MAHAQUIZZER

2014

ANSWERS
DO NOT OPEN TILL THE END OF THE 90 MIN

Please read out the answers, along with the few words of explanation given.
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correct and first name is wrong, the answer is to be considered incorrect.
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Red Blood Cells

(RBC or erythrocyte also
acceptable)

Which is the only kind of adult cell in the human body not to have a nucleus?

Kingdom of the Soap Queen is a recent book about the biggest television
production house in India, chronicling the rise of the producer from her initial days
as a 17-year old working from a home garage. Who is the person referred to?

The name of this element comes from the Arabic for gold, a name given to the
compound from which it was first obtained by Martin Klaproth in 1789. It is resistant
to acids and highly transparent to neutrons, leading to its use in cladding fuel rods,
and for its most common use familiar to those who lack funds to buy an actual
diamond engagement ring. Name it.

The banning of this animal product, then an ingredient in most automotive

lubricants, had an immediate effect automotive transmission failures in the US
rose eight-fold two years after Nixon passed the law banning it (though home and
community use is still legal in some parts of America). It was only in the late eighties
that substitutes such as Jojoba oil were found. What product?

Whale Oil
(Also accept Sperm Oil or
Sperm Whale Oil)

The term ____ effect first appeared in a paper published in 2011, as part of an
experiment done to demonstrate that participation by customers in the creation of a
product leads to disproportionately high value placed by those customers on the
end product. Fill in the blank with the name of a multinational company.

IKEA effect

In 1977, HM Patel used just 800 words, making it the shortest delivery of which
annual statement?

The edible seeds of this plant, closely related to spinach and beet, are now
considered kosher by many to eat during Passover when the consumption of grains
is forbidden. The seeds can also be ground into flour and the plant is thus often
called a pseudo-cereal. Peru and Bolivia are the leading exporters. Name the crop,
a Spanish spelling of a native South American language word.

Ekta Kapoor

Zirconium (Zar is Arabic for

gold, from which we get zari)

Union Budget / Budget /

Interim Budget any of these
is okay
Quinoa

This letter was written to X by Y in 1705, and comprised 111 verses. The verses
criticise Xhis weaknesses, his failure to keep his promises, details of the battle
fought that year, Ys faith in God in spite of losing his parents and brothers because
of Xs excesses, and asking X to come to meet him. Who is X?

Aurangzeb
(Guru Gobind Singhjis letter
to him, called Zafarnama)

After he announced his retirement last year, his old sparring partner The Sun
carried a front-page image of a household device (painted red) with the name of his
employer for the past 27 years. Which device, something that people who were not
in his good books got to know very well?

Hairdryer

After his unfinished film received prolonged applause at Cannes, the director went
to the subsequent press conference and announced: My film is not a movie. Its
what it was really like. We were in the jungle. There were too many of us. We had
access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little, we went
insane. Which Palme dOr winner was he talking about?

Apocalypse Now

11

A new highway is being built from Imphal in the south-east direction. This 579 km
long highway will provide a pathway to experience the longings of writers/artists
from Rudyard Kipling and George Orwell, to Frank Sinatra and Robbie Williams.
Which city does this path lead to?

Mandalay

12

A beautiful fruit that has dazzling flowers, an interesting shape and a dark red
colour, what is the common name of the Pitaya, referencing its vernacular name in
languages like Malay, Khmer, Vietnamese, Lao and Chinese?

Dragon Fruit

13

A Poet, A City and A Footballer is a documentary by Joshy Joseph capturing the

incomplete filming of another documentary about a footballer by Goutam Sen, who
succumbed to cancer during the shoot. Who is the footballer referred to in the title,
who is also the subject of Sens incomplete film, and one of the first people to get
the Arjuna Award in 1961?

PK Banerjee

10

14

An old building in the Mohallah Khudadad in the area in Peshawar called

QissaKhwani Bazaar (which means the place of story tellers) was declared a
national heritage building by the Government of Pakistan. In whose honour?

15

Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, a noted vocalist from the 20th century, established the
rules and traditions governing the modern format of concert rendition in Carnatic
music. What is the format called?

16

As a fourteen year old, he participated in the Ballet de la Nuit, playing five roles in
the twelve hour performance. One of the roles was of Apollo, or the ___ _____, a
role he apparently liked so much that he took the title for himself in real life. Who?

Louis XIV/Sun King

17

As per widely accepted belief, the Germanic terms ainlif (literally one left) and
twalif (two left) gave which two commonly used words in English language? No
part points.

Eleven and Twelve (no part

points)

At the height of the Arab Spring, the Economist Intelligence Unit came up with an
index that tried to identify where the scent of jasmine may spread next. They used
factors like the share of population under 25, corruption and censorship, per capita
GDP and a few others, to come up with a list that had Yemen, Libya and Egypt as
the top 3 potential hotspots. What was this index called?

The Shoe-Thrower's Index

19

ATWA (an acronym for Air, Trees, Water, Animals and All The Way Alive) is the
name given to an ecological mandate propounded by an aspiring singer-songwriter
in 1967. Since then, his writings on ATWA and other environmental matters have
gained him fans across the world, one of whom, Afton Burton, recently obtained a
licence to marry him. Name him.

Charles Manson

20

Born in South Africa in 1892, he made his film debut in 1921 in Innocent and went
on to earn Academy Award nominations in 1936 for Romeo and Juliet and in 1938
for If I Were King. His unusual, elegant good looks made him an ideal aristocratic
villain in films like Robin Hood, The Mark of Zorro and Captain Blood, but he is
chiefly remembered today for portraying an out-of-type character in 14 films
between 1939 and 1946. Who?

Basil Rathbone
(best known for playing
Sherlock Holmes)

21

Caput Draconis, Pig Snout, Wattlebird, Flibbertigibbet, Fortuna Major,

Oddsbodikins, Scurvy Cur, Balderdash, Banana Fritters, Fairy Lights, Mimbulus
Mimbletonia, Abstinence, Baubles, Dilligrout, Quid Agis, Tapeworm. Where would
this exhaustive list of words and phrases get you?

