Quiz Week - India Finals

KGP Quiz Week
India Quiz
By Shubham and Piyush

Rules
Shasan Prashasan ki izzat karein.
Nahi to, Gate se bhaga diye jaoge.
Abhi aur sun,
Best of luck!

Two written rounds and two dries.

Round 1
5 Written Questions.
+10/0.
+15/-5 on Stakes.

1.
____ ____ is a new religious movement that originated in 1930’s in
Hyderabad, Sindh, started by Dada Lekhraj Kripalani who later took the
name Brahma baba. It is identified by the distinctive role women play
in the movement.
It teaches a form of meditation that focuses on identity as souls, as
opposed to bodies. They believe that all souls are intrinsically good and
that God is the source of all goodness.
Currently headquartered in Mt.Abu, what is it?

2.
He started out as a writer/director for Bollywood movies and even won
two filmfare awards for films like Aankhen (1968) and Paigham (1960).
However, his magnum opus would instead be a small screen project.
India Today’s critic felt that the show had the finesse of a high-school
function; Illustrated Weekly felt that the show “destroyed the spirit
and the superb literary quality of the original”. Yet popularity of the
show rose with every subsequent week. Originally slated to run for 52
episodes of 45 minutes each, the popularity of the show compelled the
channel to extend it for a total of 78 episodes. And yet people kept
complaining that the series ended too soon.
Name the director and the show.

3.
These are some of the steps for selection of someone:
The place where the X has had visions or dreams is taken into account.
The direction in which the smoke from the funeral of the previous X blows
is also taken into account.
The main step involves keeping various items of the previous X in front of
the shortlisted candidates and the one who correctly identifies all the
objects related to the previous X is chosen to be the next X.
What is this process the for selection of?

4.
Acharya J B Kripalani was a Indian socialist politician, environmentalist
and independence activist. He was the president of Congress during
the partition and later left congress due to differences with Nehru.
After the 1963 Indo-China War, he moved something on the floor of lok
sabha which was the first incidence of something. What was it, which
has seen much incidents in the 90’s. This has also become a gimmick to
threathen the ruling party from the members of a coalition.
What?

5.
For what use were these markers placed?

Placed during the Great Trigonometric Survey
and were used later for surveying
These are called Bench marks.

Dries
15 Questions in the round.
Infinite Bounce and Pounce.
+10/-10 on Pounce.
+10/0 on Bounce.
Part points on discretion of QM/Proctor

1.
It was originally composed in Telugu language by writer Pydimarri Venkata
Subba Rao in 1962. It was first read out in a school in Vishakhapatnam in
1963 and was subsequently translated into various regional languages.
Subbarao, a noted author in Telugu and a bureaucrat, composed
__________while serving as the District Treasury Officer of Visakhapatnam
District in 1962. He presented it to the senior Congress leader Tenneti
Viswanadam who forwarded it to the then Education Minister P.V.G. Raju.
Unlike the X or the Y, whose authors are well known in India, P.V. Subbarao,
the author of __________remains largely a little-known figure, his name
being mentioned neither in the books nor in any documents. Records with
the Human Resources Development Ministry of the Government of
India however record Subbarao as the author of__________.Subbarao
himself is thought to have been unaware of its status as the _____________.
Apparently, he came to know about this when his granddaughter was
reading it from her textbook. FITB.

2.
_____ were Indian sailors or militiamen working on European Ships.
They were some of the first people from Indian subcontinent to go to
Britain and popularised curry in Britain. Most of them hailed either
from Sylhet (in present day Bangladesh), Ratnagiri and Goa.
Deriving their name from the Persian word for Army, what were they
called?

3.
In late 1985, Sellappan Nirmala, then a 32 year old student, though
now largely forgotten, is credited for having discovered that X had
made its way into India.
X was considered a problem of the “debauched West” but Indians were
more conservative and God fearing people. More so, in India X was first
seen in Chennai, where the society was considered to be extra
traditional.
Subsequently, X appeared from all over India. What is X, that is still a
major burden and stigma in today’s society?

4.
A chaupai (चौपाई) is a quatrain verse of Indian poetry, especially
medieval Hindi poetry, that uses a metre of four syllables. Famous
works which feature this kind of poetry include Ramcharitamanas and
the Hanuman Chalisa.
In a similar sense, _____ is a form of Persian poetry that employs the
quatrain verse. The form has been used by many greats of poetry like
Rumi, Bidel and Omar Khayyam among others.
What?

