Holi Ramadan Batman, It's the Easter Bunny! ~ Article 370, Vogue India, Chess Master - (A·B·C·D) Sn2 Ep1

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Episode 33:
Unpack the essence of American-born Desi life with us!  Cultural curiosity meets unbridled creativity in this celebration of identity.   Tradition weaves through our talk as we bask in the festive fusion of Ramadan, Easter, and Holi.  

If that's not enough to whet your appetite, Indrani Ganguly, the trailblazing Indian game developer, let's us is behind the curtain on her latest creation that promises to stir your soul.  We get personal, sharing the birth of a game studio and its passionate pilgrimage in crafting "The Line," a game that bears the scars and triumphs of India's partition.

From deciphering the employment odds for espionage pigeons to dissecting the impact of political endorsements on Indian cinema, our conversations go from delightfully eccentric to deeply insightful.  Then get ready to have your world rocked as we pitch two formidable Aunties against each other in a hypothetical 2024 US presidential showdown. Kamala Harris and Nikki Haley might just bring the spice to the political scene, and we've got the watch clock ticking.

Curtains close on this vibrant escapade with a tribute to the extraordinary: eight-year-old chess prodigy Aswath Kaushik. We tip our hats to this young master's monumental win over a grandmaster, signifying a shift in the intellectual tides for tomorrow's geniuses. So, join us for a journey through culture, reflection, and celebration—where the flavors of life are as complex and delightful as a checkerboard drenched in chutney.

Show Notes:
Sandeep Parikh X: https://twitter.com/sandeepparikh?lang=en

Sandeep Parikh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandeepparikh/

Omar Najam X: https://twitter.com/OmarNajam

Omar Najam Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/omarnajamfilm/ 

Indrani Ganguly: https://indrani.me/

Duronto Games: https://durontogames.com/

Nonagon Dice: https://nonagondice.com/

Vogue India article/"Console Sisters" https://twitter.com/nonagondice/status/1765419119095218479

Confused #1/Astronaut Secret Wedding: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/why-actor-lena-kept-marriage-with-gaganyaan-astronaut-captain-prasanth-balakrishnan-nair-a-secret-5143856

Confused #2/Detained Spy Pigeon: https://nbc24.com/news/offbeat/pigeon-detained-for-8-months-on-espionage-suspicions-finally-released-china-india-mumbai-peta-animal-hospital-bombay-police-warfare-military-unit-open-water-racing-pakistan-kashmir-modi#

Confused #3/Article 370 & Presidential Progaganda: https://www.hindustantimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/pm-narendra-modi-asks-people-to-watch-yami-gautams-article-370-actor-reacts-101708423090458.html

Desi of the Week: Aswath Kaushik https://www.chess.com/news/view/8-year-old-ashwath-kaushik-beats-chess-grandmaster-sets-new-record

Producer: Anand Shah & Kaylin Mahoney
Technical Director & Sound Designer: Delvan Neville 
Executive Producers: Sandeep Parikh & Anand Shah
Editor: Kaylin Mahoney
Music b

Transcript

Sandeep Parikh 0:01

Oh we got that. Hey, we're in season two. We're in season two. We're doing it right now. I'm using that as the cue. We're inside of season two of ABCD.

Omar Najam 0:15

This is a podcast, folks. Okay, that's it right. No, it's a podcast within a livestream, that's it right. No it's a podcast within a livestream, within our lives as two American-born Desis. This is a pod duckin'. This is for anyone out there who's like us. You're navigating your cultural identity and you just want to chat it out. Welcome to the show, folks, and welcome to season two.

Sandeep Parikh 0:38

Wow, this is great. I'm so happy to be back with you. I mean, I didn't go too far away from you, specifically, omar, because we were doing Desi Quest.

Episode 32 Rundown

Sandeep Parikh 0:46

That's kind of why we were down for a bit, but I'm, of course, always excited to get back into it and kind of figure out our lives as American-born Desis. So, on tap for today. We've got what's got us confused. We got that's our new sort of new segment. We go through some stories that are in the diaspora, or stories from India or from the subcontinent. They're just like, okay, we're trying to suss this out. We're going to try to figure it out together. Second up Auntie versus Auntie Watch 2024. Very excited about that. What is that? You're about to find out what that is. Auntie Vee. Auntie 2024. Third up we're going to interview. We got a special guest interview with one of India's most well-known game developers, Indrani Ganguly. So super excited about that. Omar did that interview. So it's juicy, right, juicy.

Omar Najam 1:46

It's very juicy. We get some details. Okay, amazing, we get some gossip.

Sandeep Parikh 1:51

Then we're going to play our game, which this week it's called Holy Ramadan Batman. It's the Easter Bunny.

Delvan Neville 2:01

I'm so excited for this. We're back.

Sandeep Parikh 2:06

That's Holy. That's Holy spelled H-O-L-I we're back. For those of you familiar with the holiday, we're going to get into that. So it's, you know, it's springtime, let's get into the spring festivals and then we close out with Desi of the Week.

DesiQuest Updates

Omar Najam 2:20

Yes, yes, yes, yes, folks, before we hop into that, we want to thank our sponsors. Our first sponsor of the show is a little program you might have heard of called Desi Quest. It's a Dungeons Dragons actual play series that stars me and Sandeep, as well as so many other incredible folks. It's set in the South Asian mythology inspired universe built by star GM Jasmine, that bronze girl Bhullar, with a stellar cast that also includes Critical Role darling Anjali Bhimani, Dimension 20, darling Rekha Shankar and a couple of folks who pop in as guests. We are closing in on our last episode. Check it out and if you're like, hey, you know your recommendations, you're biased, can you give me, I don't know, a publication that is you know, saying that the show is pretty great? How about a little radio station called NPR? We got a shout out recently for Desi Quest.

Sandeep Parikh 3:11

On NPR.

Omar Najam 3:13

On NPR as something to go check out.

Sandeep Parikh 3:15

Yeah, hashtag life goals met. I mean that was pretty wild. And, by the way, like it's not like we have, you know, PR agents working around the clock trying to get us these shout outs Like it's pretty cool. It really just came about organically. Like someone at NPR really loved the show and wanted to shout it out for their weekend. Like that's wild to me.

Omar Najam 3:36

It's unbelievable.

Sandeep Parikh 3:36

Yeah, yeah, Pretty amazing. And, by the way, our finale is coming out very, very soon. So it's time for you to catch up. We got seven episodes out right now. Get in there, catch up on them. We might be doing some. We might be doing some watch parties in our, in our discord, in the EffinFunny discord at some point to sort of help catch up together and then we're going to. The finale is going to drop shortly.

Omar Najam 4:04

So if you want updates, check out DesiQuest. com. That's D-E-S-I-Q-U-E-S-T. Again, that's D-E-S-I-Q-U-E-S-T, and we'll see you, folks for the finale.

Thank you to our Patreons & EF Patreon Updates

Sandeep Parikh 4:16

Alrighty, we have another sponsor, omar. I don't know if you know this.

Omar Najam 4:20

Okay, oh, is it the like a Lays Frito Lays Is it Frito Lays?

Sandeep Parikh 4:26

Yeah, no, we passed on them Okay.

Omar Najam 4:28

Yes, thank you, you got my note.

Sandeep Parikh 4:31

Yeah, yeah, no, it is. It is you guys I'm not watching at home who are Patreoning us as we speak. You make this possible, so we're. You know I'm really excited this year for the Patreon because we just started EffinFunny Movie Club, which is a way that we're going to be watching movies together to just sort of like help me with my research in moviemaking, because I'm embarking on a mission to make a film this year, one that was written by Rekha Shankar you may have heard of her if you're a DesiQuest fan and I'll be directing, so very excited about that.

