, Subhash Ghai
[23:54] clue. Aamir Khan represent lovely.
[23:57] Just to clarify, I've not been inside the synagogue.
[23:59] I don't think I'm allowed to go inside as a non Jewish person
[24:02] but like I've visited the premises and when I saw the name
[24:05] was like what the what the hell is happening here?
[24:07] What is Paradisi? Jews.
[24:09] And that's where I first read this history.
[24:10] Lovely, lovely. So the Pardesi Jews, also known
[24:13] as the Foreign or White Jews, represent a small safari
[24:16] community they've settled in Kochi among the larger, older
[24:20] Malabar Jewish community. They trace their origins to flew
[24:23] immigrants from Safad, which is Spain and Portugal, who fled
[24:27] persecution and post conversion following the Alhambra Decree of
[24:29] 1492, which expelled Jews from Spain, arriving between the 15th
[24:33] and 15th century. Among Portuguese colonial
[24:36] influence, they distinguished themselves from the local
[24:38] Malabar. Jews were all sometimes called
[24:40] Black Jews due to darker skin tones.
[24:42] They basically earned the name White Jews.
[24:46] Initially speaking Latino, which is a Judeo Spanish language, the
[24:50] Paradesi Jews quickly adapted to the new homes by adopting Judeo
[24:53] Malayalam, a unique Malayalam dialect written in Hebrew.
[24:57] Their sole place of worship, the Paradesi Synagogue in Kochi's
[25:00] Matanjeri Jew Town, stands as the oldest continuously
[25:03] functioning synagogue in the British Commonwealth,
[25:05] consecrated in 1568 on land granted by the Kochi Maharaja.
[25:11] Adorned with rare 18th century hand painted Chinese Willow
[25:14] pattern flow trials, Belgian glass chandeliers and antique
[25:17] Torah scrolls from Europe and Amsterdam, it's a symbol of
[25:21] their privilege status among the local rulers.
[25:23] Tragically, the community has dwindled after the independence
[25:26] in 1947. Most of the population which is
[25:29] around 2500 and 1941, emigrated to Israel between 1948 and 1917
[25:34] as part of Operation Alia. Basically were drawn by Zionism
[25:38] and they they also adhere to a strict no intermarriage policy
[25:41] with Malabar Jews in order to preserve quote UN quote purity.
[25:45] The 2014 figure of only 7 remaining Paradisi Jews in
[25:49] Kochi, which included a synagogue ticket seller as a
[25:53] sole woman of childbearing age, was accurate at that particular
[25:56] time. As of 20/24/2026, as far as I
[25:59] could find, there's just only one full Paradisi Jew surviving.
[26:04] The synagogue now operates via non Jewish custodians, draws
[26:08] 500,000 tourists yearly. It reserves A fading legacy
[26:11] among India's around 4000 to 5000 total Jews.
[26:14] Mostly what Ben is really. Very cool, very cool.
[26:17] I do not know, of course, of all these interesting specifics and
[26:20] stories, but yes, I've been to the location, so I did know of
[26:22] this community. Very nice.
[26:25] One more interesting fact. India is widely acknowledged as
[26:29] the only country where the Jewish population has never
[26:34] experienced anti-Semitic. Yeah, I have very recently read
[26:37] this or come across this. Yeah, and probably he mentioned
[26:41] it in a couple of interviews, basically.
[26:43] I think recently there was an interview where he did speak
[26:45] about this that that showed up on my feed as well.
[26:49] Lovely, lovely piece of history. And I'm so glad that my own
[26:53] personal travels have given me an answer that happens rarely,
[26:57] but it's fun when it does happen.
[26:59] Moving on to a person who probably was well travelled, we
[27:05] are sticking to history for this episode, at least I am, and I
[27:09] think the theme is probably clear to people already of what
[27:12] kind of history. But let's continue, let's get
[27:14] more to it. Vineet, have you heard of Sir
[27:16] Feroz Shah Mehta? A name is vaguely familiar, but
[27:19] I cannot place it immediately. OK, not really relevant, just
[27:23] the starting point of the question.
[27:24] OK, this question has to do with the man X, and this question is
[27:29] purely a lovely bunch of trivia delivery mechanisms.
[27:32] If you don't know the answer, please don't be hard on
[27:35] yourself, all right? Oh.
[27:36] Thank you. Sir Ferocia Mehta who was at
[27:40] some point the President of the Indian National Congress as
[27:43] well, started a newspaper, an English language newspaper
[27:47] called the Bombay Chronicle. He employed X as the editor of
[27:52] Bombay Chronic. X also eventually many years
[27:56] later went on to found the Tabloid Blitz.
[28:00] Co found the tabloid Blitz. Blitz, if you're not aware, was
[28:04] a pretty famous investigative weekly tabloid newspaper.
[28:08] It is credited with a bunch of big breaking news stories.
[28:13] It is also where RK Lakshman's early cartoons were published.
[28:16] So it has claimed to fame in a bunch of ways.
[28:19] It also was one of the ones that sensationalized Nanavati's
[28:23] murder case in 1959. So all of these things are
[28:27] related to the Blitz coming back to the person in question.