5.
During the British rule, even Shimla was too warm for some officers’
liking. They would move to the nearby hamlet of Narkanda. Such was
the affection for this place that they named one of their ships after it in
the early-1900s. The SS Narkunda was one of the faster and more
comfortable ships on the UK-Australia run.
It used to travel from the London docks to Sydney in six weeks, via
Marseilles, Port Said, Aden, Mumbai, Colombo, Fremantle, Adelaide
and Melbourne.
In 1921, the ship had a passenger on its deck whose experience on the
ship would be extremely fruitful a few years later.
Who was the passenger? And how exactly did the experience help?

CV Raman/ Raman Effect was hypothesized
on board

6.
Built in 1815 by Maratha Ruler Serfoji
II, this famous Thanjavur fort was one
out of the 5 monuments to be
damaged in the tsunami of 2004.
The Marathas being a ‘friend and ally’
of the British built the Manora to
commemorate X.
The name of the monument is derived
from the word ‘minaret’; the building
itself being a six sided hexagonal
structure.

7.
The term is used in the Indian subcontinent as a slogan/greeting among a certain group. In
Pakistan, the term surkh _____ is also used interchangeably.
It was also the name of this 2002 Bollywood film based on (unsurprisingly) the Naxalite
situation starring Nandita Das, Vijay Raaz and Sharad Kapoor in the lead.
What?
(Poster on next slide)

8.
This annual 3 day fair held during holi in Ahwa, Gujrat that involves the
five tribal heads attending with their nayaks (secretaries) and
bhaubands (security guards), features a repeat of tradition that began
in 1842 following an agreement between the British and the 5 heads.
This, in turn makes this district the only place to observe a tradition
done away elsewhere in the country in 1971.
Which place ? What tradition?

Dang, Gujrat. The tribal heads still receive Privy Purses.

9.
Having visited Turkey in 1934 and seen Kemal Ataturk’s experiments
there, he felt something similar could be done in India to help a diverse
population overcome cultural barriers.
In 1935, he met Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, the famous linguist and
educationist, who had already published A _____ _____ for India in the
Calcutta University Journal; the two debated until midnight in a
Viennese café and Chatterjee convinced that the ______ ______ would
give India a unified, monolithic cultural structure.
Inspite of Gandhi’s opposition, he implemented these ideas successfully
within his group and found that both North and South Indians were able
to communicate easily under high pressure. Who? What idea did he
implement?

Subhash Chandra Bose
Roman Script for Indian Languages
Trivia : Mao wanted a similar system in China but Stalin advised him
against it.

10.
This was first suggested by Reverend David Railton, a British Military
Chaplain, based on something he saw while serving on the Western
Front in WW I. He, along with his French counterparts, suggested the
creation of these at a National level and the idea received widespread
support from all quarters.
A formal bill was presented in Parliament in November 1918. The
decision was voted into law on September 1919. The ceremonies were
conducted on Armistice Day in 1920 and the monuments created at
Westminster Abbey and Arc De Triomphe.
What monuments are these and what is the Indian counterpart to
these?

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Amar Jawan
Jyoti under the India Gate.

11.
In the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, the Indian football team lost in the
semi-finals to Yugoslavia after leading 1-0 until the final ten minutes.
In the 1960 Rome Olympics, a similar symptom manifested where India
drew 1-1 to France and lost to both Hungary (2-1) and Peru (3-1).
The common thread again was France equalizing as well as both Peru
and Hungary scoring the match winning goals in the dying moments of
the game. Besides the usual lack of fitness/mental toughness reasons,
what specific reason was cited by analysts for these losses?

Up until the late 1950s, Indian domestic football matches were
restricted to 70 minutes instead of the 90 minutes so the players
possibly lost steam in the last 10 minutes.

12.
Four of them were donated by Australia, Canada, New Zealand and
South Africa as a gesture of friendship as India was supposed to
become one of them as well.
Each of them has a bronze ship on top that symbolizes sea links of ____
and the emblem of each country is marked on each column.
What are these? Where would you find them?