Sandeep Parikh 5:08

So if you want to sort of support it's a big, long journey to be able to make a film and if you want to get in there and help out, then go over to patreon. com/effinfunny, E, F, F I N funny to join the movie club and get an insider's look at my directing process throughout this whole journey. We've got multiple tiers for contribution and a handful of subscriber benefits, including your name listed in the credits of this very show which we're going to do at the end. So you know, support a couple of days. Season the creative arts. Will you help us keep the ABCD lights on? So head on over to patreon. com/effinfunny.

EffinFunny Movie Club Updates

Omar Najam 5:44

And what do you got lined up? You have fun action film like Battleship Potemkin. You like the Bison movie?

Sandeep Parikh 5:49

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm really. Eyes and staining is where we're going. We're just going to go early yeah. I'm just going to go through straight straight through film one to one stuff chronologically yeah, yeah. I'm just going to regurgitate, yeah, my modern cultural media class from from Brown. No, what do we have lined up? We just watched polite society, which was super cool, and then, I believe, next up we're going to check out the Oscar award nominated film past lives.

Omar Najam 6:22

Yeah, yeah.

Sandeep Parikh 6:22

Yeah, so, yeah. So we got got some, got some cool stuff, got some cool stuff.

Omar Najam 6:26

Amazing, amazing.

Sandeep Parikh 6:29

So the project itself, just like I'll give you a little bit of juice on on on it. It's a. It's a. It's a sort of a. There's like a sci-fi hook, but really it's a. It's a story of of an Indian American girl who is going through going through the very confusing grief process that we have laid out for us. It's like a 13 day ceremony that it's sort of like you know how Jews folks will sit, sit, shiva kind of thing, so it's like littered with all of these, these pujas and these and all these rites and rituals, and it can be very confusing. So it's something that you know, we've all experienced and it's actually kind of a comedy about going through that experience. And then this kind of major sci-fi event happens that I don't want to give away that sort of flips, that lens on the whole thing. So I'm really excited to get my hands, you know, in the creation of making this really awesome film that that Rekha wrote.

Ramadan Mubarak!

Omar Najam 7:32

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yeah, amazing. And before we hop into the news, folks, we just want to wish everybody a Ramadan Mubarak. It is, the festivities start tonight. It is a month of observation, reflection, meditation and also charity work, so we want to just wish everyone to have a very, very happy Ramadan right now.

Sandeep Parikh 7:53

Yes, which is also partially the lend itself to the game that we're going to play later.

What's Got Us Confused Story #1 - Secret Astronaut Wedding

Sandeep Parikh 8:01

Okay, okay, I was wondering if we wanted to get into that. Okay, we'll wait for the game. All right, so let's get into our first segment. What's got us confused? All right, for the first story, we have an astronaut's secret wedding. That's right. You heard me. You heard me right. You heard me right, okay. Next is item 8 from Agnani Robin Mara, who is about to be entitled to~]ht Gaganyan pilot group captain Prasant Balakrishnan Naseer, hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi released the names of the four Indian Air Force pilots who will be on this mission to be the India's first humans to travel into space. So what's kind of which is super exciting? It's kind of wild about it is that she had to wait, before revealing her arranged marriage to him to maintain the legally mandated anonymity. And I think what's confusing about it is what, but why, why? Why did they have to wait to be anonymous? I you know it's a, I'm not entirely sure I read the article. I was, you know, relatively confused. I don't know what's your take on it, omar.

Omar Najam 9:29

So so it's. There's like a there's a status of anonymity that needs to be maintained, which is why you can't publicly announce a wedding. Is that correct?

Sandeep Parikh 9:41

Yeah, but like you know, I think I I guess the wedding happened before they announced who was going to be on the ship right. Right, Um, but like I don't know how finding out that they got married would give away that he was going to be selected. Yeah, like people get married all the time.

Omar Najam 10:04

Maybe, right, that's true. Like I'm thinking like, if it's yeah, well, okay. Like, let's say, like we're announcing, like we're like, oh, who's going to be in the Fantastic Four, and then someone's like um, pedro Pascal is attending a wedding, also, he's going to be in the Fantastic Four, that would give it away. I'm missing the connection here of like how, of like they're just like, yeah, where are you going for your honeymoon space? Oh, I mean, shoot, yeah exactly.

Sandeep Parikh 10:35

Uh, we're going to one of the moons of Jupiter. Oh gosh, did I say give it away? Uh, I think, like, maybe it's that you know and forgive me, I know really relatively little about, about these folks, but like, maybe, like his friends were like dude, you know this actress, lena, she's so out of your league. Like, if we announce that you got, you got married to her, like everyone's going to be like, oh, he must have got the mission. Like there's no way she's marrying a non-astronaut, I see.

Omar Najam 11:03

You're right. Yeah, that's not happening, yeah. So, it's like a non-astronaut. No, no, are you kidding?

Sandeep Parikh 11:11

She's not marrying some, some, you know, earthly bound.

Omar Najam 11:14

She's not marrying your tarnass. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, your earthbound body.

Was this just a ploy to not have to throw a big wedding?

Sandeep Parikh 11:22

It's celestial human being or nothing you know, for you know, I'm not sure, but it's interesting. Because so this? So, because they had to maintain this anonymity, the parents were allowed to attend, but like their siblings were not allowed to attend, um, and they all just sort of. Like you know, we understand that, like you know, prashant's job is has the strict protocol. So like we're just going to, like I don't know, zoom in. I don't even think they even did that, like I'm not sure?

Omar Najam 11:51

No, now I see. Now I see what this is. Now I see what this is, because there's some folks in my family that I wouldn't want at my wedding. This is a ruse. I now understand.

Sandeep Parikh 12:00

Okay, you're right, this makes so much sense. It's just a cut down that like they just didn't want the like giant Indian wedding.

Delvan Neville 12:07

They were like this is the best way to do it, and that was for him to join a space program.

Omar Najam 12:13

That's the way out and be on the first manned mission.

Sandeep Parikh 12:16

That's the only way that he could tell his mom to be like. I'm so sorry, but, like you know, uh uh uh, romesh uncle is just not a I just don't want him at the wedding.

Omar Najam 12:28

Oh, your cousin's looking forward to the wedding. Oh you know I, now they think about it. I'm going to be on the moon that night.

Sandeep Parikh 12:35

Um, I like it All right, so let's write the story. Do we feel like we are more informed? We are more confused or more baffled by the story.

Omar Najam 12:48

I say informed.

Sandeep Parikh 12:51

I was going to go inform too, okay.

Indrani Ganguly 12:54

Yeah.

Omar Najam 12:55

Here we go.

Sandeep Parikh 12:55

Inform, I do. I feel like I kind of get it Like they have this protocol, yep, they're playing it safe and he totally didn't want, you know, her annoying cousins to be at the wedding.

Omar Najam 13:08

Yeah, and they're not attention hogs like NASA, you know. So I get it. I appreciate that. Yeah, yeah, all right, are you ready for news story number two?

What's Got Us Confused Story #2 - India Releases Chinese Spy Pigeon after 8 Months of Detainment

Sandeep Parikh 13:17

Yeah, I am so ready.

Omar Najam 13:19

Okay, I'm just going to read you this headline and then let me get your raw reaction here. Yeah, please. Pigeon, detained for Eight Months on Espionage Suspicion Finally Released. I'm so sorry, pigeon. Yeah, let me read that again for your benefit of everyone at home. Pigeon, detained for Eight Months on Espionage Suspicion Finally Released.

Sandeep Parikh 13:44

Do we, do we detain any other animals ever Like? Is this? Are we in the business of detaining animals for anything? Is that a thing that?

