11. Taken from archives of the Theosophical
Society of Australia: ―Over seventy Australian
theosophists attended the Jubilee celebrations at
Adyar in December 1925 when, it was
claimed, the Lord spoke through the chosen
vehicle, Krishnamurti, for the first time. [Jiddu‘s
discoverer Charles] Leadbeater's party returned to
Australia in early 1926 hugging the idea that the
Coming had begun. They brought with them the
young Peter Finch, abandoned at Adyar by a
gallivanting Buddhist grandmother; and, more
auspicious, Annie Besant's loyal lieutenant since
1902, _______, with his beautiful young wife ______.‖
Name both.
W5
14. The story concerns Frederic, who, having
completed his 21st year, is released from his
apprenticeship to a band of tender-hearted ruffians.
He meets Mabel, the daughter of a military man, and
the two young people fall instantly in love. But
Frederic is told a detail about his birth and the
wording of his apprenticeship, which convinces him
that he has to continue his duties for many many
more years. Much drama ensues but of course Mabel
& Frederic are re-united and all ends well. What is
this a plot of? And what technicality of birth derails
Frederic‘s life, a trait that many people like
Rossini, Rukmini Devi Arundale, Herman
Hollerith, Khaled etc. share?
1
18. Thomas Fuller used it in 1659, in The Appeal
of Injured Innocence : "I hope, sir, that we are not
mutually _______ by this Difference which hath
happened betwixt us.―
Shakespeare had used it in King Lear:
―Will you with those infirmities she owes,
______, new adopted to our hate,
Dow'rd with our curse, and stranger'd with our oath,
Take her or, leaue her.‖
At least in the past participle form, these seem to
be the earliest uses of this recent honoree of
Oxford Univ. Press‘s Word of the Year award. Fill
with a word we‘ve seen for less than a decade.
3
22. This is a war memorial at Reading, and
you can see it on the crest of Reading FC
and on the Reading Post‘s front page.
It was built in 1886 & named to
commemorate the deaths of men of the 66th
(Berkshire) Regiment of Foot who died
fighting.
We all have one more reason to remember
that conflict. What?
5
24. Maiwand Lion
―I was removed from my brigade and
attached to the Berkshires, with whom I
served at the fatal battle of Maiwand. There
I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail
bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed
the subclavian artery.‖
25. Harvard psychologist Edwin G. Boring
popularised this ambiguous drawing
depicting either a young woman or an old
woman, which is known as the ―Boring
Figure‖. He is also the man behind a
misconception that we have all been
taught, usually accompanied by a
diagrammatic ―map‖. It came about because
of Boring‘s mistranslating a German paper
written in 1901 titled ―Zur Psychophysik des
Geschmackssinnes‖. What misconception?
6
28. A set of five is named
after the queen shown
here, who was the first in
the set. The others are
shown on the next slide.
Who was this queen? What
is the set? You could say
that this ACK cover depicts
why this set is appropriately
named after her.
7
29. 7
The two above are from
Central India and the
ones on the left from
East/North-East India.
31. Thence Northward marched the King, resolved to quell
The Northern princes with his dreaded shafts.
As, when his beams have drained moist Southern lands.
The Sun too turns him North. His mighty acts.
Wrought on their husbands, Huna dames proclaimed,
Recorded on their cheeks in angry scars.
His horses, resting after toils of war,
Refreshed on Sindhu's banks, their shoulders shook.
Where saffron-tendrils clung. Akshota trees,
Bruised by the chains that bound his elephants.
Bent low : bowed too Kambojas, fain to yield
Before his prowess : heaps of gold, fine steeds.
In tribute offering, which the mighty King
Accepted graciously, and spared their pride.
What 19-sarga work is this excerpted from? It is
named after the King referred to here.
8
33. Is the answer to the
question raised
repeatedly in the movie
script shown in the next
slide, given in this news
clipping dating from
17th July 1866?
Explain!
9
34. Chico: That's the Jewish neighborhood?
Hammer: (pause) Well, we'll Passover that...You're a
peach, boy. Now, here is a little
peninsula, and, eh, here is a viaduct leading over to
the mainland.
Chico: ______?
Hammer: I'm alright, how are you? I say, here is a
little peninsula, and here is a viaduct leading over to
the mainland.
Chico: Alright, _____?
Hammer: (pause) I'm not playing "Ask Me Another," I
say that's a viaduct.
Chico: Alright! _____? Why that..._____? Why a no
chicken?
9
35. Q: Why a duck?
A: Because of this news article describing
how the Prince of Wales got out in an 1866
cricket match
36. This list was released not long ago this
year before an event. What is it all about?
