Ranajay Karlekar Memorial Quiz 2014Finals

Double trouble

• Crew of a which 1976 film ? • Producer: Mr Gore• Director: Mr Ghoshal• Stunt director: Mr Perumal• Dialogue writer: Mr Gupte

• Jeet Bahadur• Jet Bahadur (From Feluda’s Bombaiyer

Bombete)

• Herbert Hoover• Herbert

• David Shepherd• Shepherd’s Pie

• Goodluck Jonathan (Nigeria President)• Goodnight and Good luck

• All the King’s men• All the President’s men

• British Channel 4 had to pay somebody 40,000 Pounds to make this 1994 film’s release possible.

• Which film ?

• Bandit (Johnny Quest’s dog)• Bandit Queen

• This Economics graduate from the Madras Christian College served as India’s Finance minister and Railways minister. His nephew was the man behind India’s White revolution.

• Who ?

• Wangari Maathai• John Mathai

• The Boy Scouts are trying to curb the use of nicknames as they feel it leads to bullying.

• What was their founder’s nickname in school ?

• Bathing Towel• Towel day

Dry 1

• The founders wanted to name their company after themselves but then realized that the name sounded a lot like “More noise”.

• What name did they finally adopt ?

• Intel founded by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce in 1968

• Moore Noyce was their initial choice

• What object (possibly a reference to the “work of art” that first brought him/her into the limelight) did the party founder want as the Election symbol for the Rashtriya Aam Party ? Also name the “work of art”.

• Green chilly• Mohabbat hain mirchi sanam

• The 2 basic techniques used for this are ‘chunking’ and eliminating ‘subvocalizaiton’.

• A British woman, Anne Jones has won the World championship for this 6 times in a row.

• Her best was an incredible score of 4251 wpm.• What am I talking about ?

• Speed reading• In 2007, the 6 time World Champion Speed

Reader read ‘Deathly Hallows’ in a stunning 47 minutes, give or take a second. That’s 4,251 wpm, or about 14 times faster than the average reader.

• Calcutta X : Official between 1884 & 1906• Bombay X: Official between 1884 & 1906• Madras X also known as the Railway X: Official

between 1802 and 1884• Port Blair X: Official from the early 19th century

till 1906• What officially replaced all of these in 1906 ?

• Indian Standard Time

• During the middle ages, to make something more interesting, a commoner's occupation was associated with each of these.

• The occupations included:• Gambler• Policeman• Innkepper• Merchant• Doctor• Weaver• Blacksmith• FarmerWith what were these occupations associated ?

• 8 pawns on a chess board

• What makes Dahala Khagrabari an Indian enclave belonging to the District of Cooch Behar the only one of it’s kind in the World ?

• World's only 3rd order enclave on the India - Bangladesh border

• India in Bangladesh in India in Bangladesh

• In 1922 the Carlsberg brewery gave this man a gift – a house located next to the brewery.

• It had a direct pipeline to the brewery so that he could have free beer on tap whenever he wanted !

• So who was this lucky dude ??

• Neils Bohr

• According to the UN this is an exhaustive list and not something to be proud of

• Only 3 countries in the world which are still not Polio free

• Shanti Mullick. Former captain of the Indian Women’s football team

• The only female Arjuna awardee in Football

• An extremely vain man, for every great occasion he insisted that he should be sewn into his uniform so there would not be a single crease to mar his appearance

• However like an Aesop’s fable his vanity led to his downfall because when he was shot it was impossible to unbutton his uniform and by the time scissors had been found he had already bled to death

• Identify this gentleman, whose refusal to wear buttons proved to be significant for a vast majority of humanity

• Archduke Franz Ferdinand whose assassination on June 28th 1914 sparked the beginning of the World War

• In the middle ages, _______ referred to a metal cone or shield used to put out the hearth fire in the evening.

• The word thus came to denote the end of a day’s activities. It is this still in active use today but slightly differently

• What’s the good word?

• Curfew

• A Jewish astronomical observer noticed a change in the regularity of a star’s pulse as though there had been a sudden slip

• He used the Yiddish word for ‘slip’ which now technically refers to a sudden change in the rotation period of a neutron star.

• Again, it’s a word which we commonly use. What’s the good word?

• Glitch

• In 1815, Charles-Louis Didelot was a French dancer and choreographer who devised a system for dancers to be lifted through the air on wires and lowered.

• The technique became so popular, that ballerinas soon learned to apply it without the use of wires as it gave an appearance of being weightless. Typically, years of training and practice are required to develop the strength to perform this technique without wires

• What did Charles Didelot unintentionally give rise to?