Omar Najam 13:54

happens. Okay, so why don't you go ahead and put a pin in that question? We'll get back to that in a second. It's funny you asked that. All right, but just to give you some information on this, please. In India released a pigeon that was being held in a veterinary hospital in Mumbai that was captured eight months ago near a port after being suspected as a Chinese spy. The reason for this is because the bird had two rings inscribed with words that appeared to be Chinese attached to its legs. The vet hospital frequently asked can we just, are we done? Can we just let?

Sandeep Parikh 14:26

It's not because it like set up a life and a family there, married someone from the land and then in their dreams they spoke fluent Mandarin, yes, yeah, and then, like her spouse was like there's something wrong here, and she was conflicted and eventually went to the authorities because her brother is in the top.

Omar Najam 14:51

Yes, and is looking for this pigeon.

Sandeep Parikh 14:59

Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, okay.

Omar Najam 15:03

This is crazy.

Sandeep Parikh 15:05

So the bird had two rings inscribed with the words just with Chinese words, that appeared to be.

Omar Najam 15:08

Chinese attached to its legs. The veterinary hospital kept saying please, can we just let this pigeon go. We don't think it's a spy. We don't think that this is a DreamWorks movie. Okay.

Sandeep Parikh 15:25

What do you do with the detained pigeon?

Omar Najam 15:28

The I mean interrogate. Obviously the authority said no, you need to hold on to this pigeon, you need to get information on this pigeon. Until PETA stepped in and PETA said what are you doing? What is this Stop.

Sandeep Parikh 15:46

They just let the pigeon go. Yeah, I'm a good bird, bad bird, I just don't know. It's like you're not going to like it when the crow gets in here.

Do we do lock up other animals for spying too?

Omar Najam 15:54

It turns out that this pigeon was actually an open water racing bird from Taiwan that had escaped and made its way to India. So not a spy, an athlete, what so? I can see where the confusion is. I can see where the confusion is Now. Sendeep, do we do this a lot? You asked that earlier, right? Do we just capture animals and ask them if they're spies? This isn't the first time this has happened. This isn't the first pigeon where this has happened.

Omar Najam 16:27

Stop, yeah, there was one in 2020, where a pigeon belonging to a Pakistani fisherman flew across the heavily militarized border and the border patrol wanted to make sure that it wasn't a spy. And then, in 2016, a pigeon was taken to custody after it was found with a note that threatened Indian Prime Minister Modi.

Sandeep Parikh 16:52

Wow, you know, it's true, Dan Wally. And Chad is saying unfortunately, pigeons are historically used in espionage. I get it. I get it. It's just wasn't that like in the 1940s, Like are we?

Omar Najam 17:08

No, no, no. Don't let drones take away jobs from hardworking pigeons. Sendeep, I'm traditional when it comes to this.

Sandeep Parikh 17:17

Got it. Yeah, there's a union. Yeah pigeon rights. You know, I mean like this is just absolutely wild. Did any of those pan out? Do we know that, if any of them turned out to actually be no, one of them was a fisherman fisherman's pigeon, which, by the way.

Omar Najam 17:35

That begs a lot of questions. So people have pigeon notes.

Sandeep Parikh 17:43

Like people have pigeon pets. That's another thing that I just found out right now, yeah.

Delvan Neville 17:49

Oh yeah.

Sandeep Parikh 17:50

And then they can also write notes. Yeah, apparently.

Omar Najam 17:55

Yeah, yeah. So this does make me ask a lot of questions about the pigeon lady from Home Alone, and I am wondering what's her deal? Do you feel, how do you feel about this story, nastin? Do you feel like you're informed, you're baffled or you're confused?

Sandeep Parikh 18:09

I am baffled. I'm a little baffled, I mean I'm somewhere between baffled and a little just like confused, because I guess it's just, you know, it just seems like really hypervigilance, you know going on here when we're really worried about Eight months. Eight months. Eight months A long time to be interrogating a pigeon. Yeah, yeah, I hope the pigeon was fed well, some good bird seed.

Delvan Neville 18:35

I hope the pigeon was well taken care of.

Sandeep Parikh 18:37

It sounds like they were holding him in a vet hospital, so I guess that's something.

Omar Najam 18:41

Exactly, exactly.

Sandeep Parikh 18:44

All right. What about you? Where are you at?

Omar Najam 18:46

I feel informed. I have no questions. No questions you just get it.

Sandeep Parikh 18:50

It makes sense to you Listen.

Omar Najam 18:53

I don't want to get into it too much, but like I might have some pigeons out there, yeah exactly Sorry.

Delvan Neville 19:01

That's not important.

Omar Najam 19:03

Why don't we move on to news story number three?

Sandeep Parikh 19:07

If you know, this tree by my house has been squawking a lot lately. I've been hearing a lot of activity.

Omar Najam 19:14

Oh yeah, we've been hearing activity you've been up to as well.

Sandeep Parikh 19:16

Are you watching?

What's Got Us Confused Story #3 - Modi Endorses the movie 'Article 370'

Omar Najam 19:17

So what would you say is the next news story that we're?

Sandeep Parikh 19:20

looking at. Okay, fine, we're looking at no story. Number three here is is cinema India's new political battle ground?

Omar Najam 19:28

Okay, yeah, okay, go on Okay.

Sandeep Parikh 19:34

So this one's this one's kind of wild. So there's this movie, article 370. And it's I don't know if you've seen the trailer or anything like that, but it's okay. This movie has a lot of sort of it's about the. This article 370 is about what's going on in Kashmir.

Indrani Ganguly 20:00

And it's a documentary.

Sandeep Parikh 20:02

It's not a documentary, it's like an action thriller film, okay, and it basically Modi came out and said he supports the movie. It sort of sort of begs the question of like and it's become highly politicized, right Like there's this ongoing conflict in Kashmir, for sure, independence or the border dispute between whether it should be Pakistan's country or India's, and you know there's a lot of strife there. So this movie comes out. It's very much from the perspective of of like it's India's perspective on it, okay, or at least you know, sort of Hindu Indian's perspective on it. And then Prime Minister Modi is like yeah, you should totally go see this film and supports this film. Okay, the question sort of what's got us confused about it or what we're thinking about is like you know, if a politician comes out and says they love a film, or a president specifically, or Prime.

Sandeep Parikh 20:59

Minister specifically comes out and says they love a film, does that immediately make it propaganda? I guess it's sort of the question.

Omar Najam 21:04

Well, he's an objective viewer, right, like he doesn't have anything to do with this movie.

Sandeep Parikh 21:09

No, no, go on. He's like. I mean, I don't think so. You watch the movie and basically he's a character in the film. Okay, as far as I'm concerned, as far as I get from the trailer you see, like like, it's like okay, this is like very much, like I said, this movie in particular okay, here's my here's where I'm sort of debating on this thing. It's like this movie in particular seems like it's got a political agenda to it.

Omar Najam 21:40

So it's already. It's inspired by true events and then, in quotation marks, free Kashmir.

Sandeep Parikh 21:45

Yeah. So it's already got a political perspective going on Right away. It's somewhat propagandized already. And then, yes, to have a prime minister say, hey, you should like, everyone should see this movie, that definitely cements it as prop. It propagandizes the movie, right, Right. But if this was fast and the furious six, okay, or whatever number they're up to now, where it's like has nothing really to do with politics, if Prime Minister Modi was like that's a good flick, you should go see it. I don't think that immediately turns that movie into propaganda.

Omar Najam 22:27

I will say the fast and furious does it. The fast and furious movies might be the only franchise that's maybe an exception to the rule of a politician endorsing that's the only propaganda.

Sandeep Parikh 22:43

Okay, okay.

Omar Najam 22:44

Yeah.

Sandeep Parikh 22:46

So it's Dr Strange propaganda.

Omar Najam 22:49

I mean, yeah, how, where you get that magic from? So no, that's an interesting question. Okay, so let's actually entertain a question. If a sitting leader of a government says go check out this movie and it's like go check out Curious George the film, Does that make it propaganda?

