Manfest Quiz
Last weekend, I conducted the General Quiz at IIM Lucknow. Am posting here some of my favourites questions from it. Leave your answers in the comments section, which has been enabled for this one post. The comments will be moderated, and then displayed along with the answers.
The questions are not necessarily non-google-able, since firstly this was a real-time quiz, and secondly there are no prizes for the online version of this quiz. So if you want, use google. But it will be much more fun without it.
There is no deadline as such. Will post the answers once the responses(if any) stop trickling in.
Update: OK, the inflow of answers has reduced to a trickle and has been overshadowed by demands for answers. Answers inline, followed by the scores.
1. Tony Greig once quipped - "Luckily for her, he didn't get his first test hundred at Faislabad." Explain.
Ans - Brian Lara named his first daughter Sydney, since he scored his first test hundred, a breath-taking 277, at Sydney. As Tony Greig said, she should thank her stars that she isn't called Faislabad. By the way, this is probably the only witty comment Greig has managed in a long career in the media.
2. E.R. Brathwaite grew up in Georgetown Guyana and was brilliant at Science and Electronics and flew with the RAF in WW2. After the war, he stayed in London and tried to get a job as a technician or engineer, but did not get one because of colour bias. He took another job, and wrote a book about his experiences in that job. This book was made into a movie that made history. Name the book.
Ans - Cracked universally. 'To Sir With Love'
3. Fill in the blanks for this line from Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” - To found a great empire for raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear a project fit only for a ______________ of ___________________
Ans - Nation of Shopkeepers, as Britain is often 'endearingly' referred to.
4. The 1984-85 season. 2nd ODI between India and Pakistan at Sialkot- India 210/3 with Vengsarkar 94*. Match abandoned. Why?
Ans - Again, universally cracked. Indira Gandhi was assassinated in Delhi.
5. Its original name, i.e in German, is Walkürenritt. In its original context, it features Brunhilde in breastplate and horned helmet, clutching a spear and shield, and crying out "HO JO TO HO!". Give its English name, made famous by a cult classic.
Ans - The exact answer was not given by many. What I was looking for was 'Ride of the Valkyries', which is the name of a composition from Wagner's opera 'Die Walkure'. The composition was made famous by Francis Ford Coppola's 'Apocalypse Now' in which the helicopters are shown attacking villages as they play this piece on loudspeakers. It is said that this piece was played in Nazi concentration camps.
6. This is a flag of?
Ans - The British East India Company. It is said that the design of the American flag was somewhat inspired from it.
7. Name these two men who were in news recently
Ans - Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad. Their record came very close to being eclipsed by Sehwag and Dravid in the first test at Lahore.
8. When the Michael Vaughan’s team won the Ashes last year, a parade was taken out in Trafalgar Square, with all the team members riding on top of an open double-decker bus, toasting champagne and waving at crowds. Behind them was another open double-decker bus. Who was riding on it?
Ans - The England women's team which itself had won the women's ashes a few days before. They won it after a gap of over 30 years.
9. Fill in the blanks –
“He came naked, by night, alone and very hungry; yet he was not afraid! Look, he has pushed one of my babes to one side already. And that lame butcher would have killed him and would have run off to the Waingunga while the villagers here hunted through all our lairs in revenge! Keep him? Assuredly I will keep him. Lie still, little frog. O thou ______- for _______ the Frog I will call thee.”
Ans - Majorly cracked. Mowgli. This is from Jungle Book.
10. Connect these three visuals
Ans - Slightly arbit connect, though one or two guys got it. Technologies used in cricket broadcasts. The fish is a 'dartfish', name of the technology being used in the India-Pak series. The second picture of course has Alan Alda as 'Hawkeye' from M*A*S*H. The third picture is of a wagon wheel.
11. “My villa is situated upon the southern slope of the downs, commanding a great view of the Channel. At this point the coast-line is entirely of chalk cliffs, which can only be descended by a single, long, tortuous path, which is steep and slippery. At the bottom of the path lie a hundred yards of pebbles and shingle, even when the tide is at full. Here and there, however, there are curves and hollows which make splendid swimming-pools filled afresh with each flow. This admirable beach extends for some miles in each direction, save only at one point where the little cove and village of Fulworth
break the line.
