KQA May Open 2017 - Finals

The May Open
FINALS
Debanjan
QMs: JB, Debanjan and Pai

La Regle du jeu
• 3 rounds on the bounce.
• 3 written rounds.

List It
The following clip from The Simpsons contains
references to several movies
ID the following:
1. The movies being referenced (+5 per)
2. The movie Comic Book Guy to exhort, "Even I
forget what this is in reference to,“ (+5)
3. The person who makes a cameo at the end (+5)

Answer
Movies
– A Clockwork Orange
– 2001: A Space Odyssey
– Full Metal jacket
– Eyes Wide Shut
The reference that CBG had forgotten
– Barry Lyndon
Cameo
– Stanley Kubrick

Mixus Baggage I
• 12 questions.
• Infinite Pounce (+10 / -5)
• All parts need to be correct
for pounce points.

1
On the first day of the shooting of Mr. and Mrs.
Smith, Carole Lombard brought in three young
heifers from her ranch, placed them tenderly in a
small corral on the set, and labelled them “Robert
Montgomery,” “Gene Raymond” and “Carole
Lombard.” A large sign was placed on the rail of the
pen: “__X___,” and a cowboy costume—size 152—was
draped over a chair nearby.
When he appeared, he merely glanced at the lowing
herd and muttered: “This seems to be the set for a
western! Boy, remove the rubbish!” He never gives
anyone a chance to triumph over him.
What was this Carol Lombard prank inspired by and
who was it directed at?

2
This chess variant created by V.R Parton in 1953
employs 2 chess boards instead of one. Upon the
completion of each move, the piece shifts to the
other board, with the pieces being shifted back in a
similar fashion.
Given how nothing is as it seems, Parton named this
variant after the protagonist of an 1871 work
wherein such transport to a parallel world, inhabited
by chess pieces, is possible.
What is this Chess variant called?
Name the work which has this variant.

ANSWER
Alice chess
From Through the
Looking Glass
(1871)
– Not Alice in
Wonderland (1865)

3
This grab from the movie __X__ depicts the
protagonist portraying an odd 2-finger point that can
be in most of the photographs of him
ID the Movie
ID the reason for the quirky point

ANSWER
Saving Mr Banks
Disney was a chronic smoker and was always
pictured with a cigarette between his fingers. The
Disney Corporation airbrushed the cigarette out of all
his photographs, leaving behind the odd 2 finger point

4
September 1805 saw the return of X to England
upon completing a campaign in India. Whilst
awaiting orders from the Secretary of War, he met Y
in the waiting room, who had returned from his
latest campaign. The young X immediately struck up
a conversation with Y, only to find him "almost all on
his side in a style so vain and silly as to surprise and
almost disgust me“.
Y, clearly disdainful of the young officer, left the
room to enquire about X’s pedigree. Upon hearing of
his credentials, Y returned and switched to a very
different tone, discussing the war, the state of the
colonies, and the geopolitical situation as equals.
This was the only conversation between
which two legends?

ANSWER
X: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Y: Lord Horatio Nelson

5
Queen Elizabeth II is addressed by a parade of titles
which goes "Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of
God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and
Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth”. In
addition she has one more title which is translated
to Latin as Fidei Defensor.
In the 1953, during a proclamation, a
particular country which was part of the
Commonwealth decided to drop the last title.
Which country? Also why did they drop the title?

ANSWER
Pakistan
Fidei Defensor means Defender of the Faith.
The Faith refers to Christianity. Pakistan being
a predominantly Islamic country could not accept the
Defender of Christian Faith as their monarch, hence
the change

6
Kaitlin Yarnell of National Geographic found their
perfect man in Mu Li, who arrived in New York a
year ago and works as a reporter for a Chinese
newspaper. To find her ideal man, she had the
following characteristics:
"He is Han Chinese so his ethnicity is Han. He is 28
years old. He is Christian. He speaks Mandarin. He
does not have a car. He does not have a bank
account. I think the reaction here among our staff
was, 'Hey, I think I've seen this guy,'" Yarnell said.
Li also fits the other criteria: He's right-handed,
works in a service industry, lives in a city, owns a
cell phone, but no car.
Judging by his picture, what makes Li so special?

ANSWER
He is, the most typical man in the world
Part of National Geographic’s quest to find the
most typical person in the world

7
The French Revolution, which saw a violent
rejection of al things decadent and royal, made two
major changes to the suite of playing cards:
The first change reflected the supremacy of the
citizens and remained as part of the standard set.
The second was a replacement to incorporate the
sentiment of the times, although this was shortlived
ID both changes.

