Inglorious Kweezzzerds

Kamal Rathi (@kamalrathi) has sent you a direct message on Twitter!

2012-01-25T00:33:00.001-08:00

Is stress at the workplace altering your life? CNBC Report: tinyurl.com/76j6wb3

Direct message sent by Kamal Rathi (@kamalrathi) to you (@KweezerdOfOz) on Jan 24, 10:33 PM.


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Republic Day Special Quiz-2012

2012-01-24T04:18:00.000-08:00

This Quiz is a mix of Questions, easy, some googleable, some not so googleable, but all related to India in one way or another. The Quiz celebrating the Wonder that is India, looking at different aspects of it, and one on my blog after a very long time. Wishing a Happy Republic Day and Proud to be an Indian always. For similar series of Quizzes check out here at Republic Day:2009 and Republic Day:2010, Republic Day:2011..

1) This princely state was believed to have been established in 1806 by an Afghan adventurer, Faiz Talab Khan, and is located in present day Haryana.An Ahir king Charu Rao, had ruled over this area in the 9th century earlier, which accounts for the large concentration of Ahirs here. Name this princely state, that has been in the news some months back.

2) Touch Play written by Dev Kumar is an authorized biography of this Indian sports player, only the second time, a biography has been written about a player belonging to this sport. The player released it in 2006, during the National Championships in Bangalore. Identify the player.

3) Born in the Sistan province of Afghanistan, his last name comes from the town he was born in. Coming from a well to do family, he later renounced the world, after his encounter with a Sufi saint from Kunduz. He later became the disciple of another Sufi saint, Usman Harooni. When Muhammad Ghori invaded India, he travelled with him, and he settled down in Ajmer. He established the Sufi order, founded by "The Syrian", named so after the place where it started, and later laid down the guidelines for the order. Identify.

4) Complete the series and funda, Sanjay Manjrekar: Sir Richard Hadlee:: Mark Taylor:___________.

5) Connect the following images

6) This place in Tamil Nadu was mentioned in the works of Tirugnana Sambandar, and Tirunavakarusu, and is famous for the ancient Shiva temple built by the Cholas. One of the famous persons born here, took his name from the presiding deity of the temple. The temple is famous for it's Panchamuga Vadyam, a unique musical instrument and also has a special significance in Indian classical music. Name the place.

7) The 3rd daughter of a Hindu mother and Muslim father, she made her Hindi movie debut with a 1972 movie called Zaroorat. For a long time, appearing in B-Grade movies, she finally hit the big time with this 70's blockbuster, that would also prove to be a turning point for the careers of it's director and hero. She was nominated thrice for Filmfare, for the "Snake Woman" and "Hope", before winning the Best Supporting Actress Award in a rather negative role, in this late 70's J.Om Prakash family drama. Identify.

8) Born in a town in the Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan, he left for Mumbai to be a cotton dealer.Later he migrated to Kolkata, where against stiff resistance from the British and Scottish jute merchants, he set up the first indigenous jute factory. Elected to the Central Legislative Assembly in 1926, he later diversified into Sugar, paper mills as well as automobile. A close associate of Mahatma Gandhi, he set up a renowned educational institution in his hometown in Rajasthan. Name him.

9) What is the claim to fame of the above building in Chicago?

10) Listed among the 1001 Albums to listen before you die, this 1967 instrumental album by Shiv Kumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia that follows a day in the life of a shepherd in Kashmir, played a major role in introducing Indian classical music to the West. Name it.

All answers to be sent to ratnakar.techie@gmail.com.

nirmalya is now following you on Twitter!

2011-02-04T02:27:00.001-08:00

nirmalya (@nirmalya22) is now following your tweets (@KweezerdOfOz) on Twitter.

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@nirmalya22

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Bio ..to laugh as much as i breathe n to love as long as i live, to dream as i'll live forever, to live as i'll die today.. http://t.co/MIiYDVU

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praveena rk is now following you on Twitter!

2011-02-04T01:50:00.001-08:00

praveena rk (@peskyme) is now following your tweets (@KweezerdOfOz) on Twitter.

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@peskyme

Hyderabad

Bio Tweeter... blogger, explorer, mood swinger, listener, pharmacist, love, life, fun...

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Republic Day Special Quiz-2011

2011-01-24T15:42:00.000-08:00

1) Connect the images with fundaez.

That is the Duke of Connaught, and that is the Royal Crescent in BATH, which was the inspiration for Connaught Place.

2) Born to an American mother, who was a poet, and a father, who was a Sufi master, descendant of Tipu Sultan. Growing up in France, after her father's death, she studied child pyschology and music, and in 1939 published her version of the Jataka tales. During World War II, she worked as a radio operator, and was the first female one, sent into Occupied France to aid the French resistance.Arrested by the Gestapo, she finally died in captivity at Dachau, where she was shot dead. Name her.

NOOR INAYAT KHAN

3) The son of a carpet seller in Jaipur, he initially worked as a voice artist at the All India Radio there. On the advice of Hrishikesh Mukherjee, he joined the FTII in Pune, and passed out in 1967. Initially appearing in a couple of Gujarati movies, his first Hindi movie was Umang. Along with Harish Patel, Dinesh Hingoo he also formed a small Gujarati film production company and also sang his own songs in movie Alaap. Name him.

ASRANI

4) Connect the images with fundaez.

That is the Crawford Market in Mumbai, now renamed as Jyotibha Phule Market.

5) A follower of the Sufi saint Hazrat Mian Mir, he always looked to find a common ground between Hinduism and Islam. He translated the Upanishads from Sanskrit to Persian, and his most famous work titled the "Confluence of 2 seas" explored similarities between the Vedantic and Sufi philosophy. Also a well known artist, he had an album, which was a collection of his calligraphy and paintings. He was captured and executed by his brother, in 1659. Who?

DARA SHIKOH

6) The longest every serving Viceory in the British Raj, he was a Colonel during WW1, and also an OBE. He bought in the local self government plans during his tenure, which was also the time, the Congress captured power in around 5 provinces. The Quit India movement and the notorious 1943 Bengal famine marked his tenure. Who?

LORD LINLITHGOW

7) His father wanted him to become a lawyer, while he dreamt of a career in music. He also acted as a leading hero in the movie Sakuntala opposite M.S.Subbalaxmi. The first concert musician, who explored the concept of raga alapana in a step by step approach, he advocated the concept of Indian music being a single entity instead of Hindustani or Carnatic. One of his innovations was the shruthi bedam, an approach by which the last note of a raga would be the starting note for the next raga, and achieving the shifting from one raaga to another. Name him.

G.N.BALASUBRAMANIAM

8) Musco Lighting is an Iowa based company that provides lighting to major sports events like the Super Bowl and Olympics. It was the official light provider for the Los Angeles, Atlanta and Sydney Olympics, as well as the illumination at Ground Zero after 2001. It also has a partnership with an Indian firm, that has provided lighting at cricket stadiums like Mohali, Barabati in Cuttack, Motera in Ahmedabad. Who owns the Indian firm?

KAPIL DEV

9) Identify the statue and place.

DUPLEIX in PONDICHERRY

10)

My appeal to you is this, that long after the controversy will be hushed in silence, long after this turmoil, the agitation will have ceased, long after he is dead and gone, he will be looked upon as the poet of patriotism, as the prophet of nationalism and the lover of humanity. Long after he is dead and gone, his words will be echoed and re-echoed, not only in India but across distant seas and lands. Therefore, I say that the man in his position is not only standing before the bar of this Court, but before the bar of the High Court of History.

Who was speaking about whom here, and what was the context?

C.R.DAS defending AUROBINDO GHOSH in the Alipore Bomb Case trial.

mohit dayal is now following you on Twitter!

2010-12-21T05:21:00.001-08:00

mohit dayal (@mdayal2010) is now following your tweets (@SleeplessQuizer) on Twitter.

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@mdayal2010

ranchi,bhubaneswar

Bio Info freak,addicted to blogging,hooked to FB and an Engineering Student as well...proud to be CSE...

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Sumeet is now following you on Twitter!

2010-11-24T11:07:00.001-08:00

Sumeet (@wyskiwisky) is now following your tweets (@SleeplessQuizer) on Twitter.

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Aravind Philip is now following you on Twitter!

