The Amazing Race 32: Eswar Dhinakaran and Aparna Dhinakaran Post-Elimination Interview (2020) – Parade

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Siblings are a complicated relationship. While there is a bond by blood that connects you, differences in interests and philosophies can lead to spats and rivalries. When brother/sister team Eswar Dhinakaran and Aparna Dhinakaran entered the Amazing Race 32 family, they experienced both sides of that. While their participation in the Mine Five alliance helped get them to the end game, it was a surprising U-Turn that left them steamed in Cambodia, feeling as pressed as a tile.

Back in Leg 2, Eswar and Aparna were part of the first five teams out of Colombias salt mines. The group decided to work together from there on out, a moment that would reverberate and inform the rest of the season. But despite the safety in numbers, the siblings were far from safe. Despite never finishing in last, they still struggled in certain tasks, whether it be Eswar putting together a recycled cello or Aparna matching painted figures with their real-life counterparts. Because of this, they spent most of their race bouncing between 5th and 6th place, though they were notably able to avoid the language curse with their visit to their home country of India.

The Mine Five were all who was left in Cambodia, and Eswar and Aparna figured it would be every team for themselves. Little did they know that a core group of three teams were targeting DeAngelo Williams and Gary Barnidge. Unfortunately, they couldnt take action on that plan, as Gary and DeAngelo were first to the seasons final U-Turn board. In an instant, they threw Eswar and Aparnas pictures up on the board, the only team they knew were behind them. The siblings ranted about the decision as they planted seeds in the Detour, and those seeds only grew when they got to the Roadblock and saw their U-Turners were still there. But while Aparna had some choice words for the former NFL players, it would turn out to be her final words to them.

Now out of the race, Eswar and Aparna talk with Parade.com about

Related: The Amazing Race Season 32: Everything We Know So Far

Apana, I know you were lit up on Twitter last night watching the episode. What was that experience like?Aparna Dhinakaran: Honestly, it just reminded me of how dumb I still think Gary and DeAngelo and the beard bros were. It was just a really bad move on their part. I think. Im curious to see if they feel the same about it two years later.

What makes you think both in the moment and now that it was such a bad move for them?Aparna: We were the last to actually find the gnom. And when we got to the temple, we could go in one at a time. So there was no way to overtake anyone. We did the fish Detour alongside Gary and DeAngelo and the beard bros. And at the U-Turn board, you have the option to go after Hung and Chee or Will and James. This was the last U-Turn of the season; we all knew that going in. Its time to make a big, bold move.

We all talked about how the Mine Five was no more, and everyone was in a race for themselves moving forward. But then, when it came down to it, it seemed like they were making a really dumb decision to keep with the alliance. Theyre not going to cross the finish line holding hands together! One team wins, so you need to optimize to figure out how to get teams that have always beaten you or consistently ahead of you out of the season because you might not get another chance further on. There were a lot of comments online last night about how Gary and DeAngelo didnt know how long the other Detour was. I mean, we all knew there were clues in the box, so you can figure out if you took the fastest Detour and how many teams were behind you.

What had been your relationship with Gary and DeAngelo up to that point?Aparna: Up until that leg, Gary and DeAngelo were probably one of the teams we were closest to. We would often arrive at the mat together, like in Paris. In the airport flying to Cambodia, we sat next to Gary and DeAngelo and had such a good bond. We spent a lot of downtime with them because we didnt know about this core alliance.

I know that the race isnt about friendships. But I think for us, it stung to see Gary and DeAngelo make a dumb decision to U-turn us and not a team thats always beaten them. And then to see the beard bros burn the board. I mean, how dumb can you be to do that? Dont you want to take out a team thats always beating you? Thats, I think, where our frustration came from. We thought, You guys arent playing the game to win for yourself.

