September 6, 2023 • 38 mins
Join us as we explore, the latest and the oldest controversies of not just India but other nations as well. Bizarre cases against McDonald's and much moreover. Watch everything under the sun getting sued. Law College chronicles and misadventures of Gourav Mohanty, a writer, lawyer, and standup comic.
00:00 Intro
0:36 Combination of law, stand up comedy and author
1:58 Thought about being an author
4:25 Childhood reading adventures
5:36 Author who inspired Gaurav to write
6:21 Plot of his book – SONS OF DARKENESS
7:58 Perceptions about ancient India and role of Britishers
12:56 College life fun
14:50 Adventures, risks and fear of getting caught
17:31 Thoughts on Shiv shakti point controversy
20:46 Are minorities given more importance ? – About Narcissism of minor differences
25:30 Democracy – best structure of Govt ?
27:44 Dictatorship of Indira Gandhi
29:15 McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit case
32:06 Man's case against budweiser
33:43 Burdens of court
35:00 Leonard v/S Pepsico case
36:28 FUN SEGMENT
(The Astrix Show - Season 2, Episode 19)
Episode hosted by: Shruti Sinha
Idea and creative by: Shruti Sinha
Edited by: Siddhant Tripathi
Graphics by: Arindam Panigrahi
Show Notes by: Shruti Sinha and Isha Choudhury
Crew: Arindam Panigrahi
Location Courtesy: The Space, Patia
Produced by: Siddhant Tripathi
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello everyone, welcome to the Aztec show.
I am your very own host Shruti Sinha and today with us we have
Gaurav Manti who is a writer stand up comic and an author.
(00:20):
Hello bhaiya. Hi, please just call me Gaurav.
It's perfectly fine. Thank you so much for having me
here. I'm really looking forward to
this on this. My pleasure is on that.
So I'm going to introduce the first question that comes to my
mind is first law, then standardof Congregate and then author.
So what exactly are you trying to do?
(00:43):
I think I always had this whole.The Leonardo da Vinci fantasy in
my head that I wanted to try every venture that I could.
I remember when I was a kid on my room door I had there are
these stick ONS where you could paste, so I had to put a stick
on that. Dr. Gaurav Mohanty, ACP
Director, MBA, FIC, CAC. All the degrees that I knew at
(01:05):
that point of time, I'd pasted them.
And I think that was a latent desire to always sample
different things because you don't know which coffee flavor
is your favorite unless you havetried everything.
Yeah. So I think that was always there
at the back of my head. But in my final year, I was very
fortunate that I got a job very early on, like on day zero.
But the first day of your fifth year and how law school works is
the last year is always scheduled for your internships,
(01:26):
which luckily I didn't have to do anymore.
I had a lot of time in my hand, and I'm a productivity mean.
I need to make sure that the r'sand the seconds that pass by
count we can see that. Thank you.
So I think that's where the whole writing journey started.
I thought, OK, the Indian journal is missing something,
which is the favorite journal that I like to lose myself in.
So I thought, why not try something and never had a
(01:48):
thought that this is going to turn into like a full-fledged
book. I just wrote a chapter that
metamorphosed over time and became this Fans of Darkness
here. So you ever had this thinking?
I want to write a book and it has to be something like this or
something about. I think I never thought of
writing a book per se. I mean, I think all of us at
(02:10):
some point of time think that our life is becoming too
dramatic. Like Jeet from Jab We Met the
Coffee. Interesting.
Oh yeah, Book the like, let's say a cube.
Sorry. Yeah, it's from Jab We Met and
it's too much excitement. And this needs to be like part
of some autobiography that will be very exciting for viewers to
see. Is it some kind of no?
No, it's not. It's not metaphoric.
No, not at all. I mean, as a writer, I mean,
(02:30):
like, I think there's a quote which goes in that when a
Kalakar is putting the best of himself or herself or themselves
in a role, they split their personality and put different
parts in different roles that they enact.
I think as the same goes for thewriter, since I have multiple
characters that I'm writing, I kind of have.
Practices whole multiple personality disorder where I'm
(02:52):
like a serial killer was different versions and different
faces. And whenever I was writing from
the perspective of 1 character, I used to step into their shoes
so that my responses to situations that as a writer I
came up with. Let's see if there's a situation
and what would react as. Is not the same thing with Shaku
Nude Reactor because his experiences, his live journey is
very different. So I think that multiple
(03:15):
disorder serial killer trick really helped me canvas the
multiple character that are there in this book.
So, but to come back to your original questions, I mean, we
are going to keep diverting whenwe absolutely keep asking these
questions. But I never believed or
envisioned that I'd finish this book because it took me 4 years
(03:35):
to write this book. And cuz I was balancing this
with my law firm job which is 9:50 because this.
While I was working, yes. So it was just a world that I
used to escape to because as a lawyer your life is very black
and white. So this kind of added some color
to it. So when I used to come back it
was and it was like I was Thanosclicking my thumb and
reimagining an entire universe. So but once I started reaching
(04:00):
the final chapter that could see, OK, wait, there is
something here. It might just work.
And when I submitted the book topublishers, they kind of gave
the validation that, hey, this will sell.
So I think that's when I realized, OK, maybe I could be
an Orth. So were you an avid reader from
the very childhood? Because you seemed like a very
(04:20):
vibrant personality and your choreograph is also very
versatile. So were you avid reader or any
author that inspired you to write this?
OK, just two questions. Was that I would read it
absolutely. I think my mother played a big
part in inculcating that habit from the very beginning that we
used to have this tradition where she used to and I was in
(04:41):
Balasore then. So she used to buy Amatitra Kata
books which were these comics onIndian mythology and something
in. Ghana.
So she used to bring them, and she used to make sure that I
will read only one per week so that I don't exhaust all of them
in one day. And I remember when she Her
afternoon naps are very important and nobody could ever,
ever mess with my mother's afternoon nap.
So when she used to be sleeping,I used to just quickly go to the
(05:02):
drawing room, figure out where the locker is, where she just
kept all these books, and just consume all the books in one
way. So I think that's where the
reading habit started. And I remember stealing into her
library and picking up books which I was not supposed to pick
up on. Like I picked up Sidney Sheldon,
Tell Me Your Dreams, Which was way beyond my age at that point
of time to read, because I was probably in standard two or
(05:25):
standard 3. The whole idea of murder and
serial killing or something, which I had no idea.
But when I read those books, it was such a beautiful journey
that the book took me through that I knew that I'm gonna be a
reader for life. Now, as to which author inspired
me to write, it has to be GeorgeRR Martin.
He's like my. De facto Acharya Drona.
You know, I don't know if anyoneremember the story of Eklavia,
(05:48):
the idea that Dronacharya refused to teach him.
So Eklavia practiced archery by creating a mold of Dronacharya
and just practicing thinking, what could Dronacharya tell him?
You know, obviously I haven't met daughter or not in real
life. If I do, I'll pass out.
But I think he was the North Star which guided me in writing
the book that I wanted to read because.
(06:11):
A Song of Ice and Fire, of whichI mean, which is popularly known
as Game of Thrones. Yeah, what?
The series has inspired me to write a similar kind of book in
an Indian setting. So what exactly is the plot of
this book? You don't have to give it all
over, but it's. So sons of darkness is a dark re
imagination of this ancient epicfrom the Mahabharata.
(06:36):
So Mahabharata has been recited.In a narrative style of
historical chapters, OK, this happened.
This happened. This happened.
What I wanted to do was I wantedto step into the shoes of
characters who are traditionallyperceived as evil because no one
ever thinks that they're a hero or villain in their story,
because everyone thinks they areright.
(06:56):
For some person, you might be a terrorist.
For another person, you might bea freedom fighter, right?
And I love that concept. I think it was since I started
watching gang the Wasipur. I really like the one of.
My favorite anti hero culture. Yeah, and I think we all are
anti heroes in our own kind. Like there is goodness in us,
and there are also places where we have done actions which we
think are great, but for the world of the society or your
(07:18):
friends or your family, Some people, it's wrong.
It might not be the greatest thing which you've done, so I
wanted to approach it from that perspective because so far what
had happened was Indian books, especially dealing with
mythology. We're going along this whole
Gandhian line of, you know, black versus white.
Yeah. And I wanted 50 Shades of grey.
So I took out these characters who I thought had very
(07:39):
interesting facets to them and kind of put them in a reimagined
ancient Indian world. See, what has happened is, and
I'm sorry, this is Bhubaneswar weather playing, misbehaving
with my foreign. But what has happened is because
of colonialism, there has been this.
