QR - Cure - Quizzing Realms - 118

Sorry for the late post.

Here's a dry connect for the day.

Connect the Pandavas, oceans and Enid Blyton's find-outers.

And then connect that answer to one Farrokh Balsara Bulsara and a form of music that originated in religious precincts related to Christianity.

Happy quuizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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For some reason, everyone decided to take loooooooooooooooong shots, and as Akshay proved, my question has an answer that even I hadn’t considered!

The answer I was looking for was We Will Rock You, the song.

The first part of my hint obviously leads to the answer 5 (five). In this case, it was 5ive, the band. Aapro Farrokh Bulsara is actually Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. The form of music I was referring to is a capella, or ‘originating in church’. We Will Rock You uses a capella for almost throughout the songs, with nothing but stomps and claps, except the last few seconds of guitar. Obviously, the ‘5ive and Queen’ rendition of the song is very famous.

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 117

Connect.
1. a. The creator is important.

1. b. Translate this to Hindi or Urdu.

2.

3. a.

3. b. What are all these people doing?

4.

Enough hints. And here’s another one. Combine 3a and 3b for another term.

The answer I am looking for is a very specific individual.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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Yes, this is indeed Khurram Syed Sher, the Canadian Idol contestant of 2008, who tried by singing a song by Avril Lavigne and trying out a moonwalk! This doctor was recently arrested in Canada as part of Operation Samosa...

I hope that the Sher hint might have helped, and Shah Jahan was also called Khurram.

Surfbored – 2

Are you listed?

Wondered why a zombie outbreak would fail? Yes? Log on to www.cracked.com to find out...

Arkadev Ghoshal

Here's one that claims to be America's top website for fun and videos. Delve a little deeper, and you will find that is much more than just that. Veer towards the lists, and you will probably experience the entire spectrum of human emotions, from exhilaration to utter revulsion!

The website, on a daily basis, uploads several articles. One or two of them are invariably in a list form, where the authors tick off numbers as they countdown towards the most or least of some quality, or simply count out some of the most gruesome or unintended toys or books or some such objects.

Take, for example, the list of 'Six Things Your Body Does Every Day That Science Can't Explain', or the 'Six Insane Coincidences You Won't Believe Actually Happened'. While the first article is pure science and even points directly to evidence, the second is pure history, and points to reliable historical documentation.

The difference is in the topics, but the similarity lies in the fact that all of them are quite well researched. In fact, some of them are so well researched that one would have to take a look at more than one of the links, provided as proof, before believing the statements!
One drawback of this website is that a majority of its content is USA-oriented. Therefore, it may be difficult for us Indians to understand some of the in-jokes in the texts. Nevertheless, the editorial staff at this website also seems pretty clued in on whatever strange, bizarre or amiss is happening in the world!

Take, for example, their discovery of the great hedge of India, something which probably no Indian remembers! The evidence for this hedge was dug out by a British historian from an obscure footnote of an equally obscure textbook of history, and the authorities at Cracked somehow found out!

There is one bit of caveat, however, especially for the young surfer. The language used on this website is not often very clean. Descriptions of various forms of intercourse, and other sexual innuendos, are used to explain acts of foolishness or bravery or some other extreme performances. Therefore, if you are averse to such language, steer clear!

g_arkadev@dnaindia.net

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This is my third article in the column, and the second one I have put up here…

My column Surfbored is published every Saturday on Page 3 of After Hrs, DNA Jaipur.

You can look it up on epaper.dnaindia.com, in the proper city.

And here is the online link: http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/dna-daily-news-analysis-mumbai/mi_8111/is_20100821/listed/ai_n54898101/

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 116

This fictional character was actually described as a bit rotund, as opposed to his TV portrayal as a slim person. He used to refer to his profession as ‘searching for the truth’ rather than detection.

Satyajit Ray made a film on one of his stories, and although it won the first ever National Award for Best Film, Ray went on to call it one of his weakest!

The person who portrayed him on TV went on to play the role of Mahatma Gandhi in a Shyam Benegal film.

‘Nuff said! I think I made this too easy!

Identify the character…

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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Shivam, can you name me the Shyam Benegal film in which Sabyasachi Chakraborty or Soumitra Chattrejee, both of whom played ‘Feluda’ on television, acted?

The reason I am asking this is because the answer to this question is Byomkesh Bakshi, created by Sharadindu Bandopadhyay!