22

Despite their obvious connotations, they do not symbolize violence. When the sixth
in a line took charge in 1606, he asked for two numbers of a certain object to be
given to him - one to symbolize Piri (spiritual authority) and one to symbolize Miri
(temporal authority). This act was later incorporated into the revered symbol of this
sect. Where would you find Piri and Miri today?

Nishan Sahib (OR) The Sikh

Flag
(Piri and Miri are the crossed
swords)

23

During a 1941 subway ride, he needed to come up with an idea for a story, so he
looked into a collection of Gilbert and Sullivan plays he had with him. He saw a
picture of the Grenadier Guards in Iolanthe, which led him to soldiers, to military
society, to feudalism, and to the breakup of the Roman Empire. When he reached
John Campbells office, he told Campbell he was planning a story about the
breakup of the Galactic Empire. Who, or what resulted from this germ of an idea?

Isaac Asimov (OR)

The Foundation series.

18

24

25

Dilip Kumar/Yusuf Khan

Kutcheri

Gryffindor Tower in Harry

Potter

Eric Betzig, Stefan Hell and William Moerner won the 2014 Nobel Prize in
Chemistry for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy
(SRFM), which enables scientists to observe individual cells and molecules in high
resolution. However, the electron microscope has been available for decades to
observe structures of comparable size. So where does SRFM score over electron
microscopy?

SRFM can watch live cells

(while electron microscopy
only works on dead material)

Following the release of a much-hyped sporting autobiography a few months ago,

the UK tabloid The Sun ran an article in its sports section about the author and the
controversy surrounding him and his teammates, that borrowed its title from an
award-winning 2011 British-American film starring Tilda Swinton. Name the film.

We Need to Talk About Kevin

26

Gilgit manuscripts found in the 1930s have Sanskrit Buddhist Sutras written in the
X script from the Brahmic family. The Gurumukhi script is derived from X, which is
another name of the Goddess Saraswati. Even today, Kashmiri Pundits use this
script during certain religious ceremonies. What is X?

Sharada/Sarada Script

Hafr Jlus Bjrnsson is an Icelandic Strongman competitor and actor, standing

2.06 m (6ft 9in) tall and weighing 180 kg. In August 2013, he was the third actor,
after Conan Stevens and Iain Whyte, to play a particularly ferocious and terrifying
character in a smash hit HBO TV show. What character did he play?

Gregor Clegane in Game Of

Thrones (also accept The
Mountain or
The Mountain That Rides)

28

He is the patron deity of the Varkari (pilgrim) sect of Vaishnavas. While the
etymology of his name is disputed, it might mean one who stands on a brick, for
that is how he is depicted traditionally. The legendary founder of the Varkari sect,
Pundalik, is said to have persuaded the Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana to build the
central shrine dedicated to his worship. Name him.

Vitthala or Vithoba
(or variations thereof.The
shrine is in Pandharpur,
Maharashtra.)

29

He liked to refer to himself as a farmer and mechanic who had spent some time
working in the telegraph industry. The company he founded laid the first
transcontinental telegraph line across North America and is today a world leader in
financial services. Amongst other things, he also founded a university in New York.
Who?

Ezra Cornell

30

He played an important role in a movie that won the national award for the best
Hindi film in the late 70s. Five years later he won an Oscar. Who?

31

He was called The Cambridge Carrier as he managed the delivery of mail

between Cambridge and London with his horses. When he started renting out his
horses, he realized there was a higher demand for the faster ones. He then made a
strict rule of allotting the next available horse to prevent the fast ones getting overworked. Who was this person, about whom Milton wrote the poem titled On The
University Carrier?

Thomas Hobson
(of Hobsons choice fame "take it or leave it" was the
choice available )

32

His tragic tale is told in Holinsheds Chronicles (1587). Probably the grandson of
Kenneth II, he took power after killing the king in 1040, and defeated a revolt led by
Crinan, the father of his predecessor. He was ultimately defeated and killed by
Malcolm Canmore at Lumphanan in 1057, after an invasion from England made
possible by the aid of Earl Siward of Northumbria. Who?

Macbeth

If the elements of the periodic table are arranged in alphabetical order, Zirconium
(Zr) is the last one. Which element comes first?

Actinium

If you blend a binding medium such as gum arabic with a transparent paint like a
watercolour, the resultant medium will be thicker, quick-drying and opaque. This
makes it particularly suitable for en plein air paintings, such as many of JMW
Turners famous works. Appropriately, its name is derived from the Italian for
puddle. What is it called?

Gouache

27

33

34

Richard Attenborough (for

Shatranj Ke Khiladi, and later
Gandhi)

35

If you consider the modern-era Olympics, only one person has opened the Summer
Olympic Games on two occasions. The first announcement was made in both
French and English, and in the second occasion, the announcement was only in
English. Who is the person?

Elizabeth II
(Montreal and London)

36

If you take a conducted walking tour from a hilltop called Gills Lap in Ashdown
forest, you will find places called Heffalump Trap, a hundred-acre wood where you
may find a lost tail, a valley which was someones gloomy place, a wooden stick
bridge, a sandy pit and even the North Pole. The forest looks to be enchanted as
you will not be able to count the exact number of trees. Which 20th century classic
was set in this forest?

Winnie the Pooh

37

Immediately after the LiaquatNehru Pact was signed in 1950, two ministers
resigned from Nehrus cabinet. One was Sri KC Neogy. Who was the other, who
established a new party within a year?

Shyama Prasad Mookerjee

(founded the nationalist
Bharatiya Jana Sangh in
1951.)

In 1611, Filip Fabricius became the First Secretary of the German expedition (office)
of the Bohemian Court Chancery, the highest office in Bohemia. He later moved to
Vienna and fought on the Catholic side in the Hundred Years War. The Holy Roman
Emperor Rudolf II ennobled him and made him the Baron of Hohenfall (high fall)
for which specific achievement?

He survived the
Defenestration of Prague
(hence "high fall")

39

In 1694, in a Royal Society lecture, he proposed an extra-terrestrial explanation for

the Biblical flood. If you consider how his name impinges on our consciousness
prominently once every few decades, this explanation is understandable. Identify
him or the explanation he proposed.

