2. ๏ The Quizmaster is God.
๏ The Quizmaster is the only God.
๏ Sleep deprived quizmasters are liable to be irritable
and violent. DO NOT mess around! You have been
warned.
24. 1) Meant for the demonstration of the conservation of
momentum and energy via a series of swinging spheres,
when one on the end is lifted and released, the resulting
force travels through the line and pushes the last one
upward. What is this device called?
26. 2) Instead of using the GDP as a measure of progress,
Bhutan uses the GNH. It is an attempt to define an
indicator that measures quality of life or social progress in
more holistic and psychological terms, instead of only
basing it on economic parameters. What does GNH stand
for?
28. 3) MS Sathyu is a leading Indian film director, stage
designer and art director who received the Padma Shri in
1975. Among his most noted works is the critically
acclaimed film Garm Hava, based on the partition of India.
To most of us nowadays however, he would be more
familiar because of a different reason. What am I talking
about?
33. 5) Locally known as Salsal and Shamama, the former
stood 53 m high and the latter 35 m. They are supposed to
have been representations of Vairocana and Sakyamuni,
built by the Kushanas between 544-644 AD. On 26
February 2001, after consultations with a college
of ulemas, a decree was issued ordering their elimination.
When it was done, a spokesperson noted, โIt took us
twenty days; it was a trying workโ. What, or who, were
these?
35. B1) It is believed that the name of this city might have
come from the local version of the name Alexander,
after Alexander the Great, who founded the city in 330 BC
and named it Alexandria in Arachosia. A temple to the
deified Alexander as well as an inscription in Greek and
Aramaic by Emperor Ashoka, who lived a few decades
later, have been discovered here.
An alternative etymology derives the name of the city
from Gandhara, although the city in modern times and the
ancient Gandhara are not geographically identical, instead
being far away from each other. Which city?
36. 6)
Teinopalpus
imperialis
is
of swallowtail butterfly found
north India east to north Vietnam.
a
rare
species
from Nepal and
For those less lepidopterically inclined, it shares its name
with the title taken by Queen Victoria from 1 May 1876, and
proclaimed at the Delhi Durbar of 1877, as well as a medal
awarded by the British monarch between 1900 and 1947.
Gandhi, awarded the medal for his contribution to
ambulance services in South Africa, returned it in protest
against the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.
What is the butterflyโs common name?
39. 7) When Pakistan, led by Imran Khan, toured India in 198687, they played a one-day match to commemorate the
Cricket Club of Indiaโs Golden Jubilee at the Brabourne
Stadium, Mumbai. The CCI XI had Roger Binny and
Mohammad Azharuddin among others in its ranks, while
Wasim Akram, Rameez Raja and Javed Miandad turned up
for Pakistan XI. While fielding, Pakistan were a few men
short, and a certain member of Mumbaiโs Senior League
offered himself as a substitute. Who?
41. 8) In September, 1955 the Indian Coinage Act was
amended and it came into force on 1st April, 1957. For
public recognition, the new paisa coins were marked as
'Naya Paisa'. What change had been made in the Indian
coinage system?
46. B2) As a protest against the Supreme Courtโs decision to
uphold Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, who has
written this poem?
Through love's great power to be made whole
In mind and body, heart and soul Through freedom to find joy, or be
By dint of joy itself set free
In love and in companionhood:
This is the true and natural good.
To undo justice, and to seek
To quash the rights that guard the weak To sneer at love, and wrench apart
The bonds of body, mind and heart
With specious reason and no rhyme:
This is the true unnatural crime.
50. 11) This is a model of the Viraat Ramayan Mandir being
built in Kesaria, Bihar. The complex will contain 18 temples,
spread over 110 acres of land. When completed, it will be
the largest religious monument in the world, even larger
than the one it takes inspiration from. Name the
magnificent monument that has inspired its construction.
53. 12) Its designer French mechanical engineer Louis
Rรฉard named it after the group of islands in the Pacific
Ocean where the United States had conducted its first
peace-time nuclear weapons test. His hope was that it
would create an explosive commercial and cultural
reaction, similar in intensity to society's response to the
nuclear test. It did, and the name stuck with the media and
public. What am I talking about?
