1 00:00:01,480 --> 00:00:04,040 Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to cool People. Did cool stuff your 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:08,920 Speaker 1: weekly reminder that only good things have happened in history. 3 00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:13,920 Speaker 1: Nothing bad has ever happened in history. I'm your host, 4 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:18,440 Speaker 1: Margaret Kildre, and I have a guest today. It's sort 5 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:21,680 Speaker 1: of not really a guest. It's actually instead of having 6 00:00:21,720 --> 00:00:25,680 Speaker 1: a guest, I have a person who's taking over for me. 7 00:00:26,200 --> 00:00:31,520 Speaker 1: His name is Shiv Romdas and Hi, Hiv. How are you? Hey? Mac? Bye? 8 00:00:31,560 --> 00:00:33,479 Speaker 2: Thanks for having me? Wait can I say Mac? 9 00:00:33,520 --> 00:00:37,120 Speaker 1: But yeah you can? Oh? Okay? Nickname still? Oh cool? 10 00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:38,839 Speaker 1: That's how you know that Shiv has known me for 11 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:45,360 Speaker 1: a long time. Yes, I first met Shiv through the 12 00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:48,800 Speaker 1: science fiction world. I don't remember what year, probably twenty 13 00:00:48,880 --> 00:00:52,520 Speaker 1: sixteen or something, I don't know. Shiv is a science 14 00:00:52,520 --> 00:00:57,480 Speaker 1: fiction author and apparently a professional funny man by Twitter. 15 00:00:58,560 --> 00:01:00,560 Speaker 1: Is that a way to describe your fame? 16 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:07,760 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's accurate. It's interesting but accurate. It's very interesting. 17 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:10,360 Speaker 2: Even science fiction conventions, people want to like talk about 18 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:12,360 Speaker 2: my Twitter. It's it's it's gratifying. 19 00:01:13,560 --> 00:01:17,760 Speaker 1: Yeah, Shiv, I was so jealous I have had fewer 20 00:01:17,800 --> 00:01:20,759 Speaker 1: followers than me, and then made a really good tweet 21 00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:24,840 Speaker 1: thread and then had like approximately ten times as many 22 00:01:24,880 --> 00:01:28,560 Speaker 1: followers as me like three days later. Yeah, it's it's 23 00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:32,600 Speaker 1: quite weird, like it's very surreal. Yeah, anyway, but we're 24 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:36,440 Speaker 1: not here to talk about Twitter. We are not. Shiv 25 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:39,000 Speaker 1: has been someone that I've been hitting up for weird 26 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:44,360 Speaker 1: history about Indian revolutionary stuff for a long time, and 27 00:01:44,440 --> 00:01:46,600 Speaker 1: so I'm really excited to pass this off to him. 28 00:01:46,680 --> 00:01:51,160 Speaker 1: But first, also on the line of Sophie Hi, Sophie Hi, mac. 29 00:01:51,080 --> 00:01:57,520 Speaker 3: Pie, it's all I got for you her usual cave. Yeah, 30 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:00,360 Speaker 3: it was getting real dark in the basement. That it's 31 00:02:00,360 --> 00:02:03,040 Speaker 3: a record upstairs today where their sun. 32 00:02:04,160 --> 00:02:09,800 Speaker 1: So if he's in the sunshine. Yeah, and our editor 33 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:13,280 Speaker 1: is named Ian, everyone has to say Hi Ian, Hi, Ian, Hi, Ian, 34 00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:17,840 Speaker 1: Hello Ian. That's close enough. 35 00:02:17,919 --> 00:02:18,520 Speaker 4: We'll take it. 36 00:02:19,720 --> 00:02:22,800 Speaker 1: Yeah. Our theme music was written by Aun Woman. And 37 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:30,440 Speaker 1: today we're talking about Gama, who's Gamma. Gama is my 38 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:31,200 Speaker 1: childhood hero. 39 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:34,120 Speaker 2: Well not exactly pretty it's like someone I've thought was 40 00:02:34,240 --> 00:02:36,960 Speaker 2: very really cool and the closest thing to a superhero 41 00:02:37,080 --> 00:02:42,079 Speaker 2: India has, which also I think if you think about 42 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:44,800 Speaker 2: it as pretty appropriate because Gama is like pretty close 43 00:02:44,880 --> 00:02:49,400 Speaker 2: like Gamma. It's like a superhero name. Anyway, Uh, uh huh. 44 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:52,280 Speaker 1: Okay, so like Gamma Rays, that's that's what people call him. 45 00:02:52,320 --> 00:02:54,200 Speaker 2: Well, that's the part we leave out right because then 46 00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:57,280 Speaker 2: you're talking about someone being green and we're going in 47 00:02:57,280 --> 00:03:01,679 Speaker 2: a whole different direction there. Okay, it's a nice snappy name, right, 48 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:04,000 Speaker 2: like it's it's like a cool superhero name. 49 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:07,400 Speaker 1: Does he have a last name, Well, he has a 50 00:03:07,440 --> 00:03:08,160 Speaker 1: lot of names. 51 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:12,760 Speaker 2: So he actually was born with the name of Gulam 52 00:03:12,919 --> 00:03:17,600 Speaker 2: Mohammed Bucksh. But so his nickname in childhood was Gama 53 00:03:17,639 --> 00:03:19,560 Speaker 2: and he's one of those people who's famous enough that 54 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:22,079 Speaker 2: his childhood nickname becomes the world's name for him. 55 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:23,640 Speaker 1: Hell yeah. 56 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:26,880 Speaker 2: So it's a very very small, rarefied amount of people 57 00:03:26,919 --> 00:03:30,280 Speaker 2: who ever got there. But the fun part about this 58 00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:32,840 Speaker 2: guy is it's totally appropriate that he has a superhero 59 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:35,520 Speaker 2: name because if you look at like his life story 60 00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:38,560 Speaker 2: and his resume, it's basically like a superhero story. 61 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:41,440 Speaker 1: He's also a wrestler, by the way. 62 00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:46,240 Speaker 2: The wrestler. The wrestler, I'm not kidding. He's a guy who, 63 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:49,000 Speaker 2: in a professional career of over fifty years, is said 64 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:52,040 Speaker 2: to have never lost a fight. This is a sport 65 00:03:52,040 --> 00:03:54,320 Speaker 2: where everyone has a narrative of their own. Everyone has 66 00:03:54,320 --> 00:03:57,360 Speaker 2: a favorite of their own. Sometimes everyone has a winner 67 00:03:57,400 --> 00:04:00,680 Speaker 2: of their own, and in that sport, this guy is 68 00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:05,200 Speaker 2: acknowledged universally as the greatest there has ever been. He 69 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:08,960 Speaker 2: was the greatest ever at one kind of wrestling. He 70 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:13,280 Speaker 2: was really really influential in an ancillary sense in another 71 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:18,320 Speaker 2: kind of wrestling. His lifestyle inspired Bruce Lee. He went 72 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:22,760 Speaker 2: from man to hero, to myth to legend back to man. 73 00:04:23,440 --> 00:04:24,200 Speaker 1: All this is true. 74 00:04:24,880 --> 00:04:28,400 Speaker 2: He became part of a reverse propaganda campaign against the 75 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:32,120 Speaker 2: British Empire. He was so successful that papers in England 76 00:04:32,279 --> 00:04:34,839 Speaker 2: during the occupation of India were bemoaning the effect he 77 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:37,599 Speaker 2: was having on the morale of people in India, and 78 00:04:37,640 --> 00:04:40,000 Speaker 2: they were really unhappy about it. 79 00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:42,600 Speaker 1: The positive impact on the morale of the. 80 00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:46,679 Speaker 2: Positive and negative impact on like white people in India. 81 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:49,880 Speaker 1: Ah yeah, yeah, so yeah, there was that as well. 82 00:04:50,600 --> 00:04:54,720 Speaker 2: Even that was like really complicated though, like Gama epitomizes 83 00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:57,040 Speaker 2: the phrase man of his time better than almost anybody. 84 00:04:57,240 --> 00:04:59,120 Speaker 2: And this is one of those rare times. I don't 85 00:04:59,160 --> 00:05:01,200 Speaker 2: mean it as a pijob. Usually we say he was 86 00:05:01,200 --> 00:05:02,760 Speaker 2: a man of his time, were talking about him being 87 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:04,440 Speaker 2: racist or something, and this is not the case. 88 00:05:04,520 --> 00:05:07,680 Speaker 1: Yeah, Oh good, Yeah, yeah, I just. 89 00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:09,520 Speaker 2: Mean that, like I have a whole theory about the 90 00:05:09,520 --> 00:05:11,520 Speaker 2: era he lived in, which we'll get into, and I 91 00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:14,240 Speaker 2: just think he's very very well. I think the right 92 00:05:14,279 --> 00:05:18,080 Speaker 2: word is the epid to me of it. And honestly, 93 00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:20,440 Speaker 2: I'm a short guy and the fact that this man 94 00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:23,360 Speaker 2: has done all this at five foot seven is inspirational 95 00:05:23,480 --> 00:05:24,280 Speaker 2: to me personally. 96 00:05:25,120 --> 00:05:28,080 Speaker 1: Okay, okay, wait, I have a question about the wrestling. 97 00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:32,080 Speaker 1: You say he's undefeated in fifty years. Is Indian wrestling 98 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:35,599 Speaker 1: like American wrestling where it's fake and scripted? No? 99 00:05:36,120 --> 00:05:38,600 Speaker 2: In fact, that is a very good question because we're 100 00:05:38,640 --> 00:05:41,120 Speaker 2: going to get into a whole bunch of that because, 101 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:44,080 Speaker 2: as it turns out, these two kinds of wrestling met 102 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:47,160 Speaker 2: back when this kind of American wrestling was the British 103 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:47,920 Speaker 2: kind of wrestling. 104 00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:52,000 Speaker 1: Okay, but so the British were fake also, but he 105 00:05:52,120 --> 00:05:56,000 Speaker 1: was actual real wrestling. Well, Europe, we'll get into it. 106 00:05:56,080 --> 00:05:59,320 Speaker 1: Lets say, no, great, great, great, no spoilers, awesome. I 107 00:05:59,360 --> 00:06:00,719 Speaker 1: just want to know because, like, if you're like the 108 00:06:00,839 --> 00:06:03,640 Speaker 1: undefeated wrestler, I'm like the guy who has cast as 109 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:08,280 Speaker 1: the winner every time, Like, but actually winning a competition 110 00:06:08,360 --> 00:06:09,680 Speaker 1: of sports is cool. 111 00:06:09,760 --> 00:06:13,760 Speaker 2: Okay, well put it this way, right, Like it's the 112 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:16,080 Speaker 2: best thing I can say about this is like there's 113 00:06:16,080 --> 00:06:18,120 Speaker 2: this saying in India. I think it's by Puff and Care, 114 00:06:18,200 --> 00:06:21,359 Speaker 2: but don't quote me on the courte is that in India, 115 00:06:21,480 --> 00:06:23,479 Speaker 2: whatever it is true, the opposite is also true. 116 00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:24,880 Speaker 1: Okay. 117 00:06:25,200 --> 00:06:27,840 Speaker 2: The thing about like things like true and false for 118 00:06:27,920 --> 00:06:30,920 Speaker 2: a podcast, especially of this nature and like talking about 119 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:33,560 Speaker 2: these things, is to put them in their proper context 120 00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:36,760 Speaker 2: is actually like way harder than it sounds, because essentially 121 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:40,599 Speaker 2: that time period like between the late eighteenth and about 122 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:43,960 Speaker 2: like early to mid nineteenth century, sorry a late nineteenth 123 00:06:43,960 --> 00:06:48,839 Speaker 2: early to mid twentieth century is it's just a really 124 00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:51,440 Speaker 2: wonky period of history. If you think about. 125 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:56,120 Speaker 5: It, it's like a time where we actually went from 126 00:06:56,320 --> 00:06:59,479 Speaker 5: So like put this, when Gama started his career, you 127 00:06:59,720 --> 00:07:01,640 Speaker 5: if you wanted to follow a match, you had to 128 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:05,200 Speaker 5: hope that someone sent a correspondent to wherever the fight happened, 129 00:07:06,520 --> 00:07:09,359 Speaker 5: and then that person would telegraph back to you in 130 00:07:09,520 --> 00:07:12,280 Speaker 5: moscode or whatever his summary of what he saw, and 131 00:07:12,320 --> 00:07:13,480 Speaker 5: you would read about that in. 132 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:15,000 Speaker 1: The paper locally. 133 00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:18,680 Speaker 2: Yeah, by the time he retired, you theoretically could have 134 00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:21,760 Speaker 2: watched him live on color team. 135 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:26,440 Speaker 1: That's cool that Yeah, fifty year careers hell yeah, okay. 136 00:07:26,160 --> 00:07:28,560 Speaker 2: And that's a lot actually for fifty years to think 137 00:07:28,600 --> 00:07:33,360 Speaker 2: about the history of like humanity, Like that amount of 138 00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:38,640 Speaker 2: change in the verifiability or the veracity of information, let's 139 00:07:38,640 --> 00:07:42,239 Speaker 2: put it that way, is a lot hard like prior 140 00:07:42,320 --> 00:07:44,600 Speaker 2: to times like that. Essentially when you talk primary source, 141 00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:46,400 Speaker 2: so you're saying, I believe the person. 142 00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:49,120 Speaker 1: Who wrote about this, yeah. Yeah. 143 00:07:49,240 --> 00:07:50,720 Speaker 2: By the end of it, you're saying, I have to 144 00:07:50,760 --> 00:07:55,360 Speaker 2: see pictures of it didn't happen. Yeah, So that it's 145 00:07:55,440 --> 00:07:58,080 Speaker 2: just a very interesting time in that context. So in 146 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:00,760 Speaker 2: terms of there are lots of times during our conversation 147 00:08:00,800 --> 00:08:02,120 Speaker 2: where we're going to end up at the point of 148 00:08:02,160 --> 00:08:04,720 Speaker 2: like there is this version of events and there is 149 00:08:04,720 --> 00:08:07,600 Speaker 2: possibly this version of events, and the truth could be 150 00:08:07,640 --> 00:08:09,000 Speaker 2: anything in between these two. 151 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:13,600 Speaker 1: Oh I love that shit, that's what. Yeah, Yeah, it's 152 00:08:13,640 --> 00:08:14,240 Speaker 1: all about it. 153 00:08:14,760 --> 00:08:16,720 Speaker 2: And so the other part of it is that, like 154 00:08:17,560 --> 00:08:19,480 Speaker 2: I don't really subscribe to the great Man theory of 155 00:08:19,520 --> 00:08:21,680 Speaker 2: history in general. So like, one thing that is true 156 00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:24,520 Speaker 2: everyone is that like even someone who is like as 157 00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:30,040 Speaker 2: superheroesque as Gama is essentially a confluence of being time 158 00:08:30,080 --> 00:08:35,360 Speaker 2: and talent and situation and context, right, circumstances happen, and 159 00:08:35,840 --> 00:08:38,000 Speaker 2: in fact, what happens in this person's case is that 160 00:08:38,600 --> 00:08:40,720 Speaker 2: he is sort of like the best way to basically 161 00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:42,760 Speaker 2: understand his life, I think is to view him as 162 00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:46,079 Speaker 2: like this central character in this largest saga, which involves 163 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:49,679 Speaker 2: a lot of people and events and happenings and politics 164 00:08:49,679 --> 00:08:52,080 Speaker 2: and machinitions, a lot of which he had nothing to 165 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:56,079 Speaker 2: do with. But yet he becomes like this central, almost 166 00:08:56,160 --> 00:09:01,800 Speaker 2: mascot like figure in it. And yet you cannot take 167 00:09:01,840 --> 00:09:04,320 Speaker 2: away from the fact that it required a certain amount 168 00:09:04,360 --> 00:09:05,960 Speaker 2: of talent, et cetera to be the. 169 00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:06,960 Speaker 1: Person who was there. 