Welcome to Are you Quizzing Me? I am Vineet Nair with my Co host
Aditya Kashyap. This is a quizzing trivia
podcast show. Join us as we dive deep into
history, science, pop culture, and so much more.
Let's get quizzing and we're back for episode #56 of Are You
Quizzing Me? Your Favorite Quizzing and
Trivia Podcast Show. Let's get down to business.
Last week, Aditya had asked us a question.
So Aditya, what's your silly question for last week and
what's your answer? The question from last week was
if an Indian airline had to honor a famous Indian celebrity
couple, which airline number or flight number would they choose
to do it with? My answer turns out to be very
simple, and the answer is 77. Do you know why, Vineet?
No, and I'm a little afraid to ask why.
Well, you don't have to, because I'm going to tell you the answer
anyways. I'm going to talk about a
couple, not in the traditional sense of a romantic couple, but
a couple that has created some very iconic pieces of work in
Bollywood, and that is Suraj Barjatya and his muse Salman
Khan. And what is the movie that you
associate very strongly with them?
A very iconic film that would be Hum Saath Saath Hai And Hum
Saath Saath Hai is 7/7. Oh God.
So that is how you would honour Suraj Bajati and Salman Khan's
lovely couple or pair, or well, however they identify.
For those of in our audience who are wondering why I'm in pain
all of a sudden, Saath in Hindi can mean the number 7 and also
mean the word together. So Aditya has just made a
horrible, horrible pun on a frankly very candy floss vanilla
family movie by the name of We Are All Together or Humsat satay
in Hindi. I hope, at least by explaining
this joke or pun rather, that it will take the pain out of it for
those listeners who are listening to it.
I would like to point out two things.
Firstly, you corrected yourself when it's a joke and you
downgraded it to a non joke pun. Wow, that's a bit hurtful.
And secondly, by translating this I think you're just
including more people in the misery.
At least those who had not understood it initially were
oblivious to how painful it could have been.
So. Take some of.
The blame Vineeth honestly take some of the blame.
I don't know what I'm going to do with you.
Oh God. Now that we've got that out of
the way, and like Aditya explained in last week's
episode, let me do the same. This is not indicative of how
hot the rest of the podcast goes, so stay with us if you
stayed here so long. So before we go to the regular
questions that we ask each other, there is the audience
question, which I asked at the beginning of the episode, and
the answer which I will reveal at the end of today's episode.
The Gathi Shakti Vishwavidyalaya is situated in the sprawling
campus of an Academy, let's call that Academy X, at Lalbagh
Vadodara. The original Academy was founded
in 1913 Dehradun and then shifted to Vadodara in 1952.
The property comprises of 55 acres of garden and wooded land
enlivened by the calls of Peacocks and migratory birds.
This university, which I mentioned, the Gatti Shakti
Vishwavidyalaya, is located, as I mentioned, in a particular
Academy campus. Which Academy are we talking
about? What is unique about it and what
connects it to this podcast? That is the audience question
that I am asking today and I will reveal the answer at the
end of today's episode. So let's get down to business.
Let's start with Aditya. What's your question or first
serious question for today? I have a really fun question
from a piece of trivia that might not necessarily be
factual, but is an urban legend. Let's go to the era of American
independence. George Washington had gained
fame not only obviously in America, but across the world as
a pretty strong and influential leader.
To honor him, Thomas Jefferson commissioned a statue which can
still be seen in the Virginia State Capitol building in
Richmond. 25 casts of the statue were made and spread all over
the world, from the Washington Monument in Washington DC to
Lima in Peru and also London. However, there was something
unique about the statue in London.
Do you want to venture a guess as to what small change was done
to that specific statue? So I'm going to guess that it
has to something to do with the Royal family.
I don't think there's any other particular reason why a
Federalist like a Washington statue would be changed.
I'm guessing it has something to do with the royal family made
something to placate the royal family.
No, actually, this has nothing to do with the Royal Family at
all. OK.
Is Washington on a horse? All of the statues are similar,
so there's nothing specific about.
No, I'm asking the the statue. The original statue was that of
Washington on a horse. Oh, OK.
No, it is not on a horse. It is a Washington standing
upright and all of the statues are the same.
Yeah. Except for the one in London.
The London one, at least in appearance, is the same, if that
makes a difference. Oh, are all the other statues
solid while this one's hollow and they've put something in it?
No, but you are close in the sense that it has something to
do with its construction rather than its appearance.
OK, is it made of a different material?
The others were cast out of bronze and this is done because
of something, Maybe because of World War 2 and material
shortages or something like that.
I'm grasping at straws here, if it isn't already apparent to the
audience. No, it doesn't have anything to
do with material shortage. However, I would say you are
warm since you are talking about a very small change in terms of
a specific material that was used.
So it isn't a different material to save money or any of those
reasons. A very small change in the
material that was used. I am being slightly vague right
now. Yes, I can.
Hoping you'll get the answer with even these vacants.
OK, I'm going to go with something straight out of left
field. Did they use a different shade
of paint or something so that birds don't shit on the statue?
Interestingly enough, the statues are differently colored
in different places, so they all of these statues across the
world might be made of different material as well.