ANSWER
1. Aces raked higher than the other Face Cards
2. The King, Queen & Jack were replaced by Liberty,
Equality and Fraternity

8
Gallaudet University, a liberal arts school in
Washington, has the motto: "There is no other place
like this in the world“.
The school pioneered various methods of
integrating their students into mainstream society
and have even designed the campus to
accommodate their needs, on the next slide.
Judging by the pictures, what type of students does
Gallaudet cater to?
What sporting practise (necessity for the students)
originated here in the 1890s, which has since been
adopted across most team sports

ANSWER
1. School for the Deaf
2. The Huddle, to shield their hand signs from the
prying eyes of their opponents

9.
Around 60 of them are known to exist although
written in different points in time.
If these are few of the 60, ID the name given to
these works and ID the most famous of them all
AGASTYA
ANU
ASHTAVAKRA
AVADHUTA
BHARATA
BHIKSHU
HAMSA
HARI
HARITHA
RIBHU
RISHABHA
RUDRA
SAMPAKA
UTTARA
VALLABH
VYADHA
YAMA

10
Sir Francis Buller, 1st Baronet, was an English judge
in the 18th century who presided over several cases
such as the Zong Massacre, enforcement of moral
rights in English patents, and several more.
He’s most renowned for his 1782 judgement,
parodied by James Gilray as Judge ____, regarding
the rights of a husband over his wife. The espouses
the system of coverture marriage, the couple were
one legal person, over which the husband had rights
and responsibility; accordingly, crimes by him
against her were not recognised except in the most
extreme cases.
Though his name is long forgotten, his ruling lives
on in the Enligh compendium of phrases as a sort of
“guiding principle”

ANSWER
Rule of thumb
The rule of thumb is derived from a law that limited
the maximum thickness of a stick with which it
was permissible for a man to beat his wife, based
on the judgement of Justice Buller.

11
The opening lines of the song “You Can’t Win” by
Michael Jackson are used to humorously describe
which set of laws?

ANSWER
Laws of Thermodynamics
1. You Can’t Win: you can’t get
more energy out of the
system than you put into it.
2. You Can’t Break Even: any
transfer of energy will result
in some waste of energy
unless a temperature of
absolute zero can be
achieved.
3. You Can’t Get Out of the
Game: you cannot achieve
absolute zero.

12
George R.R. Martin’s “A Clash of Kings” describes a
substance called wildfire, a liquid creation of
alchemists that is housed in claypots and can burn
on water. It’s similar to the Byzantine Empire’s
incendiary tool - X.
The key ingredient of X is Y, which comes from the
Persian for “wet”. The Book of II Maccabees tells
how a "thick water" was put on a sacrifice at the
time of Nehemiah and when the sun shone
it caught fire.
Y was used in combination with latex in the 1940s
to develop a more potent incendiary tool, Z.
Identify X, Y and Z.

ANSWER
X: Greek Fire
Y: Naptha
Z: Napalm

Written Round II
• 8 questions
• +5 for a correct answer.
• +10/-5 for staking (please indicate)
• The answers have a common theme.
No points for identification.

1
Steel rivets like these
were taken out and
replaced from a set of
million of more after
a 1992 earthquake.
What were these
used for?

2
This area – between delight and discomfort…. , my
drama series, is set…. the one you'll find on every
wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the
cold, shiny...
Who speaking about what?

3
The painting and the photograph depict the same
establishment at different locations in India.
What?

4
What are these kitchen items used for?

5
Which German company gets its name from what they
would do indicate that the headphones had passed
quality control?
It’s more well-known for some other audio equipment.

7
The name of this cannabis strain comes from its
appearance and a commonly experienced after-effect
of smoking pot. What is it called?

8
This was set up in 1964 and
has various categories
coded as: EX, EW, CR, EN,
VU, LT, NC, DD and EE.
What?

2
This area – between delight and discomfort…. , my
drama series, is set…. the one you'll find on every
wall, on every desk, in the palm of every hand: the
cold, shiny.
The creator speaking about what?

ANSWER
Greenwich
That’s the Prime Meridian.

ANSWER
Purple Haze
It’s not named after the Hendrix song,
but is only a reference.
Haze in this case specifically means the parent strain.

Mixus Baggage II
• 12 questions.
for pounce points.