170 00:09:07,559 --> 00:09:10,080 Speaker 2: But yes, yeah, but no one is like the writer 171 00:09:10,280 --> 00:09:13,040 Speaker 2: of the entire history they figure in, so to speak. 172 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:16,880 Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, So essentially, what. 173 00:09:16,840 --> 00:09:17,959 Speaker 2: We're going to do now is we're going to, like 174 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:22,040 Speaker 2: hear a long chronological story in which this man shows 175 00:09:22,080 --> 00:09:24,680 Speaker 2: up at various points. And I am in no way 176 00:09:24,679 --> 00:09:26,880 Speaker 2: suggesting that he's some kind of Jacy Forrest Gum. 177 00:09:27,120 --> 00:09:30,240 Speaker 1: But he was there were a lot of really interesting things. 178 00:09:30,080 --> 00:09:35,440 Speaker 2: Happened, Okay, cool, and he does sort of in his 179 00:09:35,480 --> 00:09:39,520 Speaker 2: own way, influence a lot of these events. So let's 180 00:09:39,520 --> 00:09:43,440 Speaker 2: begin with what he did or who he is and 181 00:09:43,520 --> 00:09:45,360 Speaker 2: I think another way we have to like look at 182 00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:46,720 Speaker 2: this to kind of kind of make sense of the 183 00:09:46,720 --> 00:09:50,640 Speaker 2: whole thing is that if you want to understand Garma, 184 00:09:50,880 --> 00:09:53,040 Speaker 2: you've got to actually understand like the time and the 185 00:09:53,080 --> 00:09:56,360 Speaker 2: events they were in. And to do all of this, 186 00:09:56,520 --> 00:09:59,040 Speaker 2: you basically have to understand the guy's life. And to 187 00:09:59,120 --> 00:10:01,800 Speaker 2: understand the guy's life, you basically have to understand a 188 00:10:01,800 --> 00:10:05,520 Speaker 2: little bit about what his life was about, which was wrestling. Okay, 189 00:10:05,559 --> 00:10:07,959 Speaker 2: so we're gonna spend a lot of time talking about 190 00:10:08,040 --> 00:10:09,319 Speaker 2: wrestling on this podcast. 191 00:10:09,520 --> 00:10:13,360 Speaker 1: I am. I'm very pro context. Everyone who listens to 192 00:10:13,400 --> 00:10:16,559 Speaker 1: the show regularly knows that this is a pro context show, 193 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:18,840 Speaker 1: so I'm excited for context. 194 00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:20,920 Speaker 2: So I realized a lot of people listening to this 195 00:10:21,040 --> 00:10:23,000 Speaker 2: may not be wrestling nerds. So what I'm going to 196 00:10:23,040 --> 00:10:25,360 Speaker 2: try and do is I'm going to keep actual descriptions 197 00:10:25,360 --> 00:10:29,480 Speaker 2: of like matches and stuff short, because when you get 198 00:10:29,520 --> 00:10:32,680 Speaker 2: into this stuff, people will you will find people have 199 00:10:32,679 --> 00:10:35,240 Speaker 2: written entire chapters about two moves in a fight. 200 00:10:35,960 --> 00:10:36,280 Speaker 1: M hm. 201 00:10:36,559 --> 00:10:38,719 Speaker 2: So I'm going to try and not subject most of 202 00:10:38,760 --> 00:10:40,600 Speaker 2: you to that, and we're going to like sort of 203 00:10:40,640 --> 00:10:42,520 Speaker 2: breeze through the matches. But we need to go through 204 00:10:42,520 --> 00:10:46,000 Speaker 2: the understand the context of why they mattered. Okay, all right, 205 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:50,280 Speaker 2: so let's start with his name, right, Like, he was 206 00:10:50,320 --> 00:10:52,959 Speaker 2: known as Gama the Great in the West, but in 207 00:10:53,240 --> 00:10:56,080 Speaker 2: the subcontinent he's basically known as Gama. 208 00:10:55,720 --> 00:10:57,520 Speaker 1: Pel One and. 209 00:10:59,080 --> 00:11:03,720 Speaker 2: Hell One is essentially a practicer of Pehlwani, which is 210 00:11:03,760 --> 00:11:08,520 Speaker 2: the style of wrestling we have in India that Gama 211 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:13,400 Speaker 2: was a practitioner of. And from the name, it's pretty clear, right, Like, 212 00:11:13,720 --> 00:11:16,320 Speaker 2: you can't really separate this guy from wrestling, So we're 213 00:11:16,360 --> 00:11:17,680 Speaker 2: going to have to go through one to get to 214 00:11:17,720 --> 00:11:18,000 Speaker 2: the other. 215 00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:21,080 Speaker 1: Now. So it'd be like if his name was like 216 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:22,480 Speaker 1: Gama Karate or whatever. 217 00:11:22,679 --> 00:11:26,760 Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly Karatega, okay, so to speak, yeah and okay, 218 00:11:27,200 --> 00:11:29,520 Speaker 2: the word pelwan itself has like a deeper meaning. It 219 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:32,320 Speaker 2: means like strong man, but it also has like a 220 00:11:32,360 --> 00:11:36,360 Speaker 2: deeper context, which I'll get into. Wrestling might actually be 221 00:11:36,400 --> 00:11:39,400 Speaker 2: the oldest competitive sport we have along with racing, like 222 00:11:39,480 --> 00:11:41,200 Speaker 2: food racing, it. 223 00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:42,760 Speaker 1: Is probably the oldest sport. 224 00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:44,600 Speaker 2: Like I'm sure the food trace is right up there, 225 00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:47,520 Speaker 2: but wrestling is pretty much there. The thing about wrestling is, though, 226 00:11:47,640 --> 00:11:49,640 Speaker 2: it's a word that actually covers like an entire spectrum 227 00:11:49,679 --> 00:11:53,800 Speaker 2: of sports, and a lot of them are extremely different, 228 00:11:53,840 --> 00:11:56,800 Speaker 2: but they have like some kind of common thread throughout them. 229 00:11:57,120 --> 00:12:01,319 Speaker 1: M hm. So for instance, you. 230 00:12:01,280 --> 00:12:04,400 Speaker 2: Know you have freestyle wrestling, you have cat just catch 231 00:12:04,480 --> 00:12:05,480 Speaker 2: can you a Greek or Roman? 232 00:12:05,520 --> 00:12:06,280 Speaker 1: You have peloanion. 233 00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:08,840 Speaker 2: Of course, you have professional wrestling, which is the kind 234 00:12:08,840 --> 00:12:09,560 Speaker 2: we just talked about. 235 00:12:09,559 --> 00:12:12,560 Speaker 1: In America, it's called professional wrestling. I'm a fan, by 236 00:12:12,600 --> 00:12:14,600 Speaker 1: the way, I think it's like a fantastic art, Like 237 00:12:14,880 --> 00:12:19,800 Speaker 1: it's just yeah, no, totally. Yeah. So theeter theater's. 238 00:12:19,440 --> 00:12:22,880 Speaker 2: Great, absolutely, and like those guys are great athletes. It's 239 00:12:22,920 --> 00:12:26,280 Speaker 2: just like, yeah, their objective is different from anyone else. 240 00:12:26,320 --> 00:12:31,080 Speaker 2: And yeah, if you've watched a lot of wrestling, you 241 00:12:31,120 --> 00:12:33,520 Speaker 2: can see why it exists, because like a lot of 242 00:12:33,720 --> 00:12:36,400 Speaker 2: like actual wrestling can be supremely boring if you're not 243 00:12:36,440 --> 00:12:37,120 Speaker 2: really into it. 244 00:12:37,880 --> 00:12:41,360 Speaker 1: Yeah, anyway, I mean, okay, So it's interesting to me 245 00:12:41,400 --> 00:12:43,360 Speaker 1: that wrestling. It makes sense and it makes me feel 246 00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:47,120 Speaker 1: good about humanity. That wrestling is probably older than stand 247 00:12:47,160 --> 00:12:49,160 Speaker 1: up and punch each other in the face back and forth, 248 00:12:49,440 --> 00:12:51,200 Speaker 1: which is what I would have first come up with. 249 00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:53,320 Speaker 1: If someone were to ask me what the oldest sport is, 250 00:12:53,360 --> 00:12:56,160 Speaker 1: I would have guessed boxing. And it makes me happy 251 00:12:56,240 --> 00:13:00,320 Speaker 1: that the foot race and wrestling pre date. And now 252 00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:02,240 Speaker 1: I say this as someone who is I know a 253 00:13:02,240 --> 00:13:04,160 Speaker 1: little bit about boxing and I don't know as much 254 00:13:04,160 --> 00:13:04,760 Speaker 1: about wrestling. 255 00:13:05,120 --> 00:13:07,160 Speaker 2: I don't think it's very interesting in the sense of 256 00:13:07,240 --> 00:13:09,199 Speaker 2: like even if you remember like when you were a 257 00:13:09,280 --> 00:13:12,440 Speaker 2: kid and you got into like a playground fight, Yeah, 258 00:13:12,440 --> 00:13:15,160 Speaker 2: there is something different when someone is sitting on your 259 00:13:15,280 --> 00:13:18,720 Speaker 2: chest and smacking you as opposed to and they just 260 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:22,560 Speaker 2: like get you from a distance. Yeah, that's true, and 261 00:13:22,640 --> 00:13:26,080 Speaker 2: so I can see why it happened first, you know 262 00:13:26,080 --> 00:13:26,520 Speaker 2: what I mean. 263 00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:29,360 Speaker 1: Like, also, it's just like it's more about control and 264 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:33,240 Speaker 1: less about destruction. I'm not trying to make a statement 265 00:13:33,280 --> 00:13:35,920 Speaker 1: about the sports, but the concept of stand here and 266 00:13:35,920 --> 00:13:38,199 Speaker 1: punch each other in the face versus like who can 267 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:41,839 Speaker 1: physically wrestle to the other the ground and dominate I 268 00:13:41,880 --> 00:13:43,400 Speaker 1: don't know whatever anyway, Okay. 269 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:47,160 Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know enough about boxing to like get 270 00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:49,280 Speaker 2: too deep into that, but I totally agree with you. 271 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:53,160 Speaker 1: There's like a whole there's like a fan mad at. 272 00:13:53,200 --> 00:13:56,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, a fight podcast could probably like do a whole 273 00:13:56,120 --> 00:13:58,480 Speaker 2: series on like this whole thing. 274 00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:03,640 Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so what style is he? So he's doing 275 00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:05,960 Speaker 1: this particular style. So he's doing the style which is 276 00:14:05,960 --> 00:14:06,640 Speaker 1: called Pelwani. 277 00:14:06,679 --> 00:14:08,960 Speaker 2: Now Pelwani even among all the selves of wrestling is like, 278 00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:13,360 Speaker 2: it's really really fascinating, partially because like its history is 279 00:14:13,400 --> 00:14:16,880 Speaker 2: barely documented in English except by a few people. And 280 00:14:17,440 --> 00:14:19,840 Speaker 2: anyone who's like interested in what we talk about today, 281 00:14:19,880 --> 00:14:22,400 Speaker 2: I encourage you to Reades Majumdar. He's like the probably 282 00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:24,720 Speaker 2: the greatest historian in the history of Indian wrestling. 283 00:14:25,560 --> 00:14:27,600 Speaker 1: Say his name, Islower, because people are gonna ask me. 284 00:14:27,720 --> 00:14:30,640 Speaker 1: His name is Majumdar, s majum Dar. Okay. 285 00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:35,000 Speaker 2: You could also read this guy called Joseph Alter, who's 286 00:14:35,040 --> 00:14:38,480 Speaker 2: an American professor, I believe. And there's also this English 287 00:14:38,480 --> 00:14:40,640 Speaker 2: writer called Graham Noble who's done a lot of really 288 00:14:40,680 --> 00:14:44,440 Speaker 2: good work. Okay, in fact, a lot some of what 289 00:14:44,480 --> 00:14:47,400 Speaker 2: we discussed about Gama in England has been beautifully documented 290 00:14:47,440 --> 00:14:49,840 Speaker 2: by him in the series of essays called Lion of 291 00:14:49,840 --> 00:14:54,640 Speaker 2: the Punjab, which which essentially goes deep into Gama's time 292 00:14:54,720 --> 00:14:56,440 Speaker 2: in England. 293 00:14:56,840 --> 00:14:59,520 Speaker 1: Okay, which we're gonna learn about, which we're gonna learn 294 00:14:59,520 --> 00:15:00,600 Speaker 1: about now. 295 00:15:01,240 --> 00:15:03,600 Speaker 2: Now, Perelwani has this long history in its own right, 296 00:15:05,040 --> 00:15:07,880 Speaker 2: and yet it's extremely interesting that it itself is like 297 00:15:08,120 --> 00:15:12,400 Speaker 2: a combination of like two even older styles almost so, 298 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:16,680 Speaker 2: so you know, like Indian Malayada at some point met 299 00:15:16,720 --> 00:15:20,000 Speaker 2: Persian Koshti and it became what we now know as 300 00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:24,920 Speaker 2: Pelwani till today. Kushti from Koshti is the Hindi word 301 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:28,880 Speaker 2: and you're the word for wrestling, okay, So it is 302 00:15:28,920 --> 00:15:33,440 Speaker 2: basically almost one thing now in India. Also, obviously you 303 00:15:33,480 --> 00:15:35,320 Speaker 2: had you know, the history of Gurukul's in a certain 304 00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:38,920 Speaker 2: manner of like traditional education, there was the akara that's 305 00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:41,000 Speaker 2: a system that's been around from like five hundred and 306 00:15:41,080 --> 00:15:43,160 Speaker 2: something ce five thirty seven. 307 00:15:43,200 --> 00:15:46,280 Speaker 1: I would say, okay, wait, what's a kara an. 308 00:15:46,840 --> 00:15:52,440 Speaker 2: It's it's basically like a living ashramo school for martial arts. 309 00:15:52,440 --> 00:15:54,000 Speaker 2: Like think of it as a dojo where you live 310 00:15:54,040 --> 00:15:56,120 Speaker 2: and work, like you don't just go home, you like 311 00:15:56,200 --> 00:15:57,880 Speaker 2: live then serve the master as well as you know 312 00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:01,960 Speaker 2: that whole thing. Yeah, So at some point this merged 313 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:05,920 Speaker 2: with like how wrestling and Telivani wrestling. So now wrestling 314 00:16:05,960 --> 00:16:10,520 Speaker 2: in India is essentially conducted through the akara system. 315 00:16:09,880 --> 00:16:13,440 Speaker 1: Okay, Which so if you want to become a wrestler, 316 00:16:13,480 --> 00:16:16,160 Speaker 1: you go live at your school among other things. 317 00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:19,000 Speaker 2: Yes, Like, so if you take the best way to 318 00:16:19,240 --> 00:16:21,960 Speaker 2: actually picture Bilani for those women encountered, it is like 319 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:25,440 Speaker 2: we're going to sort of quadrangulate from other things. So 320 00:16:25,520 --> 00:16:28,960 Speaker 2: if you take like the the tradition and the ritual 321 00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:33,960 Speaker 2: of sumo, and you take like the straight up intensity 322 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:36,360 Speaker 2: of like mixed martial arts, and if you take like 323 00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:39,240 Speaker 2: you know that all those stereotypes you have a warrior 324 00:16:39,280 --> 00:16:42,960 Speaker 2: amongst from shaolin, and you take like all the theatricality 325 00:16:43,280 --> 00:16:45,840 Speaker 2: and you know the history onics from professional wrestling, and 326 00:16:45,880 --> 00:16:49,360 Speaker 2: you married them all into one bastard child, you would 327 00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:50,440 Speaker 2: probably have to Havelani. 328 00:16:50,960 --> 00:16:54,800 Speaker 1: Wait, this sounds like the best sport. It's incredible, it's incredible, 329 00:16:54,800 --> 00:16:57,960 Speaker 1: sounds awesome. Oh, it's incredible. 330 00:16:58,000 --> 00:16:59,840 Speaker 2: And if you watch, if you watch a fight like 331 00:16:59,880 --> 00:17:02,640 Speaker 2: you see the similarities to sume ball. Most immediately, like 332 00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:05,000 Speaker 2: the partismans will approach each other and salute each other 333 00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:08,480 Speaker 2: that comes through the crowd. The arena is basically just 334 00:17:08,560 --> 00:17:12,080 Speaker 2: like this mud ring, and you know they'll they'll rub 335 00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:14,320 Speaker 2: mud over themselves and stuff. They rub the hands and 336 00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:17,720 Speaker 2: mud and then they'll start the fight. The referee is 337 00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:20,680 Speaker 2: basically mostly there to prevent legal blows like you can't 338 00:17:20,760 --> 00:17:22,919 Speaker 2: kick to the groin and things like that. And the 339 00:17:22,960 --> 00:17:25,560 Speaker 2: objective is basically pin the other person's shoulders for the 340 00:17:25,560 --> 00:17:29,600 Speaker 2: cow that you win. And it's really that simple, except 341 00:17:29,640 --> 00:17:34,320 Speaker 2: that it's not, you know, like bouts can go on 342 00:17:34,400 --> 00:17:39,720 Speaker 2: for hours like and rules yeah, and rules can vary 343 00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:41,760 Speaker 2: a bit with tournaments, like sometimes we will go on 344 00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:44,160 Speaker 2: till there's a victor. Usually there'll be like a set 345 00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:46,159 Speaker 2: time and by then you haven't figured one out. It 346 00:17:46,160 --> 00:17:47,280 Speaker 2: will be like a draw or something. 