76. 1) Blossoming gregariously only once in 12 years, the
Strobilanthes kunthiana flowers have been used by the
Paliyan tribal people to calculate their age. Also, a certain
mountain range supposedly gets its name from these
flowers, owing to the fact that when they bloom, the entire
range seems carpeted in a distinctive hue. Which range?
78. 2) Travelling by train to Bhopal, Indian archaeologist VS
Wakankar saw some rock formations similar to those he
had seen in Spain and France. On visiting the area along
with a team, he discovered several prehistoric rock
shelters, many with Stone Age rock paintings. Which
UNESCO World Heritage Site was so discovered?
80. 3) Earle Dickson was a cotton buyer at the Johnson &
Johnson company. His wife, Josephine Knight, sometimes
suffered minor cuts and burns while doing housework,
and gauze stuck to a wound with tape would not stay on
for long. In order to overcome this, Earle placed squares of
cotton gauze at intervals along an adhesive strip and
covered them with crinoline. In case of a cut or burn, the
crinoline could simply be whisked off, and the patch applied
on the skin. What was thus invented?
82. 4) This was composed by Ilayaraja in 1983 for Mani
Ratnamโs directorial debut Pallavi Anupallavi, which also
featured Anil Kapoor in his first leading role.
Where would you have heard it more recently?
84. B3) Why has a certain phrase from Spanish classical
guitarist Francisco Tarregaโs solo guitar composition Gran
Vals achieved worldwide ubiquity?
85. 5) Tradition has it that the dish was invented by medieval
Turkish or Persian soldiers who used their swords to grill
meat over open-field fires. It derives its name from the
Arabic word meaning "fry". A particular version of it shares
its name with the site of a daring train robbery in preindependence India. Which savoury delicacy is this?
87. 6) Even though it has not been officially replaced since with
something less inflammatory, the Olympic Salute has
generally not been used after Word War II. This is entirely
because of the fact that although it requires that the hand
be raised to a greater height and at an angle to the
shoulder, it still bears close resemblance to a gesture now
deeply reviled. Which gesture is this?
89. 7) German scientist and philosopher Georg Christoph
Lichtenbergโs idea forms the basis for the standard size
series, based on an aspect ratio of the square root of 2.
The significant advantage offered through this system is
that each entity in this series when divided into two yields
the next size. Which series is this?
91. 8) According to legend, a beautiful girl named Changโe
mistakenly ate the Pill of Immortality which made her drift
away until she landed on the Moon. While she became
lonely on the Moon without her husband, she did have a
jade rabbit for company. Interestingly, this legend was
mentioned in a conversation between the Houston Flight
Controller and the and the Apollo 11 crew just before the
first Moon landing in 1969. On being told the story, Buzz
Aldrin reportedly quipped, โOkay. We'll keep a close eye
out for the bunny girl.โ
Why was this legend in the news recently?
92. 8) The Yutu (literally Jade Rabbit) lunar rover forms part of
the recently launched Chinese Chang'e 3 mission to
the Moon
93. 9) Which 16th century Bhakti saintโs poetry has inspired the
genre-defying album No Stranger Here by Shubha Mudgal,
Ursula Rucker and the Business Class Refugees?
95. 10) Khaled Mohamed Said was a young Egyptian man who
died under disputed circumstances in Alexandria on 6 June
2010, after being arrested by the Egyptian police. On
seeing photos of his disfigured corpse, Google marketing
executive Wael Ghonim decided to create a Facebook
memorial page for Said, called "We are all Khaled Said".
The page attracted hundreds of thousands of followers,
becoming Egypt's biggest dissident Facebook page.
Support for Said rapidly spread, with many Facebook
members using his photograph for their own profiles.
This is often considered to have been the inspiration for a
certain phenomenon in India. What am I talking about?
97. 11) The daughter of a shepherd, Sampat Pal Devi taught
herself to read and write. When she was 12, she was
married off to an ice-cream seller and by 20, she had five
children. One day in her village in Uttar Pradesh, she saw a
man beating his wife; Devi begged him to stop but he
refused. The following day, she returned with a small group
of women, all carrying sticks, and beat him like he had
beaten his wife. Which organisation was thus started?
