Vantage point




Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Answers to the Year-Ender

Thanks for the terrific response. Here are the answers.

1. He made his directorial debut with Gawahi(1989), starring Zeenat Amaan and Shekhar Kapoor. He later also made Pathar Ke Phool, the debut venture of Raveena Tandon. Following this, he hit bad times with none of his films making past the announcement stage for almost a decade. His only major project then, was directing some episodes of the English soap "A mouthful of sky". The lean period ended in a flourish 10 years later with 3 movies released within a year, all of them multiplex-type movies, one of them a much publicised one for Mukta Arts, one starring Nandita Das and Rahul Bose, and another one starring Rahul Bose. He seemed to have hit a purple patch as he announced a big-budget movie starring Kareena Kapoor, but died within a few days of its announcement. Who?

Ans - Anant Balani, who made Jogger's Park, Mumbai Matinee and Ek Din 24 Ghante. He announced Chameli, but then died a few days later.

2. These lines are from the bible. Who famously quoted them?
I know a little thing
A myriad men will save
O death where is thy sting
And victory, O grave


Ans - Ronald Ross of Malaria fame.

3. An anti-connect. What connects the people in these visuals is Law. Give each person's last name and give the connect. Second and third pics are part of the same connect.

Image 1 - Ernesto ___________

Image 2 - Norma __________ a.k.a Jane _______

Image 3 - Henry ____________

Ans - First picture is that of Ernesto Miranda after whom the Miranda Rights are named. You know, the whole "you have the right to remain silent..." thing. Second picture is Jane Roe, and third picture is Henry wade of the famous Roe vs Wade case which legalised abortion in the US.

4. Though practically speaking, there were only two countries that opposed the CTBT resolution in 1996 - India and Libya, technically speaking there was also a third country. This country also was one of the first countries to recognise Bangladesh as a sovereign nation. It is no surprise though that the country recognised Bangladesh so readily, or opposed the CTBT. Name the country and explain.

Ans - Bhutan. India is in charge of Bhutan's foreign policy and defense.

5. Connect the fifth Star Trek movie, the sitcom 'Mad About You' and Steve Waugh. Jog your brain a bit for this one.

Ans - 'Final Frontier'. Name of the fifth Star Trek movie, name of the title song of Mad About You. And of course, Steve Waugh is known to have thought of India as the final frontier.

6. "In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones" is a 1988 film directed by Pradeep Krishen. Technically, the movie can be considered Shahrukh Khan's film debut, and also stars Arjun Raina, Roshan Seth, Divya Seth, Himani Shivpuri etc. X has written the partly-autobiographical script and screenplay about the life of architecture students in the final year of college, and also plays a key role in the film. Identify X.

Ans - Arundhati Roy

7. Cryptic – Woody the Cowboy and Amelie try to make sense of her Grandpa's death. Gandalf is helping them....or is he? Dr. Octopus wants to stop them for sure. Richie C will direct them. What am I talking about?

Ans - The Da Vinci Code movie. Tom Hanks who played Woody in Toy Story plays Langdon. Audrey Tautou who played Amelie plays Sophie. Ian 'Gandalf' McKellan plays Teabing and Alfred 'Doc Ock' Molina plays Aringarossa. The director is Ron 'Richie C' Howard.

8. Which book ends thus -
“Everything’s going according to the plan”
Whispers
“We’re going to break up civilization so we can make something better out of the world”
Whispers
“We look forward to getting you back”

Ans - The Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

9. Kesarbai Kerkar, a Hindustani vocalist honoured with the title Surashri was a Padma Bhushan recipient and Tagore was one of her fans. The most long lasting appreciation of her music, however, was the result of the recommendation of ethnomusicologist Robert E. Brown in the year 1977 when she passed away. This eternal appreciation put her in august company like Mozart, Beethovan, Bach among many other world musicians. What was the recognition?

Ans - Her voice was part of the musical disc on Voyager.

10. The poster of which Hindi movie would fit with this other poster and book cover?



Ans - Gulzar's Achanak. All based on the famous Nanavati trial.

11. Magdaleena Maleeva was trailing 4-6 3-4 in a match she was playing in the early 1990’s. She did not lose the match because it had to be abandoned. Why was it abandoned?

Ans - At that point her opponent Monica Seles was stabbed.

12. Designed by a Greek firm named Doxiadis Associates, it is triangular in shape with its apex towards the Margala Hills. Work on it was started in 1961 and it became fully functional in 1966. What?

Ans - Islamabad

13. X, the director announced, starring his wife Y, the movie Z. Shooting was completed halfway when X and Y started encountering problems and were separated. The movie was thus stalled midway. 15 years later, X and Y patched up and completed Z. It was released amidst a lot of fanfare. However Y died a month after its release and could not live to see it become a superhit. Identify X, Y and Z.