10
38. What is common to the Loch Ness
monster (Nessiteras rhombopteryx), Hooke‘s
Law, Newton‘s invention of calculus, Galileo‘s
1610 discovery of the phases of Venus &
Huygens‘ 1656 discovery of the rings of
Saturn?
11
39. All announcements were in the form of
anagrams
Ceiiinosssttuv -> Ut tensio, sic vis
Nessiteras rhombopteyx -> Monster hoax by Sir
Peter S
6accdael3eff7i3l9n4o4qrr4s9tl2vx -> "Data
aequatione quotcunque fluentes quantitates
involvente, fluxiones invenire; et vice versa―
40. This animal is endemic to the island of
Borneo. The Malay call it monyet belanda or
orang belanda. We know that orang means
―man‖. The use of belanda was because the
natives felt that these animals resembled
their colonisers, as far as a certain body part
went. The English name by which we know
this animal refers to this very body part.
Which animal is this and what does orang
belanda translate to?
12
42. Nearly every child in the world is
affected by these by the age of 5. It was
named by Thomas Flewett in 1974, after
observing how it looked under an electron
microscope, as also shown in the picture on
the next slide.
13
45. This is the translation of a traditional harvest
festival song ―Sikpui Hla‖, that has been used as
proof of a certain claim. An eagerly anticipated
DNA test done in 2003-04 could not conclusively
prove or disprove the claim. Explain.
While we are preparing for the Sikpui Feast,
The big red sea becomes divided;
As we march along fighting our foes,
We are being led by pillar of cloud by day,
And pillar of fire by night.
Our enemies, O ye folks, are thick with fury,
Come out with your shields and arrows.
14
46. Bnei Menashe, a group of people in
Manipur/Mizoram who claim to be one of
the Lost Tribes of Israel
About 2000 of them had managed to
emigrate to Israel till early 2013, with many
more in the queue.
47. Rosignano ______ is a borough in
Tuscany, Italy. Its White Beaches (Spiagge
Bianche) are shown below, whose sand gets it
colour because of its composition: 90%
limestone and 10% Calcium chloride. Fill and
connect the blank to a village formerly known
as Geddesville, NY and to the flow diagram.
15
50. Alex Diggelmann was a Swiss artist who
designed the trophy presented annually to
the winners of the UEFA Cup (now the
Europa League). He also designed many
posters for sporting events, like the Arosa
placard shown here. What was his
absolutely unique sporting achievement in
1948 through two commercial posters, one
for the "World Championship for Cycling"
and another for the "World Championship
for Ice Hockey―?
16
52. Diggelmann won an Olympic silver and a
bronze medal in 1948 for Applied Graphics
for those two posters, making him the only
person to win two Olympic medals in the
same event in the same year
53. Give a 11-letter word to
connect. Pics can be
seen clockwise from top
left.
17
56. Stephen Fry said on his BBC TV show QI
that he'd asked Steve Jobs to confirm a fact
about Apple Inc. Jobs replied "It isn't
true, but God we wish it were!―
Fry also tried to get a creation of someone
at the core of that question classified as the
greatest British innovation ever.
So what was the question Fry put to Jobs?
18
58. There was a time when its posters
adorned many a schoolboy's bedroom wall
alongside Farrah Fawcett and even today –
more than 40 years after its launch - it
remains an attention-grabber.
All angles rather than curves, it was
nonconformist down to its name, a cry of
astonishment that took it away from the
traditional way of naming in its family.
What are we talking about?
19
59.
60. Connect this T-shaped building, built as
a meeting hall, to the audio.
<Audio removed>
20
62. Indian Yellow was a transparent yellow
pigment used in oil paintings and
watercolours. It was fluorescent, making it
bright and vivid to look at in sunlight. It was
commonly used by artists across Europe by
the end of the 18th century. A certain Mr. T.
N. Mukharji is said to have described the
process that the British outlawed in the
early 20th century, declaring it cruel to the
animal used in making the foul smelling
pigment.
21
63. What was this admittedly anecdotal
process, that involved a possible urushiol
overdose?
21
64. Dried urine of cows that have been fed only
mango leaves and water
65. Birds are known to be fond of
chemicals found in some smelly plants, for
the same reason that the plants themselves
produce them: they act as insecticides. On
similar lines, researchers in Mexico City have
confirmed by examining sparrow and finch
nests that these birds use certain objects
discarded by humans to line their nests with
plant-sourced insecticides. What objects?