• En Pointe• The Ballerina

Technique of standing on the tip of one’s toes to support all body weight

• On May 28, 585 B.C. the armies of Lydia and Media were preparing for battle in Asia Minor when a Solar eclipse occurred which led to the two nations signing a peace treaty.

• Nothing remarkable about it, except that the occurrence of the solar eclipse makes the event special especially significant from a historical perspective.

• What is so special about the battle?

• Due to the occurrence of the solar eclipse, it is the oldest event which can be dated to the exact day!

• 40% of this country’s population shares 20 surnames which evidently leads to a lot of confusion

• The government of this country thus has a computerized list of words which sound similar to these common surnames. These words are completely nonsensical yet the government urges people to change their names (for obvious reasons)

• Just identify the country which I am referring to

• Sweden– Surnames such as Bergkvist (Rock-Twig) and Malmstrom (Ore-River) have been randomly selected

• What reason did the famous writer Guy de Maupassant cite for mostly eating his lunch at the Eiffel Tower’s restaurant ?

• He hated the Eiffel tower and the restaurant was the only place in Paris where it could not be seen !

• Which Pulitzer prize winning journalist did she portray in a 2013 film ?

• Lois Lane

• On 6th April 1917, only a few months after he assumed office for the 2nd time, this Head of state did something which was exactly opposite of what his re election campaign slogan was.

• Who ? What did he do ? What was the campaign slogan ?

• Woodrow Wilson• Declared war on Germany• He kept us out of war

• We have seen this in movies and TV shows though it’s not very popular in India.

• An urban legend credits Isaac Newton with the first instance of creating this.

• The story goes like this:• Newton was experimenting in a pitch-black room.

Somebody in Newton's household kept pushing the door open and letting in light thus wrecking his experiment. Instead of simply bolting the door shut the great man decided to create this.

• What ?

• Cat flaps or pet flaps

• Delay certificates are provided by some transportation corporations to any passenger who demands them when their journeys run behind schedule.

• Delay certificates have been provided for delays of as little as 5 minutes.

• Which are the only 2 countries in the World where we might receive a delay certificate if we wanted one ?

• Japanese railway companies and Germany's Deutsche Bahn are the only organizations in the World that provide these

• All inspired from the author’s dreams

• There are only 2 sovereign states in the world that were begun by citizens of a political power as a colony for former slaves of the same political power.

• The first country was established between 1821 and 1838 under the auspices American Colonization Society and declared its independence in 1847

• The second country was established in 1787 by Britain.

• Which are the 2 countries in question?

• Liberia and Sierra Leone

• On a trip to New York, she visited the Kew Gardens, saw this plant and named a certain institute after this plant. Which institute ?

• Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry

• Who played the role of Kedar Chatujye in a 1980 film, directed by Tarun Majumdar and based on an unfinished work by Sharadindu Bandhopadhyay ?

• Name the movie as well.• People from Spanish speaking countries might

think they can do a Suarez and nibble on him

• Tapas Pal, Dadar Kirti

• The 404 or Not Found error message is a HTTP standard response code indicating that the client was able to communicate with a given server, but the server could not find what was requested.

• We must have all come across this while using the internet

• An American company which was founded in 1916 started rolling out a particular “product” on June 12, 1994

• As of June, 2014 the total number of this released is 1212

• How do we know better know the 404th number of this “product” ?

• MH-370• It was the 404th Boeing 777

• Vishal Bhardwaj films based on Shakespeare• Omkara: Baba Omkarnath• Haider: Haider Ali• Maqbool: Maqbool Fida Hussain

• In 1996, August 13th was declared as World …………………… Day to raise awareness about the difficulties and frustrations a certain group of people experience every day in a world not designed for them.

• The day is dedicated to around 10% of the World’s population. The 10% ratio has remained more or less constant for the last 30,000 years.

• Fill in the blanks

• World left handers day

• We can see an object in her hand. What is this object and why has it been included in this 1583 portrait by Metsys the Younger ?

• It is a sieve• The sieve was included to show that Queen

Elizabeth was a Vestal Virgin ( somebody who could carry water in a sieve without spilling a single drop )

• This company was founded in 1971 by Frederick Smith by investing his own fortune of $4 million and raising another $90 million from investor’s

• It ran into financial difficulties due to rising costs of fuel and at a point of time the company had only $5000 in it’s name.

• Mr. Smith emptied the company’s account, took the money with him to Vegas, played blackjack for a night and won $32,000 which helped keep the company afloat.