Sandeep Parikh 23:12

Yeah, I would say no Right.

Omar Najam 23:16

Yeah, I guess if it has nothing inherently immediately political in it, then yeah. But this one is a different case, because this would be if Teddy Roosevelt was like go see the movie. Teddy Roosevelt is a baller president out in theaters right now.

Sandeep Parikh 23:35

Then that does become Dude. Have you seen Teddy Roosevelt as a baller president before?

Omar Najam 23:39

Yeah, I have, I think that the tie-in with Air.

Sandeep Parikh 23:43

Bud was impressive.

Omar Najam 23:43

Interesting.

Delvan Neville 23:48

So, for example, richard Nixon's favorite movie was Patton, the movie about General George. As Patton Right, would that be propaganda for him to say that's my favorite movie?

Sandeep Parikh 24:00

What if his favorite movie was the one about Watergate? What was that? All the presidents?

Delvan Neville 24:06

I think that's Gerald Ford's favorite movie.

Sandeep Parikh 24:08

That was such a weird twist of fate. He's like you know what, hey. He's like I don't agree with what they're saying, but-.

Omar Najam 24:14

Damn his good flick.

Sandeep Parikh 24:16

Absolutely Picture perfect film.

Delvan Neville 24:17

Great filming Great acting.

Omar Najam 24:19

Great competition, great competition.

Sandeep Parikh 24:21

Pacing is strong. I just really think, you know-.

Delvan Neville 24:25

Tricky dick.

Omar Najam 24:26

What would you say is your favorite movie? Frost Nixon Really, how much of it did you watch?

Sandeep Parikh 24:34

Oh man, interesting, interesting, interesting, interesting.

Omar Najam 24:38

Interesting. I would say I'm a little confused. If I'm honest, I'm going to have to look a little bit more into the sort of legalities of this, if that makes sense. I mean, it's what a leader is allowed to say if they are in it and use their platform to promote something that they're in.

Sandeep Parikh 24:56

Yeah, I don't think he's I think he's depicted in it, right yeah?

Omar Najam 24:59

I'm not sure if he's yeah.

Sandeep Parikh 25:01

I mean that would be that would be insane. Maybe he-.

Omar Najam 25:04

If he was like check out my acting. Yeah, that would be interesting.

Sandeep Parikh 25:08

But I think he- yeah, I'd say I'm in the same sort of confused state as well. I don't know enough, but I do think it's probably not great for, say, the industry If Hollywood was just producing stuff at the behest of the president. That would probably be not good.

Omar Najam 25:35

I'm looking up Right. This is going to determine my answer. I'm searching something right now on an internet search engine and what I'm searching is was Arnold Schwarzenegger governor when he made Around the World in 80 Days? He was in that movie. This was Arnold Schwarzenegger's last new movie before being elected governor of California, so he made Around the World in 80 Days. He's elected governor and if he tells people to go see Around the World in 80 Days, does that make Around the World in 80 Days propaganda?

Sandeep Parikh 26:03

I mean it makes it him a shill for it. Yeah, he's definitely conflict of interest. He can't use the platform to be selling movie tickets, that respect. So I guess, yeah, maybe that's-.

Auntie vs. Auntie Watch 2024

Omar Najam 26:14

A state of the union. I think you go she could see in my movie the remake of Around the World in 80 Days. Yeah, amazing, all right. Well, that wraps up our new segment, but we've got another segment that is also touching on news. Are you ready for this? Welcome to Auntie versus Auntie Watch 2024. We got to explain this.

Sandeep Parikh 26:39

Yeah, we do. We got to explain this.

Delvan Neville 26:41

We have to explain this, okay.

Sandeep Parikh 26:43

So what is Auntie versus Auntie Watch? Okay, look, this may have been a little bit more relevant somewhat recently, but there's still possibility this could happen.

Omar Najam 26:51

Yeah, it's still relevant to you.

Sandeep Parikh 26:52

You guys might be a little bit aware of what's going on. There's a presidential election here in the US. Now the crazy thing that we sort of recognized was there was a chance there's an outside chance that the remaining two if basically something horrible happened for Biden's health and it went sideways, he had to step out of the race or worse, which knock on wood right, we don't wish that upon anybody, but if that happened, kamala Harris would be probably the next in line to be the nominee for the Democrat Party. So there was a chance that Auntie Gamal, auntie Gamal.

Sandeep Parikh 27:38

Auntie could have been because she is part Desi. As you know, she's half Desi, so that's contestant number one. And then Nikki Haley was doing pretty well for hotmail there, kind of if you could define the word well as winning Vermont.

Omar Najam 27:58

Beautiful colors in the fall.

Sandeep Parikh 28:00

At least the last woman standing against Trump, and Trump's got 91 indictments against him. That's not looking good and I don't know. Last I checked it was going to be pretty challenging for convicted.

Omar Najam 28:15

He's getting up to delimitation numbers and that's what you have to start being like. This is a lot.

Sandeep Parikh 28:20

It's a lot. There's a world in which he is, you know, not allowed to be present or not allowed to run, and so and Nikki Haley also Desi, so, auntie, it could be Gamal Auntie versus Nikki Auntie. There's a world in which and that's what the Auntie versus Auntie watch is all about there's still that possibility, right.

Omar Najam 28:46

Yeah, so, so, exactly so, every episode. What we're going to do is we're going to check in and see how close we are to Auntie versus Auntie 2024, which makes us the.

Omar Najam 28:54

Auntie versus Auntie watch 2024. There you go. So let's get some quick updates, real quick. With Nikki Haley, as you said, she has recently suspended her presidential race after Trump won Super Tuesday, which a lot of people called snooze her Tuesday, but did not endorse him. She said Trump would have to earn her voter support or her backers support. Not interesting, but yeah, yeah. So this is an interesting spot that she's reserving. She has simply suspended her campaign, which keeps Auntie versus Auntie watch 2024 still alive.

Omar Najam 29:29

And also, let's just, you know, let's, in terms of the history, in terms of the United States of America, you know, nikki Haley became the first Asian-American woman to ever seek the Republican presidential nomination and get to the stage of the conversation. So it's the update on Nikki Haley. How about the other Auntie?

Sandeep Parikh 29:48

That's yeah. So on the cumulus side of things, you know she's currently the VP for Biden. I mean, look, there's still chatter that he might drop out of the race or, like I said, father time comes for him. And look, harris has spent a lot of this year on the road. She's touring the country, she's mobilizing voters on issues central to the campaign. She's, like you know, outspoken about reproductive rights and voters are concerned. Voters are worried about Biden's age. That's obvious. You know, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, harris said I am ready to serve. There is no question about that. She said that. She said I am ready to serve. There is no question about that. So, look, I think she's not saying it's not impossible. You know, we may not be, we may not be right there, but you're saying there's a chance.

What time is it on the clock for Auntie vs. Auntie Watch?

Omar Najam 30:43

So, folks, there's a lot of really important and serious and crucial elements and topics within this presidential conversation for this year's election and we want to take those very, very seriously and we'll probably dedicate segments on future episodes to kind of dive into those, whatever we do. But when it comes to Untie Vs Untie Watch 2024, we want to cement that we are here for this particular narrative. We are invested, and we want all of you to be equally invested in Untie Vs Untie Watch 2024. We are going to ask your help with this. We need some sort of diagram or icon, maybe a clock, to see how close we are to Untie Vs Untie 2024. Maybe it's a countdown, maybe it's a ladder.

Sandeep Parikh 31:28

I like the clock. I like the clock, and I think we should ask Chat to go ahead based upon what we just said. Right, like Nikki Haley, she's suspending our you know that she's still like holding out some hope that one of these indictments are going to work out in her favor. That's why she was the last person standing. There is a chance. So where does that land us? On the clock? And then, obviously, what we said about Gumball, and you guys watched the State of the Union. How are you feeling about Biden? So I'm curious, you guys live and chat right now on the scale of essentially one to 12.