347 00:17:48,400 --> 00:17:49,320 Speaker 1: Okay, But. 348 00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:55,520 Speaker 2: With nuanswers that's the situation. And like with all things wrestling, 349 00:17:55,600 --> 00:17:57,800 Speaker 2: there's a lot more going on, like beneath the surface. 350 00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:01,040 Speaker 2: So just for instance, like give you an example, like 351 00:18:01,280 --> 00:18:04,359 Speaker 2: just take the surface, the literal surface. These guys fight on, 352 00:18:04,720 --> 00:18:06,840 Speaker 2: like I called it, like a mud earth and ring. 353 00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:12,960 Speaker 2: But the earth is prepared like with great amounts of care, 354 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:19,200 Speaker 2: almost like a xelatory, Like the right amount of oil, milk, water, 355 00:18:21,440 --> 00:18:25,080 Speaker 2: spices will be added because it has to be soft 356 00:18:25,200 --> 00:18:27,679 Speaker 2: enough that someone can fall on it repeatedly and not 357 00:18:27,760 --> 00:18:30,360 Speaker 2: get some lasting injury. But it has to be hard 358 00:18:30,480 --> 00:18:34,000 Speaker 2: enough that feet will find purchase and they won't slip. Okay, 359 00:18:34,840 --> 00:18:37,600 Speaker 2: A lot of places have their own recipes for preparing 360 00:18:37,840 --> 00:18:42,280 Speaker 2: just the earth which they will guard. Okay, so essentially 361 00:18:42,480 --> 00:18:43,960 Speaker 2: what I'm trying to say is that, like if you 362 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:46,280 Speaker 2: decide to become a wrestler, like it's not a career choice, 363 00:18:46,280 --> 00:18:48,240 Speaker 2: it's not a lifestyle, it's like your whole life. 364 00:18:48,440 --> 00:18:49,160 Speaker 1: You will go there. 365 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:51,000 Speaker 2: You will live, you will work there, you will clean 366 00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:53,600 Speaker 2: the place, you will learn to prepare, you will train. 367 00:18:54,040 --> 00:18:57,560 Speaker 2: Like the training is a thing all by its own, 368 00:18:57,640 --> 00:19:00,520 Speaker 2: Like they use these rustic training techniques that they've used 369 00:19:00,560 --> 00:19:02,280 Speaker 2: for literally hundreds of years. 370 00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:03,320 Speaker 1: M hmm. 371 00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:06,359 Speaker 2: They use no modern equipment till today. Like you won't 372 00:19:06,359 --> 00:19:09,240 Speaker 2: find a single dumb bell, barbell or traditional weight in 373 00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:12,600 Speaker 2: the place you might find a tractor tire. 374 00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:19,200 Speaker 1: All right, all right, some swim concessions to modern CrossFit, right, oh, Like. 375 00:19:19,240 --> 00:19:22,399 Speaker 2: The traditional thing is they have something like a doughnut 376 00:19:22,480 --> 00:19:25,320 Speaker 2: which you wear around the neck while doing squats, which 377 00:19:25,359 --> 00:19:29,040 Speaker 2: is made of stone or whatever. Like the endurance and 378 00:19:29,480 --> 00:19:31,200 Speaker 2: intensity training is actually. 379 00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:33,359 Speaker 1: Like extremely hardcore, as we will see. 380 00:19:34,359 --> 00:19:36,399 Speaker 2: And they've been doing this for hundreds of years, and 381 00:19:36,480 --> 00:19:38,720 Speaker 2: like nobody's only been like interfering with them in the 382 00:19:38,760 --> 00:19:41,040 Speaker 2: sense that like they've just been doing that thing for 383 00:19:41,160 --> 00:19:43,720 Speaker 2: hundreds of years at the time we get into this story. 384 00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:45,680 Speaker 1: Does I mean the British are going to suck it 385 00:19:45,760 --> 00:19:49,640 Speaker 1: up a lot of things? 386 00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:54,600 Speaker 2: But yes, always the case. Well, yeah, there's their actual 387 00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:57,360 Speaker 2: daily schedule. Is like like it's all it's a public 388 00:19:58,320 --> 00:20:00,240 Speaker 2: people talk about it publicly because. 389 00:20:00,080 --> 00:20:00,720 Speaker 1: Such a wild thing. 390 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:03,399 Speaker 2: The other thing that cricket is probably the most popular 391 00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:06,040 Speaker 2: sport in India, but wrestling is easily the second most popular, 392 00:20:06,080 --> 00:20:09,399 Speaker 2: irrespective what anyone says, Like TRPs don't really measure how 393 00:20:09,400 --> 00:20:11,359 Speaker 2: excited people get for a local wrestling event in the 394 00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:14,679 Speaker 2: villages and how many people come, but wrestlers are like 395 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:16,000 Speaker 2: local heroes, like big time. 396 00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:20,880 Speaker 1: Literally, all I know about cricket is from reading your 397 00:20:20,920 --> 00:20:27,080 Speaker 1: tweets and a movie I saw about anti imperial cricket 398 00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:28,320 Speaker 1: in India. 399 00:20:29,160 --> 00:20:33,800 Speaker 2: Oh you mean Lagan, Yeah yeah, oh that that film. 400 00:20:33,840 --> 00:20:36,160 Speaker 1: That's all I know about cricket is those two things. 401 00:20:36,440 --> 00:20:38,399 Speaker 2: That that that film is like a hot mess in 402 00:20:38,400 --> 00:20:39,200 Speaker 2: a whole different way. 403 00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:41,520 Speaker 1: Okay, we don't talk about that. 404 00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:44,800 Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, Like I could rant for a really 405 00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:46,560 Speaker 2: long time whether film. 406 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:47,760 Speaker 1: Yeah. 407 00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:52,080 Speaker 2: Anyway, So you're average wrestler, right, get somebody like three 408 00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:55,840 Speaker 2: in the morning, you start your day off, you perform 409 00:20:56,040 --> 00:20:58,760 Speaker 2: squats and push ups and like I'm talking about like 410 00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:01,919 Speaker 2: probably thousands of each. You'll run for five miles, then 411 00:21:01,960 --> 00:21:06,840 Speaker 2: you'll swim. Then you'll swim, spend some time lifting stones 412 00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:10,240 Speaker 2: and sandbags. Then about eight o'clock the teachers will watch 413 00:21:10,240 --> 00:21:14,560 Speaker 2: as you do actually like wrestling practice for about three hours, 414 00:21:15,160 --> 00:21:19,280 Speaker 2: maybe twenty five matches in a row. Then this usually 415 00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:21,880 Speaker 2: works in seniority, so like the most senior guys will 416 00:21:21,920 --> 00:21:24,040 Speaker 2: start first, so they have kind of shorter days than 417 00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:28,199 Speaker 2: the trainees. Obviously, like the grind is everywhere, you know, 418 00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:31,600 Speaker 2: at about ten o'clock, these guys will start chilling. They'll 419 00:21:31,600 --> 00:21:35,199 Speaker 2: eat food, they'll be gett like a full full on 420 00:21:35,280 --> 00:21:37,920 Speaker 2: oil massage, and then they'll go to sleep. Then they'll 421 00:21:37,920 --> 00:21:41,080 Speaker 2: get up again in the evening, get another massage, wrestle 422 00:21:41,119 --> 00:21:43,679 Speaker 2: for another two hours, have another meal, go to sleep. 423 00:21:44,359 --> 00:21:46,960 Speaker 2: Things maybe slightly more or less like somewhere, depending where 424 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:50,399 Speaker 2: you are. But one thing I should mention here is 425 00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:52,800 Speaker 2: I've just like mentioned food a couple of times, and 426 00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:54,840 Speaker 2: the food is going to play an integral part. 427 00:21:55,200 --> 00:21:55,720 Speaker 1: In a way. 428 00:21:56,000 --> 00:21:58,639 Speaker 2: The only reason where having this discussion is because of 429 00:21:58,680 --> 00:22:01,960 Speaker 2: the food. As I'll expels in at some point. Okay, 430 00:22:02,040 --> 00:22:03,800 Speaker 2: let's just put a pin in the food because it 431 00:22:04,119 --> 00:22:05,320 Speaker 2: really matters. 432 00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:11,399 Speaker 1: Okay, wait, but but speaking of food, what food should 433 00:22:11,440 --> 00:22:12,360 Speaker 1: we be sponsored by? 434 00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:16,119 Speaker 3: Oh that's like good, Yeah, that's like the hardest question 435 00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:18,480 Speaker 3: you could ask somebody of the spot. 436 00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:20,879 Speaker 4: But also answer it. 437 00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:28,080 Speaker 1: Yeah, sorry to do it all right, okay randomly pop Darts? 438 00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:29,879 Speaker 4: Great, great choice, great choice. 439 00:22:30,280 --> 00:22:32,800 Speaker 1: We are sponsored by pop Tarts, only not the actual 440 00:22:32,840 --> 00:22:34,480 Speaker 1: brand they have not actually given us. 441 00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:42,920 Speaker 6: Yes, pastries, not Kellogg because uh, don't don't look into 442 00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:47,880 Speaker 6: the history of that guy. 443 00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:51,919 Speaker 1: Is there a bastards on Kellogg? Oh? Yeah, there is 444 00:22:52,520 --> 00:23:02,320 Speaker 1: bagpie boy, howdy is there? Well? Like toaster Strudle, all 445 00:23:02,359 --> 00:23:06,639 Speaker 1: of our sponsors contain multitudes. They can be good or bad. 446 00:23:06,880 --> 00:23:09,520 Speaker 1: They wake up each morning like all of us, and 447 00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:19,240 Speaker 1: choose what actions they take. And here's those ads, and 448 00:23:19,320 --> 00:23:23,439 Speaker 1: we're back and we are learning about food. Well, we 449 00:23:23,480 --> 00:23:26,040 Speaker 1: put a pin in food. I'm just kind of hungry, 450 00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:29,280 Speaker 1: is what's happened? I've realized I am yeah, I. 451 00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:31,160 Speaker 4: Need you need you need a pop Dart. 452 00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:34,640 Speaker 1: I know I wish I had popped Arts, but not 453 00:23:34,720 --> 00:23:39,159 Speaker 1: actually a pop Dart. No, yeah, yeah, no, non Kellogg brand, 454 00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:42,280 Speaker 1: and all people and people there's really cool recipes to 455 00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:43,600 Speaker 1: make homemade pop charts. 456 00:23:44,520 --> 00:23:47,920 Speaker 4: Really yeah, then a lot of them are vegan to magpie. 457 00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:54,280 Speaker 1: Oh excellent, Okay for later, So what are we learning next? 458 00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:54,600 Speaker 1: All right? 459 00:23:54,760 --> 00:23:58,160 Speaker 2: So, so we were talking about the culture of wrestling 460 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:02,000 Speaker 2: and the kind of lifestyle and our pelvani in general. 461 00:24:02,359 --> 00:24:04,439 Speaker 1: So the thing is like the popularity of. 462 00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:06,760 Speaker 2: The more accomplished guys, like you cannot understate it, like 463 00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:09,080 Speaker 2: they and especially in the time we're talking about, they 464 00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:14,480 Speaker 2: were like local and national superstars for one culture, like 465 00:24:14,560 --> 00:24:17,119 Speaker 2: the wrestler has generally been like kind of a folk 466 00:24:17,280 --> 00:24:20,760 Speaker 2: cultural local hero and you know, like the that whole 467 00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:23,720 Speaker 2: like perception of them as like a warrior among who's 468 00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:26,520 Speaker 2: like this noble person who will stand up for right, 469 00:24:26,640 --> 00:24:30,800 Speaker 2: protect the weak and innocent from forces, etc. Like that 470 00:24:30,880 --> 00:24:34,120 Speaker 2: whole thing was very much existent. It's gone away now, 471 00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:37,000 Speaker 2: but he'll still like it is not a coincidence that 472 00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:40,240 Speaker 2: when the big Teamy TV version of the Ramayan was made, 473 00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:43,280 Speaker 2: the choice of guy to play Hanuman. 474 00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:47,160 Speaker 1: And for those I don't know, I'm sorry. So Hanuman 475 00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:48,639 Speaker 1: is like the monkey god. 476 00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:51,720 Speaker 2: He is known as an asthetic who is like again 477 00:24:51,840 --> 00:24:55,119 Speaker 2: someone who does a lot of really cool physical SUPERHEROI ish. 478 00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:56,400 Speaker 1: Things in the cost of Hayan. 479 00:24:57,040 --> 00:24:59,600 Speaker 2: But you know, he himself never married, like he was 480 00:24:59,640 --> 00:25:01,840 Speaker 2: just devot put it to his guru is like Lord 481 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:05,080 Speaker 2: Drama and that kind of stuff. So he's again the 482 00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:08,920 Speaker 2: vision of like the noble warrior monk in the context 483 00:25:08,920 --> 00:25:11,199 Speaker 2: of the Ramain itself. It is not a coincidence that 484 00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:14,600 Speaker 2: the guy chosen to play him in that was Dara Saying, 485 00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:18,000 Speaker 2: who was essentially another really super famous Pelwani wrestler. 486 00:25:18,960 --> 00:25:21,640 Speaker 1: Oh awesome, Okay, so there's that overlap. 487 00:25:21,760 --> 00:25:25,359 Speaker 2: So wrestling has had its effects on Bollywood back and 488 00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:28,200 Speaker 2: forth over the years, and we will touch upon some of. 489 00:25:28,119 --> 00:25:31,600 Speaker 1: Those, okay as well. I'm making a lot of promises, 490 00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:34,320 Speaker 1: but I'm going to keep all of them all right now, 491 00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:37,440 Speaker 1: this is your fiction writing, is showing you know you 492 00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:40,200 Speaker 1: that's what you do. You like lay the groundwork. No, 493 00:25:40,280 --> 00:25:41,640 Speaker 1: I'm excited. Yeah. 494 00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:45,320 Speaker 2: So another part of this is that Pelwani, like it 495 00:25:45,440 --> 00:25:48,520 Speaker 2: really in a big way, was promoted by a lot 496 00:25:48,560 --> 00:25:53,160 Speaker 2: of Muggle emperors and not least ball like the guy 497 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:55,720 Speaker 2: at the very top of the food chain. And I'm 498 00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:58,000 Speaker 2: talking Barber who founded the Mughal Empire. 499 00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:03,400 Speaker 1: I am completely ignorant. Can you tell me roughly when 500 00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:08,080 Speaker 1: that was. Oh yeah, I think I think they was 501 00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:11,800 Speaker 1: like rough with centuries. I don't know anything about so 502 00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:14,160 Speaker 1: if I know, if you're a little about Indian history, 503 00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:14,679 Speaker 1: I'm sorry. 