<insert quiz name here>qm-gursheel singh

● about 30-35 questions in all.● usual quizzing rules apply.

1. considered an extreme example of flash fiction/sudden fiction this 6-word 'novel' is attributed to ernest hemingway. it is believed that while lunching with friends one day, hemingway bet each of them $10 that he can write an entire story in just six words. he then went on to write his 'novel' on a napkin and collected his winnings. id the 'novel'.

answer

For sale: baby shoes, never worn

2. dr. shrikant jichkar(image on next slide) was an indian politician of the indian national congress. he was the member of the maharashtra legislative assemble(82-85) and the maharashtra legislative council(86-92) and also served as minister of state, govt. of maharashtra. not an ordinary man by any standards, he finds a place in the limca book of records for his accomplishments. what am I talking about?

dr. shrikant jichkar

answer

he is the most qualified person of india and perhaps the world.

Began as a Medical Doctor (MBBS and MD ) he did his Law (LL.B.) with Post-graduation in International Law (LL.M.) and his Masters in Business Administration (DBM and MBA) and in Journalism (B.Journ). He did his Masters in ten subjects. M.A. (Public Administration ; M.A. (Sociology) ; M.A. (Economics); M.A. (Sanskrit); M.A. (History); M.A.(English Literature); M.A. (Philosophy); M.A. (Political Science) ; M.A. (Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology); M.A (Psychology). He got his D. Litt (Doctor of Letters) in Sanskrit , the highest of any Degree in a University. Most of his Degrees are with First Merit and he has obtained 28 Gold Medals. Between 1972 and 1990 he has written 42 University Examinations each ever summer and every winter

3. the idea that prisoners' on death row should be allowed to choose x is shaded in mystery but it is thought to date back to ancient greece. acceptance of x by the prisoner is supposed to show that he has forgiven the justice system. in some cases there are many restrictions on x. eg. in florida, the cost of x should not exceed $40. in some cases the prison warden joins the prisoner in receiving x.

answer

the prisoner's last meal before his execution

4. inspiration for?

answer

christopher robbin and winnie the pooh

5. on the next slide you will find the image of one of the principal characters of an italian theatre form called the Commedia dell’arte. the character usually represented a greedy merchant from venice. the character lends its name to an article of clothing which he's wearing.

at present a major indian retailer uses a slightly changed version of the name for its chain of fashion outlets. id

answer

pantaloons from pantaloon(used to refer to ankle length trousers or trousers in general).

the character was called 'pantalone' .

fun fact

the origin of the word 'slapstick' as in as in slapstick comedies is also attributed to Commedia dell’arte.

6. on the next slide is a photograph taken in sweden on 3rd september,1967. a rather unpopular law was passed on that day which caused a lot of confusion for the coming few days. what law?

answer

Dagen H (H day) was the day, 3 September 1967, on which traffic in Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right.

7.bradford edwards living in vietnam is obsessed with collecting these. he collects them by the hundreds, he studies them,he celebrates them as tiny symbols. He searches for deeper meanings in the epigrams etched into their shiny sides by the American soldiers who left them behind.

“I have handled thousands of them; I have handled maybe 10,000 of them,” he says. id

answer

8. In the 2003 invasion of Iraq by a United States-led coalition, the U.S. military developed X to help troops identify the most-wanted members of President Saddam Hussein's government, mostly high-ranking members of the Iraqi Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party or members of the Revolutionary Command Council.

The idea of using X is not a new one. They were used in WW2 and the Korean War as well. One can buy X from amazon.com for around $10. what am I talking about?

answer

9. x is considered by critics, film makers and fans to be the best ever film ever made. in the movie the protagonist builds an estate(y) that is described as the 'world's largest private estate'.

a very famous business magnate from the world of technology built a futuristic mansion in washington and nicknamed it y 2.0 (y version 2) after the famous fictional estate y. id

answer

x-citizen kaney-xanadu

xanadu 2.0 is bill gates' house

10. zz top is an american blues rock band from houston, texas. in 1984 a company offered them more than a million dollars to be part of an advertisement. but they refused flatly. many years later the band members said that they wouldn't change their minds even if they were offered more cash.

why?

answer

the company was gillette and it wanted the band members to shave.