[28:30] So X would go on to Co found blitz.
[28:33] In 1941, X was also the Vice president of the Satyagraha
[28:39] Sabha which Gandhi formed to launch a national campaign
[28:43] against the Rowlett Act. So when Mahatma Gandhi formed
[28:46] the Satyagraha Sabha to campaign against the Rowlett Act so that
[28:50] the national level X was made its Vice President.
[28:55] Vineet, do you know who X is? Somebody who was the editor of
[28:59] the Bombay Chronicle and then Co founded Blitz.
[29:02] Why does this seem familiar? And Vilka also was part of the
[29:06] Satyagraha movement. Yeah.
[29:09] The thing is I am fairly conversant with the Blitz,
[29:16] right? OK, because, because if I I went
[29:19] down on Nanavati, I'd hold a long time ago.
[29:21] And if I'm not mistaken, it was the Blitzes favorable reporting
[29:24] in favor of Nanavati which swung the initial jury verdict into
[29:29] his player favor, and the articles in the blitz were the
[29:32] ones that were used to ask for a retrial.
[29:35] So all of those things are very true.
[29:38] And of course it's been more than 50 years, 60-70 years now.
[29:42] So. So there might be some
[29:43] sensationalism that is mixed in with fact.
[29:47] Also, X in question had died way before the Nanavati murder case.
[29:50] So X is not really related to the reporting at that point, but
[29:53] he was yes one of the Co founders in 1941 of the tabloid
[29:57] blitz. OK, that's Honeyman, not
[30:00] Honeyman, right? Oh.
[30:02] My God, Vinita Nayar, you are blowing my mind.
[30:07] That was, I truly did not think you will get this little BG
[30:11] Horniman. Benjamin Guy Horniman was a
[30:15] British journalist and editor of the Bombay Chronicle.
[30:21] I wish this goes on in the video.
[30:22] I can show my celebration. You can show your Yeah, this.
[30:25] Actually, this did not have a conceited face before it because
[30:29] you truly did not think that would be the answer.
[30:31] But. No, I did not.
[30:34] Yes, BG Benjamin Guy Horniman was the British journalist in
[30:38] question. The reason I I told you
[30:41] everything about him except his ethnicity was because I didn't
[30:44] think you'll get get to an Englishman before you guessed
[30:46] any Indian person. Horniman again easily
[30:50] rememberable name was. I think he was the one who was
[30:53] deported for his coverage of Jallianwalabad.
[30:56] Very friendly enough, deported back to England.
[30:58] I just think it's so funny that India being deported back to
[31:02] England. But yes, you are absolutely
[31:04] right. That is another part of the
[31:05] trivia that I loved, that he was a very, very strong proponent of
[31:10] Indian self determination. He was, he was just appalled at
[31:15] what had happened in Jalewa Bassacre.
[31:17] At great personal risk, he managed to smuggle back pictures
[31:21] to the UK because there was some sort of an embargo on any
[31:24] information going there. So he had to do it illegally.
[31:27] It went there. He of course did face some
[31:30] repercussions. There was somebody else who
[31:31] actually went to jail because of it.
[31:33] So there were a bunch of people, credit to all of them, but yes,
[31:36] to Honeyman as well, who on some level of personal risk decide to
[31:39] do this because he truly believed that this was
[31:41] atrocious. And that's where there was a lot
[31:43] of push back back in England when people found out the kind
[31:46] of massacre that had happened, because, again, as so many of
[31:49] these colonial powers did, they were doing atrocious things.
[31:53] But so many of their own population did not know back
[31:55] home what was being done in their name.
[31:57] A lot of them didn't know, didn't care.
[32:00] Racism. But something like this was not
[32:02] known. And when they did, when people
[32:04] in England found out, they were rightfully appalled at what
[32:07] their government had done. So, yeah, and credit to Hanuman
[32:10] for doing that. He was also a big proper of the
[32:14] Satyagraha Sabah. He was the vice president of so
[32:17] the Home Rule League, which was, by the way, under Annie Besant.
[32:20] So Annie Besant was the president, I guess, and he was a
[32:24] vice president at that point. And if I remember correctly,
[32:26] Horniman was also fear a staunch supporter of Nehru and Gandhi
[32:32] and not from a Jinnah. He, I think he was very
[32:35] adamantly opposed to the Muslim League in general.
[32:39] OK, I did not read that specific part, but yeah, I'll take a word
[32:42] for it. And it's lovely because
[32:45] Honeyman, who truly strongly believed in India's
[32:48] independence, managed to return, but he was deported back to
[32:51] England, which it again still thing is hilarious.
[32:54] He was able to come back to India in January 1926.
[32:58] Like I said, he managed to start the tabloid blitz, which again
[33:03] has had a significant impact on culture and went on to see India
[33:08] again. It's independence because he
[33:11] passed away one year after India gained independence in 1948.
[33:15] So something he probably wished for, hope for, fought for very
[33:19] strongly and he did manage to get it.
[33:22] So as as opposed to a lot of other places.