My house is lonely. I, my old housekeeper, and my bees have the estate all to ourselves.” Who is talking about his house?
Ans - The bees gave it away I guess. Sherlock Holmes.
12. According to the rules of the British Parliament, no alcohol is allowed in the House of Commons. This rule is however, relaxed for just one day and for just one person. When and for whom?
Ans - The Chancellor of the Exchequer. While he is presenting the budget.
13. What do the blanks stand for, and what is the significance of this verse?
Ans - The 4 words are brahman, rajanya(kshatriya), vaishya, shudra. This is a verse from the Purusha Sukta(Rigveda 10:90) which means "What became of His body? The Brâhmana was his mouth, of both his arms was the Râjanya made. His thighs became the Vaishya, from his feet the Sûdra was produced." The oldest reference to the caste system.
14. When Pope John Paul II arrived in Los Angeles in 1987, a local chamber of commerce, in the honour of his visit, made a temporary alteration to a famous landmark which it maintains. What alteration?
Ans - The HOLLYWOOD sign was changed to HOLYWOOD. Nice one, na?
15. These are the end credits of a Monty Python sketch. Name the sketch.
Monty Python's Flying Circus
was conceived, written and ____ performed by
____ Terry Jones
Michael ____ Palin
John ____ John ____
John ____ Cleese
Graham ____ ____
____ Chapman
Eric ____ egg and Chips Idle
Terry ____ Sausage ____
Egg ____ Gilliam
Also Appearing On Toast:
The Fred Tomlinson ____ Egg Chips and Singers
Ans - "Spam". It is this Monty Python sketch which led to the term spam being used for unwanted mail.
16. What “elusive” location is marked with the red balloon?
Ans - Slightly tough I suppose. The answer is '15 Park Avenue'. If you've seen the Aparna Sen movie, you will know that the character played by Konkona keeps looking for this address in Kolkata, but it doesn't exist. It actually exists, as Shefali Chhaya's character mentions, in New York.
17. Which film connects these songs -
Child in Time by Deep Purple
Last Christmas by WHAM
Speak Softly Love by Andy Williams
A Jim Reeves song released in 1959 (song name will be a giveaway)
The connect is very ironic, considering the story of the film.
Ans - Akele Hum Akele Tum. Anu Malik outdid himself by actually plagiarising four songs in one movie. The songs are Aya Hoon Yaaron, Dil Mera Churaya Kyun, Raja Ko Rani Se, and Oh I love you Daddy.
Speak Softly Love, incidentally is, the Godfather theme.
This brazen plagiarism is ironic, because in the movie, the lead character is shown to be a music composer whose tunes are stolen by other.
18. Connect
Ans - The CNN screenshot is of John Seigenthaler Sr. The bearded bloke is Jimmy Wales who founded Wikipedia (observe his laptop screen). The two others are of course the Kennedy brothers. A prankster had written on Seigenthaler's wikipedia page that he was involved in the assassination of the Kennedys. The page stayed that way for months. Seigenthaler threatened to sue Wikipedia. This led to Wikipedia changing its posting policies to allow only logged in users to edit pages.
19. Explain the funda and complete the series –
Allison Anders - Directed Grace of my Heart, Sugar Town, Things behind the sun
Alexandre Rockwell - Directed Louis and Frank, 13 Moons
Robert Rodriguez - Directed Spy Kids, Once upon a time in Mexico, Sin City
Ans - Quentin Tarantino of course. These four directed the 4 separate segments of the movie 'Four Rooms'
20. Fill in the blanks and explain this sequence. Masherbrum, _______________, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum 2, Gasherbrum 1.
Ans - What fills the blank is K2. I thought the fact that the blank is second in the series would be a clue. All these are major peaks in the Karakoram range. Initially, they were named K1, K2, K3, K4 and K5. Over the years, all others were renamed. K2, the second-tallest (and also the toughest) mountain in the world, retains the alpha-numeric name officially, though it is sometimes referred to as Mt. Godwin Austen.