You spoke about that core alliance of Maddison and Riley, Hung and Chee, and Will and James, who wanted to try to U-Turn DeAngelo and Gary this past leg. Did you have any knowledge of that core group or their plans going into Cambodia?Eswar: Dhinakaran We didnt know about any of that. Like Aparna said, what shocked us so much about the U-Turn was how much we had been playing under the radar most of the race. That was our strategy for a lot of the legs. Thats why the others planned to U-Turned Gary and DeAngelo.Aparna: Theyre loud personalities. They kept bragging about themselves and saying how theyre going to win. So they topped off their threat levels.Eswar: So seeing the plan to U-Turn them affirmed our strategy up to that point to lay low. I think we really just got screwed over by Gary and DeAngelo not being willing to U-Turn the beard bros who were right behind them. Like literally two feet behind them!

Lets talk about that other aspect of the U-Turn. Did you have a different reaction to seeing what Maddison and Riley did?Aparna: Theres kind of a subtle thing here going on with the beard bros. They were being a little shady. They had this thing with Will and James and Hung and Chee, but they also told Gary and DeAngelo that they wanted the athletes to work together. It makes sense. In a group of friends, you have people who are obviously closer to each other.

We figured that the beard bros were closer to Gary and DeAngelo and Hung and Chee. So I think they didnt want to U-Turn Gary and Deangelo because that would make it seem obvious that they werent really seeing this alliance as real. But I feel like youve got to be willing to cut your alliances and move forward in the last three legs. If we had a spot on that U-Turn board, we would have U-Turned Will and James or Hung and Chee. Consistently, those two teams have done extremely well. If theres a chance to take them down in this leg, you want to take it. You dont want to wait to have them pass you and win the whole thing.

A lot of talk with the Mine Five before was around that core trio of teams and their dissatisfaction with Gary and DeAngelo. I wasnt sure why you were never talked about in the alliance, maybe simply because you were in the back more than they were. Talk to me about what your position was in the Mine Five.Aparna: To be honest with you, Eswar and I saw that as a one-leg alliance. We thought the mines were the same as Leg 1 in Trinidad, where the four teams at the back said theyd work together. Similarly, the five teams at the front of the pack in Leg 2 said, Lets try to keep our lead. Lets try to finish the top five teams. And we didnt really think much of it after that. Its a huge alliance; its half the teams in the entire season. It just doesnt work that way.

There were some times they helped us, like printing out maps for us in Paraguay. But it was a very loose alliance. We never really got much help. And youre absolutely right. Maybe its because they were always ahead of us, and they couldnt feel like they could give us enough information. But there were moments where they could have, and they didnt. When I went down the building in Berlin, I saw Hung and Chee still waiting for their cab. They could have told me it was sauerkraut and left Leo to fail.

So it never really felt like an alliance for us. We always felt like we were running the race on our own. Even with things like the pie-throwing in France or the table setting in India, they were helping certain teams and not us. I think Gary and DeAngelo were the ones who built this narrative around the Mine Five and getting them to the end. I feel like the other teams didnt put as much stock into that alliance as Gary and DeAngelo did, and they got the most from it.Eswar: I think hindsight is 20/20 in some ways. I think back, and one moment particularly stuck out to me, which was maybe a hint that I should have taken. In Paraguay, I was blowing it on the cello task. That was still in the wake of this Mine Five alliance. Phil had asked us about it on the mat once already. I was struggling, so I asked Chee for help. And Chee just gave this sort of vague response. I then saw Maddison walk over to Chee, and Chee gave him very specific instructions like what strings to put on. At the time, I was like, Maybe he was just really frustrated or was in a different spot than I was. Now looking back, that was definitely when lines were already starting to form.