Ans - Kamal Amrohi, Meena Kumari, Pakeezah

14. Fill in the blanks. The Wikkit Gate is a universal symbol among the diverse cultures of the Galaxy of the basic ideals of civilization. It is made up of the following -
A Steel Pillar of Strength and Power - Marvin's leg
A Wooden Pillar of Nature and Spirituality - the reconstituted ______________________
A Perspex Pillar of Science and Reason - Argabuthon Septre of Authority
A Golden Bail of Prosperity - The Heart of Gold's heart of gold
A Silver Bail of Peace - the Rory Award For The Most Gratuitous Use Of The F Word(or Belgium) In A Serious Screenplay

Ans - Ashes of a cricket stump. From H2G2.

15. Fill in the blanks - For me it crawled towards Kurtz -- exclusively; but when the steam-pipes started leaking we crawled very slow. The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the ____________________________________. It was very quiet there.

Ans - Heart of Darkness. Excerpt is from a book of the same name by Joseph Conrad. Coppolla later made 'Apocalypse Now' based on it.

16. This is an excerpt from a book. Just identify X and Y, or name the book. No need to fill the blanks.

"You still wake up sometimes, don't you? Wake up in the iron dark with the _______ screaming?"
"Sometimes."
"Do you think if you caught ________ yourself and if you made Catherine all right, you could make the _______ stop screaming, do you think they'd be all right too and you wouldn't wake up again in the dark and hear the _________ screaming?"
"Yes. I don't know. Maybe."
"Thank you, Y." X seemed oddly at peace.

Ans - Silence of the Lambs.

17. After getting a BTech from IITB, he became a journalist and wrote for Daily and Glitz. He was a Marxist in those days, and a member of the CPI(M). Advani first noticed him, strangely enough, after reading a piece written by him in 1990 which attacked the BJP. Advani found the piece well-written, and got in touch with him. He made a shift to the BJP, joined the RSS, and was very close to Advani. He is said to have been the brain behind the moderate-isation of BJP during which it abandoned the Ram Janmabhoomi issue. However he had to quit the BJP after perhaps pushing the moderation line too far, because it was he who wrote the Jinnah speech that Advani delivered in Pakistan, and got into the controversy. Name him.

Ans - Sudheendra Kulkarni

18. Fill in the blank. The Road to Welville was a 1994 comedy about the eccentric Dr. John Harvey ________ (played by Anthony Hopkins) who lived in Michigan about 100 years back and ran the Battle Creek Sanitarium. He was a strong proponent of vegetarianism, and abstension from sex, and used these methods on his patients. He and his brother experimented with ways to do away with meat products in meals without affecting their nutritional value.

Ans - Kellogg

19. Who wrote this -
It is a proof of having learned nothing from the world war and of thoroughly misunderstanding or knowing nothing about Anglo-Saxon determination, when they imagine that England could lose India without first having put forth the last ounce of her strength in the struggle to hold it. Moreover, it shows how complete is the ignorance prevailing in our country as to the manner in which the spirit of England permeates and administers her Empire. England will never lose India unless she admits racial disruption in the machinery of her administration (which at present is entirely out of the question in India) or unless she is overcome by the sword of some powerful enemy. But Indian risings will never bring this about. We have had sufficient experience to know how hard it is to coerce England. And, apart from all this, I would far rather see India under British domination than under that of any other nation.

Ans - Hitler. An excerpt from Mein Kampf.

20. Connect and give the latest name in the series: Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, Amon Goeth from Schindler's list, Count Laszlo de Almasy from the English Patient, Francis "Red Dragon" Dolarhyde from Red Dragon.

Ans - Lord Voldemort. All played by Ralph Fiennes.

21. Al Yeganeh runs _______ Kitchen International in Manhattan. Since unwittingly achieving fame in the 90s, Yeganeh invites the media to contact him for interviews, but states that they must not mention the "N" word, not talk about his personal life, not have follow-up questions, and interviews will only be completed via e-mail, at his time preferences. What is Yeganeh better known as?

Ans - The Soup Nazi from whom the famous Seinfeld episode was inspired.

22. Excerpt from a speech. Fill in the blanks - "We can legitimately ask for hundreds, or even thousands. But as a gesture of understanding, we are asking for only three - the ___________, the Shahi and the Gyanvapi"

Ans - Babri. The other two are the names of the mosques at Kashi and Mathura. The speech is by Ashok Singhal of the VHP.

