A slightly tricky one, but definitely not so when you know it!
This is an album cover. How do we know this artiste better today?
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Wow! I give it a gap and more than 30 replies materialise over months! Some come even months after this post!
Thanks y’all! The answer, of course, is Lady Gaga.
A super-simple one on current affairs.
Identify the advertiser and the event.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Six answers, and all correct! This is indeed Oreo celebrating the landing of the probe Curiousity on the surface of Mars.
Should be a whole lot easier.
Simply tell me who wrote this letter about his unusual pet dog to the Ripley’s Believe It or Not feature in newspapers, and got it published.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
PS: Keep following my pieces about quizzing on www.quiztalk.in
***
Eight replies, and all correct! This is indeed a letter by a very young Charles M Schulz, the creator of the Peanuts and Snoopy.
Shouldn’t be too difficult.
This is the view from the side of the person who uses it. What exactly is it?
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Seven replies, but only four correct. Looks like a difficult one. This is the helmet that the DJ who calls himself dead mouse (stylised as Deadmau5) wears while belting out mixes. Here’s a better view:
Another filmy one, and this time it’s pretty easy.
Identify the individual in the foreground, and the character he is portraying. Obviously, the man in the background is the hugest clue possible.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Four replies, and all of them got the character correct! This is indeed Q, short for Quartermaster, a role that has been near-immortalised by the late Desmond Llewelyn. The gentleman, of course is Ben Whishaw.
Should be an easy connect.
1. Originally a Bengali novel.
2.
3.
Connect all three to a certain film personality in India.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
PS: Check out my interview of BBC HARDtalk host Tim Sebastian.
***
Six answers, and four point in the correct direction: Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The first photo is that of the Bengali novel Na Hanyate, which is said to have inspired Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. The second is Fyodr Dostoevsky, whose White Nights Bhansali made into Saawariya. And of course, Bhansali also remade Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s Devdas.
Should be pretty easy.
Just tell me what/whose name is blanked out.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Going by the 13 replies, this looks like a simple one! Other than VK Shankar, the dozen got it correct. This is supposedly the future birthplace of a certain James Tiberius Kirk, who will go on to captain the Starship Enterprise!
A slightly difficult one today.
It was due to an account of atrocity by this gentleman that one of the most infamous battles in the history of India took place, thereby cementing the position of the East India Company in India.
The incident described by the gentleman has allusions to a celestial body. However, that description of the event, since first given in the early 1750s and repeated by this army man subsequently, has come under a lot of scrutiny, and has often been questioned for its veracity.
Name this gentleman and the incident.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Seven people replied, and everyone, except the ‘Twelfth Man’ got it correct. This person is indeed John Zephaniah Holwell. It was his account of the Black Hole of Calcutta that prompted the then British government to send Robert Clive to subdue Bengal’s Nawab Siraj-ud-Daula. The rest, obviously, is history!
Should not be too difficult.
1.
2. Apparently, this is an ‘alleged’ photo of this person.
3.
4.
Connect to a single person. As usual, the names of files have not been changed for your convenience.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Three replies, and only Kushal Shah got it correct. It’s Jet Li. While SS Panda identified all four people, only Kushal got the connect. Jet Li played the first two martial arts characters, and was offered the role of Seraph in the Matrix trilogy, but turned it down. Also, by his own admission, a 12-year-old Li impressed US president Richard Nixon so much in a martial arts display that Nixon asked him, albeit jokingly, to be his personal bodyguard. Li refused, and instead said he would instead defend/protect his billion-strong countrymen.
Another easy one.
Identify this bird by its name, and tell me what it’s duties are. Hint: It is very recently in the news.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Wow! More than 10 of the 15 replies got it correct! This is indeed Rufus the Hawk, who is used to scare away the sparrows at Wimbledon. A couple did say Hamish, but this is Rufus, and he is in the news because he was recently stolen, then found.
Should be one of the easiest questions on my blog.
This building, built in the Indo-Saracen style, with a dash of Mughal architectural style thrown in, is situated in what was once the capital of its country. Established in 1921, it commemorates the reign of a British monarch. It was designed by British architect William Emerson, who was knighted along the way.
Identify the building and where it is located.