504 00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:18,639 Speaker 2: So the Mga Empire was founded, whether like either twelve 505 00:26:18,760 --> 00:26:20,280 Speaker 2: or four or fifteen something. 506 00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:22,600 Speaker 1: I think it might be fifteenth first Battle of Pontyputh. 507 00:26:23,280 --> 00:26:26,240 Speaker 1: But okay, now I feel bad for putting you on 508 00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:26,600 Speaker 1: the spot. 509 00:26:27,400 --> 00:26:29,280 Speaker 2: Oh no, it's fine, it's fine. I actually feel bad. 510 00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:32,440 Speaker 2: I used to like know the exact year, and I 511 00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:39,440 Speaker 2: have somehow forgotten it. So I need fifteen twenty six. Yeah, 512 00:26:39,440 --> 00:26:40,960 Speaker 2: I had it on the tip of my tock. 513 00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:42,960 Speaker 1: It was fifteen. I should have gone with it. You know, 514 00:26:43,040 --> 00:26:47,520 Speaker 1: it looked cool. I know, opportunity we could do it again. 515 00:26:49,359 --> 00:26:50,600 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, so I said, you go. 516 00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:55,120 Speaker 2: So fifteen twenty six was the year, yeah, yeah, long yeah, 517 00:26:55,280 --> 00:26:58,000 Speaker 2: all right, yeah, so that's when he comes down from 518 00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:01,800 Speaker 2: a place called Summer, so essential. Barber claims lineage from 519 00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:07,240 Speaker 2: both Jengis and Timur on either side, claims being the 520 00:27:07,280 --> 00:27:08,000 Speaker 2: operative word. 521 00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:13,760 Speaker 1: I am going to be the stand in for the 522 00:27:13,840 --> 00:27:17,600 Speaker 1: American audience that doesn't know anything about this. Well, who 523 00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:19,960 Speaker 1: are they? Okay? So Jengis Khan. 524 00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:23,879 Speaker 2: I know Jengis Khan is Okay, you know Jengis Khan, right, Okay, 525 00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:27,840 Speaker 2: So yeah, another real skurt so to speak, occurred to 526 00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:30,320 Speaker 2: some people, and he was like a pretty evil guy 527 00:27:30,320 --> 00:27:32,160 Speaker 2: in a lot of ways, especially tow places he took over. 528 00:27:32,520 --> 00:27:34,720 Speaker 2: Was a guy known as Timur du La or Tamalalayan, 529 00:27:34,960 --> 00:27:37,600 Speaker 2: depending on where you learned about him. They also consider 530 00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:41,159 Speaker 2: two of the great Mongol conquerors of all time of 531 00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:46,119 Speaker 2: the Mongol Empire, and as is probably customary, now, Barber 532 00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:48,520 Speaker 2: was from royal family. He claimed he the senate from 533 00:27:48,520 --> 00:27:50,320 Speaker 2: both of them. But long in the short of it, 534 00:27:50,359 --> 00:27:52,119 Speaker 2: this kingdom is called summer Kan. Then he and his 535 00:27:52,160 --> 00:27:53,760 Speaker 2: people get chased to Wa. He doesn't get to be 536 00:27:53,840 --> 00:27:54,439 Speaker 2: king there. 537 00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:58,440 Speaker 7: So Baber decides, I will go and found my own 538 00:27:58,440 --> 00:28:01,760 Speaker 7: empire somewhere and some way he finds all the way 539 00:28:01,800 --> 00:28:04,280 Speaker 7: down in India where he defeats this guy called Ibrahim 540 00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:07,399 Speaker 7: Lodi to take over the throne of Delhi and found 541 00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:12,760 Speaker 7: what came to become the Moughal Empire. Okay, so Barber 542 00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:17,400 Speaker 7: is actually that super rare empire empire I'm saying, emperor 543 00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:20,560 Speaker 7: who is genuinely a tough guy and leads his guys 544 00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:23,760 Speaker 7: in the battle himself and stuff like that. And Barber 545 00:28:23,880 --> 00:28:26,919 Speaker 7: also had really yeah, he's also old school in the 546 00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:30,000 Speaker 7: sense that by virtue probably of being a leader on 547 00:28:30,040 --> 00:28:32,919 Speaker 7: the battlefield, he understands the value of theatrics and messaging 548 00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:36,959 Speaker 7: and propaganda. So, for instance, when on the on the 549 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:38,840 Speaker 7: eve of the Battle of Banipath, where he's going to 550 00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:41,880 Speaker 7: face Abraham Lodi and all, you know, and he is 551 00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:44,520 Speaker 7: definitely the underdog. Let's say in this fight, he's come 552 00:28:44,560 --> 00:28:46,680 Speaker 7: all the way, he's facing this big ass established emperor 553 00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:47,320 Speaker 7: of India. 554 00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:51,040 Speaker 2: And what happens is, this is how the story goes 555 00:28:51,080 --> 00:28:54,120 Speaker 2: that Barber used to enjoy a good drink. So what 556 00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:56,840 Speaker 2: he does is he has all these many fancy drinking 557 00:28:56,920 --> 00:29:00,840 Speaker 2: vessels made of gold, silver, emeralds, whatever, whatever, and he 558 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:03,080 Speaker 2: gets his army together and he tells them that if 559 00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:05,520 Speaker 2: we win this battle, I will never drink again. And 560 00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:07,320 Speaker 2: I'm so sure we'll win this battle, I'm going to 561 00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:09,280 Speaker 2: smash all my drinking cups right now in front of 562 00:29:09,280 --> 00:29:11,240 Speaker 2: you all. So that's what he does, and the next 563 00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:15,360 Speaker 2: apparently it worked because they won, so they stick to it. 564 00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:18,960 Speaker 2: I'm not sure, but I think he did, because there's 565 00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:21,600 Speaker 2: not too much talk of Barber drinking after that. But 566 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:23,200 Speaker 2: then he was also an emperor of India and he 567 00:29:23,200 --> 00:29:30,120 Speaker 2: could excize whatever he wanted, So yes, they choose your story, Yeah. 568 00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:31,040 Speaker 1: Okay, and on. 569 00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:33,880 Speaker 2: So this guy, actually, if you think about it, is 570 00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:37,440 Speaker 2: a perfect match for wrestling, with his combination of actual 571 00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:42,080 Speaker 2: toughness and theatrics. Yeah, and he's said to have been 572 00:29:42,120 --> 00:29:44,239 Speaker 2: like super enthusiastic about it to the point he used 573 00:29:44,280 --> 00:29:48,760 Speaker 2: to participate himself, and he was apparently really good. But 574 00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:51,760 Speaker 2: the same accounts, many of them also say that Barber 575 00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:54,480 Speaker 2: could tuck a man under each armpit and run so 576 00:29:54,600 --> 00:29:57,400 Speaker 2: fast that no one could catch him. So you should 577 00:29:57,440 --> 00:29:59,040 Speaker 2: decide how much of this you want to believe. 578 00:30:00,160 --> 00:30:02,880 Speaker 1: It is just like Mark Zuckerberg who hires fancy MMA 579 00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:05,120 Speaker 1: fighters to pretend like they're teaching him, and then he 580 00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:06,400 Speaker 1: does videos where. 581 00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:11,720 Speaker 2: He's like, I don't know, I don't know how this works. 582 00:30:11,760 --> 00:30:16,320 Speaker 2: Actually in the sense that do you remember this Roman 583 00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:19,440 Speaker 2: emperor called Domitian I think he was called It. 584 00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:21,400 Speaker 1: Makes if I also don't know the names of the 585 00:30:21,520 --> 00:30:22,400 Speaker 1: Roman emperor's either. 586 00:30:22,480 --> 00:30:24,720 Speaker 2: Now, this guy actually feel like it's very sad we 587 00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:28,240 Speaker 2: don't talk enough about him, because Kaligila gets like such 588 00:30:28,520 --> 00:30:32,560 Speaker 2: a lot of the press being like the psycho emperor, 589 00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:33,720 Speaker 2: which one. 590 00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:36,280 Speaker 1: Like fought the sea. I'm gonna get everyone's gonna be 591 00:30:36,360 --> 00:30:38,800 Speaker 1: so mad at me that I haven't gone this far 592 00:30:38,840 --> 00:30:39,280 Speaker 1: back yet. 593 00:30:39,560 --> 00:30:41,200 Speaker 2: Wasn't a canoe too fought the sea? 594 00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:44,120 Speaker 1: I don't, I don't know. I took three years or not. 595 00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:46,280 Speaker 1: I don't know how to say. Yeah, maybe not, maybe not. 596 00:30:47,040 --> 00:30:49,720 Speaker 2: But Domitian used to take part of races in a. 597 00:30:50,240 --> 00:30:52,320 Speaker 1: Bunch of Wait, you told me at the beginning that 598 00:30:52,360 --> 00:30:53,920 Speaker 1: I'm we're getting completely off track. 599 00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:59,040 Speaker 2: We should go back right Okay, wait, wait Notitia, we 600 00:30:59,040 --> 00:31:00,000 Speaker 2: heard talk about if. 601 00:30:59,880 --> 00:31:03,720 Speaker 1: We're talking about we're too far gone. This is true. 602 00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:04,680 Speaker 1: This is true, all right. 603 00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:09,480 Speaker 2: So Barber was a great ruler, okay, great patron of 604 00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:11,320 Speaker 2: wrestling and so on and so forth, and it carried 605 00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:13,640 Speaker 2: on and it became a really big deal, right like because. 606 00:31:14,720 --> 00:31:16,360 Speaker 1: During the empire, during the Mogul Empire. 607 00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:19,160 Speaker 2: Yeah, and then things go on this way for hundreds 608 00:31:19,200 --> 00:31:22,120 Speaker 2: of years, and then everything changed when not the fine nation, 609 00:31:22,160 --> 00:31:26,480 Speaker 2: when the British attack, which is pretty much the same 610 00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:31,560 Speaker 2: thing in a way. Yeah, So the British come visiting 611 00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:34,240 Speaker 2: as the British were wont to do. And then the 612 00:31:34,280 --> 00:31:36,400 Speaker 2: British stopped visiting and decided to stay, you know, as 613 00:31:36,400 --> 00:31:38,560 Speaker 2: the British want to do. And then they decided that 614 00:31:38,600 --> 00:31:40,480 Speaker 2: they just run the whole place as the British we 615 00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:41,200 Speaker 2: want to do. 616 00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:43,480 Speaker 1: And yeah, they're like good at it, why not let 617 00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:45,640 Speaker 1: them kick it wrong. Yeah. 618 00:31:45,680 --> 00:31:47,760 Speaker 2: So in the case of India, all this in the 619 00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:51,400 Speaker 2: context of our wrestling community overlaps with this one gentleman 620 00:31:52,080 --> 00:31:55,440 Speaker 2: by the name of Thomas Babington mcaulay. 621 00:31:56,120 --> 00:31:58,880 Speaker 1: That is the most English fake name I've ever heard. 622 00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:01,480 Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's an interesting character in the sense that 623 00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:07,400 Speaker 2: he's a Whig. So the Whigs were generally reformists. 624 00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:08,440 Speaker 1: And apparently McCaulay was. 625 00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:11,120 Speaker 2: Quite active in the anti slavery movement in England, so 626 00:32:11,160 --> 00:32:15,360 Speaker 2: that's a plus for him. But on the minor side, 627 00:32:15,400 --> 00:32:19,960 Speaker 2: he was also very into Western culture and he didn't 628 00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:22,880 Speaker 2: actually believe in anything else, so he kind of led 629 00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:25,560 Speaker 2: a movement to like defund every single college that only 630 00:32:25,640 --> 00:32:29,000 Speaker 2: taught like Indian subjects in Indian education and Eastern stuff 631 00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:31,520 Speaker 2: and didn't teach like the British curriculum. 632 00:32:31,840 --> 00:32:34,080 Speaker 1: You'd think if he didn't like anything but Western culture, 633 00:32:34,120 --> 00:32:35,760 Speaker 1: you'd go back to the west. 634 00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:39,160 Speaker 2: But that's actually like very much a British thing I've noticed, 635 00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:41,520 Speaker 2: and I noticed in the pop culture till today, like 636 00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:44,600 Speaker 2: till today, like shows made in twenty twenty two. We'll 637 00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:48,320 Speaker 2: talk about like communities that live in France, like in 638 00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:52,200 Speaker 2: rural France and judge local French people because he doesn't 639 00:32:52,200 --> 00:32:54,160 Speaker 2: come to the pub. But well, why should he come 640 00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:55,760 Speaker 2: to the pub, Like go back to England and go 641 00:32:55,800 --> 00:33:00,000 Speaker 2: to the pub. No, yeah, like you you want him 642 00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:02,760 Speaker 2: move everywhere else and naked your island, Like I don't 643 00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:03,840 Speaker 2: understand this trip. 644 00:33:04,440 --> 00:33:10,000 Speaker 1: Yeah. Unfortunately Americans didn't inherit that from the British. We 645 00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:12,160 Speaker 1: totally are famous for. 646 00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:14,520 Speaker 2: That either, right, right, Well Americans kind of went the 647 00:33:14,520 --> 00:33:16,520 Speaker 2: other way, right, Americans go everywhere and say it's better 648 00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:16,960 Speaker 2: at home. 649 00:33:17,800 --> 00:33:23,000 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's true. Well anyway, okay, so. 650 00:33:22,040 --> 00:33:25,560 Speaker 2: The British so and part of like this Western education 651 00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:30,959 Speaker 2: in India takes the form of like basically propagandizing the 652 00:33:30,960 --> 00:33:36,520 Speaker 2: Indian population about how Indians are generally inherently physically weaker 653 00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:38,120 Speaker 2: compared to the western white man. 654 00:33:38,200 --> 00:33:40,480 Speaker 1: You know, like a lot of this you never had 655 00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:42,600 Speaker 1: a chance stuff. So no, it was like a whole thing. 656 00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:48,200 Speaker 2: And it's interesting to think that this suddenly gets a 657 00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:50,760 Speaker 2: bunch of pushback in terms of counter propaganda. And the 658 00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:53,040 Speaker 2: people leading this charge are like the most unlikely people. 659 00:33:53,040 --> 00:33:55,280 Speaker 2: If you think about contextually, it's like the Maharajas and 660 00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:56,479 Speaker 2: the powerful people of India. 