Edmund Halley (OR) Comets

40

In 1867, the Hougoumont left London for a voyage that would last 89 days.
Although one person died on board, the 279 souls who did complete the trip would
become the last set to undergo a rehabilitative process. What was the group the
last of?

Convicts transported to
Australia

___1___ and __2__ is a composite building material used for making walls, in
which a lattice of wooden strips called a ___1___ is __2__ed with a sticky material,
usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, dung and straw. The
technique has been in use for at least 6000 years, and has recently gained
popularity once more in developed areas as a low-impact, sustainable building
method. Fill in the blanks.

Wattle and daub

42

In 1997, saxophonist Kenny G set a Guinness World Record for the longest held
musical note, sustaining an E-flat on a saxophone for 45 minutes and 47 seconds.
He achieved this by using the ________ _________ technique, a common skill
among wind instrumentalists. Fill in the blanks with a technique that was first seen
in 13th century Asian metal-smiths, who needed to blow continuously into their
flames in order to harden or soften metals.

Circular breathing

43

In 2003, Bernard Loiseau, a star in his profession, and owner of the La Cte dOr,
shot himself in the head after weeks of rumours that his establishment was about to
be downgraded. Although the downgrading never happened, what is said to be the
reason for his suicide?

His restaurant losing a

Michelin Star

In 2003, two researchers at the University College London announced that they had
managed to figure out the actual location of an immortal fictional setting. A sixmonth search had led them to the conclusion that it was located at the site of a 19 th
century structure named Apley Park House. What was this the supposed location
of?

Blandings Castle
(accept just Blandings)

45

Kanwar Lake in India is Asias largest example of this geographical feature, formed
when a meandering river is cut off from its main stem. The name also appears in
the title of a Henry Fonda western where two men are wrongly lynched by an angry
mob. What?

Ox-bow Lake (the film is The

Ox-bow Incident)

46

In a Latin-German letter to Leonhard Euler dated 7 June 1742, a mathematician

proposed a certain result on the margin, though he could not prove it. Euler replied
on 30 June 1742, Dass ein jeder numerus par eine summa duorum primorum
sey ..., that he too was absolutely certain of the theorem, but he too didnt have a
proof. Well, no one has proved it yet. Name Eulers correspondent, after whom the
result is named.

Christian Goldbach
(Goldbach's Conjecture every even integer greater
than 2 can be expressed as
the sum of two primes.)

In a rare (possibly unique) occurrence, after its theatrical run but before its home
video release, this 2014 science fiction film had its title replaced by its own tagline.
The reason given was that its original title was too vague and generic, while the
three-word tagline summarised major elements of the plot neatly. Name either the
original title or the new one.

Edge of Tomorrow (OR)

Live Die Repeat

38

41

44

47

48

In ancient Indian battlegrounds, the only practical way to topple armour-clad battle
elephants was to precisely stab the highly sensitive flesh behind an elephants
toenail while riding by; the excruciating pain that resulted often caused the beast to
rear, unseat his mahout, and possibly run amok. This is commonly believed to be
the origin of what, references to which have been found dating back to at least the
4th Century BCE?

Tent-pegging

49

In Japanese legend, the hero Yoshitsune defeated Benkei by parrying the blows of
his opponents spear with an iron tessen - an art taught him by a mythological
creature, a tengu. Thus began the martial art of tessenjutsu, skilled practitioners of
which can defend themselves against swords and spears, and even kill with a
single blow. What is a tessen, the principal weapon used in the art?

50

In June 2008, the city council of Florence passed a motion, 19 votes to 5,

rescinding the sentence awarded almost seven centuries earlier to one of its
citizens. Who?

A folding Japanese fan

(originally a Samurai war fan)

Dante Alighieri

In November 1911, during the Italy-Turkey war, Lieutenant Giulio Gavotti of Italy
wrote a letter to his father from Libya about a first being achieved in human
history. If I succeed, I will be really pleased to be the first person to do it, he wrote.
He was successful and a new era had begun. What first was he talking about?

First aerial bombing / First

War in the Air

In Quentin Tarantinos Death Proof, the bar owner Warren serves this liqueur, and
when asked what it is, says _______, the only liqueur so good they named a colour
after it. The instructions for making it are set out in the secret manuscript given to
Carthusian monks by Franois Annibal dEstres in 1605. Name the drink or colour,
both derived from the French for charter house.

Chartreuse

In the Devi Bhagavad Mahapurana, it is said that Devi in the form of Shakambhari
fought and killed the great Durgamasura (some versions say Shumbha-Nishumbha)
in Vindhyachal, and was thereafter known as Durga. She slew him after eleven
days of battle and then flung her sword far away. The earth split where the sword
fell and a river gushed out. Name it, OR the city that gets its name partly from it.

Assi river (OR) Varanasi

54

In the legend of the Tuleyone Indians, this creature is called Olle and is the worlds
saviour. However, in most other mythologies (especially Navajo) it more closely
parallels Blue-Jay of the Chinook, or the Norse Loki, as a cunning, sometimes
malicious animal character. The most famous popular culture representation draws
on these traits, but rarely uses its correct scientific name, Canis latrans. Name it.

Coyote

55

In their seminal 1935 paper on the EPR paradox, Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky
and Nathan Rosen called it spooky action at a distance. In particle pairs produced
in quantum mechanical experiments, it appears that one particle of the pair knows
what measurement has been performed on the other, and with what outcome, even
though there is no known means of communication between the particles that may
be separated by arbitrarily large distances. What word did Erwin Schrodinger coin
to describe this phenomenon, one which might suggest a particularly intractable
bowl of spaghetti?

Entanglement

56

In Windows, Mac OS and some other operating systems, a folder is a named

collection of related files that can be retrieved, moved, and otherwise manipulated
as one entity. The terms folder and file were chosen to be consistent with the
metaphor for the user interface, which is named after a real-world object on which
files and folders might reside. What?