• Which company’s colorful history ??

• Fedex

• The Chilkur Balaji Temple near Hyderabad, is more popularly known as the X Temple because most devotees come here for a particular reason.

• A large number of the devotees are IT sector employees.

• What is X ?

• Visa temple• Devotees come here with the wish of going

abroad

• This great boxer once dreamt that he would kill his opponent in his next fight. He wanted to back out of the contest but his trainer and a priest convinced him to fight.

• He won the fight and his opponent Jimmy Doyle died a few hours later from injuries sustained during the fight.

• The proceeds from his next 4 big fights all went to Jimmy Doyle’s mother.

• Who was this great boxer ?

• Sugar Ray Robinson

• The association AOTT sprung up a few years back in Mumbai to provide insurance for a certain group of people.

• Because it is borderline illegal, the AOTT has no headquarters, holds no official meetings and will not feature officially in any Google search result. The only way to join the association is through recommendations by a friend who is a member.

• A monthly premium of Rs. 100 or an annual premium of Rs. 500 are the subscription fees for this kind of insurance.

• More people are expected to join this association after the announcement of this year’s budget.

• Expand AOTT

• Association of Ticketless Travelers• It refunds the fines paid by member Ticketless

Travelers who get caught and have to pay a fine to the Railways

• These 2 famous songs from 1977 and 1980 have been used by the American and British Heart foundations to help doctors and paramedics with CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation).

• The songs both have 103 beats per minute which roughly equals the number of chest compressions per minute recommended by these heart foundations for CPR.

• The 1977 song has a very apt title when used as a CPR guide whereas the 1980 song sounds very wrong as a CPR guide. Give me the 2 songs

• In 1995/96, what did Outlook magazine humorously describe as "the biggest sex change operation in independent India“ ?

• The renaming of Victoria Terminus to Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus in Mumbai

• Hindu mythology: • Vidyutjinn was a senapati in the army of the

King of Kalkay. X fought a battle with Kalkay in which Vidyutjinn died.

• Vidyutjinn’s grieving wife Y cursed X by saying that she would be the cause of X’s death

• Give me X & Y

• X Ravana Y Shrupnakha

• X Pink is a naval camouflage colour resembling greyish mauve. It was first used by the British Royal Navy during World War II. After noticing a Union-Castle Line ship with a similar camouflage colour disappearing from sight, X applied the colour to his own ships, believing the colour would render his ships difficult to see during dawn and dusk.

• Give me X

• Mountbatten Pink

• Alexander Graham Bell suggested the word X should be used to answer telephone calls but eventually Edison’s ‘Hello’ became the most popular.

• A character Y in a TV series uses the word X while answering the phone. This was done to highlight the character’s advanced age (100 plus).

• Give me X & Y

• X: Ahoy• Y: Montgomery Burns

• A group of Pugs is called a Grumble !

• Give me an 8 letter term that connects these women

• Trimates• Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall and Biruté Galdikas

are often referred to as 'Leakey's Girls” or the 'Trimates.'

• Monks in Japan referred to this practice as Sokushinbutsu. A diet made up of salt, nuts, seeds, roots, pine bark and urushi tea was recommended for this practice. It was banned in Japan towards the end of the 19th century.

• Modern examples of this practice having been followed are sometimes seen in Tibet and South East Asia.

• What was the basic aim of practicing Sokushinbutsu ?

• Self mummification

• On 4th Feb 2008 which was their 50th anniversary, NASA beamed this song into space so that it might travel across the Universe. If Aliens exist this might be the first human song they listen to.

• The band and the song ?

• Beatles. “Across the Universe”

• Kathputli

Last but not the least

• “Don’t worry, they usually don’t swim backwards.” (2006)

• Steve Irwin

• “One last drink, please.” (1911)

• Jack Daniel

• “Now I can cross the shifting sands.” (1919)

• L. Frank Baum

• “Brothers! Brothers, please! This is a house of peace. Cool it brothers !” (1965)

• Malcolm X

• “Money can’t buy life.” (1981)

• Bob Marley

• Translated: "Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough!“ (1883)

• Karl Marx

• "The executioner is, I believe, an expert...and my neck is very slender. Oh God, have pity on my soul!“ (1536)

• Anne Boleyn

• Translated: "What's the hurry? Are you afraid I won't come back?“ (1918)

• Manfred von Richthofen (Red Baron)

• Translated: "Friends applaud, the comedy is over." (1827)

• Ludwig van Beethoven