Questions from the June Quiz

1. Connect the following - : “The Burial of the Dead”, “A Game of Chess”, “The Fire Sermon”, “Death by Water”, and “What the Thunder Said” ?





A. All parts of T.S. Eliot's " Wasteland"





2. His invention was subtitled “Ars artium omnium conservatrix” meaning “The Art Preservative of all the Arts”. Who and what invention?





A. Gutenberg and the Printing Press





3. The word is derived from the combination of the Old Norse word for “colour” and the name of a lichen growing in northern Europe. This lichen was used to dye wool and other textiles. This later found use in another specific application. Identify.





A. Litmus ( of Litmus Paper fame)





4. "I am happy to greet the geniuses who made me a born-again writer, having announced my retirement in 1978, I now have six books in the works and two probables, all through …..X"
Arthur C. Clarke made the above remarks on meeting Rubenstein and Barnaby.Identify “X”?





A. The typewriter





5. In the 16th century this word referred to “one taking part in dialectic exercises”. The later version of this word was a combination of the Greek words for “wise” and “foolish”. This was to signify the fact that the subjects have acquired some knowledge but still have a great deal yet to learn. Which word?





A Sophomore





6. This 19th century shop owner in Paris discovered that the timbre of a tone is produced not by the type or material of wall which surrounds a column of air but by the proportion given to that column. Using this basic concept, he came up with an enduring invention which he patented in the year 1846. Who is he and what was his invention?





A. Adolph Sax the inventor of the Saxophone





7. Captain Ridley’s Shooting Party commanded by Alistair Denniston arrived at a housing site owned by property developer Captain Hubert Faulkner in August 1939. The site was originally owned by a wealthy London financier Sir Herbert Samuel Leon. What happened here in the next couple of years proved to be historical. Identify the place and what happened here?





A. Bletchley Park-The Enigma Coding Machine was cracked here during WW2





8. The upper part of this column is so highly finished that it is sometimes mistaken as Bronze. This maybe because of embedded sand or Ferric Oxide. Scientists claim that other factors responsible for its unique properties are a high phosphorous content, excellent forge welding, cinder coating and pancake forging. What?





A. Iron Pillar at Mehrauli





9. Who is this guy?











A. Adi Dassler



10. Band backstage after recording one of the Greatest Live Albums of all time. Name Band and Album

A. The Allman Brothers Band and the album was Live at Filimore East.

Report on the quiz on 10th June

QM: Mihir

Format: Infinite bounce with a special audio round.

Thumbs Up:

• Good crackable questions
• The questions covered a lot of varied topics
• Very good prelims questions
• Good balanced set of questions


Thumbs down:

• A lot of questions on Music (Two on album covers!!)
• Very few questions on India

Memorable questions: The questions on “Animals”, St. Andrews golf course, Tofu, Drucker, Colaba, litmus and the Dynamos.

1st: Nitish and Ravi
2nd: Chandu and Rajsekhar
3rd: Rachit and Vivek

Nitish and Ravi comfortably won the quiz. A great debut by Chandu and Rajsekhar as the newbie team (no disrespect intended for the team) beat many celebrated teams to come second in turn beating another newbie team comprising Rachit and Vivek to the 3rd position. A majority of questions were crackable and credit goes to the quizmaster for setting a very balanced quiz.

The next quiz has been scheduled for the 22nd of July and will be done by Anil (Irevna).

Questions from this quiz will be posted soon.

Open Quiz on the 10th of June

A General Quiz open to all members of the public. Note this time the quiz is being organised for teams of 2.


QM: Mihir Jayaraman.

Venue: Vasavi Hall AC Auditorium @ #6-1-91, II Floor, vasavi Seva Kendram, Opp Meera Sensation Theatre, Khairtabad.

Directions to the venue: From Khairatabad while going towards Lakdi ka Pul, right opposite the Sensation theatre near IIMC

Date and Time: 10th June 2007, 10:00 am

Format: The quiz is open to all members of the general public who are interested. This time the quiz is being organised for teams of 2. With the ACE Corporate quiz just a week away, we thought that the teams participating in the ACE corporate quiz could come and prepare for the ACE quiz via this quiz.

Prizes: Gift vouchers from Odyssey Bookstore.

Entry Fee: Rs 25 per person.

Hope to see you all there.

Questions from the May Quiz

Q. Kamboja was one of the countries of ancient Indian history. The country is listed as one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas or great nations in ancient Buddhist texts, and was located in the Uttarapatha in extreme north-west of the Indian sub-continent, contiguous to the kingdom of Gandhara. This region was also very famous for its horses. The residents of this country were known by the same name as the country. Supposed to be a peace loving nation, they were constantly harangued by the Muslim invaders and unable to bear this onslaught, the Kamboja race decided to leave the Indian subcontinent forever never to return. What resulted?