[33:26] And here's the connect to the whole episode.
[33:27] As opposed to a lot of other places which carry the stench of
[33:31] colonialism, colonial hangover. The Horniman Circle, which is
[33:36] right next to what I mentioned, Flora Fountain, it's right next
[33:39] to Flora Fountain is Horniman Circle.
[33:41] Horniman Circle carries the name of a white man who who earned
[33:45] his place in India's history. So due credit to him and all the
[33:51] work that he did and in case anybody had not heard of it,
[33:53] Vineet, my man is too good. Don't know how I can ever stump
[33:58] him. But for the rest of us mere
[34:01] mortals who who are not the Lord of Trivia reincarnated, this was
[34:07] hopefully ATIL for you. BJ or BG?
[34:11] Sorry, BJ ornament. Is something wrong?
[34:15] Benjamin Guy Horniman who is the eponymous Horniman circle in
[34:21] Mumbai? Again, Mumbai cars would be
[34:23] aware of it do. You know that when we say guy,
[34:26] the actual older pronunciation it is Gee.
[34:29] Yeah, yeah, I know. Do you know this?
[34:30] Yeah, this I did know. I like the Apostle.
[34:35] OK, let's move on and let's do something different for a
[34:38] chance. Let's move from history to
[34:39] science, and with a little bit of etymology here as well.
[34:43] So in December of 1942, a group of physicists were having dinner
[34:48] at the Purdue University cafeteria.
[34:51] During their conversation, they complained that there was no
[34:54] proper name for a unit used to measure nuclear cross sections,
[35:00] specifically an area of 10 to the power -24 square
[35:06] centimeters. They considered naming the unit
[35:08] after famous scientists, but each option had problems.
[35:11] Some names were too long, some caused confusion, others were
[35:15] already used for different meanings.
[35:17] Finally, drawing from a rural background, one of them
[35:22] suggested a simple everyday word.
[35:25] It fit perfectly because in nuclear physics terms, a cross
[35:29] section of 10 raised to -24 square centimeters was
[35:32] considered very large. And that's how this unit got its
[35:35] name. What is the unit?
[35:37] You said it has some sort of a rural connect, yes.
[35:40] So then I'm going to guess. Rather, it was suggested by
[35:43] somebody from a rural background, but.
[35:45] My initial instinct was to say something like the acre or
[35:48] hectare or furlough, but those are already units.
[35:52] That would again be too confusing.
[35:55] And you said it's something very big.
[35:57] By I mean like when you're looking at the from the scale of
[36:00] an atom. In the, in the perspective of
[36:02] yeah, in the context of nuclear physics, did you mention where
[36:06] this group of people are meeting?
[36:07] Which part of the world are we at?
[36:09] Purdue in the US, so Purdue University cafeteria.
[36:13] So as was the case in Europe, I imagine it was the case in the
[36:17] US as well. Probably the biggest building
[36:18] was the church. Is it the church or is it the
[36:22] cathedral or something like that?
[36:24] No, no, nothing like that. You won't take clue.
[36:27] Yeah, yeah, I'm shooting in the dark.
[36:29] Actually, my clue is going to be very related to that.
[36:32] So there is an idiom that's used quite often to describe
[36:36] somebody's lack of aim when shooting, and that should
[36:40] directly lead you to the. Shooting fish in a barrel.
[36:43] Now that's basically doing something really easy.
[36:46] Also, this is the lack of aim. So this is somebody who sucks at
[36:48] it. No, no idea.
[36:50] Somebody from a rural perspective, from a rural
[36:52] background, has decided to give this name, which is quite
[36:56] appropriate given the fact that 10 is to -24 is quite large by
[37:00] nuclear cross section standards. And I've given you a clue that
[37:04] there is in, at least in the field of shooting, an idiom to
[37:09] describe somebody who has notoriously bad aim.
[37:13] Put those two things together, then see if you can.
[37:16] Adm part is currently I'm drawing a blank on that front.
[37:21] I'm still trying to think of something large.
[37:23] If not for the big building then I'm going to say something like
[37:26] a farm. Is it the the unit called the
[37:29] farm? No, it's not the farm.
[37:31] You're closed, but it's not the farm.
[37:32] Can be a part of the Adm maybe then because I have no idea what
[37:35] the Adm is. OK, so the Adm would be there.
[37:37] He couldn't hit the broadside of A blank of a.
[37:41] Barn. Yes, it is a barn.
[37:44] So the barn is the unit for nuclear cross sections,
[37:48] specifically tenders to -24cm Square.
[37:52] So let me just put everything back into context.
[37:54] Now. They went through many names,
[37:57] OK, because no standard name existed.
[37:59] They went through many names who are brainstorming over a
[38:02] cafeteria dinner. The names that they rejected
[38:05] were Oppenheimer for J Robert Oppenheimer, but the full
[38:09] syllable name was too long for lab shorthand.
[38:12] They couldn't imagine barking out Oppenheimer cross section in
[38:16] the middle of an experiment. Then they thought of Bethe Hans
[38:20] Bethe, who was a theoretical physics chief, was ideal, but
[38:23] beta mimic, you know, beta particles and bethe beta would
[38:28] be confusing. Then they thought of John for
[38:30] John Manley who was a colleague, but the problem was John also
[38:34] means toilet or outhouse in slang.