Desktop

57

It is a 12-metre rock wall at over 8,700 meters above sea level. Doesnt sound
much, but a bottleneck at this point may force you to remain in the death zone for
longer than advisable, leaving you more vulnerable to weather and draining
supplemental oxygen. This was a significant factor in the 1996 disaster, which left 8
dead in a single day. This geographic feature is named after the first person to take
it. What?

The Hillary Step

58

It is the universes fifth most abundant element after hydrogen, helium, oxygen and
carbon. To isolate one gram of it on earth, start with eighty-eight kilograms of air.
Cool it to below the boiling point of nitrogen, let the remaining un-liquefied air be
adsorbed by activated charcoal, then get rid of the hydrogen. Its main utility is
based on its emission properties when an electric current flows through it. Identify.

Neon

51

52

53

59

It was commissioned in the summer of 1791 by Count Franz Walsegg-Stuppach,

who wanted it to remember his wife by. The Count first conducted it himself, and it
was known as his piece for almost thirty years. The real composer died shortly after
undertaking the task, so Franz Sussmayr, an earlier pupil, had to complete most of
the work, including components such as the Dies Irae, Confutatus and Lacrimosa.
Name the work, often wrongly assumed to have been written by the composer for
himself.

60

It was decided that his ashes would be sent to Westminster Abbey and his heart
buried in his birthplace. However, when the doctor removing his heart stepped out
for a moment, he returned to find his cat chewing on the heart. The cat was
promptly killed and buried with him. Identify this Stinsford native whose heart was
returned in line with his wishes.

61

It was determined by the Geological Survey of Canada to be near Ellesmere island,

which is part of Canada. However, it was also found that there was a movement at
the rate of 35 miles/year towards Siberia. As on today, it is in the Arctic Sea and
beyond the Canadian Arctic territorial claim. What is this, which has influenced the
field of exploration for many centuries?

North Magnetic Pole (actual

south pole of earth's magnetic
field). Points to anyone who
says Magnetic Pole.

62

It was the first technological umpiring aid used in tennis, making its debut at
Wimbledon in 1980. Unimpressed, Ilie Nastase went down on his knees in front of it
and screamed Were you made in Russia? A year later, not to be outdone, Johnny
Mac snarled That machine knows who I am. Name this one-eyed predecessor of
Hawkeye.

Cyclops (one-eyed monster

from Greek mythology)

63

It was the second largest Muslim state at the time of Independence after
Hyderabad. The then Nawab Hamidullah Khan wished to retain his state as an
independent unit, before bowing to pressure and agreeing to merge with the Indian
Union on April 30th 1949. Name the state.

Bhopal

Jamshed Jehangir Bhabha willed his estate on Malabar Hill, once the home of his
brother Homi Bhabha, to the institution he founded in 1969, which controversially
auctioned it in June 2014. Identify this institution built on reclaimed land, which was
the joint brainchild of Jamshed Bhabha and JRD Tata.

NCPA
(National Centre for
Performing Arts)

64

Requiem Mass in D Minor, by

Mozart (accept Mozart's
Requiem)

Thomas Hardy

Music company Polydors best-selling album in India in 1975 was a 3-LP set that
was an innovative move in response to an audience reaction that they noticed.
What did the set contain?

66

Nestorius was the Patriarch of Constantinople from 428-431 CE, and founded a
dualist Christian doctrine that sought to separate the human and divine natures of
Christ. It eventually led to his being condemned as a heretic at the First Council of
Ephesus in 431, and the Persian and Sassanid churches supporting Nestorianism
split from the Catholic Church after 451. How do most of us know the followers of
Nestorianism today?

Syrian Christians (also accept

Saint Thomas Christians or
Nasranis, but not Mar Thoma
Christians)

Nonviolence was key to his moral views, and when asked to serve as a naval
consultant for World War I, he specified he would work only on defensive weapons.
In 1920, he set off a media sensation when he told B. C. Forbes that he was
working on a spirit phone to allow communication with the dead. When he died at
3:24 PM on October 18, 1931, the watches of his three assistants were found to
have stopped at that precise time. Who?

Thomas Alva Edison

68

On January 1, 1801, the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi noticed a previously unseen

dot of light in the night sky, which disappeared altogether sometime later. Piazzi
published his findings, leaving mathematicians to come up with calculations
predicting its next sighting. A 24 year old unknown mathematician named Carl
Friedrich Gauss came up with a method which proved to be correct, propelling him
to stardom. What had Piazzi discovered?

Ceres, the first asteroid to be

discovered (points for Ceres
or 'first asteroid')

69

On the night of 20th February 1962, the residents of Perth switched on all the lights
(including street lights and car lights) and it was called the city of lights in the next
days newspapers. The residents repeated this event 36 years later in October
1998. The intended recipient was same in both cases. Who?

65

67

Dialogues of Sholay

John Glenn

70

One of his early works, a serialised version of an incident at sea that he ghosted for
a sailor, got him into trouble with his countrys dictatorship. In 1967, inspired by his
early life with his grandparents, he wrote a family chronicle which became one of
the seminal works in the language. It was only after this, when the serialised
version was published as a book that the wider public realized who the author was.
Who?

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

71

One of the many alternative uses of this proprietary peripheral, first sold in 2010,
has been in medicine. Specifically, two separate research teams (in Montreal and
Seoul) have developed systems, using this device, to assist stroke victims in home
rehabilitation. These systems are used to evaluate manual dexterity and
coordination, help achieve target body positions, and assess reflexes, all of which
can be remotely monitored by the patients physician. What device?

Kinect
(also accept Microsoft Kinect,
XBoX Kinect or Kinect For
Windows)

72

Operation Vittles had to be launched soon after the new currency was introduced
post WWII, for rail and road links were closed as a result. Eventually it would end
up shifting almost 4700 tons across some 200,000 individual trips spread over 11
months. How do we better know Operation Vittles?

73

PAX (short for _____ _____ eXpo) is a series of conventions in America and
Australia centred on gaming of both the videogame and table top variety. It was
started in 2004 in Bellevue, Washington by the creators of the popular gaming web
comic _____ _____, and has since grown into arguably the largest and widestranging gaming convention in the world. Fill in the blanks.