Perception of ancient India in our myths as a place that is
(08:02):
stuck in the age of wheel huts, snake charmers.
Yeah, the land of Snake. Charms.
That's been this whole racist colonial perspective that has
always looked at India. When you look at Greek
mythology, whenever they're imagining Zeus or Poseidon, not
all the Greek gods, it's just totally glorified all over the.
World not just in very sticks, back and palaces and forts.
(08:25):
And I don't know. Like we have come up with
amazing concepts that Pharaon authors around the world are
using to make their own movies and franchise.
For example, Matrix is this amazing movie and the entire
concert of Matrix has been picked up from the concert of
Maya in Vedic philosophy. Or we don't even have to go that
far. Let's talk about Interstellar.
(08:46):
OK, Christopher Nolan's movie where Matthew McConaughey was
stuck in this planet called Miller's Planet.
Where? One hour spent there was equal
to 10 years back on Earth. Yeah, that is something which
was amazing to the Ferrans and everyone.
Wow, what a beautiful concept. Gravity is working at an amazing
level. But ancient Indians had thought
(09:07):
of this moving back centuries ago, and they had put this in
form of a story where a warrior had gone and was fighting for
Indra. And once the war is over, Indra
tells him I'm sorry. You fought well for us, but one
day that you've spent here is equal to 100 years back there,
so your entire family, your entire Kingdom is all gone.
So it's amazing that we have thought of this concept way back
(09:27):
and we have not shown it to the world, or profited out of it, or
shown how glorious an ancient text a lot of it was, you know,
inunded away when the Britisherscame to India.
Correct. I think because when they came,
they started treating. So see they colonized half the
world. I mean it's the truth.
And they kind of became the deciders or arbitrators of what
(09:50):
is cool and what is not. And from that perspective they
decided that Greek classics be in the Iliad or the ODC.
They are high literature and they will be taught in Oxford
and Eton and all their. Ivy Colleges and Ivy is
obviously an American concept, but basically the top premier
colleges in UK. But when it came to indie
(10:10):
literature they started. Since they could not understand
the Sanskrit language, lost in translation and whatnot, they
reduced it to Hiddens. They thought of it as third year
literature because they couldn'tdecipher what was written and
everything. They look down upon our
exaggerated. So because of that, they were
very happy in burning a lot of vortex and they give the same
(10:30):
treatment to the Chinese. Mythology as well.
Like there's an episode called as the Burning of the pecking
palace where they destroyed 1000year old manuscripts because
they didn't care about it, because they couldn't understand
it. What you don't understand, you
fear or you disdain. So I think they went along those
lines and because of so many years of their subjugation, it
kind of entered our the psyche of national consciousness that
(10:53):
OK. You know, yes, Ma Bharati is
awesome. Yes, Ramayan is awesome.
But you know we will not deal with the magical aspects of it
because no, it shows as if it's stupid.
Yeah, you know, even Amish is immortal to Meluha, which is
such a beautiful book and also is Ramachandra.
Correct all of those books and amazing stuff, but that book has
tried to introduce a kind of science to justify certain
(11:17):
aspects of the past which was considered magic.
Like, for example, Mahabharata has astras, which are these
weapons that you fire, which carry nuclear power.
But what he does is he does. He says, no, it's not that.
It's just a simple arrow, which is great.
It's one way of telling the story.
But I've always believed that magic is nothing but unexplained
science. You know, like if you ask our
(11:39):
grandparents if they could ever imagine a car that drives on its
own, they will think that we're talking for them.
Tesla would be magic. I'm so sorry.
And. So I guess from that perspective
I wanted to build on that magic.So in Suns of Darkness, there's
an entire system where this Assassin's apprentice is
learning how to kill and murder people using yoga, chakras, and
(12:00):
mandaras. I don't know if you've heard of
the anime cartoon called Naruto,which.
There's a lot of concert chakrasthere where he invokes them and
he's able to ascend to a super level of power.
That is completely the origin story of that lies in Indian
philosophy where you have 7 chakras in our body.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Thank you.
(12:22):
So when you meditate and do penance, you can raise that
Kunderini snake and it goes around your chakras until you
treated the crown chakra and then you ascend to a superior
level. And that's amazing.
So I want to use this to create this entire magic system so that
India. Has its own Vestros or Hogwarts
or Narnia, so that's the whole idea.
With something about coming backto the fun part, Yeah, I just
(12:45):
wanted to ask Keir, Obviously college may and there is a lot
of pressure, especially local, but still, somehow we managed to
have a lot of fun here. So anything you want to share
about your college that was fun?A little mysterious kind of.
I mean, I spent half of my nights wasted completely in bars
and whatnot, So I was a very regular writer.
(13:07):
Is always a sort of, you know, fools in melancholy.
Yeah, somehow I didn't fit that writer cliche.
I was very to put it in the bestI was possible.
I was someone from the SlytherinHouse and how good looking like
I was. I really enjoyed having a great
time and I knew that somehow I was always aware that college
life is a very limited time period that you have to make the
(13:30):
most out of. Free and unburdened time, right?
So, you know, planning to go traveling outside, backpacking,
trekking, going to party, even just like having a great time
with your friends. I think that was a very
important thing for me, especially in the last two years
of law school. I remember we used to maintain
something called record of attendance.
It's a WhatsApp group, which I have.
(13:50):
I still have it actually. So it's a group which our
friends made just so that. See what happens is when days
are passing and if you're not recording it.
They all get blurred in your memory.
Yeah. And remember So what we did that
we started noting down like if on a day we have gone somewhere
out and had a great time out, there's been a great memory We
used to noted down. Now what happened I had two
effects. One, obviously that it got
(14:10):
preserved like as if it's a journal or diary of our group.
But most importantly, the days we did not fill anything, it
kind of gave us a feeling, hey, one second we didn't meet.
We're letting days pass by without actually doing
something. Exactly.
So I think that kind of really made sure that.
We utilized each and every day of our college life and as we
could and just chill and just had a great time.
(14:33):
So okay, So like any specific event that you did like, I came
here telling my mother that I have tuitions and I'm going to
the tuitions, but actually I came here, right?
So anything of that. I'm glad you're confessing with
some camera when going somethingvery risky, something risky like
this where there is a fear of. Yeah, if you are getting caught,
(14:54):
yeah, I love that fear of getting caught.
But I'm just wondering what all can I tell on camera and what I
can't tell on camera? Because whatever I'm getting
right now is completely something NSFW, which you can't
tell on camera. Yeah, like 1000 things of my
entire diary can be called, My Autobiography, can be called
NSFW. So I'm just figuring out what I
can say, which does not actually.
This is the fun story. I remember I went to Kashmir
(15:15):
with my friend and this was actually.
And when we reached Kashmir, it became actually a troublesome
period there because. There was all stone pelting
going on, army vehicles and whatnot.
So when we came, we went to a tracking point and then we
returned. They had blocked the traffic.
They said that we have to wait for 12 hours and then we can go
(15:35):
to a resort. And our tracking result was
literally 15 minutes away from there.
And we tried to convince them, but I understand obviously they
could not let them pass because there was a danger that vehicles
would be pelted at, but obviously Hamsani ticket.
So my friend and I, the driver, told us the locals are allowed
to go, not tourists. So the local driver told us K
Aapnan Niche is a chale jao cross the like a River
(15:57):
checkpoint and come up OK and like idiot OK, we thought this
is a great idea. Okay, this will be like a memory
to like live on so the adventures of God of Monty.
Yeah. Then it started and we decided
to go, you know, and not realizing that if someone
supports us, we'll be shot down by the Indian Army.
And it's not going to be the most glorious, That ticket
(16:18):
Pakistani army shoots, at least,you know, will be brought down
back to our home with honors andprobably an Indian flag, Indian
army, Aha. Then, so I remember we went
there and the car finally like comes across the checkpoint and
we're supposed to cross over there.
Now we are waiting and we can't see the car and we're freaking
out. I have the idea let's capture
(16:38):
this memory. So I turn around.
I thought we'll take a picture. So I took a picture of my
friend. She said what are you doing?
I just want picture just to capture this memory.
And I click the picture, The flash was on shit, OK?
And it flashed and suddenly there was moved.
I was like, fuck. And then we ran down again and
we crossed to when the car was alittle ahead.