22
67. In 1772, as a midshipman, he went on his first
survey mission along the coasts of India, Iran and
Arabia. In 1780 he was captured by a French man-of-
war off the Cape of Good Hope and kept prisoner
until 1784. Later he participated in a number of
survey missions e.g. along the Hooghly river & near
Singapore. His work was exceptionally trustworthy
and accurate, to the point that later surveyors
complained that they were left with not much to do.
After retiring he received a government commission
on all of the Company‘s cotton exported from
Bombay as reward for inventing a machine which
made "a considerable improvement in the packing of
cotton.― His name lives on in India. Who?
23
74. Its theme tune is called College Boy
composed by Derek New. The current
version was recorded by The Balanescu
Quartet. What you will hear now is a live
jazz version of the same. What are we
talking about?
<Audio removed>
2
76. This annual ―institution‖ started in 1904.
Earlier, it used to be attempted twice – once
on the day before the Christmas
holidays, and again in the New Year after
the holidays. Always introduced with the
Latin motto: ―Scire ubi aliquid invenire
possis, ea demum maxima pars eruditionis
est‖ (To know where you can find anything
is, after all, the greatest part of erudition).
Appearing in The Guardian since 1951.
What are we talking about? Or how is it
popularly billed as?
3
80. It is a procedural defence that forbids a
defendant from being tried again on the
same (or similar) charges following a
legitimate acquittal or conviction. In
common law countries, a defendant may
enter a peremptory plea of autrefois acquit
or autrefois convict (autrefois means
―previously‖ in French), meaning the
defendant has been acquitted or convicted
of the same offence. Guarantee against it is
a constitutional right in Canada, Mexico and
USA. What 2-word term are we looking for?
5
82. This board game was published by
Milton Bradley in 1985 to cash in on the
popularity of similar products. Each set had
12 decks of 28 cards – 3 rounds per card.
Each round had 6 questions connected by a
theme. That‘s 1,008 themes and 6,048
questions to answer. 150 chips (50 maroon
and 100 white) were to be used to keep
track of scores. What was its name?
6
87. National Library at Kolkata
romanization (NLK transliteration). It is
the most widely used transliteration
scheme in dictionaries and grammars
of Indic languages.
1
88. In 2006, as part of the 25th anniversary
of Guernica‘s arrival in Spain (after its long
exile in New York), a Picasso: Tradition and
Avant-Garde retrospective was held. In the
same room in Reina Sofía Museum, Madrid
where Guernica was displayed, there were
three other paintings critical of war. The first
one was painted in 1814. The second was
painted between 1867 and 1869 and the
third was painted in 1951 — both drew
inspiration from the first. Identify the three
paintings, each featuring a firing squad.
2
89. Francisco Goya‘s The Third of May 1808;
Édouard Manet‘s Execution of Emperor
Maximilian; Pablo Picasso‘s Massacre in
Korea.
2
91. The first part of his pen name comes
from a family joke about mispronunciation
of the US name of this Renault car. The
second part was to put his works on
bookstore shelves between crime fiction
stars Raymond Chandler and Agatha
Christie. His main character‘s name came
from a comment his wife made about his
height: ―Hey, if this writing thing doesn‘t
pan out, you could always be a ____ in a
supermarket.‖ Identify the pen name and
the character.
3
94. One popular theory about the origin of this
phrase attributes it to a Roman Consul named
Gaius Popillius Laenas who did this in 168 BC. He
was sent as an envoy to prevent a war between
Antiochus IV Epiphanes of the Seleucid Empire
and Ptolemaic Egypt. He did something
challenging Antiochus and the troops withdrew.
Some attribute it to an incident in the Indian
mythology which too gave rise to an idiom.
Identify the phrase heard in a sporting context
earlier this year. Also identify the Indian
idiom/phrase.
4
100. The story starts with a memento
presented by a New Zealand group to its
Indian counterpart during a 1935 visit after
being awed by the group‘s performance. It
was used annually till 1947 when it was with
undivided Punjab and housed in Lahore.
After partition, the West Punjab authorities
refused to return it to India. The annual
event continued and in 1951, one of the
national dailies found a replacement for it.
Just name the replacement which has been
used since then.
7
101. Rangaswamy Cup for the National
Senior Men‘s Hockey
Championship, donated by The Hindu in
1951 in honour of one of its editors, S.
Rangaswamy.
7
102. These are attempts, usually organized
by amateur astronomers, to find as many
objects as possible, during one night, from a
catalogue compiled by French astronomer
Charles ____ during the late 18th century.