Penny Arcade

74

Pete The Pup (the dog from The Little Rascals series), Helen Kellers dog Sir
Thomas, Theodore Roosevelts dog Pete, Jack Brutus (the mascot of Company
K, the First Connecticut Volunteer Infantry during the US Civil War), Sergeant
Stubby (the mascot of the 102nd Infantry during WWI), and Sir Walter Scotts dog
Wasp were all members of a breed noted for its ferocity, one perhaps more
familiar today as the stage name of recording artist Armando Perez. What?

Pit Bull

75

Photographer Philippe Halsman first met him in the early 1940s, when he was
already world famous, and the pair became friends. Like many others, Halsman
was fascinated by a facet of his friends appearance. This resulted in a book of
photos titled ____ _______, in which nearly every photo featured, well, ____
_______. Name the book.

Dali's Moustache (need both

words in the answer)

76

Previously they were called Kapashi, Paytaan, Kachkadi, Bakkalnali, or Pukari,

depending on the exact village in Maharashtra where each was made. Now they
are collectively named after the main city in this area of the state. What?

Kolhapuri Chhappals

77

Salman Rushdie has announced that his next book will be a short novel titled Two
years eight months and 28 days. What is the book based on?

The Thousand and One

Nights
(also accept Arabian Nights)

Simone De Beauvoir called her the Socrates of St. Tropez who is falsely convicted
of corrupting the youth of France. She was also a subject of an Andy Warhol
creation. Who?

Brigitte Bardot

Since its founding, a common feature of Disneyland has been employees dressed
up as various Disney characters roaming the park and interacting with visitors. In
the late nineties, though, an interesting quirk was noticedif a visitor shouted
Andys coming! in the vicinity of a particular set of characters, employees playing
them would stop whatever they were doing and lie down on the ground motionless
for a few minutes. What set of Disney characters exhibited this behaviour?

Toy Story characters

78

79

80

81

Berlin Airlift (OR) Berlin

Blockade

Snoopy has visited him 17 times. In real life, this two-time Pulitzer Prize winner also
received the US Armys Legion of Merit Award. When he appeared on the cover of
Time in 1961, he himself designed it. During WWII, General Patton had threatened
him to put him in jail, but Eisenhower intervened, saying that his creations acted as
the outlet for the soldiers frustrations. Who?

Bill Mauldin
(who created Willie and Joe)

Started by the Briton Sir Fabian Ware, the CWGC ensures that the memories of 1.7
million people are cared for at 23,000 locations in 153 countries through
maintaining structures and records. What does the name of this 97-year-old
organization expand to?

Commonwealth War Graves

Commission (can be flexible
on the last word)

82

Suspected by the Inquisition, he fled Venice in 1749, traveling to Lyon, Paris,

Dresden, Prague, and Vienna. On his return to Venice, he was arrested on
suspicion of being a Freemason and magician, and was cast into the Piombi, the
state prison. In his Histoire de ma Fuite he describes his ingenious escape from this
prison. He is better known, however, for another Histoire written under the name
Chevalier de Seingalt, one which established his reputation. Who?

83

Tar Hirai (1894-1965) was a Japanese author and critic, one of the first major
writers of Japanese mystery fiction, whose stories often featured the detective
Kogoro Akechi. He is better known, however, by his pen-name Edogawa Ranpo,
which he took in honour of his literary hero. Who was his literary hero?

84

Telecommunication expert Mordecai Meirowitz from Israel invented a board game

inspired by the pencil and paper game Cows and Bulls. He later sold this codebreaking game for two players to a UK-based company, Invicta Plastics. Name the
game, otherwise quite familiar to quizzers.

85

The ________ Poets (also known as the Household Poets) were a group of 19th
century American poets comprising HW Longfellow, WC Bryant, JG Whittier, JR
Lowell and OW Holmes, Sr. They were the first American poets who were as
popular as the British poets, and whose general adherence to poetic convention
made their work suitable for memorization and recitation in school and at home,
thus giving the group its name. Fill in the blank.

86

The ancient name of this river meant (the river) on whose banks leather is dried.
According to the Mahabharata, the river would run red from the blood of sacrificed
animals and the skins of these animals were dried on its banks. Name the river,
whose history with violence continues well unto this day.

Chambal

87

The composer of this iconic piece, part of a larger suite of music, was not fond of it;
in a letter to a collaborator, he wrote, For ___ ____ __ ___ ________ ____ I have
written something that so reeks of cowpats, ultra-Norwegianism, and to-thyself-beenough-ness that I cant bear to hear it, though I hope that the irony will make itself
felt. Nevertheless, it has gone on to become one of the most recognizable pieces
of western classical music today. Fill in the blanks.

In the Hall of the Mountain

King (part of Peer Gynt, by
Edvard Grieg)

88

The curing of French nun Sister Mary Simon-Pierres Parkinsons Disease in 2006
and the sudden ambulation of an unnamed, hitherto wheelchair-bound Polish
kidney cancer patient in 2007 were the two reasons given by a certain governing
body for an event that occurred on 27 April 2014, attended by delegates from 98
countries and international organisations. What event?

The canonisation of Pope

John Paul II (also accept the
canonisation of Popes John
XXIII and John Paul II, as they
happened on the same day)

89

The Donner Party was a group of pioneers who set out for California in 1846, and
spent the winter in the Sierra Nevada. Running short of food, they resorted to
cannibalism and eating whatever items they had. Around eighty years later,
someone found this amusing, and thus was born an immortal meal. Where would
you have seen it?

Gold Rush
(the shoe-eating scene)

The dramatic presentation, performed around the world most often on Maundy
Thursday and Good Friday, of the trial, suffering and death of Jesus Christ shares
its name with Jethro Tulls sixth studio album, released in 1973, the concept of
which is the spiritual journey of a man in the afterlife. What two-word name?

Passion Play

90

Giovanni Giacomo Casanova

Edgar Allan Poe

Mastermind

Fireside Poets
(also accept Schoolroom
Poets)

91

A 2010 book, _________s Guns states that this object was manufactured by W. &
C. Scott & Son and was one of 14 different models owned by ________. The object
in question was given to a local welder to be destroyed, and the mangled remnants
were then buried in a field. For what tragic purpose was it put to use on 2nd July,
1961?

