Mood Indigo General Quiz 2012 Prelims (with answers)

Conundrums mood indigo 2012
omniscience
the general quiz
preliminaries

conducted by
j. ramanand

mood indigo 2012 || j ramanand || conundrums – the general quiz

Background
Bombay Prelims conducted at
Conundrums, Mood Indigo,
Dec 2012

Highest score: 25
Cutoff: 15.5


1. Whose
tomb is this?


Auguste Rodin.

A cast of his celebrated
sculpture “The Thinker”
was placed on top of it

Image:
http://flickrcc.net/art/showtitle.php?
productID=665925


2. Tribute issue for whom?


2012 is fifty years since Monroe died.


3. According to Hindu mythology, the
sage Vishwamitra made this tree long
and straight so as to prop up his friend,
the nutty king Trishanku, who had been
unceremoniously booted out of heaven
by Indra.

Which tree?


The coconut tree.


4. This Pondicherry born film-maker
was supposed to direct the “Life of Pi”
movie, before saying no.

He did so because the story's twist
ending would lead to skewed
expectations because of his
association.

(Incidentally, in the story, Pi comes
from Pondicherry)

M. Night Shyamalan


5. Which article of clothing, that has
gone from Asia to the rest of the
world, gets its name from the
Persian for “foot” and “clothing”?


Pyjama (“Pai” + “Jama”)


6. If you made the 2300-odd feet
journey up the Corcovado mountain
in Brazil, you would meet Cristo
Redondo at the summit.

How do we better know him?


Christ the Redeemer


7. Whose final movie?


Jaspal Bhatti


8. Whose first two lines came in a story
collection titled “The Man With Two Left
Feet” and were as follows:

“Mrs. Gregson to see you sir”

“Very good, sir. Which suit will you wear?”


Jeeves, in the story
“Extricating Young Gussie”


9. Which musical instrument was
legally declared an instrument of
war in the 18th century?


Bagpipes


10. He is the first IITian to be Chief
Minister of an Indian state, and
graduated in metallurgical
engineering in 1978 from IIT
Bombay.

Who is he?


Manohar Parrikar of Goa


11. Ananda Samarakoon studied
art and music at Santiniketan in
the 1910s, and was influenced by
Tagore. He returned to his native
country, where he wrote and
composed its national anthem.

Which country?


Sri Lanka


12. The first American to win an
Economics Nobel (in 1970), he is also
known to students of Economics as
the author of an introductory book
on the subject.

Who?


Paul Samuelson


13. Kaushik Basu is Chief Economist for
the World Bank. He writes about an
invention of his:
“I have wasted a lot of time on ____ and so developed the game of
Dui-___ to help double the wastage of time by drawing two
persons at a time into it.”

“I have called the game Dui-____ because this is a two-player game,
‘dui’ or ‘dvi’ in Sanskrit means two, and all such games are
considered to be of no value unless they have a mysterious
oriental name.”

Which game?


Sudoku


14. During a dinner with Pink Floyd members Nick
Mason and David Gilmour, this radio personality
made a suggestion that they title their upcoming
album “Division Bell”.

In return, they made a sizeable donation to the
Environmental Investigation Agency, where he had
made a speech earlier that day.

Who?


The author Douglas Adams.


15. Perhaps the last time Jawaharlal
Nehru wore his lawyer's robes was
when he joined the team of
Bhulabhai Desai along with Tej
Bahadur Sapru, Asaf Ali, and
Kailashnath Katju.

They were defending a trio
belonging to which organisation?


Officers of the INA on trial in 1945 at the
Red Fort.


16. The National Award for Best Book on
Cinema for 2011 (which had an
introduction by Shammi Kapoor) was
awarded to a biography written by
Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal.
Ironically, the subject of their book never
won a National Award himself, much to
the disappointment of his fans.

Who is the subject?


R D Burman.


17. Who heads a faction in a political
party in the Ukraine called the
Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for
Reform? (which conveniently
abbreviates to “UDAR”, meaning
“punch” in Ukrainian).


Vitali Klitschko, the boxer


18. In Japanese mythology,
Takachiho is the mountain on top
of which the deities live. An
electronics company named itself
after this in 1919.

In 1949, it changed its name to
which other mountain?


Olympus


19. The name of this 1968 book
written by Brigadier J P Dalvi about
the Indian debacle in the 1961 war is
now used as a metaphor for a
massive error.

What's the book called?


“Himalayan Blunder”


20. In the books by Thomas Harris, the
character Hannibal Lecter was said to
have a condition called “polydactyly
with mid-ray duplication”. This would
have enabled him to provide the “digitus
impudicus” two times over.

What did he have two of?


Middle finger


21. What is the common name of these
birds, which may be a traffic hazard at
times?

Image: rspb.co.uk, Animal Planet


Jays.

(Jay-walking is when someone tries to
cross a street without following traffic
rules)


22. Who is he inviting you to shine with (a
few months ago?)


23. A demonym is a word used to
denote a person from a place. Such as
“Indians”, “Spaniards”, “Mumbaikars”
etc.

The demonym for which place is
“Mancunian”?


Manchester


24. In Latin they are:

superbia
avaritia
invidia
ira
luxuria
gula
pigritia or acedia

What are they better known as?


The Seven Deadly Sins

(pride, avarice/greed, envy, wrath,
lust, gluttony, and sloth)


25. Identify this
musician with the
help of this
anagram:

AH, PAN
HALL SONG

Image: davidphilipson.com

Pannalal Ghosh


26. This British scientist was a child prodigy
in physics, completing his Ph.D by age 20.
He conceptualised “Mathematica”, a
software program for scientific
computing, and this question answering
system (you see an example).
Coincidentally, his last name is an
alternative name for a chemical element.

Who is he?


Stephen Wolfram


27. The lady in the
middle is often seen in
Roger Federer's box
at matches. She is the
inspiration for a book
(later a movie) written
by her former
assistant, Lauren
Weisberger.

Who?


This is Anna Wintour, the editor of
Vogue (the American edition).


28. A 2012 commemorative coin marking
what event?


Armistice/Remembrance/Poppy Day
(end of World War 1)


29. The name of which place is common to this Tintin
character and this type of blue cheese from Italy?

Image: tintin.wikia.com, tastingsgourmetmarket.com


Gorgonzola

(Rastapopoulos has an alter ego called
“Marquis di Gorgonzola”; the cheese is
Gorgonzola cheese)


30. What duology begins with an
invocation to this triumvirate?


Gangs of Wasseypur

dedicated to the “Madurai triumvirate”
of Bala, Ameer Sultan and M Sasikumar.
Anurag Kashyap was inspired by the
rooted movies made by this trio.


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