99. 12) He was a noted Urdu poet, and wrote a large number
of Urdu ghazals. While some part of his opus was lost or
destroyed during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a large
collection did survive, and was later compiled into
the Kulliyyat-i-Zafar. Even in defeat, he is believed to have
said:
Ghฤzioล mรฉล bลซ rahegi jab talak imฤn ki; Takht-e-London tak chalegi
tรฉgh Hindustan ki
As long as there remains the scent of faith in the hearts of our Ghazis,
so long shall the Talwar of Hindustan flash before the throne of London
Who?
101. B4) Tujhse milna purani Dilli mein
Chhod aaye nishani Dilli mein
Ballimaran se Daribe talak,
Teri meri kahani Dilli mein
When Gulzar sahab wrote these lyrics, which โmost
excellentโ poet, whose haveli still stands in Ballimaran in
Old Delhi, was he probably paying a tribute to?
104. Q) Shah Jahanโs eldest son and the heir-apparent, he was
favoured as a successor by his father, but was defeated by
his younger brother Aurangzeb in a bitter struggle for the
imperial throne. A patron of the fine arts, music and
dancing, he possessed decidedly Sufi leanings and strove
for greater understanding between Hinduism and Islam. He
translated the Bhagwad Gita and 50 Upanishads from
Sanskrit to Persian, and the library that he founded still
stands in Delhi. It is often conjectured that had he prevailed
over Aurangzeb, the course of Indiaโs history would have
turned out very differently. Who?
106. Q) As a result of this island's long isolation from
neighbouring continents, it is home to an abundance of
plants and animals found nowhere else on Earth.
Approximately 90 percent of all plant and animal species
found here are endemic, including the lemurs, the
carnivorous fossa and many birds. This distinctive ecology
has led some ecologists to refer to it as the โeighth
continentโ. Which island?
108. Q) The inspiration for this book came on a boat ride that the
author undertook on July 4, 1862 with Robinson Duckworth
and the three young daughters of the Vice-Chancellor of
Oxford University Henry Liddell: Lorina Liddell, Alice Liddell
and Edith Liddell. The members of the boating party that
first heard the tale show up in the work: Alice Liddell herself
is there, while the author is caricatured as the Dodo. The
Duck refers to Canon Duckworth, and the Lory and Eaglet
to Alice Liddell's sisters Lorina and Edith. Which
enormously influential classic is this?
110. Q) The artist was 14 when his mother committed suicide
by drowning. He witnessed her body being fished from the
water, her wet nightgown wrapped around her face. Some
have speculated that this trauma inspired a series of works
in which he obscured his subjectsโ faces. He himself
disagreed with such interpretations, denying any relation
between his paintings and his motherโs death. โMy painting
is visible images which conceal nothing,โ he wrote, โthey
evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my
pictures, one asks oneself this simple question, โWhat does
it mean?โ It does not mean anything, because mystery
means nothing either, it is unknowable.โ Who?
113. Q) The song is meant to immortalise the destruction of
House Reyne who rebelled against their liege lord, a man
perceived as being weak by his own vassals. To restore the
familyโs dominance, his son marched against the upstart
Lord Reyne. By the end of the rebellion, all members of
House Reyne had been executed and their castle burnt to
the ground. What am I talking about?
117. B5) What are these symbols on the margins of stamp
sheets called?
118. Q) Published in 1998,The Polyester Prince, an
unauthorised biography by Hamish McDonald, was never
sold in India since the business family whose story it
chronicles threatened legal action. Nevertheless, it
continues to be popular as an accurate portrayal of one of
the most controversial and brilliant Indian businessman.
Who is it about?
120. Q) In late 1949, as India prepared to transform itself from a
โdominionโ, where the British monarch was head of state, to
a full fledged republic, Nehru and Patel had a major
disagreement as to who should be the first president of
independent India. Much to Nehruโs annoyance, Patel
ensured that his close friend Rajendra Prasad became the
new head of state, even though Nehru had already
promised the presidency to somebody else. Who?
