Amish Tripathi On Indian History We Were Never Taught

TITLE: Amish Tripathi on The Indian History We Were Never Taught | Cyrus Says CHANNEL: Cyrus Says DATE: 2026-05-11 ---TRANSCRIPT--- He’s back not carrying his pen and I’m told higher spade authors of India

used to always say there is only one Cyrus thank god they’re going to have a land of milk and honey and people can just sit and you know the government will give them money yeah that’s it’s not going to be we tried an experiment noticed that AI works very well for 2 3 minutes beyond that it starts collapsing sounds there are some things that you should use AI for I would Think the biggest risk for the younger generation is reliance not reliance for the company sponsor. This is a podcast. This is not like general entertainment. Jio or one of the best lines I’ve heard is AI can very well approximate the wisdom of the crowds but it cannot think that which has never been thought before. Can I use AI in my marriage? He’s back not carrying his pen. Type laptop. I don’t write that old word. Bro, I know you’re older than me. I know you’re older than me, but there are some people who moved on from the pen onto the laptop. Symbolic. Symbolic. I didn’t want to do all this or this is okay for those who don’t know he was a senior of mine from Xavier’s college he was older than me and one of the one of the lines used to always say there is only one Cyrus thank god that was a proper that MPV made unfortunately or fortunately thank you for coming I think you’ve been here many times before so sweet of you to come back uh one of the most prolific and I’m told highest paid authors of India uh who created an a whole should we say genre. I don’t like the word mythological fiction though. It’s mythological. Now why do you even say mythological fiction? Sometimes I’m reading the reviews and all they use this this phrase. What we can’t just say mythological books right because that alone is a romance of maybe true maybe not true based on some truth. I don’t know man. I I think maybe that’s a western thing because the British Raj said that their history was history. Even if Herodotus said that elephants use their ears to fly, he’s still the father of history. Yeah, because he was western. Maybe it was one elephant who got a wrong turn from a cliff. Sorry, just kidding. Don’t that’s a bad visual. But everyone else’s history which would have some fanciful stuff is mythology. That’s the word that they used. Uh but maybe it comes from there. I mean I think most other cultures used their own terms. Our term was itasa which is history. It’s translated as history is actually thus it happened. Thus it happened and it’s more about what lessons can be drawn from that story rather than the facts of the story. But going back but like even even the history that’s presented to us. Okay. Uh how much can we actually say that it is completely true or will there be different points of view? Right. I lived in the UK for 4 years. For them Winston Churchill is a hero. rightly so for them for us he’s worse than Hitler World War II perspective but and same world perspective from an Indian he files are there there’s this wonderful book by racist really racist there’s this wonderful book by Madushri Banerj filed recordings he in effect almost practically ordered the famine which killed 3 to 4 million of our fellow Indians Hitler didn’t kill any Indians worse so in our mind he’s worse than Hitler Okay, we are right from our perspective. These are nonsolders. You’re killing just people, citizens. So he’s I mean in our mind he’s frankly a racist monster. But in the minds of the British, he’s a hero. The greatest war hero of all time. Fair enough. That’s their perspective. What’s the truth? Yeah. Your truth, my truth. At the moment, of course, Churchill wouldn’t win in Bengal because while we’re talking, the elections are going on and I think he would struggle at the moment. Perhaps not a right thing to bring up with Amitati intellectual same school and college although there is only one side thank god yeah but we’re here to talk about something very specific which is the role of the new game is AI and apparently you have jumped into it so you’re going to tell us exactly uh what the role is and first let’s let’s talk about AI which scares a lot of people including me because everybody says what will happen to our work etc and you know when it comes to authors can I just tell you we had to present something for a client and they wanted us to write something down and my manager couldn’t find me so he went on AI and got them to write like me or whatever one of these cla or one of these things and it wasn’t that bad Amish honestly I was better was I think 70 80% it sounded like the person you know you could sort of relate to it and all so that that that was a little bit scary but what is the role AI is going to play in your thing uh I have some views on AI which is a separate thing but you know the idea also that we’re going to do actually let me speak on AI first look the way I say it anyone who’s in the creative space actually in any area um AI is here man you’re not going to uninvent it it’s here okay you might as well lean in and figure out okay how can I make this an ally okay I mean when the car was invented the you know the horse carriage guys yeah and they got destroyed right now they can either say uninvent the car which is not going to happen or figure out okay how do I adapt to this and the car or the internet. I would, you know, and those are big inventions, aeroplane, but I would argue that AI is actually the biggest that humanity has ever made, ever. I mean, right up there with the control of fire and the invention of the wheel, in fact, higher perhaps. Okay. This is going to impact every damn thing and it is not going to be uninvented. It is here. So, we have to get on with it like a relative that’s in your house now. Yeah. Or suffer. It’s going to be a juggernaut. It’ll roll you over or figure out. Okay, this is a new tech. It is really powerful. How can I use this for my good? I think that’s the best approach, right? Uh and that’s true of every and look, every new technology will have some losers and winners. This this nonsense that western AI companies will say, “Oh, this is going to be, you know, uh we’re going to have a land of milk and honey