11. russia's largest resort city x wil host the russian f1 grand prix from 2014 until atleast 2020 subject to the circuit being ready in time. apart from that, the city is one of the host cities of the 2018 fifa world cup. an event is scheduled to take place in the city in february next year. this'll be the first time the event will be happening in russia after the break up of the soviet union. id the event and the city.

answer

2014 sochi winter olympics

12. 'on the cult of personality and its consequences' (sometimes referred to as 'the secret speech')was a speech/report made by a politician x to his party's congress, sometime in 1956. it denounced one of the party's leaders y who had died a few years earlier. the speech caused such shock to the audience that, according to some reports, some of those present suffered heart attacks, and others later committed suicide. the speech was all the more shocking because y had till then enjoyed a god-like status in his country.

the speech was followed by a period of liberalisation in the country that was referred to a x's thaw. identify x and y.

answer

x-nikita krushchev y-joseph stalin

13. the man is rightly called the father of indian calligraphy/typography. among other things his achievements include

● designing the core indian fonts used in microsoft windows● designing the logo of itc welcome group● designing the logo of punjab national bank● designing the logo of indian post(the old one)● designing the logo of sail(steel authority of india)● designing the adi shankrachary stamp

answer

prof. r k joshi

logo round

logo 1. The logo is inspired by the ratchet wheel, a device that ensures motion in the forward direction. The three cogs symbolise the values – Imagination, Integrity and Individual.

● Red embodies dynamism and passion. Energy from the colour red lends to the powerful forward movement of the symbol. The font face in classic deep blue signifies stability and inner strength.

answer

logo 2 The new logo takes birth from an arrow head which personifies speed, progressiveness and focus. Six such arrow heads converge at a “common goal” forming the Dhanuchakra – the logo identity of the Group.

answer

logo 3 inspired by the works of m c fischer,a dutch graphic artist, the logo of this rather controversial brand shows a man morphing into a bird. according to the parent company of this brand , it allows you to experience your life in totality and in harmony with nature and hence the logo.

answer

logo 4 the gyan mudra is an aesthetic hand posture practised in yoga, meditation and dance over the past 3,000 years. The thumb and index finger are brought together in gentle contact, while all other fingers gently move forward. which business group has adopted the gyan mudra as their logo.

answer

14 considered the earliest photograph of which famous american.

answer

lincoln

15. in 1977 the city of helsinki was in financial trouble. they made several budget cuts, one of these being the purchase of x comics for the youth centers. the decision was made by mr. markku holopainen. the next year holopainen ran for a position in the finnish parliament. his running adversary labeled him as "the man who banned x". the media tabloids took this and ran with it. thay came up with many different stories. identify x and tell the story that survives till date and which many believe is true.

answer

X- Donald Duck

the story is that donald duck was banned in finland because he didn’t wear pants.

16. asaf jah 1, a brilliant general was sent from delhi to hyderabad by aurangzeb in 1713. before leaving delhi, he went to meet a saint who invited him. asaf jah took something and the saint pressed him take  more. after taking 7 x, he said he was most grateful but could take no more. he wrapped them in a yellow cloth and was about to leave when the saint blessed him, saying that he and his descendants would rule the deccan for seven generations. and so it happened. identify x.

answer

kulchas, below you can see the coat of arms and the flag of the asaf jahi dynasty .the round circle in the middle represents the kulcha.

17, there is a shrine located in a small village named 'chotila' near jodhpur. it was built in the memory of om singh rathore, a rajput who died in an accident. om is fondly remembered as om banna(remember duki banna from the movie gulaal?). people visit the shrine to pray for a safe journey.

there are two reasons why I've put this question in the quiz. one is that people offer liquor at this shrine. what is the other?

answer

the deity that is worshipped a royal enfield bullet 350 cc aka bullet baba.

18. a parody of which famous drawing?

answer

vitruvian man by da vinci

19. when the book 'steal this book' by abbie hoffman came out, most of the bookstores in usa decided not to carry the book. not because it teaches people how to make pipe bombs, grow marijuana among other such things but because of a rather funny reason. what?(image on next slide)

answer

because they thought the title would, appropriately, make people shoplift it.

20. the marathon event at the 1904 summer olympics was a funny affair for numerous reasons. first, the event started in the afternoon in sweltering heat. then there was the issue of the race officials riding in cars ahead of and behind the runners, thus causing dust clouds. but the highlight of the event was the person who crossed the finish line first, fred lorz. what did he do to make the event unforgettable.

answer

● American runner Fred Lorz, who had actually dropped out of the race after nine miles and hitched a ride back to the stadium in a car. When the car broke down at the 19th mile, Lorz re-entered the race and jogged across the finish line. Hailed as the winner, he had his photograph taken with Alice Roosevelt, daughter of then-U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, and was about to be awarded the gold medal when his subterfuge was revealed.