Typically an observer begins at sundown
and will observe through the night until
sunrise in order to see all 110 relatively
bright deep sky objects
(galaxies, nebulae, and star clusters). What
2-word term, that can refer to a more
disorderly version of a sporting event, is
8
105. This novel was written in German as the
second part of a trilogy—the first was written in
Hungarian in 1938 and the third was written in
English in 1943. The author‘s companion, the
sculptor Daphne Hardy, translated it into English
and took it to England to find a publisher. On the
way to England, the author lost the original. He
heard a false report that the ship carrying Hardy
had been torpedoed and all persons lost (along
with his only manuscript); he attempted suicide.
Identify this 1940 work that was translated back
to German as Sonnenfinsternis (literally ‗solar
eclipse‘) .
9
107. These items were donated to the Nobel
Museum in Stockholm by Andre Geim and
Konstantin Novoselov. What innovative
activity was done by them in 2004 using
these?
10
108. They first isolated individual graphene
planes by using adhesive tape. They simply
stuck a flake of graphite debris onto plastic
adhesive tape, folded the sticky side of the
tape over the flake and then pulled the tape
apart, cleaving the flake in two. As the
experimenters repeated the process, the
resulting fragments grew thinner. Even more
unexpectedly, the newly identified bits of
graphene turned out to have high crystal
quality and to be chemically stable even at
room temperature.
10
109. That he also dabbled in poetry is not
very well known. He wrote Urdu poetry
under the aptly-chosen pen name of
Seemab (meaning mercury). While teaching
at the Benares Hindu University (1921
onwards), he composed the kulgeet or the
ceremonial hymn in Sanskrit, which is still
being used today. Who are we talking
about? In 1936, when he was conferred the
OBE by the British Government, his friends
joked that in his case, it stood for Oil Borer
of the Empire.
11
112. This clever
(and almost
illusory) work by
Sterling Hundley
paints a tragic tale
combining two
events – one from
March 4, 1841 and
another from April
4, 1841. What tale?
12
113. William Henry Harrison, the ninth
president of USA, took the oath of office on
March 4, 1841, a cold and wet day. He wore
neither an overcoat nor hat, and delivered
the longest inaugural address in American
history. He died on his 32nd day in office of
complications from pneumonia, serving the
shortest tenure in US presidential history.
He was also the first president to die in
office.
12
114. Superfecundation, also known as
heteropaternal superfecundation, is common in
animals such as cats and dogs. It most commonly
happens within hours or days of the first instance
of fertilization with ova released during the same
cycle. There is a small time window when eggs
are able to be fertilized. Sperm cells can live
inside a female‘s body for 4–5 days. Once
ovulation occurs, the egg remains viable for 12–
48 hours before it begins to disintegrate.
Thus, the fertile period can span 5–7 days. Give us
an example of this phenomenon from Indian
mythology.
13
115. Superfecundation is the fertilization of
two or more ova from the same cycle by
sperm from separate acts of sexual
intercourse. Heteropaternal
superfecundation occurs when two different
males father fraternal twins. Nakula and
Sahadeva were fathered by the Aswini
Kumaras.
13
116. In this trial held in January 1914, J. Cuming
Walters led the prosecution, while Cecil
Chesterton acted for the defence. The jury
returned a verdict of manslaughter, the foreman
stating that it was a compromise on the grounds
that there was not enough evidence to convict
the defendant but that they did not want to run
the risk of being murdered in their beds. Both
sides protested and demanded that the jury be
discharged. The foreman claimed that the jury
would be only too pleased to be discharged. The
judge ruled that the case was insoluble and fined
everyone, except himself, for contempt of court.
What was the trial about?
14
118. The trial of John Jasper for the murder
of Edwin Drood. (G.K. Chesterton was the
judge and G.B. Shaw was the jury foreman.)
14
119. This is a depiction of the prophet Isaiah
from the Sistine Chapel ceiling painted by
Michelangelo in 1509. An iconic 1943
work, featuring Mein Kampf
irreverently, used the exact pose for its
subject. Identify the artist and the
work/subject. The work was loaned the U.S.
Treasury Department for the duration WWII
for use in war bond drives.
15
122. X is a singing technique whose goals
are to train singers in sight reading and
sight singing, to give them more precise
pitch and to improve recognition of musical
intervals. Y is a system of attributing a
distinct syllable to each note in a musical
scale. X is a form of Y, and the two terms are
sometimes used interchangeably. Z is the
equivalent of Y in Hindustani classical music.
The etymology of X, Y and Z share
something in common. Identify any 2 and
briefly describe the common etymology.
16
123. X — solfège (also called
solfeggio, solfeo, solfedge or solfa).
Y — solmization.
Z — sargam.
They are derived from the musical notes.
