The General Quiz which I conducted along with Daivat Bhatt and Navin Rajaram in an Ahmedabad Quiz Club session on 25th December 2022.

1. The General Quiz
Ahmedabad Quiz Club
Quizmasters:
Anshul Roy, Daivat Bhatt, Navin Rajaram

2. WikiHow Memes serve as safety slides in this quiz,
keep an eye out for some easy chuckles

4. Infinite Bounce - 1

5. Q - 1
‘X: Theory and Practice in Post-Colonial Literatures’ is a 1989 book on
postcolonialism, written by Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin.
X was the first major theoretical account of a wide range of postcolonial texts
and their relationship with bigger issues of postcolonial culture, and is said to be
one of the most significant and important works published in the field of
postcolonial studies.
Identify X, an appropriate pun on the name of a famous movie.

7. X = The Empire Writes Back

8. Q - 2
Zuo Zontang (sometimes referred to as X) was
a Chinese statesman and military leader of
the late Qing dynasty from Hunan Province,
known for his military exploits and
contributions to Chinese agricultural science
and education.
Which popular Chicken dish is named after
him?

10. General Tso’s Chicken

11. Q - 3
‘The Mediator Between Head and Hands
Must Be the Heart’ is the thirteenth studio
album by the Brazilian Metal band Sepultura,
released in 2013. The album’s sound has
been described as “really sinister, dark and
metal as hell” by the band’s vocalist.
Which iconic Sci-Fi movie serves as the
inspiration for the album as well as its title?

13. Metropolis

14. Q - 4
Fernand Leger was a French painter who painted
artworks in his own idiosyncratic version of Cubism,
in which he emphasized cylindrical forms (images on
next slide).
What apt term was coined by the art critic Louis
Vauxcelles to describe his unique painting style?

18. Tubism

19. Q - 5
X (also known as Jahajis) were indentured labourers from British India
transported to work in plantations across Fiji, Mauritius, South Africa and the
Caribbean.
The term X is derived from the Indian pronunciation of the English word Y. The
Ys between the British government and the Indian labourers specified the length
of stay in foreign lands and the conditions for their return to their motherland.
Identify X and Y.

21. X = Girmitya; Y = Agreement

22. Q - 6
Sphongle is a psychedelic electronic band from England formed in the 1996. The
group includes Simon Posford (more famous as his stage name X) and Raja Ram.
The duo are considered to be the progenitors of the pysbient genre - a genre
combining psychedelic trance and ambient. Sphongle’s music is heavily
influenced by psychedelic experiences and frequently makes use of sonic
textures that approximate psychedelic states as well as vocal samples relating to
consciousness expansion, hallucinations, and altered states of awareness.
Considering all this, what appropriate stage name does Simon Posford use?

24. X = Hallucinogen

25. Q - 7
During the colonial era this city was under the administration of a British district
collector and municipal commissioner, Alexander John Forbes of the East India
Company. Forbes also had a bungalow at the same location, hence the area was
known as 'Residential Area' also abbreviated as ________.
Which Indian city derives its current name from this?

27. Araria (from R-Area)

28. Q - 8
In photography, a X flash is one that is controlled by a Y flash and can be optically
triggered by the firing of the Y flash (without the need for a radio transmitter or
sync cord).
However, in recent times, with increased sensibility, many people are calling for
ending the usage of controversial and archaic terms like X and Y, preferring to
use words like transmitter and receiver to refer to these flash units.
Identify X and Y.

30. X = Slave; Y = Master

31. Q - 9
‘The Steam House’ is an 1880 Jules Verne novel recounting the travels of a group
of British colonists in a wheeled house pulled by a steam-powered mechanical
elephant. The story takes place in the aftermath of the 1857 rebellion.
An alternate title for the book is - "The End of X" - referring to the appearance in
the book of the historical figure X who disappeared after the crushing of the
rebellion, his ultimate fate still unknown. Verne offers a fictional explanation to
X’s disappearance.
Identify X.