Dominion Columns. Between North and
South Block.(Secretariat Building )

13.
In 1897, Sir Richard Henry, the Inspector General of Bengal Police was
investigating a murder, when he found a calendar on the crime scene
bearing two faint brown smudges. Sir Henry had been working on a
classification system along with Hem Chandra Bose and Azizul Haque;
this was just the case for him to prove his findings and implement his
system on a wider scale. Sir Henry solved the case successfully,
published his works and in 1899 presented them to the British
Association at Dover. Following this, the world’s first X was setup in
Kolkata. What is X?

14.
Until the mid 19th century, European travel to India was complicated, with
travellers having to journey across a narrow isthmus after crossing the
Mediterranean Sea and then waiting at Aden to be collected by the next
steamer bound for India. To pass time, a lavish hostel was built at Aden.
However, this stopover was no longer necessary a little later and the hostel,
having fallen into disuse, fetched a whopping 9,300 rupees in the Europeans’
hands. This money was then used to set up an affluent place in India that is
an Anglicization of the local words for ‘temple’ and ‘creek’ referring to the
place’s vicinity.
Why was this transit no longer necessary? What place, that maintains its
elite ways till today, was thus set up?

The Construction of Suez Canal, Breach Candy
Club

15.
Sir Arthur Cotton a British engineer born in 1803, is highly respected
and honored in certain districts of Andhra Pradesh. He is best known
for the Prakasam Barrage in Vijaywada and the Dhowleswaram Dam in
Rajahmundry. He is credited to have turned AP into what is now the
Rice Bowl of India.
But his ambitious dream was only partially realized. The opponents of
this idea are concerned about knowledge gap on environmental ,
ecological impacts as well unseen & unknown risks associated with
tinkering with nature.
What is he is presumed to be the first person to propose, that India is
yet far off to accomplish.

Round 3
5 Written Questions – MELA and India
+10/0.
+15/-5 on Stakes.

1.
At the turn of the millennium, X’s career was at its peak, and naturally,
she was in no mood to settle down. Having been close for the past few
years, she set a condition to Y – the deal would only go ahead if her
next film, Mela, flopped at the box office.
The film turned out to be one of the biggest disasters of the year
inspite of a star studded cast, and finally X had to acknowledge the bet
she made.
What, as a result, happened on 17th January 2001?

2.
X is a crescent shaped art district in Mumbai, home to many heritage
buildings like the Esplanade Mansion, the Jahangir Art Gallery and the
National Gallery of Modern Art etc.
The name of the district comes from the presence of a statue of King
Edward VII (as the then Prince of Wales) that was built by Jewish
businessman and philanthropist Albert Abdullah David Sassoon,
although this statue was subsequently placed inside the Byculla Zoo.
Name the festival/place.

3.
An article in The Times of India on 27 April 2017 covers an initiative by
Olympic medallist Karnam Malleshwari to encourage and bring up
talent in weightlifting from backward areas of Andhra Pradesh for
future medal prospects.
The title of the article is an apt reference to a pop culture phenomenon
from the early part of this millennium.
Just FITB.
Image on the next slide.

4.
Born to a govt employee in a middle-class family, he used to travel a lot
due to his father’s transfers. Interested in writing since childhood, he
left his office job to focus on poetry.
He had contested in Comedy Circus and Comedy ka Mahamuqabla as
well, but failed. While performing at a poetry event at St Andrews
College, he met a certain Mr. Modi, who signed him on for the titular
role in his upcoming venture.
Who, and what role has made him familiar to us Indians?

5.
The Cloud Door was a 1994 Indo-German erotic short film, starring Anu
Aggarwal and Murad Ali, directed by Mani Kaul
The plot involves a talking parrot named Hiraman who tells erotic
stories to Princess Kurangi, who is overheard by the girl’s father. He
tries to murder the bird, but it is saved by the princess. The bird then
goes to the princess’s lover and guides him through a labyrinth to the
princess’s bedroom.
The inspiration for the bird’s character & name came from a seminal
work whose recent adaptations have omitted the character.
Just name the work the character was borrowed from.

Twinkle Khanna(X) and Akshay Kumar(Y) got
married

2.
X is a crescent shaped art district in Mumbai, home to many heritage
buildings like the Esplanade Mansion, the Jahangir Art Gallery and the
National Gallery of Modern Art etc.
The name of the district comes from the presence of a statue of King
Edward VII (as the then Prince of Wales) that was built by Jewish
businessman and philanthropist Albert Abdullah David Sassoon,
although this statue was subsequently placed inside the Byculla Zoo.
It is home to a very famous Arts festival as well.
Name the festival/place.