23. Fill in the blanks -"You got a knack," Hallorann said, turning to him. "Me, I've always called it ___________. That's what my grandmother called it, too. She had it. We used to sit in the kitchen when I was a boy no older than you and have long talks without even openin our mouths."

Ans - The shining. From Stephen King's book by the same name.

24. The central character of Rossini's 'The Barber of Seville' and Beaumarchais's 'The Guilty Mother' is also the central character in a famous opera by Mozart. The name has also been given to Minnie Mouse's cat. Which name?

Ans - Figaro

25. Most of this writer's books referred to mythology or Christian symbolism. The name of his most famous book is the English translation of a Hebrew synonym for the devil. In that book, the devil is represented by the deadbody of an airman.

Ans - William Golding, who wrote Lord of the Flies, referred to as Beelzebub in Hebrew.

26. The publication of Siderius Nuncius contradicted Psalms 93 and 104, and Ecclesiastes 1:5. Who wrote it?

Ans - Galileo.

27. ______________ is a historical novel by Rafael Sabatini, originally published in 1921 and subsequently adapted into a play by Barbara Field and into feature films in 1923 and 1952. It is a romantic adventure and tells the story of a young aristocrat during the French Revolution. His successive endeavors as a lawyer, politician, actor, lover, and buffoon lead his enemies to call him ___________, which means a “clown”, but he impresses many with his elegant orations and precision swordsmanship.

Ans - Scaramouche

28. Connect these visuals -




Ans - The answer is Bismillah. The phrase is the bismillah phrase which Inzy utters at every interview. The visual is from Deewar where Amitabh was billa no. 786. 786 is also derived from the bismillah phrase.

29. She was reportedly born in New Jersey in 1858. She followed a career in opera as a contralto, performing in La Scala, Milan, Italy, and a term as Prima donna in the Imperial Opera of Warsaw, Poland. She retired in her late 20s from the operatic stage and moved to London. She became world famous due to her affair with someone from a royal family and eventually married Gordon Norton. Name her.

Ans - Irene Adler who appeared in the Holmes story 'A scandal in Bohemia'

30. Connect the answers to 24,25,26,27,28 and 29.

Ans - Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. The words appear in the lyrics for 24-28 and 29 of course mentions Bohemia.

The scores -

Shashikant - 2 http://bechalis.blogspot.com/
Deepak - 3.5 http://deepakm.blogspot.com/
Zero - 3 http://infinite-circle.blogspot.com/
Krishna Kumar - 4 http://krishna-kumar.blogspot.com/
Shrikanth - 3 http://skuvce.blogspot.com/
Raj - 4 http://www.blogger.com/r?http://yettonameit.blogspot.com
NANMTK - 15 http://notanicemantoknow.blogspot.com/
Nishit - 23 http://nishitd.blogspot.com/
Shom - 20 http://ginsoakedgentleman.blogspot.com/
Devilish - 16 http://cap10sblog.blogspot.com/
Rajagopal - 11 http://navelarch.blogspot.com/
Neil - 7
Rahul - 14.5
PGK - 21
Amit - 7
Shami - 21
Siddharth Puri - 15.5
Sreekanth - 22
Anand K - 24
Gopal - 27
Rathin - 12
Flaash - 4
Rohan - 10
Nrupal - 6
Prachi - 7
Pushkar - 6 http://zastereo.blogspot.com
Abhishek - 11 http://navelarch.blogspot.com/
Dhananjay - 13 http://sanityunstuck.blogspot.com
Icarus Prakash - 20 http://icarus1972us.blogspot.com/
Manish - 8 http://manishchauhan.blogspot.com/
Michael - 7 http://chocolateandgoldcoins.blogspot.com/
Dhammo - 24 http://dhammo.blogspot.com
Deepak - 6
Ajay - 5 http://ajayvb.blogspot.com/
Red - 20.5 http://eastwords.blogspot.com/
Venkatesh - 28 http://amanthan.blogspot.com/
George - 23 http://georgethomas.blogspot.com
Rahul G - 14 http://asterix2k.blogspot.com/
Vikram - 5 http://vikram18.blogspot.com/
BB - 28
Mitesh - 25 http://miteshvasa.blogspot.com/
Siddharth Nair - 23
Ayyappa - 11 http://ayyappakumar.blogspot.com/
Abhishek - 28 http://baghorchhagi.blogspot.com/
thambi - 17 http://random-walks.blogspot.com/
HP - 4 http://lifeliveblog.blogspot.com/
Dhoomketu - 24 http://dhoomk2.blogspot.com/
Praveen - 9
Bongopondit - 24
Sandeep - 4 http://sandeepkumar123.blogspot.com/
Jyotirmoy - 15