21. Princess Ilia joined the 'Enterprise' as a navigator. She was a Deltan, a species who are empathic, and exude pheromones which arouse human males, and she had once been romantically involved with Commander Willard Decker. Ilia was killed by the sentient alien probe V'ger and replaced by a robotic duplicate which became V'ger's emissary. Why should we know all this?
Ans - Because Princess Ilia was played by an Indian - Persis Khambatta
22. Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Ed Binns, Jack Warden, Henry Fonda, Joseph Sweeney, Ed Begley, George Voskovec and Robert Webber, were the __________ ___________ ____________
Ans - Twelve Angry Men. The movie was also remade in hindi as 'Ek Ruka Hua Faisla'.
23. Groningen, Drenthe, Overjissel, Limburg are some of the lesser known ones. The most famous are North ___________ and South _____________ (same blank). Some would say a little too famous.
Ans - Holland is what fills the blank. The thing is, the official name of the country is Netherlands. But is is often used synonymously with 'Holland'. The reason being that Holland is the province which traded the most with other countries, and also has the major ports. However people from other provinces are not impressed when you refer to their country as 'Holland'. So refer to it, only as Netherlands.
24. This is an excerpt from a letter X wrote to Y. Identify both.
“I would abandon this idea of getting _______ in a second if I
could only win your heart and live out the rest of my life with
you, whether it be in total obscurity or whatever.
I will admit to you that the reason I'm going ahead with this
attempt now is because I just cannot wait any longer to impress
you. I've got to do something now to make you understand, in
no uncertain terms, that I am doing all of this for your sake! By
sacrificing my freedom and possibly my life, I hope to change
your mind about me. This letter is being written only an hour
before I leave for the Hilton Hotel. Y, I'm asking you to please
look into your heart and at least give me the chance, with this
historical deed, to gain your respect and love.”
Ans - John Hinckley Jr to Jodie Foster. Hinckley tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan just to prove his "love" to Foster.
25. Which Indian would fit in with this group?
Ans - Vishal Bharadwaj. All have directed movies based on Shakespeare's Macbeth. The men are Akira Kurosawa, Orson Welles and Roman Polanski.
26. It was conceived in 1995 by David Geyde at UC Berkeley, and began in May 1999 when the phenomenon of internet had spread wide enough. The software performs signal analysis on a downloaded 350 kb "work unit" of the Serendip IV survey data and then reports the results. What?
Ans - SETI@Home
27. In the movie ‘Adalat’ there is a scene where Amitabh, playing a villager, is leading a group of city folk through the jungle. How did this scene achieve significance in the late nineties?
Ans - He is singing Eir Bir Phattey as he leads them through the jungle. It is the same song, written by his father Harivanshrai, which he later sang in his first ever album Aby Baby.
28. Which book does this band take its name from?
Ans - the band is named Marillion, after Tolkien's book, Silmarillion
29. Which Oscar winning movie is this clip from?
Download Clip 29
Ans - The Godfather. This is the scene in the restaurant where Solozzo and Michael are talking in Italian.
30. Three names needed. Name the two people talking, and the person they are talking about.
Download Clip 30
Ans - Jason Alexander and Larry David talking about the character George Costanza. The clip is from an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Here are the scores -
There were 3 joint toppers. Sreekanth, aNti and Venkatesh all scoring 17.
Here are the other respondents' scores in chornological order -
Aadisht - 8
Pushkar - 2
Shashikant - 2
Rajgopal - 10
Ramanand - 14
Dhammo - 13
Dr. Bruno - 4
Sridhar - 11
Venu - 1
Bongop'o'ndit - 14
Sreekanth - 17
Debashish - 1
Siddharth Puri - 10
aNTi - 17
Abhishek - 15
Tarun - 3
Balaji - 13
Lahar - 11
Aaman - 5
HP - 2
Apurva - 7
Aranyi - 3
Sumeet - 6
Ambuj - 10
Shom - 10
Zutty - 15
Venkatesh - 17
Salil - 8
Chetan - 10
Ashwin Rao - 4
imhunt - 11
De-scribe - 1
NANMTK - 1
Gopal - 16
There were many anon responses, and also many named responses scoring blobs, which I am not mentioning here. In all there were 68 responses.