But it it isn't the difference in London that I'm looking at,
because based off of some of the visuals that I have seen,
Washington statue, which is outside the National Gallery in
London is black in colour. Whereas there is another one
that I'm seeing and I believe this is the Virginia State
Capital One which is white in colour.
So all of these might be made from slightly different
materials, but the cast of it is the same, like the appearance of
Washington is the exact same same pose as in.
And I'm not talking about the material that has been used in
all of these, because they're all across, all made of
different materials perhaps. OK.
Wow.
Let me give you a little bit of a hint.
OK. This has something to do with a
vow that Washington made during his own lifetime.
I shall not tell a lie. Yeah, I think that is associated
with Washington. But no, not the vow that we are
concerned with. Wait, there was something
regarding him in a Cherry Tree, right?
Yes, which is why I said urban legend when this question began.
The Cherry Tree thing is very well documented.
This particular vow is it's sort of an urban legend, and hence
the change in the statue also is not exactly very well documented
in history. I'm trying to think up of urban
legends of Washington. The only other one that comes to
mind is this legend. I heard that at least people
thought that he had his dentures made-up of hippopotamus teeth or
something, but it was wooden teeth.
No. People thought it was wooden
teeth, but it was actually hippopotamus teeth.
I don't think that's going to make a big difference in the
statue. Yeah, I don't think they use
hippopotamus teeth in statues either ways.
OK, I'm going to give you one more hint.
It might not be a famous urban legend associated with
Washington, but it is something very strongly to do with
American independence and obviously who they were gaining
independence from. And wow, he took, which is
geographical in nature, if that helps.
Is this something like I'm never going to face the East or I'm
never going to face the King or something like that?
You are very close. It has less to do with where he
would be facing, but more to do with where he would be present.
So you're very close to getting the vow, which would help you
get the answer. Not where I would never face,
but where would I never be ever again, or where would I never
set foot again. OK, so he vowed never to set
foot on British soil. So when they made the statue,
they ensured there was American soil at the bottom so that he's
technically on American soil. Oh lovely.
That was a very quick crack from the vow to the statue.
Yes, it is exactly that, he vowed, allegedly to never set
foot on British soil ever again in the course of the American
War for Independence. And the erectors of the
Trafalgar Square statue laid it on a foundation of Virginia soil
to ensure that Washington did not tell a lie.
Which also goes back to what you said about not lying.
So yeah, this is how the statue in Trafalgar Square, London, is
different from the others across the world.
Very nice, very nice. So I'm going to move to a
slightly different field. So this word did not appear in
Webster's dictionary as late as 1957.
By the time of the Renaissance, the origin of the word was
already in doubt, and early linguists were attempting to
guess its derivation by making combinations which meant painful
numbers. Now, some speculated that it was
named after a king of the castle, but now we know that it
has been correctly attributed to a native of a region which is
located in the Amu River basin, just South of the Aral Sea, and
something that's very, very relevant today.
This word is practically thrown out almost every day.
You'd hear this word on almost on every daily basis.
Which word are we talking about? I am so lost right now.
Wait, the word has something to do with the number?
Yes, with numbers. Let's say numbers mathematics in
general. OK, so not a specific number, It
is used very commonly today. Yes, and though there have been
a lot of speculations and combinations and people trying
to figure out how where the word came from, it has now been
correctly attributed to the native of a region located in
the Amur River basin just South of the Aral Sea.
A native of the Amur region. One particular area, one
particular place. OK.
I'm just going to. Quickly verify the Isle Sea is
in Central Asia. Yes.
Yes, this is in Asia, Middle East, somewhere around that.
OK, huh. And there's a number associated
with it. Not a number.
Let's say this is a word which is associated with numbers.
It's a part of mathematics, and nowadays you would hear it in
other contexts as well. But it originally came from
numbers, and this word itself was derived from the name of
this person from this particular area.
So it is the name of a specific person.
Yes, it's the name of a specific person.
You can just give me the name of the word, or if you're hard
enough even, you can give me the name of the person.
Is it algorithm? Oh yes, it is algorithm.
Do you know who it was named after and which place we're
talking about? So I think the reason I got
thrown off was because of the geography clue, because I do
know this piece of trivia. I know it is Al Kharizmi, yes, I
just didn't know that this has something to do with the
geography. Yeah so har ISM is a place.
So the name of the person is Abd Allah Muhammad Ibn Musa al
Harizmi which basically means father of Abdullah Muhammad son
of Moses native of Harizm. So Al Harizmi gave rise to
algorithm. Do you know the other word that
Alquarizmi's work gave rise to, which is also very commonly used
in mathematics? Algebra I think it is.
Yeah, which comes from Algebra, which is the book of calculation
written by Alquarizmi or collected or collated by
Alquarizmi. You added onto a trivia I
already knew. I like that.
Very nice. OK, hit me with your question.
OK, I'm going to list a few things.
Tell me what connects all of? Them.
Oh, I hate. These yes, you should, because
this one I hope, is not going to be too easy.
OK. National Museum of Natural
History in Washington, DC IKEA stores.
The board gave RISK 2014 Nuclear Security Summit, United Nations
office at Geneva in Switzerland, Newspaper, Daily Mail.
