Aah The joy of quizzing!

1.The original Indian architects were Sitaram Khanderao Vaidya and D. N. Mirza, but the project was completed by an English engineer W. A. Chambers. The cost of construction was 250000 (127 million today). During World War I, this was converted into a 600-bed hospital. Its dome is made from the same steel as used in the Eiffel Tower. It was the first in India to install and operate a steam elevator. What would I be talking about ?

2. The most visited house in the USA is the White House. Which comes second?

3.Who are these people?

4. If Beijing means Northern Capital, and Tokyo means Eastern Capital, then which capital city's name means simply "Capital".

5. To which company did the shipment of tea destroyed by the American colonists during the Boston Tea Party in 1773 belong ? (Hint: Connect with India)

6. What is the contribution of Scott Fahlman of Carnegie Mellon University to everyday usage in the world of "communication"?

7. In Australia he is called Fred Nurk. In China, he is called Chan Siu Ming and in France, he is called Jean Dupont. How is he known in the USA ?

8. Sri Chithira Thirunal Balarama Varma and his kin were the first passengers. Mr E.G. Salter, Assistant, Operating Superintendent of London Passenger Transport Board was the first driver. What am I talking about?

9. "He lies here, somewhere" Whose epitaph is this.

10. Ok some raw trivia. Often packed tightly in cans for sale, Sardines provide an apt metaphor for crowded conditions in human society: "packed like sardines in a can." But why are sardines tightly packed in cans ? (Hint : Be economical )

11. A question for the lazy bums. Which electronic device developed by Zenith Radio Corporation in 1950 was officially called "Lazy Bones". (Stupid Hint : we often fight over it !)

12.Born at Bhirung Raut Ki Gali, in Dumraon, Bihar as the second son of Paigambar and Mitthan, He was named as Qamaruddin to rhyme with Shamsuddin, their first son. His grandfather, Rasool Baksh uttered "__________" after looking at the newborn and thus he came to be known by the name we popularly know him. Who?

13.This statue was unveiled as a tribute to whom?

14. X's creators hope that it will evoke neither a type of cherry nor a strip club on The Sopranos TV series but rather a sound the ringing of a bell that signals the aha moment when one finds an answer. The name is meant to conjure the sound of found as X helps people with complex tasks like shopping for a camera,travel plans etc. Identify X!!

15. Where would you come across this verse When Ivo goes back with the urn, the urn; Studds, Steel, Read and Tylecote return, return; The welkin will ring loud, The great crowd will feel proud, Seeing Barlow and Bates with the urn, the urn; And the rest coming home with the urn.

16.What is happening here?

17. The author's preferred title for this book was "Four-and-a-Half Years Of Struggle Against Lies, Stupidity And Cowardice" but the publisher thought otherwise. In its first year in 1925, this book sold only 9000 copies. However in another 8 years time, the book sold an estimated 1.5 million copies. Name the book and its author.

18. On the Colaba Causeway, in the Fort area of Mumbai,located across from the Colaba Police station it was founded in 1871 by Iranis. It first started out as a wholesale oil store, and over the years has variously been a restaurant and store, and restaurant and pharmacy. It was made notorious by Gregory David Roberts bestseller Shantaram. Its present owners are Fahrang S Jeha and Farzad Jehani. (Hint: Previous Question)

19. At school, he formed a stick-ball team called the Nads (providing him and his pals with a chance to shout Go Nads). At Yale, he was famous for doing the alligator, a dance that involved falling on the floor and rolling around.At Harvard Business School, he wore cowboy boots and chewed tobacco. Whom are we talking about ?

20. Which political leader jailed during the Emergency chose to name his daughter after the Maintenance of Internal Security Act that he was booked under ?

21.Identify these two people.

22. In 1941, the British Secret Service requested John Waddington Ltd to create silk maps which can be used by World War II prisoners of war held by the Nazis. The maps were hidden inside something that was patented Charles Darrow .Other than maps, hidden inside these were compasses, real money and other objects useful for escaping. They were distributed to prisoners by the International Red Cross. Which product, am I talking about?

23.This commonly used English phrase was first recorded in the 1932 Hemingway novel "Death in the Afternoon" . Hemingway was using a loose translation of a Spanish phrase which described the final sword-thrust in a bull-fight; the instant where the matador kills the bull. Which English phrase?

24. He died on 25th Dec, 1977 in Vevey, Switzerland. On March 1,1978 his corpse was stolen by some Swiss mechanics, who wanted to extort money from his family. The robbers were arrested later, and his retrieved corpse was reburied under 2 m of concrete to prevent further attempts.

25.The capital of which Indian state literally means the men of the land where the flower of KEW HI grows. This place has a large cemetery for the Allied war dead maintained by the Commonwealth Graves Commission and the epitaph carved on the memorial of the 2nd British Division in the cemetery reads the below (image) The epitaph below has also become world famous as the _________ poem, Fill in the dash and u get the answer to this question.

26. This American city is named after a Chief of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. Originally nicknamed as the Queen City, it's current nickname is the Emerald City, due to the evergreen forests surrounding it. It is also the birthplace of Jimi Hendrix, and the home of Grunge music. It hosted the Goodwill Games in 1990, as well as the APEC conference in 1993. The city is famous for the Space Needle, as well as headquarters to Amazon, Starbucks.

27. The earliest inhabitants of this area were the Lenape tribes. In 1626 Peter Minuit acquired this place from the native tribes in exchange for trade goods worth 60 guilders. In 1647, Peter Stuyvesant was the last Dutch director of this colony. This place gets it's name from a local word meaning "island of many hills".