PS: A friend of mine is looking for signatures on a petition. Please oblige.
***
True to my prediction, this did turn out to be an easy one! We have 14 replies, all pointing correctly to the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata. And to assuage at least one person’s curiosity, I didn’t click this photo inside Victoria Memorial. I found it on Wikipedia.
Somewhat of a follow-up to the previous question.
After Rocky Balboa defeated Russian champion Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren) in Rocky IV, the makers of the franchise decided that there were no more opponents left on earth who were capable of competing with Rocky, and hence planned a film on those lines.
However, when Sylvester Stallone was told of the film, he thought it was too outlandish, and declined to star in the film. It instead went to another action hero and ended up giving a huge boost to that actor’s career.
All you have to do is identify the film. Interestingly, and without knowing I would ask this question here, I seem to have left a nod to this film in my previous question. So that’s another hint to make things easier.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Five replies, and four are spot on! The filmmakers had decided that since every option on earth had been exhausted, they would have Stallone fight an alien, but he refused. So they approached a certain Arnold Schwarzenegger, and he agreed to star in the film called Predator. The rest, as they say, is history!
A very easy connect.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
The photos are in a certain chronological order. Connect them. Shouldn’t be all that difficult.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Nine replies, and all on the correct path. These are all opponents of Rocky Balboa in the climactic scenes of the Rocky series of films, Rocky I-V, and Rocky Balboa.
A super easy one.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Connect all four to a single song. Hint: You need not have watched Gangs of Wasseypur to establish the connection.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Eight replies and five correct! Everyone obviously got the Gangs of Wasseypur connect, but there seemed to be some confusion over the song. It’s indeed Keh ke loonga, which has been blocked out from the Amul ad. Amit Trivedi and Sneha Khanwalkar sang the song.
An easy connect, albeit a long one. Took some time to research this question. If you like it, a word of appreciation will go a long way in helping me put up better questions.
1. Identify the film.
2. Another film.
3. Needs no introduction, but this is a double connect!
4.
5. This is a Marathi play, FYI.
To which two people can you connect all these works? Should be quite easy!
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
WOW! No less than 13 replies, although a few of them are repeated tries by our friend Jeevan, who got at least one connect right! The connects, obviously, are Rohit Shetty and Ajay Devgn. Shetty's films are all remakes of the films and plays mentioned here, and Ajay Devgn has starred in all of them.
From the beginning: Khatta Meetha was loosely remade as Golmaal 3; Anukokunda Oka Roju was remade as Sunday; Golmaal is being remade as Bol Bachchan, and Rohit Shetty's Golmaal trilogy stars Ajay Devgn, hence the double connect; Bajirao The Tiger is the dubbed version of the film that was made into Singham; and the Marathi play Pati Sagale Uchapati inspired All The Best.
Should be quite easy.
1.
2.
3.
Connect all three to a single person.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Five answers, and two of them are exactly what I am looking for: S Hussain Zaidi! The two films are based on books by this author, and the third is another book by him.
Shouldn’t be too difficult.
This gentleman was a major general in 19th century America, and earned the moniker of one of the most incompetent generals during the American civil war. However, he is remembered for something else that is quite evident here. Explain the ensuing nomenclature.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Five replies, and all correct! This is Major General Ambrose Burnside, whose unique style of sporting facial hair was named as a tribute to his surname. Hence, we have the sideburn (also known as mutton chops).
Should be an easy one.
This is an error message generated by the current versions of Windows 8, from Beta version to Release Preview. How do we better know the this error message from previous versions of the Windows operating system?
***
Wow! A total of 15 replies! Too bad that only one says HAL_Initialization_Failed, because that’s more of a Windows 8 error. The earlier version of it all, as 14 others have answered correctly, is popularly known as the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).
Should be an easy one.
Complete the series:
Give me all three! Super easy, actually.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Easy one, and so a lot of replies! X is Roy Emerson, Y is Rod Laver and Z is obviously Rafael Nadal.
This probably won’t be too easy.
Connect Amitabh Bachchan’s dialogue in Amar Akbar Anthony: “Aisa to aadmi life mein do ich baar bhagta hai: Olympic ka race ho ya police ka case,” to the following film clip.