1
In Asterix and Son (1983), he finds an infant on his
porch and then with Obelix protects the baby,
eventually finding out who the child is. In the
process, they also learn that Marcus Junius Brutus
is quite inquisitive about the infant but they manage
to return him to his parents.
In this Asterix volume, what happens for the only
time, something that was subsequently undone as a
reward, given how the duo took care of the infant?
In history, the kid was murdered when he was
17 and thus was the last person to hold what
official title?

ANSWER
Caesarion was the last Pharaoh of Egpyt.
The Romans were able to successfully attack and
destroy the village. Julius Caesar rebuilt it.

2
The Mangalista is a wooly breed from Hungary and
was dwindling at a count of 191 till about the 90s.
However, with gradual resurgence, they have
started to be bred outside Hungary.
Corn, soy or GMO products are strictly forbidden.
Their diet mostly contains a mix of nuts, grains
and vitamins. But some believe the secret is
sunflower seeds.
This exclusive diet has led to this breed being
called the ____ of ____ - taking its nickname from an
exquisite place in another continent.
What are these animals more commonly known as?

3
Across two slides are two sketches depicting events
from 1782 in France:
One shows someone being thrown into the flames of
obscurity by the light of reason.
The other shows the same person fleeing on a witch’s
broom. It also shows someone who headed one of
Louis XIV’s commissions for the said event.
Who is the subject of both sketches?
Who is the other person?
Beyond its primary motive, the commissions’ most
valuable contribution was designing the first
something, which laid foundations to a standard
modern procedure. What?

ANSWER
Anton Mesmer
Benjamin Franklin
Placebo-controlled blind trial
Louis XVI appointed two commissions to bust Mesmer,
with Ben Franklin heading one of them. He was then the
ambassador to France. The commissions also included
Lavoisier and Guillotine.

4
The person on the next slide was identified as one
James Melvin Babington in a recent book titled
_______________: A Fans’ Perspective
Babington served in the 16th Queen’s Lancers in
the Second Boar War and the First Calvary Brigade
in South Africa.
The choice to use Babington to represent the titular
leader was at best, random. It could be that the
designers chose this image from a series of military
cards or that he was chosen from a book titled
Celebrities of the Army.
What was Babington identified as in an
iconic release?

5
Marieta Islands in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
remains not inhabitated.
However, the attraction is a ‘secret beach’ -
Playa Del Amor. Visitors can only reach
after swimming through a narrow tunnel.
It has a smooth white sandy cove, which
opens up to crystal clear waters.
How was this beach discovered/uncovered
in the early 1990s?

ANSWER
The Mexican government’s
bomb target practice left a
huge hole, thanks to
the explosions.

6 While there are some more varieties,
it can be broadly classified into
five grades.
What are these?
What’s the third and fourth variety?
1) Full Grain: Not sanded or buffed to omit marks or flaws, thus is
more durable and resistant. Best quality that there is.
2) Top Grain: Has the split layer with defects removed. Thinner,
softer, smoother, easier to create. Used in high-end products
3) X: Taken from the underside. Made from the remains after top
grain is removed. Signature is the feel, but absorbs water easily.
4) Y (Corrected Grain): Has an artificial layer on top. While you
may believe it’s the best, it isn’t. The pattern is impressed on
surface and sprayed with dyes/stains to make it more ‘natural.
5) Bonded: Used leftover scraps, which are shredded to pulp then
bonded using latex. Lot of chemical fakes often fused. Cheapest
and vast commercial use.

ANSWER
Varieties of leather
Suede
Genuine Leather

7
Located behind the Rajwada Palace, Sarafa Bazaar is a
foodie’s delight in a prominent Indian city.
The stalls pop up in lines in front of the brick-and-mortar
stores, which shut shop by 8 pm to make way for the
night food market. The must haves include bhutte ka
kees, jaleba, dahi vada, shikanji, khopra pattice, ratalu
(fried yam), kaanji vadas and malpoa.
The buzzing market is lit up, noisy and sees a daily
footfall of 3,000 till about 2 am.
In which prominent city is this market located?
Why were these vendors encouraged to set up stalls?

ANSWER
Indore
It’s a jewelry market in the day and
the gold traders believed if the
street remained crowded till late
into the night it would give them
added security.

8 What attribute do all these share?
Separately, how is the marked
object also known as?

Separately, how is this object also known as?