Thank you. Hope you enjoyed it.
The questions are not necessarily non-google-able, since firstly this was a real-time quiz, and secondly there are no prizes for the online version of this quiz. So if you want, use google. But it will be much more fun without it.
There is no deadline as such. Will post the answers once the responses(if any) stop trickling in.
Update: OK, the inflow of answers has reduced to a trickle and has been overshadowed by demands for answers. Answers inline, followed by the scores.
1. Tony Greig once quipped - "Luckily for her, he didn't get his first test hundred at Faislabad." Explain.
Ans - Brian Lara named his first daughter Sydney, since he scored his first test hundred, a breath-taking 277, at Sydney. As Tony Greig said, she should thank her stars that she isn't called Faislabad. By the way, this is probably the only witty comment Greig has managed in a long career in the media.
2. E.R. Brathwaite grew up in Georgetown Guyana and was brilliant at Science and Electronics and flew with the RAF in WW2. After the war, he stayed in London and tried to get a job as a technician or engineer, but did not get one because of colour bias. He took another job, and wrote a book about his experiences in that job. This book was made into a movie that made history. Name the book.
Ans - Cracked universally. 'To Sir With Love'
3. Fill in the blanks for this line from Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” - To found a great empire for raising up a people of customers may at first sight appear a project fit only for a ______________ of ___________________
Ans - Nation of Shopkeepers, as Britain is often 'endearingly' referred to.
4. The 1984-85 season. 2nd ODI between India and Pakistan at Sialkot- India 210/3 with Vengsarkar 94*. Match abandoned. Why?
Ans - Again, universally cracked. Indira Gandhi was assassinated in Delhi.
5. Its original name, i.e in German, is Walkürenritt. In its original context, it features Brunhilde in breastplate and horned helmet, clutching a spear and shield, and crying out "HO JO TO HO!". Give its English name, made famous by a cult classic.
Ans - The exact answer was not given by many. What I was looking for was 'Ride of the Valkyries', which is the name of a composition from Wagner's opera 'Die Walkure'. The composition was made famous by Francis Ford Coppola's 'Apocalypse Now' in which the helicopters are shown attacking villages as they play this piece on loudspeakers. It is said that this piece was played in Nazi concentration camps.
6. This is a flag of?
Ans - The British East India Company. It is said that the design of the American flag was somewhat inspired from it.
7. Name these two men who were in news recently
Ans - Pankaj Roy and Vinoo Mankad. Their record came very close to being eclipsed by Sehwag and Dravid in the first test at Lahore.
8. When the Michael Vaughan’s team won the Ashes last year, a parade was taken out in Trafalgar Square, with all the team members riding on top of an open double-decker bus, toasting champagne and waving at crowds. Behind them was another open double-decker bus. Who was riding on it?
Ans - The England women's team which itself had won the women's ashes a few days before. They won it after a gap of over 30 years.
9. Fill in the blanks –
“He came naked, by night, alone and very hungry; yet he was not afraid! Look, he has pushed one of my babes to one side already. And that lame butcher would have killed him and would have run off to the Waingunga while the villagers here hunted through all our lairs in revenge! Keep him? Assuredly I will keep him. Lie still, little frog. O thou ______- for _______ the Frog I will call thee.”
Ans - Majorly cracked. Mowgli. This is from Jungle Book.
10. Connect these three visuals
Ans - Slightly arbit connect, though one or two guys got it. Technologies used in cricket broadcasts. The fish is a 'dartfish', name of the technology being used in the India-Pak series. The second picture of course has Alan Alda as 'Hawkeye' from M*A*S*H. The third picture is of a wagon wheel.
11. “My villa is situated upon the southern slope of the downs, commanding a great view of the Channel. At this point the coast-line is entirely of chalk cliffs, which can only be descended by a single, long, tortuous path, which is steep and slippery. At the bottom of the path lie a hundred yards of pebbles and shingle, even when the tide is at full. Here and there, however, there are curves and hollows which make splendid swimming-pools filled afresh with each flow. This admirable beach extends for some miles in each direction, save only at one point where the little cove and village of Fulworth
break the line.