and people can just sit and, you know, the government will give them money.” Yeah, that’s it’s not going to be like that. The blunt question is that you have a unique voice, a unique narrative style etc etc. Surely there I mean the next generation of Amishraati if I dare say that are they going to just use AI and is that the right thing to do? What is the right thing to do? I have a view on that too. Like the way I see it like I I’ve been doing experiments on AI okay in the writing space I noticed that if I write something short like half an article an article or something it sticks to my voice. If I try for a book it is utter crap. Okay. It doesn’t know how to it doesn’t know how to do long form for you. It cannot. It cannot. It doesn’t know how to stick to the character uh voice. It uh you know when you’re actually creating a novel, you’re essentially creating an entire world right now. Something as basic as you and I are saying something out here. And imagine if this has not been recorded. This has not been broadcast. The person outside does not know what we’ve spoken. Now say in the next scene, I am not here. You’re speaking to the person outside. If she refers to a conversation that you and I had, you as a reader will say, right? AI can’t differentiate that, right? I’ve noticed that it’s it as of now, fortunately, I still have a job. Okay? So, it can’t get a novel, right? It doesn’t get the narrative flow right. A short article, it can do. It’s the same way with videos as well. I, you know, I think AI movies can be a huge opportunity for people like me who have too many story ideas for one lifetime. And all my story ideas are all big budget stuff. Maybe I can make AI movies. And my wife and I, we actually put together a company. We tried an experiment. Noticed that AI works very well for two 3 minutes. Beyond that, it starts collapsing. Okay. So sorry. Stay stay on your narrative. Don’t get distracted. It’s a very important thing because when you side with AI, I think that’s a very progressive. There are things there are some things that you should use AI for. coming soon. I mean, why stop going to allow it to envelop your whole Sorry, but I interrupted you. You were saying u uh before you start started a company with your wife and Yes. And we actually, you know, for my previous book, The Chola Tigers, we actually made a trailer uh a two-minute trailer to promote the book on AI. Okay. and it actually came out really well and it went viral and it really helped promote the book well, right? Uh so then we got excited when we made it. Hey, maybe we can try and make a movie. Okay. And you know people in California know the top guys. So we tried to put it together. It was it just wasn’t working. So just character without you didn’t use anybody else set. No, I did I did we pulled a team together and we did an experiment and I just junked it because I wasn’t happy with the results like you know the character look does not say the same. emotions are crap. They’ve managed to solve that consistency issue that you know that six fingers all that yeah that doesn’t come but the character has to look exactly the same right in every scene you can’t say right so it’s not there yet okay so if you to give a horrible question but if you give a percentage to what you think the performance was mathematically compared to Amish’s voice AI’s voice as Amish is 70% 60% or less around 18.67% 67%. Oh, that low. Then it’s not then it’s not feasible. No, for an article it would be maybe 67.6%. Okay. Okay. Uh so an article you don’t have to do that much rework, right? But uh in a book it was quite it’s a long way off then you can’t but the pace at which things are improving for all you know 6 months a year later it may be and which gives rise to the bigger problem. Look, you and I uh we have actually look any any muscle if you don’t exercise it, it trophies. True. The brain’s also in a way a muscle, right? If you’re not going to exercise your brain, it’ll start a trophy. Now, think about the kids who are only using AI. Okay? We’ve done the hard work. We’ve actually written by ourselves. So, we’ll use AI as a tool. It’ll be like we will get on a bicycle and our you know we’ve done exercising our legs are strong our body is strong we’ll cycle with it because your time capacity is only so much and you want to go beyond that it improves your capacity but if other guys use AI as a crutch like they’ll just use this as a wheelchair and they’re just sitting on that yes they’ll start moving faster if it’s a motorized wheelchair but your muscles are at trophy now imagine if you’re a kid you’re not actually exercising your own brain to think through thoughts how to present uh an argument you’re not doing that hard work your muscle starts a trophying cuz you just leave it to AI right uh after some time it becomes a crutch so for me I I would think the biggest risk for the younger generation is reliance yeah and it’s not reliance the company sponsor this is a podcast this is not like general entertainment or though my lawyer has saved us, my lawyer has come to the party coming back. So if you’re going to use AI as a crutch for the kids, it’s a problem. Okay? Use it as a tool, which means you need to exercise your own brain. Make your own arguments. Try and write it yourself first, then use AI to improve it. Uh I know and most of my readers are kids, uh podcast, everything. I keep interacting with kids all the time. You’ll be shocked that so many of them are taking relationship advice from Chad GPT. Man, what the hell? No, this is not just kids. It’s bizarre. I have friends telling me they’ve been going. It’s utterly bizarre. And Chad GPT the way it is organized. You have to realize the incentives, okay, for Open AI or Claude or any of them, okay? They want to keep you addicted, which means basically AI is a people pleaser. It’ll tell you whatever the hell it is you want to hear so that you don’t leave, okay? so that they can keep absorbing your data. That is the point. It’ll tell you whatever. It’s not going to tell you what is good for you, right? It’ll tell you what whatever you want to hear. You really want to be taking advice from that. No, I know a lot of people personally speaking, I know at least two people in marriages, both females actually, who go to AI to question their issues, marital