By Hemingway to shoot
himself / commit suicide

92

The elders surname suggests a lineage shared with Rama, while the younger could
possibly have had family links with Draupadi. They got together in the rain in 1949,
and kept company till creative differences cropped up in 1965 over, ironically, a
union. They continued sporadically after that but the old spark was no more. Identify
the pair, the highest-paid in their field in their heyday.

Shankar Jaikishan
(Shankar Singh Raghuvanshi
and Jaikishan Panchal. First
film was Barsaat rain, and
differences happened during
Sangam union)

The expensive publication of the lavishly illustrated Historia Piscium in 1686 forced
a prestigious scientific organization to go back on their word on publishing the work
of another scientist. Luckily, a fellow scientist pitched in with the funds. Which work
was nearly lost to obscurity thus?

Principia Mathematica

The first European to cross the Rub-al-Khali from east to west, the inscription on his
tombstone reads Greatest of Arabian Explorers. Nehru was his classmate,
Montgomery the best man at his wedding and he succeeded Lawrence of Arabia as
the British representative in trans-Jordan. His son also went east, but that trip
brought only infamy. Give us a notorious surname.

Philby
(St. John and son, Kim)

95

The first lake was conceived in the mind of Brahma, while Ravana performed
penance at the second one. The first lake, which is round, signifies the Sun and
brightness to Buddhists, while the crescent-shaped second signifies the moon and
the darkness. The first one has holy water whereas the second is considered
poisonous. If the second (evil) one is Rakshas Taal, give the name of the first
(good) one.

Manasarovar (OR)
Manas Sarovar (Manas
means mind)

96

The Hindi/Urdu word for afternoon derives from which ancient unit of time, which
was approximately equal to three hours?

Prahar
(dopahar is two prahars from
sunrise)

97

The host city of the 1994 Asian Games announced a few years back that it would
attempt to launch a joint peace bid for the 2020 Olympic Games with another city.
The idea was later dropped. Name these co-hosts who share a terrible history.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

(no part points)

93

94

98

The Kathak dancer Aditi Mangaldas turned down the Sangeet Natak Akademi
award in 2013 because it was awarded under the category Creative and
Experimental Dance. What departure, frowned upon by traditionalists, was the
reason for her not being considered under the Kathak category?

Not wearing a Dupatta during

her performances

99

The letter in this work translates to I am just too unhappy to deserve your kindness
and shows the handiwork of someone who blamed the titular figure for the
September Massacres. The knife is not in the subjects chest but rather on the floor
near his right hand that holds a quill pen. The situation may not have arisen at all if
not for a lifelong eczema condition that necessitated frequent oatmeal ablutions.
Name the neoclassical work.

Death of Marat
(by Jacques-Louis David)

100

The major text surviving in this language is a fragmented translation of the Bible by
Bishop Ulfilas. He also devised the alphabet for this East Germanic language, its 27
characters consisting of 25 modified Greek symbols, and 2 runes. It died out around
the 9th century CE and was replaced by other Germanic and Romance languages.
Today, we know it not as a language but as a term in fashion and genre fiction.
What?

Gothic

101

The name of this 1897 character, who got his own film in 2004, originates from the
Danish name for Hamlets castle Elsinore. His creator chose the name due to his
strong and impenetrable personality that is much like the walls of the castle. He is
undemonstrative and keeps his emotions hidden, just as Claudius, King of Denmark
and father/uncle to Hamlet, keeps him inside Elsinores walls. Which character?

Professor Abraham Van

Helsing

102

Training Day, a 2010 episode of the animated spy TV series Archer, features a
Russian-made handgun that is given to trainee spy Cyril Figgis at the beginning of
the episode, which he then uses late in the episode to kill someone. The series
writer Adam Reed was thus making a humorous reference to a dramatic principle
involving the removal of all unnecessary elements while writing a story. So, what
was the make of the Russian gun?

Chekhov

103

The niece of Carnatic music composer and singer Papanasam Sivan, she holds a
dubious distinction among Indian women that relates to a 24-day time period in
January 1988 following her husbands death. Who?

Janaki Ramachandran

The poem The English Flag by Rudyard Kipling contained which phrase lamenting
the ignorance and insularity of the average Briton that was revised for use in a
sporting context in 1963 by a Trinidadian Marxist writer?

What do they know of England

who only England know?
(minor variations ok) revised
by CLR James in Beyond A
Boundary

104

The song writing team of Holland-Dozier-Holland (comprising Lamont Dozier and

brothers Brian and Eddie Holland) and the rotating crew of studio musicians known
as The Funk Brothers were the principal architects of the ______ Sound, a style of
music popularized by artists working for a record label that was founded in 1959. Fill
in the blank.

Motown

106

The Spanish city X was founded in 227 BC by military leader Hasdrubal the Fair,
who gave it a name meaning New Y in Latin. Y, Hasdrubals home city (in what is
now Tunisia) had been founded some 800 years earlier and its name in turn means
New City in Phoenician. Hence, the Spanish city is named, in effect, New New
City. Name either X or Y.

Cartagena (OR) Carthage

107

Royalty, the sixth mixtape released by rapper Childish Gambino (AKA actor and
comedian Donald Glover) on July 4, 2012, featured a number of guest
appearances. Among them was the rap debut of a writer and performer, famous in
another field, who was Glovers boss and mentor at his first job. A surprising choice,
perhaps? You betcha! Name her.

Tina Fey

108

The term was coined around the middle of the last century by the Scottish golfer
Tommy Armour, a sufferer, who defined it as a brain spasm that impairs the short
game. An involuntary loss of motor skills manifested as a twitch of the hands and
wrists, it is known to affect many sportspersons, including golfers during short putts,
baseball players and in cricket, left arm bowlers. What is the four letter word?