661 00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:58,920 Speaker 1: Okay, and if you think about it. 662 00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:01,240 Speaker 2: Like it is their collaboration at various stages, we'd enable 663 00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:02,959 Speaker 2: the British to gain a footoo to begin with. 664 00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:06,240 Speaker 1: Okay, but this rankles for some reason. 665 00:34:06,320 --> 00:34:08,600 Speaker 2: So a lot of stuff starts happening, Like you know, 666 00:34:08,680 --> 00:34:10,240 Speaker 2: people start writing. 667 00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:14,040 Speaker 1: Can you give me like that, what decades we're talking about? 668 00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:17,239 Speaker 2: So now we're talking about the eight so mccallaugh, and 669 00:34:17,239 --> 00:34:21,759 Speaker 2: stuff starts in like the eighteen forties, as did the 670 00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:23,000 Speaker 2: Telegraph around that time. 671 00:34:23,040 --> 00:34:23,359 Speaker 1: I think. 672 00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:25,799 Speaker 2: So essentially everything we're going to talk about is going 673 00:34:25,880 --> 00:34:28,320 Speaker 2: to be covered basically the time period between say eighteen 674 00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:33,120 Speaker 2: forty and nineteen sixty. Okay, So now we're talking about 675 00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:37,480 Speaker 2: like eighteen forties on eighteen sixties probably at this point. 676 00:34:38,080 --> 00:34:40,400 Speaker 1: Okay, and moving on. 677 00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:44,640 Speaker 2: So you start you start having these counterpropaganda movements, like, 678 00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:48,200 Speaker 2: for instance, in various ways like Ramamurti the professor, he 679 00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:52,200 Speaker 2: wrote a whole thing about the ways of physical education, 680 00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:54,320 Speaker 2: and he went around the country lecturing on the subject. 681 00:34:54,480 --> 00:34:57,360 Speaker 2: You know, there's a whate are prince who mission this 682 00:34:57,600 --> 00:35:02,000 Speaker 2: history of divine figures of Karnataka but and his region essentially, 683 00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:05,880 Speaker 2: But within that he sneaks like one and twenty two. 684 00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:09,400 Speaker 1: The yoga poses like a lot of the modern you know, a. 685 00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:13,400 Speaker 2: Lot of the modern yoga forms and like positions we 686 00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:16,040 Speaker 2: see now are like developed in various ways around this time. 687 00:35:16,120 --> 00:35:18,040 Speaker 2: Like there was a lot of no, we have it 688 00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:19,400 Speaker 2: too kind of stuff happening. 689 00:35:20,080 --> 00:35:22,760 Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense, you know, And. 690 00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:26,319 Speaker 2: You can figure out how much of this was like 691 00:35:26,360 --> 00:35:29,440 Speaker 2: personal pride versus like genuine national interest or anything of 692 00:35:29,480 --> 00:35:31,560 Speaker 2: that sort. I guess there's probably a combination of it 693 00:35:31,760 --> 00:35:37,240 Speaker 2: like everything else. But here's the thing, Like the natural 694 00:35:37,239 --> 00:35:39,520 Speaker 2: progression of this was like a lot of in a 695 00:35:39,600 --> 00:35:42,040 Speaker 2: lot of places, like a focal point or a really 696 00:35:42,120 --> 00:35:47,400 Speaker 2: like important counterpropaganda messaging tool for these guys was wrestling, 697 00:35:47,600 --> 00:35:52,000 Speaker 2: like our you know, our indigenous traditional wrestling, like I 698 00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:55,719 Speaker 2: say indigenous with their coach because it's indigenous and as 699 00:35:55,760 --> 00:35:58,680 Speaker 2: indigenous everything else, like the indigenous populations of India are 700 00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:01,000 Speaker 2: really separate from this conversition. 701 00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:02,320 Speaker 1: Honestly, they're the tribes of India. 702 00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:06,040 Speaker 2: Okay, but anyway, so this whole stuff is happening right, Like, 703 00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:08,600 Speaker 2: so a lot of Maharajas at this point actually have 704 00:36:08,680 --> 00:36:11,120 Speaker 2: their own court wrestler or wrestlers, like some will have 705 00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:13,240 Speaker 2: several wrestlers and want will be like their main champion. 706 00:36:13,680 --> 00:36:15,520 Speaker 2: And there's tournaments all over the place. A lot of 707 00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:17,520 Speaker 2: them are holding their own tournaments. They'll be holding other 708 00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:21,160 Speaker 2: kinds of like physical contests. So that's an environment at 709 00:36:21,160 --> 00:36:25,000 Speaker 2: this point. Now you fast forward a few decades with 710 00:36:25,080 --> 00:36:28,560 Speaker 2: this entire like thing happening in this counter movement sort 711 00:36:28,600 --> 00:36:32,919 Speaker 2: of happening, and we finally arrived all this time into 712 00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:35,040 Speaker 2: our discussion at Gama's birth. 713 00:36:36,440 --> 00:36:40,760 Speaker 1: Yeah, I love, I love a good thirty plus minutes context. 714 00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:43,600 Speaker 1: I'm not joking. That sounds sarcastic, except unless you've listened 715 00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:46,560 Speaker 1: to the show before, in which case you know, if anything, 716 00:36:46,600 --> 00:36:47,720 Speaker 1: you got to it sooner. 717 00:36:50,320 --> 00:36:52,719 Speaker 2: Well, well, a lot of this is still context to 718 00:36:52,800 --> 00:36:55,719 Speaker 2: this point. Now, Okay, it's typical for Gama and for 719 00:36:55,760 --> 00:36:59,920 Speaker 2: the era. Really we have three separate years, which I 720 00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:01,840 Speaker 2: given has his year of birth. So even for this 721 00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:05,160 Speaker 2: more basic of fact, you get to choose eighteen seventy eight, 722 00:37:05,239 --> 00:37:07,480 Speaker 2: eighteen eighty and eighteen eighty two. These are the three 723 00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:08,560 Speaker 2: years generally given. 724 00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:11,920 Speaker 1: Okay, even year, that's what's important here. 725 00:37:11,960 --> 00:37:15,680 Speaker 2: Definitely even yere Usually eighteen eighty is taken as the year, 726 00:37:16,160 --> 00:37:18,200 Speaker 2: although you know the fact that lies neatly between the 727 00:37:18,239 --> 00:37:21,640 Speaker 2: other two, and like, if you take it as the year, 728 00:37:22,200 --> 00:37:24,040 Speaker 2: the fact that we know for a fact Gama died 729 00:37:24,040 --> 00:37:27,200 Speaker 2: in nineteen sixteen means that everything his age, death, year 730 00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:29,680 Speaker 2: of birth, everything becomes a nice round number. So I'm 731 00:37:29,680 --> 00:37:32,759 Speaker 2: sure that helps with the convenience. Yeah, and it's so 732 00:37:32,840 --> 00:37:34,920 Speaker 2: convenient that I'm going to do exactly that and say 733 00:37:34,960 --> 00:37:36,319 Speaker 2: he was born in nineteen eighty. 734 00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:40,600 Speaker 1: Great, I can't believe there was any doubt. Yeah. 735 00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:43,400 Speaker 2: Yeah, So when he was born, his name was Mia 736 00:37:43,400 --> 00:37:46,480 Speaker 2: Gulam Mohammad Bucksh. But as I said, you know, he's 737 00:37:46,480 --> 00:37:51,040 Speaker 2: from a Kashmiri Muslim family and they were settled at 738 00:37:51,080 --> 00:37:53,040 Speaker 2: the time I think in dat. Yeah, his father was 739 00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:57,160 Speaker 2: like his whole family. He was born into a family 740 00:37:57,160 --> 00:37:57,959 Speaker 2: of wrestlers. 741 00:37:58,280 --> 00:38:02,600 Speaker 1: How how common. I only know a little bit about 742 00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:04,320 Speaker 1: the religious I know there's a lot of religious tension 743 00:38:04,320 --> 00:38:09,800 Speaker 1: in India at various points like how common is how 744 00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:12,319 Speaker 1: common is it? How likely was it that he was 745 00:38:12,320 --> 00:38:14,960 Speaker 1: from a Muslim family? Was that like fairly integrated at 746 00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:15,719 Speaker 1: the time or like. 747 00:38:16,320 --> 00:38:18,400 Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, there were lots of Muslim in fact, like 748 00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:20,040 Speaker 2: a lot of the leading wrestlers in India at the 749 00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:20,880 Speaker 2: time were Muslims. 750 00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:24,400 Speaker 1: Okay, cool, so as we'll see, like yeah. 751 00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:27,760 Speaker 2: There's both, Like for instance, on his famous tour to England, 752 00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:29,839 Speaker 2: there were a lot of Muslims, but there was also 753 00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:30,800 Speaker 2: a Hindu on the trip. 754 00:38:31,239 --> 00:38:36,080 Speaker 1: Cool. So much like that sports movie that is clearly 755 00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:38,840 Speaker 1: good and you have no qualms about about cricket. 756 00:38:39,880 --> 00:38:42,600 Speaker 2: Oh yes, yes, that that incredible film. 757 00:38:42,920 --> 00:38:44,920 Speaker 1: I liked the songs. I thought the songs were good. 758 00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:47,680 Speaker 1: Let's I like music anyway. 759 00:38:48,920 --> 00:38:52,400 Speaker 2: So Gama was essentially born to be a wrestling I 760 00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:55,000 Speaker 2: mean that like pretty much literally like from a family 761 00:38:55,040 --> 00:38:59,440 Speaker 2: of belwan's. His grandfather was one. His father, whose name 762 00:38:59,480 --> 00:39:01,880 Speaker 2: was Aziz, was one. He was a very renowned wrestler. 763 00:39:02,239 --> 00:39:06,520 Speaker 2: He was the court wrestler I think in Datia. His uncle, 764 00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:11,520 Speaker 2: whose name is Ian, was a wrestler. His brother whose 765 00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:13,439 Speaker 2: name I'm going to give you his name, whose brother. 766 00:39:13,520 --> 00:39:15,840 Speaker 2: His brother's name is Imam Bucksh. Like we should remember 767 00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:17,120 Speaker 2: that name. It's going to come up a lot. His 768 00:39:17,239 --> 00:39:21,680 Speaker 2: brother was like, is a seriously renowned wrestler, Like if 769 00:39:21,719 --> 00:39:24,839 Speaker 2: Gama had not existed, this is the guy who we'd 770 00:39:24,880 --> 00:39:28,000 Speaker 2: probably talk about, what is the greatest of all time? Okay, 771 00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:32,239 Speaker 2: So essentially he comes from a really really star like 772 00:39:32,360 --> 00:39:35,480 Speaker 2: star studed lineage of wrestlers. So the question of what 773 00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:36,839 Speaker 2: he was going to do with his life, I don't 774 00:39:36,840 --> 00:39:38,040 Speaker 2: think was in doubt for a second. 775 00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:41,120 Speaker 1: He's going to do thousands of squats today, That's what 776 00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:43,879 Speaker 1: As soon as he was born, they were like, yeah, kids, 777 00:39:43,880 --> 00:39:45,160 Speaker 1: you're going to do squads. Now. 778 00:39:45,200 --> 00:39:47,160 Speaker 2: Having said that, like being born into a family of 779 00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:48,960 Speaker 2: wrestlers happens to a lot of people, and becoming the 780 00:39:48,960 --> 00:39:50,880 Speaker 2: greatest wrestler ever has happened to one person. 781 00:39:50,920 --> 00:39:52,640 Speaker 1: So there's a bit of a gap there. Okay. 782 00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:57,839 Speaker 2: They say that like he was obsessed with wrestling from 783 00:39:57,840 --> 00:40:02,680 Speaker 2: the moment he could talk, But he was five years 784 00:40:02,719 --> 00:40:07,359 Speaker 2: old when they started training him, So I don't know 785 00:40:07,440 --> 00:40:10,160 Speaker 2: how much like obsession of five year old actually shows 786 00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:14,200 Speaker 2: for wrestling. So again it's choos whether the family decided 787 00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:16,120 Speaker 2: he was obsessed to he was actually obsessed or whatever 788 00:40:16,120 --> 00:40:16,560 Speaker 2: at that point. 789 00:40:16,680 --> 00:40:20,319 Speaker 1: Yeah, he wanted to be a paleontologist, but they were 790 00:40:20,360 --> 00:40:22,880 Speaker 1: like wrestling wrestling. 791 00:40:22,840 --> 00:40:23,840 Speaker 6: So it. 792 00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:27,840 Speaker 2: The part that's not really debatable is like almost immediately 793 00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:30,239 Speaker 2: he shows like super great aptitude for the workout part 794 00:40:30,239 --> 00:40:31,520 Speaker 2: of it, which is all he gets to do. Like 795 00:40:31,560 --> 00:40:33,600 Speaker 2: the training would start with like any other like any 796 00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:34,719 Speaker 2: other apprentice, you. 797 00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:36,600 Speaker 1: Know, sweeping, cleaning. 798 00:40:37,680 --> 00:40:41,480 Speaker 2: In time, learning to like you know, prepare the fighting surface, 799 00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:46,480 Speaker 2: doing like strength and endurance training, working on like essentially 800 00:40:46,560 --> 00:40:48,680 Speaker 2: learning the discipline and getting used to like living your 801 00:40:48,680 --> 00:40:53,240 Speaker 2: life in a super regimented style. Yeah, which is required 802 00:40:53,239 --> 00:40:55,759 Speaker 2: to be a wrestler before you even become like so, 803 00:40:55,800 --> 00:40:58,680 Speaker 2: for instance, like Gama never actually wrestled an opponent in 804 00:40:58,800 --> 00:41:02,920 Speaker 2: competition till he was fifteen years old, even though even 805 00:41:02,960 --> 00:41:05,560 Speaker 2: though like so, he never competed against someone outside his 806 00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:11,040 Speaker 2: own training spaces till ten years after he started training. Yeah, 807 00:41:11,120 --> 00:41:13,920 Speaker 2: well that's how much time he was spent like essentially, 808 00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:16,120 Speaker 2: like you know, it's like while you were having fun, 809 00:41:16,160 --> 00:41:17,080 Speaker 2: I was studying the blade. 810 00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:22,000 Speaker 1: Yeah, he was studying the wrestling like like literally, no wonder. 811 00:41:22,320 --> 00:41:25,279 Speaker 1: I know very little about Comma going into this, but 812 00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:27,600 Speaker 1: one of the things I know to spoil some part 813 00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:29,279 Speaker 1: of is I think a lot of Western wrestlers didn't 814 00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:31,280 Speaker 1: want to wrestle him. No fucking wonder. 815 00:41:31,840 --> 00:41:37,440 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's fascinating like to like listen 816 00:41:37,480 --> 00:41:39,440 Speaker 2: to the story and the way it worked. 817 00:41:39,480 --> 00:41:43,279 Speaker 1: And there was this very old joke about golf. 818 00:41:43,920 --> 00:41:46,480 Speaker 2: Like essentially like there's this group of guys who like 819 00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:48,560 Speaker 2: you know, the amateurs, and they play at their golf 820 00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:51,680 Speaker 2: club or whatever. They play like there's four people play, 821 00:41:51,760 --> 00:41:53,560 Speaker 2: you know, they team up into a team and you play, 822 00:41:53,600 --> 00:41:55,040 Speaker 2: and they get them there's only three of them. 823 00:41:55,040 --> 00:41:55,959 Speaker 1: One day, they really need. 824 00:41:55,840 --> 00:41:59,000 Speaker 2: A fourth to blade. And there's this guy who they've 825 00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:01,000 Speaker 2: never seen. He's like, I join in the golf club today. 