5.
The Cloud Door was a 1994 Indo-German erotic short film, starring Anu
Aggarwal and Murad Ali, directed by Mani Kaul
The plot involves a talking parrot named Hiraman who tells erotic
stories to Princess Kurangi, which are overheard by the girl’s father one
day. He tries to murder the bird, but it is saved by the princess. The bird
then goes to the princess’s lover and guides him through a labyrinth to
the princess’s bedroom.
The inspiration for the bird’s character & name came from a seminal
work whose recent adaptations have omitted the character.
Just name the work the character was borrowed from.

Padmavat by Malik Muhammad Jayasi

1.
The Future Group, in 2008, introduced a new post in its organisation,
called the Chief ______ Officer, whose job was to help managers
harness the power of myth to understand their employees, their
companies and their customers. The aim was to create a Retail Religion,
to build deep, lasting ties between customers and brands.
The first appointment to this post, was a famous Indian, who left a job
in the pharma industry to pursue his passion, which in turn made him
eligible for the job.
Which Indian, famous for other works, is being talked about?

2.
Graham Pickford wrote a book named Historic Structures of Oudhe
while working as architect for Lord William Bentinck(1828-33). In the
same he talks about the acoustics of a monument -- "for a 16th century
building the deployment and projection of voice from the pulpit is
considerably advanced, the unique deployment of sound in this
structure will astonish the visitor.“
Due to this, a whisper at one end was clearly heard at the other end of
the central court 200 feet away. This was done to aid in ceremonies and
prayers.
Which famous monument’s architecture was he explaining thus?

3.
Grand Cross – Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala (1930)
Grand Officer – Maharaja Pratap Singh of Idar (1918)
Commander – JRD Tata (1983)
Officer – Maharaja Sajjan Singh of Ratlam (1918)
Knight – Durga Charan Rakshit of Chandernagore (1896)
A list of first Indian recipients of different categories of what?

4.
Known as Chak-hao in Manipur, the speciality of this grain is the
extreme levels of anthocyanin(a pigment commonly found in flowers)
in its bran hull which characterises the grain.
Mostly found in Indonesia, Myanmar and the north-east, it used to sell
at such high prices in markets, that it was called “emperor’s rice” or
“forbidden rice”.
What special feature does this grain have, which makes it stand at the
opposite extreme from most other conventional variants?

5.
Bradlaugh Hall, situated on the banks of the Ravi, used to house the
National College set up by Lala Lajpat Rai. About 90 years ago, the place
was immortalised at midnight, as a new year came up, in a historic
moment for the Indian freedom struggle, whose legacy is still visible
today.
Across the Ravi Road stands the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, earlier known as
Minto Park, which saw a similar historic moment about 10 years after the
first incident, although the two moments saw a pledge to creation of two
different identities.
Which city, and what were the two incidents? Images follow.

Lahore
• Purna Swaraj declaration at the Lahore Congress session, 31/12/1929
– Led to Republic Day on 26th January
• Pakistan Resolution by the Muslim League, 23rd March 1940
– Led to Pakistan Day on 23rd March

6.
The lines on the next slide are part of a prayer, widely attributed to
Saint Francis of Assisi(1182-1226), although reports suggest it was
originally published in the magazine La Clochette in 1912.
What began on December 10, 1979 with the above described prayer?

Mother Teresa’s Nobel Lecture in Oslo

7.
The Tara Tarini Temple in Brahmapur, Odisha is one of the oldest
temples of Shakti, known as one of the 4 major Shakti peeths along
with Kamakhya, Kalighat and Puri.
The goddesses Tara and Tarini are represented by two ancient stone
statues, anthropomorphized by faces with gold and silver
ornaments.Two brass heads, known as their Chalanti Pratima, or Living
Image, are placed between them.
According to legend, what part of Sati’s body fell over this place?

8.
In 1981, a group of 7000 people purchased the 64000-acre Big Muddy
Ranch outside the town of Antelope, Oregon. Within 3 years, the ranch
was transformed from an agricultural are, to a mini-city with all
amenities like restaurants, ATMs, malls and an air strip etc.
Each day, all residents would line up at one side of the road, as a
cavalcade of Rolls Royce cars passed through, and they got a glimpse of
their hero.
Gradually, tensions built up with the local law enforcement and other
religious groups, and the settlement had to be abandoned.
Who was the gentleman this mini-city was named after?