[38:37] So they said it was no good quote UN quote.
[38:41] Now then finally, Holloway was from a what a farmer bringing
[38:46] basically went from thinking of John meaning toilet or outhouse
[38:50] to bond, which is evocative, folksy, 1 syllable.
[38:54] And it's often used as you know, it's a big as a barn or he
[38:57] couldn't hit the broad side of a barn because it's, you know,
[39:00] it's pretty big. Barns are pretty big.
[39:02] So it was, they thought it was an ironically apartment name and
[39:06] they kept it. So 10 raise to -24 centimetre
[39:08] square is a barn. Very cool.
[39:11] Very, very cool. Yeah, I like the.
[39:14] I just like units that are sometimes have this folksy kind
[39:19] of origin and unlike, of course, named after scientists.
[39:22] Great. Amazing.
[39:24] Great job to all those people who have put in their effort.
[39:26] But folksy etymologies are also cute.
[39:29] Speaking of something folksy. Or well, at least something that
[39:35] speaks about the folks. Such a bad segue.
[39:40] X is a novel. X is an English novel that
[39:45] follows the lives of Becky and Amelia and their friends and
[39:49] families during and after the Napoleonic Wars.
[39:53] X also became the name of a famous magazine.
[39:59] Identify X for me. Vogue.
[40:01] No, not Vogue. I really thought it might be
[40:03] vogue because you know, Life and Times of Becky and the media
[40:07] after the war. No solid.
[40:09] Solid guess. Very solid guess.
[40:11] Very solid guess. Is it an author that I would
[40:13] know? Before we get to the author, I
[40:15] have another clue for you. The title of the book, it
[40:18] actually comes. And here's a little Christian
[40:21] connect again to Christianity Connect.
[40:23] The title of the book comes from a Christian allegory written by
[40:27] John Bunyan. This was first published in
[40:30] 1678. In that work.
[40:33] In that allegory, X refers to a stop along the pilgrims route.
[40:39] The stop is at an event that is never ending, that is being held
[40:44] in a specific town, and all of this is supposed to represent
[40:48] man's sinful attachment to worldly things.
[40:52] OK, is the author Thackeray? Yes, tell me what the answer is.
[40:57] OK, So it it's Thackeray clue kind of this is so they're
[41:00] stopping at an event. And in the medieval period,
[41:03] these kind of events or at least most of these events were called
[41:06] fairs. And you mentioned that this is
[41:11] when you call it something sinful, so I'm guessing the
[41:16] author you're talking about is William Thackeray's novel Vanity
[41:19] Fair, which honestly speaking, I've never read so I don't know
[41:22] what the novel is, but the clues track.
[41:25] Well done today you are on a roll Sir.
[41:28] You have cracked yet another question of mine that I thought
[41:31] will take you a little longer and we have come.
[41:34] I completely understand you've not read the book.
[41:36] I have also not read the book, but it is considered a pretty
[41:40] essential read, at least in the UK.
[41:43] So one of the books that a lot of I guess British people read.
[41:46] I'm not sure but Vanity Fair is a novel by the English author
[41:52] which follows the lives of Becky and Amelia during the Napoleonic
[41:55] Wars and it eventually gave rise to the magazine of the same
[42:00] name, which is of course Vanity Fair.
[42:04] The hint was about the Christian allegory.
[42:08] This is called Pilgrims Progress and that is by John Bunyan.
[42:11] In 1678 he mentioned that a never ending fair is being held
[42:17] in a town called Vanity and that is supposed to represent man's
[42:22] sinful attachment to worldly things.
[42:23] So it is a stop along a pilgrims route and Pilgrim might
[42:27] encounter A Vanity Fair, a town called Vanity, a never ending
[42:32] fair there. That's the worldly attachment.
[42:34] That's where the novel got its name.
[42:36] And that's where the magazine got its name eventually from.
[42:40] Now, Vineet, you have already perhaps sniffed out the theme of
[42:46] questions that I've been asking so far.
[42:48] Do you want to take a guess as to how this is connected?
[42:52] Something to do with Bombay? So the church and something to
[42:55] do with Bombay I'm guessing. The church part maybe not so
[42:58] much, but yeah, something to do with Bombay.
[42:59] The monument didn't have anything to do with church.
[43:01] Yeah, something wrong with Bombay Vanity Fair and Bombay.
[43:05] Is there a Vanity Fair somewhere in Bombay?
[43:08] In Mumbai. I think you already know the
[43:11] answer. The listeners also already
[43:12] probably know the answers once I start the question.
[43:15] But let me just ask this as a question itself for our
[43:20] Instagram audience eventually. OK, here's the second part of
[43:25] this question. X was one of the key leaders of
[43:29] the Samyukta Maharashtra Summiti, which campaigned for
[43:32] the linguistic state of Maharashtra.
[43:35] X was a big fan of William Makepeace Thackeray and decided
[43:41] to adopt that into his personal life in some way.