issues, etc. They keep telling us, you know, that this is what I heard and it seems exactly what you’re saying seems very correct and all that, you know. I don’t know how it works. Yeah, dump your husband. Well, you it’s just they don’t say dump your husband. Nobody gives a proper straight answer. AI is like us only. But they sort of agree with a lot of the issues. So, it’s more like being it’s designed that way. It’s designed that way. It’s not truth seeeking. It’s it’s a people pleaser. Yeah. Right. Which is why it hallucinates at times. But anyway, the so and that’s what I think. Look how it’ll pan out. God knows man. See my one question too early to say. No, the fear I think would be like you are very unique voice. You’ve got your own sort of genre following and all that. Can somebody try to ape you? Can they just sort of feed everything in and say I want to write like uh you know Amish completely. I want to make sure that I I don’t know I going further as you said it’s not developed well enough for that but they can right now it’s not would it be possible a year or two later uh you know or maybe 3 years later someone just make a movie just like Aita and that’s what so then what happened to Studio Gibli actually it’s such a lovely art form we loved watching uh you know the Japanese movies and now anyone can make a Studio Gibli art right then what happens to art people which is the issue. You’ll be the last generation of people who actually give us thought. How does how do fresh ideas emerge? That’s a problem. Exactly. Yeah. There’s an issue with AI, man. So then you’re saying embrace AI, but I’m saying that’s a huge issue. I’m saying it is not going to be uninvented. It’s here already now. So these are issues that’s going to emerge. We have to figure out how to handle it. There is no way it’s going to be uninvented. Let me make that clear. I’m not saying it’s a good thing. I’m or it’s a bad thing. It is here. That’s it. That’s all there is to it. It’s here and it is not going to go away. So, might as well adapt to it, right? It’s a bit like someone who’s a damn good sword master and he’s a like old samurai and they are really irritated that guns have been invented, right? Because suddenly your sword skills mean nothing. Remember that Indiana Jones exactly? Take out the reference Indiana Jones the guy movies. I’m sure the kids Noa the kids call them kids. The next generation some of these movies are You haven’t heard of Indiana Jones? It’s a good chance. Okay. Have you heard? Okay. Thank God. Okay. You’re not a kid. You’re Indiana Jones’s dad. Like, so for those who haven’t seen it, there’s a very famous scene in one guy comes with a sword and shoot and Indiana Jones takes out a gun and shoots. So, someone who’s a damn good swords master is going to hit the gun. And samurai is many of them used to have this rule, no guns in our fights, but that is only if you’re fighting another samurai. If an American comes with a gun, he’s going to shoot you dead. True. Right. So it is here. Whether it’s good or bad is pointless. It’s here, right? So you might as well adapt to it. That is my point. What are the implications of this going to be? That’s what I’m saying. Okay. The implication for someone like me who has too many ideas for one lifetime. And my biggest fear is I will die before I finish all my ideas. No, genuinely I have too many ideas and they keep coming. Right. So you use them as your is one way for me to just get it all out. Like I don’t want to be carrying any. You’re going to try and make it into an animated. there are some ideas which are like short that’s that’s what I’m doing on this idea with collective that there are some ideas that I want to speak of some theories which can be done on AI right so essentially I can get all these ideas out so that’s an opportunity for someone like me right which is what AI gives what is the down and this there are many upsides of course some of the downsides on the creative side how does new art emerge right someone like me I’ve already made it I have a name so AI can be a tool for me how does a new guy make it how does hem make his name. How does he develop a fresh style of writing? But if his book sells having borrowed from AI, he gets a name and nobody knows the difference. That’s not going to because AI will only it’s it’s essentially a wisdom of the crowds, right? How does AI work? Essentially, it’s an LLM which predicts the next word. It doesn’t think through it. Right? I mean, it gives it is one of the ways I understand it. I’m not saying I’m a techie. It gives the appearance of thinking, right? But you said you’re short. It’s not like us who’s who are feeling an emotion and thinking what’s the best way to express it. You you said in the beginning that you short journal short uh stuff that you want to write. How does it do it? Because it reads every single but it’s taking a thought process ahead. It’s not just taking words. It knows my style. So it reads every single book and article that I’ve written all speech preempts what you would perhaps and on that predicts the next word. Right. Yeah. Right. Which is in a way a wisdom of the crowds. That’s what wisdom of the crowds were. That’s that’s how the Google uh you know the search algorithm works. It predicts depending on more and more data, right? But that’s not actually feeling an emotion and creating something fresh, which is what Studio Gibli was. It’s like an artist feels something and create something fresh, right? AI cannot think and one of the best lines I’ve heard is AI can very well uh approximate the wisdom of the crowds but it cannot think that which has never been thought before because it is always based on original thought will always survive as in you because you it’s a part of but the point how do original thoughts emerge now cuz how does a new guy make it now look when I when when I made it yeah I wasn’t in compet but you began by handwriting now I mean literally look I had the world was easier now with AI clogging up everything how does a fresh guy make it people who’ve already made it like you and I yeah it’s good for us right people who haven’t made it as yet it’s probably going to be difficult how the world will emerge I don’t know right uh that’s one of the challenges no doubt yeah so the whole generation and more sorry and I’ll just repeat that