ANSWER
Mother of all
(Mother – also accepted)
Father of all Bombs: Russia’s most powerful non-nuclear
weapon.
Mother of all marches: Against Maduro in Venezuela
Mother of all Wars: Saddam on the Gulf War
Mother sauces in French cuisine
Mother of all Comebacks: Barca against PSG this year

9
The image is a still from Satyajit Ray’s 1974 film Sonar
Kella, a Feluda story (The Gold Fortress). The
characters seen are Feluda and his sidekicks Topshe
(his cousin) and Jatayu (the comical pulp fiction author).
What was the lasting consequence of Santosh Dutta’s
performance as Jatayu in the film?
The trio travels to Rajasthan and initially stay over in
Jodhpur. Seen in the images is where they put up. Such
comfortable establishments were mostly built in district
headquarters and meant for touring judges of revenue
(and other courts), who would stay and also often hear
cases at these venues. They take their name from such
tours undertaken of a cluster of places.
What name?

ANSWER
Ray changed the look of Jatayu and started drawing
the character to resemble Santosh Dutta, the actor.
Circuit House

10.
The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and of His Adventures
Fortunes and Adversities is a 1554 work often
considered to the first Spanish novel so to speak.
The book starts with young Lazarillo and his blind
master, who he serves and works as an apprentice. It
then has chapters on him working for a squire and
multiple church officials like a friar, pardoner, chaplain
and archpriest. They include tales of parody, humour,
sarcasm and so on, which goes on to justify one
standout feature of the book.
What feature?
The book was a first of its kind, laying foundation to
something. What? (Finds a mention in a Tintin title too)
In Spain, some dogs were/are known as perro lazarillo,
borrowing from something in the book. Why?

ANSWER
It was written and published anonymously.
There’s still no confirmation on the
identity of the author.
The book founded the picaresque genre of
literature – adventures of a rogue person.
(Tintin and the Picaros)
Guide dogs (for the visually impaired) were known
as perro lazarillo. He worked as a guide for the
blind man in the first chapter of the book.

12.
There are less than 400 Hirolas in the wild. All of
them live in the border between Kenya and
Somalia. They are Critically Endangered, mostly
thanks to poaching.
Incidentally, its English name - X’s Antelope or X’s
Hartebeest – might be an irony given the rapid
shrink, but is actually named after zoologist HCV
___X___, who first discovered the species in 1888.
What’s its English name?
Which other reason also contributes to its decline,
which required the setting up of a controlled and
looked-after sanctuary?

ANSWER
Hunter’s Antelope
Droughts

11.
The idea was to replicate a popular saying doing the
rounds then meaning “being ripped off” since payments
were often delayed or worse, cut.
Two Hollywood stuntmen called Ronnie Rondell and
Danny Rogers were hired to pose as businessmen in
front of Warner Studio in Burbank.
After the 15th take, things went out of control and
Ronnie refused further takes. But, the photographer got
the shot.
Which iconic image is this?

ANSWER
Wish You Were Here
“I’ve been burnt”

Written Round III
• 11 questions.
• Operative parts of answers start with the
starting letters of the phrase MAY OPEN QUIZ
(first answer with M, second with A and so on)
• +4 for a correct answer.
• +8/-4 on staking (please indicate)

M
What is happening here? Prabhas was the first
South Indian actor to be given this “treatment”…

A
What 9 letter word is commonly used to refer to
snakes of the genus Eunectes?

Y
The Year of the ____ is a 2004 documentary film
focusing on the 2002 NBA season, which happened
to be ___’s rookie season.
Who was the subject of this documentary?

O
Ottakarathevar is what the mythical
first letter stands for in the name of this three time
chief minister.
Who?

P
After seizing power, Saloth Sar started calling
himself “Brother Number One” within the party.
How do we know him better?

E
The operation had the military codename
Operation Thunderbolt, and was led by Yonatan
Netanyahu (the elder brother of Benjamin
Netanyahu). Yonatan was the only soldier from his
side who was killed during the operation.
Which location in Africa was the site of this
counter-terrorist operation?

N
The Blue and the White merge at Khartoum.
What?

Q
Which 2016 movie was based on her life?

U
Born as Gotthard Glas in Germany, he migrated to
the UK and then to present-day Israel, and changed
his name.
His most significant invention continues to bear his
name today (the name stuck, against his
intentions).
Who/what invention?

I
What term in geography gets its name from the
Ancient Greek for neck?

ANSWER
Madame Tussauds’ wax statue measurements

Y
The Year of the ____ is a 2004 documentary film
focusing on the 2002 NBA season, which happened
to be ___’s rookie season. Who was the subject of
this documentary?

O
Ottakarathevar is what the mythical first letter
stands for in the name of this three time chief
minister. Who?

N
The Blue and the White merge at Khartoum. What?

