Hrithik Karya
Appearances
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
I hear there's a lot that goes into these episodes, but it sounds like you go really deep on really niche topics. I had to look at some and listen to a few since Garrett messaged me, so yeah.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
I think you have a really weird relationship with it growing up in the UK. Like, you sort of see it as this place that is shrouded in a lot of mystery, and most of the time you see it is just on the TV when the royals are coming in and out of it. I don't think a lot of British people actually do go inside of it, because you sort of just... walk by and you're like, oh, that's just there.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
And when I got the job, I was actually, that was the first time I'd ever been inside. And then as soon as you go inside, you're like, this place is insane.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
It was during my first year of university, and my dad said, you need to get a job over the summer because university holidays are much longer than school holidays. So he was like, you need to get a job. You're 19 years old. Do something with your life. So I was like, okay.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
Literally went on Google, searched summer jobs in London, and it was the first thing that came up, and it was the last day of applications. Really? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It literally just said like, retail assistant Buckingham Palace. And I was like, okay, sure.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
And so I just put in an application, actually went to the palace for my interview, and then got a call a couple of days later saying, yeah, we want you to come and work here.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
It's not glamorous. It was just retail assistant. When Buckingham Palace opens in the summer for guests, they have a shop, like a temporary pop-up shop. I say temporary. It's a massive structure that they put in the garden, but only for those three months. And you go and work in the shop in the garden for three months, sort of just like as a...
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
Retail assistant, but like quasi tour guide as well, because people still obviously, you do get a bit of background and people still want to talk to you about it when they're in the shop.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
I think you don't see it until you do something else. So that was the first job I'd ever had. And then I went and worked the year later at my local Tesco's, which is like your... Supermarket. Yeah, supermarket. And I was doing like fruit and veg. So I was doing food stuff. And at that point, I was thinking, I was like, a year ago, I was working in Buckingham Palace. And then it hits you.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
And you're like, wow, I got a level of access to this place that most people in their lifetime will never get. It's also the thing I can like hold over my family members a lot, which is quite fun. Yeah.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
Yeah, so there was a lot about that, right? Because obviously you're working for this institution that a lot of people wouldn't know about. So obviously I'm not going to sit here and give you like a walkthrough of exactly how many steps it takes to get from one place to one place and exactly what doors that you have to go through to go from one place to another place. Obviously I can't do that.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
I think also a lot of it was about like...
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
journalism and the media because the entrance we go in and out of was obviously known as being the entrance that people who work there will go out of and they said like people will see people will know that you work there and they don't care what you do or the fact that you just work in the shop but don't answer questions like if people want to come and ask you about stuff go and talk to us.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
As you may know, with the royal family, there's always a story about them in the papers. So, for example, when I was working there, there was one particular scandal that was going on at the time, which I will let you figure out which one it was, because it was quite a big one that I think people still talk about today. It involved a man from your homeland. And what time period was this?
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
Yeah, there was an ongoing scandal about a man in America who owned an island and one of the particular British royals. Oh, a man who owned an island. Okay, I do know that one. Okay.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
So we got a big talking to about if anyone, even if they are just like seemingly a customer in the shop, says anything about that, you do not say a word. You're like one of the guards with the fuzzy hats. Yeah, you could do that, but you'd just be like, nothing, and you'd just move on. Because what people will do is they will say, a royal spokesperson said this.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
Yes. So, yeah, it's weird. Like, there is one. I think that's the main thing. You wouldn't have thought about it. Oh, I've thought about it. Have you seen it? I have seen it. You've seen it with your own eyes? Yeah, well, yeah, because generally when people work in government or in those kind of positions is because you work in such secure sites, a lot of the facilities you need are on site.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
So it makes sense that the people who work there get access to a swimming pool and a gym. So you don't have to leave the site to go and do it. And it's, I think whoever put this question in may not like this answer, but it's just a swimming pool. Like it's a tiled surface with a swimming pool in the middle of it with changing rooms and a gym attached to it in a building.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
You are at your local gym with the swimming pool.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
Yeah, if you wanted to, yeah. Did you swim in the pool? No, I didn't join the gym because I wasn't living close enough to the palace to make it make sense. But you could have? I could have, yeah. That was why we went there because they were like, oh, you can join this gym if you want to. But yeah, I could have done. And is there a diving board? No. Diving boards are very American.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
You know those little springy diving boards? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we don't have them.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
Again, it's just a government-funded gym. It's the basics that you need in a gym. It's got your machines, it's got your free weights, it's got your treadmills and other cardio sort of machines.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
Like, if you wanted a fancy gym, I'd go down to the Equinox or something.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
Yeah, if you wanted a fancy gym, go there. Like...
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
Yeah, New York, he's probably got a nicer pool than the Buckingham Palace pool, yeah.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
So there's very strict rules about pictures and people taking pictures. Like when I was inside the palace, you're not allowed to take a picture. You're not allowed to send a Snapchat to your mates. You're not allowed to record something funny that happens at lunch with your colleagues. You're not allowed to pick up a FaceTime call. So that's probably the reason why I'd say.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
I think part of it is if there's no reason for there to be a picture of it, there isn't going to be one. And I don't think that there is a reason for there to be a picture of it.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
Okay, there's not really a nice answer here. I will go back to my time in the palace. And it's like, whenever there were Americans in the shop, I was sort of just like... No, not this again. Like, it's just so much like talking. It's like sharp. Like, I don't care. Like, I think this is where it gets a bit like funny where you guys may not take this one.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
There is a level of like, you assume that they have a level of like superiority. I say mine's a confusing situation because I'm obviously, you know, ethnically not British. I think you can probably tell. But like growing up here, you still get that of like, oh, we left you. And do you know how many times I heard that on a daily basis? Really? At the Palace of America. Yeah, oh, we left you.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
And like, ha ha, like, oh, look at this tea. We threw it in the harbour. And I'm like... I don't care. Like, I honestly don't care. I was like, if I hadn't opened my mouth, you would have thought I was just an Indian guy. So now that you found out I'm British, suddenly you're going to talk to me about throwing tea in a harbour, mate. I honestly don't care.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
So I think that's probably where that comes from, especially around the royals, because I think the British are very protective. Even if you don't like them, a lot of British people are very protective about conversations of the royals should only occur between British people.
Search Engine
Why is the pool at Buckingham Palace a secret?
I think your question was, it was a really interesting question, but I don't like, I think you guys were like, maybe expecting like this really sort of extravagant answer. And it was literally probably the most boring answer that you could have got to a question about like, what's the pool like? It's like, it's just a pool, mate.