In the final episode of this season, join Shunali and Kiran on their trip to Thiruvananthapuram, filled with rich architectural wonders, vibrant culture, a little bit of eavesdropping, and a generous dash of laughter!
The duo, Shunali Shroff and Kiran Manral, embark on a fascinating journey to the Mathrubhumi Lit Fest, sharing their hilarious and insightful anecdotes of their first and second-time experiences respectively.
From discussing their fashion choices and saree shopping exploits to relishing their encounters with the treasures of Raja Ravi Varma's art gallery, the duo also delves into the intriguing mythological and ancient mysteries of the renowned Padmanabhaswamy temple.
And with this episode, we conclude our first season of 'Not Your Aunty.' Remember to share, subscribe, and follow us. We'll return soon in a new avatar."
[00:00:00] Hello everyone, this is Shunali Shroff.
[00:00:04] And this is Kiran Mandral.
[00:00:06] And we are not your aunties.
[00:00:10] So Kiran and I were invited to the Matrabhumi festival of letters.
[00:00:14] This was Kiran's second time Kiran?
[00:00:16] Second time.
[00:00:17] Second time.
[00:00:18] And Kiran is the queen of literature festivals.
[00:00:20] They don't hold a literature festival without Kiran attending it.
[00:00:23] And this was my first time in Matrabhumi literature festival. You don't need to wait around the belt for your bags to arrive. So I don't mind waiting around the belt, but I need options when I reach a place. If I'm not in a mode to wear something, I need an option. Sure. So I asked Kiran this time, I said, Kiran, I'm going to take a check-in bag because I realized while coming in, I had to throw away some masalas I had bought from Chennai because in your hand luggage, apparently you can't carry Rasa man's
[00:01:40] Ambar masala because God knows you can hijack a plane with that.
[00:01:43] Yeah, you can throw it in the pilot's size and hijack the plane.
[00:01:45] So we said, you know, and carrying some shiny tops with me. And jeans, shiny tops and jeans are my go to whenever you're confused. So now reveal what happened when you saw my shiny clothes. So Shinalia carried a gold top, gold Lumet top. A gold Lumet top and a green sequined shirt because I mean she said shiny.
[00:03:02] So I thought maybe they really have like, you know, why should I?
[00:03:05] She thought this is like seaside. We were not shiny but we were fashionable. But we were the most dressed there. Not just most dressed. You know, the old dressed. It was literally like two aliens walking into a party. And everybody was in lungis. Someone's shorts. And somewhere in the day linens they had been wearing through the lit... it's very warm in the day. So they were, you know, in like sweaty clothes and chilled clothes and absolutely casual
[00:04:23] Suze guard vibe clothes.
[00:04:25] Right.
[00:04:26] It's a hidden gem.
[00:05:42] Oh my god, firstly that venue itself, you know, the one who came out from the Bodhicchali's... Worth of Venus. Worth of Venus? They were all in these pink sarees. So naturally, Kiran and I, after that art gallery decided that we're getting cold in tops. But I bought a Kashmiri rug from Kohi Kode which is again for the uninitiated is written as Kozi Kode but it's Kohi Kode and it's also in Kerala.
[00:08:24] And from there you bought a Kashmiri rug so I mean you were just playing that pattern my husband bought himself a Mundu, pre-stitched one and something to drape over his shoulders because like so much nakedness was not going to be his scene. Even though that Mundu was pre-stitched he didn't trust it. He did trust it one bit. He went through the temple. She described it to me.
[00:09:42] She said he went through the temple holding it off that is very classy. I look like one of those people, those... I wore it very badly, never mind.
[00:11:01] That's not important.
[00:11:02] In 3.30 I was inside this temple, but my God!
[00:11:04] That temple is the most interesting story. There are vaults deep inside that it's a Vishnu temple of the reclining Vishnu. Kiran, can you describe? Yeah, it's a Vishnu, it will not be... 18 foot long reclining Vishnu. Who is hidden in a way behind three gates.
[00:12:22] Columns.
[00:12:23] Three columns.
[00:12:23] And you can only see bits of the Vishnu and it's really dark inside.
[00:12:27] So unless you have night vision, you're not going to see much. encrusted elephants and there were six chambers in the basement. Now, Kiran, here's the interesting fact. The Vishnu was completely coated in gold. Okay. But they were concerned that the British will take it away. So, 200 years ago, they coated it with some special material so that it looked like it was made of stone.
[00:13:42] And I believe that those three columns are there, perhaps so that the British couldn't still walk out with it to examine it.
[00:13:47] Take it away. It is so fascinating. So the vault, now B vault, there are different vaults named ABCDE, the B vault has the maximum amount of treasures. The other vaults have been emptied out. They have already been emptied out? Yes. And that's where they found the other gold in the jewels. One had utensils for puja, one had gold utensils and so on and so forth.
[00:15:04] There is no explanation given for where they are today. There's a curse on it or not a curse rather, or like somebody's spell, put a spell on it that if it is opened, absolute misfortune will be unleashed upon not just the person who opens it but on the entire planet. On the planet? On the planet, this is according to History Channel.