Omar Najam 32:00

Where do you think we are with?

Sandeep Parikh 32:02

Untie Vs. So we'll say, and we'll say 12, right, that's a clock, 12 is Right, like it's happened, basically that it's over, that's right, that it's as far as possible. That like it is, like it is Untie Vs Untie, Like if it's 12.

Omar Najam 32:17

Oh, one o'clock. One o'clock is Untie.

Sandeep Parikh 32:20

Vs Untie. Oh wait, One o'clock is Untie Vs Untie.

Omar Najam 32:23

Oh no. Okay, that's interesting. See, this is where it's important. So we're like midnight, so on the doomsday clock midnight is when it's like this is nuclear war. This is the opposite for us of the doomsday clock, but we still want to keep. Midnight is the time Like midnight is when the clock strikes. Untie Vs Untie.

Sandeep Parikh 32:44

Well, we're saying do oh, wait, wait, I like this. So are we saying that the doomsday is, the midnight is? Oh no, it's Trump versus Biden is what we're saying, and that one o'clock is. So it's a reverse doomsday clock.

Omar Najam 32:59

Oh, so one. Okay, great. So it's actually 1 pm, so we're getting into the afternoon. So okay, here's what it is, folks. Now we're going to clarify.

Sandeep Parikh 33:04

That's too crazy and this is the final answer. Wait, I'm not saying, I'm asking you that.

Omar Najam 33:09

This is no. I like this and let me. This is why Because midnight is our darkest hour. Okay, so midnight is the doomsday clock, 1 pm is.

Indrani Ganguly 33:19

Chi time.

Omar Najam 33:20

So that's what we're trying to get to. We're trying to get away from midnight. We're trying to get to Chi time Got it.

Sandeep Parikh 33:27

So are we already at midnight, or are we already at 11 o'clock? So, chat, get in there. I want to hear what you guys think and then maybe by the end of our next segment, we will decide where we are at.

Omar Najam 33:38

Does that sound good, beautiful? Let's find out and we'll mark it.

Sandeep Parikh 33:43

Okay.

Omar Najam 33:45

All right, folks. Well, we have an amazing segment that we have thrown together for you guys. We are so excited to chat with our incredible friend Indrani, who was just featured in Vogue India for a ton of their incredible work in the gaming space. Indrani is one of my favorite people on the entire planet. I got the chance to sit down with Indrani and chat. We are about to show you that interview and then we also play a game with Indrani where, honestly, she kind of hands her asses to us in terms of our categories and how we approach them in this versus that. But it's a real great time. We have actually Indrani and I talk so much all the time that there is a full 40 minute interview that we chopped down for this segment. But if you want to check out the full interview, we'll tell you how to do that right after this segment and for now, let's hop on over to the interview with Indrani. Hello, andrani, how's it going?

Indrani Ganguly 34:44

Hello, hello, it's going well. It's quite early, it is literally just white outside.

Omar Najam 34:52

That's when you know it's morning. There's no color outside. It's just light.

Indrani Ganguly 34:56

Yeah, if I look that way, I'll be blind.

Indrani recently featured in Vogue India

Omar Najam 35:00

So this is so wonderful. We want to chat with you about so many things, but first and foremost, sort of a big thing happened recently. You're in Vogue India.

Indrani Ganguly 35:10

I'm in Vogue India, which is on the list of statements I would make throughout the entire course of my life, was now like something I plan for.

Indrani Ganguly 35:19

But yes, there's an article about me and three other incredible people from India who are working in video games in different capacities, and I'm one of the four people who the Vogue article talks about and, yeah, I got to do like a very fun, fancy, like photo shoot for it. They asked me some really lovely questions. The author her name, is Pritika Rao. She came in from like this perspective of someone who kind of grew up loving games but always feeling like do I have place in this like you know for Abhi that and eventually decided that she didn't. Who was like okay, let me revisit it.

Indrani Ganguly 35:56

And this was her revisiting it by speaking to other Fem folks who've been working in the space. And that really excites me about it is that some of the most creative games that are coming out of India.

Indrani Ganguly 36:09

So, like two of the other people, including myself, we're, all you know, creative leads at different video game studios and there's just something really interesting about the way that the Indian game that I've seen is growing is that a lot of like the sort of interesting things that people are doing are coming from studios that are led by women and minority folk, and I think that, like minority folk in India, yes. So specific area. So I think it's really cool to see them being highlighted and you know, myself being highlighted.

Duronto Games Studio discussion

Omar Najam 36:40

This is incredible. Can we talk about the fact that you have a game studio? Because that is amazing.

Indrani Ganguly 36:47

It's very scary in that, like it is, it is never a good time to make video games or games for stuff. Like it always feels like the whole world is on fire in one way or another, and like that's yes. What business do I have making games? Everything you know? Gestures vaguely is going on.

Indrani Ganguly 37:09

So we started the game studio with me having this game idea that I wanted to work on and working in game dev Like I've been doing that for gosh upwards of five years now. But I've always wanted to be a designer in my own right and I've done that in small and big ways with like tabletop RPGs, and you know I've written for some other games as well, but I never thought that I had like all of the pieces.

Indrani Ganguly 37:37

I would need to make my own and then I was like oh man, just this one thing, I want to really make it. And I was like wait, I'm friends with a really good programmer, really great artist and another incredible writer.

Indrani Ganguly 37:51

Yeah between the four of us we could maybe saying this. So I pitched it to them and they were like, yeah, but we've never made a, we never shipped a video game, Like we've never completed it and put it out into the world. What do we do? And I was like, well, let's just try it, let's just make a much smaller project and we'll do it. Over four days we did like an internal game jam. So at the end of four days we were like we should have a finished from scratch game.

Delvan Neville 38:16

That was not the big or the idea.

Indrani Ganguly 38:19

Yeah, yeah, and people do that, people do that shit all the time. Sorry, am I allowed to curse on this show?

Omar Najam 38:25

I will you owe a hunt. Oh, in this show a hundred percent.

Indrani's new game, "The Line"

Indrani Ganguly 38:28

Okay, cool, yeah, so people do that all the fucking time and we can do this, we can do this and end of day one. It was not looking good, I'll tell you that much, because we had one blue screen and just a few buttons and we were like okay, maybe we, maybe this is a text adventure and maybe we're idiots for wanting to do this.

Omar Najam 38:50

It's retro yeah.

Indrani Ganguly 38:52

But at the end of day four it looked like a real, actual video game and we put it out in the world and we were like, cool, okay, so this works, we can do it Now we just need to do it at a much bigger scale. Other than that, it's been great. Our first project is shaping up quite nicely. It's a game called the line, and it's a game where you play as someone who's dividing a land that is unfamiliar to them, and it's inspired by the partition of India.

Indrani Ganguly 39:20

And like that's kind of the extent of the details that I can go into, but it's a serious sort of like papers please, style game. So yeah, that's what we're making.

Omar Najam 39:32

The way you present yourself is very honest and genuine, and I feel like the art that you make and the projects you work on reflect that as well. So it's just. This is just good. It just makes me so happy that you also are getting recognized by such a huge publication. This is huge for you. This is huge for also us, the fans of you.

Indrani Ganguly 39:54

Oh, my God, oh man.

Omar Najam 39:56

It's so funny. As I look around I'm like I have so much of stuff that you've made. That's like around my desk and just like in my room glancing around which also you give to me for free.

Omar Najam 40:06

So I am also like this pack rat, so thank you for hooking me up with like a bunch of your dice. We're going to hop into a game speaking of dice in a second, but first, real quick, before we do that, where can people check out your studio, where can people check out the things you're working on and where can people kind of get hyped up about your game?