[43:45] Who is X And way more importantly, who in X's family
[43:50] are we more familiar with today? Vineet, before I finish the
[43:53] question, you know the answer, and I imagine most people also
[43:56] already did because you mentioned the author's name in
[44:01] the previous William Macpiece Thackeray, which is the origin
[44:05] of Balasaheb Thackeray's last name.
[44:07] Very nice. In this case, X is not Balasaheb
[44:10] Thackeray though. No, it's his father.
[44:11] It's his father. Yeah, correct.
[44:12] It is Keshav Thackeray and Keshav Thackeray was a big fan
[44:17] of William Makepees Thackeray's work.
[44:18] William Makepees Thackeray is a white person.
[44:20] He he had he was not Indian at all.
[44:23] I believe he was born in Calcutta, but apart from that he
[44:26] had no other Indian connection as such.
[44:29] Keshav Thackeray was just a big fan of his writing his name.
[44:34] When he went to school for the first time, his father had put
[44:37] down the name as Thackeray as THAKRE.
[44:40] So there was some, let's say familiar connection to the name
[44:45] already. He just liked that author so
[44:47] much that he's like, I'm going to change the spelling of my
[44:49] name to be instead of THAKRE as the English spelling would have
[44:54] been, or back then maybe the Marathi spelling would have
[44:56] been. He decided in English to spell
[44:57] it as Thackeray, which is the spelling of the name of the
[45:03] author of Vanity Fair, The author of Vanity Fair,
[45:07] technically, his last name is the name that very prominent
[45:11] political family of Maharashtra, the Thackeray family has
[45:13] adopted. The last name spelling has come
[45:16] from there. And here's the part that will
[45:18] not show up on our reels, but just an interesting tidbit that
[45:23] Keisha Thackeray was a very prolific author.
[45:25] He has done a bunch of things he campaigned against to put his
[45:28] superstitions, untouchability, child marriage, dowry, literally
[45:31] the worst parts of our society. He worked against that so
[45:34] lovely, lovely human being clearly.
[45:36] And one of the things he wrote in his writings was about how
[45:39] the family many, many centuries ago came from some part of
[45:44] Madhya Pradesh or or the Gangetic plane.
[45:47] So that there was some political implications of the fact that
[45:52] the Tucker is also many centuries ago, according to
[45:56] Keshava from. UP.
[45:58] From UP make of that what you will will not show up on
[46:03] Instagram. Do not want to get cancelled.
[46:05] But you know what? I'll leave it in the podcast for
[46:08] the regular listeners. Yeah, I'm safe.
[46:10] I'm in Cochin, Jordan, Bombay. Hey, listen, I I think this man
[46:16] that did some really good things.
[46:18] So Keshava Thackeray should definitely be allotted and
[46:22] applauded. And by the way, because you did
[46:24] get the Mumbai connection, I will give you the specific
[46:26] location connection. I told you about the Samyukta,
[46:30] Maharashtra Samiti. They were basically fighting for
[46:34] a separate state for Marathi speakers because initially the
[46:37] plan was to combine Gujarat and Maharashtra into one state,
[46:40] Bombay. President say yeah.
[46:41] Exactly. The state of Bombay did cover
[46:43] all of that and the India and its independence wanted to
[46:46] continue that. They fought for a Maharashtra
[46:48] state. They finally got that in 1960.
[46:51] There was a fair bit of agitation.
[46:54] Samyukta, Maharashtra with the one of the leaders, like I said,
[46:57] was Keshav Sitaram Thackeray, his full name.
[47:00] There was this one time in one of the squares in Mumbai that
[47:04] they were doing a protest and 106 a 105 people, I've seen a
[47:10] few sources were shot dead by security forces in this
[47:14] agitation because there was some agitation that happened.
[47:17] More than 100 people died. And this is, by the way, in
[47:20] independent India, this is in 1955 that 100 people were killed
[47:26] in one protest for the Samyukta. Maharashtra, or as it would be,
[47:32] I guess, combined Maharashtra in English United Maharashtra
[47:36] united, united Maharashtra is probably the better translation.
[47:39] And I had mentioned to you, by the way, Flora Fountain, where
[47:43] the old church used to be, Flora Fountain today sits at Hutatma
[47:48] Chalk. Hutatma Chalk basically means
[47:51] Martyrs Crossroad, which is where these people were shot
[47:56] dead fighting for this cause. So let it all be tied together
[48:00] in your head. Let it all make sense Now,
[48:02] hopefully to whoever is listening.
[48:04] Buthatma Chowk, Flora Fountain, Horniman Circle, all of these
[48:08] things at the same spot and all of these have such different
[48:12] interesting, fascinating histories to it.
[48:15] So yeah, that is my big connect for the episode.
[48:21] Fantastic. And I think that's all the time
[48:23] we have for our regular round of quizzing.
[48:25] Let's get back to the audience question, which I asked in the
[48:27] beginning of the episode. So the audience question was
[48:31] during England's 1648 Civil War siege of Colchester, Royalists
[48:35] Pole positioned a massive gun atop St.