Yips

109

In 1859, Herbert ______, was appointed the first editor of the project that became
the OED, before an unwelcome visitor, in the form of death, intervened. This sort of
thing seemed to run in the family, since his grandfather too had a similar experience
while at work. Who was Herberts grandfather? Full name please.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

(need the full name, no points
for Coleridge)

110

The website www.pestcontroloffice.com was set up primarily to authenticate

someones worksit warns that because many works are created in an advanced
state of intoxication the process can take a lot of time. It is also the sole point of
sale for any new output that the websites chief patron produces. So, who is the
websites chief patron?

Banksy

111

The word sexta means the sixth hour in Latin. The sixth hour after sunrise is noon,
when it gets hot. The Romans used to look for shade at this time. Which word
enters the English language through this route, via Spanish?

Siesta

112

Their four suborders are the rare but ancient Archostemata; Myxophaga that eat
algae; Adephaga, mostly predators who have a divided first visible abdominal
sternum; and Polyphaga, the largest suborder, which includes the pine-forest
devastating Dendroctonus ponderosae and the cotton-destroying boll weevil.
Characterized by their hard forewings or elytra, identify this order, which the
Almighty may or may not have a great fascination for.

105

Beetles (OR) Coleoptera

These types of bees dont have any pollen collecting hairs on their bodies, though
they do visit flowers for nectar. Some examples are Nomada succinta and Nomada
texana, which look almost like wasps. They dont build hives and are called
_______ bees, after another klepto-parasitic species of a different class. Fill in.

Cuckoo

114

Thirty five years ago, a famous couple stood on the windswept cliffs along the coast
of Northern California and started filming a personal voyage. The very first line
The _____ is all that is or was or ever will be set the tone for the most-viewed PBS
show ever, which saw a much-anticipated follow-up this year. Fill in the blank.

Cosmos

115

This city was founded in 1669 as the Fort of So Jos do Rio Negro and got its
current name, which means mother of the gods in tribute to the indigenous tribes
there. Home to nearly 50% of the population of the Brazil Amazon area, identify this
city, which was one of the host cities in the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Manaus

116

This clubs victory over PAS Club, Iran in the 1970 IFA Shield final, led to 80,000
supporters appropriately heralding their triumph by lighting a torch. Which club?

113

East Bengal (the flaming torch

is the club symbol)

117

This eight-letter word, a Dickensian slang term for a doctor or surgeon, was widely
used during by the American armed services during WWII. In the mid-sixties, a US
Air Force veteran was writing the pilot for a TV show that featured a medical officer,
and decided to use a shortening of this slang term as a nickname for the shows
doctor character. Name the slang term or the character.

Sawbones (OR) Bones McCoy

(from Star Trek)

118

This four-word phrase meaning to enjoy oneself in public, often after consuming
alcohol has its origins in the drunken actions of Henry Beresford, 3rd Marquess of
Waterford, who, along with some similarly inebriated friends, arrived in the small
English town of Melton Mowbray on the 6th of April 1837 and proceeded to
redecorate several of the towns buildings. What phrase?

Paint(ing) the town red

119

This genre of Hindustani classical vocal rendition gets its name from two words that
mean walking (and) seducing. It rose in popularity in Wajid Ali Shahs court, but
possibly reached its zenith in Varanasi, in its Purab Ang (eastern style). Prominently
associated with courtesans at its origin, it attained respectability through the
performances of Abdul Karim Khan, Begum Akhtar and Bade Ghulam Ali Khan
among others. Identify the form.

Thumri
(from Thumakat Rijhawat)

120

This Head of Oncology at the Princeton Plainsboro Hospital supposedly gets his
name from two neighbouring buildings at McGill University, from where he has a
degree. Essayed by Robert Sean Leonard, give the full name of this character, who
is the equivalent of a well-known sidekick from the world of fiction.

James Wilson
(friend of House MD)

121

This is a male given name deriving from the Greek for gift of god. Identify this
name shared by a Pope, a Byzantine ruler and an American President, the Welsh
form of which lends itself to an architecturally significant English dynasty.

122

This is a Russian folk dance, where a man dances with two women, with the
dancers imitating the prancing of horses pulling a sled or a carriage. Name the
dance, whose name is used in a more generic sense to describe the number of
constituents in a group or unit.

Troika

This is the fluid sense of Eros, the life instinct, and is opposed by Thanatos, the
death instinct. Carl Jung used the term in a broader sense to encompass all
creative and purposive life processes in all species. However, it is the more specific
sense used by Sigmund Freud that has passed into common usage. What?

Libido

124

This legendary football club are nicknamed the the lepers or the leprosy, as they
accepted an invitation to a charity match against their arch-rivals (who declined) to
raise funds for a leprosy hospital. Their common name reflects the fact that players
of the first football team were alumni or graduates of the same school. Which club?

Newell's Old Boys

125

A UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, the Silbo
Gomero language has just 4 vowels and 4 consonants. It originated in one of the
Canary islands, called La Gomera, a place of valleys and ravines. Messages in this
language can travel across 2 miles, and it is used to this day for public
communication. The word Silbo is a Spanish word for which form of
communication?

Whistle
(Whistling language)

126

This Northern Ireland native became the first person to be nominated for an
Academy Award in five different categories. In chronological order, they are: Best
Actor and Best Director (1989), Best Live Action Short Film (1992), Best Adapted
Screenplay (1996), and finally Best Supporting Actor in 2011 for playing Lawrence
Olivier during the filming of The Prince and The Showgirl. Name him.

Kenneth Branagh

123

127

This robotic Mars rover of the 1990s was named after an abolitionist and US
womens rights activist of the 1800s. She was the first black woman to win a court
case against a white man to claim her son, and became the first black woman to be
honoured with a bust in the US Capitol. What was the robots name, which also
means traveller?

Theodore
(Tudor being the Welsh form)

Sojourner
(rover of Mars Pathfinder,
named after Sojourner Truth).

128

_____ Itch is a skin condition common in labourers handling a particular oil-rich

agricultural commodity. It is caused by the bite of the Tyrophagus longior mite, an
arachnid commonly found in areas where _____ is produced. What commodity,
which takes its name from a Tamil word and is often classified as a dangerous good
due to its spontaneously combustive nature?