ANSWER
Uzi, from Uziel “Uzi” Gal

Mixus Baggage III
• 12 questions.
for pounce points.

1
The Squeeze Theorem is a popular theorem in
calculus known to most high school students. It
states that if a function f were to always lie between
two other functions g and h which converge
to the same limit, then f would also converge
to the same limit.
What “edible” name do most Indian students
know it by?
In some other countries, it is known as the “two
policeman and a drunk” theorem. Explain.

ANSWER
Sandwich Theorem
If two policeman escort a drunk man between them,
then if both policemen go into a jail cell, the drunk will
also have to go there…

2
Discovered in July 1802, this was named after
another entity (the second of its type) that had
been discovered earlier in the same year. It mainly
finds use in the automobile industry, where it is
used in catalytic converters.
What chemical element is this, and what was it
named after?

ANSWER
Palladium
Named after the asteroid Pallas

3
Identify the person parodied here, and weave a
story to explain the object on his head.

ANSWER
Jacob Zuma
In a trial, he once explained that he had “taken a
shower” to avoid getting infected with HIV after an
episode of unprotected sex

4
This is Monte Fitz Roy, located on the border
between Argentina and Chile and considered an
extremely challenging location to climb. Given its
location, how would we know it in the
world of business?

5
Last year’s Forbes List of 100 Most Powerful Women
actually contained not 100, but 102 women overall.
Coming in at #23 were three women, collectively
sharing the spot on the list. The oldest among them
was appointed to her present role in 1993, followed
by the others in 2009 and 2010 respectively.
Who are these women? Identify at least two.

ANSWER
US Supreme Court Justices
Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan

6
During a recent tour of the country, the entire England
squad was provided high security and controlled food
throughout their time there. Midway through the
second Test match, Joe Root fell ill and had to miss
the rest of the game.
This might have been one of the prime reasons for
their eventual loss. Not only was he missed while
batting, the team also felt the lack of a small, yet
important service that Root had been providing until
then. Some people later speculated that it might have
also been the reason for his stomach upset.
What else was Root doing regularly, unlike the other
Englishmen? What country?

ANSWER
Shining the ball
Bangladesh

7
Identify the artist. What is this collection called/what
were the images inspired by?

ANSWER
Fernando Botero
Abu Ghraib

8
What is this ad campaign by the Salvation Army
for? Also, fill in the orange blank with three words.

ANSWER
Prevent domestic violence/abuse
“Black and Blue”

9
Legend has it that one of his disciples,
Tambiappan, was suffering from an ailment related
to a celestial entity. Rather than have him perform
a series of complicated rituals, he composed
something and asked Tambiappan to repeat it
every day.
Post this, he decided to make similar offerings to
other related entities, to come up with an overall
list that today has 9 members. Some scholars
believe, however, that he composed only 7, and the
last two were added by followers/disciples later
and passed off as the master’s work.
Who? What did he compose? What were the last
two disputed entities in the list?

ANSWER
Muthuswami Dikshitar
Navagraha kritis (songs in praise of the Navagrahas)
The disputed ones were on Rahu and Ketu

10
Constantine V was not liked by several of his
subjects, mainly because he was a staunch
iconoclast. In an effort to discredit the emperor,
they gave him the title Copronymus, referring to an
incident that had supposedly taken place at his
baptism.
What does the nickname translate to, and
therefore, what was the incident?

ANSWER
Poop Name
They claimed that he had taken a dump while being
baptized

11
The title of his autobiography alludes to something
that he would have caused several times over the
course of a chequered career. In common parlance,
the phrase also refers to getting angry or agitated.
In a strange turn of events, he took one more than
required during a match in 2006, the lucky
beneficiary being Croatia’s Josip Sumunic. This,
and a host of other incidents from his professional
life, form the substance of his book.
Who? What was the title of the autobiography?
What happened to Simunic in 2006?

ANSWER
Sent off Simunic for his third yellow card of the match

12
Since 1950 (with a few interruptions), the Republic
Day Parade on 26th January has had a Chief Guest.
Several prominent global leaders have been part of
the celebrations.
Which country has had the unique distinction of
having members from three successive
generations of the same family (i.e.,
grandfather/grandmother, father/mother and
son/daughter) grace the Republic Day celebrations
as Chief Guests?
Also, who are the individuals? One last name will
do.

ANSWER
Bhutan
King Jigme Dorji Wangchuk (1954)
King Jigme Singye Wangchuk (1984, 2005)
King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk (2013)

KQA May Open 2017 - Finals

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