21. on february 1, 1981, new zealand were chasing australia’s 235 in the third final of the 1980-81 benson & hedges world cup series. with one over left to bowl, new zealand required 15 runs to seal an unlikely victory. aussie captain greg chappell called his youngest brother, trevor, on to bowl.

off the first five balls nine runs were scored and two wickets fell, leaving the new batsman brian mckechnie with one ball to score a six to win the game. what happened next?

answer

trevor bowled an underarm delivery.

22. when three-letter codes for airports became standard, what did the airports having two letter codes do?

answer

added an x at the end

the los angeles tag became lax in 1947, portland became pdx, phoenix became phx and so on.

23. some facts about this movie.– Considered one of the most if not the most

controversial movie of all time.

– highest grossing r-rated film in the usa.

– highest grossing non-english film of all time.

– is based on the last 12 hours of the protagonist's life.

answer

24. luke cage aka power man is a fictional superhero from marvel comics. as far as the movie is concerned marvel wanted jamie foxx to play the role. dwayne johnson aka 'the rock' has also expressed his interest in playing the role. however, a certain actor named isaiah mustafa is crazy for that role. he has created a facebook petition page, has shot a few scenes from the comic, has done a photo shoot to convince the producers to let him play the role. (images next slide)

how do we know mr. mustafa better?

luke cage

mr. mustafa in one of his photo shoots.

answer

the old spice guy

daaru round

d1

d2

d3

d4

answers

d1

d2

d3

d4

25. sir john harrington was an author,a courtier and a prominent member of queen elizabeth 1' court. his most famous 'invention' was mentioned in a work he published in 1956. the work is titled 'a new discourse of a stale subject, called the metamorphosis of ajax'. the work was in reality a coded attack on the monarchy, but till date the work is rememberd for describing his invention which he named 'ajax'. which invention?

answer

the modern flush toilet

25. sumant moolgaokar is often referred to as the architect of telco (tata engineering and locomotive company). leading the company for nearly four decades, he was responsible for building the company into an organisation capable of competing with the world’s best – in terms of people, processes and technology. how is this person immortalised in the world of indian automobiles?

answer

tata sumo

26. kryptos is an encrypted sculpture (image on next slide) by artist jim sanborn. there are four messages in all on the kryptos out of which three have been solved. the last one is one of the most famous unsolved codes in the world.

where, quite appropriately is the sculpture located?

answer

grounds of the CIA in virginia

26. claim to fame(image on next slide as well)

answer

directed the documentary on aryton senna-'senna'

27. the stepan company of the united states is the only company authorised by the federal government to import and process the coca plant which it obtains mainly from Peru and to a lesser extent Bolivia. There are two things that the company does with the coca plant that it imports. it extracts cocaine from the coca leaves and sells it to a pharmaceutical company that is again the only company authorised to purify cocaine for medicinal purposes. what is the other thing that the company does with the plant?

answer

produces a coca-flavouring agent for coca-cola

28 james marshall was an american carpenter and a sawmill operator. he was working for a john sutter. this was in 1848. in january of that year, marshall found something near the mill that ruined sutter's mill so much so that it was never used again. marshall too suffered a similar fate and died penniless.

what did he find on that fateful day?

answer

he found a few nugggets of gold in the american river and hence began the

california gold rush

29. malbolge is an esoteric programming language that was designed specifically to be impossible to write useful programs in.

the esoteric language made a cameo appearance on elementary.the episode titled the leviathan used malbolge as a particular plot device. people who've used the language have described the experience as 'hellish'. that would give a clue to how the language got its name.(the inspiration is a very famous work of literature)

how?

hello world in the language

from malbolge, which is the eight circle of hell in dante's inferno.

30. in the world of internet who are typosquatters?

people who own domain names similar to those of a famous site.eg. dacebook.com, facebokook.com, faceboocklogin.com, faacebok.com, facebookfreezer.com, facebooll.com, facegbook.com, gfacebook.com, and zh-facebook.com for facebook.com

31. in the image on the following slide is a certain man named babban khan who wrote a satirical play titled 'adrak ke panjey' which was first premiered in hyderabad in 1965. why was the play included in the guinness book of world records in 1984?

answer

● for being the longest running play. it has had over 10,000 shows in more than 27 languages.

● the play has been seen by an estimated 3 crore (30 million) people across 60 countries and in 27 different languages across the globe. the drama has surpassed agatha christie`s the mousetrap having around 7-8 thousand shows the show was played from 22 september 1965 to 11 february 2001.

32 id both the persons in the middle

answer

md. rafi and md. ali