Indrani Ganguly 40:26

Yeah, I think the best way of staying in touch with me is probably social media. If you're a degenerate like me and still use Twitter, I am at nonagon dice on Twitter and my game studio is called Duronto Games. We're also on Twitter, Instagram, all of these platforms.

Episode Game: This vs. That

Omar Najam 40:42

Oh, this is. This is so great. I obviously cannot wait to to hear of your continuing success and get to play all your the projects that you're you're working on and will come out within the future, but for now, you get to actually play a game that we've thrown together which is where we, we pose an American thing against something we consider a daisy thing.

Omar Najam 41:06

And you can choose. The stakes of this is just to give you you know, like what you're playing for, what you choose in, the winner of these two things is the winner. The loser gets erased from history, it doesn't exist anymore.

Indrani Ganguly 41:21

That's amazing, okay, cool, yeah, I would love that very much. That power to be like this or that and the other thing goes my God, that's great.

Round 1: Chai vs. Coffee

Omar Najam 41:30

Exactly, Are you ready for this? I am ready. Round number one Chai versus coffee.

Indrani Ganguly 41:36

Coffee.

Omar Najam 41:38

Wait, is coffee an.

Indrani Ganguly 41:39

American thing? Because that's not true.

Sandeep Parikh 41:41

All right, back up a little bit of history.

Indrani Ganguly 41:44

South Indians all right, we make really good coffee. There's some incredible coffee roastries and estates based out here in India.

Omar Najam 41:53

So you're saying this isn't even count. This is actually not.

Indrani Ganguly 41:56

This isn't the American question doesn't work because Americans a do coffee poorly.

Sandeep Parikh 42:02

Okay, I'm trying a lot of American coffee.

Indrani Ganguly 42:04

It doesn't work, you guys over roasted, it's burnt. So when I say coffee, I mean Indian, wow. American, not North American coffee. South Americans do coffee really well, but yeah, sorry.

Round 2: Sitar vs. Guitar

Omar Najam 42:17

Wow, us in Canada just got roasted. That is tough Round number two. Sit down versus guitar.

Indrani Ganguly 42:30

So that I mean, come on my, okay, look, string instruments generally have so much variety and so much incredible stuff you can do with it. But I think that almost feels like a precursor to like modern day instrumentalization right and I really know a lot about this right now, because for the game we're making, you know, we're using a lot of string instruments for the music production and one of the things we've been considering is, like, how do we incorporate, like Karnataka music and and like even you know, bengali, hindustani music?

Sandeep Parikh 43:03

in the game.

Indrani Ganguly 43:04

And we've been doing a lot of deep dives into what string instruments would sound like and you know what the vibe be want is. And guitars I mean great, you know, love it, happy that they exist. If somebody never did Wonderwall at a campfire wouldn't be all the better off for it.

Omar Najam 43:23

Round number three Bollywood and Hollywood versus Hollywood.

Indrani Ganguly 43:30

Okay, this is interesting, right, because when we say Bollywood and Hollywood, let's change the framing of that. Let's say Bollywood and South Indian cinema, south Indian cinema and compasses, hollywood, hollywood, so like films that are coming out of you know, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, right these films chefs class of their own right like masterly. Well, we do like, really like Malayali films to like a lot of incredible storytelling. That's very important. Sorry, can we get real like communists in here?

Indrani Ganguly 44:06

Let's get real communists, real quick Okay so there's this like Marxist film theory where it talks about how films I know this is supposed to be. Like me, I can't help myself Questions why art is made like are you? When are you making art? That, basically, what's the word? Subjugates is a strong word, but in the sense that when is the viewer, is the oppressed class being continuing to stay oppressed and not thinking about their state by consuming this?

Indrani Ganguly 44:40

then should it exist and a lot of film from the south, especially Malayalam films, like sort of like adapt that ideology. A lot of like cast films are all coming out of South India. Bollywood, I think is emblematic of a lot of problems that exist like in this country that, like you know so can we do this or that or that and I'll say South Indian films will keep on the other two Okay.

Round 4: Polytheism vs. Monotheism

Omar Najam 45:04

Yeah, 100%, okay, cool. Well, this one is a really simple one that will not require any conversation or diving into any specifics.

Indrani Ganguly 45:16

We'll see about that over.

Omar Najam 45:18

Why did we include this one for you? Polytheism versus monotheism.

Indrani Ganguly 45:23

Oh, oh, my God. Wow, this was a all right. Well, you said 15 minute segment and you're making it very hard for me. So either or seems like a difficult thing for me to, it's so new, as how do you this or that? Something like something like wow, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Indrani Ganguly 45:46

I think both historically have had their merits and demerits, I think India is a country right now we're getting less and less secular each day, I think because, of like the current people in power, and I think that I Fear the kind of two Religion can be in terms of like radicalizing people because, like here now, a secular country suddenly wants to be well, not suddenly right.

Indrani Ganguly 46:15

That's yours, and yours of like built up to this but wants to be a Hindu rastra and like there's something very gross about that, when I'm surrounded by people from like multiple faiths with multiple different ways of viewing God and spirituality, and I think I cannot, in good faith, be like this or that without, you know, taking away some of those experiences. So, I, I, you know, both can go on, either can go.

Delvan Neville 46:41

Is that an?

Indrani Ganguly 46:41

option.

Omar Najam 46:43

Let's go for it. I think that's the safest one here.

Indrani Ganguly 46:45

Yeah.

Omar Najam 46:46

Because it's also when we do, when we do the bait. If I'm not mistaken, I think that we were also like I mean like, do you want to get rid of the lore of Battlestar Galactica? So, like it's, we did expand outside.

Indrani Ganguly 46:58

Look look, I'm glad to be your kitty pink, but this is not. Okay, well, this religion was exist and it must exist in a way that everybody can use, like you know, in a way that works for everyone.

Round 5: Ketchup vs. Chutney

Omar Najam 47:12

I think that's beautiful. And then, finally, here's the last one. Okay, I think this one is equally as sort of deep in philosophical and entrenched in human existence, ketchup versus chutney.

Indrani Ganguly 47:28

Again, broken question because chutney is an umbrella term. So, let's, let's, let's, funnel down Right. There is a way of making tomato chutney in.

Sandeep Parikh 47:38

Andhra.

Indrani Ganguly 47:38

Pradesh it's called. It's called tomato pachadi, and it is spicy and garlicky and delicious and you can have it with dosa, you can have it with idli, you can have it with whatever you want, and it is infinitely, infinitely better than ketchup. All right, I will say I've had really good catch up, like in, in all fairness, like when it's the right amount of fermented, it's the right amount of sugar, it's the right amount of, like spice. Ketchup can be good. I'm a ketchup girl. If only one could stay. I mean, come on Right.

Omar Najam 48:10

Yeah, because there's so much not great ketchup.

Indrani Ganguly 48:13

So you know there's so much not exactly ketchup to be good.

Omar Najam 48:17

Yeah.

Indrani Ganguly 48:18

There's a lot of things that need to go right for chutney to be good. You just got to have like a blender, bro. That's all you need for good chutney. That's so funny.

Omar Najam 48:27

And right.

Indrani Ganguly 48:28

Thank you so much for playing our game of this versus that Thank you for letting my hubris about being like your games wrong, so thank you.

Omar Najam 48:39

Could you remind the wonderful folks watching this stream and also listening at home via podcast, where they can find you and all the wonderful things you do?

Indrani Ganguly 48:48

Yes, absolutely. You can find me everywhere on the internet is at nonagon dice. That's N-O-N-A-G-O-N-D-I-C-E. That's on Twitter, instagram, blue Sky, whatever, and the Ronto games. You can find us again everywhere on the internet, as at Doronto games. That's D-U-R-O-N-T-O-G-A-M-E-S. Doronto games. That's us. So give me up.