In case you can’t see the video here, it’s the opening scene of Slumdog Millionaire, where the policeman chases Jamaal and his brother through the slums of Dharavi.
Mind you, I am looking for a very specific connect. Think of what inspired the film clip, and revisit the inspiration. There can’t be a bigger hint than that!
I will not accept answers like ‘Amitabh Bachchan hosted KBC, which was derived from Who Wants To Be a Millionaire’, or ‘Jamaal was a fan of Amitabh Bachchan, and had his photo..’.
This is a very specific connect, and you may want to look at a modern retelling of one of Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s stories for a further hint.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Just two replies, but none of them give me the exact connection between the chase and Amitabh Bachchan’s dialogue. Sure, the opening chase in Slumdog Millionaire was inspired by Black Friday’s loooooooooooong and brutally authentic chase scene, but where does Amitabh Bachchan fit in?
Listen carefully, when the constable is chasing the character of Imtiaz Gawathe through the slums. When both of them are tired, Imtiaz ducks into a small gali. Listen in from 4:40, and you will know what I mean! Roerich Bansal and Kushal Shah, you were there, but not quite!
An easy one.
This country is known to be extremely devoted to a certain colour, so that not only are its football team’s jerseys of this colour, bit even their bandages and medical supplies reflect this colour!
As if that’s not all, the country is also responsible for the current colour of a certain vegetable, which used to be found in yellow, purple/violet and even white varieties. However, through selective breeding, they managed to make the vegetable of only one colour – and this colour exists even today!
Question: Identify the country and the vegetable.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Nine replies, and most of you got The Netherlands correct. However, only Vaibhav Saraf and a certain Mr/Ms ‘expand’ got the vegetable, which was the carrot!
PS: Atharv Joshi got this one too!
A slightly obtuse one for the day.
The protein called Titin, also referred to as connectin by some, is a large one, and is responsible for the passive elasticity of muscles. It is also considered to be a structural protein for chromosomes. The name Titin itself is derived from the Greek word Titan – a reference to something about it that is giant.
My question is, why is this protein of great significance to lexicographers?
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Wow, 14 replies! But not all of them correct… The IUPAC name of Titin actually has the distinction of being the longest single world in the world, with more than 1.89 lakh alphabets! However, there is a debate as to whether it can be considered the longest word in the world, because many lexicographers – people who write dictionaries
– do not take into account scientific names and terms.
So, going by the number of questions, this blog turns one-year-old! No big celebration planned for the moment, though. However, I do solemnly promise some goodies coming your way over the next one or two months.
Meanwhile, here’s the question of the day.
In many forms of Poker, the card game, there is a starting hand that comprises the King and the Ace, maybe of the same suit, or maybe of different suits. What very specific name is given to this hand, based on the initials of the denominations of the cards, and the observation that such hands ‘look good, but rarely win’?
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Four answers, of which three are correct. The hand is indeed called the Anna Kournikova, named after the initials of the cards – Ace and King – and also because it purportedly ‘looks good but rarely wins!
Two quick questions about a certain mathematician for today.
First: Lewis Carroll, the creator of Alice In Wonderland, was actually a mathematician in real life, and had a real stutter. What character in the Alice series did he name after how he used to pronounce his name with a stutter?
And the second: As a mathematician, Carroll was famous for what he called nonsense logic. According to him, which of the two watches – one that slowed that by a minute every hour or one that had stopped altogether – was better? and Why?
Happy Quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
PS: I have been writing quite a few things, the latest being a later-than-usual piece about the cartoons that irked our politicians, published in the New Delhi edition of The Financial World. You can find it here. If you have any opinion about it, please send an email to fwletters@gmail.com.
***
Four replies, of which three give the correct answer to Question 1, while one nails Question Two. Great going!
The first answer is the Dodo bird. Lewis Carroll was his pet name, the real name being Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. His stutter, combined with his surname gave us the bird.
The answer to the second one is the watch that has stopped altogether. According to Mr Dodgson’s brand of logic, the other watch would take several days to show the correct time at least once, while the watch that had stopped showed the correct time at least twice a day!
A slightly difficult one.