826 00:42:01,280 --> 00:42:02,759 Speaker 2: I don't know anyone. So they're like, why don't you 827 00:42:02,800 --> 00:42:05,239 Speaker 2: play with us? And then on the way out to play, 828 00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:06,799 Speaker 2: they ask him how long have you been playing? And 829 00:42:06,840 --> 00:42:10,640 Speaker 2: he's like, oh, today's my first day. So they're like, 830 00:42:10,800 --> 00:42:13,439 Speaker 2: bloody hell, you know, like this guy's going to ruin 831 00:42:13,480 --> 00:42:15,640 Speaker 2: it if you're playing with a guy who's never played before. 832 00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:18,160 Speaker 2: And they go there and essentially like he's so good, 833 00:42:18,280 --> 00:42:20,920 Speaker 2: like he's lapping them, all of them. And then at 834 00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:22,759 Speaker 2: some point his partner asked, like I thought he said 835 00:42:22,760 --> 00:42:24,960 Speaker 2: you just started playing today and he's like, yeah, today's 836 00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:25,520 Speaker 2: my first day. 837 00:42:25,560 --> 00:42:27,080 Speaker 1: I was learning for eighteen years. 838 00:42:30,840 --> 00:42:33,680 Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's kind of like how Gama shows up 839 00:42:33,680 --> 00:42:34,280 Speaker 2: at fifteen. 840 00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:36,759 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, all ought to be fair. A lot of 841 00:42:36,800 --> 00:42:39,520 Speaker 1: them who show up like this is the systems to say, like, 842 00:42:39,880 --> 00:42:42,799 Speaker 1: imagine the pressure. You've been spending two thirds of your 843 00:42:42,800 --> 00:42:45,120 Speaker 1: life doing this and it's your first competition. But so 844 00:42:45,200 --> 00:42:49,719 Speaker 1: has everyone else. Yeah. I didn't like the competitions I 845 00:42:49,760 --> 00:42:52,320 Speaker 1: had to enter as a kid after like three. 846 00:42:52,120 --> 00:42:55,040 Speaker 2: Months, and in all honestly, the fifteenth thing is because 847 00:42:55,080 --> 00:42:58,320 Speaker 2: he's like a prodigy, like usually didn't make you wait longer. 848 00:42:58,880 --> 00:42:59,200 Speaker 1: Okay. 849 00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:02,760 Speaker 2: So like when I say he goes into competition at fifteen, 850 00:43:02,760 --> 00:43:04,359 Speaker 2: he's not fighting fifteen year olds. 851 00:43:04,360 --> 00:43:08,120 Speaker 1: There are no age groups in this stuff. Wow, Okay, 852 00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:10,399 Speaker 1: so that's a cool. 853 00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:12,520 Speaker 2: That's an important thing to keep in mind, Like there's 854 00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:15,080 Speaker 2: no like fifteen to seventeen age group. It's like, if 855 00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:19,480 Speaker 2: you're willing to fight, you'll fight everyone, Okay. Otherwise wait 856 00:43:19,520 --> 00:43:21,759 Speaker 2: till you're ready, Like we're not doing this like make 857 00:43:21,800 --> 00:43:24,680 Speaker 2: exception for like a juniors league. 858 00:43:25,800 --> 00:43:27,160 Speaker 1: And that's hardcore, all right. 859 00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:29,680 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it's hard go Like I mean it's it. 860 00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:32,959 Speaker 2: It's genuinely like dogg eat dog and then that dog 861 00:43:33,000 --> 00:43:33,919 Speaker 2: eats its own tail. 862 00:43:34,440 --> 00:43:41,240 Speaker 1: Yeah, but you know a woney ear tail. H Yeah. Stuff, 863 00:43:42,160 --> 00:43:44,359 Speaker 1: This is the worst one I've ever done. This is 864 00:43:45,640 --> 00:43:48,520 Speaker 1: instead of the greatest of all time, this is the 865 00:43:48,760 --> 00:43:51,920 Speaker 1: this is the vote. This is the worst of all time. 866 00:43:52,080 --> 00:44:02,759 Speaker 1: Vote unlike these products ads. And we're back, and we've 867 00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:06,719 Speaker 1: all forgotten what came before the path break, the part 868 00:44:06,719 --> 00:44:09,560 Speaker 1: where I was talking. We didn't forget about how hardcore 869 00:44:09,600 --> 00:44:10,640 Speaker 1: this fifteen year old is. 870 00:44:10,680 --> 00:44:15,120 Speaker 2: Okay, so so anyway, So an aspect of like Gama 871 00:44:15,239 --> 00:44:17,360 Speaker 2: like the human being as opposed to Gama the wrestler 872 00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:19,640 Speaker 2: or Gama the superhero that doesn't get talking enough, is 873 00:44:19,680 --> 00:44:22,160 Speaker 2: like a lot of his personal life was basically marred 874 00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:25,879 Speaker 2: by a constant tragedy. Okay, and it starts really early, 875 00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:27,960 Speaker 2: so like his training starts when he's five. When he's 876 00:44:27,960 --> 00:44:32,480 Speaker 2: about eight years old, his father dies and it's away 877 00:44:32,480 --> 00:44:36,680 Speaker 2: from home and his grandfather takes away his training. And 878 00:44:36,719 --> 00:44:39,080 Speaker 2: the reason I say this first is because at some 879 00:44:39,200 --> 00:44:42,640 Speaker 2: point the decision was made that we to spare this 880 00:44:42,760 --> 00:44:45,720 Speaker 2: child from dealing with death at such a young age. 881 00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:50,839 Speaker 1: We won't tell him that his dad's dead. Okay, yeah, 882 00:44:50,840 --> 00:44:52,319 Speaker 1: that doesn't usually go well. 883 00:44:52,360 --> 00:44:54,560 Speaker 2: All right, Yeah, it went as about as well as 884 00:44:54,600 --> 00:44:56,840 Speaker 2: you'd expect, because apparently, like the kid used to sneak 885 00:44:56,840 --> 00:44:58,640 Speaker 2: out at night and run through the streets looking for 886 00:44:58,719 --> 00:45:03,839 Speaker 2: his dad. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, it was pretty messed up. 887 00:45:04,640 --> 00:45:06,840 Speaker 2: So anyway, the plan to like protect him from the 888 00:45:06,840 --> 00:45:09,080 Speaker 2: reality of dad didn't really work out, because a year later, 889 00:45:09,120 --> 00:45:09,919 Speaker 2: the grandfather died. 890 00:45:10,760 --> 00:45:13,719 Speaker 1: Okay, what are they dying of? I'm just guessing to 891 00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:17,279 Speaker 1: break so I'm not really mentioned. I don't know. Then 892 00:45:17,280 --> 00:45:19,359 Speaker 1: I must be to bur It's nineteenth century. They died 893 00:45:19,360 --> 00:45:22,040 Speaker 1: of TV. Okay, he's a grandfather. 894 00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:23,920 Speaker 2: I was ressumys old. The father, I'm sure is like 895 00:45:23,960 --> 00:45:25,360 Speaker 2: something certain and unexpected. 896 00:45:25,719 --> 00:45:28,400 Speaker 1: Yeah okay, fair enough. Okay, So at this point the 897 00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:29,800 Speaker 1: uncle takes over the training. 898 00:45:30,200 --> 00:45:36,320 Speaker 2: Okay, okay, And so they're a very close knit family 899 00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:36,759 Speaker 2: and all that. 900 00:45:36,880 --> 00:45:38,920 Speaker 1: But his uncle appears to have been like some kind 901 00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:39,920 Speaker 1: of reverse. 902 00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:44,920 Speaker 2: Iro all right, because his idea was moral support, and 903 00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:47,319 Speaker 2: he constantly tells the kid, like, all, your dad really 904 00:45:47,360 --> 00:45:49,440 Speaker 2: wanted for you to be the greatest wrestler in the world. 905 00:45:49,640 --> 00:45:52,000 Speaker 1: You must make your father proud by becoming the greatest 906 00:45:52,040 --> 00:45:52,880 Speaker 1: wrestler in the world. 907 00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:57,600 Speaker 2: So with the result, this kid gets even more obsessed 908 00:45:57,640 --> 00:46:01,279 Speaker 2: with the whole wrestling thing. Yeah, you could probably make 909 00:46:01,280 --> 00:46:03,840 Speaker 2: the case that he was essentially gaslight by his family 910 00:46:03,880 --> 00:46:05,279 Speaker 2: into becoming the greatest of all the time. 911 00:46:06,400 --> 00:46:10,440 Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't sound it also sounds like myth making too, right, 912 00:46:10,640 --> 00:46:13,799 Speaker 1: Like you know, like, oh, yeah, of course this kid 913 00:46:13,880 --> 00:46:15,960 Speaker 1: was the most obsessed kid in the world and that's 914 00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:18,880 Speaker 1: why he was the best. It's like, you know, like 915 00:46:18,880 --> 00:46:21,160 Speaker 1: I wonder how much that was true and how much 916 00:46:21,200 --> 00:46:24,759 Speaker 1: that's myth making, you know. Yeah, I mean he was 917 00:46:24,800 --> 00:46:26,680 Speaker 1: previously obsessed. He was very good at it, and he 918 00:46:26,680 --> 00:46:27,719 Speaker 1: spent all his time doing it. 919 00:46:29,200 --> 00:46:32,040 Speaker 2: Yeah, and I would believe this part about it because 920 00:46:32,080 --> 00:46:37,400 Speaker 2: like pays parenting, welcome to but nineteenth century dacy parenting, 921 00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:42,160 Speaker 2: I'm sure was even more intense. And I get it 922 00:46:42,239 --> 00:46:46,000 Speaker 2: because like it's the kind of like emotional sort of 923 00:46:46,560 --> 00:46:48,760 Speaker 2: blackmail that like happens a lot in India. 924 00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:54,360 Speaker 1: Yeah, but yeah, okay, again, like I'm. 925 00:46:54,200 --> 00:46:56,480 Speaker 2: Sure this happened to a lot of people, Like this 926 00:46:56,640 --> 00:47:00,000 Speaker 2: was done to a lot of people. Like I think 927 00:47:00,320 --> 00:47:03,280 Speaker 2: all the stuff that we discuss around what this person does, 928 00:47:03,400 --> 00:47:07,080 Speaker 2: I think should in one sense be considered separate from 929 00:47:07,120 --> 00:47:09,400 Speaker 2: like what this person themselves is done to like end 930 00:47:09,480 --> 00:47:12,880 Speaker 2: up as the recipient of all these accolades. It's like, 931 00:47:13,440 --> 00:47:15,000 Speaker 2: I'm sure a lot of people got gas lighted by 932 00:47:15,000 --> 00:47:17,239 Speaker 2: their family. Do you must be the greatest ever? Your 933 00:47:17,280 --> 00:47:19,880 Speaker 2: deceased uncle would have wanted only this whatever, Like, but 934 00:47:21,120 --> 00:47:23,600 Speaker 2: at the end of the day, I'm not saying working 935 00:47:23,680 --> 00:47:25,319 Speaker 2: it working is a good thing either. So it's a 936 00:47:25,320 --> 00:47:30,440 Speaker 2: whole complicated conversation. Yeah, but I guess it takes a 937 00:47:30,440 --> 00:47:36,520 Speaker 2: specific combination of like gaslighting and obsession and circumstances and 938 00:47:36,520 --> 00:47:37,319 Speaker 2: so on and so forth. 939 00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:40,840 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Okay, so uncle's teaching him. 940 00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:44,160 Speaker 2: Uncle's teaching him and anyway, so he's always been pretty 941 00:47:44,160 --> 00:47:47,280 Speaker 2: obsessive apparently about being very good, but now he becomes 942 00:47:47,360 --> 00:47:50,000 Speaker 2: like super obsessive, and he starts getting this reputation like 943 00:47:50,040 --> 00:47:53,000 Speaker 2: locally and like within the community and even in the 944 00:47:53,040 --> 00:47:56,440 Speaker 2: area of being like this like legendary level workout warrior. 945 00:47:58,239 --> 00:48:01,160 Speaker 2: And Okay, so at this point, like he's still on 946 00:48:01,200 --> 00:48:03,839 Speaker 2: a pure plant based diet most for the most part, 947 00:48:03,880 --> 00:48:07,960 Speaker 2: apart from milk, Like, so he's basically having fruit, milk, 948 00:48:08,040 --> 00:48:11,000 Speaker 2: and almonds at this point, Like he did not add 949 00:48:11,120 --> 00:48:14,080 Speaker 2: meat to like several years later, at which point they 950 00:48:14,120 --> 00:48:16,960 Speaker 2: start having this thing called Yucky. A lot of Muslim 951 00:48:17,000 --> 00:48:20,200 Speaker 2: wrestlers swear by it in terms of building strength. It's 952 00:48:20,280 --> 00:48:23,640 Speaker 2: a drink which is made from boiling bones, bones, joints 953 00:48:23,680 --> 00:48:24,360 Speaker 2: and tendons. 954 00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:27,160 Speaker 1: Okay, and. 955 00:48:28,719 --> 00:48:30,759 Speaker 2: Anyway, at this point, like our guy is still doing 956 00:48:30,800 --> 00:48:33,120 Speaker 2: pit digging and stuff like that. You know, you turn 957 00:48:33,120 --> 00:48:36,480 Speaker 2: over the earth ring conditioning, strength training, et cetera. And 958 00:48:36,520 --> 00:48:39,040 Speaker 2: as it turns out, like these workout habits are about 959 00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:42,880 Speaker 2: like put him on the map quite spectacularly, because what 960 00:48:42,960 --> 00:48:46,960 Speaker 2: happens is you're the Maaje of Jodpur has this physical 961 00:48:47,080 --> 00:48:51,399 Speaker 2: conditioning Splash Endurance tournament when Gama's about ten years old. 962 00:48:52,239 --> 00:48:54,319 Speaker 2: Now this is the part I've never actually been very 963 00:48:54,320 --> 00:48:56,200 Speaker 2: clear about. But somehow this ten year old kid finds 964 00:48:56,239 --> 00:48:59,880 Speaker 2: himself in the tournament along with about four hundred others, 965 00:49:00,239 --> 00:49:02,279 Speaker 2: we like, full grown men, like you know, if you're 966 00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:04,160 Speaker 2: writing the movie, if you're writing a movie, this just 967 00:49:04,200 --> 00:49:05,799 Speaker 2: the part where you ran away from home to get 968 00:49:05,800 --> 00:49:06,920 Speaker 2: into the tournament or whatever. 969 00:49:07,080 --> 00:49:10,319 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, totally. But he's in the tournament. We know 970 00:49:10,360 --> 00:49:10,959 Speaker 1: this for a fact. 971 00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:13,400 Speaker 2: Like, but all we know uncles like go show you know, like, 972 00:49:13,440 --> 00:49:14,839 Speaker 2: we don't know how it happened, but he's there. 973 00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:18,160 Speaker 1: Yeah, you can't come home until you win. See that's 974 00:49:18,160 --> 00:49:20,000 Speaker 1: the other way you'd write the Bollywood story, wouldn't you. 975 00:49:20,080 --> 00:49:26,120 Speaker 2: I have no idea, Like anyway, So this tournament is 976 00:49:26,160 --> 00:49:28,400 Speaker 2: basically essentially what's going to happen is they're all going 977 00:49:28,480 --> 00:49:32,680 Speaker 2: to do squats, okay, And the way it works is 978 00:49:32,680 --> 00:49:34,640 Speaker 2: like they're all going to start doing squats, and I 979 00:49:34,640 --> 00:49:37,319 Speaker 2: guess they have some like counting mechanism and guys are 980 00:49:37,320 --> 00:49:39,760 Speaker 2: basically going to drop out as they drop out, okay, 981 00:49:40,000 --> 00:49:43,280 Speaker 2: it's like last man standing or last man still squatting. 982 00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:47,000 Speaker 1: Whatever. Yeah. So anyway, like four. 983 00:49:46,840 --> 00:49:48,880 Speaker 2: Hundred of these full grown men, well three ninety nine 984 00:49:48,880 --> 00:49:51,000 Speaker 2: full grown men and one ten year old kids start 985 00:49:51,680 --> 00:49:55,200 Speaker 2: after like after like a certain amount of time, like 986 00:49:55,760 --> 00:49:58,000 Speaker 2: there's fifteen of them left. One of them is the 987 00:49:58,040 --> 00:50:00,480 Speaker 2: ten year old kid, at which one in the mara 988 00:50:00,960 --> 00:50:03,080 Speaker 2: and this Maraja is like blown away. So he's like 989 00:50:03,120 --> 00:50:04,960 Speaker 2: he just stops the whole tournament and he declares the 990 00:50:04,960 --> 00:50:06,000 Speaker 2: ten year old kid the winner. 991 00:50:06,080 --> 00:50:06,759 Speaker 1: Just shame on. 992 00:50:06,719 --> 00:50:13,480 Speaker 2: Your men, holy shit, all right, all right, all right, 993 00:50:13,600 --> 00:50:15,359 Speaker 2: and then he like he takes the kid under his wing, 994 00:50:15,360 --> 00:50:16,879 Speaker 2: he's like, you will train in my court. 995 00:50:17,760 --> 00:50:20,120 Speaker 1: All right. So now like this ten year. 996 00:50:20,040 --> 00:50:22,319 Speaker 2: Old kid is basically part of like he's got like 997 00:50:22,440 --> 00:50:24,080 Speaker 2: he's got like a progression plan. 998 00:50:25,120 --> 00:50:28,439 Speaker 1: Is this is there already movies about him anyway? All right? 999 00:50:28,560 --> 00:50:30,480 Speaker 2: So the interesting about the movies about him is that, 1000 00:50:30,560 --> 00:50:33,000 Speaker 2: like I think one was made which generally drew very well. 1001 00:50:33,040 --> 00:50:35,359 Speaker 2: He's the the film rights in India at least are 1002 00:50:35,360 --> 00:50:39,200 Speaker 2: owned by a certain actor who's sitting on them. But like, 1003 00:50:39,239 --> 00:50:41,319 Speaker 2: I don't know, maybe you'll watch our podcast and make it. 1004 00:50:42,160 --> 00:50:46,239 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, anyway, so. 1005 00:50:48,719 --> 00:50:52,480 Speaker 2: We're talking, all right, the wing, So the Maraja takes 1006 00:50:52,520 --> 00:50:54,600 Speaker 2: him under the wing and he's there. I mean, this 1007 00:50:54,719 --> 00:50:57,080 Speaker 2: is basically more about like how stubborn and dogged the 1008 00:50:57,160 --> 00:50:59,600 Speaker 2: kid is, because like it turns out that we don't 1009 00:50:59,640 --> 00:51:01,480 Speaker 2: actually know how many did, but by his own country, 1010 00:51:01,520 --> 00:51:07,320 Speaker 2: did thousands of these squats. Yeah, and uh he was 1011 00:51:07,360 --> 00:51:08,320 Speaker 2: apparently bedrooms. 