[48:38] Mary at the Wall church tower, crewed by sharpshooter one eyed
[48:41] Jack Thompson to hammer parliamentarian blinds for 11
[48:44] weeks until a counter strike demolished the wall beneath it,
[48:48] sending both the weapon and the tower crashing irreparably.
[48:52] My question to you is why am I sharing this with you on a
[48:54] quizzing podcast? What is the funder?
[48:56] Do you have an idea? Because of course, this is a
[48:59] classic trivia question. I think you're talking about
[49:01] Humpty Dumpty, the nursery rhyme.
[49:03] Of source. Oh, what completely annoyed
[49:08] smugness, no. No, no, no, no, you are right,
[49:11] but you are also not right at this.
[49:13] OK, so this is widely thought about as to be the origin of the
[49:19] nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty. OK, but it was actually not
[49:25] called Humpty Dumpty. This entire legend was made-up
[49:30] by the Tourism Board of Colchester in the 1980s.
[49:34] So contemporary accounts like Reverend Philip Moran's History
[49:37] and Antiquities of Colchester from 1748 describe the tower
[49:42] collapse and Canon lost at Saint Mary at the Wall, but omit any
[49:45] name like Humpty Dumpty. This was popularized in 1980 via
[49:50] tourism, specifically the Colchester Tourist Board.
[49:54] I think you're selling me short there because I would have
[49:57] clarified eventually that yes, this is considered one of the
[50:00] legends behind Empty Empty, but most historical sources say that
[50:04] that's not the true case. So my smugness was earned.
[50:07] Thank you very much. Happy to have been of service.
[50:11] I withdraw my offsource OK. Because I was just like cable
[50:15] with so much confidence. And now you're telling me it's
[50:17] not? Yeah.
[50:18] OK, Lovely Vireet. My question to the audience or
[50:23] the audience question part was in the late 1800s, Raja Bijai
[50:29] Sen, the Raja of Mandi which is in present day Himachal Pradesh,
[50:33] wanted to gift something to one of his Iranis.
[50:36] What did he gift to his Irani that we would consider iconic?
[50:41] Definitely in Mumbai, but probably most people across
[50:45] India are also vaguely familiar with it.
[50:48] I have no idea, you'll have to give me a clue.
[50:50] I think this is a question that you have asked, or at least a
[50:52] version of this question here was asked.
[50:54] So let me give you a hint there to something you all remember.
[50:57] The next clue is going to be that this is a specific building
[50:59] that he gifted to his wife. Specific building?
[51:03] Is it one of the older Eros cinemas or something like that?
[51:05] No, in this case, we are moving slightly away from South Mumbai.
[51:09] So we're not in South Mumbai anymore.
[51:11] OK, This is in Bandra. Bandra Bandstad.
[51:14] People go there to see just one building, the only building I
[51:17] can think of which right now I think is got too much grill work
[51:21] going on in the top floors. But I'm not sure it's the right
[51:24] one because if I remember correctly that was a Parsi.
[51:28] At least it was owned before the current owner.
[51:30] Owned by a Parsi family for 100 years or something.
[51:33] I. Have a vague feeling that we
[51:35] have asked this question, that you have asked this question on
[51:37] this podcast. The Parsi family I think,
[51:41] renamed it to Villa Vienna. Villa Vienna, yes.
[51:44] Because they're fan of Viennese architecture.
[51:46] So you want to tell the audience what the answer is.
[51:48] Vineet. Oh yeah, I thought I did.
[51:50] It's Mannat, obviously Shahrukh Khan's residence.
[51:53] Correct. Yes, it is a question that we
[51:54] have asked in the past and I realized that was a history
[51:57] prior to what you had asked me. So I thought I'll add it on to
[51:59] what you have asked me already, because the historian Braz
[52:03] Anthony Fernandez in his book Band Writes Religious and
[52:06] Secular history, talks about the history of Manad.
[52:09] It is pretty agreed upon, at least right now in the
[52:12] historians, that this is probably where it originated,
[52:16] where it came from. I read somewhere I think that
[52:19] was a fast rich that there is an M sigil or whatever, an emblem
[52:22] sort of thing in the front of Mannat.
[52:26] And somebody on Reddit was like, that's because of the fact that
[52:29] this king was of Raja of Mandi. And I'm like I'm pretty sure the
[52:34] Raja of Mandi was not. Firstly, his coat of arms would
[52:37] 100% not be the letter M I'm pretty sure M just stands for
[52:41] Mannat. But the the history is something
[52:45] that people do seem to agree upon and you're absolutely
[52:48] right. Mannat Shahrukh house was after
[52:51] this whole whole royal connection.
[52:53] It was at some point owned by the Parsi family, Batley Wallas
[52:57] and it passed around in their family till eventually it was
[53:01] sold to Shahrukh Khan and Gauri Khan designed the interiors of
[53:06] it. And yes, there is.
[53:08] How do you know that? How do you know there's grill
[53:09] work happening in Mannat right now?