So what connects these things? And it is a non exhaustive list.
OK, just go through that list again.
We're talking about the National History Museum, then?
Let me quickly go through them again.
National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, IKEA
stores, the Board Game. RISC 2014, Nuclear Security
Summit. United Nations Office at Geneva
and Switzerland. The newspaper Daily Mail.
Is this an architect who connects all of these?
No. OK, no 2014 nuclear summit.
Something to do with naming conventions like names of towns
or something like that. Nothing to do with that, no.
OK, I'm stumped. Do you have a clue for me?
It is related to a specific country.
Whoa, specific country related. Now do I go keep naming
countries or try to figure out another way of this?
If you do that alphabetically, it'll take some time.
Oh, so I'm guessing it's a latter or something, so let's go
with one O R2 Vatican City. Even reverse alphabetical won't
be very quick. OK, so somewhere, it's somewhere
in the middle. Madagascar.
I'm hoping you won't arrive at the answer via this method, but
you are corrected to somewhere in that range of letters.
OK, but I'm just trying to guess what the Natural History Museum
Why would the National History Museum be there?
And IKEA. Wow, what's the funder that
could explain put all of these together?
Wow. No man, I'm completely stumped.
I don't know if this will be a clue, but well associated
factoid. I guess there is a community on
Tumblr as well as on Reddit dedicated to finding even more
examples of this across the world, and they keep coming up
with new and new examples all the time.
There are communities for everything on Reddit, that's
true. It's like if there is, if there
is even the slightest bit of subculture anywhere, smallest
slub culture anywhere in the world.
They have a subreddit. So that particularly does not
help. Here's where I make a little
plug to anybody who listens to our podcast regularly.
Please go ahead and create a Are you quizzing me Subreddit.
It would be a massive milestone for my life if I had to
subreddit for something I have created.
You know what? I'm just going to do it one.
Of these days myself. OK, oh God, so there, it's
something that people search. Is this something to do with
that game? What do you call it?
Geo guessing? Geocaching.
What do they call it? Geo guesser.
Yeah. Is it something to do with that?
No, it isn't a Geo guesser and here's a pop culture
recommendation I guess. If you haven't made the game Geo
guesser, please go check it out. Really fun game.
OK, just run me through the list again.
Let me see if something cracks now.
All right, I'm going to try one more time.
National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC, IKEA
stores, the board game Risk 2014 Nuclear Security Summit, United
Nations Office at Geneva and Switzerland, and the newspaper
Daily Mail. I'm going to go one step further
and I'm going to tell you it has something to do with the maps at
all of these places. The maps at all of these places?
Wow, I'm blanking completely. The answer was a country.
Wait, is this something?
Because suddenly when you said that map in a country, something
popped up in my head was a West Wing episode where President
Bartlett gets his historical map of the Middle East in Palestine.
And he's told that he cannot pull it up at the White House
because it technically does not show Israel, even though it's
from the 1800s. And when he tries to argue that
Israel did not as a country did not exist at the point people
were like, yes, we understand that, but you still cannot put
that map up. So is it something like that
where there is a specific geographical feature that's
missing from a map or that's there on the map or something
like that? Beneath in 18th century there
were a lot of countries that did not exist and you could have
used any other example. You chose to use Israel and
Palestine. I just asked people to create a
subreddit for our show and you want it to be cancelled in the
very next breath. No, you will have to blame Alan
Sorkin for that because he wrote such a compelling show that I
still remember episodes of it so many years later.
So it's The West Wing. It had nothing to do with what's
currently going on. I'm just remembering an episode
that they had like 20 years ago. OK, so wow, dude, I'm blank.
I'm blank. I don't think I'm going to get
this. You will have to put me out of
my misery. I'm going to give you one last
hint, and if you don't get it at that point I will let you know.
The answer and hint I'm going to give you is something is missing
from all of these maps. A specific country is missing
from all of these maps. OK, specific country is missing
from a map that was there at the 2014 nuclear summit.
Oh, I know. In the United States of Kailasa.
Oh, throwback to a fun episode. Please go hear that as well.
And it's technically not a wrong answer, because none of these
maps have the United States of Callas on it.
I have corrected yes. You could strong arm me into
accepting that answer, but it doesn't fit the.
Yeah, I know, I know, I know. This is a recognized country
that all of us acknowledge is a country and not something that
somebody just came up with one fine day.
It is an island nation. It is an island nation.
Well, or a few islands. OK, but why would that kind of
map be in IKEA and the 2014 nuclear Summit?
IKEA was just selling world maps and it was a world map available
across IKEA stores and this particular world map did not
have the set country. Wow.
Which would be an easy country to omit from a world map Vineet
take a guess. The Maldives.
Sure, but the Maldives are small enough to.
OK, lot of island countries, actually one who are to the
Micronesian Islands, Solomon Islands, Turks and Caicos.
All of those are obviously island nations, which are
probably omitted from a lot of world maps.
But no, what is an island nation?
That is firstly a quote UN quote first world country that would
fuss about these things and B is sizable enough because a lot of
these island nations that you mentioned are very small and on
a small representation on a small map they would not be
visible. The first world country, that's
an island. First thing that comes to mind
is, of course, the British Isles.