33. X = Nana Sahib Peshwa

34. Q - 10
In 2004, it was revealed that Xerox and Canon printers left something called a Machine
Identification Code (MIC), which was a secret digital watermark, that helped track the device from
which the print originated.
This had been in existence since the 1980s and it is said Xerox developed this MIC code to assuage
fears of the US government that their printers would not be put to a specific illegal use, without
publicizing it for obvious reasons.
However, in 2018, scientists developed a privacy software to anonymise prints and mask printer
machine codes, making this software available to certain people, who may have use of it in
corporate or political contexts.
1. To prevent what specific illegal use of its printers did Xerox develop MIC in the first place?
2. What kind of people was the privacy software designed to help?

36. Counterfeit Currency; Whistleblowers

37. Q - 11
This word derives from a Latin phrase that literally meant “coming towards a
port/harbour”. The original idea was that a wind blowing towards a port was
favourable or convenient for ships trying to get to the shore.
In the late 14th
century, this word took on the general sense of “fitness” or
“convenience” before it evolved to its present meaning of circumstances that are
favourable for accomplishing a goal.
What word?

39. Opportunity (from ob portum veniens)

40. Q - 12
Danish chemist Soren Sorenson devised it at the Carlsberg Laboratory in 1909 while working on ion
chemistry in proteins, before modifying it to its modern form in 1924. A certain part of its
nomenclature remains a mystery with the Carlsberg Foundation itself saying it could mean “power”,
while Germans claim it means “potenz”.
The French say it could mean puissance (the French for power), while a Latin phrase pondus
_________ii or potential ___________ii (quantity of __________) seems to be another alternate
theory. Another theory says that this letter represents a logarithmic scale.
Research into Sorensen’s original papers indicates that it was just a label he used for his experiments,
since he used letter subscripts to distinguish the electrodes in his system and did not intend to give
any meaning to it.
The meaning of what letter in what context is being discussed here?

42. The ‘p’ in pH

43. Q - 13
On September 19, 1949, a villager by the name of Todal was found dead in a
forest near Chhindwara in Madhya Pradesh. The police's theory was that the
accused conspired to murder the victim as he was in love with his wife, the
defense was that the victim was killed by a man-eating tiger. Thus, the defense
produced a famous book X written by Y and read passages related to relevant
wounds and circumstances of an attack. The accused was later found not guilty.
Identify X and Y.

45. X = Man-Eaters of Kumaon; Y = Jim Corbett

46. Q - 14
Étienne-Jules Marey was a French scientist whose work was
significant in the development of cardiology, physical
instrumentation, aviation, cinematography and science photography.
He is famous for inventing a chronophotographic gun in 1882, an
instrument capable of taking 12 consecutive frames a second, with
all the frames recorded on the same picture (images on next slide).
With this device, Marey studied the locomotion of various animals.
Which art movement was heavily inspired by Etienne-Jules Marey’s
motion studies?

53. Futurism

54. Q - 15
In 2016, a team of scientists claimed to have found definitive proof of a historical puzzle. Its leader,
geomorphologist Bill Mahaney of York University in Toronto, began pondering the question almost two
decades ago by looking at geographical and environmental references in the classical texts.
Since 2011 they’ve been studying a peaty bog 2,580 m up in the X mountains. At a depth of about 40 cm,
this carbon-based material becomes much more disturbed and compacted, mixed up with finer-grained soil.
This structure suggests that the bog became churned when the layer was formed. That’s not seen in other
soils from alpine bogs, and isn’t easily explained by any natural phenomenon. The researchers then took
samples of this disturbed mud back to the lab, where they used chemical techniques to identify some of its
organic molecules, which included substances found in horse dung. Microbiologists collaborating with the
team also found a distinctive horse tapeworm egg in the samples.
What historical “puzzle” were these researchers trying to solve?