2010-10-29T22:17:00.001-07:00

Aravind Philip (@ag_philip) is now following your tweets (@SleeplessQuizer) on Twitter.

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@ag_philip

Trivandrum

Bio An ordinary guy in a not - so - ordinary world

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Kweezzzing is Fun on Twitter

2010-09-16T22:11:00.000-07:00

While i   earlier used to log into Twitter, i was not really an enthusiastic user. For starters the 140 word limit put me off. It was frustrating to type something out,and then see those red marks, and then having to edit it again. Add to it watching most of the Bolly celebs exposing their "ignorance", "stupidity" and "banality" did not really make things better. Not to mention the sheer amount of arse kissing, "Sir you are so great" boot licking by equally retarded fans. To me Twitter was just the online version of a Page 3 Party, full of glamor,hype,noise and empty nothingness. Thanks but no thanks,i preferred the good ole Blogs and FB.

Couple of   events in recent times,however made my participation in twitter more frequent. One was the emergence of   users like @BollywoodGandu, @shutupsajid, @gkhamba, the whacked out,the eccentric, the   nutcases, precisely the kind of people i love to hang out with. Now while the 140 character limit, might not go for more serious opinion, it works perfectly fine for the humorous one liners,   the satirical jabs. And watching these guys tear down the   "look at me i am so important"   celebs was fun.

But the key to my now regular participation was something that has been my passion ever since i first Siddartha Basu on Quiz Time in 1985.A   four letter word called "QUIZ", or   as   Twitter would put it "KWEEZZZ".   I have been quizzing since 20 years, but other than an apperance in Mastermind India(2001) and some   prizes won at college, university level, my Quizzing track record would not be something to die for. However while the achievements part was rather meagre,it was just my sheer passion   that kept me going. Online Quizzes,   Quiz Groups, and then my own Quiz blog.

But again i was getting tired of the recent Quizzing scenario, it had ceased to be fun. I always believe Quizzing is all about fun,   but unfortunately the worst practices of our academic set up   seemed to have made their   way into Quizzing.   Googling and Wikieing taking the place of Mugging,   instead of making a genuine effort to work out a Question, most of the Quizzers just seemed to Google or Wiki out the answer. It   was frustrating to work hard, in setting up a Quiz, and then see a whole lot of replies Googled up. There seemed to be no joy in answering, no passion, just so mechanical. Sure there were replies where the respondents gave in their own take, but   most of the time, I could have well asked a class of Robots to reply and it would have made no difference. Some of the respondents would paste not just the Googled answer, but also the explanation would be copy   pasted from Google. Honestly i just wanted to shake their collar, and say "Damn it get a life, please".

What i love about   @Kweezzz is   that  you really have to use your brains, and work out the answers. While Googling and Wikieing can't be ruled out,   they don't   give an advantage here. You have to be on your feet thinking all the time. And the topics too,   are much varied,ranging from   Gulzar to B Movies to Kolkata   to Asterix to World War II, which is what makes it more fun. But most   important of all   @Kweezzz   has provided a level playing field, where every one can have their share of the cake. On their day, any one can be the winner, and all it takes to host a @kweezzz is a net connection, access to Twitter. No need for all the paraphernelia, or begging for sponsors or   running around for a venue. And whatever the topic you choose to host on, you are sure to find an audience for it.

The greatest challenge in doing the Kweezzz on Twitter is setting the Questions. Using the questions from your blog is a big NO, something i discovered the hard way, when the first Kweezzz i hosted   ended up a big flop.I used the questions from my blog,and every one having access to it,could get the answers in a jiffy, rendering the entire exercise meaningless. After my first Kweezzz ended in #FAIL, i learnt my lessons, and most of the other Quizzes conducted went off well. I would   really like to   appreciate @sidvee aka Siddarth Vaidyanathan, for this wonderful idea of his,and also for providing an equal opportunity for all Quizzers. And more important   for making me more regular on Twitter, and also increasing my number of followers.

Quizzing is Fun, No Googling- Teachers Day Quiz

2010-09-06T12:33:00.000-07:00

Not much response for this. Anyway the answers and scores.

1) Just connect the following pics( not an exhaustive list)

The Connect was Ivy League . All these men founded some of the Ivy League Universities.- Elihu Yale( Yale University), John Harvard( Harvard), Nicholas Brown Jr( Brown University),Ezra Cornell( Cornell University).

2) His surname comes from the region his ancestors hailed from, and he was born in the city of the Triveni Sangam. He wrote poems under a pen name, which is a synonym in Hindi for nectar. One of the first Indians to introduce scouting in India, he also started a native scouts organization called Seva Samithi. He was the one who popularized the Satyameva Jayate slogan, and also the Arati in Haridwar to the Ganga. His biggest achievement however was in starting this educational institution along with Annie Beasant in 1915. Name him and the institution he founded( no half points here).

The person was Madan Mohan Malaviya. The surname comes from the fact that he hailed from Malwa, he wrote under the pseudonym of Makrand, and of course the founder of Benaras Hindu University.

3) The only college in India, which boasts of two Prime Ministers among it's alumni, it was started in 1885 by Tilak, Vishnu Shastri Chiplunkar and others. Inaugurated by the grandson of the poet who wrote Daffodils, and a principal of another equally famous college, it celebrated it's Golden Jubilee year in 1935. Union is Strength is the College's Motto, named after an erstwhile British Governor of Bombay Presidency, who died in an earthquake in Jamaica.

This is the FERGUSSON COLLEGE in Pune.

4) After the Maratha war, he was the British resident at the Orange City. Appointed as the 1st British envoy to Afghanistan, he wrote a book on the place, and later on was the Commissioner of the Deccan. His biggest achievement was a Code named after him, and played a major role in introducing a state supported system of education. And the first bungalow in Malabar Hills was built during his tenure as Governor of Bombay. Name him and his biggest claim to fame.

Sir James Elphinstone, after whom the Elphinstone College is so named.

5) Just name the lady in the picture.

Maria Montessori of course.

Born in a small town, in the Thuringia province of Germany, he hailed from a family of pastors. Starting his career as an educator in Frankfurt, he later became a live in teacher, for the 3 sons of a noble family. He also took part in the military campaigns against Napoleon in 1813 and 1814 A.D.He wrote a series of papers titled To Our German people, The Education of Man, Educating Families. In 1837 he coined a word X meaning Children's Garden for an institute he founded at Bad Blankenburg for children. Name him and what does X stand for.( Again no half points).

This is Friedrich Froebel, who founded the Kindergarten system of education.

7) Just name the two women in the picture.( Again no half points).

Helen Keller and her tutor Anne Sullivan.

8) Prabodh Chandra Bagachi, Satyendranath Bose, Sudhi Ranjan Das, Amlan Dutta, Rajat Kanta Ray- Again not an exhaustive list, but what is the connect.

Basically a list of people who served as the Vice Chancellor of Shantiniketan University.

9) It was started by Satish Ranjan Das, in 1935, and the 4 houses are named after Hyderabad, Kashmir, Tata and Jaipur. Formally opened by the then Viceroy, Lord Willingdon. Jana Gana Mana was chosen as the School Song. Knowledge is our Light is the motto. Name the school.

Don School in Dehradun.

10) Where in India would you find Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, Little John and Alan E Dale?

Houses in Sherwood College, Nainital.

Scores
Aawant-5
Anubhav-5
Nirad-4

Quizzing is Fun, No Googling- Mixed Bag Quiz

2010-08-23T04:57:00.000-07:00

I am continuing my series of Google Free Quizzes, again most of the answers can be worked out, by following the hints. My objective is simple, the participant should be able to work out the answer for the Question, without having to hit the Google or Wiki button every time. 100% Google free is not possible, but if at least 60-70% of the Questions can be answered without doing a Google search, that would be a great step forward.

1) Supposedly taken by a London gynecologist, this photography was published in the Daily Mail on April 21, 1934. Initially claimed to be the first photographic evidence of the subject in display, it was later claimed to be a hoax in 1994. A 1999 book, that was titled after the nickname of the subject, described how the photo was manipulated. What is the "subject" of the photograph in discussion?

This was the Photo of the LOCH NESS MONSTER.

2) One of the most famous paintings depicting an event. Occurred at a bay in Hawaii, whose name means "The God's Pathway" in native language. Famous for the Hawaiian New Year festival, in honor of the god Lono. What is happening here?