[53:11] No, dude, there's a like you can see those, but every documentary
[53:17] about Shahrukh Khan, you can see him like literally standing and
[53:20] there are good. There's a lot of grill work,
[53:21] like, you know, grills on the upper floors.
[53:23] Which thing? OK, OK.
[53:25] You meant that. OK, OK.
[53:26] No, because there is some little renovation happening and I was
[53:28] like, do you know the what the actual renovation is?
[53:32] How do you know that grills are being attached to shadow?
[53:35] That's a very specific knowledge that you seem to have.
[53:39] You never know. I mean actually know that.
[53:41] I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't put it past you.
[53:43] The things you know, you probably know the man also.
[53:48] Apparently Salman Khan was offered the bungalow before
[53:50] Sharukh and he turned it down because his father said what
[53:55] would you do in such a big house and.
[53:57] Yeah, he stays in Galaxy Apartment.
[53:58] Right, literally right down the road.
[54:00] And in the interview, Salman is like now I want to ask Sharukh
[54:05] what does he do in such a big house?
[54:09] I think that question should go to Mukesh Ambani more than
[54:11] anybody else. That is true, and never mind,
[54:14] let's not even talk about that monstrosity.
[54:16] I think you'd mentioned in the question that you had asked that
[54:19] in the Yes Boss song, Basit NASA Khwab Hai Shahrukh classes by
[54:23] this house. And back then, of course, he
[54:25] didn't own it. And literally the lyrics of the
[54:27] song talk about his dreams and his aspirations, how he wants to
[54:30] rule the world and he's crossing Mannat at that point.
[54:33] And a couple of years later, he owned that house, which he
[54:36] apparently was enamoured by during the shoot of that song.
[54:39] So that's a little history for Bollywood fans, for fans of
[54:42] Shahrukh of where his house comes from.
[54:44] By the way, the whole episode today, all of these things were
[54:47] because of one comment on one of the deals I posted recently.
[54:50] We are talking about New York and Alphabet City.
[54:53] And one of the commentators saw the comment, Yeah.
[54:55] And they said why not cover India?
[54:56] And I was like, you know what? I live in Mumbai.
[54:58] I'm gonna do something for Mumbai.
[54:59] And just there are like 20 other pieces of trivia that I found
[55:03] because literally you just go out to any place and you find
[55:05] the name and then you go into the history of it.
[55:07] It's super fun. So I'm gonna stick to just that
[55:11] one location, Ornament circle and and Hudaatma chalk and flora
[55:15] fountain and church gate and all of that.
[55:16] And of course Mannat. Also, OK, great.
[55:20] Aditya, do you want to now ask the smack for next week?
[55:24] Love it, it's such a good name. I could make like a parody song,
[55:28] you know, smack that. Have no every week smack that
[55:31] No, no, no, no, no, no. All right, So for our smack,
[55:36] which is going to be as usual, a visual question, I'm going to
[55:40] share a picture. And as is the theme bin of this
[55:44] episode, it's a historic picture of Mumbai.
[55:47] My question to you is very simple.
[55:49] At this location today, what would you find?
[55:54] This a historic picture, something new is at this
[55:57] location. Tell me at this location today,
[56:00] what in Mumbai would you find? Tell us in our social media.
[56:06] Tell us on our social media, on Instagram, on Reddit.
[56:08] And the first person who gets the answer will get a shout out
[56:11] in the next episode. Yes, so fastest figures plus
[56:14] people start to wind it up. What are your pop culture
[56:17] recommendations for this week? I'm going to stick to my team.
[56:19] I've been doing some Mumbai related stuff.
[56:22] So I'm going to tell you films from Mumbai.
[56:24] You do realize the Bollywood industry is based in Mumbai,
[56:28] yeah? No, most films are made in
[56:30] Mumbai and most Hindi films are made in Mumbai.
[56:32] But no, I don't mean what films are made in Mumbai, rather which
[56:35] films feature Mumbai prominently as as a very core part of its
[56:39] narrative. And those the films that I'm
[56:41] going to talk about, let me randomly give you some of the
[56:44] things that I remember. There is Dhobi got, I mentioned
[56:47] that earlier. So Dhobi got one of the things
[56:49] that I think is a lovely piece of Bollywood, like a
[56:51] quintessential Bollywood. Once Upon a Time in Mumbai, I
[56:55] think is a fun, fun film. Gully Boy.
[56:57] Gully Boy very features Mumbai very, very prominently, parts of
[57:01] Mumbai very prominently. That is that there is a shootout
[57:05] at Lokhandwala, again, a super fun film.
[57:07] I think it's a lovely, lovely piece of cinema if you like
[57:12] classic Bollywood on Wednesday features Mumbai pretty
[57:15] prominently and let me give you one last one which is Satya.
[57:21] Satya is my last recommendation and these are some classic
[57:25] Mumbai as almost a character films I was about.
[57:29] To mention that if you don't don't mention Mumbai, then
[57:32] that's sorry Satya, then that's going to be a horrendous gap.
[57:35] I would also recommend Salaam Bombay under that list and
[57:40] obviously Bombay by money.com, so.
[57:43] Already forget Bombay, of course.