56. Did Hannibal actually cross the Alps

57. Long Connect

58. +60/-30

59. +50/-25

60. +40/-20

61. +30/-15

62. +20/-10

63. +10/-5

65. Answer
Authors who have an adjective named after them
1. Ballardian
2. Lovecraftian
3. Dickensian
4. Kafkaesque
5. Machiavellian
6. Orwellian

66. Infinite Bounce - 2

67. Q - 1
This novel is filled with descriptive prose to rue the state of Gothic architecture - a lot
of the description far exceeding the requirements (or relevance) of the narrative.
The titular character, named after the day he is found abandoned, is adopted and his
life revitalized, is rumored to have been afflicted by a condition - and shares it with
Chopin, Chekhov and Kafka among others.
This condition is also highly likely the reason behind his predicament - a distinctive
characteristic that caused him to be abandoned in the first place.
Which character, and what specific condition?

69. Quasimodo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
Tb of the spine (potts’ disease)

70. Q - 2
10th of Ramadan is one of two sister cities located in Egypt, and is a first
generation urban community enjoying its proximity to Cairo.
Its name (along with its sister city’s) extraordinarily commemorates the country’s
involvement in a dispute that took place four years before the city was founded -
extraordinary because its memories of the dispute aren’t all that honorable.
What does it commemorate, and what is its sister city called?

72. Yom Kippur War; 6th of October
Extraordinary because Egypt lost the war against Israel

73. Q - 3
It is easy to escape the importance of a lot of cultural traditions. Often, these
traditions serve as a backdrop to important ecological practices.
One of them is how the Sri Lankan customs work and the celebrations that they
entail - these often include waving torches and walking around with lamps, as
well as using conch shells and drums to dance around. The first has to do with
when a lot of these rituals are observed.
1. What essential times of the year do these coincide with - crucial for
everyone’s livelihood?
2. Why are the conch shells and drums particularly important?

75. Pests; disrupt mating calls
1. coincide with mating times of pests that are destructive to agriculture
2. disrupt mating calls.

76. Q - 4
Stadium 974 is a football stadium in Qatar that hosted the FIFA 2022 WC
matches, and had a modular design - its architects claiming that they wanted to
shy away from having a “white elephant” as well as paying homage to the history
of the town of Ras Abu Aboud.
Its name referring to the international dialing code of the country, what is the
stadium built from?

78. Shipping Containers

79. Q - 5
Most inventors before him could not guarantee a long life for the product, due to frequent
failures/burn downs of the central component of the product.
Needing a material with high resistance and high carbon content to keep current flow down, he began
using cotton threads/wires, that gave a product life of 14 hours. He then experimented with more
than 6000 organic items, contacting biologists in the tropics or asking volunteers to send interesting
materials.
When a friend sent him samples of an item from Japan’s Iwashimizu Shrine in 1880, he found the
material durable, easily flexible and heat resistant to build a product prototype that lasted over 1,200
hours.
This design lasted for a few decades before a more durable element replaced it.
What samples were sent from the shrine and what specific item in the end product were they used
for?
What element from the periodic table replaced these materials?

82. Bamboo for filaments in the Edison bulb
Tungsten

83. Q - 6
A rastrum was a multi-nibbed pen used to lay the
foundations upon which one would find the source
and alphabets of pleasure and were used
extensively before the printing press wrecked them.
Coming from a latin root that refers to an object
with a similar function, albeit on different grounds -
what was this pen used for, and what does its latin
root mean?

85. Staff lines; Rake

86. Q - 7
The open space/piazza in front of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican was designed
by Bernini between 1656-1667 under the guidance of Pope Alexander VII.
Designed and constructed even before the basilica came into being, this
piazza/forecourt was designed so that the greatest number of people could see
the Pope give his blessing from the church façade or a window in the palace.
Bernini’s piazza design, when viewed from above, had another visual
connotation that fit very well with the Basilica in question – this design was
considered both fitting and a mark of Bernini’s own genius and devout
Christianity.
What is the piazza designed to resemble and why was it appropriate?