The Death of Captain Cook

3) Much before Gary Sober's 365 n.o, he held the world record for the highest individual score in a Test match. He also was the first professional cricketer to captain England in the Post war era, and regained the Ashes in 1952. Also the author of the books, Cricket is my Life and 30 Years in Cricket. He was the captain of the Test, where Fred Trueman made his debut against India, and picked up the first 4 wickets for nought.

SIR LEN HUTTON

4) The man whose name has been given to an incendiary weapon improvised by the Finnish Army together signed this agreement with the Foreign Minister of the Third Reich,and remained in effect until the time the Fuhrer launched an operation whose name means "Red Beard" in Italian. Just give me the name of the agreement.

MOLOTOV-RIBBENTROP PACT

5) The City named after the river on which it lay, was renamed after the man whose name meant Steel, before reverting to it's original name. One of the fiercest battles during World War II, saw military operations named after Saturn and Uranus. Name the city.

STALINGRAD, VOLGOGRAD, any of the answers will do. Stalin means steel in Russian.

6) The original name of the song meant "War Song for the Army of the Rhine". Written in Strasbourg in 1792, it was dedicated to a French officer born in Bavaria. It got it's more famous name when the federes first sung it in this city in the Provence-Alps-Cote-D-Azur region. What am i referring to?

This was the LA MARSEILLE, Marseilles is located in the region referred to.

7) Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo was the major influence on his life, motivating him to be a director. Some of the other directors he has cited as influences have been Ingmar Bergman and Roman Polanski. His first movie was The Moon is... The Sun's Dream in 1992. His breakthrough feature however was in 2000, named after the No Man's land between the two Koreas, that bought him fame. His most famous work however has been a trilogy whose other name means Revenge, and the second part of the Trilogy has been the most famous of all, including a Bolly remake( err inspiration). Name this director and also the Trilogy( 2 points).

PARK CHAN WOO, the VENGENANCE trilogy, his first movie was JOINT SECURITY AREA.

8) My Best Friend's Birthday, was written by Craig Harmann and X, when X was working at the Video Archives( now defunct). The original short script later expanded to an 80 page script, and X directed the movie along with Harmann. Only a 36 minute cut of the movie survived from the original 70 minutes, and while it has been shown at film festivals, never been officially released. X often referred to this as his "film school" and some of the actors here, appeared in his more famous movies. Name X.

Cracked by most it is QUENTIN TARANTINO

9) Born in Thrissur, his surname is Kunnath, and is a student of Delhi's Mount St.Mary school. His first stint as a singer was a jingle for Santogen Suitings Ad in 1994. His first major break as a playback singer was for Maachis with Vishaal Bharadwaj. He shot into fame, with this song from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam which also got him his first Filmfare Nomination. Also released 2 albums, Pal and Hamsafar. Who?

Again cracked by most its the Singer Krishnakumar Kunnath, or KK.

10) Identify this child actor who later on achieved fame.

RIVER PHOENIX, this still was from Indiana Jones and Last Crusade, where he played the teen version of Indy.

Scores

Saurabh Rai-6

Pranjal Kishore-7

Siddie-4

Ganesh-4

Karthik-6

Cintom-10

Debashri-5

Ramsu-7

Kamal-6

Nirad-3

Karthikeya-3

Vineet-7

Vikram-10

Quizzing is Fun, No Googling- India Quiz

2010-08-16T03:49:00.000-07:00

Well not a very good response, but the appreciation from the few who have tried has been good. I will sure be continuing in the same vein, irrespective of the number of responses.

1) The teams that win the "Great Leader" trophy and the "Jam Sahib of Nawanagar Trophy", compete for this trophy that is named after this player considered as one of the fastest bowlers in pre partition India. The Colonel claimed in his memoirs that he was faster than the Bodyline terror. After paritition he migrated to Lahore, and one of the few players to represent both the nations. Name him.

The trophy was named after MD.NISSAR, as can be seen from the hints, the teams winning the Quaid E Azam( Great Leader) and Ranji( Jam Sahib of Nawanagar) trophy, compete for this. The Bodyline terror of course was Harold Larwood.

2) The son of a musician, who grows up believing that Ramtanu Pandey the great court musician, and one of the 9 Gems, was responsible for his father's death. And so he challenges him to a musical duel. The heroine of this movie made her debut in the director's first movie Leatherface as a child artiste under a screen name, which etymologically is derived from Fish. Just give me the name of the movie.

The movie was BAIJU BAWRA. The heroine of course was MEENA KUMARI.

3) Born close to a town famous for it's Alphonso mangoes, he later on became a journalist, and was a strong critic of the Western education system. He taught Mathematics at this college named after the then British Governor of Bombay, of which he was one of the founders too. Edited a Marathi newspaper whose name is synonymous with Lion. During his court trial, the lawyer who represented him, would be known as the Great Leader of another nation. Name him.

Cracked by most, it was BAL GANGADHAR TILAK.

4) Writing the Autobiography of An Unknown India, Nirad C Chaudhuri, dedicated it to "To the memory of the British Empire in India, Which conferred subjecthood upon us, But withheld citizenship. To which yet every one of us threw out the challenge: "Civis Britannicus sum"". In reality a tongue in cheek reference to the British, which was taken in a negative manner. In a later interview, Nirad Babu claimed that the "Civis Brittanicus" reference was taken from what this famous Roman philosopher had said about the conduct of Verres, an oppresive Roman governor of Sicily, whose rule prompted them to cry out "Civis romanus sum". Which philosopher was this?

The philosopher was CICERO.

5) Born in a town, located in the Rohillkand region of Uttar Pradesh, from where he takes his surname too, he served as a supply officer in Delhi, taking part in mushairas. Made his debut in the Hindi movie industry under Naushad for Dard, with whom he had a great combination. Won the Filmfare Award thrice for a ) A Muslim social that marked a comeback for the producer, whose previous movie about the movie industry was a huge flop. b) A family Social, whose name also indicates a school of music. c) And a mystery movie, produced by a music director, loosely based on The Hound of Baskerville.

The lyricist was SHAKEEL BADAUNI, named after the town of Badaun. The 3 movies i referred to were Chaudvin Ka Chand, Gharana and Bees Saal Baad.

6) This form of OM symbol belongs to which organization that was founded by Balakrishna Menon in 1953. The director of this organization, Kshama Metre, was recently awarded the Padma Shree for her social work.

CHINMAYA MISSION

7) The teacher of the nation, he was one of the first Indians to clear the Indian Civil services exam. In 1882, he founded and taught at this college, named after the then Viceroy of India, which was subsequently renamed after him. Founded the Indian National Association, in protest against the British rule. One of the moderates in the Congress, he later on published an important book A Nation in the Making.

This is S.N.BANERJEE.

8) Born in the temple town of Kumbakonam, along with Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi he was one of the 3 Indians among the "20 most influential Asian people of the 20th century", listed by Time in 1999. Currently leading a mission to bridge the digital divide, but most famous as the Father of the ___________ ,____________ in India. Name him and his famous achievement.

M.S.SWAMINATHAN, GREEN REVOLUTION

9) The House of the Thakurs, located at the place that gets it's name from the wooden or bamboo bridges placed across a stream. The locality is quite famous for it's litho printing industry too. Just tell me whose house was this?

I was looking for RABINDRANATH TAGORE, even JORASHANKO THAKURBARI gets the points.

10) The maidan here was built over a tank, where cattle owners would bathe their cows. The name of the tank, was also used for the Maidan. The nearest suburban station is named after a Governor of Bombay between 1835 and 1839. Keeping in mind the great Indian tradition of renaming everything and anything, it was renamed so, keeping in mind a historical event that occurred here. What took place?

THE QUIT INDIA RESOLUTION

Scores

Nirad-4
Cintom-8
Kamal-6
Anuradha-2
Debashri-8
Vikram-6

Once Upon a Time In Bollywood Quiz

2010-07-30T22:47:00.000-07:00

With Milan Luthria's Once Upon a Time in Mumbai, paying a homage to 70's era Bollywood and India, putting up this Quiz dedicated to that era. Having grown up on a diet of 70's movies, masala, middle of road, art house, i have a special love for movies of that era. So this Quiz is on the movies, the personalities, the stars, the directors who made the 70's what it was. This is the first phase of the Quiz, there will be another one too. And quite an easy one, not too tough.