Omar Najam 49:17

You are a joy. You're a wonder. You are also changing things in ways that we're all benefiting from so much, so thank you so much for everything you do. Thank you for being my friend, thank you for being on the show. We absolutely adore you. You are a previous Dacey of the week, so getting to actually have a segment where we sit down with you in chat is a dream come true, thank you.

Indrani Ganguly 49:39

Thank you, fred. I love you so much. What a wonderful way of hanging out. I'm glad to see your face. I'm glad to see your face, all right we'll do this in person soon.

Full Interview with Indrani on EF Patreon

Omar Najam 49:48

We'll do that. Yes, yes, thank you so much for checking out that interview we got to do with Indrani. Now here's the thing Indrani and I chatted so long about what game development is like in India, what they're up to. Also, there was a really fun story about the photos that appeared in Vogue India. Because those weren't Vogue photographers, they didn't send any photographers. Indrani got those pictures taken care of on her own. If you want to know more about that, if you want to know more about that.

Indrani Ganguly 50:19

We're just wild.

Omar Najam 50:21

We're going to put the entire interview up on our Patreon as a Patreon exclusive. Check that out, because also Indrani shares so many beautiful tidbits that just feel so much like this show about encouraging yourself in the arts and how to think through your fears instead of feeling them, and how to just go for it, how to go for your goals and do what you want. They are an incredible human being. Check out that full interview over on our Patreon.

Episode Game #2: Holi Ramadan Batman, It's the Easter Bunny! (aka 2 Lies and a 1 Truth)

Sandeep Parikh 50:48

Killer. All right, all right. Well, it is time to move into our game segment, the ABCD game. Holy Ramadan, batman, it's the Easter Bunny. Holy Ramadan, batman, it's the Easter Bunny. All right, that title would get you know robbing a lot of trouble.

Omar Najam 51:11

That's all I'm saying, folks, our Game Master Delvin will present us with a series of three statements. Each set include two lies and one truth about a springtime holiday. We must each guess the truth, and whoever is right earns one point.

Sandeep Parikh 51:26

Yeah, and just to be clear, right, like we have, like, there's kind of these three holidays that hover around our lives around this time, you know, as South Asian Americans, holy, which is the Festival of Colors. You know, this is the time where we're grinding, we're grinding. That's a weird place to stop.

Omar Najam 51:47

We're all grinding.

Cultural Celebrations and Traditions

Sandeep Parikh 51:52

Grinding flour, flour, flour into this beautiful multicolored powder and then we throw it all over each other and it's kind of a time for forgiveness and fun and connection. It's pretty, pretty great holiday for those in those of Indian descent. And then I mean, do you want to speak to Ramadan a little bit from your perspective, Like, do you guys celebrate?

Omar Najam 52:16

my time. Yeah, absolutely. My dad is Muslim, although non-practicing, but also I grew up with a ton of Muslim friends, and so Ramadan for me was a time where, while I persevered and fast, it is a time of fasting, of contemplation, of reflection, as well as activating on the pillars of Islam, which, as we mentioned at the top of the show, includes stuff like charity, work and giving a charity, and also just a time of gratitude and to essentially kind of slow down and be grateful and happy for what we have and what we can celebrate with each other. So it's a beautiful time that then ends with Eid, which is a huge, huge celebration.

Sandeep Parikh 52:59

And Easter is a time where you get crayons I think from your brother, because he hid him in the closet and I was pretty psyched to get a pack of 128 crayon crayons for Easter.

Indrani Ganguly 53:11

Why? Yeah, that's what I got you get that many.

Sandeep Parikh 53:14

Yeah, it was like the big, the big, the chunky pack, the big one, the one that was like a brick. Very, very excited about that, my folks.

Omar Najam 53:24

I don't want to undersell, like how much. Like in my earlier years, like my mom did go out of her way to just throw an incredible like Easter, easter, bunny Easter. But also like we did go to church. You did yeah, yeah, well, look, if you're going to do that, if you're going to, you got to earn your eggs.

Sandeep Parikh 53:45

So nice, yeah, we. We just went straight to the eggs. Straight to the hunt. There's all about that. Yeah, that was. I personally always loved that holiday growing up. I mean it's about more than that for a lot of people.

Indrani Ganguly 54:02

I've just let it out. It was for us, okay.

Sandeep Parikh 54:05

I just I didn't even, honestly, I did not know anything about resurrection or anything. That's for the longest time I was like the Easter Bunny is resurrected.

Indrani Ganguly 54:14

What.

Sandeep Parikh 54:14

I had no clue, okay.

Omar Najam 54:17

Meanwhile I was in my Sunday best at Mass at 6am.

Sandeep Parikh 54:23

Yeah, yeah, and I was like let me eat this, this, this stuff, that kind of faux looks like egg yolk but is delicious and sugary.

Omar Najam 54:33

And then they changed the recipe. Yeah Well, we'll find out if there's questions about that, because now Delvin is going to give us three facts and we got to guess which one's true.

Delvan Neville 54:42

All right, so first up we have holy. Okay, so your three possible lies. One of these is true is holy is celebrated in all states in India except one, naga land. Okay, oh, during Lathmar, holy men in Vrindavan are beaten by women with sticks. Or the easiest way to make natural red hair, natural red color, during holy is using beats. Only one of these is true.

Sandeep Parikh 55:10

Only one is true. Oh okay, so it's two lies.

Delvan Neville 55:14

The other two are lies.

Sandeep Parikh 55:15

Got it Two lies and two lies yes. Okay, okay, I'm going to go. Hmm, interesting.

Omar Najam 55:25

Ladies, leave your men at home. I'm saying it's the true one is that the guys get hit with sticks.

Sandeep Parikh 55:32

So guys get with sticks beats for hair dye and then Just for red color, not for hair dye.

Delvan Neville 55:38

Yeah, red, just for red color for holy.

Sandeep Parikh 55:41

These beats huh? I don't think that's true.

Omar Najam 55:43

I think they use the red flower. If I remember correctly, Wow, I didn't know that you have the Martha Stewart of like holy powder.

Sandeep Parikh 55:52

Listen, I got the kids book and we read it all the time and they go to each flower what color it makes. And they said it's a biscuit makes red. Ok, and what was the? What was the sorry? What was the first one? It was like Nagaland, was it that? It was only?

Delvan Neville 56:07

celebrated? Yeah, the first one is that Holy is celebrated in all states in India except for one, Nagaland.

Sandeep Parikh 56:16

I'm going to go with. The beats Is a lie.

Delvan Neville 56:19

Right, We've got some beats and Omar is going beating Correct Beating Wait wait, wait.

Omar Najam 56:27

Sunday you're finding the truth oh.

Sandeep Parikh 56:30

I keep, geez, I keep forgetting Gosh. Ok, yeah, I want to. Can I pick the same thing, or am I allowed to?

Omar Najam 56:37

You can do whatever you want.

Indrani Ganguly 56:39

You can pick the same thing.

Sandeep Parikh 56:40

I'm going to pick the same thing. I think it's the stick beating.

Indrani Ganguly 56:43

Maybe, aspirational.

Delvan Neville 56:47

As it is, yes, yes, the correct answer is during last, more holy minute.

Sandeep Parikh 56:51

And we did it, joe, by women with sticks. Yes, also, I'm such a bad man like I didn't even know. It's not, I didn't even know Nagaland.

Delvan Neville 57:02

Point for. Both.

Sandeep Parikh 57:02

I really like that.

Omar Najam 57:04

You don't have to admit that.

Delvan Neville 57:07

I'm just going to be honest.

Omar Najam 57:08

You've got the point, you don't have to do this.