89. Keyhole shaped since St. Peter holds the keys to
heaven

90. Q - 8
Since Gambia gained independence in 1956, it has steadfastly used a typical way
to vote instead of ballot papers. Although there have been attempts to move to
a different medium, they have failed.
Each candidate is assigned a metallic drum and the public will use them
depending on which candidate gets their vote.
1. What is used to cast the vote?
2. How do they make sure multiple votes aren’t cast?

92. Marbles; Make sure there is only one cling

93. Q - 9
By the 1960s, he had grown tired of the publication that printed his output since it
supported Republicans and decided that he would stop doing cheery works and shift to
social realism in his output.
His 1965 work “Southern Justice” deals with an incident that polarized the nation, with
early sketches portraying the victims on one side and the perpetrators on the other
side.
For inspiration, he went back to another work from the previous century – the
headlights of the sheriff's car illuminate the victims, just like the composition of shadow
and light in the original in which a similar gruesome act is about to occur.
What event, also the subject of a 1988 film, was portrayed in this painting?
Which painting from around 151 years ago did the artist draw inspiration from?

96. Mississippi Burning / Killing of black civil rights activists in Mississippi
Goya’s Third of May, 1808

97. Q - 10
Mahmut Miski, pursues the study of medicines derived from natural sources,
believes he has stumbled across the modern variant of a plant that was as
important as money during the classical antiquity period. The new variant, Ferula
drudeana, when analyzed yielded 30 advantageous metabolites.
The original plant, one that had found its uses as an aphrodisiac as well as
perfume, was so important that the Egyptians had a special glyph to represent it.
In the modern world, there is some credible speculation that a popular symbol,
one all of us use extensively, finds its roots in the seed of this plant.
What older variant, and what symbol?

99. Silphium, Symbol for heart

100. Q - 11
This plant, of Indian origins, had such a widespread influence that the Greeks, Romans
and Arabs have used a variation of the same word for a common ingredient.
This root word literally means “gravel”. In Persian, this word was used as part of phrase -
that was used to refer to a kind of cloth, originally made from silk.
The Persian phrase, a combination of two elements, eventually made its way to English
through the Mughal Empire, and now comes to mean a light thin fabric that usually has a
striped pattern.
1. What is the common English word for this fabric?
2. What were the two elements referred to in the original Persian phrase?

102. Seersucker, sir-o-sakar (milk and sugar)

103. Q - 12
Ted Chiang, in his short story collection “Exhalation”, creates a world in one of
his short stories where he talks about the __________ hypothesis.
The premise, inspired from Young Earth creationism, is that there is scientific
evidence that the universe was created by a God and that life was put on the
planet by a God.
This evidence is in the form of a few human fossils unearthed - something
about these fossils truly proves the Young Earth creationism argument that
there was no life before these fossils. What?

105. No Navel

106. Q - 13
A lot of people with spinal injuries find it hard to regulate a lot of autonomic
body functions such as blood pressure.
Considering this, explain why do wheelchair athletes illegally and intentionally
injure themselves on their toes or feet?

108. Boosting is a form of doping
this is a form of doping called boosting - where they trick the body to be in a
state of high heart rate and blood pressure.

109. Q - 14
The story goes that when the navigator
Amerigo Vespucci saw the stilt houses on this
country’s (X) coast, he was immediately
reminded of another far off city (Y).
Italian being his mother tongue, he decided to
call X “Little Y” and the name stuck.
Identify X and Y.

111. X = Venezuela; Y = Venice

112. Fights & Flowers
anshulisnot@gmail.com
daivatpbhatt@gmail.com
navinrajaram@gmail.com

113. Q - 15
X is an artistic endeavour aimed at a very specific group of people in our
community — to empower them and attempting to break the psychological
chains that hold these people back. These people have a violent past, and have
endured scars and wounds.
X strives to be a bridge between the community and the people - offering
follow-up care as well as connecting them to any services they might require.
What people does X cater to, and how?

115. Human Trafficking Survivors
(X: Survivor’s Ink)