1) This 1973 movie starring Vinod Khanna was inspired by the real life story of the person in the above picture. His murder trial is a landmark in Indian legal history, as it was the last trial by jury in India. Following the outcry over the judgement, the Government abolished jury trials. Name the person and the movie that is based on the story. ( 2 points).

The person was K.M.Nanawati, and the movie was Achanak.

2)

Rajinder Singh Bedi, who earlier was the dialog writer for movies like Madhumati, Anupama, Anuradha,   made his directorial debut with this 1970 movie that starred Sanjeev Kumar. Based on his own radio play Naql-E-Makkani, it is considered a landmark movie in Indian parallel cinema. Sanjeev got his first National Award for this movie, while Madan Mohan won   his only national award for the music, which also includes a song sung by him. Hrishikesh Mukherjee edited this B&W movie and won a Filmfare Award for it too. Name the movie.

The movie was Dastak.

3) Sreeram Raghavan's   Johnny Gaddar, a tribute to the 70's Hindi movie thrillers, takes it's title from a reference to Vijay Anand's Johnny Mera Naam. However the basic plot of the movie, as also some of the key scenes, are heavily influenced by this 1971 thriller   that had Amitabh Bachan in a key role. Which movie i am referring to?

Parwana

4) The 1971 movie Tere Mere Sapne, directed by Vijay Anand, and starring him in a supporting role along with brother Dev, was based on which A.J.Cronin novel, about a doctor in a Welsh mining town?

The book was CITADEL by A.J.Cronin.

5) This movie took 14 years to make, Ashok Kumar was supposed to be playing the original role, but backed out later, and the character had to be modified keeping in view the new actor's image.   The stormy personal relationship between the actress and the director of the movie, also affected it's making. In the mean time, the original music director Ghulam Mohd, passed away, and Naushad had to step in. The movie was finally released in 1972, and went on to become a huge commercial success. Name the movie.

The movie was PAKEEZAH.

6) Born in Bijnaur, UP, he made his debut as a director in 1968 with the Shashi Kapoor movie Haseena Maan Jaayegi. After a series of movies like Aakhri Daku and Mela, he is remembered for this landmark 70's movie, that launched a new trend in Indian movies, and was based on the sphagetti Western Death Rides a Horse. Name the director and the movie in question( 2 points).

PRAKASH MEHRA, ZANZEER.

7)

This 1973 Bollywood movie directed by Yash Chopra, was a loose adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge, and had Rakhee winning her first Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress. The movie was in news for the cold war between Rakhee and Sharmila Tagore on the sets. Name the movie.

DAAG

8) She started her life as a singer for child stars, her most famous song being Haina Bolo Bolo from the movie Andaaz. She was nominated for the Filmfare Award, for the songs Tera Mujhse Hai Pehla from Aa Gale Lag Jaa   as well as Kya Hua Tera Waada from Hum Kisise Kum Nahin. She later re appeared in the 90's with a series of raunchy songs, mostly in David Dhawan movies, under a different name. Name the singer( any one of the names will do).

SUSHMA SHRESTHA/POORNIMA

9) His father was a well known Sikh philosopher, and his mother Freda later converted into a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Starting   as a stage actor, he later on moved to Bollywood, where he acted in a host of 70's masala movies, notably Daku aur Mahatma, Nagin. He however hit fame with a 1976 Italian movie   The Black Corsair, but it was his role as Sandokan in a TV series that made him a global star. He later on made an impact in Bollywood with this 1988 movie that was a rehash of East of Eden. Name him.

KABIR BEDI

10) The 2007 Yash Raj movie Jhoom Bharabar Jhoom takes it's title from a popular qawali song in the movie 5 Rifles   which was directed by I.S.Johar.    What was unique about the 2 lead actors in the movie, i am not sure if it was the first of it's kind, but it has been attempted later on in some other movies?

THE LEAD ACTORS WERE DUPLICATES OF EXISTING STARS, RAKESH KHANNA( RAJESH KHANNA) AND SAHI KAPOOR(SHASHI KAPOOR).

Cintom Kashyap-16
Anuradha-6
Chandrashekar-9
Suresh-9
Vikram-9
Ganesh-16
Sameer-16
Prabhakar-16
Anubhav-5
Himanshu-7
Kamal-10
Harish-5
Shyamal-16
Shubendhu-16
Ramesh-6
Sukrit-16
Nirad-2

Aviation Movies Quiz

2010-07-07T02:16:00.000-07:00

1) Based on a novel by Frederick Smith, 633 Squadron deals with a fictional British fighter-bomber squadron, that has to carry out a daring military operation in Norway. It gained fame in recent times, when the climax of the movie showing aircraft flying through a Norwegian fjord, and being fired on by anti aircraft guns, inspired a similar kind of sequence in a movie that was one of the biggest hits in it's genre. Which one?

STAR WARS- The final battle scene

2) What connects A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Jimmy Shergill and Squadron No 426 in the Royal Canadian Air Force?

WINGS OF FIRE- Kalam's autobiography, Shergill starred in movie Agni Pankh( literal trans Wings of Fire) and Motto of Squadron 426 is Wings of Fire.

3) This 1990 Mel Gibson- Robert Downey Jr movie, takes it's title from the name of a clandestine, airline, run by the CIA, during the Cold War. It gained fame during the Vietnam War, when it organized many covert operations in S.E.Asia.

AIR AMERICA.

4) Name this cult comedy movie of the 80's starring Leslie Nielsen, that spoofed the disaster movie genre, the story was based on Arthur Hailey's Flight into Danger. The movie was released in Australia and New Zealand as Flying High.

AIRPLANE - FLYING HIGH also gets points, as that was the title of the movie in Aus, NZ.

5) Which real life aviation pioneer was being portrayed by Alec Baldwin in the Aviator, he was the founder of PANAM and a fierce rival to Howard Hughes?

JUAN TRIPPE

6) This 70's thriller directed by John Frankenheimer, revolves around a deranged former Vietnam vet, Michael Lander, who hatches a plot with a Palestinian terror group to conduct a massive bombing attack. It was noted for it's climax, of a huge airborne blimp, carrying a bomb, landing into a packed stadium hosting a Super Bowl match.

BLACK SUNDAY

7) Quite an engaging 80's thriller, starring Roy Scheider, a LAPD cop and former Vietnam vet, who is assigned to pilot the world's most advanced helicopter. The movie gets it's title from the nickname given to the chopper, and it introduced a new term JAFO( Just another fucking Observer) to the lexicon.

BLUE THUNDER

8) The 2005 Hindi movie Garam Masala was a remake of Priyadarshan's Malayalam movie, which itself was a straight lift from this 1965 movie starring Cary Grant and Jerry Lewis. Interestingly both the original movie and Priyan's Mallu movie had the same title too. Name it.

BOEING BOEING

9) It was the nickname to a group of English racing cars built and raced by Count Louis Zborowski in the 1920's that inspired Ian Fleming to write this novel, centering around an eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts and a heroine named Truly Scrumptious. Later made into a 1968 musical by Albert Brocolli, with a script co written by Roald Dahl. Which one?

CHITTY, CHITTY, BANG, BANG

10) Connect Cyrus the Virus, Diamond Dog, Baby O Dell, Billy Bedlam, Marietta Mangler, Johnny 23, Pinball, Sally Can't Dance. ( Should be a sitter).

CON AIR

11) Name this 90's actioner starring Kurt Russel, a typical aircraft hijacked by terrorist, and hero saving the day sort, enjoyable nevertheless. Also had Steven Seagal in an important role.

EXECUTIVE DECISION

12) Name this child actor in Spileberg's Empire of the Sun( should be a sitter).

CHRISTIAN BALE

13) Based on a 1977 novel by Craig Thomas and directed by Clint Eastwood, it deals with an audacious Anglo-American plot, to hijack a highly sophisticated Russian MIG 31, which is invisible to radar. The book gets it's title from the NATO reporting name given to MIG 31. Which one?

FIREFOX

14) Quite a well made Bollywood war movie, this 1973 movie directed by Chetan Anand, and starring Raj Kumar and Priya Rajvansh, had a backdrop of IAF with an espionage story thrown in, and some good songs by Madan Mohan too.