Sandeep Parikh 57:12

I just I'm like I'm looking up right now. Ok, it's in the like, it's in like the, the, the left arm of India, that's what I call it the one. That's like leaning on the on the motorcycle.

Omar Najam 57:22

Yeah, India always looks like. It's like hey, yeah, it's got like a cheek in its mouth. So that's guys.

Desi of the Week: Aswath Kaushik

Sandeep Parikh 57:29

And that is the first round of Holy Ramadan Batman. It's the Easter Bunny game. To hear the rest of the rounds and to find out who has to give the concession speech as the Easter Bunny, who's the loser? And I'm not going to give away who that is. I'll tell you this it's either me or Omar. So Then please join our Patreon to hear the rest. So jump on over to patreoncom. Slash F and funny. Join at any level, and that's going to give you access to the rest of this game. All right, Back to me. Good stuff. All right. Now it is time for our final segment of the episode, the Desi of the week.

Omar Najam 58:09

That's right. This week, for a day See the week we'll be honoring the eight year old who beat chest grandmaster and set a new world record. This is Ashwa Kashik.

Sandeep Parikh 58:20

Yes, eight years, six months and 11 days, this, this little genius, became the youngest player ever to defeat a grandmaster in a classical tournament game.

Omar Najam 58:31

That's right, and if you're saying that this is a Nebo baby case, you're wrong.

Delvan Neville 58:35

Neither parent is a chess player. What?

Omar Najam 58:38

In fact, ashwa's the rules of chess at age four, count it four, with a computer game called chess kid, and now spends up to seven hours a day on chess working with coaches. He first made a name for himself at six years old in 2022, by winning triple gold in the under six category of the Eastern Asian Youth Championship. It turns out there's a lot of strong chess players under the age of 10. Prodigies are getting younger and younger. In fact, experts say eight is the new 12.

Sandeep Parikh 59:11

Wow Eight is the new 12. Wild, wild. Ok. Ashwa's goals. What were his goals? Get his candidate master title this is his goals. Reach 2700 ranking by playing attacking chess and become the world champion. So that's, that's what he's after. I hope his goals also include like playing some kickball. I'm just I'm very happy for him.

Indrani Ganguly 59:42

Seven hours a day.

Sandeep Parikh 59:43

Like oh man, it's a lot of work for for Kido to be be turning on for chess.

Omar Najam 59:52

In all fairness, I watch about seven hours of Rick and Morty a day, so you know that's all kind of spend about seven hours on Instagram, so that's probably probably better I'll spend learning.

Sandeep Parikh 1:00:01

Learning opening moves. Congratulations to Ashwa. That's really, really awesome, I mean why? I mean it gives me some hope for humanity, right? Like we're all worried that maybe, like also our humans are getting smarter, like, is there a world in which that's happening? We're having like some sort of X-Men style evolutionary leap in these children and they're becoming little, you know, professor X's and geniuses.

Episode Wrap-Up

Omar Najam 1:00:33

Is that possible? Hey man, I'm telling you, eight is an incredible. Congratulations. You are the day C of the week and, folks, that is our show is always. If you want to see our lovely faces. All the VOD and other ways you can hang out with us are in the show notes. Can you do us a huge favor? Could you do me a personal favor? Could you please write and comment on this show, because it really really helps. Comment, suggestions and feedback can, of course, be sent to us on the FN Funny Discord or, if you want to use that old school email, abcdpodcastshow at gmailcom.

Sandeep Parikh 1:01:07

Yes, we want those emails. It's season two and we have still we haven't got an email. You guys, I think that was easy.

Indrani Ganguly 1:01:16

We have people are on discord, so that's something.

Sandeep Parikh 1:01:18

Well, we still haven't got an email, so here are things you can maybe send us, like some they see the week suggestions, beautiful. Sometimes we do a segment this versus that. You can send us ideas. And chai versus coffee, ketchup versus chutney, etc. These are, you know, other holidays where people tie their mothers up to their beds. It's just like whenever you got we're here for it, hit us up.

Omar Najam 1:01:43

Yes yes, yes, and folks, of course, we want to say a huge shout out and thank you to our Patreon supporters. In fact, we are now about to sing the songs of your name with this so the genre or style that was suggested for you is to read them baffled.

Delvan Neville 1:02:02

Read the names as if you cannot understand or believe what you are reading.

Sandeep Parikh 1:02:08

Oh my God, I love it, I love it. Okay, All right, take it away to the Shout out to our patrons Joshua, orion, tall BM, carl, carl, carl, oh, benjamin Lowe, miranda Hollinger.

Omar Najam 1:02:27

Michael Long Raylin. That can't be right. Fox Selena, not a, not C be nervous Rex.

Sandeep Parikh 1:02:40

Sarah, sarah, what? Omar Sarah H Deca Catepollate, varun Moldivore, are these even? Are you even read?

Omar Najam 1:02:49

I'm stuck on Catlin's Lego. I'm stuck on Ducati.

Sandeep Parikh 1:02:54

Yeah, okay, you're stuck. I mean, I don't even think Reverend Contino are that makes sense. I don't think that's a. Those are syllables that make up thing. Prenn and pace, monroe, maxwell, Jeremy Schwartz, han Sol, solso.

Omar Najam 1:03:08

No. 8 bit D, 8 bit. I saw 8 bit D in concert in 1997. That doesn't make any sense. Chris Sims, I went to school with Chris.

Indrani Ganguly 1:03:16

Sims, what do you?

Omar Najam 1:03:17

mean that that's the name of the person who lives next to me is kid Dan Wally. I, but I thought we found Dan Wally.

Sandeep Parikh 1:03:25

Christina Romero is an anagram for my heart, my heart's true love. Jack is just a first name. Danny's Corner Fiche Legion 240 set. What is even happening right now? I'm a beautiful minding.

Omar Najam 1:03:43

Hold on.

Sandeep Parikh 1:03:44

Wait a second Wait a second.

Omar Najam 1:03:47

I'm holding up the letter to the flame and letters are appearing Jeremy O'Brien, written in the invisible ink, followed by Astra on the Declaration of Independence. I've got Brandon Bradley over here.

Sandeep Parikh 1:03:57

Oh my gosh, I think if I say these names fast, three times fast, and to a mirror, everything's going to flop. Troubles and flap tracks. Troubles and flap tracks. No, I didn't do anything. Vaid and death, queen Vax, delvin, nellville, nellville that's what it's written here.

Omar Najam 1:04:16

I'll tell you what. We definitely nailed the tone on that last one.

Indrani Ganguly 1:04:22

That's my favorite.

Delvan Neville 1:04:24

Miss Fel, we got it in the end. Folks, we got it. Okay, listen.

Show Credits and Farewell Statement

Sandeep Parikh 1:04:29

All right, you goofs For those in the live chat. Thanks for hanging out. Like we said, if you are on the Patreon, if you want to join the Patreon, we're going to drop Indrani's full episode, a full interview, on that, so please check that out. As always, this show is produced by Anansha and Kayla Mahoney. The show's technical director and sound designer is Delvin Neville, the show's executive.

Indrani Ganguly 1:04:52

So totally different person I'm just saying that they're two different people, that's all.

Sandeep Parikh 1:04:55

I'm saying yeah, I don't know what Delvin Elville is. The show's executive producers are me and Anansha. Edited by Sean Mayer. Music by Herschel Sassodia I said his name wrong again. That's so amazing. Edited by Sean Mahr. Music by Herschel Sassodia, jasser Singh and Mullet Zavari. This has been an F and BUDDY production. We did it, you guys.

Omar Najam 1:05:18

On behalf of our co-host, sundi Parikh. I've been your host, omar Najam, until my concession speech as the buddy. May your checkers be aligned and smothered in chutney. Let's go.