again if the kids are not exercising their brain and making an AI making their AI tool a crutch. Their brain will never grow. Okay? It’ll never get exercised. It’ll You’re saying all this, but they’re growing up in a generation which is not like ours. Like my kids and the people younger than that also, I mean AI, they’ve turned to AI already for everything. Checking their answers, checking a legal document, checking a medical issue. That’s a fear when they’re writing reading reading comprehension class or they’re writing something. They’re just copying what AI has told them. where is their brain being exercised? How are you learning anything? But how do you stop them? Because unless you can prove that they’ve sort of if you want to use the words plagiarized or whatever and it’s not easy because there’s so many options. Some of the things that’s happening in uh in good schools and colleges uh abroad some of our international schools in India as well uh that there are classes where handwriting it has to be handwritten uh no computer access within the class. What does that mean? that for those 2 hours at least use your brain. I I think that’s the greatest idea and even if it is bad it does not it’s like when we start exercising okay when you start lifting weights there’s only so much you can lift right which is okay that’s how you’ll build it but if you’re just sitting around and the machine is lifting it for you and it gets recorded as your that doesn’t mean anything we know that it means nothing you can just record it as a I lifted such a heavy weight no you didn’t the machine did it for you true good analogy you’re doing that with the brain it’s actually not a joke because it’s like every single dimension of human existence is being not polluted but it’s it’s the it’s it’s arriving in it’s arriving in that area. one path on which uh you know it it it could go there’s there’s this brilliant American thinker called Ray Kerszsw he wrote the singularity is near which I think released maybe 15 20 years ago I read it long time I’d read that that time and a book more recently called the singularity is nearer okay brilliant thinker what the hell does that mean it’s his singularity is when uh thought of singularity singularity of thought no when when actually the theory is that that tech and humanity could actually merge. That’s his theory. And become one uh human tech civilization. That’s his theory. So we could have chips in our brain. We have access matter also made up of tech. Yeah. Which which means we have access to uh all the knowledge of the universe, right? 24 hours 24 hours. 24 hours. Uh we could replace some organs with that. So we are still human. We still feel the emotions. Wow. But we’re also part tech. And he sees that happening maybe in another 20 years. Okay. It’ll be a human tech civilization. And this could you know and what what what happens to those who cannot afford the insertion of tech right? So will the human species bifocate right? Plus our neighborhood India has the best AI. So some of the neighbors will be like boss artificial intelligence for the no intelligence country. Correct. No names. Our our our western neighbor. Yeah. No, but uh when you think about it, even sports, if what you’re saying is correct, sportsman won’t have to retire. The knee goes for example, the knee goes. So the AI will take care of the knee and I’m presuming then what’s the problem? If the mind is still young, mind is still sporty or competitive, right? Mind hopefully gets wiser. Yeah, they can’t replace the mind, right? literally they can’t replace the mind. There’s some experiments going on on there as well that you can back up. No, I’m serious. So, there’s this place called Singularity University. Okay. Uh in in California where many of these presentations happen. He was actually the head of uh I think tech or AI in Google. He’s considered one of the top 20 American thinkers of all time. He’s really brilliant. Okay. Uh particularly in tech. Okay. Okay. And all his predictions have tended to come true, right? Uh 20 years will be half tech. So, so there’s this thing that consciousness could be backed up our consciousness and then inserted into another body. That’s a theoretical that’s happening. That lady’s mind. I hope not. No, I’m not. I hope I’ll die with it. It’s just a general example. I ask you is that what you’re saying? That’s one of the things. We keep your consciousness being discussed. The consciousness can remain for generations even if they can’t save the world. There’s one of the theories being discussed. Whether it’ll work out or not, I don’t know. Right. Wow. My wife will survive me and then go on forever. Some other joker will suffer. She won’t watch. Don’t worry. I have nothing to do with you. You can marry AI. No, but I think you know we are joking about all these things but you’re saying it like a proper proper possibility not not like a we are look there are uh there’s anti-aging uh research going on where we could end up living a lot longer. There was an experiment that was done recently I think in uh some union in Texas where they froze a fish and then brought it back to life. It died immediately after but what does that mean? It means that theoretical concept that you can be cryogenically frozen as it’s shown in the movies and then be brought back to life. Okay. Is theoretically possible actually according to our biology it should not be possible because you see when you freeze your uh your cells you remember uh uh school physics right when when water freezes it when he says that I’m feeling pressure but I wasn’t even good in physics. Huh? When water freezes, it expands, right? So that disrupts your cell and your cell ruptures and basically that’s what will happen in freezing. So they’ve managed to find a solution for this for a fish. Now could it be possible that’s what the aim of those researchers is that over time they’ll make it possible for human beings which means when you’re close to death uh you could be cryogenically frozen till such time as medical science has advanced enough to solve whatever problem you’re having and you can be brought back to life. Right? That’s one way. The other way is back up your thoughts, your consciousness, everything. Right? Uh the third way is actually insertion of uh of uh tech into you. There’s uh how