My house is lonely. I, my old housekeeper, and my bees have the estate all to ourselves.” Who is talking about his house?
Ans - The bees gave it away I guess. Sherlock Holmes.
12. According to the rules of the British Parliament, no alcohol is allowed in the House of Commons. This rule is however, relaxed for just one day and for just one person. When and for whom?
Ans - The Chancellor of the Exchequer. While he is presenting the budget.
13. What do the blanks stand for, and what is the significance of this verse?
Ans - The 4 words are brahman, rajanya(kshatriya), vaishya, shudra. This is a verse from the Purusha Sukta(Rigveda 10:90) which means "What became of His body? The Brâhmana was his mouth, of both his arms was the Râjanya made. His thighs became the Vaishya, from his feet the Sûdra was produced." The oldest reference to the caste system.
14. When Pope John Paul II arrived in Los Angeles in 1987, a local chamber of commerce, in the honour of his visit, made a temporary alteration to a famous landmark which it maintains. What alteration?
Ans - The HOLLYWOOD sign was changed to HOLYWOOD. Nice one, na?
15. These are the end credits of a Monty Python sketch. Name the sketch.
Monty Python's Flying Circus
was conceived, written and ____ performed by
____ Terry Jones
Michael ____ Palin
John ____ John ____
John ____ Cleese
Graham ____ ____
____ Chapman
Eric ____ egg and Chips Idle
Terry ____ Sausage ____
Egg ____ Gilliam
Also Appearing On Toast:
The Fred Tomlinson ____ Egg Chips and Singers
Ans - "Spam". It is this Monty Python sketch which led to the term spam being used for unwanted mail.
16. What “elusive” location is marked with the red balloon?
Ans - Slightly tough I suppose. The answer is '15 Park Avenue'. If you've seen the Aparna Sen movie, you will know that the character played by Konkona keeps looking for this address in Kolkata, but it doesn't exist. It actually exists, as Shefali Chhaya's character mentions, in New York.
17. Which film connects these songs -
Child in Time by Deep Purple
Last Christmas by WHAM
Speak Softly Love by Andy Williams
A Jim Reeves song released in 1959 (song name will be a giveaway)
The connect is very ironic, considering the story of the film.
Ans - Akele Hum Akele Tum. Anu Malik outdid himself by actually plagiarising four songs in one movie. The songs are Aya Hoon Yaaron, Dil Mera Churaya Kyun, Raja Ko Rani Se, and Oh I love you Daddy.
Speak Softly Love, incidentally is, the Godfather theme.
This brazen plagiarism is ironic, because in the movie, the lead character is shown to be a music composer whose tunes are stolen by other.
18. Connect
Ans - The CNN screenshot is of John Seigenthaler Sr. The bearded bloke is Jimmy Wales who founded Wikipedia (observe his laptop screen). The two others are of course the Kennedy brothers. A prankster had written on Seigenthaler's wikipedia page that he was involved in the assassination of the Kennedys. The page stayed that way for months. Seigenthaler threatened to sue Wikipedia. This led to Wikipedia changing its posting policies to allow only logged in users to edit pages.
19. Explain the funda and complete the series –
Allison Anders - Directed Grace of my Heart, Sugar Town, Things behind the sun
Alexandre Rockwell - Directed Louis and Frank, 13 Moons
Robert Rodriguez - Directed Spy Kids, Once upon a time in Mexico, Sin City
Ans - Quentin Tarantino of course. These four directed the 4 separate segments of the movie 'Four Rooms'
20. Fill in the blanks and explain this sequence. Masherbrum, _______________, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum 2, Gasherbrum 1.
Ans - What fills the blank is K2. I thought the fact that the blank is second in the series would be a clue. All these are major peaks in the Karakoram range. Initially, they were named K1, K2, K3, K4 and K5. Over the years, all others were renamed. K2, the second-tallest (and also the toughest) mountain in the world, retains the alpha-numeric name officially, though it is sometimes referred to as Mt. Godwin Austen.
21. Princess Ilia joined the 'Enterprise' as a navigator. She was a Deltan, a species who are empathic, and exude pheromones which arouse human males, and she had once been romantically involved with Commander Willard Decker. Ilia was killed by the sentient alien probe V'ger and replaced by a robotic duplicate which became V'ger's emissary. Why should we know all this?