1012 00:51:08,520 --> 00:51:11,759 Speaker 1: There's so many orders of magnitude more than squats than 1013 00:51:11,840 --> 00:51:16,560 Speaker 1: I can do. Like, that's just there's there's multiple orders 1014 00:51:16,560 --> 00:51:18,879 Speaker 1: of I don't consider myself. I consider myself a little 1015 00:51:18,880 --> 00:51:21,520 Speaker 1: out of shape, but I like exercise, and that's just 1016 00:51:21,640 --> 00:51:24,400 Speaker 1: it's not in the realm of things that's not a 1017 00:51:24,480 --> 00:51:27,040 Speaker 1: number that's real to me, of a number of squats 1018 00:51:27,080 --> 00:51:28,080 Speaker 1: to do that's amazing. 1019 00:51:28,280 --> 00:51:31,160 Speaker 2: And these are like the and these are like those 1020 00:51:31,160 --> 00:51:33,479 Speaker 2: Indian squats which are like him. They're really drawn out 1021 00:51:33,520 --> 00:51:35,400 Speaker 2: and stuff, so they kind of like the harder. You 1022 00:51:35,440 --> 00:51:36,799 Speaker 2: don't get to like quickly get it done. 1023 00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:39,000 Speaker 1: Yeah, yep. 1024 00:51:39,400 --> 00:51:42,840 Speaker 2: Anyway, So anyway, so apparently he was like bedridden for 1025 00:51:42,960 --> 00:51:45,880 Speaker 2: like a couple of weeks after this. Yeah, he just 1026 00:51:45,960 --> 00:51:49,879 Speaker 2: kept going yeah, like I gotta do this anyway. But 1027 00:51:50,000 --> 00:51:52,400 Speaker 2: like when he recovers, there's no respite because when he 1028 00:51:52,440 --> 00:51:53,879 Speaker 2: recovered that Maraja is waiting for. 1029 00:51:53,760 --> 00:51:56,279 Speaker 1: His protegees, saying, you will stardy, you will study here. Now, 1030 00:51:56,520 --> 00:51:58,480 Speaker 1: let's see you do some squats. You know. 1031 00:51:58,760 --> 00:52:02,319 Speaker 2: That whole stuff happened. So now he spent the next 1032 00:52:02,320 --> 00:52:04,240 Speaker 2: few years training here at he is about fifteen. 1033 00:52:04,640 --> 00:52:04,920 Speaker 1: Okay. 1034 00:52:06,040 --> 00:52:09,800 Speaker 2: Meanwhile, in the outside world, like the whole indoor Western 1035 00:52:09,840 --> 00:52:13,960 Speaker 2: wrestling worlds, they're like about to meet like so for 1036 00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:17,120 Speaker 2: the first time in like eighteen ninety two, the English champion. 1037 00:52:17,160 --> 00:52:19,759 Speaker 2: His name is Tom Cannon. It's a very interesting name. 1038 00:52:20,400 --> 00:52:21,760 Speaker 1: This thing is made for Bollywood. 1039 00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:24,600 Speaker 2: The names are also like so snappy. 1040 00:52:24,760 --> 00:52:27,120 Speaker 1: It sounds like someone making fun of an American name. 1041 00:52:27,800 --> 00:52:30,040 Speaker 2: Yeah, Tom Cannon comes to Indian and they said, up 1042 00:52:30,080 --> 00:52:33,080 Speaker 2: a match against this twenty one year old local wrestler 1043 00:52:33,120 --> 00:52:36,279 Speaker 2: whose name is Kareem Bucksh, who's not related to the 1044 00:52:36,560 --> 00:52:38,959 Speaker 2: He's not related to the Bucksh family. We've talked about 1045 00:52:38,960 --> 00:52:41,600 Speaker 2: the Gama family. There are a lot of Bucksh's around, 1046 00:52:41,680 --> 00:52:44,160 Speaker 2: like it's a fairly common Kashmdia name, and a lot 1047 00:52:44,160 --> 00:52:46,840 Speaker 2: of Kashmi Muslim wrestlers around. 1048 00:52:46,880 --> 00:52:49,360 Speaker 1: Anyway, So Kareem bucks takes on. 1049 00:52:50,719 --> 00:52:53,440 Speaker 2: Tom Cannon and I don't know whether there was supposed 1050 00:52:53,440 --> 00:52:55,680 Speaker 2: to be a squash match, you know or whatever, like 1051 00:52:55,719 --> 00:52:57,600 Speaker 2: they just brought in a local gate they thought. But 1052 00:52:58,840 --> 00:53:03,319 Speaker 2: Kareem bucks makes short work of the English former champion, like. 1053 00:53:03,320 --> 00:53:06,920 Speaker 1: In time, because he does thousands of squats every day 1054 00:53:07,040 --> 00:53:11,400 Speaker 1: and then trains across the ocean and then fights five 1055 00:53:11,560 --> 00:53:14,600 Speaker 1: more people anyway, anyway. 1056 00:53:14,320 --> 00:53:16,920 Speaker 2: So Korean BUXISTI remember as a great hero for this, 1057 00:53:17,080 --> 00:53:19,000 Speaker 2: Like when people talk about him, they talk about how 1058 00:53:19,040 --> 00:53:22,560 Speaker 2: he like he's the first Indian to beat a non Indian. 1059 00:53:23,239 --> 00:53:27,759 Speaker 1: Yeah, try the first non Indiana tribe. But yeah, yeah 1060 00:53:27,760 --> 00:53:29,719 Speaker 1: that is true. That is trueway. 1061 00:53:29,880 --> 00:53:32,959 Speaker 2: So this starts and then in nineteen hundred, this gets 1062 00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:35,439 Speaker 2: put to the test like full on, where a guy 1063 00:53:35,480 --> 00:53:40,040 Speaker 2: called Gulam who's There's the World Exposition in Paris and 1064 00:53:40,640 --> 00:53:44,240 Speaker 2: they take this wrestler from India. His name is Gulam, 1065 00:53:44,480 --> 00:53:47,520 Speaker 2: which is extremely highly regarded wrestler. Like till today, many 1066 00:53:47,560 --> 00:53:51,319 Speaker 2: people regard Gulam as one of the highest like expressions 1067 00:53:51,320 --> 00:53:54,879 Speaker 2: of Indian wrestling. Ever like, he along with Gama's brother, 1068 00:53:54,960 --> 00:53:57,719 Speaker 2: are considered basically the two most technically perfect wrestlers the 1069 00:53:57,760 --> 00:54:01,640 Speaker 2: sport has seen. Okay, well we'll talk a little bit 1070 00:54:01,680 --> 00:54:03,719 Speaker 2: more bad later. Anyway, So he goes to the World 1071 00:54:03,719 --> 00:54:07,760 Speaker 2: Exposition where he, according to the records, fights someone called 1072 00:54:08,320 --> 00:54:13,120 Speaker 2: variously court dell Or, which is a bizarre name. And 1073 00:54:13,200 --> 00:54:14,759 Speaker 2: it took it a really long time when I first 1074 00:54:14,760 --> 00:54:17,239 Speaker 2: got international subject like and then I went kind of 1075 00:54:17,280 --> 00:54:19,920 Speaker 2: like batty trying to figure out who this guy was 1076 00:54:20,440 --> 00:54:23,440 Speaker 2: till I realized that these are like Anglo writers, and 1077 00:54:23,480 --> 00:54:26,120 Speaker 2: the guy's name he was Turkish, his father Ali. 1078 00:54:28,120 --> 00:54:30,480 Speaker 1: Wait, okay, then, when what was what was the other 1079 00:54:30,640 --> 00:54:31,759 Speaker 1: name that you gave the first name? 1080 00:54:31,800 --> 00:54:35,799 Speaker 2: Well, the core derell c O are hyphen d e 1081 00:54:35,960 --> 00:54:39,000 Speaker 2: R E l l I. The French version is c 1082 00:54:39,239 --> 00:54:42,400 Speaker 2: O U r T court like a tennis court hyphen 1083 00:54:42,920 --> 00:54:45,319 Speaker 2: d E r E l l I. His name is 1084 00:54:45,360 --> 00:54:49,320 Speaker 2: carther Ali, Like it's an extremely common name to anyone 1085 00:54:49,320 --> 00:54:52,400 Speaker 2: who's like familiar with like any kind of Muslim community anyway. 1086 00:54:52,719 --> 00:54:57,759 Speaker 1: Yeah, So anyway, so apparently Gulam kicks this guy ass. Yeah, 1087 00:54:57,960 --> 00:54:58,840 Speaker 1: even though this guy is. 1088 00:54:58,880 --> 00:55:01,759 Speaker 2: Very well regarded, And basically what ends up happening is 1089 00:55:01,800 --> 00:55:04,399 Speaker 2: these guys end up on the ground and this guy's 1090 00:55:04,480 --> 00:55:06,480 Speaker 2: unable to like flip him and get the win, and 1091 00:55:06,520 --> 00:55:11,120 Speaker 2: some weird stuff happens. But like Edward dspone has got 1092 00:55:11,120 --> 00:55:13,640 Speaker 2: like this whole account of the match, and according to 1093 00:55:13,680 --> 00:55:16,520 Speaker 2: his account, like basically this guy was like it is 1094 00:55:16,640 --> 00:55:18,600 Speaker 2: clear to everybody that he was like way superior at 1095 00:55:18,600 --> 00:55:23,960 Speaker 2: every level. Okay, And he in fact eventually said that 1096 00:55:24,000 --> 00:55:28,279 Speaker 2: the two greatest wrestlers he's seen are Gula and this 1097 00:55:28,360 --> 00:55:33,400 Speaker 2: guy called is smell Us or use of his smell, respectively. 1098 00:55:33,239 --> 00:55:38,279 Speaker 1: Who was known as the Terrible Turk. Yeah, you. 1099 00:55:40,000 --> 00:55:43,279 Speaker 2: Terrible Turk was one of the most colorful characters in 1100 00:55:43,320 --> 00:55:46,319 Speaker 2: any history. Like, so he towards the end of his life, 1101 00:55:46,320 --> 00:55:48,560 Speaker 2: he goes on this tour of the United States where 1102 00:55:48,560 --> 00:55:50,520 Speaker 2: he does a bunch of matches. People toil are not 1103 00:55:50,560 --> 00:55:52,400 Speaker 2: sure whether the matches were like rigged or not. 1104 00:55:53,080 --> 00:55:53,759 Speaker 1: He took a. 1105 00:55:53,640 --> 00:55:56,839 Speaker 2: Bunch of money, took a bunch of money, demanded it 1106 00:55:56,880 --> 00:56:01,640 Speaker 2: in gold. This true, by the way, he demanded in gold, 1107 00:56:01,880 --> 00:56:05,319 Speaker 2: had the gold forged into a belt, which he wore everywhere, 1108 00:56:07,840 --> 00:56:12,880 Speaker 2: including the trip home by boat, where his boat collided 1109 00:56:14,040 --> 00:56:18,120 Speaker 2: with an extremely colorfully named British ship called the Cromarty Shirt, 1110 00:56:18,920 --> 00:56:22,480 Speaker 2: at which point nobody on either boat was into women 1111 00:56:22,520 --> 00:56:23,279 Speaker 2: and children first. 1112 00:56:23,320 --> 00:56:26,600 Speaker 1: Apparently there was a free for all. During this free 1113 00:56:26,640 --> 00:56:27,200 Speaker 1: for all. 1114 00:56:27,120 --> 00:56:30,600 Speaker 2: The Terrible Turk, a wrestler was throwing people out of 1115 00:56:30,640 --> 00:56:32,560 Speaker 2: his way from both sides to make it to the 1116 00:56:32,600 --> 00:56:35,440 Speaker 2: site to get out the ship. Having thrown all these 1117 00:56:35,440 --> 00:56:37,919 Speaker 2: people off, he leaps off and drowns with the weight 1118 00:56:37,960 --> 00:56:38,520 Speaker 2: of his belt. 1119 00:56:38,920 --> 00:56:46,880 Speaker 1: Hell yeah, fuck him? All right? Yeah, so you history, Yes, yeah, 1120 00:56:46,960 --> 00:56:48,880 Speaker 1: I mean I have researched this. 1121 00:56:48,960 --> 00:56:51,279 Speaker 2: But that big gold belt design and professional wrestling that 1122 00:56:51,360 --> 00:56:53,880 Speaker 2: exists from about the eighties onwards, I've always wondered if 1123 00:56:53,880 --> 00:56:56,560 Speaker 2: it's like in a context to the belt this guy 1124 00:56:56,600 --> 00:56:58,240 Speaker 2: came up with while in the United States. 1125 00:56:58,480 --> 00:57:02,680 Speaker 1: Yeah, huh, that would be cool. I've not looked like 1126 00:57:02,719 --> 00:57:05,120 Speaker 1: symbolism and stuff, you know, but. 1127 00:57:05,080 --> 00:57:07,160 Speaker 2: It also means that who has this will will sink. 1128 00:57:07,360 --> 00:57:11,319 Speaker 2: So maybe yeah exactly. Yeah, Yeah, you're a marked man 1129 00:57:11,360 --> 00:57:12,080 Speaker 2: if you wear the belt. 1130 00:57:12,840 --> 00:57:16,320 Speaker 1: Yeah, especially if you throw people overboard. 1131 00:57:17,360 --> 00:57:20,240 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, there was quite the story. Like I mean, 1132 00:57:20,280 --> 00:57:23,360 Speaker 2: there's like it was quite the story. Let's put it 1133 00:57:23,360 --> 00:57:26,080 Speaker 2: this way. Like the reporting. Also, it was pretty racist. 1134 00:57:26,160 --> 00:57:28,120 Speaker 2: A lot of Italians on the board. It's interesting to 1135 00:57:28,200 --> 00:57:29,600 Speaker 2: read that and see how the Italians are. 1136 00:57:29,800 --> 00:57:32,000 Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, you're right. Yeah, like of course, the 1137 00:57:32,120 --> 00:57:35,520 Speaker 1: terrible turk through everyone. No, you're right. Now, I feel 1138 00:57:35,520 --> 00:57:37,480 Speaker 1: guilty for having Well, you told it to me like 1139 00:57:37,520 --> 00:57:40,520 Speaker 1: it was true, so I believed you. You can believe 1140 00:57:40,560 --> 00:57:43,000 Speaker 1: whatever version you want. I told you right up front, 1141 00:57:43,040 --> 00:57:44,800 Speaker 1: all right, all right, But. 1142 00:57:45,120 --> 00:57:48,560 Speaker 2: Like I I don't doubt that he pushed people out 1143 00:57:48,560 --> 00:57:49,920 Speaker 2: of the way to get off the ship, Like I 1144 00:57:49,960 --> 00:57:52,360 Speaker 2: don't doubt that at all. But I also don't fault 1145 00:57:52,400 --> 00:57:53,920 Speaker 2: him for it because I would try to do that 1146 00:57:53,960 --> 00:57:55,760 Speaker 2: to get off a ship where if you're on a 1147 00:57:55,760 --> 00:57:57,880 Speaker 2: ship where everyone's trying to get off for themselves and 1148 00:57:57,920 --> 00:58:01,520 Speaker 2: there's no order, then either you choose to be noble 1149 00:58:01,640 --> 00:58:02,760 Speaker 2: and die or you try. 1150 00:58:02,880 --> 00:58:05,920 Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, I guess it depends on who else is 1151 00:58:05,920 --> 00:58:10,439 Speaker 1: on the boat for me anyway. Anyway, that's a whole 1152 00:58:10,440 --> 00:58:11,320 Speaker 1: different yeah. 1153 00:58:11,360 --> 00:58:15,240 Speaker 2: Anyway, So, so as a result of this fight where 1154 00:58:15,280 --> 00:58:18,360 Speaker 2: Gulam doesn't do it, a budge of things happen, so 1155 00:58:18,400 --> 00:58:20,920 Speaker 2: at least in the eyes of the promoters, European crowds 1156 00:58:20,960 --> 00:58:22,880 Speaker 2: would now be eager to see more of like these 1157 00:58:22,920 --> 00:58:24,760 Speaker 2: surprisingly great wrestlers from India. 1158 00:58:25,120 --> 00:58:27,000 Speaker 1: Yeah, because surely they must be more guys like this. 1159 00:58:27,160 --> 00:58:27,320 Speaker 5: Right. 1160 00:58:27,760 --> 00:58:29,840 Speaker 2: On the other hand, like the finances at home, who 1161 00:58:30,000 --> 00:58:34,320 Speaker 2: like were specifically into this because of the counterpropaganda value 1162 00:58:35,040 --> 00:58:40,720 Speaker 2: mm hm h. They were not like superhapp like sati 1163 00:58:40,720 --> 00:58:43,760 Speaker 2: Is fight yet because they wanted like the victory, so 1164 00:58:43,800 --> 00:58:46,760 Speaker 2: like they wanted more of this because hey, we got 1165 00:58:46,800 --> 00:58:49,080 Speaker 2: the better but we didn't get it done, so like 1166 00:58:49,160 --> 00:58:52,120 Speaker 2: they would. Basically, an entire pipeline was being laid out 1167 00:58:52,160 --> 00:58:52,640 Speaker 2: for this. 1168 00:58:53,840 --> 00:58:57,880 Speaker 1: In order to have Indian wrestlers beat Western wrestlers in 1169 00:58:59,000 --> 00:59:01,920 Speaker 1: order to help show that India is not actually some 1170 00:59:02,120 --> 00:59:06,000 Speaker 1: like place that should be colonized or basically not a 1171 00:59:06,080 --> 00:59:09,560 Speaker 1: nation of weaklings. Essentially, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally yeah. 1172 00:59:09,960 --> 00:59:13,600 Speaker 2: So essentially the stage of being set, like everyone was 1173 00:59:13,640 --> 00:59:16,240 Speaker 2: ready for the emergence of like a new champion to 1174 00:59:16,320 --> 00:59:18,840 Speaker 2: have like a Gulam type status who could then like 1175 00:59:18,920 --> 00:59:21,000 Speaker 2: go there. India was basically eager for a hero at 1176 00:59:21,000 --> 00:59:25,520 Speaker 2: this point. Yeah, and very soon a hero presented himself. 1177 00:59:25,760 --> 00:59:29,000 Speaker 2: Except it's not the one you're thinking of. It's not Karma, 1178 00:59:29,440 --> 00:59:34,840 Speaker 2: it's not Gama. It's this guy called Raheem Bucks sultaniaa okay, 1179 00:59:34,880 --> 00:59:38,840 Speaker 2: who actually trained under Gulam, so he's like Gulam's protege, 1180 00:59:38,840 --> 00:59:44,360 Speaker 2: which helps. Yeah, he was essentially helped a lot by 1181 00:59:44,360 --> 00:59:46,880 Speaker 2: the fact that he basically looked the part very much, 1182 00:59:46,960 --> 00:59:49,320 Speaker 2: much more than Gama, who remember is five foot seven 1183 00:59:49,400 --> 00:59:53,880 Speaker 2: as a grown adult. Yeah, yeah, whereas ruim Bagh Sultania was, 1184 00:59:54,080 --> 00:59:56,640 Speaker 2: depending on the source, you believe, somewhere between six foot 1185 00:59:56,640 --> 01:00:00,720 Speaker 2: ten and seven feet tall, okay. And like there's this 1186 01:00:00,800 --> 01:00:03,120 Speaker 2: famous poster of his where in you know, giving off 1187 01:00:03,120 --> 01:00:05,840 Speaker 2: shades of barber. He's posing for it, holding up a 1188 01:00:05,840 --> 01:00:08,840 Speaker 2: guy in each arm, like standing up there picking up 1189 01:00:08,880 --> 01:00:11,320 Speaker 2: two guys. So that's like a famous poster of his 1190 01:00:11,360 --> 01:00:12,600 Speaker 2: promotional poster of the time. 1191 01:00:12,720 --> 01:00:13,840 Speaker 1: I've seen it. It's quite cool. 1192 01:00:15,840 --> 01:00:19,520 Speaker 2: So you know, like he's essentially the front righter now, 1193 01:00:19,600 --> 01:00:21,680 Speaker 2: so he wins this thing called rustam In, which is 1194 01:00:21,720 --> 01:00:23,920 Speaker 2: like the champion of India. So he's the known champion 1195 01:00:23,920 --> 01:00:27,560 Speaker 2: of India this point of time. Now, meanwhile, Gama had 1196 01:00:27,560 --> 01:00:30,640 Speaker 2: started competing at about fifteen, and he had started like 1197 01:00:30,760 --> 01:00:33,880 Speaker 2: developing a reputation of his own in a whole different 1198 01:00:33,960 --> 01:00:36,720 Speaker 2: kind of way where I remember when I said that 1199 01:00:36,800 --> 01:00:42,320 Speaker 2: fights go hours and hours sometimes, Well, Gama was like 1200 01:00:43,240 --> 01:00:46,040 Speaker 2: finishing fights like the if you see the reporters with matches, 1201 01:00:46,080 --> 01:00:48,200 Speaker 2: it's kind of like it's wired. It's like one minute 1202 01:00:48,200 --> 01:00:51,120 Speaker 2: two when it's four minutes, three minutes, six minutes, nine minutes. 