[57:45] Yes, yeah. And I think I think you can also
[57:47] put in life in a metro the 2007. Life in a metro, Yeah.
[57:52] Was also pretty good. Yeah, OK.
[57:54] I basically second Aditi's recommendations and I'm also
[57:58] going to add 1 recommendation of my own because as we are
[58:01] recording this, the world is on the precipice of war with Donald
[58:07] Trump being increasingly unhinged and beat Whiskey
[58:13] Hegseth having fired 10 or 12 American generals, possibly
[58:19] because they disagreed with his insane plan to do whatever manic
[58:23] thing that he wants to do next. So he's gotten rid of the even
[58:26] the last line of defense that American common sense had and
[58:32] now it's just up to them. So this is a movie which I feel
[58:37] may reflect the realities of tomorrow, even though I pray
[58:40] it's not. It's a movie by Kathryn Bigelow
[58:44] and the movie is called House of Dynamite.
[58:46] It stars Rebecca Ferguson, Idris Elba and basically if I wanted
[58:52] to tell you the synopsis in one line, the American people, the
[58:56] American government detect launch of a missile towards the
[59:00] American mainland and the next 1 1/2 hours of that movie.
[59:04] Some of the most tense that the instances that have been put on
[59:08] screen. And I want to say the ending is
[59:12] really haunting. It's I'm not going to spoil it
[59:15] anymore, just go watch it. House of Dynamite by Catherine
[59:18] Bigelow. Very, very topical.
[59:21] Also quite depressing in this particular aspect, actually,
[59:23] yeah, but I think it's quite. Happy if you're going to.
[59:26] If you're going to recommend Catherine Bigelow, you have to
[59:29] mention Hurt Locker. And definitely shot out to Zero
[59:33] Dark 30 as well. Yeah, some phenomenal
[59:36] filmmaking. And Hurt Locker was one of my
[59:39] favorite Oscar moments because Catherine Bigelow was if was she
[59:44] the first? I think she was the first one of
[59:46] the. First, second Female.
[59:48] Female. Director to win Best Director at
[59:51] the Oscars right when her ex-husband was also nominated
[59:54] for one of his biggest films, the one that he's been obsessed
[59:58] for for I don't know how many decades.
[1:00:00] James Cameron for Avatar. And I'm kind of glad that that
[1:00:05] Hurt Locker won again. I don't know if they have any
[1:00:07] animosity. I think they are on good terms,
[1:00:08] but it's just nice that his magnum opus and she came with
[1:00:12] this nice gritty, oh, such a good film.
[1:00:15] Hurt Locker is one of my favorite war films.
[1:00:17] And yeah, lovely, lovely film. Well deserved Oscar.
[1:00:20] And Kathryn Bigelow is truly a woman who knows what she's
[1:00:22] doing. Yeah, and let's go back and also
[1:00:26] appreciate that Kathryn Bigelow has done movies which have also
[1:00:32] affected pop culture apart from, you know, Heart Locker and 0
[1:00:35] Darker People Remember from the Heart Locker days.
[1:00:38] I would say go back and watch K-19, The Widowmaker, Point Grey
[1:00:42] which is one of the most Seminole movies of the 90s.
[1:00:46] It defined Keanu Reeves. Style The hairstyles in that
[1:00:52] film the hair were. Paid actors in those movies,
[1:00:55] right? And Blue Steel basically.
[1:00:59] That's also, well, I think what is, what is the name?
[1:01:01] Jamie Lee cutters, Jamie Lee cutters in Blue Steel.
[1:01:03] And that's all the time we have for this week's episode.
[1:01:05] Thank you all for listening in. We hope you enjoyed the show and
[1:01:08] learned something new. If you like what you heard,
[1:01:10] please share, subscribe, follow on whichever platform you're
[1:01:13] listening to us on or seeing us on.
[1:01:15] Recommend this to somebody else. If there are questions that you
[1:01:18] want asked on the show, please feel free to send them to us at
[1:01:20] IU. Visit me@gmail.com with the name
[1:01:22] of the quizmaster in the subject line.
[1:01:25] Aditya post to post Instagram quizzes every Sunday.
[1:01:28] So head over to Instagram or every Sunday to check out those
[1:01:31] quizzes, participate in the let, let us know how you did.
[1:01:34] And obviously we'll be doing Smacks every episode.
[1:01:39] We have now gotten to this name. This is the best name possible.
[1:01:43] We're not going to deviate from this.
[1:01:44] So smack that and be the first one to smack that.
[1:01:49] I love it. I'm so happy with this name.
[1:01:52] Perfect. Yes.
[1:01:54] OK. So that's all guys.
[1:01:57] I'm literally giving you the face to say whatever you want.
[1:02:00] Yeah, I'm gonna end this episode with the I can't do top it.
[1:02:04] Smack that smack. That is the way we end this
[1:02:06] episode. What is happening?
[1:02:20] Sorry. One more time.
[1:02:21] Third time's jump. Snack that every week.
[1:02:24] Smack that on Instagram. Smack that.
[1:02:27] Unread it. Now smack that.

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