Identify the gentleman. His biggest claim to fame till date is still the fact that he is a Bollywood superstar’s son. And the superstar died recently.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Thanks for the great response again, guys! 12 Answers, and all point to Sunil Anand, son of Dev Anand! And of course, all are correct.
Here’s another connect.
1.
2.
3.
This inspiring connect, based on the films, should lead you to an actor who has made you laugh and cry with many of his roles. A single person, and that too not from Bollywood.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Nine answers, and seven are SPOT ON! The connect I was looking for is indeed Robin Williams! However, As a certain Mr Raviteja points out in the comments, Munna Bhai was based on some Kamal Hassan Film, and even Mohabbatein has some Kama ‘k’onnect. My logic, however, was that all three films mentioned here are ‘inspired’ by Robin Williams films: Munna Bhai MBBS from Patch Adams, based on the real life story of Hunter ‘Patch’ Adams; Mohabbatein from Dead Poets’ Society; and Chachi 420 from Mrs Doubtifre.
However, I cannot accept the ninth answer I got. Robbie Williams, my friend, is the musician, not the actor.
Straightforward, but may not be all that simple.
The photo above is a message generated due to the running of which computer program, and what is its significance in the history of computer software? Yes, I want both answers.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Eight reply, and all on the correct lines. This is indeed the Elk Cloner, the first virus ever to attack home or personal computers. It was designed to affect only Apple’s Macintosh systems.
A connect after quite some time.
1.
2.
3.
Connect to a single character.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
!! answers, and all there, or almost there! The character is indeed Topshe, aka Tapesh Ranjan Mitra, who plays the sidekick to Feluda, aka Prodosh Chandra Mitra. Feluda is a very popular children’s character created by Satyajit Ray, who even made a couple of films featuring the character. Thereafter, his son Sandeep Ray has been making TV programmes, telefilms and full-length films featuring the character, based on Ray’s stories.
Simple one for another effort to get the ball rolling again for this blog.
Identify the gentleman.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
PS: Here’s something to whet your appetite for reading. My views on whether Sachin Tendulkar should or should not be in the Rajya Sabha. Bouquets and brickbats invited.
***
Faith in quizzing world: Restored! 25 replies! Wow! And congrats all around, except may be just 1 answer… This indeed is Stephen Hawking!
An easy but wordy one for the day.
It was started in 1991 by Polish satirist Janusz Rewinski, ostensibly to reduce alcoholism due to vodka. It was more of a statement of disenchantment towards the country’s deteriorating political atmosphere. However, this ‘joke’ caught the people’s fancy so much, and they started taking it so seriously that the political party actually went on to win 16 seats in Poland’s parliamentary election in 1991!
However, factionalism caused its split later, but not before it had already had a lot of people in splits.
Identify this political entity.
PS: Here’s edition 20 of Mind Your Business quiz on the New Delhi edition of The Financial World.
Answer all six questions in MYB via SMS to the number mentioned in the pic, and you could win a good prize!
Meanwhile, for those who are in New Delhi, please start buying The Financial World’s Friday edition for the quiz. You’ll get the questions much earlier than when I post it on Facebook or this blog.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Just one answer, and its correct! This was indeed the Polish Beer Lovers’ Party!
Should be extremely easy.
The beginning of every episode of The Simpsons has some elements that change. Initially, it was just Lisa’s saxophone solo and the lines Bart is writing on the board as punishment. Here is one of those lines. Something happened for the first time in this episode, and has continued since. In what technological way was this episode the first?
PS: Here’s edition 16 of Mind Your Business, the quiz column published in The Financial World from New Delhi.
Send in all your answers via SMS before March 20, and you could win a book!
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Six answers, but only four are entirely correct. And someone actually answered MYB here! The answer is: This is the first Simpsons episode to be aired in HDTV.
A connect it is, this time.
1.
2.
3.
Identify the first and third, and connect all three to a single person.
Happy quizzing, and have a nice life, folks!
***
Three replies, and only one gets it, though another came pretty close. I had asked for a specific person as the connection, and that is Jim Parsons, aka, Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory. He played the human form of Walter the muppet in The Muppets, released recently. Also played a role in The Great New Wonderful. And our priest, Georges Lemaître, theorised the Big Bang.