Copra

129

This venture was started by Master Sunder Singh Lyallpuri, one of the pioneers of
the Akali Movement. Its first editor was Sardar KM Panikkar, assisted by Devdas
Gandhi, whose father had inaugurated it in 1924. Today, it is one of the biggest
media organizations in the country. Name it.

Hindustan Times

130

This word, derived from the Old French for to make brown, is today used for the
action of rubbing a hard surface, especially a metallic one, in order to make it shiny
and lustrous, and is often used as a synonym for polish. What seven-letter word?

Burnish

131

This word, derived from the Old Norse for to swing, was originally used as British
thieves slang to describe stolen valuables, such as jewellery. It has since evolved
and now, thanks in part to hashtags used by pop stars such as Justin Bieber and
Miley Cyrus, connotes any piece of stylish or flashy clothing, jewellery or accessory.
What four-letter word?

Swag

132

To herpetologists, it is a common name of Heterodon platirhinos, a non-venomous

species endemic to North America. The rest of us, however, remember the name
fondly due to something that appeared on TV screens in 1983 and went on to
become a British classic. What name?

133

Unique in the world as a national, federal, provincial, and municipal policing body, it
was founded by George Arthur French, who became its first commissioner in 1873.
The 300 original members have grown to over 35,000 today, with women allowed to
join in 1974. They quashed the North-West Rebellion and supervised gold mining in
the Yukon. Members are instantly identifiable by their Stetson hats and red
uniforms. Identify the Force that always get their man.

Blackadder (OR) Black adder

Royal Canadian Mounted

Police (accept RCMP or
Mounties)

Upon Prophet Mohammads death in 632 CE, the Muslims of Medina resolved the
crisis of succession by accepting Ab Bakr as the first deputy or successor of the
Prophet of God. This established the beginnings of the first political-religious state,
the name for which has been in the news recently. Name it.

Caliphate

What is common to Bombay, Indian, Chido, Duffy, Kidd, L__________ Wiener,

Lewis, Diego, Lutheran, Donbrock, Scianna, Knops, Gerbich, Kromer, Knops and a
few more?

Blood groups (human)

136

What much used word in the corporate world during performance reviews, also
finds use in the context of audio amplification systems, and is the alias of a Marvel
Comics superhero called Albert Louis?

Feedback

137

What two-word name is given to the 26 members of the House of Lords who are
Bishops representing the Church of England, and unlike the rest of the members
have a retirement age of 70?

138

Which two locations in India, intertwined for shifty reasons, are referred to in the title
of the Kipling poem A Tale of Two Cities?

Calcutta and Shimla

(No part points)

139

When he encountered frequent attacks of malaria during his travels, he devised his
own distinctively disagreeable remedy a combination of herbs and resin jalap
mixed with spirit. This became the legendary mixture known as the _______ Pill or
the Zambezi Rouser and was available in the market till the 1920s. Who was the
person who devised this cure?

David Livingstone
(the blank is Livingstone)

140

When Massachusetts grocery tycoon Charles Adams was granted an NHL franchise
in 1924, he directed his newly-appointed GM Art Ross to come up with a name for
the team that would evoke untamed speed, agility, and cunning. Ross chose the
Old English term for the species Ursus arctos, partly for the sake of alliteration, and
the name stuck. Name the NHL team.

Boston Bruins

134

135

Lords Spirtual also accept

Spirtual Peers

141

When, in 1949, Yale University awarded the Bollingen Prize for Poetry to the insane
author of The Pisan Cantos, it became a huge controversy. The work was written in
prison after being captured by Allied forces he had spent most of WWII
broadcasting anti-American, anti-Semitic diatribes over Rome Radio. Who was this
great craftsman?

Ezra Pound

142

Which Bharat Ratna recipient made a debut in a 1938 movie that was based on a
Hindustani novel by Munshi Premchand? The novel was originally written in Urdu
as Bazaar-e-Husn.

MS Subbulakshmi (her first

film was Sevasadanam, after
Premchands Seva Sadan)

143

Which constituent party of the NDA secured the maximum number of Lok Sabha
seats after the BJP in the 2014 Indian General Elections?

Shiv Sena

144

Its a marketing term. I mean, it was one that I never had any sympathy with. The
term XY was something that was thought up in the 80s by marketing people and
there was a guy called Bill Spicer who used to do a brilliant fanzine back in the
sixties. He came up with the term X story. What familiar two word term is Alan
Moore protesting here?

Graphic Novel

145

Which organization that was dissolved in 1707 and reconstituted in 1999, is

nicknamed Holyrood after the area in the European territorial capital city where its
located?

Scottish Parliament

146

Who is the only artist in the history of the music charts on either side of the Atlantic
to have had #1 hits as part of a quintet, a quartet, a trio, a duo and as a solo artist?

Paul McCartney

147

Who is the only player to have been part of the winning team in the Ranji, Irani, and
Vijay Hazare trophies for the 2013-14 season, and the winning teams in the IPL and
the KPL editions in 2014? Full name please.

Manish Pandey
(need full name)

148

Who wrote this in the style of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam harking back to his
work that provided proof for one of the seminal theories in modern physics? Oh
leave the Wise our measures to collate / One thing at least is certain, light has
weight / One thing is certain and the rest debate / Light rays, when near the Sun, do
not go straight.

149

William Dawes was a tanner from Boston who was one of two people instructed by
Dr Joseph Warren to spread the news that the regulars were coming out. Dawes
took the longer and riskier route by land while his compatriot took the shorter path
across a river. Today, Dawes is a forgotten figure while his friend is a national hero.
Who was his friend?

150

Arthur Eddington (about

General Relativity)

Paul Revere

X Yu J is a 16th century Ming dynasty Chinese novel attributed to Wu Chengen. The Buddhist monk Xuanzang
It is enduringly popular as one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese
(OR Hiuen Tsang) who went
literature. In English, the work is widely known as Monkey (or variations) from Arthur
to India
Waleys popular abridged translation. The tale is at once a comic adventure of the
heros travels to the Western Regions to obtain sacred texts, a spring of spiritual
insight, and an extended allegory. Who is its hero?