16
124. This is the only known picture of the
final goal by Ricardo Infante for Estudiantes
de la Plata in a 3-0 win over Rosario Central
in 1948. One week later, the magazine El
Gráfico published a cartoon—the title was a
pun based on his name. Infante referred to
a youth and it was clubbed with a term for
skipping school, which, it would appear, was
being used in this sense to imply the
forward had done something tricky. What
are we talking about?
17
127. Rabona. It is a method of kicking the
football whereby the kicking leg is wrapped
around the back of the standing leg—
effectively with one‘s legs crossed.
The title of the cartoon was ―El infante que
se hizo la rabona‖.
17
128. On December 24, 1968, in what was the
most watched television broadcast at the
time, the crew of Apollo 8 were orbiting the
Moon. Bill Anders, Jim Lovell and Frank Borman
spoke on air, ―We are now approaching lunar
sunrise and, for all the people back on Earth, the
crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like
to send to you. […]‖ What followed was
controversial and became the focus of debates
between groups. Madalyn Murray O‘Hair sued the
US government, alleging violations of the First
Amendment. The suit was (cheekily) dismissed by
the Supreme Court citing lack of jurisdiction.
What were the controversial words/content?
18
129. The Book of Genesis (verses 1 through
10, using the King James version): "In the
beginning God created the heavens and the
earth..."
18
130. One of X‘s middle names meant ―the
friend of God‖, but he preferred another
that meant ―the lover of God‖. One of Y‘s
middle names meant ―the gift of God‖ and
another was ―Wilhelm‖. For his works, Y
adopted a pseudonym where ―Wilhelm‖ was
replaced by ―the lover of God‖ in homage to
X, 20 years his elder. Y was an
author, jurist, composer, music
critic, draftsman and caricaturist – his work
formed the basis of a famous 19th century
opera featuring himself as the protagonist.
19
131. X – Wolfgang Theophilus / Amadeus
Mozart.
Y – Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann (E.T.A.
Hoffmann).
The opera is Jacques Offenbach‘s The Tales
of Hoffmann.
19
132. Chrysopogon zizanioides is a perennial
grass of the Poaceae family, native to India.
Its name in northern India may be easily
confused with poppy seed. It is used for
perfumery, agriculture and bioengineering.
A technology of soil conservation and water
quality management (by planting it as
hedgerows) used in more than 100
countries is named after it. Identify its
common name and the named used in
northern India.
20
135. During the 1930s, Mayor Fiorello
LaGuardia described the two qualities he
felt New Yorkers would need to survive the
economic depression. He used these
qualities as the name of a 1911 creation by
Edward Clark Potter and this has ensured
that they remained popular even after many
decades. Either tell us what the two qualities
were or the 1911 creation.
21
137. Examples of Muthuswami Dikshitar‘s
lyrics. What clever wordplay has he done in
these?
‖vINA bhErI vENu vAdyAdi vinOdini
mOdini raksha mAm‖
―abhaya varada pANI ali vENI
ASrita mA vANI kalyANI‖
‖nikhilAgama sannuta varadAyai
nirvikArAyai nitya muktAyai
saMsAra bhIti bhanjanAyai‖
―ambujA ramaNa sOdari ati rathi
ambari kAdambari nIlAmbari‖
22
138. ―smaraNAt kaivalya prada caraNAravindaM
taruNAditya kOTi saMkASa cidAnandaM
karuNA rasAdi kandaM SaraNAgata sura
bRndam‖
―AnandAmRtAkarshiNi amRta varshiNi
harAdi pUjitE SivE bhavAni‖
‖kEdArESvaraM viSvESvaraM
kamalA pati nuta padaM SaSi dharam‖
―sadyOjAtAdi panca mukharishaDvarga -
rahita hRtsancAra‖
22
140. This official ―aid‖ called ―le petit bâton
rouge‖ (meaning ‗the little red stick‘) was
originally used only at Avery
Island, Louisiana. These days workers at
various locations in Central and South
America also use this. Another integral part
of the overall process is white oak barrels
previously used for aging Jack Daniel‘s
Tennessee whiskey. What are these sticks
used for?
23
142. For determining the ripeness of
peppers used for making Tabasco sauce.
Peppers that do not match the color of the
stick are not harvested.
23
143. Regarding the 2 pieces, he told Paris
Review that he was pleased about the
coincidence ―though I couldn‘t duplicate the
pattern indefinitely‖. Who? What
coincidence?
<Audios removed>
24
144. David Mitchell about his novels
number9dream (2001) Cloud Atlas (2004)
being named after songs by husbands of
Yoko Ono.
24
Editor's Notes
The second is for “Four and twenty blackbirds bak'd in a pie” from the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence“.