And we just got into it and we just like really thought that
(16:58):
the cop, the army is gonna come at any point of time.
And this caught us and I don't know, put us in camps or
something. But we survived very life
threatening adventure. Yeah.
So that's definitely something where the fear of getting caught
was more like fear of getting out of life.
So, yeah, so I wanted to ask this very controversial question
(17:19):
which is in the media and nowadays it's about the Shiv
Shakti point that marks the point where the Chandrayaan
trees land are successfully landed on the Luna surface,
right. So India being a secular
country, naming it Shiv Shakti is very, you know, people are
creating a lot of controversy surrounding it.
What are your thoughts on it? So India secularism as the
(17:43):
constitution makers envisaged it, is something that means the
respect of all religions rather than.
Let me compare it with Francis secularism concept which means
absence of any religion, right. So we our idea has always been
that each religion needs to be respected rather than be ignored
and you know as if we proceed asthey do not exist.
(18:05):
So the idea that a point was named Shiv Shakti in isolation
to me it does not look wrong because I mean it's not that it
is a Hinduism related concept because the whole idea of
Shaivism and Shakti. Which refers to the masculine
energy in a person and the feminine energy in every person
is a yogic philosophy which predates even the rise of it is
(18:29):
right from the Harbin civilization.
These concepts have existed but we can't look at things in
isolation because this is real life and given the rise of right
wing fundamentalism which has kind of plagued the country.
I think this was an opportunity for the government to kind of
dispel such criticism by naming it something which could
probably maybe if they call it agood point.
(18:51):
For example, that would have really gone a long way in
cleaning up India's image, whichhas been tarnished recently
because of the attacks on minority and so on and so forth
so. But then again, when I look back
and let's look at the missile testing center, which is an OSR,
right, which is right on the coast of which used to be called
(19:14):
Wheeler Island, but now it is called Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam
Island, which is a Muslim name, right.
So if you look at the nobody, it's a piece of them, correct?
Correct, but it's still. A Muslim name?
Yeah. So in that sense, could we have
taken a bridge at the fact that?One second, why is this an
Islamic thing? So the fact that scientific
(19:35):
names or points are named. We the religion, it itself is
not an issue unless it's being done singularly just to glorify
one religion, right? I think the fact that this is
the is awesome, and if we again land at noon, I wish we'd name
it something different so that that kind of shows neutral.
(19:56):
Correct. I think recently, just probably
yesterday or day before yesterday the the four racers
who kind of broke. Records by being one of the
first Indian teams to break intothe whole men's relay race and
they each went. Each of those runners in that
relay race were of different religion.
And I think that shows the beauty of India that each of
(20:16):
them belong to a different religion and they all
participated together and correct.
So because of each individual effort we won.
I think that's something which India is, that's what India's
secularism stands for. So naming it Shivshakti itself
is not an issue, but if that becomes a singular thing that we
need everything this way, which only panders to one religion, I
(20:39):
think that's a dark thought which would unsettle me.
Another question, don't you think that the minority religion
is given a way more importance than the majority religion?
I mean people when they like keeping the religion aside.
(21:00):
Aren't we all humans? I mean, I understand the concept
of unity and diversity, but it is not very much practiced here.
So what are your viewpoints of that?
So there's actually psychological concept called
narcissism of minor differences.What does this mean?
It means that when people look alike, behave alike, eat alike,
they get very obsessed with every tiny difference that
(21:22):
differentiates both of them and they start obsessing over to
such an extent that it becomes abig point of contention.
Now let's say if there were Germans staying amongst us or if
there were people from Australiaor Africa, right, the point of
dissension would be very less because we are completely carved
out in the way we look, in the way we eat, in the way we are.
(21:43):
But when you look at Indians, wehave, we are all S Asians at the
end of the day. That's our origin point.
We look very similar. We are very similar.
So what happens is there is thistiny part in our brain that kind
of really aggravates these differences and turns it very
violent. So it starts from a very small
thing where you can see it in very innocent examples where I'm
(22:05):
an ICT student and I will say, hey, CBSE students, you know can
do. They know this concept of CBS
system to correct ICC students. So Bhubanesha people will look
down on other people, other people will look down on
Bhubanesha people. Then eastern Orissa will look
down on western Orissa. ODESA will look at every level
in the high structure. Huge regional differences and
(22:27):
correct people make fun of the other states as well.
The other culture as well, yeah.So if it's done in a humorous
sense, which does not is not malicious in nature, it's fine.
I think there's a sort of sense of humor which we should all
interpret. Anyone correct?
Correct. But.
But The thing is when it comes to the question which you had
(22:48):
asked, like there have been so many issues between religions
and whatnot. I think they have always
existed. But what has happened because of
Twitter, because and because of social media?
Why am I singing on Twitter? Suddenly each and every one of
us has a voice, right? Only everyone was scared to
voice out their opinions becausesomewhere in the back of their
head they knew that this might be wrong or this might not be
(23:08):
accepted by the society as a problem.
By the society, Correct. But now what happens?
A bunch of periods speak out on Twitter and they find this echo
chamber right where suddenly their view is being resonated
and equal. If one person says something
then correct. I need 2-3 people, support them
and then it just grows, right? So now their views are getting
amplified and validated. So they think this is great.
(23:28):
So very violent, aggressive views against different
religions. Doesn't have to be minority,
minority against majority, religion against religion, state
against state. These viewers which are so toxic
in nature are being celebrated in those echo chambers.
So they're not able to know thatthis is wrong and I think that
is the dark side of social media, the.
Validation that they can see, right.
(23:50):
Yeah, that is so you don't realize that.
OK, one second. What voices you're amplifying,
you're just making you're basically heard of jackals, you
know, as compared to. But in their head they're
thinking they're alliance, right.
Right. So it's a perception different,
OK. This is my perception.
They might think what views I'm espousing with my group of
people and my friends and whatnot might be something
(24:12):
similar, right. But I think the whole idea, and
I think this is a situation which is not playing India
itself, it's playing the United States, UK everywhere.
The dissension lines have grown very strict and defined because
of the fault lines that social media has created.
Because as I said, each and every one of us has a voice
right now and there is no filteron it.
(24:32):
We're not applying filters to what we want to say.
I think that will change only asa whole mass movement where we
kind of attach this filter saying that if I'm not able to
say what I want to say to the person on their face, I should
not say it on Twitter. I think that's the one thing
which you kind of. It's a very common like concept
(24:55):
like. Haha, exactly.
So we don't want to be keyboard warriors.
If you can actually say it out in front of the person, that
means you should be able to say it on wherever you want as well.
But if you're hiding from that, if you can't do that and I think
that means there is something wrong in that thought which you
know but you are kind of see every man, every human being has
(25:15):
an animal on the inside doctor Jack and Doctor Hyde concept.
So I think we need to kind of make sure that we we're human
beings, the reason we have conquered over the other species
in human beings in the animal Kingdom days because of our
superior intelligence. It's time we use it.
Do you think democracy is the best structure of government?
(25:35):
Because we can say in Germany when Hitler came there was
dictatorship and. Germany was facing a lot of
economic problems in the background, but when Hitler
came, it kind of, it kind of sorted the problems.
I'm not telling that he was a hero, but I hope you want.
(25:57):
I have not, but he under him, the Volkswagen company, it
opened the car. So I think him being a very
violent personality is keeping that aside.
He was very much dedicated towards his country.
What I feel he just wanted to make Germany a established
(26:19):
country in the world. See, I think personally what my
opinion is that when I look at world leaders, most of them, I
don't feel that they are driven as much by the patriotic zeal as
they show outwardly. It is more about what they look
at, what they can mobilize, whatthey can capture on.
(26:39):
Now if you look at Hitler's background, he captured on the
humiliation which Germany received at the end of World War
One. But there were a lot of
restrictions imposed in Germany which completely crippled the
economy. And that's why there was a lot
of resentment amongst the Germanpeople which Hitler abused and
misused and rose to power. And when he rose to power, he
rose at the cost of the big community of Jews who were very
(27:02):
rich, by the way, you know, So if you are saying the German
economy developed, we might haveto look at whether it was fox
wagon which really improved or did the funds come from the
families of people who were looted, right.
So I don't think we can take that unidirectional approach.
But coming to your original question as to which form of
government is best, I think it every form of government has its
(27:24):
perks and corns obviously, but I'm talking about India.
I think this form of pseudo democracy that we do have is the
least worst of all options, you know, because we can see that if
tyranny is allowed to come in, How?