9.
In 2001, the leader Zayd Hassan Abd Al-Latif Masud Al Safarini, was
captured by the FBI in Bangkok after he was released in Pakistan. He was
sentenced to a 160-year prison term.
4 others were freed by Pakistan in 2008, who are now under FBI’s Most
Wanted Criminals list, and recently the FBI released age-processed images
of the group for identification.
Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim, the guy who we Indians remember the most, is
also among the 4, although the Pakistan govt maintains that he was killed
in a drone strike in 2010.
Which famous Indian had to deal with this group of 5 from the Abu Nidal
organisation in the line of duty, which ended with an Ashok Chakra?

10.
_______ ______ Express trains are a series of super-fast trains
operated by the Indian Railways providing quick connectivity to the
national capital, New Delhi.
The trains were introduced by then Rail minister Nitish Kumar in the
interim budget of 2004-2005 to revolutionise communication with the
capital, at no extra cost compared to regular express trains.
22 trains from various destinations across India are operational
currently.
Just FITB

11.
First developed by France’s Laboratoire Dauphinois d’Hydraulique in
1950, they first appeared in the city in 1958, when the local government
imported them from an Australian company.
The current ones were placed by the Public Works Department between
1998 and 2004, to replace old and worn out samples.
The saline environment and wave pressure caused them to interlock,
which wasn’t intended, but actually helps them serve the purpose better.
Despite complaints from people that they ruin the view, their use has
helped keep the shoreline intact.
What item is being talked about here, and where are they most
prominently found?

Tetrapods at Marine Drive, Mumbai

12.
Babaji Palwankar Baloo(1876-1955) was an Indian politician, activist and
cricketer, best known for his left arm orthodox spin bowling. (vis.)
His first job was tending the pitch and sweeping the ground at a club for
Parsis in Poona, but a certain Mr Tross noticed him, and discovered his talent
for bowling. However, he never got around to improving his batting. He
played for the Hindus in the famous 1906 and 1907 matches against the
Europeans, which became a huge success.
He also went with an all-Indian team for a tour of England, and played in the
Bombay Quadrangular series as well. Baloo played 33 first class matches,
from 1905/06 to 1920/21, taking 179 wickets at an average of 15.21.
Inspite of all the experience, he was never let to captain the national team.
What was the reason behind the same?

Being a Dalit
He was not given a chance to bat at the Club, and had to face
widespread protests against his inclusion in the team. Captaincy was
out of the question.
He went on to become a supporter of Gandhiji’s model of home rule,
and also contested against Ambedkar in elections in Bombay.

13.
Raj Kumar Shukla was born in 1875 in Beetharva, in Mithila, and went on
to become a land cultivator. When he got hold of 5 bighas, he too started
cultivating the dominant crop in the region, under pressure.
Shukla used to write in a Hindi newspaper published by Ganesh Vidyarthi.
On the suggestion of Vidyarthi, Shukla and a few lawyer friends started
for the Lucknow session of 1916 of the Congress.
However, Lokmanya Tilak and MMM were not too enthusiastic about the
protests, but X promised him help in the following April.
The tipping point was officials burning down Shukla’s house, after which
X rushed to Y and the rest, as they say, is history.
Put funda.

14.
You Cannot Miss This Flight, is a book released in 2017, written by X,
that contains essays about possibilities in emerging India, to inspire any
budding entrepreneurs to take the leap of faith.
It contains an interesting account of the author’s meeting with RK
Laxman, and the subsequent decision taken by him.
Name the author, and the decision taken.

15.
The Poison of Love, is an English translation of famous Malayalam author
KR Meera’s book Meerasadhu(2008).
In the book, the protagonist, aptly named Tulsi, leaves an eight-year
marriage with her husband after learning of his multiple affairs, and we
later learn she also killed all her children, just like Y in the
Mahabharata/Krishna story. The rest of her life is spent in devotion of the
Lord, and menial activities like sweeping in a temple.
Name Y, another ill-fated woman in the Mahabharata, and who has the
author dedicated the book to, a major focus of the latter part of the
book?
Book cover on the next slide.

Y - Putana
Dedicated to “all the Meeras of Vrindavan”

Quiz Week - India Finals

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Quiz Week - India Finals