Ans - Because Princess Ilia was played by an Indian - Persis Khambatta
22. Martin Balsam, John Fiedler, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Klugman, Ed Binns, Jack Warden, Henry Fonda, Joseph Sweeney, Ed Begley, George Voskovec and Robert Webber, were the __________ ___________ ____________
Ans - Twelve Angry Men. The movie was also remade in hindi as 'Ek Ruka Hua Faisla'.
23. Groningen, Drenthe, Overjissel, Limburg are some of the lesser known ones. The most famous are North ___________ and South _____________ (same blank). Some would say a little too famous.
Ans - Holland is what fills the blank. The thing is, the official name of the country is Netherlands. But is is often used synonymously with 'Holland'. The reason being that Holland is the province which traded the most with other countries, and also has the major ports. However people from other provinces are not impressed when you refer to their country as 'Holland'. So refer to it, only as Netherlands.
24. This is an excerpt from a letter X wrote to Y. Identify both.
“I would abandon this idea of getting _______ in a second if I
could only win your heart and live out the rest of my life with
you, whether it be in total obscurity or whatever.
I will admit to you that the reason I'm going ahead with this
attempt now is because I just cannot wait any longer to impress
you. I've got to do something now to make you understand, in
no uncertain terms, that I am doing all of this for your sake! By
sacrificing my freedom and possibly my life, I hope to change
your mind about me. This letter is being written only an hour
before I leave for the Hilton Hotel. Y, I'm asking you to please
look into your heart and at least give me the chance, with this
historical deed, to gain your respect and love.”
Ans - John Hinckley Jr to Jodie Foster. Hinckley tried to assassinate Ronald Reagan just to prove his "love" to Foster.
25. Which Indian would fit in with this group?
Ans - Vishal Bharadwaj. All have directed movies based on Shakespeare's Macbeth. The men are Akira Kurosawa, Orson Welles and Roman Polanski.
26. It was conceived in 1995 by David Geyde at UC Berkeley, and began in May 1999 when the phenomenon of internet had spread wide enough. The software performs signal analysis on a downloaded 350 kb "work unit" of the Serendip IV survey data and then reports the results. What?
Ans - SETI@Home
27. In the movie ‘Adalat’ there is a scene where Amitabh, playing a villager, is leading a group of city folk through the jungle. How did this scene achieve significance in the late nineties?
Ans - He is singing Eir Bir Phattey as he leads them through the jungle. It is the same song, written by his father Harivanshrai, which he later sang in his first ever album Aby Baby.
28. Which book does this band take its name from?
Ans - the band is named Marillion, after Tolkien's book, Silmarillion
29. Which Oscar winning movie is this clip from?
Download Clip 29
Ans - The Godfather. This is the scene in the restaurant where Solozzo and Michael are talking in Italian.
30. Three names needed. Name the two people talking, and the person they are talking about.
Download Clip 30
Ans - Jason Alexander and Larry David talking about the character George Costanza. The clip is from an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Here are the scores -
There were 3 joint toppers. Sreekanth, aNti and Venkatesh all scoring 17.
Here are the other respondents' scores in chornological order -
Aadisht - 8
Pushkar - 2
Shashikant - 2
Rajgopal - 10
Ramanand - 14
Dhammo - 13
Dr. Bruno - 4
Sridhar - 11
Venu - 1
Bongop'o'ndit - 14
Sreekanth - 17
Debashish - 1
Siddharth Puri - 10
aNTi - 17
Abhishek - 15
Tarun - 3
Balaji - 13
Lahar - 11
Aaman - 5
HP - 2
Apurva - 7
Aranyi - 3
Sumeet - 6
Ambuj - 10
Shom - 10
Zutty - 15
Venkatesh - 17
Salil - 8
Chetan - 10
Ashwin Rao - 4
imhunt - 11
De-scribe - 1
NANMTK - 1
Gopal - 16
There were many anon responses, and also many named responses scoring blobs, which I am not mentioning here. In all there were 68 responses.
Thank you. Hope you enjoyed it.