But it is not like India has notseen dictator ship.
(27:45):
Indira Gandhi was a dictator andshe enforced Emergency.
And in a lot of ways she also did a fantastic job at different
aspects. But Indira Gandhi is a live
example of how absolute power corrupts absolutely.
You know, because like using theabsolute majority that she had
in the Parliament, she brought about amazing laws, she
(28:07):
abolished princely tributes, which we were paying to all the
kings and former Rajas and former kings.
And decided to move correct abolition of pretty person.
So that was a great act. But then again, we saw.
Also the war with Bangladesh, correct.
You know, she did an amazing jobin making sure which gave us a
lot of strategic advantage, whether we Pakistan and
Bangladesh. But we also see that and that
(28:30):
power which she used so well, she did not.
She completely misused it when it came to press freedom, right.
So when you look at that dark period in Indian history and
also the dark period towards which we are slowly inching, it
kind of shows that absolute power at the center is not
something which is great for ourcountry.
(28:50):
I think. I know we have a flawed
democracy, but. Every democracy is flawed,
correct? It has some merits and sound
demerits, right? Yeah.
Democracy is flawed. Yeah, Yeah, So democracy is
flawed. That's it.
Coming through your no background.
Yeah. OK, so there is this.
There are a few cases I would like to discuss.
One of them is some bizarre cases around the world.
(29:14):
One of them is the McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit.
Basically a woman she sued. McDonald's because the coffee
temperature which she was servedwas between 180 degree to 190
degree and she got third degree burns when she sprayed it on her
lap and around 6% of her body was covered when discussed and
(29:35):
the general temperature is 140 to one 1:30 to 1:30.
They saw the coffee very hot, right?
Compared to what they should have said, yeah.
Yes, so. We even discussed the what the
verdict was. But what do you think?
According to you, should the verdict have been see the if you
were the judge? If I were the judge, OK, see us
(29:58):
is a very different example fromwhat Indian law is.
Because each state has a different law.
And like India which has one common law system and the same
law will apply, in Mumbai the same law will apply and we
measure, we don't have a similarsystem.
So we should depending on the law, the judge will have to
bring that into account. The second thing that you ever
take into consideration is that when US is called with a land of
(30:18):
opportunity, the side meaning ofthat is it is also a land of
lawsuits because you can sue theperson for anything and
everything under the sun. Now when it comes to this
particular aspect, when the coffee was so way hotter than
what is prescribed, yes, there is negligence involved, right.
So if I were a judge, I would see the attending circumstances
(30:41):
like was this something which the user would have known This
is the temperature which I'm served and it fell and does she
suffer actually any injury or isthis a mischievous lawsuit?
If she actually suffered third degree burns or second degree
burns because of the hot coffee,then she should be compensated.
Because if Starbucks or McDonald's has not been
following the standard guidelines, so obviously they're
(31:01):
required to, because it's a whole concert of product
liability where whenever you're manufacturing a product, any
consequences from using it, especially when you're not
adhere to what you say that you're adhering to, I think you
should be held liable to us on the next.
I think this is also common sense.
You should not keep such a hot cup of coffee on your lap while
driving a car. This is correct.
(31:23):
I agree with that. But let's if you're looking at
strictly from a taught perspective, and I think I'm
deep dive too much into law in this one, so I'll keep it
simple. Yes, she kept it.
But there's a reasonable assumption in her that even if
it falls, it won't burn her because no matter how hot it is,
it will be the hottest under theprescribed temperature.
But clearly this was I think, 30or 40 degrees more.
(31:44):
Yeah, which is a lot. So I can imagine that Burn she
must have suffered would have led her to file that lawsuit.
So. So now on this was given that.
It was 20% tall mistake and yet she was given compensation for
the 30K points. I'm glad that the judge and I
are on the same page. Pretty one saved a man sold bird
(32:07):
visa for visa. I guess bird visor for failing
to help him attract beautiful women, right?
So basically the people in America we know, they're very
infamous for drinking a lot. So this person saw this
commercial on TV? Where a lot of women conscious
flirtious women were involved and every company does that okay
(32:31):
to amplify their ads and everything.
So he thought that if I consume a lot of this beer, I will also
attract a lot of women. And in the the the the court
obviously dismissed his case. But why don't you have that?
I mean if this were allowed, anyone was using axe perfume in
(32:51):
India or will definitely go up to the courts.
All are perfume, others it's. Not that dumb, to be honest.
Yeah, I mean, OK, but if I were that, I'd obviously dismiss it
because I mean no reasonable person, sticky, speaking from a
legal perspective, can be expected that this is a genuine
ad that suddenly if you put perfumes, 2530 girls will start
running after you. I think it's ridiculous.
(33:13):
So yeah, I've dismissed it, but I'll have fun with it at least.
You know, I'll definitely talk to worldwide a little saying
that. What is this?
How are you backing up your claim?
Why are you putting the same ads?
Also, objectification of So I think the weak companies are not
making sure that this is like stupid people don't really go
after this. There's always this footnote in
all these ads, which are basically disclaimers.
Yeah. So I think it's very important
(33:34):
for companies to use it. But seeing it from a very
serious perspective, don't you think the quote already has so
many cases which are. Untouched and everything.
Even India has this issue of black justice that justice is
given. But justice delayed is justice
denied, right? So isn't this burdening the
court with much more stupider cases, which is just not see one
(33:59):
man's stupid, is another man's injustice OK?
Because we don't know. We can't be the arbiter of what
is wrong and what is right. Now when you're comparing these
kind of matters, this you won't find in India because obviously
the courts are so burden. It takes 10 years for a case to
solve. US does not have the same
problem there. The disputes get sorted out very
fast and the appellate mechanismis very stringent as in you
(34:21):
can't go High Court, Supreme Court very easily the way you
can do it in India, right. Right.
So matters get sorted out at a very ground level.
So from the burden perspective, US doesn't really have that much
of a problem when it comes to this.
So they have. That's why they have a lot of
stupid lawsuits. But the court cannot exercise
the discretion at the very outset that I think this is
stupid. It should not even come.
(34:42):
It will dismiss it at the very first time when it hears it.
But it has to give that opportunity because it is true
that justice denied. It's just as denied for another
proverb that says justice shouldnot only be done, but should
appear to be done so. OK.
Another last case is of Leonard versus Pepsi Coke.
OK, where in nine? Like how this turning into like
(35:03):
a mini trash course unlock hell.In 1999, Pepsi ran an
advertisement in USA showing a teenager having like 70,00,000
Pepsi points and 70,00,000 Pepsipoints will give you a fight on
jet kind of thing. So one person.
(35:25):
Got 70 points, 70,00,000 points and everything but fighter jet
was denied to him right okay. So he went to the court and said
that this is the breach of contract, right?
I mean, can you blame the boy for daring to dream, right?
So actually, at least this is the case or something I know
about, because this came on Netflix as well.
And very interestingly, Pepsi had offered him $70,000 to walk
(35:49):
away, but the adults around him told him to go on with the suit.
And ultimately the judge ruled that this is absolutely
ridiculous. The guy who was there in the
lawsuit in the ad can't even be expected to drive a car, let
alone a fighter jet. So no reasonable person could
have anticipated that this was aserious offer, right?
So it's true that this happened,but you know, kudos to that boy.
(36:10):
Clearly he got a lot out of it, the Netflix show. 21 years ago.
So I mean at 21 we are all concerned about law school and
what are the next assignment. And this guy is clearly dreaming
big, so cheers to his ambition. So coming to the last segment,
this is a fun segment where? I will tell you a question and
(36:31):
ask you a question so where you have to answer anything
spontaneously that comes to yourmind like a coffee with Curran
rapid fire, then I want to assume a very aggressive.
There is no winning or losing. You one ready?
10 Right now there's a lot of performance pleasure to be in
victory. OK, So what do you want for your
birthday? A teleporter.
(36:52):
What's the worst combination with thumbs up Mango juice?
Anyone smell good ever to you? I have never smelt oh.
Why do you think Sindand is juststupidest person in this room?
He talks while I'm answering. Do you think Gandhi is stupider
than siddhant? No Sons of Darkness in Hindi.
Wow, I'm very cute. But Oh yeah, that's not at.
(37:13):
All Where do you find the hottest in this room?
What's your girlfriend doing right now?
I hope finding a way to be because I have man.
OK. Do you like this podcast?