No, British Isles again have to omit from a map.
Wait, is this New Zealand? New Zealand is the answer.
Well done. That is so.
Random Why? Why do these maps not have New
Zealand? New Zealand has often been
omitted from maps of the world and this has caught the
attention of New Zealander because the marketer projection,
which is the map projection used very commonly for putting the
world or the globe onto a flat surface.
The marketer projection centers Europe, so hence it is difficult
to forget the British Isles say, or Greenland for that matter.
Greenland is featured very. Huge, yeah.
But you might forget New Zealand because it is tucked away in one
corner, right next to Australia, and hence very often forgotten
on world maps. So, interestingly enough, the
National Museum of Natural History, IKEA stores, which used
to sell a bunch of these maps, the board games Risk and
actually even the board game Pandemic.
Both of these do not have New Zealand on its maps.
The 2014 Nuclear Security Summit in which, by the way, Prime
Minister of New Zealand, then Prime Minister John Key also
participated the world seal at the UN office at Geneva.
You kidding me? Seriously.
In the magazine Forbes, it hasn't been there at some point
at the Pyongyang International Airport in North Korea, where
they have a big map at the airport.
They do not have New Zealand over there.
It was also excluded from maps promoting the 2015 Rugby World
Cup. Wow, the Rugby World Cup,
interestingly. Enough.
New Zealand was the world champion.
The All Blacks were removed from the Oh my God, that is just wow.
And the last one on that list is Flat Earth Society.
The Flat Earth Society also forgot that on the world.
OK, I did not know this was a thing.
Wow. Yeah, New Zealand has been
forgotten. Related one is in maps of
Australia, where Tasmania is missing very often.
Oh yeah, Tasmania is easy to overlook.
Yeah, and of course there are examples of other significant
features on the map missing, like even, say, Madagascar or
Hawaii. But I suppose those places don't
create as much of A fuss as New Zealand does about this.
There was a very interesting way that New Zealand also paid, I
guess, homage to this problem. Where On the New Zealand
government website on the four OO four page they would feature
the world map but New Zealand would be missing in it and the
tagline over there was some things missing.
OK, they know how to take a joke.
That's nice. That's very nice.
Yeah, that's a brilliant question.
I had no clue. Absolutely no clue.
I did not know this was a thing at all TIL for me today.
Nice. Great question.
Yeah, I'm going to now move to something little historical.
Have you heard of the Mohor? Not even at all.
Not ringing a bell. I'm not surprised.
The Mohor is a gold coin that was formally minted by several
governments, including British India and some of the princely
states which assisted alongside it the Mughal Empire, the
Maratha Empire, the Kingdom of Nepal and Persia, which is
chiefly Afghanistan at this point.
With regards to this coin, the Mohor coin was first introduced
by Shah Shah Suri during his role in India between 1540 and
1545 and was then a gold coin weighing 169 grains, which is
roughly around 10.95g. The Double Mohor, minted between
1835 and 1918 with a value of ₹30, is the highest denomination
circulating coin issued till date.
There has never been a coin with the higher denomination ever
issued before or after. An 1835 Double Mohor was sold at
a Bangalore auction for 11 point ₹5,00,000 which is roughly ₹1.15
million, making it the highest ever coin bid in India.
The coin features a bare head of the king facing right with
William the 4th king written around it and the reverse side
of the coin features a lion walking left with a tree behind
it, something which we see every day Was inspired by this
particular coin. What?
A lion walking towards the left and a tree behind him.
Yes, because the lion has a main, we can assume it's a male,
so I'm going to allow that you called it a him and not a it.
That is true. OK, so I'm just trying to
picture this in my head. The lion is walking out of the
frame towards the left, which means on the right side there is
a tree. Am I correct?
Yeah, roughly around the right side.
Yeah. OK.
And is this specific image what is in question here?
Something that we see depicted wherever we do.
Yes, that lion. Image.
Not the lion image, but you're close.
Oh, not the lion image, but I'm close.
Not the lion, but you're close, yes.
So something walking towards the left, a tree on the right,
something or someone walking towards the left?
Give me a hint, I'm quite lost right now.
Oh, you would have to replace the lion with something that's
more representative of India, and you have your answer.
So I did guess that much. Not the lion, but the image I
was trying to think of. What else can I picture walking
in that direction is it? That doesn't seem to be the
answer, but I'm just going to take a guess.
Is it the very famous image of Dandy March?
No, no, no. Is a tree.
Featured prominently in whatever the modern day image you're
talking. About Yes, the tree is featured
quite prominently. And something that is
representative of India. Are we still talking feline
species? Are we talking the tiger?
Yes, it is a tiger. Oh, that was such a guess
because I have no answer in it. A tiger.
Yeah. Oh, is it on some currency right
now? Is it on a coin right now?
There are coins with it, but not like currency coins.
You're very close when you said currency with the concept, you
are very close with currency. There are coins which have this
particular image on it, but they are not regular currency coin.
Very interesting currency. Not regular coins, but some
coins. No.
I am still quite lost. I have only arrived at this by
chance and by luck and fluke, so I have no.