FYI, Rajit Kapoor, who played Bakshi on Basu Chatterjee’s TV adaptation of the detective, went on to play a very young Mahatma Gandhi in Shyam Benegal’s The Making of the Mahatma.

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 115

His father had to quit his home city because he was being disturbed too much by the colonisers of his country for his ‘revolutionary work. He was brought up in Philadelphia by his mother and foster father, where, at the age of 13, he repaired toys and radios to supplement his family’s income.

He later went on to study at MIT. While doing his doctoral thesis, he bought himself a ‘hi-fi’ system, but was disappointed with it. He later went on to make similar but advanced systems, but based on his psychophysical and psychoacoustic findings that over 80 per cent of sound reaches a listener in an auditorium only after being bounced off a ceiling, floor and walls.

He had the habit of experimenting at home, and on one occasion, hid several speakers in various parts of his room to study their effect. The places included under his bed and in his wardrobe too! One of his friends heard the effect and described it as ‘surround sound’. That was how this specific term was born.

Easy. Identify him.

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Yep! This is indeed a certain gentleman named Amar Gopal Bose, the man behind the company behind all those Bose stereo systems and headphones! Or Bose Audio in general!

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 114

And here is my attempt to atone for what Mr Kamal Rathi thought was a bad question.

Simply but specifically tell me what is happening here…

Shouldn’t be too difficult. Lotsa clues in there…

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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Only one response, and Nandini is correct with her part of the answer. These are indeed Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo. This is a self comic, conceptualised, drawn and worded by them, to describe how they came up with the idea for Asterix, and how they reacted to it!

I thought that Asterix’s face in the first two panels and the CRASH, BOOM, TCHAC in the conversation bubbles would have been a dead giveaway!

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 113

A connect after a loooooooooong time.

Here they are in chronological order…

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

Filenames have been retained for your convenience.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life folks!

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Yes! 10 answers, and only Jishnu went off the mark! All eight of these people were born on December 25! And I deliberately didn’t include Jesus Christ because he is only believed to have been born on that day!

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 112

A slightly trivial and arbit one for the day.

Also, sorry for skipping a day between posts. My internet connection was working up yesterday.

What is this? Who is connected to it?

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

Also, thanks Kunal for your comments on Surfbored – 1. I am a senior sub-editor at DNA Jaipur, so I obviously get paid for my work. ;)

By the way, I would also like your suggestions and feedback, especially if you know some more sites.

As for Ravi Handa’s comments on the same post, I have already covered FMyLife, but thanks for PostSecret.

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Several of you got this one correct. This is a guitar patent by Van Halen guitarist Eddie Van Halen, that allowed him to tap his guitar better!

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 111

Nelson’s score!

And a relatively easy question for the day.

What did this painting mark the beginning of? Or, why is it significant?

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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Yes, folks, this is indeed the painting of the sun’s impression, by Claude Monet. And it started off the era of Impressionism!

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 110

Straightforward, but not that simple. Identify, and be VERY specific!

Hint: Today is…

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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Four answers, and all of them correct! This is indeed the first daguerreotype photograph to have survived the process of daguerreotyping. And World Photography Day, celebrated on August 19, yesterday, this year marks the invention of daguerreotyping, the first ever process to capture a scene mechanically! For further info, read the answers!

Surfbored – 1 (actually the second one)

Folks, of recent, I have started writing a column called ‘Surfbored’ in the After Hrs section of the Jaipur edition of DNA. It is published every Saturday. Here is the second of these articles, published on August 14. I review random but interesting websites. Your inputs, on which interesting and offbeat websites to review, are also welcome! Meanwhile, following is the text of the article:

Movie mistakes or trivia, this site is near perfect...

Tired of that wise-cracking friend who rants on and on about how 'good' English films are, and how our Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood or whatever cannot even hold a candle to them? Look into www.moviemistakes.com , and the next time that friend opens his mouth, flood him with the mistakes of the film that he is extolling!

And, in case, this friend is ribbing you about how little you know about certain classics or cult films, look up the trivia sections. You will be surprised to read that Brad Pitt tore his Achilles tendon while playing Achilles in Troy, or that the hands shown drawing Rose's charcoal sketch in Titanic actually belong to James Cameron, the director of the film!