Lets talk about the Roadblock from this leg. Eswar, despite you figuring out you need to grease the tile up before DeAngelo, he finishes before you. What happened there?Eswar: We were the last ones to leave. I want to say we got to the mat about 40 to 45 minutes after Gary and DeAngelo. So it wasnt super neck-and-neck. Once DeAngelo left, I definitely felt deflated, a little loss of hope. You lose momentum in the moment. To be honest, I dont know why I didnt get it before DeAngelo, considering that I saw the waxing part first. My tile just kept crumbling. I really dont know what I did differently on my successful attempt compared to the others.Aparna: It takes a couple of tries to get to know the equipment. And were competing with the team whos been using that equipment for at that point, three hours. I think Eswar was probably one of the faster ones to figure out that task. But it was this added thing of taking the time to ramp it up. Once you see that youre the last team, you can feel a bit of dejection.Eswar: This is me also looking back a couple of years. But Im fairly sure when DeAngelo left, I had just messed up a tile. And the tile-making process isnt super quick. It takes maybe five or ten minutes to spin the thing and get the pressure correctly. So even if I did it correctly, I had an extra ten minutes.

Aparna, we saw you take advantage of the downtime at the Roadblock to dig into DeAngelo and Gary for U-Turning you. Was this choice more out of frustration or a chance to get in their heads?Aparna: Up until the Roadblock, we were focused. Were like, Okay, weve just got to get there and keep fighting. But I saw DeAngelo, and he just did his little simple, Hey, guys, as if nothing had happened. He just infuriated me. You just U-Turned us! We just spent an hour trying to figure out a moving garden in the heat of Cambodia. It just seems so fake in that moment.

I knew the Roadblock was in the hands of my brother, and I felt a little bit helpless because I couldnt do anything. But I did have all of these emotions and frustrations at DeAngelo and Gary for putting us in this situation. And I would have had those frustrations as the beard bros as well if they were still at that Roadblock. So I ran in like guns blazing. I literally said, [Expletive], you DeAngelo. And hes like, Okay, well, thank you for that nice greeting. And I was like, What the [expletive] do you expect? You U-Turned us! I think he was expecting us to be like this super sweet team, like were buddies again waiting at the airport. I was laying into him trying to get their rationale. Why us? Why not take out Will and James?

Why did you dig into DeAngelo more than Gary?Aparna: To be honest, at first, I couldnt even look at Gary. I mean, he was half-napping. He was dead. But honestly, Gary at that point was trying to convince me why Eswar was going to get it ahead of Deangelo. He was laying into DeAngelo to us, like, Hes not even looking at the demo guy. You guys are gonna get it. Its really hard to hate on a guy who is rooting for you! [Laughs.] I think Gary was so over DeAngelo at that point, and he just wanted to blame it on him.

And you can see my talk was working on DeAngelo. He was getting flustered! He was talking back to me; he was losing focus. He felt bad. It was a good ten to fifteen minutes of me talking smack to him. It helped me feel like I had some power in the situation, even though I couldnt help with the Roadblock.

Finally, you came into the season admitting you didnt spend a lot of time together. Considering how close you got during the race, how has your relationships changed in the years since?Aparna: Its been the best experience of our lives; were so grateful. Though were siblings, were not like Kaylynn and Haley. Were not attached and hip and so alike. Were very different people. We would bicker a lot when we were training for the race. And I think it made us appreciate that while we dont think the same and might not do things the same, that doesnt mean that the other person is wrong. Thats their way of doing something, and it makes you have respect for your teammate and what they bring to the table.Eswar: Before the race, we didnt hang out that often. But my race partner became one of my close friends, not just my sister. With COVID, were actually both living in our parents house. So the race was definitely an interesting pivot point. We went different ways and started becoming different people during college. And now we respect each others differences.Aparna: Its been especially great for our parents. They introduced us to the show as kids. Seeing it come full circle, where were on the show, has been an awesome experience to share with them.

Next, check out our interview with Kaylynn and Haley Williams, who were eliminated in the Mega Leg of Leg 8.

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The Amazing Race 32: Eswar Dhinakaran and Aparna Dhinakaran Post-Elimination Interview (2020) - Parade