OK, so you would find this logo on certain government offices.
I think they have branches in almost every city.
So like every major city, they'll have branches of this
particular government office. That's my biggest clue.
Every major city will have offices for this particular
government branch in Bharat. Tourism.
Is it a tourism thing? No, no, no.
They were recently in the news also with regards to a
particular app that everybody uses, especially in India.
App Paytm. OK.
So if it's Paytm then. RBI.
Yes, it's the logo for the Reserve Bank of India.
Oh wow, no, sorry, drawing a blank.
OK. Quickly Google that image while
you explain the answer. Yes, so the original logo, which
was on the double moher, featured a lion with a tree
behind it. So when they were looking for a
logo of the RBI, because this coin has been issued by so many
different kingdoms and so many different people over so many
years, they thought this has value.
And that particular image of the lion with the tree was replaced
with that of a tiger and the tree was made a palm tree.
And that is the official logo of the Reserve Bank of India, which
is the premier financial organization in India.
Cool, so I do have the image right in front of me and now
that I see it, it obviously rings a bell.
Though I will say that in my head I was picturing the land
somehow to my left and the tree to my right.
Whereas the logo for any of our listeners who don't have it in
front of them right now is the tree in the background and the
line in the foreground. So by behind you meant like in
some way it is superimposed on the tree, the image of the
tiger. The tiger is in front of the
tree, yes. Apologies if that came out
incorrectly, but yeah. No, I guess you described it
correctly. I just pictured it wrongly in my
head. OK, lovely.
That is a pretty cool question and well, a good useful reminder
for me. I'll also take this opportunity
to point out a little fun conversation I was having at a
coffee shop where well, I guess now that HK has been mentioned
so many times worth mentioning that he was visiting Mumbai, So
he was visiting me and we were at a coffee shop and we randomly
bumped into a bunch of foreigners.
And we were talking about how there are so many words in Hindi
which are transliteration of the English word that we have
directly borrowed and perhaps in quote UN quote should Hindi or
pure Hindi. There might be a word for that
thing but not in common usage. This particular Japanese lady,
she mentioned that she has been trying to learn Hindi and she's
now able to read their Nagri. So she's very curious to find
out in the store names what is the translation of things.
So when she saw the name of a bank, she was excited to see
what it was in Hindi. And she was surprised to see
that the bank in Hindi was also just spelled bank, or our hotel
is spelled hotel and our restaurants are spelled
restaurant. Very rarely do all of these
outlets or spaces have the Hindi word for hotel or Hindi word for
restaurant, Hindi word for bank. None of which, by the way, I'm
very sure as to what they are. And at that point, HK very
confidently said that, oh you know what, let's find out
together. And he pulled out his wallet and
he thought that on the currency note, Reserve Bank of India in
English written in Hindi would be written in the proper word
for banking. Turns out the currency note also
says bank, just spelled in dev nagri script but the word bank.
The English word bank. Did you ever figure out what it
was actually called in Hindi? Now I'm curious.
We use Google Translate to find what bank is and Google
Translate, said Kinara. OK.
Which I think is the riverbank. The riverbank, yes.
So we never found out and we kind of gave up, yeah.
Nice if anyone of our listeners can tell us what bank in Hindi.
I know this is a very apathetic thing to ask given that we are
both Indians, but if any one of our listeners can tell us in
should pure Hindi what the word bank would be, we'd be very
grateful. Or honestly, in any of the
native languages, any of the Indian native language.
I'd be curious to find out what bank is in Tamil or or Punjabi
or Assamese, whatever it is. Yeah.
Oh, nice. Yeah, nice.
You cracked that very quickly. I did not crack that at all.
No, you didn't. I just.
Yeah, you got you came very
close you. I came very close.
I described it, but I don't think I cracked it.
But Vineet, I think this goes to show what a lot of our listeners
complain of that we are very nice to each other, even though
we don't get the answer, we credit each other.
So thank you for that very undeserved credit.
OK, very nice. So what's your question?
All right. So you were talking about
history in India, and I'm going to move to history in Europe,
but I will start with some geography one more time.
So there is a low mountain range in western Germany, also parts
of eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg.
It is part of the Rainish Massive, so goes to the
Rhineland area, and it's part of the Rainish Massive, which is a
geologic massive again in the similar region drained by the
river Rhine, which is where it gets named from.
This particular low mountain range, let's call it X, was a
name that was adopted by two immigrants from the Germantown
of Marmaguen who settled in Paris.
One of their future descendants made this name very famous
through his work. So his work immortalized his
name, and the name was originally used by his ancestors
because they moved from Germany to Paris, and almost in an
effort to remember or or pay respect to where they had come
from, they had chosen that particular name.
So do you know which mountain range I'm talking about, which
lies in this particular region in western Germany, eastern
Belgium and northern Luxembourg that became famous to the name
of a person, and specifically his work a few decades later in
Paris? Wow.
Because when you first started the question, I had a feeling
where this may be going. So I had a guess in mind.
And then now I have another guess.
But now that you've finished the question, I'm fairly sure that
neither of these guesses are right.
Let's hear, But I'm just going to tell them anyway.