HINDUSTAN KI KASAM

15) This 1965 comedy produced by Daryl Zanuck, was also subtitled Or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes, and is set around a race from London to Paris. Name it.

THOSE MAGNIFICENT MEN IN THEIR FLYING MACHINES.

And the Scores

Santosh-15
Sriram-10
Harikrishnan-12
Kamal-9
Daya-11
Vikram-15

Maximus Indicus Quiz- Mixed Bag 11

2010-06-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the response, and here are the answers, scores.

1) Italian physician and poet Girolamo Fracastoro coined the name for this disease, after a character in Greek Mythology, who is believed to be the first man to contract it, as a punishment for defying Apollo. Due to the disease often being spread by foreign sailors and soldiers, it was often nicknamed as X disease, after the country from where they came. Other names for it have been Great Pox, Lues, Cupid's disease. The first outbreak of this disease was noted in 1494 among the French troops attacking Naples. Name this.

SYPHILIS- Cracked by most, though there was a lone guess of Rabies.

2) The basic form of this musical instrument was believed to have been invented by Christian Buschmann in 1882 at Berlin. The first patent however was given to Cyrill Demian of Vienna in 1829. The bass buttons on this instrument are classified as Stradella and Free Bass, while the playing range is of Chromatic, Diotonic and Piano kind.

ACCORDION- Again most of the people got it, though there were some guesses of Xylophone and Harmonica.

3)

He died in the year 1227 A.D after defeating the Tangut tribes. Some say he fell from a horseback and died of injuries, battle fatigue. As per the Galician-Volhniyan chronicles, he was killed in a battle with the Tanguts. As per the custom of his tribe, he demanded to be buried without any markings. After his death his body was returned to Khenti Aiimag, his birthplace, where he is assumed to be buried close to the Onon River. The mausoleum in the above picture, is dedicated to him and is located at Xinjie town. Name this warrior-conqueror.

GENGHIS KHAN- Cracked by all.

4) One of the founding fathers of the US, he was the author of the American Constitution, and is considered it's father. He was the 1st US President, to have served in Congress, and drafted the 1st 10 Amendments. He laid down the basic theory that an individual's rights should be protected from the tyranny of the majority. As Secretary of State under Thomas Jefferson, he oversaw the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 A.D and also authored the Bill of Rights. After he left office, he retired to his plantation in Montpelier, quite close to Jefferson's Monticello. Name him.

JAMES MADISON- Again cracked by most of the respondents. And sorry John Madison gets no points.

5) This word is derived from a Spanish word meaning pirate or bucaneer, and was generally used for those raiding Spanish colonies and ships in the Caribbean.The word came into prominence when American explorer William Walker, hired his own private army to take over Nicaragua, and declare himself as it's President. The word since then has come to mean an unauthorized military expedition into a foreign country to support or create a revolution.

FILLIBUSTERING- Coup, takeover and even Yankee were some of the guesses.

6) "We took risks, we knew we took them; things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for complaint, but bow to the will of Providence, determined still to do our best to the last .Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale, but surely, surely, a great rich country like ours will see that those who are dependent on us are properly provided for."
These are the last words found in the diary of which English explorer, just before his death.

ROBERT F SCOTT, the British explorer who led the ill fated expedition to the Antarctica. Couple of James Cook guesses too.

7) Graduating from the Cornell Medical College in 1943, this doctor's wife Jane Murray, co authored a book on alternative medicine, What your doctor won't tell you. He has gained fame for a first aid procedure that is named after him. According to accounts, the doctor first witnessed this at a party in Hawaii, when it was done by Howard Goss, who claimed to have learn it from a Hawaiian police officer. He published his views about the technique in an informal article called "Pop Goes the Cafe Coronary", and in 1974 a Seattle newspaper reported that a former restaurant owner Isaac Piha used the same procedure. Also called as "abdominal thrusts" this was recommended by the American Heart Association. Name the doctor or the procedure named after him( any 1 will do).

THE HEIMLICH MANOEUVRE- again cracked universally.

8) This structure was designed by Augustus Pugin, and at the base is a Latin inscription that says DOMINE SALVAM FAC REGINAM NOSTRAM VICTORIAM PRIMAM. It is believed to have got it's nickname from a British civil engineer who oversaw it's construction, while another theory traces the nickname to a 19th century bare knuckle heavyweight boxing champion. Which one?

BIG BEN- Cracked by most.

9) When Adolf Eichmann was being hanged, his last words were
Long live Germany. Long live _________. Long live Austria. These are the three countries with which I have been most connected and which I will not forget. I greet my wife, my family, and my friends. I am ready. We'll meet again soon, as is the fate of all men. I die believing in God.
Just fill in the blanks( should be an easy guess).

ARGENTINA, considering that is where he took shelter.

10)

The memorial of which famous leader at Santa Marta in Colombia?( Should be a sitter).

SIMON BOLIVAR. - Got some guesses for Columbus too.

Scores

Kaushik-8
Animesh-8
Sriram-9
Santosh-10
Ajay-7
Shreenath-5

Connect-I-Cut-III

2010-02-14T22:28:00.000-08:00

1) X( standing in the picture) was born into an Irish American family, after doing odd jobs during the depression, he joined the Pacific Art And Title, where producing title cards for movies, his talent for drawing became evident. He later joined the Harman & Ising Studios, where he was one of the animators, and later joined MGM , where he met Y in 1937, who was also working there. Y ( sitting in the pic) was the son of Italian immigrants, had also won several boxing titles. He joined the Van Beuren studios in 1932 as an animator, and later on joined MGM in 1937. In 1940, X &Y directed Puss Gets the Boot, that was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Animated Short category. In 1957, they founded their own animation studio, named after their surnames, and were responsible for succesful programs like Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Jetsons. X&Y's most famous creation however to date continues to be Z. Name X.Y & Z.

X&Y were William Hanna & Joseph Barbera- Z of course being Tom & Jerry

2) This 1960 B&W comedy film directed by Roger Corman, was shot on a shoe string budget of 30,000$. Written by Charles Griffith, it deals with the story of a meek flower shop assistant, Seymour Krelboin, who cultivates a plant that feeds on human flesh. Released as a double feature with Mario Bava's cult horror movie Black Sunday, this movie has achieved cult status in recent times. It was made into a Broadway musical which later was made into a 1986 movie of the same name.

The movie was THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS.

3) Considered a landmark counter culture movie, this featured 2 drug dealers, who go on a trip around the US. The characters are named Wyatt and Billy, after the Western characters Wyatt Earp & Billy the Kid. Though its quite often alleged that the characters were really named after Roger Mc Guinn & David Crosby of the The Byrds.

Again the definitive cult movie EASY RIDER.

4)

On July 30,1975 he disappeared from the parking lot of Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield,a suburb of Detroit. He had been due to meet 2 Mafia leaders, Antony Giacolone and Antony Provenzano. The FBI investigations failed to crack the mystery, and he was declared legally dead in 1982. He was the person, responsible for the rapid rise of the Teamsters, which became one of the largest single trade union in the US.

JIMMY HOFFA

5)

Born in Czech Republic, his parents died in the Nazi concentration camps, and he grew up with his uncle. Vaclav Havel was his school mate, and he is remembered for a series of Czech comedies he did notably Loves of a Blonde, The Fireman's Ball, both of which were nominated for an Oscar in Best Foreign Film category. After the failure of the Prague Spring in 1968, he migrated to the US, where he worked as professor of film at Columbia University. He shot into fame with a 1975 movie, which though based on a Ken Kesey novel, was also hinted to be against the oppressive Communist regime in his own country. He also made an appearance as Ed Norton's mentor in Keeping the Faith.

MILOS FORMAN

6) Between 1977-1984, this author published a whole series of novels Rage, The Long Walk, The Road Work, Running Man and Thinner, under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. One explanation is that the author did so, as publishing standards during that time, allowed an author to publish only book per year. Another states that the author wanted to test if he could repeat his own success again. The truth was discovered by a book store clerk, Steven Brown, who found a similar style of writing in Bachman's novels and the author's. The author dedicated his 1989 book, The Dark Half, to the "deceased Richard Bachman". Name the author.