28. Born as Farukh Bulsara in Zanzibar on Sep 5,1946,his parents were Parsi migrants from India. He attended the St.Peters Boarding school near Mumbai,where he learnt the piano. In 1964, his family fled to England, and he had a Diploma in Art and Design. He was also a singer for bands like Ibex and Sour Milk Sea. In 1970 he formed his highly acclaimed band. Along with his work for the band, he also produced two solo albums Mr Bad Guy and Barcelona. Name the singer and the band

29.Often called the Father of Modern Chemistry, he was a student of the sciences, and later graduated from University of Paris in 1763 in Law. He was elected to French Academy of Sciences at age of 25, for his essay on street lighting. Famous for his discovery of oxygen, his Elementary Treatise of Chemistry, is considered to be the first modern chemical textbook. He worked as a tax collector, and is responsible for introducing metric system of weights and measurements. He was later convicted and beheaded during the French revolution.

30.Where have u seen him? And whats his name?

31.In Latin, the word for left hand is Sinister. What is the word for right hand?

32.He used to stay in a trailer with his wife Tabitha. He wrote short stories to make ends meet. One of his first ideas was a girl with psychic powers, however he grew discouraged and threw the novel into a trash can. His wife encouraged him to write it, and he later sent it to Doubleday. This novel would prove to be a cult favorite and later become a bestseller and also a successful movie. Name the author and the book.

33. What is the official name of Taiwan?

34.The 1939 movie Jesse James starring Henry Fonda as the outlaw became notorious after the death of a horse on its sets. What started as a result of it?

35.The 1992 movie Malcolm X about the controversial American Black leader who later converted to Islam, had Denzel Washington in the lead role. Which real life political leader played a cameo in the movie as a teacher?

36.If Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre wrote Is Paris burning?, who wrote Is new York burning?

37.Should be a sitter, who traveled along with Alberto Granado on the La Poderosa which means the Mighty One and what resulted because of it?

38."The Pet Goat" is a children's story contained in the book 'Reading Mastery II: Storybook 1', by Siegfried Engelmann and Elaine C. Bruner The story is of a girl's pet goat which eats everything in its path. Why was this in news related to an incident that happened early this decade?

39.Identify this object.

40.Apart from his famous novels, this author was also one of the early writers of travel books. Based on his travels in France, he wrote Travels with a Donkey in Cevennes in 1879, and this was one of the first books to promote hiking and camping.

41.Which 'rock-and-roll' band supposedly gets its name from the words written on the back of a sewing machine . The brothers(yes! the band has brothers - though not all) felt that this name symbolized the band's raw energy, power-driven performances, and a love for their music.

42.Sam Zimbalist, Victor Young, Geoffrey Unsworth, Larry Russell, Raymond Rasch, Eric Orbom, Sidney Howard, William A. Horning ,Conrad L. Hall, Thomas C. Goodwin, Peter Finch, Walt Disney, Howard Ashman. Who is the latest inductee to this list?

43.Why do we know Mark Chapman? (Hint: Holden Caulfield)

44.Identify the organization to which the flag belongs. Its name in Arabic means "Party of God".

45.John Wallis is credited with introducing this symbol in his 1655 book De Sectionibus conicis. While one theory is that he was inspired by Roman numeral for 1000, another view states that he derived it from Greek letter omega. What was the symbol?

46. In Latin, this word means a female animal used for breeding. It was first used in English in the 16th century to refer to the uterus or womb. In biology, it is the intercellular substance of a tissue, and in geology it is the natural material surrounding a metal or gem or fossil embedded in the earth. Commonest use is however in mathematics.

47.In 1905, a paper called "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?" was published in a German Journal Annalen der Physik. This led the author of the paper to derive something. What was that?

48. This place gets its name from a Greek Word meaning Holy Echo and is a very sacred city for the Jews. Believed to be the oldest inhabited settlement in the world. It was the first city to be handed over to Palestinian Authority in 1994 after the Gaza agreement. After Israel reoccupied it, it was again handed over to Palestine in 2005. Name the place.

49.This is the photograph of the person at age 22. He has a more famous photograph at age 39. Who is this?

50.This term is said to derive from a ruling by English judge Francis Buller in 1782. He allowed men to beat their wives with a stick as long as the thickness of the stick was within the certain limit. This ruling gave rise to a certain term/usage. Which?

51.Formerly, during the canonization process of the Roman Catholic Church, the Promoter of the Faith (Promotor Fidei), was a canon lawyer appointed by the Church to argue against the canonization of the candidate. It was his job to take a skeptical view of the candidate's character, to look for holes in the evidence, to argue that any miracles attributed to the candidate were fraudulent, etc. What was the popular name given to him?

52.On 7 Jan 2004 , Toyota Canada announced the name of a new car, calling it "the new wave of bold style. This Special Edition Celica is a high-performance car, and is available in two colours - red and thundercloud. The original name was dumped when the car was released in January 2005. It is now called the Celica Sports Package. What was the dropped name?

53.This word was first used during World War II to refer to bombs. This word was Air Force slang to refer to large bombs weighing as much as 8000 pounds. These bombs were so powerful that they were capable of destroying an entire city, hence the term.

55. Who originally sang Knockin on Heavens door?

54.Tell me something about this picture.

Thank You!
Quizmaster : Arun Cherian
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Resources : Geo Thomas