does that elongate the lifespan? You live longer because your organs will function. What what’s what happens if the tech comes into you? It’s it’s a human tech. The heart will function better. I don’t know about the heart but I know some that but these are this is where the research is happening. My brothers run a biotech company. So they are kind of in this in this space. Does he want to try on people? Uh their their research is only only on uh on cancer testing on blood testing. Oh, but through a blood test they can tell you if cancer is imminent. Not not like DNA. You may have a chance. No, it is like the mutation has happened tumors will start forming in the next 6 months. Do it do something now. If you catch cancer early, it’s a very weak disease. So often it’s caught late. only this is only with uh it’s done all over the world or just your brother’s got this technology. So the company is called These are the Indian armies epigenous a lab is here. Uh they’ve uh they’ve just received their US patents for it. The NHS trials just got over it’s but it’s basically a science company. It’s not a pharma company. So they do the research. The test is available already uh in Mumbai. Uh no for you it will be cheap. Don’t worry. Uh I am a Leo not a cancer. Yeah. No, no, but I mean I can see how well you’re doing. So for you relatively it’s very cheap mean really I can’t afford AI baba I can’t but let’s before we go to break let’s quickly talk about the collective so what is the actual so what we’re doing in this is look uh a thing which had struck me is we we don’t have a a good understanding of our history in many ways our history books what is taught to us even now is still largely what was uh created by the British Raj right okay So there is an excessive Delhi focus for example we discussed this last time you g lecture about how north India has been oversold and south India and it’s not just north India it’s basically that kaibar to agra area so even eastern uphar Bengal are all ignored MP Gujarat Rajasthan are ignored and king bj for example the greatest Indian kings is completely ignored gurjar praatiharas of gujarat maharashakarnataka are ignored it’s only that delhi area okay that is covered not to mention the chola shellas all yeah they’re all ignored the king of so we don’t have a complete understanding of our history and because of that we see our history as essentially that we were a land of farmers that we were a land-based civilization and our biggest problem was invaders coming from the northwest and indust all our especially the last thousand years history is all correct around this when actually we were among the greatest seafarers of the ancient world uh uh and much of that data is talking about Ashoka Chandra that that Ashoka era from Indis Valley time till King Chola’s times we were the greatest seafarers in the world in the world in the world better than the Greeks and all that. Yeah. Okay. Uh Greek come outside. There’s nobody there. Sorry. Sorry. I like I like Greeks a lot too. But I mean this was so we were great seafarers even before the Greeks when the m lived in what is Greece. Okay. So for example Angus Madison’s figures he was a great economic historian from zero common era till 11th century India was 35% of the world’s GDP. Okay. Wow. And this was because of centuries the Roman Empire Emperor Vespassian had tried banning trade with India because Rome was going bankrupt importing stuff from India. We charge them a lot though I and paying in why shouldn’t we? We were the only ones who could make it and the women love the silly. Is this right? They would pay top. It’s true. It’s true. And there was a port in Egypt called Binik. Okay. Where the Lord Shiva temples, Buddhist because Indian merchants were out there, right? That was that was where till till where our ships would go and then they would kind of take it forward, right? The biggest hoorde of Roman gold and silver coins outside of the Roman Empire anywhere in the world is in India. Okay. Centuries of trade surplus. Okay. With China, with everyone else. So you were good businessmen even then. Okay. Which is the oldest and you would think East India, Dutch East India Company were the oldest multinational corporations. It was something from uh not from Indas Valley surely and not that old. Okay. But there is this there is this trading guild called the 500. Okay. The even the name is evocative. Okay. The 500. Okay. They were from the Karnataka region of Ahole. Okay. Massive guild. Okay. They had officers all over the world uh multinational. They owned tens perhaps a few hundred ships. They had their own army. Which which traded? Which age are we looking at? This is from the 6th century till around 12th 13th century. Okay. Uh they time would it be? No. But south Indian was north. That’s what we know. But even the north even the north there were guilds. Okay. Uh and massive guilds. Okay. uh they used to fund some of the expeditions of our kings because it was a oh wow it was like part trade part conquest right and I have like an entire series ideas fiction series ideas on the 500 is this the birth of the shetty clan or something maybe we you know fabulous businessmen there might be something there might be some connect salak idea I’ll use it I’ll give you credit for it just give me one I’ll give you credit for it I thank and I will give I will give you a discount on the blood If it’s positive, don’t give me any money. So, but the point is there are so many things like this that we should know, right? Uh but we don’t. This is just trading like in in science in universities. Why did we not get all this in history books here? I mean, this is all something to be proud of and it’s not even close to that. I’ll tell you what the problem is. The British there was a there’s an obvious reason why they would have wanted to shut it down. Okay? And the look the foreigners before them the Turks who we call the Delhi Sutultan Mughals they weren’t really brainy people. Okay. So uh they were just great warriors. Okay. You said that also you said they were the best warriors. Oh yeah. The Turks and the Turks aren’t originally from Turkey. They were actually from Central Asia. So even what is Turkey today was actually Helen. It was Greece. So the Turks conquered it, massacred all the elite, killed the men, took over