Yeah, The first one I was thinking of was Alpen Libe.
You were going with the chocolate toffee because Alpen,
you know, the Alps, that kind of something like that, maybe.
But now I realize that's not it. The second I thought might be
Toblerone, something to do with the Tobledron chocolates,
because again, there's a mountain and a hidden bear in
the logo. So I don't know, maybe that was
what it is, but I think neither of these are right.
No. Like or am I close?
Neither of the questions are right.
And I I you aren't even close though.
The only logical reduction from both of this is that you are
having a sweet craving right now.
I actually have a packet of Maltesers sitting right here.
An ex colleague came down from the UK and brought me a bag of
mixed chocolates, including some Maltesers and Twix and Snickers
and Galaxies. Or I've been munching on those,
so maybe that's why. At this point, we should mention
that we are not sponsored by any of these brands that we just
mentioned. Yes, but we would like to, OK.
So it's nothing to do with food, I'm guessing, given the kind of
reaction you had. No, nothing to do with food at
all. OK, so then then my next guess,
but again doesn't make sense would be Mont Blanc, the pen.
But then that's the name of particular mountain, not a
mountain range. No, not Mont Blanc either.
The name of this mountain range and his work, you said, right?
France? And what's the time frame we're
talking about? When did this person do this
particular work or his life's work?
So he was born somewhere close to mid 19th century, died in the
first quarter of 20th century. Mid 19th century first quarter.
Not even mid It's 1832, so born in 1832.
Died. Victorian died.
Yes. Wow.
I'm just clue please. OK, so his work is famous both
in Paris and in New York. Something to do with fashion?
No. Because when you hear Paris and
New York together, the first thing that comes is fashion.
If you had said New York and London, I would have thought
nylon. But but then that has nothing to
do with the. I'm OK.
I'm rambling now. Let me try to help you, because
fashion is a good guess, but fashion is a generic word or a
generic thing. I'm talking about something very
specific in Paris and something very specific in New York.
Is it the Statue of Liberty? You are very close, yes.
Wait, what? OK, that was a shot in the dark.
Wow. The Statue of Liberty Mountains.
Is it the surname Eiffel or something like that?
Something related to? I can't remember who the
sculptor of the Statue of Liberty was.
You are. You've gotten, you've gotten the
answer already. Yeah, it is Eiffel.
Oh, it's Eiffel. Oh, yes, nice.
I'm going to claim credit for that.
You should. Let's re record that.
Yes, yes. I knew it was Eiffel all along,
you know, because. Because obviously you're that
smart. It is Gustav Eiffel, the very
famous architect for the Eiffel Tower, who also had a
significant contribution in the building of Statue of Liberty.
Gustav Eiffel was born in France and was the first child of
Catherine Milane and Alexander. Bonnie Carson did Eiffel, now
his father's name, was actually not originally Eiffel as you
would imagine. One of his forefathers was Jean
Rene Bonacoson, who had emigrated from the Germantown of
Marmaguen and settled in Paris at the beginning of the 19th
century. The family adopted the name
Eiffel as a reference to the Eiffel mountains in the region
from which they had come. So going back to the original
geography clue. Eiffel, but in this case spelled
with a single F, is a low mountain range in western
Germany, eastern Belgium, and northern Luxembourg.
Turns out that Eiffel Tower named after Gustav Eiffel.
The word Eiffel itself is based off of a mountain range in
Germany. So Eiffel Tower is not even the
1st and perhaps larger of the Eiffel's in Europe.
The mountain range would claim that credit.
Wow, nice. There's a follow up question.
Can you connect the Eiffel Tower?
OK. And the time period you are
talking about to a famous actress in the current day in
India. Wow, that was not where I
expected that question to go at all, because I do have a bunch
of Eiffel Tower trivia that I came across when researching
this factoid, but none of them had anything to do with Indian
actors or actresses. But let's try.
Yeah. Is it by chance a Bollywood
actor that we're talking about? Bollywood actress.
Yeah. I'm not restricted to, yeah,
Bollywood, yes. Predominantly Bollywood.
Yes, predominantly Bollywood. This is so random and I'm 100%
it is not the answer, but I'm just going to share it.
It is Shania Kapoor because there is an episode of.
Why? I'll tell you why.
Because there is an episode of The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood
Vibes, and in this particular episode, Sanjay Kapoor and
Shania Kapoor and their mother ire in Paris, and they're taking
a selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower.
And Sanjay Kapoor is very concerned whether Eiffel Tower
is visible in the picture and the way he says it is.
And I'm going to say it in Hindi because it sounds hilarious, he
says it is Eiffel Tower. I need a photo which basically
translates. To please.
Make sure that Eiffel Tower is visible in our selfie.
Otherwise people would assume we took it in this location in
Mumbai called Lokhandwala, which is famous for celebrities and
and their houses and their residences.
So he wanted to make sure that the Eiffel Tower was visible in
that selfie, which I thought was the funniest line of dialogue
I've heard in a while. And Sanjay Kapoor, by the way,
is hilarious in that show. In general I've heard he's a
very self aware person and quite self aware of all the kapoors
and he's quite a nice person. Yeah, in that little glimpse I
saw, I couldn't find anything wrong with him at all.