STEPHEN KING

7) This 1946 drama noir movie starring Lana Turner and John Garfield, was based on a novel by James Cain. It is the story of a drifter Frank who has an affair with Cora, and together they plot to murder her much older husband, Nick. There was an Italian version Obsessione, in 1943, and the 1981 version of the movie was famous for a torrid love sequence.

THE POSTMAN RINGS TWICE

"Love Theme from X(Main Title)"

"Noah Cross"

"Easy Living"

"Jake and Evelyn"

"I Can't Get Started"

"The Last of Ida"

"The Captive"

"The Boy on a Horse"

"The Way You Look Tonight"

"The Wrong Clue"

"J.J. Gittes"

"Love Theme From X(End Title)"

The soundtrack of which classic 70's noir movie.

CHINATOWN

9) Alexandra Spofford, Jane Smart, and Sukie Rougemont are ___________________ in John Updike's novel of the same name, that was set in the fictional Rhode Island town of _________.

THE 3 WITCHES OF EASTWICK.

10) Identify the guy in the cartoon.( should be a sitter).

THE JOKER

The connect of course was Jack Nicholson.

Jack Nicholson, started his career as an assistant to Hanna & Barbera.

One of his early movie appearances was in THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS.

EASY RIDER was the movie that gave him his 1st major break.

Memorable role of Randall Mc Murphy in ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST directed by Milos Forman.

Acted in the movie version of THE SHINING, as Jack Torrance.

Played the role of JIMMY HOFFA in the biopic.

THE POSTMAN RINGS TWICE, CHINATOWN, THE 3 WITCHES OF EASTWICK have been some of his more memorable movies.

And of course his turn as THE JOKER in Tim Burton's BATMAN.

Scores

Basab-8
Santosh-10
K.Suresh-15( Got the Theme)
Anil-14( Cracked the Theme, but the answer i was seeking for the last one was the JOKER)
Kamal-15( Got the Theme)
Chandrashekaran-8
Abinaya-3
Shyam-15( Got the Theme)
priya-12( Got the Theme)
Kaushik-15( Got the Theme)
Anirudh-15( Got the Theme)
Shrey-15( Got the Theme)

Republic Day Special- India Quiz-2010

2009-12-07T02:46:00.000-08:00

The answers and score for the Republic Day Quiz.

1) It was referred to as Nikam by Ptolemy in ancient times, and an ancient Buddhist center. During the Chola reign, it was the chief seaport of the empire, and the Cholas used this as a starting point for the marine expeditions. In 1657, this town was occupied by the Dutch, and became one of their chief settlements in India. In 1784, it was formally ceded to the British by the Dutch. Some of the other names of this place are Shiva Rajdhani and Cholakula Vallipatinam. In 2004, the town featured prominently in the news. Which place?

The town was NAGAPATTINAM- it was one of the places devastated by the 2004 Tsunami.

2) Born in Murud-Janjira to Dankar and his wife Sangana, he graduated from Sir J.J.Institute of Applied Arts in Mumbai. Apart from being known for his acting skills, he also has a Hon. Capt's Rank in the Indian Army, and for his only directorial venture, that had a military background, he underwent the gruelling training needed for the role of Army officer. To date he remains the only actor to have won the Filmfare Award in Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Villian Categories. Name him.

NANA PATEKAR

3) "It was, accordingly, ordered that, in addition to the jewels in the imperial jewel house, rubies, garnets, diamonds, rich pearls and emeralds in all weighing 230 kg should be brought for the inspection of the Emperor and they should be handed over to Bebadal Khan, the superintendent of the goldsmith’s department. There was also to be given to him 1150 kg of pure gold. It was to be three yards in length, two-and-a-half in breadth and five in height and was to be set with the above mentioned jewels. The outside of the canopy was to be of enamel work with occasional gems, the inside was to be thickly set with rubies, garnets and other jewels, and it was to be supported by 12 emerald columns. On the top of each pillar there were to be X, thick-set with gems and between each X a tree set with rubies and diamonds, emeralds and pearls. The ascent was to consist of three steps set with jewels of fine water". Of the 11 jewelled recesses formed around it for cushions, the middle one was intended for the seat it for Emperor. Among the historical diamonds decorating it were the famous Akbar Shah , Shah and the second largest spinel ruby in the world — the Timur ruby . A-20 couplet poem by the Mughal poet-laureate Qudsi, praising the Emperor in emerald letters was embedded in it. "
What is being described here?

THE PEACOCK THRONE

4) He was born in Tiruvarur, to Kakarla Ramabrahmam and Seetamma, his maternal grandfather Giraraja Kavi, was a poet-composer in the Tanjore king's court. Named after the local deity, he was trained under Sonti Venkataramanayya. In addition to his kritis, he also composed 2 musical plays, Prahlada Bhakti Vijayamu and Nauka Charitam. Name this great musician.

TYAGARAYA

5) Mahari, Nartaki and Gotipua are the 3 schools associated with which Indian classical dance form.

ODISSI

6)
In 1889, he was appointed as the Indian viceroy. He is credited with creating the NWFP in present day Pakistan, and controlled the tribal uprisings in those areas. He was also responsible for the British expedition to Tibet, done to checkmate possible Russian influence in that area. He undertook restoration of the Taj Mahal, introduced the Indian Standard Time. Inspite of his achievements, he is remembered for his controversial decision in 1905, that gave a huge impetus to the Indian freedom struggle. Name him.

LORD CURZON

7)
Born in 24 Parganas district, his father was a temple priest, and his real name was Narendranath Bhattacharya. He believed that knowledge is freedom and the urge for freedom was inherent in every man. Influenced by the writings of Swami Vivekananda, the Gita he took an active part in the anti Partition agitations that rocked Bengal. He fled to Batavia and later Palo Alto, where he changed his name to evade the British intelligence. In New York, he began to take an interest in Marxism, and in 1917, he fled to Mexico, along with Evelyn Trent, his future wife, to escape from the British spies. He later founded the Communist Party of Mexico, and later came in touch with Lenin. And in 1920, he founded the Communist Party of India. Disillusioned later with both bourgeois democracy and radical communism, he formulated an alternative philosophy of Radical Humanism.

M.N.ROY

8)Born into a wealthy Parsi family in Mumbai, in 1909, he was distantly related to Mohd. Ali Jinnah while his maternal great grandfather Sir Dinshaw Petit, was a noted textile industrialist . As a student in Cambridge, he wanted to specialize in Physics, much against his father's wishes to join Tata Steel as a mechanical engineer. He later did his research in Mathematics under Paul Dirac and in 1932, he obtained a first class in his Mathematical Tripos. In 1933, he published his first scientific paper Zur Absorption der Höhenstrahlung or The Absorption of Cosmic Radiation, and in 1935 he published another paper where he did the first calculation to determine the cross section of electron-positron scattering, which was later renamed in his honor. He established the TIFR( Tata Institute of Fundamental Research) with help of JRD Tata. He died in an air crash, in 1966, when this flight crashed on Mont Blanc.

HOMI JEHANGIR BABA

9) The flag of which political party founded in 1939, as a faction of the Indian National Congress.

FORWARD BLOC

10) Who was satirized in Salman Rushdie's novel The Moor's Last Sigh as Raman Fielding?

BAL THACKERAY

Scores
Santosh-10
Nirad-4
Karhegeyan-8
Shyam Champ-9
Kaushik Saha-10

Cold War Quiz

2009-10-12T04:59:00.000-07:00

It was 20 years back, when yours truly as a 20 year old, watched the Berlin Wall coming down, the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe toppling like dominoes and the great Soviet empire falling to pieces. This quiz is on the Cold War, that raged between the US and the USSR for close to 4 decades, and the persona involved in it.

1) The Soviets called it as Friedrichstraße, the Germans called it as Grenzübergangsstelle, by what name do we more popularly know it as.

The answer i was seeking is CHECKPOINT CHARLIE.

2) Born as Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm, out of wedlock, he grew up with his grandparents. He escaped in 1933 to Norway, to avoid Nazi persecution, due to his left wing activities. He later adopted the pseduonym used by him to avoid detection from Nazis, as his legal name. After the War was over, he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1948. The Berlin Wall was constructed during his reign as Mayor of Berlin from 1957 to 1966, and he was an outspoken critic of the Soviet Union's action in Hungary. Elected Chancellor of Germany, he was Time's Man of the Year in 1970, and he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971 for his Ostopolitik policy, which aimed at improving relations with East Germany, Poland and Soviet Union.