123. B1) It is believed that the name of this city might have
come from the local version of the name Alexander,
after Alexander the Great, who founded the city in 330 BC
and named it Alexandria in Arachosia. A temple to the
deified Alexander as well as an inscription in Greek and
Aramaic by Emperor Ashoka, who lived a few decades
later, have been discovered here.
An alternative etymology derives the name of the city
from Gandhara, although the city in modern times and the
ancient Gandhara are not geographically identical, instead
being far away from each other. Which city?
125. B2) As a protest against the Supreme Courtโs decision to
uphold Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, who has
written this poem?
Through love's great power to be made whole
In mind and body, heart and soul Through freedom to find joy, or be
By dint of joy itself set free
In love and in companionhood:
This is the true and natural good.
To undo justice, and to seek
To quash the rights that guard the weak To sneer at love, and wrench apart
The bonds of body, mind and heart
With specious reason and no rhyme:
This is the true unnatural crime.
128. B3) Why has a certain phrase from Spanish classical
guitarist Francisco Tarregaโs solo guitar composition Gran
Vals achieved worldwide ubiquity?
135. 1) When the Hollywood Walk of Fame project was being
conceptualised, it was realized there were many more
people who were leaders in their fields who would never
earn a star on Hollywood Boulevard. It was decided that
this situation should be rectified with the creation of an
award given by the music industry similar to
the Oscars and the Emmys. Initially, the working title for the
award was the Eddie, to honour the inventor of the
phonograph, Thomas Edison. But eventually the name of
Emile Berlinerโs invention was chosen. Which award?
143. 5) This word entered the English language during the Irish
Land War, derived from the name of an unpopular land
agent who, upon attempting to evict eleven tenants from
the land, faced social ostracism being shunned by
everyone in the locality.
The word has come to mean an act of voluntarily
abstaining from using, buying, or dealing with a person,
organisation, or country as an expression of protest. Which
word?
147. 7) The name comes from an Arabic word meaning
โimaginationโ, and it is the dominant genre of classical
singing in north India. This style was popularised by the
uncle-nephew pair of Sadarang and Adarang, both of
whom were musicians in the court of Muhammad Shah
Rangile. The bandish is generally composed in a variant of
Urdu or Hindi, and sometimes in Persian, Marathi or
Punjabi, and these compositions cover diverse topics.
What is this style of singing called?
149. 8) In maritime usage, it refers to the parts of the Atlantic
Ocean and the Pacific Ocean affected by the Intertropical
Convergence Zone, a low-pressure area around
the equator where the prevailing winds are calm. These
parts are also noted for calm periods when the winds
disappear altogether, trapping sail-powered boats for
periods of days or weeks. Colloquially, the word has come
to be used to denote a state of inactivity, mild depression,
listlessness or stagnation. Which word?
151. 9) Penned by Udai Pratap Singh, a former Rajya Sabha
MP from Uttar Pradesh, and sung by Bollywood playback
singer Javed Ali, it has been adapted from Billy Joelโs
hugely popular song โWe Didnโt Start the Fireโ, whose
rights were bought by a certain organisation in 2013. Which
song is this?
153. 10) An excerpt from Steve Jobsโ commencement address
at Stanford University in 2005:
โStewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth
Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue.
It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their
final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the
kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous.
Beneath it were the words: โ____ ______. ____ _______." It was their
farewell message as they signed off. ____ ______. ____ _______. And I
have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin
anew, I wish that for you.
____ ______. ____ _______.โ
Which famous phrase?
158. Q)
"Bud, that's crazy!", I told him. "We've hardly even started yet. There's
no way we can get it done by then.โ
"I know," he responded, in a low voice, almost a whisper.
"You know? If you know the schedule is off-base, why don't you correct it?โ
"Well, it's Steve. Steve insists that we're shipping in early 1982, and won't
accept answers to the contrary. The best way to describe the situation is a
term from Star Trek. Steve has a ______ __________ _____.โ
"A what?โ
"A ______ __________ _____. In his presence, reality is malleable. He
can convince anyone of practically anything. It wears off when he's not
around, but it makes it hard to have realistic schedules.
Which famous three word phrase?