Yeah, it's lovely. How many X's your X had?
How many times you're farted today?
Zero. OK.
OK. Or there's any questions?
(37:34):
Oh, OK. Wow, I hope that one.
Did anyway. Yeah, yeah.
Thank you. Sorry Sadanth, I had to answer
impromptu. So why?
I had no idea what asked questions about.
He is getting roasted everywhereOK, especially on Watson by me.
So apology that was I called it the hottest person in the room.
By the way, this was no impromptu answer that came
straight off my head. Thank God I.
(37:58):
Was so thank you for doing this podcast with us.
It was a pleasure meeting you. Absolutely.
It was a pleasure having this question.
So thank you for asking them. So like share and subscribe to
the channel. See you next day.
Bye.
Hello everyone, welcome to the Aztec show.
I am your very own host Shruti Sinha and today with us we have
Gaurav Manti who is a writer stand up comic and an author.
(00:20):
Hello bhaiya. Hi, please just call me Gaurav.
It's perfectly fine. Thank you so much for having me
here. I'm really looking forward to
this on this. My pleasure is on that.
So I'm going to introduce the first question that comes to my
mind is first law, then standardof Congregate and then author.
So what exactly are you trying to do?
(00:43):
I think I always had this whole.The Leonardo da Vinci fantasy in
my head that I wanted to try every venture that I could.
I remember when I was a kid on my room door I had there are
these stick ONS where you could paste, so I had to put a stick
on that. Dr. Gaurav Mohanty, ACP
Director, MBA, FIC, CAC. All the degrees that I knew at
(01:05):
that point of time, I'd pasted them.
And I think that was a latent desire to always sample
different things because you don't know which coffee flavor
is your favorite unless you havetried everything.
Yeah. So I think that was always there
at the back of my head. But in my final year, I was very
fortunate that I got a job very early on, like on day zero.
But the first day of your fifth year and how law school works is
the last year is always scheduled for your internships,
(01:26):
which luckily I didn't have to do anymore.
I had a lot of time in my hand, and I'm a productivity mean.
I need to make sure that the r'sand the seconds that pass by
count we can see that. Thank you.
So I think that's where the whole writing journey started.
I thought, OK, the Indian journal is missing something,
which is the favorite journal that I like to lose myself in.
So I thought, why not try something and never had a
(01:48):
thought that this is going to turn into like a full-fledged
book. I just wrote a chapter that
metamorphosed over time and became this Fans of Darkness
here. So you ever had this thinking?
I want to write a book and it has to be something like this or
something about. I think I never thought of
writing a book per se. I mean, I think all of us at
(02:10):
some point of time think that our life is becoming too
dramatic. Like Jeet from Jab We Met the
Coffee. Interesting.
Oh yeah, Book the like, let's say a cube.
Sorry. Yeah, it's from Jab We Met and
it's too much excitement. And this needs to be like part
of some autobiography that will be very exciting for viewers to
see. Is it some kind of no?
No, it's not. It's not metaphoric.
No, not at all. I mean, as a writer, I mean,
(02:30):
like, I think there's a quote which goes in that when a
Kalakar is putting the best of himself or herself or themselves
in a role, they split their personality and put different
parts in different roles that they enact.
I think as the same goes for thewriter, since I have multiple
characters that I'm writing, I kind of have.
Practices whole multiple personality disorder where I'm
(02:52):
like a serial killer was different versions and different
faces. And whenever I was writing from
the perspective of 1 character, I used to step into their shoes
so that my responses to situations that as a writer I
came up with. Let's see if there's a situation
and what would react as. Is not the same thing with Shaku
Nude Reactor because his experiences, his live journey is
very different. So I think that multiple
(03:15):
disorder serial killer trick really helped me canvas the
multiple character that are there in this book.
So, but to come back to your original questions, I mean, we
are going to keep diverting whenwe absolutely keep asking these
questions. But I never believed or
envisioned that I'd finish this book because it took me 4 years
(03:35):
to write this book. And cuz I was balancing this
with my law firm job which is 9:50 because this.
While I was working, yes. So it was just a world that I
used to escape to because as a lawyer your life is very black
and white. So this kind of added some color
to it. So when I used to come back it
was and it was like I was Thanosclicking my thumb and
reimagining an entire universe. So but once I started reaching
(04:00):
the final chapter that could see, OK, wait, there is
something here. It might just work.
And when I submitted the book topublishers, they kind of gave
the validation that, hey, this will sell.
So I think that's when I realized, OK, maybe I could be
an Orth. So were you an avid reader from
the very childhood? Because you seemed like a very
(04:20):
vibrant personality and your choreograph is also very
versatile. So were you avid reader or any
author that inspired you to write this?
OK, just two questions. Was that I would read it
absolutely. I think my mother played a big
part in inculcating that habit from the very beginning that we
used to have this tradition where she used to and I was in
(04:41):
Balasore then. So she used to buy Amatitra Kata
books which were these comics onIndian mythology and something
in. Ghana.
So she used to bring them, and she used to make sure that I
will read only one per week so that I don't exhaust all of them
in one day. And I remember when she Her
afternoon naps are very important and nobody could ever,
ever mess with my mother's afternoon nap.
So when she used to be sleeping,I used to just quickly go to the
(05:02):
drawing room, figure out where the locker is, where she just
kept all these books, and just consume all the books in one
way. So I think that's where the
reading habit started. And I remember stealing into her
library and picking up books which I was not supposed to pick
up on. Like I picked up Sidney Sheldon,
Tell Me Your Dreams, Which was way beyond my age at that point
of time to read, because I was probably in standard two or
(05:25):
standard 3. The whole idea of murder and
serial killing or something, which I had no idea.
But when I read those books, it was such a beautiful journey
that the book took me through that I knew that I'm gonna be a
reader for life. Now, as to which author inspired
me to write, it has to be GeorgeRR Martin.
He's like my. De facto Acharya Drona.
You know, I don't know if anyoneremember the story of Eklavia,
(05:48):
the idea that Dronacharya refused to teach him.
So Eklavia practiced archery by creating a mold of Dronacharya
and just practicing thinking, what could Dronacharya tell him?
You know, obviously I haven't met daughter or not in real
life. If I do, I'll pass out.
But I think he was the North Star which guided me in writing
the book that I wanted to read because.
(06:11):
A Song of Ice and Fire, of whichI mean, which is popularly known
as Game of Thrones. Yeah, what?
The series has inspired me to write a similar kind of book in
an Indian setting. So what exactly is the plot of
this book? You don't have to give it all
over, but it's. So sons of darkness is a dark re
imagination of this ancient epicfrom the Mahabharata.
(06:36):
So Mahabharata has been recited.In a narrative style of
historical chapters, OK, this happened.
This happened. This happened.
What I wanted to do was I wantedto step into the shoes of
characters who are traditionallyperceived as evil because no one
ever thinks that they're a hero or villain in their story,
because everyone thinks they areright.
(06:56):
For some person, you might be a terrorist.
For another person, you might bea freedom fighter, right?
And I love that concept. I think it was since I started
watching gang the Wasipur. I really like the one of.
My favorite anti hero culture. Yeah, and I think we all are
anti heroes in our own kind. Like there is goodness in us,
and there are also places where we have done actions which we
think are great, but for the world of the society or your
(07:18):
friends or your family, Some people, it's wrong.
It might not be the greatest thing which you've done, so I
wanted to approach it from that perspective because so far what
had happened was Indian books, especially dealing with
mythology. We're going along this whole
Gandhian line of, you know, black versus white.
Yeah. And I wanted 50 Shades of grey.
So I took out these characters who I thought had very
(07:39):
interesting facets to them and kind of put them in a reimagined
ancient Indian world. See, what has happened is, and
I'm sorry, this is Bhubaneswar weather playing, misbehaving
with my foreign. But what has happened is because
of colonialism, there has been this.
Perception of ancient India in our myths as a place that is
(08:02):
stuck in the age of wheel huts, snake charmers.
Yeah, the land of Snake. Charms.
That's been this whole racist colonial perspective that has
always looked at India. When you look at Greek
mythology, whenever they're imagining Zeus or Poseidon, not
all the Greek gods, it's just totally glorified all over the.
World not just in very sticks, back and palaces and forts.
(08:25):
And I don't know. Like we have come up with
amazing concepts that Pharaon authors around the world are
using to make their own movies and franchise.