WILY BRANDT

3) He was sworn in as General by FDR on the very day Germany invaded Poland, triggering off WW2. He is credited for modernizing the US army, and recruiting some of the best military officers in the Army. Coordinating Allied operations in Europe and Pacific, he was one of the brains behind Operation Overlord. Serving as Secretary of State under Harry Truman, he came up with an European Recovery Program, to rebuild the economies devastated by the War, which was objected to by the Soviet Union, that refused to allow it's satellite nations to take part in it. The program was named after him, and he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953, for this work. Name him.

GEN GEORGE.C.MARSHALL, the man behind the MARSHALL PLAN

4) The Warsaw Treaty was established on May 1955 by 8 Communist nations, as an alternative to NATO, during the Cold War. Which nation withheld support in 1961, in support of China after the Sino-Soviet split, and in 1968 became the first to formally withdraw from the treaty?

ALBANIA

5)
Real name Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Skriabin, he adopted his more famous surname from a Russian word meaning "Hammer". A member of the Bolsheviks, he was one of Stalin's close confidants and also one of the few Older Bolsheviks to survive the Great Purges. He took active part in Stalin's collectivation drive against the Kulaks, and was one of the signatories of the German-Soviet Non Aggression pact during WW2, which bore his name. He was removed by Kruschev in 1957 as part of the De Stalinization process. His surname has also given rise to a notorious weapon, which was used for the first time in the Finnish war, and named in his honor. Name him, and also the weapon( no part points here).

MOLOTOV and the MOLOTOV COCKTAIL.

6) In 1987, while speaking at the Brandenburg gate, on the 750th anniversary of Berlin, which world leader challenged Gorbachev to "tear down this wall" and he later took a few symbolic swings in 1990 after the Wall was demolished. Who? ( Should be a sitter).

RONALD REAGAN

7) The German name for this sea port city in Poland, is Danzig, and it had a large population of German speakers. The Nazis capitalized on the pro German sentiment and in 1939, invaded this port city, that started off WW2. The Jews here were later deported to the Stutthof concentration camp near the city, and killed. On Aug 31,1980, the shipyard here, saw the founding of Solidarity headed by Lech Walesa, that would later spearhead the anti communist movement. Name the city.

GDANSK

8) This word gets it's name from a Russsian term meaning "Self Published". It was coined by Russian poet Nikolai Glazkov, to indicate the publishing of underground literature, by dissidents protesting against the Soviet system. Alexander Solzhenistyn''s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, was one of the first novels that were circulated through this media. It was defined by Bukovsky as follows " I myself create it, edit it, censor it, publish it, distribute it, and get imprisoned for it".

SAMIZDAT

9) Which Communist leader was captured at Targoviste while trying to flee, and shot dead by the armed forces on Dec 25,1989 in a mock trial? ( Should be a sitter).

NICOLAE CAESESCU

10) Stasi: East Germany:: Securitate:: __________?

ROMANIA

Scores

Santosh-10

Vineet-10

Manjth-7

Partha-3

Devdan-8

Tarun-4

Sriram-6

Anubhav-5

Sandip-10

Karthikeya-6

Dussehra Special- Brave Women of India Quiz

2009-09-23T04:17:00.001-07:00

Dussehra, a festival traditionally celebrating the female power or the Shakti. Mahishasur, the Demon King was so confident that no women could ever kill him, until he met his Nemesis in the hands of a woman. This Quiz is a tribute to the real life Durgas, the brave Indian women, who showed that when it comes to battle, women are no less inferior to men. So here is celebrating the spirit of Shakti.

She was the daughter of the Hussain Nizam Shah I of Ahmednagar, fluent in many languages including Marathi and Kannada and was a sitar player also. Married to Adil Shah of Bijapur, she had a stepwell constructed in her name. After her husband's death, she plotted against the regent Kamal Khan with help of another general Kishavar Khan, and had him executed. In 1591 when Akbar demanded the Bahmani sultanates to surrender, she resisted, and as a regent of the young king, she successfully defended the fort against the Mughal Army in 1595. However her decision to negotiate a truce with Daniyal, made her appear as a traitor, and egged on by treacherous nobles, she was killed by her own troops, and Ahmednagar fell to the Mughal Army.

CHAND BIBI

Born in a small village Kakati in 1778 AD, she was trained in horse riding, archery, sword fighting in her youth. She married Raja Mallasarja of the Desai family, and later adopted Shivalingappa, as the heir to the throne, after her son's death. The British evoked the Doctrine of Lapse against her action, she however resisted it, making her one of the earliest rebels against the British rule, as also the kappa tax. She was however defeated in battle, and imprisoned by the British at Bailhongal fort.

KITTUR RANI CHENAMMA

3) Born to King Ganapati Deva, she was formally designated as a son, owing to the lack of male heirs, and succeded her father at an age of 14. She later married Veerabhadra, an Eastern Chalukyan prince, and as a ruler, she suppressed the revolts within the Kakatiya kingdom, as also defended her kingdom from Chola, Yadava rulers. She also constructed the famous Warangal fort. Name her.

RUDRAMA DEVI

4) During the freedom struggle, Indira Gandhi created, an organization of young Indian boys and girls, as the children's wing of the Indian National Congress. What was it's name?

VANARA SENA

5) According to folklore, when the Rajput ruler hesitated to go into battle, as he was newly married, asked his wife for a memento, that would remind him of her during battle. In reply, she severed her head and asked it to be presented. Her husband, shattered by the sacrifice, fought bravely till his death in the battle. The woman has become a folklore legend in Rajasthan. Name her.

RANI HADI

6) This British general, served with distinction in Syria and later during the Crimean War. When the Mutiny broke out in 1857,he was made in charge of the Poona Division. He recaptured Madanpur and Chanderi, and later his small force of just 1500 was able to defeat Tantya Tope's much larger army of 20,000 soldiers. He is famous for the battle in which Rani of Jhansi died fighting till the end at Kalpi, and he later remarked that she was "the most dangerous of all rebel leaders". Name him.

SIR HUGH ROSE

Her real name was Muhammadi Khanum, and she was a courtesan by profession. She later became one of the royal concubines of the King of Oudh, and got her more famous title from him. When the British annexed Oudh, and expelled her husband Wajid Ali Shah to Kolkata, she took charge of the state. During the Mutiny, she declared her son Birjis Qadra as the ruler of Awadh, and even recaptured Lucknow. Refusing all offers of amnesty after her defeat, she later escaped to Nepal, where she passed away.

BEGUM HAZRAT MAHAL

8) Born in the village of Chondi near Ahmednagar in 1725, her father Mankoji Shinde was a village Patil, and he taught her how to read and write. She later married Khande Rao, and after her husband was killed in battle and later her father in law's death in 1766, she took over as the administration of the Malwa province. She was responsible for the development of Indore from a sleepy village to a prosperous trading center, and her own capital was Maheshwar, on the banks of the Narmada river. She liberally gave grants to many Hindu temples, and dozens of rest houses, sarais, and also a patron of arts and culture. She has often been compared with Catherine The Great and Elizabeth I. Name her.

AHILYABAI HOLKAR

9) Born in the fort of Kalanjar, in 1542 she was married to Dalpat Shah, of the Gond Dynasty. When her husband died in 1550, she took over the reins of the kingdom, as her son Vir Narayan was too young. She later moved the capital to Chauragarh. She successfuly repulsed an attack by Baz Bahadur, and in 1562 Akbar sent his general Majid Asaf Khan, to conquer her kingdom. Refusing to surrender she initially repelled tjhe attack, however pending imminent defeat to the Mughal Army, she stabbed herself to death in 1564. The University of Jabalpur has been renamed in her honor in 1983.

RANI DURGAWATI

10) Born into a Parsi family in 1861, her father, a merchant by profession was an influential figure. When Bombay presidency was hit by plague, she volunteered to provide assistance, and contracted it herself, and in 1901, she left to London for medical treatment. In 1905, she along with Dadabhai Nauroji and Singh Revabai Rana, founded the Indian Home Rule league. In 1907 she attended the International Socialist Conference in Stuttgart, and unfurled what she called "The flag of Indian independence". She was an outspoken activist for women's equality, and though initially given asylum by France, she later was arrested for sedition during WW1. Name her.