I thought he was pitch perfect as the person he was.
But the opposition I Kapoor is not the answer you're looking
for. Yes.
Oh boy, I have no clue. So the connect, if you did not
know is the actress Kalki Kaklan.
So Kalki Keklin comes from the famous Keklin family.
Keklin I think it is pronounced Keklin family who are originally
from France. Her great grandfather's brother,
if I'm not mistaken, was Maurice Keklin, who was one of the chief
structural engineers for the Eiffel Tower.
Wow. OK.
And he was also responsible for building the armature and the
lamp of the Statue of Liberty. Wow, that's kind of cool.
Yeah. So Kalki Kaklan comes from the
Kalki family through her father. And obviously she was born in
Pondicherry, which is a French enclave, right.
And so she's a very famous actress in India.
So she's a descendant of Maurice Kaklan, who was one of the chief
structural engineers for the Eiffel Tower.
So we have our own connection to the Eiffel Tower through Kalki.
Fantastic actress, by the way. Yeah.
And a fantastic piece of trivia. Thank you for sharing that.
All right, your question we need.
OK, so the last question for this week's episode.
In 1967, the organizers of a performance in Cincinnati
approached a man by the name of J Paul Barnett to help out with
the logistics. He had worked as a state trooper
in his youth and also been a teacher for a while.
For about 80 years. The arrangement had been
considered too difficult to get right, but where everyone else
failed, Paul Barnett succeeded. He later helped with the
performances all around the world, recreating the
arrangement that had originally been intended.
What exactly was Paul Barnett the first person to set up?
Could you hit me with the main fact again or?
So there was a performance in 1967 in Cincinnati, right?
So the organizers wanted to get that performance accurate in the
way that it was originally intended.
OK. And people had been trying for
80 years to do it in the way it had originally been intended,
but nobody had succeeded until 1967 when Paul Barnett did, and
then later many times it has then been performed the way it
was supposed to. Wow, it was intended.
It had never been performed in only 1967 was it performed, I
guess as it was intended. Yes.
No, you'll have to give me a hint.
Think classical music. Is it an incomplete Symphony or
something like that? Not a Symphony, but yeah, it's a
complete piece of music. It was something that was
written, I wouldn't say under duress, but let's say that the
composer wasn't particularly interested or he did not
particularly like the piece that he made.
But it turned out to be one of his most famous works, and one
of the things that he wanted done was not possible at the
time the way he imagined it. And it finally happened that way
only in 1967. The description of the artist in
question makes me think Mozart. No, not Mozart.
OK, because I was thinking some sort of tortured genius.
No, he wasn't a tortured genius of any kind.
He was a genius, but not a tortured 1.
OK. And everybody's, I think, heard
this piece of music. If you're in the United States,
you've definitely heard this. If you watch movies, our TV
shows, this comes up quite a lot, even though you may not be
aware that this is what it's called.
This has nothing to do with the American National Anthem, right?
No, but it is now almost common accompaniment for a very
patriotic celebration in America.
Huh. Can you give me an error as to
when this original composer was from?
OK, so the music, as I mentioned, had debuted in the
1880s. OK.
But the inspiration for this went back another maybe like 70
years, 6570 years. Wow, no.
I thought that might help him, but it doesn't at all.
I'll give you one more clue in a recent episode.
I'm not going to mention which one, but in a recent episode we
have come across this composer specifically from one of your
questions. Interesting.
It was an answer to one of my questions.
Yes, you can also hear it in the movie Sonic the Hedgehog.
If you had watched the launch webcast for the Electro Air
Force satellite by the Russian Space agency in 2022, they had
used this music in the background.
Russian makes me think. Then Tchaikovsky.
Yes, it is. Piotor Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Can you tell me which piece we're talking about?
It has to be one of Tchaikovsky's overtures, I know.
I would be hard pressed to remember the exact name though.
OK, so Tchaikovsky has mainly 4 big works that people remember.
Obviously The Nutcracker which was mentioned in a previous
question by the Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake.
And the most famous of all of this, arguably, is the 1812
Overture all. Right.
That's the name. Yeah, I was thinking of that.
I I couldn't remember the exact name.
Yeah. I'm going to add a piece of
Overture itself after the end of this question, after we finish
discussing the question. So our audience can also kind of
get that aha movement when they hear it.
And luckily for us, it's not copyrighted.
So yeah, awesome. So what exactly did?
Now coming back to the question, what exactly did Paul Barnett do
that helped the organizers of this particular performance in
Cincinnati, of the 1812 Overture do that Tchaikovsky originally
wanted done in a specific way, but he wasn't able to.
It took 80 years before they were able to bring his vision to
fruition. Did you want it to be played in
a certain specific, I guess concert hall or or or a
specifically designed concert hall?
No. No.
OK, so I'll basically give you the answer.
The 15 minute overture, it's best known for its climactic,
you know, piece of music, right? The climax of the music is what
it's most famous for, and that is actually a volley of cannon
fire, ringing chimes and a brass fanfare finale.
OK. OK, and Tchaikovsky actually had
planned when he had envisioned this whole composition.