However, the biggest draw of the site is treasure trove of filmy mistakes it lists. The contributors include not only those running the site, but also fans and members of the site's services. They seem to have found out 390 verified mistakes in the Vietnam war classic Apocalypse Now, currently the highest for any film on the website. The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and all their sequels also feature prominently on the list of mistakes.

The site has a section for the 'best mistakes' in films, and another for the best of these mistakes that actually have pictures of them to prove the point!

Even the popular sitcom Friends, or TV's longest running animation series The Simpsons, are dissected for mistakes and trivia. And, of course, if you spot something that could be a mistake or a trivia, there is always the section on questions, where you put up your query, and someone else answers it.

The really good thing about this site is that when one is viewing the mistakes of a particular film or TV show, other features of the film, like its trivia, questions and quotes, are just one click away! Besides, the website seems to use an intelligent algorithm to suggest five other films a user might like if it is viewing a specific film.

The downsides are the high number of ads that sometimes clutter the display and the repetitiveness of the films listed. Also, the process of submitting mistakes is awfully complicated, but one can understand that. The site-authorities did not want spamming.

All in all, this is one website that should increase your Hollywood IQ quite a few notches. And, if you are lucky, you might come across the mistakes in some Hindi films as well, like I did with Dus!

Happy mistake-hunting, folks!

g_arkadev@dnaindia.net

Credit: Arkadev Ghoshal

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 109

When X, a fictional character, first appeared in public domain, he wasn’t even supposed to be the leading character of the franchise! In fact, the reason of his strength is attributed to a study published in 1870 that mistakenly reported the iron-content in a naturally-available edible object. The creator of the franchise often signed the drawings with a cigar instead of his name! Also, the species of one of the characters in the series is said to have been the reason behind the nomenclature of a certain category of four-wheeled vehicles.

Identify X.

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Yes, this is indeed Popeye the Sailor! The cigar in the comic strips was due to the creator EC Segar, who used a phonetic equivalent of his name there. And the vehicle connect is Eugene the Jeep.

Btw, a recent study in the Daily Telegraph has shown that children who watch Popeye eat twice the amount of veggies than those who don’t!

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 108

Sooooooper easy one for the day.

This organisation was named after a numerical denomination, like a billion or a lakh. However, it’s name had to be slightly modified to its current spelling because the first cheque they received actually misspelled the denomination, and the founders of the organisation have persisted with the wrong spelling.

Which organisation?

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Yes. All of you, except zeeshan, are correct! I know, zeeshan, that trillian somehow seems to fit the bill, but i was looking for a certain Google! The name comes from googol, and that’s 1 followed by 100 zeroes. Don’t believe me? Google it!

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 107

Identify.

Hint: His ‘field’ of work got him branded the best of all times by the Apex body of that field in the country.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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Just two responses from 100-odd visitors or visits! Then again, both the responses are correct…

This is indeed Sailen Manna, the defender who played for 19 long years for Mohun Bagan, and is only one of the few people whom even people from East Bengal respect!

His bigger identity is that he was chosen FOOTBALLER OF THE MILLENNIUM by the All India Football Federation in 2000!

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 106

1. _____ ___ _____
2. Joaquín Guzmán Loera
3. Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov
4. ______ _______ ______
5. Matteo Messina Denaro
6. Felicien Kabuga
7. Pedro Antonio Marin
8. Joseph Kony
9. James "Whitey" Bulger
10. Omid Tahvili

Fill in the blanks.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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TEN responses, and all correct! Yes, this is the list of the World’s 10 Most Wanted, as published by Forbes. The two blank spaces will have the names of Osama Bin Laden and Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar respectively! Meanwhile, the last name in the list belongs to an aide of Dawood.

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 105

X claims that he made the Y Awards famous in his country, and not that the Y Award he got made him famous in his country.

There may be quite some truth here. Apparently, after winning the award, X was invited to tea by the President of his country. After about 20 minutes of interaction, just as the President was about to leave, he turned to X and almost nonchalantly asked, “By the way, what exactly IS Y?”

Identify both X and Y.

Hint: You won’t have to look far, at least geographically, for X.

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No answers! Was this so difficult?

The answer, obviously, is:

X – Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.

Y – Grammy Awards.

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 104

An easy and straightforward one after the last zinger.

Ritwick Ghatak, after whom Hrithik Roshan’s Bengali grandmother named him, was a hyper-talented and an equally alcoholic person. On One instance, he was living almost as a homeless person when his brother-in-law Bimal Roy picked him up, brought him home and tended to his needs. So touched was Ghatak after sometime that he asked Roy if he could repay the favour. Roy made Ghatak do something that changed an entire genre of Hindi cinema! What did Roy make Ghatak do?