the women and made it Turkey. Okay. Okay. You know the Dothraki and uh the Game of Thrones. Have you seen Game of Thrones or read Game of Thrones? No. No. No. It’s too long here. Everybody else around me has seen it. Okay. So, there’s this tribe of killers in there, horse riders called Dothrakis. You know this boys? Everyone knows the Everybody knows. Huh? Okay. They are largely based on the Turks. Okay. Who did nothing besides killing nothing. They were the greatest warriors ever like Timour. Tamur the lame. Correct. He was a Turk. Samar Kand. Yeah. He was a Turk. His army would have been at max maybe 100,000 150,000 soldiers. Maybe 200,000 twice. No. Yeah. Yeah. He killed 5% of the world’s population. Boss in the 12th century when there were no nuclear bombs, no dynamite, no machine guns. It wasn’t easy to kill people. You have to stab behead. It’s it was hard work. He killed 5% of the world’s population. What would we put on his Aadhaar card? Timour greatest killer ever mass murderer par excas 5% gone. Correct. Unbelievable. He killed so many people. Global temperatures actually came down. There was global cooling thanks to him. Okay. And he did it the hard way. Like I said, no nuclear bombs, no machine guns, no dynamites. You can’t just kill millions just like that. Did they were like killers like the world has never seen. But they did nothing else. No science, no nothing, nothing nothing else, no business business was left to the people they considered inferior. So the Ottoman Turks, many of their businessmen was a Venetians or you know, so the Venetians had a had an they brought in the scientist parts of the empire. No, they brought in talent. No, that was the Arabs. You’re talking about the Arabs. The palace of learning was the Ottoman Empire did not bring them in. Okay, tell me one university that was founded in India by the Turk rulers. one they destroyed many universities one university that they founded Bombay International School we are not sure about the origins yeah it’s okay they founded not one university but they destroyed Nalanda they destroyed uh Vikram Sheila they destroyed so many mahudauram so many un Nalanda library had so many books uh that the library burnt for 3 4 months they had that many books to burn the libraries you know what do they get out of that look they were essenti entally warriors whose entire way of conquest like the Mongols from the step lands correct is put so much fear into you that you surrender before as soon as they left surrender. Yeah. Yeah. So they used to make mountains of this even Akbar did Jen started that all of them used to do its kil what we call skyscrapers today in south Mumbai are basically based on the skulls of humanity that these pillagers and no the Turks never came to Mumbai. They did they didn’t but why would they come to Mumbai infrastructure one of the reasons naval power also went down is because they didn’t do any navy from India at least now who are we talking about the Turks the Turks which is the what we call the muggals who came to the muggles and they also done it but the Europeans were yes they were great conquerors but to be fair okay so they set up universities they were great scientists now if you have a if you have dimmag and you want to oppress because killing people is a lot of hard work, right? You’re changing the cultures. And if you change the culture and controls there’s this there’s this brilliant line that if the slave forgets that the chain is not there anymore, the master’s job is done. Wow. So he remains a slave without the chain. Without the chain like you know how uh have you seen elephants tied up in circuses etc. It’s like a very small chain on his uh on his foot. Conditioning has happened. So they don’t need to elephant just moves a bit that chain will break. Why does it not do that? It’s conditioning because when it was small that chain was tied up at that time it tried and it couldn’t break. How sad. Okay. Moment that chain is put the elephant thinks I can’t move. That’s what the British did to us. Okay. Basically you were an oral culture which is [ __ ] We give you manners. We gave you manners. We gave you didn’t have universities you know. We gave you universities. Kolkata University, Mumbai University. We gave you everything’s of course they did because those records are there like if upanishads and vedas are so beautiful actually it’s not your creation. There were white people who invaded you. Arians who gave you that culture okay now many of these things and look it’s it’s what any conqueror does okay you wipe out the culture and put yours uh Milan Kunda had said right you wipe out the past rewrite it and then you you you you’ve conquered the people’s minds they’ll never arise and that’s why he said the struggle of civilization is a struggle of remembering against forgetting right and they did this across the world like they told the Africans you never had a culture of your own you never had cities of your own not true there was great Zimbab great Zimbabwe there was a song empire not true but their own kingdoms great so many Africans today actually believe what the British or Germans or Portuguese or Belgian told them right we believed it too fortunately there are more than enough records where we can start challenging this now right do you know like and we had many universities that all of us know Nalanda but there’s a university called Walabi. Okay. Which was also destroyed later by the same idiotic invaders. But it was founded by women. Okay. Uh I think 1600700 years ago. Not bad. Not bad. We were that kind of culture. All right. Uh great methological chemistry science, architecture, irrigation, plumbing, irrigation, navigation, literature, ship building. Only sports I felt was not good enough. Yeah. Sports as well. We had they have discovered they have discovered rang bhumis now in raki okay which was like a stadium type for sports. Wow. But what were they what was the sport? Indians were actually bigger and taller when the British came. They used to record. In fact even the Chinese used to record about the British that they so small but they still keep defeating us. What are you saying? How does the racial profile change? Boss it’s a question of just nutrition. Yeah. All of us. Our sons and daughters are taller. Our sons are certainly taller than us. Our