A. The Kamboja race migrated towards south east asia and founded the country of Kampuchea( Cambodia)

Q. It is believed that in Medieval France, upon gaining employment a workman would carry his implements in a bag made of sheepskin or leather and carry it to work on the first day. Upon completing the days work, he would deposit this bag with his employer for safe keeping as it would be quite cumbersome to carry the bag to work everyday. This practice has given rise to a phrase in the English language. What phrase?

A. A bag is called a “Sac” in French. This is origin of the term getting the sack.

Q. The original settlers of the Pitcairn group of islands(Ducie, Henderson, Oeno and Pitcairn) were supposed to be the Polynesians. Some of the islands were discovered by a Portuguese sailor, while Pitcairn Island itself was discovered on July 3, 1767 by the crew of a British ship.
The island became a British colony in 1838. There has been a history of a flawed sex ratio on this island and there are allegations of a long history and tradition of sexual abuse of girls as young as 7, which culminated in 2004 in the charging of seven men living on Pitcairn, and another six now living abroad, with sex-related offences, including rape. On October 25, 2004, six men were convicted, including Steve _______, the island's mayor at the time. The British government has decided to set up a prison for only the island, and spend an annual budget of $950,000, after the six men lost their final appeal.
The question is how has this island been immortalised in literature?

A. Pitcairn Island is where the mutineers from the story “Mutiny on the HMS Bounty” are supposed to have settled. The mayor was called Steve Christian and is supposed to be a descendent of Fletcher Christian, the original mutineer.

Q. This was described by its “creator” as :
“It tells in poetic terms of a lady’s quest for spiritual perfection. She is a paradigm of Spencer’s Faerie Queen, Robert Graves’ White Goddess and every other Celtic heroine – the Lady of the Lake, Morgan Le Fay, Diana of the Fields Greene, Rhiannon”
Many people say that it was inspired by Spence’s “Magic Arts in Britain”. What?

A. Led Zepellin’s “Stairway to Heaven”

Q. What has just happened here ?


A. The assasination of Martin Luther King. You can see his body at the bottom and people pointing towards where the bullet came from

Q. This album cover is a tribute to which famous album cover?


A. The Rolling Stones " Stick Fingers" album cover which looks like this:


Q. What did this guy inspire in the world of comics?


A. Calvin's dad in the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. This is Bill Watterson and he based the character upon himself!

Q. A Time magazine cover. Who is the artist and who is the subject?


A. Roy Lichtenstein's painting of Robert Kennedy

Q. ID the 2 gentlemen


A. Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov

Q. What does the red line depict?


A. Captain Cook's voyage.

Report on the quiz on 13th May

[Posting on behalf of Priyambad]

QM: Nitish

Format: Infinite bounce with two special rounds. (A video written round and a fantastic Stage 2)

Thumbs Up:
· Original questions (Read no repeats)
· Very good mix of World / India questions
· Very workoutable questions
· Sensational Stage 2 (With a very neat theme)
· No LVCs (Long Visual Connects)
· No convoluted connects

Thumbs down:
· The initial few questions were very unsettling
· The pinkie hint for the Stage 2 (;))
· Slightly long but none the less very enjoyable

Memorable cracks: JK's Mandakini crack, The Grapes of Wrath Crack, Deva's meme crack, the googly crack and the Stage 2 crack by Srini


1st: Bhargav, Srini and Rahul
2nd: Priyambad, Akshat and Deepak
3rd: Sohail, Rahul Girish Kumar and A Revanth Reddy.

The quiz saw a neck to neck fight between the team comprising Bhargav, Srini and Rahul and team of Priyambad, Akshat and Deepak till the last round (the stage 2). Srini's Stage 2 crack at a very early stage enabled them to win the quiz in the end. The new team comprising of Sohail, Rahul Girish Kumar and A Revanth Reddy came from behind and finished 3rd with some brilliant cracks.
The quiz had some very good questions asked on Bollywood / Hollywood but still it was a very balanced quiz. The quiz though slightly on the tougher witnessed some superb cracks from almost every team.


The next quiz has been scheduled for the 10th of June and will be done by Mihir.

Questions from this quiz will be posted soon.

Quiz on May 13th

The next quiz is on Sunday, the 13th of May. Here are the details:

QM: Nitish Khadiya.