For example, Matrix is this amazing movie and the entire
concert of Matrix has been picked up from the concert of
Maya in Vedic philosophy. Or we don't even have to go that
far. Let's talk about Interstellar.
(08:46):
OK, Christopher Nolan's movie where Matthew McConaughey was
stuck in this planet called Miller's Planet.
Where? One hour spent there was equal
to 10 years back on Earth. Yeah, that is something which
was amazing to the Ferrans and everyone.
Wow, what a beautiful concept. Gravity is working at an amazing
level. But ancient Indians had thought
(09:07):
of this moving back centuries ago, and they had put this in
form of a story where a warrior had gone and was fighting for
Indra. And once the war is over, Indra
tells him I'm sorry. You fought well for us, but one
day that you've spent here is equal to 100 years back there,
so your entire family, your entire Kingdom is all gone.
So it's amazing that we have thought of this concept way back
(09:27):
and we have not shown it to the world, or profited out of it, or
shown how glorious an ancient text a lot of it was, you know,
inunded away when the Britisherscame to India.
Correct. I think because when they came,
they started treating. So see they colonized half the
world. I mean it's the truth.
And they kind of became the deciders or arbitrators of what
(09:50):
is cool and what is not. And from that perspective they
decided that Greek classics be in the Iliad or the ODC.
They are high literature and they will be taught in Oxford
and Eton and all their. Ivy Colleges and Ivy is
obviously an American concept, but basically the top premier
colleges in UK. But when it came to indie
(10:10):
literature they started. Since they could not understand
the Sanskrit language, lost in translation and whatnot, they
reduced it to Hiddens. They thought of it as third year
literature because they couldn'tdecipher what was written and
everything. They look down upon our
exaggerated. So because of that, they were
very happy in burning a lot of vortex and they give the same
(10:30):
treatment to the Chinese. Mythology as well.
Like there's an episode called as the Burning of the pecking
palace where they destroyed 1000year old manuscripts because
they didn't care about it, because they couldn't understand
it. What you don't understand, you
fear or you disdain. So I think they went along those
lines and because of so many years of their subjugation, it
kind of entered our the psyche of national consciousness that
(10:53):
OK. You know, yes, Ma Bharati is
awesome. Yes, Ramayan is awesome.
But you know we will not deal with the magical aspects of it
because no, it shows as if it's stupid.
Yeah, you know, even Amish is immortal to Meluha, which is
such a beautiful book and also is Ramachandra.
Correct all of those books and amazing stuff, but that book has
tried to introduce a kind of science to justify certain
(11:17):
aspects of the past which was considered magic.
Like, for example, Mahabharata has astras, which are these
weapons that you fire, which carry nuclear power.
But what he does is he does. He says, no, it's not that.
It's just a simple arrow, which is great.
It's one way of telling the story.
But I've always believed that magic is nothing but unexplained
science. You know, like if you ask our
(11:39):
grandparents if they could ever imagine a car that drives on its
own, they will think that we're talking for them.
Tesla would be magic. I'm so sorry.
And. So I guess from that perspective
I wanted to build on that magic.So in Suns of Darkness, there's
an entire system where this Assassin's apprentice is
learning how to kill and murder people using yoga, chakras, and
(12:00):
mandaras. I don't know if you've heard of
the anime cartoon called Naruto,which.
There's a lot of concert chakrasthere where he invokes them and
he's able to ascend to a super level of power.
That is completely the origin story of that lies in Indian
philosophy where you have 7 chakras in our body.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Thank you.
(12:22):
So when you meditate and do penance, you can raise that
Kunderini snake and it goes around your chakras until you
treated the crown chakra and then you ascend to a superior
level. And that's amazing.
So I want to use this to create this entire magic system so that
India. Has its own Vestros or Hogwarts
or Narnia, so that's the whole idea.
With something about coming backto the fun part, Yeah, I just
(12:45):
wanted to ask Keir, Obviously college may and there is a lot
of pressure, especially local, but still, somehow we managed to
have a lot of fun here. So anything you want to share
about your college that was fun?A little mysterious kind of.
I mean, I spent half of my nights wasted completely in bars
and whatnot, So I was a very regular writer.
(13:07):
Is always a sort of, you know, fools in melancholy.
Yeah, somehow I didn't fit that writer cliche.
I was very to put it in the bestI was possible.
I was someone from the SlytherinHouse and how good looking like
I was. I really enjoyed having a great
time and I knew that somehow I was always aware that college
life is a very limited time period that you have to make the
(13:30):
most out of. Free and unburdened time, right?
So, you know, planning to go traveling outside, backpacking,
trekking, going to party, even just like having a great time
with your friends. I think that was a very
important thing for me, especially in the last two years
of law school. I remember we used to maintain
something called record of attendance.
It's a WhatsApp group, which I have.
(13:50):
I still have it actually. So it's a group which our
friends made just so that. See what happens is when days
are passing and if you're not recording it.
They all get blurred in your memory.
Yeah. And remember So what we did that
we started noting down like if on a day we have gone somewhere
out and had a great time out, there's been a great memory We
used to noted down. Now what happened I had two
effects. One, obviously that it got
(14:10):
preserved like as if it's a journal or diary of our group.
But most importantly, the days we did not fill anything, it
kind of gave us a feeling, hey, one second we didn't meet.
We're letting days pass by without actually doing
something. Exactly.
So I think that kind of really made sure that.
We utilized each and every day of our college life and as we
could and just chill and just had a great time.
(14:33):
So okay, So like any specific event that you did like, I came
here telling my mother that I have tuitions and I'm going to
the tuitions, but actually I came here, right?
So anything of that. I'm glad you're confessing with
some camera when going somethingvery risky, something risky like
this where there is a fear of. Yeah, if you are getting caught,
(14:54):
yeah, I love that fear of getting caught.
But I'm just wondering what all can I tell on camera and what I
can't tell on camera? Because whatever I'm getting
right now is completely something NSFW, which you can't
tell on camera. Yeah, like 1000 things of my
entire diary can be called, My Autobiography, can be called
NSFW. So I'm just figuring out what I
can say, which does not actually.
This is the fun story. I remember I went to Kashmir
(15:15):
with my friend and this was actually.
And when we reached Kashmir, it became actually a troublesome
period there because. There was all stone pelting
going on, army vehicles and whatnot.
So when we came, we went to a tracking point and then we
returned. They had blocked the traffic.
They said that we have to wait for 12 hours and then we can go
(15:35):
to a resort. And our tracking result was
literally 15 minutes away from there.
And we tried to convince them, but I understand obviously they
could not let them pass because there was a danger that vehicles
would be pelted at, but obviously Hamsani ticket.
So my friend and I, the driver, told us the locals are allowed
to go, not tourists. So the local driver told us K
Aapnan Niche is a chale jao cross the like a River
(15:57):
checkpoint and come up OK and like idiot OK, we thought this
is a great idea. Okay, this will be like a memory
to like live on so the adventures of God of Monty.
Yeah. Then it started and we decided
to go, you know, and not realizing that if someone
supports us, we'll be shot down by the Indian Army.
And it's not going to be the most glorious, That ticket
(16:18):
Pakistani army shoots, at least,you know, will be brought down
back to our home with honors andprobably an Indian flag, Indian
army, Aha. Then, so I remember we went
there and the car finally like comes across the checkpoint and
we're supposed to cross over there.
Now we are waiting and we can't see the car and we're freaking
out. I have the idea let's capture
(16:38):
this memory. So I turn around.
I thought we'll take a picture. So I took a picture of my
friend. She said what are you doing?
I just want picture just to capture this memory.
And I click the picture, The flash was on shit, OK?
And it flashed and suddenly there was moved.
I was like, fuck. And then we ran down again and
we crossed to when the car was alittle ahead.
And we just got into it and we just like really thought that
(16:58):
the cop, the army is gonna come at any point of time.
And this caught us and I don't know, put us in camps or
something. But we survived very life
threatening adventure. Yeah.
So that's definitely something where the fear of getting caught
was more like fear of getting out of life.
So, yeah, so I wanted to ask this very controversial question
(17:19):
which is in the media and nowadays it's about the Shiv
Shakti point that marks the point where the Chandrayaan
trees land are successfully landed on the Luna surface,
right. So India being a secular
country, naming it Shiv Shakti is very, you know, people are
creating a lot of controversy surrounding it.
What are your thoughts on it? So India secularism as the
(17:43):
constitution makers envisaged it, is something that means the
respect of all religions rather than.