[00:16:20] I've done my full research on it and even... But we managed to unleash destruction on the planet
[00:16:25] without opening that vault also. I don't know begin to describe how amazing the feeling was of being in the innermost chamber, in the dark with these lamps lit. It really felt that I traveled back to the era of the cholas or something, okay?
[00:17:41] Because everything inside is that old,
[00:17:43] that ceremonial, even people are dressed like that.
[00:17:45] But another thing, let me Catholic and you're married to a Hindu person. I'm married to a Hindu, so I'm not religious at all. But when I went to that temple, something shook. And something made me feel that something beyond our own exists. But, you know, guys, this is not the kind of place that people go for manats and pray and get out. So, you know, there's not that kind of place. Please don't inundate it. And it's not a tourist trap because you can't take your phone inside.
[00:19:01] They won't let you talk inside.
[00:19:03] You can't hide a gadget inside.
[00:19:04] It's very, very strict.
[00:19:05] There's no prasad, nothing.
[00:19:06] Nothing. You just go there, feel blaming it on the driver and saying, no, actually we are Kerala driver, very good. Tamil Nadu driver, don't know nothing, nothing, nothing.
[00:20:22] And we have seen clear live evidence of how good the Kerala driver was right in the front
[00:20:26] of eyes. you go there because you know a lot of places in India are wish fulfilling places but this is not known to be a wish fulfilling place. And there's no pomp and pageantry too. So if you're a student of history maybe you want to... Yes or architecture. Or you want to go inside and look at it right. So I did you know I prayed to Hanumanji and I did the Hanuman Chaleesa and I told Kiran that I think the only reason he survived this driveourists at 6am. There was a throng of people there, like you go to Juhu beach for Ganpati with Sajjan Kain. Anyway, Kiran and I somehow pushed our way and we started pretending that our mother was in the front of the queue and so that other people wanted to... I want to pity you on the letters pass you. And you can see my mummy is waiting over there, my mummy is waiting over there.
[00:23:00] And then we just cut through the crowd and reached right at the front.
[00:23:04] And should Ali manage to find herself first we were tempted by the church spires that we saw. But what was even more fascinating was the buildings, the little houses which were colored
[00:24:21] in the most atrocious colors.
[00:24:24] We use the same as you would get in Greece was it? Yeah the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean. And then we both you know order ourselves a wine. And we sat there for a while we had enjoying the gals, the kites and we had some very interesting conversation going on. We started you know Kiran and I ran out of conversation so we
[00:25:41] started eavesdropping. Because they were loud enough to eavesdrop. If you know. So the big fat
[00:25:45] Indian wedding going on and these were guests someated our conversation at the Lit Fest. This is a doctor, studied in Manchester. He's 28 years old. He is working. He's no longer practicing brother see Raja Ravi Verma. Like, why? His work was beautiful. His work was exquisite and I'm quite appalled that he didn't get any kind of recognition and all the, we only know of Raja Ravi Verma. I still prefer Raja Ravi Verma's work. They were the finish to his work. No, there's more maturity to it, but this had promise.
[00:28:20] So I don't know why it didn't mature.
[00:28:21] It didn't come to that level of...
[00:28:24] So you were asking why Raja, Raja Verma?
[00:28:26] Why did he not get that kind of recognition?
[00:28:28] No, you said, why is his name Raja Raja Verma? of tourism for Kerala to represent Thiruvananthapuram because we are doing such a good job of. And we fell in love with it and we forgot to mention our lunch at this wonderful place the previous day which was called Villa Maya. It was a Dutch. Stunning, stunning place. Dutch Palace.
[00:29:40] Yeah, it was a palace.
[00:29:41] It was a palace which has been repurposed into a hotel and I have had the most exquisite You know, you think that we are exaggerating for the sake of making it sound dramatic. We are not. We've had like about six narrow shades with death that morning. We were sleepy. We were actually sleepy, but we sat cawgle light through the trip. Yeah, it really was. But when the, you know, when we came back with all our bags of masalas and blah, blah, blah, and arrived back in Bombay, Kiran, I was really sad that our getaway was over because we went without any expectation.
[00:31:04] Then it turned out to be such fun. phrases which he was happily using everywhere. All in all, it was just so entertaining at so many levels. In Kiran, I was really mean. We were sort of laughing at the situation, not at him, but we didn't correct him. No, we didn't. We said he's so happy with himself, why should we... He was having a good time. Yeah. It's okay, why? When Mr. Tharoor was being surrounded by people for autographs,
[00:32:22] this guy was sitting at the other corner like he's the king of Travancore himself
[00:32:25] and running by people flocking around me.
[00:33:25] complaining at all except there was a band that was scheduled to perform. But my voice is loud enough so I was talking about the live band.
[00:33:28] So the live band was setting up very loudly.
[00:33:32] Anyway, so now we are back and it's really sad that we aren't going to any litfests.
[00:33:36] Anytime soon the litfest circuit is over, the season is over.
[00:33:40] But if any litfests are still hanging around waiting to invite people, please call us.
[00:33:44] We will bring Not Your Aunty there.