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Several answers, yes. But there seem to be some misnomers, like the one that Ghatak DIRECTED Madhumati.

No, Ghatak just wrote the screenplay of Madhumati, in three hours flat! That’s why it is said that he was hyper-talented. And yes, it was indeed the script for Madhumati, which, although not the first film in India on the theme or reincarnation, was indeed a groundbreaking one! Meanwhile, Bimal Roy had already worked as and editor in Kamal Amrohi’s Mahal, a 1949 release, considered one of the earliest films on reincarnation. Madhumati was released in 1958.

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 103

Folks, if you like/dislike my questions, please make your approval/disapproval known via the checkboxes at the bottom of the post!

Today’s question is slightly difficult. These are three different clips. Connect them to one single entity on Indian reality television.

1. This is a very specific rendition of the patriotic classic Saare Jahan Se Achchha… I find it renamed as Spirit of Freedom and included in a compilation called Bollywood Dream Themes. Arbit funda: The voice that you hear towards the end, that says “Rashtra Salute! Salaami Degi!…” and all, actually belongs to Danny Dengzongpa, and he said these words in one of the last scenes of 1942: A Love Story.

2. This is a remix of the piece Bombay Theme from the Hindi film Bombay. Original music by AR Rahman, remix by DJ Suketu.

3. This is the song Navras from Matrix Revolutions, and plays when the end credits of the film are rolling. surprisingly, the lyrics are in Sanskrit, beginning with Asato ma sadgamaya…

Connect these three. It’s a very specific connect.

Note: I could have added Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire and Jai Jai Maataram from the album Vande Maataram 2, among others, to this list, but I desisted.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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I kept this one open for three whole days, and yet, only one response!

Looks like this was a total bouncer! The answer, obviously is Prince Dance Group, the winners of the first season of India’s Got Talent. You can find more about them here.

Also, go to YouTube and search for them, and you will find that these are the three songs they danced to during their performances on the show itself. They have performed many other shows since, and there they have used songs like Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire and Jai Jai Maataram from the album Vande Maataram 2.

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 102

X was born in South Side, Chicago in 1951 to Russian and Romanian Jewish immigrants.

Early in her life, after working as a waitress, she took up loans from customers worth $50,000, and invested it in Merrill Lynch. The loan was to be repaid to the customers in 10 years’ time, and with no interest. However, her investments somehow went bad, and she lost the amount.

Realising that going back to waiting tables would not help her repay the loan, she took up an internship in Merrill Lynch itself, and during that time she learnt that her stockbroker had done something illegal, which had made her lose the money. She sued Merrill Lynch, got the money back with interest, repaid her loan and was later employed by Merrill Lynch itself!

She went on to write seven consecutive New York Times bestsellers, and one of her books was available for free on Oprah Winfrey’s website for 33 hours, during which it was downloaded approximately 1 million times!

She has been chosen by both Forbes and Time Magazine as either one of the top 100 influential women or top 100 influential people in the world in 2009. She has won two Daytime Emmy Awards and six Gracie Awards, the latter being the highest by any individual so far!

Identify X.

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Many answers again, but only one wrong! If Zeeshan didn’t google, it’s ok. If he did and came up with JK Rowling, then there’s something seriously wrong with google!

The answer is Suze Orman. This lady:

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 101

This band was looking for a drummer, and in the meantime, making do with make-shift drummers instead. Apparently, they needed someone who was volatile in constitution.

On one occasion, they were playing at a London pub with a ‘session’ drummer when, towards the end of their gig, a young man came up and told the drummer to take a hike. With the permission of the other band members, he sat on the drums and proceeded to destroy the entire set by either smashing the membranes of the percussion instruments or letting other parts fly into the audience. After he had finished, one band member turned towards the other and said, “We have found our drummer!” The drummer in question was only 18 years old then!

This drummer became (in)famous for his antics offstage. On one instance, having almost nothing to do in a hotel room, he went out and brought a hatchet, and proceeded to destroy every bit of wooden furniture in his hotel room. Sometime later, when someone came to fetch him and instead saw him sitting on a pile of wood, he asked what the drummer was doing. The reply was, “Just keeping myself out of trouble.”