Let me compare it with Francis secularism concept which means
absence of any religion, right. So we our idea has always been
that each religion needs to be respected rather than be ignored
and you know as if we proceed asthey do not exist.
(18:05):
So the idea that a point was named Shiv Shakti in isolation
to me it does not look wrong because I mean it's not that it
is a Hinduism related concept because the whole idea of
Shaivism and Shakti. Which refers to the masculine
energy in a person and the feminine energy in every person
is a yogic philosophy which predates even the rise of it is
(18:29):
right from the Harbin civilization.
These concepts have existed but we can't look at things in
isolation because this is real life and given the rise of right
wing fundamentalism which has kind of plagued the country.
I think this was an opportunity for the government to kind of
dispel such criticism by naming it something which could
probably maybe if they call it agood point.
(18:51):
For example, that would have really gone a long way in
cleaning up India's image, whichhas been tarnished recently
because of the attacks on minority and so on and so forth
so. But then again, when I look back
and let's look at the missile testing center, which is an OSR,
right, which is right on the coast of which used to be called
(19:14):
Wheeler Island, but now it is called Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam
Island, which is a Muslim name, right.
So if you look at the nobody, it's a piece of them, correct?
Correct, but it's still. A Muslim name?
Yeah. So in that sense, could we have
taken a bridge at the fact that?One second, why is this an
Islamic thing? So the fact that scientific
(19:35):
names or points are named. We the religion, it itself is
not an issue unless it's being done singularly just to glorify
one religion, right? I think the fact that this is
the is awesome, and if we again land at noon, I wish we'd name
it something different so that that kind of shows neutral.
(19:56):
Correct. I think recently, just probably
yesterday or day before yesterday the the four racers
who kind of broke. Records by being one of the
first Indian teams to break intothe whole men's relay race and
they each went. Each of those runners in that
relay race were of different religion.
And I think that shows the beauty of India that each of
(20:16):
them belong to a different religion and they all
participated together and correct.
So because of each individual effort we won.
I think that's something which India is, that's what India's
secularism stands for. So naming it Shivshakti itself
is not an issue, but if that becomes a singular thing that we
need everything this way, which only panders to one religion, I
(20:39):
think that's a dark thought which would unsettle me.
Another question, don't you think that the minority religion
is given a way more importance than the majority religion?
I mean people when they like keeping the religion aside.
(21:00):
Aren't we all humans? I mean, I understand the concept
of unity and diversity, but it is not very much practiced here.
So what are your viewpoints of that?
So there's actually psychological concept called
narcissism of minor differences.What does this mean?
It means that when people look alike, behave alike, eat alike,
they get very obsessed with every tiny difference that
(21:22):
differentiates both of them and they start obsessing over to
such an extent that it becomes abig point of contention.
Now let's say if there were Germans staying amongst us or if
there were people from Australiaor Africa, right, the point of
dissension would be very less because we are completely carved
out in the way we look, in the way we eat, in the way we are.
(21:43):
But when you look at Indians, wehave, we are all S Asians at the
end of the day. That's our origin point.
We look very similar. We are very similar.
So what happens is there is thistiny part in our brain that kind
of really aggravates these differences and turns it very
violent. So it starts from a very small
thing where you can see it in very innocent examples where I'm
(22:05):
an ICT student and I will say, hey, CBSE students, you know can
do. They know this concept of CBS
system to correct ICC students. So Bhubanesha people will look
down on other people, other people will look down on
Bhubanesha people. Then eastern Orissa will look
down on western Orissa. ODESA will look at every level
in the high structure. Huge regional differences and
(22:27):
correct people make fun of the other states as well.
The other culture as well, yeah.So if it's done in a humorous
sense, which does not is not malicious in nature, it's fine.
I think there's a sort of sense of humor which we should all
interpret. Anyone correct?
Correct. But.
But The thing is when it comes to the question which you had
(22:48):
asked, like there have been so many issues between religions
and whatnot. I think they have always
existed. But what has happened because of
Twitter, because and because of social media?
Why am I singing on Twitter? Suddenly each and every one of
us has a voice, right? Only everyone was scared to
voice out their opinions becausesomewhere in the back of their
head they knew that this might be wrong or this might not be
(23:08):
accepted by the society as a problem.
By the society, Correct. But now what happens?
A bunch of periods speak out on Twitter and they find this echo
chamber right where suddenly their view is being resonated
and equal. If one person says something
then correct. I need 2-3 people, support them
and then it just grows, right? So now their views are getting
amplified and validated. So they think this is great.
(23:28):
So very violent, aggressive views against different
religions. Doesn't have to be minority,
minority against majority, religion against religion, state
against state. These viewers which are so toxic
in nature are being celebrated in those echo chambers.
So they're not able to know thatthis is wrong and I think that
is the dark side of social media, the.
Validation that they can see, right.
(23:50):
Yeah, that is so you don't realize that.
OK, one second. What voices you're amplifying,
you're just making you're basically heard of jackals, you
know, as compared to. But in their head they're
thinking they're alliance, right.
Right. So it's a perception different,
OK. This is my perception.
They might think what views I'm espousing with my group of
people and my friends and whatnot might be something
(24:12):
similar, right. But I think the whole idea, and
I think this is a situation which is not playing India
itself, it's playing the United States, UK everywhere.
The dissension lines have grown very strict and defined because
of the fault lines that social media has created.
Because as I said, each and every one of us has a voice
right now and there is no filteron it.
(24:32):
We're not applying filters to what we want to say.
I think that will change only asa whole mass movement where we
kind of attach this filter saying that if I'm not able to
say what I want to say to the person on their face, I should
not say it on Twitter. I think that's the one thing
which you kind of. It's a very common like concept
(24:55):
like. Haha, exactly.
So we don't want to be keyboard warriors.
If you can actually say it out in front of the person, that
means you should be able to say it on wherever you want as well.
But if you're hiding from that, if you can't do that and I think
that means there is something wrong in that thought which you
know but you are kind of see every man, every human being has
(25:15):
an animal on the inside doctor Jack and Doctor Hyde concept.
So I think we need to kind of make sure that we we're human
beings, the reason we have conquered over the other species
in human beings in the animal Kingdom days because of our
superior intelligence. It's time we use it.
Do you think democracy is the best structure of government?
(25:35):
Because we can say in Germany when Hitler came there was
dictatorship and. Germany was facing a lot of
economic problems in the background, but when Hitler
came, it kind of, it kind of sorted the problems.
I'm not telling that he was a hero, but I hope you want.
(25:57):
I have not, but he under him, the Volkswagen company, it
opened the car. So I think him being a very
violent personality is keeping that aside.
He was very much dedicated towards his country.
What I feel he just wanted to make Germany a established
(26:19):
country in the world. See, I think personally what my
opinion is that when I look at world leaders, most of them, I
don't feel that they are driven as much by the patriotic zeal as
they show outwardly. It is more about what they look
at, what they can mobilize, whatthey can capture on.
(26:39):
Now if you look at Hitler's background, he captured on the
humiliation which Germany received at the end of World War
One. But there were a lot of
restrictions imposed in Germany which completely crippled the
economy. And that's why there was a lot
of resentment amongst the Germanpeople which Hitler abused and
misused and rose to power. And when he rose to power, he
rose at the cost of the big community of Jews who were very
(27:02):
rich, by the way, you know, So if you are saying the German
economy developed, we might haveto look at whether it was fox
wagon which really improved or did the funds come from the
families of people who were looted, right.
So I don't think we can take that unidirectional approach.
But coming to your original question as to which form of
government is best, I think it every form of government has its
(27:24):
perks and corns obviously, but I'm talking about India.
I think this form of pseudo democracy that we do have is the
least worst of all options, you know, because we can see that if
tyranny is allowed to come in, How?
But it is not like India has notseen dictator ship.
(27:45):
Indira Gandhi was a dictator andshe enforced Emergency.
And in a lot of ways she also did a fantastic job at different
aspects. But Indira Gandhi is a live
example of how absolute power corrupts absolutely.
You know, because like using theabsolute majority that she had
in the Parliament, she brought about amazing laws, she
(28:07):
abolished princely tributes, which we were paying to all the
kings and former Rajas and former kings.
And decided to move correct abolition of pretty person.
So that was a great act. But then again, we saw.
Also the war with Bangladesh, correct.
You know, she did an amazing jobin making sure which gave us a
lot of strategic advantage, whether we Pakistan and
Bangladesh. But we also see that and that
(28:30):
power which she used so well, she did not.