kids are both taller. Nutrition. I think I blame my wife because I travel a lot. My son is I have nothing against you. Okay. I’m And listen, can I can I just give this as strong advice? Strong advice. Leave him chat GPT. Just Just marry and and and if you and No, hang on. Hang on. Not my And if OpenAI is not good enough, what about Mythos, Claude? Huh? Mythos. Yeah. Yeah. And Mythos is so exclusive that Claude is not even releasing the damn thing to everyone. Just just go with Mythos, man. Okay, speaking of methos, we have to take a break. We’ve spoken of 41 minutes, the longest ever session we’ve had and his coffee still not come. Stay where you are still discovering AI through the eyes of Amish who’s very flexible about all these things which I think is the perhaps the right approach. Neither this nor that when it comes to people who embrace it fully or who completely say uh past majana stay away. We’ll we’ll come back and Amish will guide us. Which was that match where you literally flew into the stumps. What do you mean which was that match? It was the match. The only game that launched my career. I mean there are two main arms of the Indian system. In military we have the infantry and cavalry and all of those things. Did you say cavalry? I did. How old are you? Well, not as old as you are. Lots to come on Jonty on the Dog season

Can’t wait. And please don’t change the shirt. No, I’m not going to. Okay, that’s great. I promise for the entire series I’m going to wear the same shirt. All right. Uh uh learning a lot here. Um very interesting fact that Amish is like a pioneer trying to push this entire thing that Indian history is much more than what we’ve been taught which is very biased towards uh invaders coming through north India and and focusing on one geography part of India. So excellent. So more of this stuff is going to come out now this is like another that’s the idea uh Sanskrit rock basically no so uh close with Hindi rock but they won’t go close to Sanskrit. This is the first I don’t think there’s any other example is that I’m not this is like this full pioneer stuff this full Sanskrit and the pronunciations are I mean it’s mine and even my mother because she said so even she was happy with can you speak in Sanskrit like fluently like if you met I’m not as good as and my my grandfather was uh uh was a masters in Sanskrit actually so he could even do a pranista puja he he was a pandit at Vishnazi. My parents their Sanskrit was a little less generation going down. Blessings of goddess Sarasoti has been coming down. Blessings of goddess Lakshmi has been going up. Yes. Yeah. I was about to say that. Yeah. The important one. Yeah. That’s fair to say. Okay. Okay, we will we have very little time but quickly if we can get uh what is this collaboration with Amitab Bachan that is a uh AAA video game uh that was released mid last year as you know in in video gaming most of the games that Indian developers make are simple mobile phone games which are low budget and the very reason for that is actually many of our gaming companies don’t have the money to to put that uh but AAA games like Assassin’s Creed okay or blackmith with Wukong. The ones that you play on uh you know PlayStation. Let me check with the games king. You play them? Huh? It’s very happy. So there’s never been a AAA game on an Indian epic or an Indian subject. Okay. So Nudin Abu who’s uh uh producer at Ubisoft which is one of the biggest gaming companies. I’m sure you’ve heard of Ubisoft. Uh Amitab Bachan and I we’ve co-founded this company. Uh, Nicola Grant, you know, your friends. Uh, I know. Yeah. Yeah. He’s How do you Can you call him Amitab? I mean, how close are you? Amitab G. I call him Amitab. That’s good enough. Obviously, that’s good enough. That’s fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. And he’s he’s he’s read and supported and liked my books from the early days. Amitab Bachan is a fan. I can say it. I’m a I’m a hugely big fan. Bigger fan of his biggest fan. Please bring him with you. But he likes my books. But he likes my books. So for which I’m always grateful. So we founded this game. Uh we’ve been working on it for a few years actually. You know AAA games actually take time. I mean the the budgets are as big as Hollywood movies and they take four five years to make. So this so this game will release maybe by take maybe two years more at least. Wow. But it’ll be the first AAA game on an Indian subject based on the world of the Ramayan. It’ll be imagery like you’ve never seen. Game play like you’ve never seen. I think even foreigners will like it. this whole it can only work if foreigners also buy right which is why blackmmith Wukong work it’s based on uh the journey to the west a Chinese uh traditional story uh it worked of course in China but it worked in the west as well uh so that’s the aim that we have because just the Indian market cannot justify the investment uh that this what’s the investment can you share uh quite big ballpark quite big uh are we talking millions or more than that millions USD and many we are playing a game now ladies and gentlemen please not my money not my money I’m I’m I’m only the creative ultimately everybody wants only one thing many of the you know the million the initial probably more than that the initial investors came from abroad podcast the initial investor no but look it takes a lot of money our main lab is in Paris we’re building a lab in Pune So we still don’t do this in-house in India on this level. We do the smaller ones. I know. No, because uh we’ve never made we’ve never made a AAA video game from India. So there’s never been an ecosystem in India uh for it. But amazing because we are the most game loving people. Yeah. But most of our gaming is actually on mobile mobile. But that’s only to do with the fact is still small. Uh uh it’s growing. It’s growing. But we’ve usually been consumers. So many of our top video games are actually Chinese games. We are sending hundreds of millions of dollars to China every year from here playing their games. We have to change that. Ladies and gentlemen, we have to in in my best ordinary voice. This has to change. The nation wants to know why are we sending money to China. The nation wants us to keep the money here. The audacity of China. Anyway, look before we run out of time, let’s