1203 01:00:50,840 --> 01:00:52,160 Speaker 1: Like you don't you well see it. 1204 01:00:52,360 --> 01:00:54,000 Speaker 2: There's no ten minute fight there, Like no one ever 1205 01:00:54,000 --> 01:00:55,160 Speaker 2: went ten minutes for Gama. 1206 01:00:56,120 --> 01:00:59,560 Speaker 1: And he was like this yeah, yeah, so everyone's like mad, 1207 01:00:59,600 --> 01:01:02,080 Speaker 1: a like messing up their sport. They want to spend 1208 01:01:02,080 --> 01:01:04,600 Speaker 1: all afternoon like watching this and then he comes in 1209 01:01:04,640 --> 01:01:05,919 Speaker 1: and just throws the person down. 1210 01:01:06,600 --> 01:01:09,440 Speaker 2: It's like it's like almost think of a guy who 1211 01:01:09,520 --> 01:01:11,520 Speaker 2: like maybe in baseball, like every time he comes there, 1212 01:01:11,560 --> 01:01:14,080 Speaker 2: he just like whacked like the first pitchases for a 1213 01:01:14,080 --> 01:01:16,000 Speaker 2: home run. It's like you're not supposed to do this, 1214 01:01:16,080 --> 01:01:19,720 Speaker 2: like it doesn't work this way. Yeah, the sport was 1215 01:01:19,720 --> 01:01:25,680 Speaker 2: designed for you to not do this. Yeah, anyway, so 1216 01:01:25,920 --> 01:01:28,440 Speaker 2: that you know, so there's that whole this in conjunction 1217 01:01:28,520 --> 01:01:30,880 Speaker 2: of the fact like he's doing these like absolutely insane 1218 01:01:30,920 --> 01:01:34,360 Speaker 2: workouts that like nobody seemed like as a kid, and 1219 01:01:34,400 --> 01:01:36,800 Speaker 2: also like there's this whole aura developing around this kid. 1220 01:01:37,600 --> 01:01:40,080 Speaker 1: Is he like built? Is he like a barrel? Is 1221 01:01:40,120 --> 01:01:42,160 Speaker 1: he a skinny kid? Like, what's the what's the bill 1222 01:01:42,240 --> 01:01:43,480 Speaker 1: of fifteen year old Gama? 1223 01:01:43,560 --> 01:01:45,840 Speaker 2: I mean he's probably built because he was pretty much 1224 01:01:45,880 --> 01:01:47,400 Speaker 2: built when he was older. 1225 01:01:47,720 --> 01:01:49,920 Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'm sure you fieled it out. He was 1226 01:01:49,920 --> 01:01:52,640 Speaker 1: always like stocky and stuff. Yeah so yeah, but. 1227 01:01:54,200 --> 01:01:56,919 Speaker 2: He's also the usually this got a reach and high 1228 01:01:56,920 --> 01:01:59,840 Speaker 2: disadvantage in every fight, like and get me eoboxing right, 1229 01:01:59,840 --> 01:02:02,080 Speaker 2: Like that stuff is massive in all combat sports. 1230 01:02:02,080 --> 01:02:05,280 Speaker 1: This is exaggerating that, I know boxing, but yes, yeah, okay, 1231 01:02:05,360 --> 01:02:08,360 Speaker 1: all right, Like he'll take it, he'll take it EXPERTI. 1232 01:02:08,800 --> 01:02:11,040 Speaker 2: So, like a really basic thing about like combat sports 1233 01:02:11,120 --> 01:02:15,600 Speaker 2: is that like it's almost unheard of that if someone 1234 01:02:15,760 --> 01:02:18,280 Speaker 2: knows what you're going to do, you can just keep 1235 01:02:18,320 --> 01:02:20,640 Speaker 2: doing it over and over and over again to opponent 1236 01:02:20,680 --> 01:02:23,320 Speaker 2: after opponent, and like it's just like nobody can stop 1237 01:02:23,360 --> 01:02:26,280 Speaker 2: you like, it's sort of like if you follow mixed 1238 01:02:26,320 --> 01:02:28,560 Speaker 2: martial arts, like Khabib used to do stuff like that 1239 01:02:28,600 --> 01:02:30,640 Speaker 2: before he retired, Like he was just doing the same thing. 1240 01:02:30,760 --> 01:02:32,479 Speaker 2: In the fact, if you think about it, Kabib's story 1241 01:02:32,480 --> 01:02:34,160 Speaker 2: has a lot of parallels to the Gama story. They 1242 01:02:34,160 --> 01:02:36,120 Speaker 2: trained in isolation for a long time, they came along 1243 01:02:36,160 --> 01:02:38,920 Speaker 2: and then nobody had had a clue what to do. Yeah, 1244 01:02:38,960 --> 01:02:42,640 Speaker 2: and then anyway, Okay, so this guy is doing this 1245 01:02:42,640 --> 01:02:45,439 Speaker 2: stuff now. It always comes to a head in about 1246 01:02:45,520 --> 01:02:47,760 Speaker 2: nineteen and four in a way for Gama where he 1247 01:02:47,800 --> 01:02:50,320 Speaker 2: goes into this tournament and like destroys everybody in it, 1248 01:02:51,080 --> 01:02:55,400 Speaker 2: like completely, and he wins the whole tournament. By this point, 1249 01:02:55,440 --> 01:02:58,080 Speaker 2: he's basically a coad wrestler at the year, which is 1250 01:02:58,120 --> 01:02:59,640 Speaker 2: a position his father used to hold. 1251 01:03:00,080 --> 01:03:02,480 Speaker 1: Okay, is this the same guy who had taken him 1252 01:03:02,520 --> 01:03:06,520 Speaker 1: under his wing? Marja I mispronounced that. That's embarrassing. 1253 01:03:06,680 --> 01:03:09,160 Speaker 2: No, No, that was jodpur So Datia is where he 1254 01:03:09,320 --> 01:03:11,520 Speaker 2: was as a kid, where his father was the quart wrestler. 1255 01:03:12,760 --> 01:03:14,760 Speaker 2: So he's now the quart wrestler back there, like he's 1256 01:03:14,800 --> 01:03:16,680 Speaker 2: holding his dad's old position. Like there's a bunch of 1257 01:03:16,680 --> 01:03:20,080 Speaker 2: wrestlers there and he's like the shining star of the 1258 01:03:20,120 --> 01:03:23,600 Speaker 2: wrestling stable so to speak. Okay, and at this point, 1259 01:03:23,680 --> 01:03:25,760 Speaker 2: like now the cries are starting right, like we wanted 1260 01:03:25,760 --> 01:03:30,880 Speaker 2: to see Gama versus Rahem Bakstana for like the national championship. 1261 01:03:31,160 --> 01:03:34,440 Speaker 2: Trust mehen like these are the two guys. Yeah, so 1262 01:03:35,640 --> 01:03:38,160 Speaker 2: as the record goes there, their first meeting is that 1263 01:03:38,280 --> 01:03:39,080 Speaker 2: Datia itself. 1264 01:03:39,080 --> 01:03:44,200 Speaker 1: So it's on Gama's home turf. Okay, and some sources say. 1265 01:03:44,040 --> 01:03:46,360 Speaker 2: This happened around like as late as I think nineteen 1266 01:03:46,440 --> 01:03:50,560 Speaker 2: hundred and seven is the date Masunga has recorded the 1267 01:03:50,600 --> 01:03:54,440 Speaker 2: fight and it was for about twenty minutes and it 1268 01:03:54,480 --> 01:03:57,080 Speaker 2: was a draw, which in itself is kind of significant 1269 01:03:57,120 --> 01:04:00,000 Speaker 2: for like both these guys like apparently are the giant 1270 01:04:00,080 --> 01:04:04,280 Speaker 2: and went very aggressive when he found that he could 1271 01:04:04,320 --> 01:04:05,960 Speaker 2: not beat Gama, which is unusual for him. 1272 01:04:06,320 --> 01:04:07,880 Speaker 1: Yeah, Gama's point of view, this is. 1273 01:04:07,840 --> 01:04:10,160 Speaker 2: The first time that a someone has gone over ten 1274 01:04:10,160 --> 01:04:12,000 Speaker 2: minutes and b he has not won the fight. 1275 01:04:12,360 --> 01:04:14,120 Speaker 1: Yeah, so for him this is unusual. 1276 01:04:14,400 --> 01:04:16,240 Speaker 2: So both of them like are grumbling about I should 1277 01:04:16,240 --> 01:04:17,560 Speaker 2: have done this, I should have done this. In the 1278 01:04:17,560 --> 01:04:21,400 Speaker 2: fight is done, yeah, ok So they meet again indoor 1279 01:04:21,440 --> 01:04:23,680 Speaker 2: in nineteen hundred and nine in a fight which is 1280 01:04:23,840 --> 01:04:25,680 Speaker 2: supposed to have no time to meit. They were like, 1281 01:04:25,960 --> 01:04:29,560 Speaker 2: fight to the finish was the thing. The Maharaja of 1282 01:04:29,560 --> 01:04:32,040 Speaker 2: Indoor organized it. And then at the three hour mark 1283 01:04:32,040 --> 01:04:33,680 Speaker 2: he called it off because he got tired. He's like, 1284 01:04:33,720 --> 01:04:37,240 Speaker 2: this is not going anywhere, so it's another draw. So 1285 01:04:37,280 --> 01:04:39,880 Speaker 2: it's another draw, all right. And then like a little 1286 01:04:39,880 --> 01:04:43,520 Speaker 2: bit later they meet in Lahore and. 1287 01:04:44,560 --> 01:04:48,600 Speaker 1: Guess what happened? They draw? They draw this time in 1288 01:04:48,600 --> 01:04:51,560 Speaker 1: two hours and ten minutes. Yeah. 1289 01:04:51,640 --> 01:04:54,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, so Gama is basically unbeatable, but he's also unable 1290 01:04:54,600 --> 01:04:59,280 Speaker 2: to beat this guy. So this is basically the greatest 1291 01:04:59,360 --> 01:05:02,280 Speaker 2: rivalry of career, like against this guy, these two guys, 1292 01:05:02,560 --> 01:05:04,560 Speaker 2: this might be the greatest rivalry in the history of 1293 01:05:05,200 --> 01:05:06,080 Speaker 2: Helwani wrestling. 1294 01:05:06,280 --> 01:05:08,520 Speaker 1: Yeah, so fourth. 1295 01:05:08,280 --> 01:05:10,760 Speaker 2: About Everyone's like, okain, the fourth boart has to happen, right, 1296 01:05:10,840 --> 01:05:15,920 Speaker 2: Like three draws have happened. Yeah, everyone wants a result 1297 01:05:15,920 --> 01:05:19,160 Speaker 2: at this point and some probably they would have scheduled 1298 01:05:19,200 --> 01:05:21,640 Speaker 2: it also, But like what basically happens at this time? 1299 01:05:21,720 --> 01:05:27,600 Speaker 2: This English promoter whose name is Rs. Benjamin appears and 1300 01:05:27,800 --> 01:05:30,560 Speaker 2: he's insistent on taking a bunch of Indian wrestlers to 1301 01:05:30,800 --> 01:05:33,240 Speaker 2: England like to London and. 1302 01:05:33,960 --> 01:05:37,400 Speaker 1: Doing shows up and still okay, h yeah, okay. 1303 01:05:37,960 --> 01:05:41,960 Speaker 2: And there's been several attempts since the Gulam incident like 1304 01:05:42,120 --> 01:05:44,120 Speaker 2: them to do stuff like this. But this time there's 1305 01:05:44,160 --> 01:05:49,240 Speaker 2: this Bengali millionaire who's called Saraji who thought of this 1306 01:05:49,360 --> 01:05:51,800 Speaker 2: was a fantastic at the moment where you know, you 1307 01:05:51,840 --> 01:05:54,880 Speaker 2: could go and strike a blow at English superiority in 1308 01:05:54,920 --> 01:05:57,160 Speaker 2: the heart of the empire, like in London, we'll do 1309 01:05:57,200 --> 01:06:01,280 Speaker 2: it in their capital. So they managed to actually talk 1310 01:06:01,320 --> 01:06:04,480 Speaker 2: Gama into like going on this. So Gama, his brother, 1311 01:06:05,600 --> 01:06:10,040 Speaker 2: another guy called Emma Buksh and the interestingly almost similarly 1312 01:06:10,120 --> 01:06:14,600 Speaker 2: named Gamu. Okay, all of them set sail on this 1313 01:06:14,640 --> 01:06:17,520 Speaker 2: boat in nineteen hundred and nine to go off to 1314 01:06:17,560 --> 01:06:22,160 Speaker 2: London to strike this blow at the heart of the empire. 1315 01:06:22,200 --> 01:06:24,960 Speaker 2: Because Benjamin has promised them that the English crowds are 1316 01:06:25,000 --> 01:06:27,880 Speaker 2: really eager to see this fight happen. Oh, these fights happen, 1317 01:06:28,520 --> 01:06:34,000 Speaker 2: So they said off. And as for how that happened 1318 01:06:34,040 --> 01:06:36,200 Speaker 2: and what happened there, we should probably get into it 1319 01:06:36,200 --> 01:06:36,760 Speaker 2: after break. 1320 01:06:37,320 --> 01:06:39,840 Speaker 1: Oh no, you may never ask to wait till Wednesday 1321 01:06:40,000 --> 01:06:42,080 Speaker 1: in order to hear the other half is that what 1322 01:06:42,160 --> 01:06:45,280 Speaker 1: you're saying, that is what I'm saying. Did you do 1323 01:06:45,400 --> 01:06:50,040 Speaker 1: a suspense Yeah, Cliffang I told you she's a fiction writer. 1324 01:06:50,920 --> 01:06:53,160 Speaker 4: Ah, it was so spicy. I loved it. 1325 01:06:55,200 --> 01:06:58,120 Speaker 1: I'm excited. I hope none of them are wearing a 1326 01:06:58,120 --> 01:07:00,840 Speaker 1: golden belt while they're on the boat. And then also, 1327 01:07:01,320 --> 01:07:03,680 Speaker 1: I'm gonna have the years wrong, but this is right 1328 01:07:03,760 --> 01:07:07,240 Speaker 1: around the same time we did an episode of Muhammad Ali. 1329 01:07:07,800 --> 01:07:12,120 Speaker 1: And this is right around the time when a black 1330 01:07:12,680 --> 01:07:17,440 Speaker 1: heavyweight wrestler finally got the heavyweight wrestling championship not wrestling, sorry, 1331 01:07:17,480 --> 01:07:21,280 Speaker 1: boxing championship from Uh, you didn't talk from talking about 1332 01:07:21,680 --> 01:07:24,960 Speaker 1: Jack Johnson. God, I already forgot the names. I forget 1333 01:07:25,080 --> 01:07:27,080 Speaker 1: names as soon as I'm done writing them. But it 1334 01:07:27,160 --> 01:07:28,840 Speaker 1: was like the same year, wasn't It was like it 1335 01:07:28,920 --> 01:07:31,040 Speaker 1: was like right around the same time when it was 1336 01:07:31,040 --> 01:07:34,160 Speaker 1: a similar time. And it's interesting, like I wasn't actually 1337 01:07:34,200 --> 01:07:39,320 Speaker 1: going to talk about it, but are we off wax right? No? No, no, 1338 01:07:39,360 --> 01:07:42,880 Speaker 1: we're still recording. Okay, that's cool, that's cool. Uh. 1339 01:07:42,920 --> 01:07:46,760 Speaker 2: It's interesting because at one point, like the English audiences 1340 01:07:46,800 --> 01:07:49,400 Speaker 2: when like these guys weren't getting traction, the Indian wrestlers, 1341 01:07:50,320 --> 01:07:52,480 Speaker 2: there's those an English paper who started writing But how 1342 01:07:52,560 --> 01:07:54,440 Speaker 2: dare you cheer for a black man? But you weren't 1343 01:07:54,480 --> 01:07:57,160 Speaker 2: cheer for brown Indians and there's a white man writing it. 1344 01:07:57,040 --> 01:08:00,000 Speaker 1: By the way, Yeah yeah, p's are subjects of the Empire. 1345 01:08:00,160 --> 01:08:02,080 Speaker 2: He's already been a British subject. 1346 01:08:03,200 --> 01:08:10,160 Speaker 1: Fucking old timey racism anyway, not speaking of old time, 1347 01:08:11,040 --> 01:08:12,480 Speaker 1: do you have anything you want to plug here at 1348 01:08:12,480 --> 01:08:15,360 Speaker 1: the end before before people come back on Wednesday. 1349 01:08:18,280 --> 01:08:20,559 Speaker 2: I mean I don't really have a book due right now. 1350 01:08:20,600 --> 01:08:22,519 Speaker 2: I have some stories out. I have a Twitter follow 1351 01:08:22,560 --> 01:08:24,960 Speaker 2: my Twitter if you like stories like these, I'm hat 1352 01:08:25,080 --> 01:08:26,160 Speaker 2: nameship on Twitter. 1353 01:08:26,720 --> 01:08:31,679 Speaker 1: Okay, Hell yeah, Sophie, you got anything you want to plug? 1354 01:08:32,520 --> 01:08:36,840 Speaker 3: Uh? You could listen to sad olive Ark, cool zone 1355 01:08:36,880 --> 01:08:41,200 Speaker 3: Media's newest podcast on all the apps. If you do 1356 01:08:41,280 --> 01:08:45,280 Speaker 3: not wish to listen to ad bricks, you can subscribe 1357 01:08:45,320 --> 01:08:49,000 Speaker 3: to cool zones at free subscription channel at cooler Zone 1358 01:08:49,040 --> 01:08:52,799 Speaker 3: Media on Apple podcast Android version coming soon. 1359 01:08:54,640 --> 01:08:59,479 Speaker 1: And my plug is that much like the man trying 1360 01:08:59,479 --> 01:09:02,600 Speaker 1: to get off the boat with the golden belt, I 1361 01:09:02,640 --> 01:09:05,439 Speaker 1: am preparing my life boat for leaving Twitter because Twitter 1362 01:09:05,640 --> 01:09:09,520 Speaker 1: is a nightmare mess and my lifeboat is a substack. 1363 01:09:10,320 --> 01:09:13,559 Speaker 1: It's at martyr Kiljoy dot substack dot com. I just 1364 01:09:13,640 --> 01:09:16,840 Speaker 1: started it like a week or so ago, depending on 1365 01:09:16,880 --> 01:09:19,120 Speaker 1: when you're listening to this, or I started it years ago. 1366 01:09:19,760 --> 01:09:23,639 Speaker 1: It's far in the future and I'm on number five 1367 01:09:23,720 --> 01:09:27,800 Speaker 1: hundred and ninety four. But half of it's free and 1368 01:09:27,840 --> 01:09:31,120 Speaker 1: half of it that's like more personal is for paid subscribers. 1369 01:09:31,320 --> 01:09:33,120 Speaker 1: But basically, I want a way to talk about shit 1370 01:09:33,120 --> 01:09:36,599 Speaker 1: without doing endless Twitter threads because Twitter is just now 1371 01:09:36,600 --> 01:09:40,240 Speaker 1: a nightmare full of anti trans people who have been 1372 01:09:40,560 --> 01:09:43,080 Speaker 1: empowered by the richest man in the world who is 1373 01:09:43,120 --> 01:09:47,760 Speaker 1: a wild anti trans bigot. So that's what I got 1374 01:09:47,760 --> 01:09:52,160 Speaker 1: to plug. Okay on Wednesday. 1375 01:09:54,240 --> 01:09:56,760 Speaker 3: Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff is a production of 1376 01:09:56,800 --> 01:09:57,759 Speaker 3: cool Zone Media. 1377 01:09:58,080 --> 01:10:00,919 Speaker 4: For more podcasts and cool Zone Media, visit our website 1378 01:10:01,040 --> 01:10:04,719 Speaker 3: Foolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, 1379 01:10:04,760 --> 01:10:07,600 Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.