Venue: Vasavi Hall @ #6-1-91, II Floor, vasavi Seva Kendram, Opp Meera Sensation Theatre, Khairtabad.

Directions to the venue: From Khairatabad while going towards Lakdi ka Pul right opposite the Sensation theatre near IIMC

Date and Time: 13th May 2007, 10:00 am

Format: The quiz is open to all members of the general public who are interested. This quiz will follow a format in which participants will be randomly teamed up into teams of 3 at the time of the quiz itself. This is to provide all participants an equal opportunity at participating in a team quiz even if they do not have other team members in Hyderabad or even if they are new to quizzing itself.

Prizes: Gift vouchers from Odyssey Bookstore.

Entry Fee: Rs 25 per person.

Questions from the second quiz!

Here are some questions from the second quiz:


1. He paused to calculate the optimal turbulent laminar transition trajectory before it. The man can carry out a multi-variable physics calculation in his head to compute the exact trajectory required. Almost certainly the flow around the ball must have changed from turbulent to laminar several meters from the target. Mr. ------- was applying some very sophisticated physics."-thus concluded a team of scientists analyzing a scene in 2002. Which movie owes its name due to this?


A: Bend it like Beckham


2. Some 78 kms long situated at an altitude of 5,400 meters above sea level , it is the planet's largest alpine glacier outside the poles, and thus is sometimes referred to as the third pole. What is it called?


A: Siachen (literally the "place of roses')


3. The leading spirit behind the formation of this organisation in 1964 was Swami Chinmayananda and the founding religious leaders included Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, Sikh leader Master Tara Singh and Jain Acharya Sushil Kumarji Maharaj. Name this organisation which uses a Banyan tree as its symbol?


A: VHP


4. “Because I was in Prabaker’s house, it was decided that I should take the family name of Kharre. Because Kishan was Prabaker’s father, and my adoptive father, tradition decreed that I should take his first name for my middle name. And because they judged my nature to be blessed with peaceful happiness, Rukhmabai concluded, the women had agreed with her choice for my first name. It was _____________ which means man of peace or man of God’s peace.” Fill in the blanks.


A: Shantaram


5. During the reign of King James II, the Royal Hospital was still under construction, so he introduced a system for distribution of army pensions in 1689. The pension was to be made available to all soldiers who had been injured in service, or who had served for more than 20 years. By the time the Hospital was completed, there were more pensioners than places available in the Hospital. Eligible soldiers who could not be housed in the Hospital were termed out-pensioners, receiving their pension from the Royal Hospital but living outside it. The club which got formed in the locality was hence nicknamed “pensioners”. Which club?


A: Chelsea Football Club


6. Some of the other products available in this genre of "fabric" are Dyneema, Goldflex, Spectra, Twaron and Zylon. Which is the most famous of these genre of “fabrics”?


A: Kevlar


7. The popular Indian lore says that on pilgrimage to Mecca in the 16th century, a revered Muslim holy man from India, came across these. Despite a ban on taking this out of its place of origin, punishable by death, he smuggled 7 of it wrapped around his belly. Today he is revered in one part of the country and actually has a mountain/mountain range named after him. What is his contribution to India?


A: Smuggled Coffee into India


8. This instrument was popularized in the 1930s by radio comedian Bob Burns, who is credited with inventing the instrument some 20 years earlier. It was also played by jazz musicians Noon Johnson and Sanford Kendrick. But today when we talk of it, we talk of it in a different context. What?


A: Bazooka


9. What term was first coined by Chris Anderson in an October 2004 Wired magazine article to describe certain business and economic models such as Amazon.com or Netflix. The term is also generally used in statistics, often applied in relation to wealth distributions or vocabulary use.


A: The Long Tail effect


10. He was already a noted aviator before World War I; in 1913 he gained fame for making the first nonstop flight across the Mediterranean Sea from Frejus in south of France to Bizerte in Tunisia. The next year he joined the French army at the outbreak of the conflict. After several aerial missions he decided that shooting and flying at the same time was too difficult, so he fitted a machine gun to the front of his plane so the tasks became one and the same. In order to protect the propeller from the bullets, he fitted metal wedges to the prop. Starting from April 1, 1915, he soon shot down three German planes and quickly gained an excellent reputation. On April 18, 1915, he was shot down and glided to a landing on the German side of the lines. After examining X’s plane, Dutch aircraft engineer Y and his team designed an improved system known as the interrupter gear. Soon the tables were reversed against the Allies due to Y’s planes shooting down nearly every enemy plane they met, leading to what became known as the Y Scourge. Identify X & Y?


A: Roland Garros & Anthony Fokker