quickly bachin. So he works so his voice is going to be in it. His voice is in the trailer too. Oh wow. Yeah. Yeah. So there’s a trailer in which was released in June. If you guys want you can play that separately. It’s the game is called Age of Bat with a double A so that we could create a domain name for it. Age of Bat. Uh we released a teaser trailer. Uh Huh. A will become I thought a tongue twister. Don’t don’t go away. Stay for two more minutes. We’ll we’ll wind up. Um, please marry AI. See, please. See, see, you you said now it depends. It depends the capacity of the individuals. Some people have to lean on it more, some people less. Why are we being so judgmental? Judgmental. All right. Lastly, before we leave, I’ve just been reminded that you have your podcast now. How’s that going? It’s going very well. Yeah. So uh I think that’s a great idea because you know you’ve got so many thoughts and points to share that no matter how much you write you’d have left some behind but if you do a podcast it’ll keep coming out. Correct. And and if I was in Xavier but in the world of you like this when you were a young man I would hide it. You were the history guy with I loved reading a lot but I was busy in Malar man. I was on the OC side. That’s one side of it. Yeah that’s one side of it. And in Xavier if you uh how do you impress the girls in the class and all bro? Come on. You would you correct the I mean would you mention your your knowledge of history and all that against a professor? Do you really think that would work in Xavius? No. No. And no way. I’m sure that you’ll upset the teacher if you look like you’re smarter than them or you have a in-depth the the the most bizarre experience I had because I I did my BA in maths as you know and the only reason I did maths was a waste because see physics chemistry practicals then the in the afternoon gets clogged up. No because if I did maths there no practicals. So basically just two hours of lectures in the morning. I had all free time for Malhar and Janfest. I was in Janfest organizer role also. That’s why I did it. Uh that’s how I could afford to be the chair 94 because I had the time and uh I used to bunk at least in my third year because I was busy with Malar. So I bunkked much of the and in the much of second advertising we are doing the people see a very successful man and say boss look at what he’s saying. Why am I in college? I have to bunk. Huh? Maybe you have but still I didn’t use AI. Yeah. So there was an exam I remember an interim exam and uh you know I thought there was something wrong with the question okay that I was answering and so I raised my hand and the teacher came I said can you please call professor Padukon there’s something wrong in this question. No no there’s nothing wrong with this question. No no sir please just call professor Padukon. I am professor Padukon. He was my class teacher. I’d never met him. Oh god, he must have been so upset. Yeah. Yeah. He hated then I still did. Was there something wrong in the question? Yeah, there was. Yeah, of course. So they didn’t correct it. No. No. Then apparently the question I didn’t answer that question. It was an interim test. So question was put aside. Wow. Uh too smart for school or college in coming back to the podcast. So I’m doing a podcast now on YouTube uh and Spotify various other places. Uh so uh I speak of issues that uh that I think are useful that people could know insights call it immortal India with Amish. Uh with my sister we did a series explaining Bhagat Gita uh but in easy modern language or characters of the Mahabharata what can you learn from it? Uh so it’s there on uh author Amish on YouTube, Spotify. You’ve conquered the you look at it, you’ve got obviously got reading the original uh books, then you’ve got podcasts, then you’ve got videos playing with music and rock, etc., etc. And you’ve got a game. It’s almost like everything except a feature film, but that’s coming soon. That will also come soon, I’m sure. For real? Yeah. Yeah. But at the end of it all, as I learned very well at Xavier’s, there can only be one Cyrus. Okay. And I’m not Cyrus. You want You want to exchange lives? I live. You are my senior, bro. That doesn’t matter. I live at home with my mom. You want to exchange lives? Just decide now. Okay, Amish, I know you are in a hurry and have to go. The coffee came 1 hour 7 minutes after the program started with but that’s you know. It was great fun as always, man. Always always a pleasure chatting with you. Same college. One year senior. One year just one year. Let’s go over to the senior. Senior 9493. No, no, no. Honestly, I mean after some time, how does it matter? I hate that question when some guys say, “Were you in Xavier’s? Which batch?” And then you don’t know what to say anymore. Yeah. Because every year gets born. It matters because you will always be a senior. When you’re a senior, it’s a great thing, but as you grow older, it’s a worse thing. Yeah. Sad to hear. Anyway, cheers and we’ll see you soon. Can I use AI in my marriage? He’s taking time. You want to get married? The wife is sitting here. The great writer is being very careful where the ball is going to land. Now I was I was trying to process your question. Do you want to get married to AI? She’ll be a very good wife. Amish. That’s not a She will be a very good wife. That’s not a joke. She will always agree with you. People who are discussing this, I will always agree with you. She’ll she’ll she’ll she’ll she’ll never say over already. It’s going to be there forever. Be very careful to you to say everything is perfect. Just be very careful. It’s a loose ball outside of Yeah. Did you know Indians report nearly 800 cases of online financial fraud every day which has resulted in losses exceeding,000 crores in the last 5 years. To keep you safe from such fraud, I am starting my newest podcast series, Conversation with Vigilante, an initiative by HDFC Bank. In every episode, I will feature special guests who can share expert insights on the different types of fraud, their modus operandi, and how you can protect your money. Stay safe, stay vigil, and don’t forget to tune into conversation with vigilante. Catch the episodes on all audio streaming platforms and V for vigilante YouTube channel. Cyrus says every time Cyrus says please important people together.