He had planned to use an electric switch panels to fire
cannons outside the Opera House to achieve the precision that
the musical score required. Wow.
But it was not able to be done that way, and he never got to
see it performed the way he had envisioned it.
And that was implemented only in 1967.
So the final climax of the music has cannons as actual, cannons
as musical instruments. Are you implying that Cincinnati
in 1967 just fired cannons for this particular performance?
Yes, they did. Wow.
OK. And they not only did it that
way, they used an electric switch panel the way that
Tchaikovsky had wanted it. The piece commemorates Russia's
successful defense of the French invasion of the country by
Napoleon in 1812. It has become a very common
accompaniment to fireworks displays on the US Independence
Day, July the 4th. Right.
And it has become one of the four most popular works that
Tchaikovsky is famous for, which include The Nutcracker, Sleeping
Beauty, Swan Lake and the 1812 Overture, which I will play now.
Pretty cool. There was a very fun piece of
trivia. I loved it.
So that's the end of the regular questions for today.
Aditya, what's your question for this week?
Oh, my question is very simple. Which Indian famous monument or
landmark is named after another geographical feature, just like
the Eiffel Tower is named after the Eiffel Mountains in the
roundabout way? And that's the answer you'll
find out in next week's episode. OK, nice.
I'd asked a question at the beginning of today's episode.
The Gatti Shakti Vishwavidyalaya is located on the campus of a
particular Academy which is in Baroda.
The property comprising of 55 acres of garden and woodland
with a lot of Peacocks and migratory birds.
The basic question was in which Academy campus is this
university that is the Kati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya located?
What is unique about it and how does it connect to our podcast?
Any ideas Aditya? In Baroda.
Yes. Not sure what famous educational
institution? Can you take a guess?
It's called the Gatti Shakti
Vishwa Vidyalaya. So.
Gatti Shakti which is speed and power.
No, I'm I'm very lost. OK, so I'll tell you first
what's unique about it. It is the first and only
university in India exclusively focused on transport related
education. OK.
That makes sense. Yeah.
So that's one part of the question answered.
What's unique about it? In which Academy campus is this
university located? So which Academy campus and how
is it connected to this podcast? Academy campus in Baroda again.
Baroda is what is throwing me off.
I don't know of many famous academies in Baroda.
I'll give you one clue before I give the answer.
Think Indian Railways. The Academy of the Railways?
No, I don't know. I have no.
Idea. Oh, you're very close.
So it is the National Academy of Indian Railways.
OK. Now tell me how it connects to
this podcast. I'm channeling you now.
Right now. The National Academy of in the
Middle East is Nair, which is obviously.
Yes. So the Nair pronounced Nair
National Academy of Indian Railways is the location of the
Gatti Shakti Vishwavidyalaya and my name also happens to be
Vineet Nair. No relation, but still I thought
it was fun. Oh, you're not named after the
Academy of Indian Railways? No.
This would have been a great question to ask for your
birthday special episode, which was two episodes.
Lovely piece of trivia nonetheless.
All right. So any pop culture
recommendations for this week, Aditya?
I caught the movie Three of Us recently.
I believe I have already recommended in the past, but if
I haven't, I'm going to say it again.
The movie The Father. Two really good movies.
Yes, you have recommended. Both of these movies deal with
dementia. The father in which Anthony
Hopkins deservedly got an Oscar for his portrayal of somebody
going through Alzheimer's disease.
A lovely, beautiful film, and three of Us, A woman, played
Pitch Perfect by Shefali Shah as she does most of her roles of a
woman going through dementia. And both of these movies just
gut wrenching, heart wrenching and lovely pieces of cinema
talking about something so difficult and rarely talked
about and yet handled with finesse and beauty.
So check out both these films, A double recommendation for the
father and a very strong first recommendation for three of us.
Very nice. My recommendation, which it was
pointed out to me that I even though I'm a big fan of this,
I've never actually recommended it on the podcast, which is
which I find a little weird that I haven't done so before.
So I'm going to make good on that is that there is a show on
Netflix called Love, Death and Robots.
Yeah, it is a fantastic anthology series.
It there's there's no one specific genre.
There's comedy, there's horror, there's science fiction, there's
fantasy. The only thing is there is some
form of robotics or science fiction element to some of
those. But it's just a fantastic,
fantastic show. The animation is.
There are some some shots in this which are much.
Better animated than many of these hundred $200 million
movies. It's just fantastic and it's
definitely has to be on everybody's watch list.
And just right on to that, Love Death and Robots is obviously a
phenomenal series that anybody and everybody should with access
to Netflix should check out. I mean, you've mentioned that
it's animation. All of the episodes are actually
different sorts and different types of animation and I believe
done by different directors and film makers.
So you'll get a flavor of different film makers and
different animation with each episode, each one somehow better
than the previous. And while some of it looks like
animation, there was one particular episode called
Jabaro, which is set in an alternate time timeline with
conquistadors in Central and South America.
And frankly, for the first few seconds or first few minutes of
it, I thought it was they had somehow shot it.
Live action. It was so photorealistic and
then when the visual started getting crazies when I realized
this is animated. So that's all for this episode.
Thank you all for listening in. We hope you enjoyed the show and
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