She completely misused it when it came to press freedom, right.
So when you look at that dark period in Indian history and
also the dark period towards which we are slowly inching, it
kind of shows that absolute power at the center is not
something which is great for ourcountry.
(28:50):
I think. I know we have a flawed
democracy, but. Every democracy is flawed,
correct? It has some merits and sound
demerits, right? Yeah.
Democracy is flawed. Yeah, Yeah, So democracy is
flawed. That's it.
Coming through your no background.
Yeah. OK, so there is this.
There are a few cases I would like to discuss.
One of them is some bizarre cases around the world.
(29:14):
One of them is the McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit.
Basically a woman she sued. McDonald's because the coffee
temperature which she was servedwas between 180 degree to 190
degree and she got third degree burns when she sprayed it on her
lap and around 6% of her body was covered when discussed and
(29:35):
the general temperature is 140 to one 1:30 to 1:30.
They saw the coffee very hot, right?
Compared to what they should have said, yeah.
Yes, so. We even discussed the what the
verdict was. But what do you think?
According to you, should the verdict have been see the if you
were the judge? If I were the judge, OK, see us
(29:58):
is a very different example fromwhat Indian law is.
Because each state has a different law.
And like India which has one common law system and the same
law will apply, in Mumbai the same law will apply and we
measure, we don't have a similarsystem.
So we should depending on the law, the judge will have to
bring that into account. The second thing that you ever
take into consideration is that when US is called with a land of
(30:18):
opportunity, the side meaning ofthat is it is also a land of
lawsuits because you can sue theperson for anything and
everything under the sun. Now when it comes to this
particular aspect, when the coffee was so way hotter than
what is prescribed, yes, there is negligence involved, right.
So if I were a judge, I would see the attending circumstances
(30:41):
like was this something which the user would have known This
is the temperature which I'm served and it fell and does she
suffer actually any injury or isthis a mischievous lawsuit?
If she actually suffered third degree burns or second degree
burns because of the hot coffee,then she should be compensated.
Because if Starbucks or McDonald's has not been
following the standard guidelines, so obviously they're
(31:01):
required to, because it's a whole concert of product
liability where whenever you're manufacturing a product, any
consequences from using it, especially when you're not
adhere to what you say that you're adhering to, I think you
should be held liable to us on the next.
I think this is also common sense.
You should not keep such a hot cup of coffee on your lap while
driving a car. This is correct.
(31:23):
I agree with that. But let's if you're looking at
strictly from a taught perspective, and I think I'm
deep dive too much into law in this one, so I'll keep it
simple. Yes, she kept it.
But there's a reasonable assumption in her that even if
it falls, it won't burn her because no matter how hot it is,
it will be the hottest under theprescribed temperature.
But clearly this was I think, 30or 40 degrees more.
(31:44):
Yeah, which is a lot. So I can imagine that Burn she
must have suffered would have led her to file that lawsuit.
So. So now on this was given that.
It was 20% tall mistake and yet she was given compensation for
the 30K points. I'm glad that the judge and I
are on the same page. Pretty one saved a man sold bird
(32:07):
visa for visa. I guess bird visor for failing
to help him attract beautiful women, right?
So basically the people in America we know, they're very
infamous for drinking a lot. So this person saw this
commercial on TV? Where a lot of women conscious
flirtious women were involved and every company does that okay
(32:31):
to amplify their ads and everything.
So he thought that if I consume a lot of this beer, I will also
attract a lot of women. And in the the the the court
obviously dismissed his case. But why don't you have that?
I mean if this were allowed, anyone was using axe perfume in
(32:51):
India or will definitely go up to the courts.
All are perfume, others it's. Not that dumb, to be honest.
Yeah, I mean, OK, but if I were that, I'd obviously dismiss it
because I mean no reasonable person, sticky, speaking from a
legal perspective, can be expected that this is a genuine
ad that suddenly if you put perfumes, 2530 girls will start
running after you. I think it's ridiculous.
(33:13):
So yeah, I've dismissed it, but I'll have fun with it at least.
You know, I'll definitely talk to worldwide a little saying
that. What is this?
How are you backing up your claim?
Why are you putting the same ads?
Also, objectification of So I think the weak companies are not
making sure that this is like stupid people don't really go
after this. There's always this footnote in
all these ads, which are basically disclaimers.
Yeah. So I think it's very important
(33:34):
for companies to use it. But seeing it from a very
serious perspective, don't you think the quote already has so
many cases which are. Untouched and everything.
Even India has this issue of black justice that justice is
given. But justice delayed is justice
denied, right? So isn't this burdening the
court with much more stupider cases, which is just not see one
(33:59):
man's stupid, is another man's injustice OK?
Because we don't know. We can't be the arbiter of what
is wrong and what is right. Now when you're comparing these
kind of matters, this you won't find in India because obviously
the courts are so burden. It takes 10 years for a case to
solve. US does not have the same
problem there. The disputes get sorted out very
fast and the appellate mechanismis very stringent as in you
(34:21):
can't go High Court, Supreme Court very easily the way you
can do it in India, right. Right.
So matters get sorted out at a very ground level.
So from the burden perspective, US doesn't really have that much
of a problem when it comes to this.
So they have. That's why they have a lot of
stupid lawsuits. But the court cannot exercise
the discretion at the very outset that I think this is
stupid. It should not even come.
(34:42):
It will dismiss it at the very first time when it hears it.
But it has to give that opportunity because it is true
that justice denied. It's just as denied for another
proverb that says justice shouldnot only be done, but should
appear to be done so. OK.
Another last case is of Leonard versus Pepsi Coke.
OK, where in nine? Like how this turning into like
(35:03):
a mini trash course unlock hell.In 1999, Pepsi ran an
advertisement in USA showing a teenager having like 70,00,000
Pepsi points and 70,00,000 Pepsipoints will give you a fight on
jet kind of thing. So one person.
(35:25):
Got 70 points, 70,00,000 points and everything but fighter jet
was denied to him right okay. So he went to the court and said
that this is the breach of contract, right?
I mean, can you blame the boy for daring to dream, right?
So actually, at least this is the case or something I know
about, because this came on Netflix as well.
And very interestingly, Pepsi had offered him $70,000 to walk
(35:49):
away, but the adults around him told him to go on with the suit.
And ultimately the judge ruled that this is absolutely
ridiculous. The guy who was there in the
lawsuit in the ad can't even be expected to drive a car, let
alone a fighter jet. So no reasonable person could
have anticipated that this was aserious offer, right?
So it's true that this happened,but you know, kudos to that boy.
(36:10):
Clearly he got a lot out of it, the Netflix show. 21 years ago.
So I mean at 21 we are all concerned about law school and
what are the next assignment. And this guy is clearly dreaming
big, so cheers to his ambition. So coming to the last segment,
this is a fun segment where? I will tell you a question and
(36:31):
ask you a question so where you have to answer anything
spontaneously that comes to yourmind like a coffee with Curran
rapid fire, then I want to assume a very aggressive.
There is no winning or losing. You one ready?
10 Right now there's a lot of performance pleasure to be in
victory. OK, So what do you want for your
birthday? A teleporter.
(36:52):
What's the worst combination with thumbs up Mango juice?
Anyone smell good ever to you? I have never smelt oh.
Why do you think Sindand is juststupidest person in this room?
He talks while I'm answering. Do you think Gandhi is stupider
than siddhant? No Sons of Darkness in Hindi.
Wow, I'm very cute. But Oh yeah, that's not at.
(37:13):
All Where do you find the hottest in this room?
What's your girlfriend doing right now?
I hope finding a way to be because I have man.
OK. Do you like this podcast?
Yeah, it's lovely. How many X's your X had?
How many times you're farted today?
Zero. OK.
OK. Or there's any questions?
(37:34):
Oh, OK. Wow, I hope that one.
Did anyway. Yeah, yeah.
Thank you. Sorry Sadanth, I had to answer
impromptu. So why?
I had no idea what asked questions about.
He is getting roasted everywhereOK, especially on Watson by me.
So apology that was I called it the hottest person in the room.
By the way, this was no impromptu answer that came
straight off my head. Thank God I.
(37:58):
Was so thank you for doing this podcast with us.
It was a pleasure meeting you. Absolutely.
It was a pleasure having this question.
So thank you for asking them. So like share and subscribe to
the channel. See you next day.
Bye.
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