On another instance, he invited some of his friends over to his house for a very liquid party, during which he passed out on the floor of the living room. His guests, instead of helping him out, proceeded to simply walk all over him for quite sometime! Then, finding him quite a hindrance, they dragged him by the leg up the stairs to his bedroom, breaking his collarbone in the process!

Apparently, the band had a very important recording session for a big television show the next day, and the other members almost flipped when they learned of this injury, because it meant that this great publicity opportunity would slip out of their hands! The drummer had other plans. He called upon a close friend, and on the day of the recording, tied a rope to his hands, handing the other end of the rope to his friend behind the curtains. Whenever it was needed, the friend would pull the rope and let it go, making the drummers hand come crashing on the cymbals! and that was how this session was recorded, and the television audience were none the wiser!

The question is simple. Identify the drummer and the band/group.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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Yes, folks! This is indeed Keith Moon of The Who!

Speaking of them…

Sorry. Couldn’t resist the temptation.

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 100

YAY! We reached a century, albeit haltingly!

Henceforth, I will also invite ‘guest questions’ from the lot! Please send in your questions to devvvved@gmail.com.

Meanwhile, Another dry one for the day:

X’s first name was John, but he changed it to something that meant ‘someone revered and respected’ in his native language. However, this very name has become akin to the underworld in Mumbai. X was a follower of the order founded by St Francis de Sales. Enough hints. Name X.

Arbit trivia: Yours truly is indebted to X on the academic front.

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Many answers, but Zeeshan, my friend, you could be in for a tough time at the hands of some Bosco-ites. What made you think it was Abu Salem? The Mumbai underworld clue?

Yes, this is John Bosco, aka Don Bosco, follower of the Salesian order. He has a lot of schools named after him in India. Look him up. PS: My alma mater is a Don Bosco School too!

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 99

This one is a tribute.

X, a famous playback singer, owed a sum of money to some Bengali individual. However, not having the sum with him immediately, he ordered his servant not to let any Bengali gentleman enter his house. As luck would have it, director Hrishikesh Mukherjee, came to visit X, wanting to cast him in the title role of his film A. However, the servant followed his orders to the T, and Mukherjee never even got to meet X! As a result, he caste someone else in the film, which became a huge hit!

On another instance, singer and music composer Y was approached to play a role in the film B. He refused because his father thought it would bring disgrace to his family. Y composed the music for this film, but the role went to X. X and another singer Z practised 21 days before recording a particular song for the film B, which became a runaway hit.

Identify X, Y, Z, A and B.

Hint: the tribute is to X.

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I guess most of you latched onto the ‘tribute to X’ hint.

X: Kishore Kumar

Y: R D Burman

Z: Manna De

A: Anand

B: Padosan

And the song in question is Ek Chatur Naar.

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 98

Connect. This is easier than it appears!

1.

2.

3.

4. This is a district of Houston, Texas, USA.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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Again, lotsa answers, and most of them correct! The connect is indeed MK aka Mahatma Gandhi.

Refer to the comments for further details…

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 97

Simply identify.

Photo courtesy ibnlive.com.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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Two answers, and some more on FB. Yes, folks, this is indeed Jimmy ‘Jimbo’ Wales, attributed to be the co-founder of Wikipedia by Wikipedia itself!

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 96

Once again, connect.

1.

2.

3.

4.

 

5.

As usual, filenames have not been changed for your convenience.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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Very few answers!. Folks, are these questions getting too tough?

This one, of course, is Kal Penn, aka Kalpen Suresh Modi, the Indian origin Hollywood actor. He has served in the Obama administration, and had to be written out of the television series House because of it. He has played a young terrorist in the television series 24, and an orphan in Epic Movie. He was also the namesake, Gogol Ganguli, in Mira Nair’s film adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel, The Namesake.

QR – Cure – Quizzing Realms – 95

Connect to something very recent and very specific.

1.

2.

3.

4.

As usual, filenames have not been changed, for your convenience.

Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!

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Two answers, but none of them are correct! Even the great Kamal Rathi is stumped!

Here’s a hint:

Yes! This is the Vodafone parrot ad! Boman Irani, as the parrot, says: “Agar yeh baat sahi hai na, to yeh Akbar Badshah ka zamana hai, main Spiderman hoon, Deepika hai na, mera girlfriend hai, aur Salman mera trainer hai. Aur main har roz chai peene ke liye Buckingham Palace jaata hoon!”