Eswar & Aparna

Eswar Dhinakaran and Aparna Dhinakaran are a team of Siblings on The Amazing Race 32.

Despite both Eswar & Aparna and their competitors thinking that the siblings' engineering background and general intelligence would make them huge threats, this quickly proved to not be the case as the siblings regularly struggled with tasks. However, their nominal membership in the dominant Mine Five alliance helped the siblings out on a few occasions as they would receive help from their allies. Eswar & Aparna were generally on the outer fringes of the alliance and took little part in the controversial answer-sharing that the Mine Five effectively used to their advantage. When it came down to just the Mine Five at the final five, DeAngelo & Gary, greatly underestimating their own standing within the alliance, used the U-Turn on the siblings instead of the other teams higher up on the hierarchy. This dropped Eswar & Aparna to last and, despite their best efforts to catch up, cost them too much time and resulted in their elimination in 5th place.

Profile[]

Retrieved from CBS.com^[1]

Eswar Dhinakaran[]

Name: Eswar Dhinakaran
Age: 24
Hometown: Fremont, California
Current occupation: Software engineer and entrepreneur
Describe what you do: I'm building a product called Flow to make you more organized and intentful as you use the Internet.
Three words to describe you: Impulsive, fast-learner, and empathetic.
Favorite hobbies: Playing basketball, playing tennis, cycling, reading, and watching movies.
What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? I didn't know how to swim until a couple years ago, but I was able to learn pretty quickly and am now comfortable surfing!
What scares you most about traveling? My neck getting stiff from sleeping on an airplane.
What excites you most about traveling? I love getting a glimpse into how other people's lives and how drastically different their lives can be while also similar in some of the most meaningful ways.
What country and place would you most like to visit and why? Russia. The people seem pretty relaxed and friendly; there's a lot of great literature from Russia, super interesting history, and a lot of land to traverse.
What do you hope to accomplish by running The Amazing Race with your partner (other than winning one million bucks)? Hopefully, we can learn to work better together and understand how to deal with each other's flaws.

Aparna Dhinakaran[]

Name: Aparna Dhinakaran
Age: 26
Hometown: Berkeley, California
Current occupation: Engineer/entrepreneur
Describe what you do: I founded Arize AI to help troubleshoot, monitor, and explain artificial intelligence (AI). As our society becomes increasingly digitized, advances in AI are being adopted by businesses in every industry. I'm passionate about making AI successful, fair, and transparent as we rely on them. On a day-to-day, being an entrepreneur involves wearing a lot of hats and doing whatever I can to move our vision forward.
Three words to describe you: Friendly, adventurous and ambitious.
Favorite hobbies: Playing tennis, writing in cute coffee shops, preparing for my Bollywood breakout, volunteering for feminist organizations, going out to dance with my friends, bothering my boyfriend for photoshoots, setting flight price alerts to jet off somewhere, hosting board game nights that involve lying, and of course watching CBS reality TV shows!
What is the accomplishment you are most proud of? Getting to be on The Amazing Race! I've had a dream to be on this show since I was eight years old. My brother and I grew up watching Race with our family. We were two Indian-American kids who didn't often see people like us on American reality TV shows. I remember when the race went to Chennai, India (our hometown) in Season 10, we were jumping up and down in our little living room because we were so excited to see The Amazing Race bring our culture to a mainstream American audience. I remember telling my dad that day, "I'm going to be on The Amazing Race when I'm older." I'm proud of myself for not just letting it be a pipe dream, but actually going to an open casting call, trying out, and making my childhood dream a reality!
What scares you most about traveling? Being lost alone. Even in 2020, traveling alone as a woman requires some precautions.
What excites you most about traveling? Trying out new cuisines! I'm a big foodie. I'm also excited to learn about new cultures and meet people from diverse backgrounds!
What country and place would you most like to visit and why? Thailand. I love Thai food and I'd love to see the Buddhist and Hindu temples there.
What do you hope to accomplish by running The Amazing Race with your partner (other than winning one million bucks)? Making a childhood dream a reality is sweet, but getting to do that with your sibling is the cherry on top. I'm excited to spend more time with my brother! As we've gotten older, we don't see each other as often as I'd like to. He's a big blessing in my life and I'm excited to go on this adventure with him.

The Amazing Race 32[]

Race History[]

Eswar & Aparna's Race History
Episode	Leg	Destination(s)	Detour Choice (underlined)	Roadblock Performer	Placement	Notes
1	1	United States → Trinidad and Tobago	No Detour	Eswar	7 of 11
2	2	Trinidad and Tobago → Colombia	No Detour	Aparna	4 of 10
3	3	Colombia → Brazil	Shelter from Trees / Well Done Please	No Roadblock	6 of 9
4	4	Brazil → Paraguay	Stack Your Melons / Use Your Melon	Eswar	5 of 8
5	5	Paraguay → France	No Detour	Aparna	6 of 8	^[1]
5	5	Paraguay → France	No Detour	Eswar	6 of 8	^[1]
6	6	France → Germany	Belt It Out / Belch It Out	Aparna	5 of 7
7	7	Germany → Kazahkstan	Great Khan's Spy / Knock Out Guy	No Roadblock	6 of 7
8	8	Kazakhstan → India	Food App / Number Trap	Eswar	5 of 6	^[2]
9	8	India	This / That	Aparna	5 of 6	^[2]
10	9	India → Cambodia	Fish / Farm	Eswar	5 of 5⊃
				Average	5.44
Legend: The team finished in first place The team finished in last place and was eliminated from the race The team finished in last place in a non-elimination leg or continue racing in a no-rest leg The team that won The Amazing Race The team that crossed the Finish Line second The team that crossed the Finish Line third > The team used the Yield < Recipient of the Yield ⊂ The team used the U-Turn ⊃ Recipient of the U-Turn ⋐ The team that used the second slot of the "Double U-Turn" ⋑ Recipient of a second U-Turn due to the "Double U-Turn" twist
Notes: 1: Leg 5 had two Roadblocks and no Detour. The team member who sat out the first Roadblock was required to perform the second one. 2: Leg 8 was a megaleg, with two Detours and two Roadblocks, shown over two episodes. The placement listed in the top row reflect the order teams completed the first half's roadblock.

Post-Race[]

Trivia[]

Eswar & Aparna are the first sibling team of South Asian descent. This would be followed by Maya & Rohan.

External links[]

Aparna's Website: aparnadhinakaran.com

Interviews[]

Dan Gentile at SF Gate (10/13/2020): "How two Bay Area natives plan to win The Amazing Race"
Joyce Eng at Gold Derby (12/03/2020): "The Amazing Race's Eswar and Aparna are still upset about getting U-Turned: DeAngelo and Gary's 'move was really dumb'"
Mike Bloom at Parade (12/03/2020): "The Amazing Race 32's Eswar and Aparna Dhinakaran Break Down the U-Turn Drama and the "Mine Five" Alliance"