MADAME BHIKAJI CAMA

Scores

Rekha-9
Deepak-6
Kamal-9
Vineet-8
Shuleo-9
Ritwhik-9
Merci-8

Maximus Indicus Quiz-Mixed Bag 10

2009-08-11T05:17:00.000-07:00

Another Mixed Bag Quiz for me. And quite a decent response.

1) One theory regarding it's name states that it comes from an alternative Greek name for Hercules, meaning "Son of Hues". The other theory states it comes from an Oscan word meaning "smoke". What am i referring to here?

It was MT.VESUVIUS

2) It is believed to have got it's name from a local word meaning "palace fort". During the Sangam Era, it was part of the Chera kingdom, who ruled it until 1122 A.D. After the Chera Empire fell apart, it came under the Polanadu area. The city came into existence during the 13th century, when Udaivar conquered it and built a fort at Velapuram. Udaiyavar called himself as Swami Nambiyathri Tirumalapad, and the title was later shortened to Samuri. Hyder Ali captured this area in 1776 and in 1792 it fell into British hands. The Kappad Beach located close to this city, was witness to a famous historical event. Name the city.

KOZHIKODE, CALICUT( anything gets points)

3) Capt Mathew Webb was the first to achieve this feat in 1875. Antonio Abertendo, David Walliams, Florence May Chadwick, Thomas William Burgess have been some of the others. Which feat?

SWIMMING THE ENGLISH CHANNEL

4) Connect these 2 images

J.D.SALINGER( on left) wrote Catcher in the Rye, that inspired MARK CHAPMAN( on right) to assassinate John Lennon.

5) Tahei and Matakishi, in Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress were an influence for which iconic movie characters. Need both the names.

R2D2 and C3PO in Star Wars.

6) This rock band was formed in 1969, when Gerry Bron invited Ken Hensley to join Spice. It take's it name from a character in Charles Dicken's David Copperfield, who becomes one of the main antagonists. The debut album of this band Very 'eavy.... Very 'umble was the catchphrase of this character. Their second album Salisbury was more in the progressive rock genre. Quite often referred to as the "Beach boys of Heavy metal" for their often melodious numbers. Name the band.

URIAH HEEP

Identify this best selling author.

PAULO COELHO

What is being shown in the map above? Again the lines are self explanatory and this can be worked out.

THE 3 VOYAGES of CAPT.COOK( Again only Capt Cook gets the points here).

Identify this US President, famous for his "Fair Deal".

HARRY.S.TRUMAN

10) He was one of the youngest pilots in the RAF where he served till 1958. He joined Reuters in 1961 and later was BBC correspondent in 1965. He covered the Nigerian civil War between Nigeria and Biafra from June to September 1967, and basing on his experiences he wrote his first book The Biafra Story in 1969. He published his first full length novel in 1971 that went on to become a best seller, and also made into a succesful movie. He is the patron of Better off Out, an organization that is against Britian being a member of the EU. Name this author.

FREDERICK FORSYTH.

Scores

Sriram-6.5

Rose-4.5

Karthegeeyan-7

Saurabh-7

Manish-7

Priya-4

Nishant-6.5

Kaustubh-7

Connect-I-Cut- II

2009-07-31T00:47:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the repsonse. Here are the answers and Scores.

This 2008 Halloween logo was designed by a horror movie director, who started off in 1972 with The Last House on the Left, a low budget exploitation flick, that shocked viewers with its heavy amount of violence and sex. He gained fame in 1984, with this horror flick that is regarded as a classic in it's genre, and which has spawned an franchise by itself. He was also famous for another classic Horror trilogy in the 90's, staring Neve Campbell. Name this director and the 1984 movie i am referring to.

WES ANDERSON- The guy behind the cult Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream series.

2) Identify this cult movie director, who achieved a notoriety of his own and was famed for his B Grade horror flicks.

ED WOOD

3) He made his first appearance in a play The Trickster of Seville and the Stone Guest by Tirso De Molina. He was later immortalized in a poem by Lord Byron, as well as an opera by Mozart. The term is also used to mean a womanizer. Who?

DON JUAN DE MARCO aka DON JUAN

4) Subtitled A Savage Journey Into the Heart of the American Dream, this novel by Hunter S. Thomson was based on his real life escapades. Revolving around its fictional protagonist Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr.Gonzo, the novel is famous for it’s wave speech that captures the hippie spirit. Which book?

FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS

This American author is best known for the character of Rip Van Winkle which appeared as a short story in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Regarded as the first American novelist, who made a living through his writing, he advocated stronger laws to deal with copyright infringement. He is credited with the expression "almighty dollar" as well using the term Gotham for NYC. Apart from his short stories and novels, he has also written books on the history of Spain, as well as biographies of George Washington, Prophet Muhammad and Oliver Goldsmith.

WASHINGTON IRVING

6) Identify this famous author and playwright.

J.M.BARRIE of Peter Pan fame

Born to Norwegian parents in UK, he distinguished himself as a flying ace in World War II. Along with Ian Fleming and David Ogilvy, he was also one of the clandestine agents working for MI-6. He shot into fame with his 1943 book The Gremlins, and later on made a name for himself as a writer of children's literature with books like Matilda, James and the Giant Peach. Apart from his novels, he also wrote the screenplay for movies like You Only Live Twice and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He also wrote the screenplay for this 1971 movie starring Gene Wilder based on his most famous novel, but later disowned it. The 2007 movie version of the same novel, mentioned his name in the song writing credits. Name this author and the novel i am referring to.

ROALD DAHL, and the novel was CHARLIE & CHOCOLATE FACTORY.

8) Rated as one of the promising new talents in the 80's, he was born ____ Jude Bottom in Oregon. He shot into prominence with the 1986 comming of age movie Stand By Me, and one of his more notable roles was that of the teen Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He won acclaim for his role in Gus Van Sant's My Private Idaho. A dedicated animal rights activist, he died of a drug overdose at the Viper Room, a Hollywood night club, when he was just 23.

RIVER PHOENIX

9) One of the most notorious bank robbers, he was nicknamed as "Jackrabbit" for the way he used to evade cops during his heists and also his encounters with the cops. He was finally shot dead at the Biograph Theater in Chicago, while comming out from a show of Manhattan Melodrama.

JAMES DILLINGER

10)

Identify this iconic movie director, famous for his quirky style of movie making.

TIM BURTON

The connection was of course JOHNNY DEPP.

Made his debut with Wes Anderson's Nightmare on Elm Street.

Played the role of Don Juan.

Played the role of Ed Wood( Ed Wood), J.M.Barrie( Finding Neverland), Dillinger( Public Enemies).

Memorable association with Tim Burton.

Acted in the movie adaptations of CHARLIE & CHOCOLATE FACTORY, FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS, and WASHINGTON IRVING's SLEEPY HOLLOW.

River Phoenix died of a drug overdose at VIPER CLUB, partly owned by Depp.

Scores

Somak-4

Jayashree-10, I need the explanation for the connection also.

Karthegeyan-14

Ramsu-15

Barb Rose-8

Rajiv Silva-15

Kamal-9

Excalibur-8

Animesh-8

Kaustubh-5

Kuldeep-4

Maximus Indicus Quiz-Mixed Bag 9

2009-07-15T03:24:00.000-07:00

The answers and scores for the Quiz.

1) On July 15,1815, "he" surrendered on the HMS Bellerophone to Capt Frederick Maitland, and was transported to Torbay. Maitland received strict orders from Adm Lord Keith "to prevent every person whatever from coming on board the ship you command, except the officers and men who compose her crew". In response to his orders, Maitland refused to allow the usual visits of boats from supplier. However a sailor on one of the lower boats set adrift a small bottle containing a message that "he" was on board the ship, and the news quickly spread everywhere. Who was this inhabitant?

This was NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. Did get some interesting replies of Horatio Hornblower and Blackbeard also.

2) He was born to German immigrants in Detroit, his father made a fortune from being a mining engineer. He looked after his father's lumber business, buying extensive timberlands around Gray's Harbor. In 1916, he founded this firm along with George Conrad Westervelt, and in 1917, during WW1, he named the company after his surname. In 1921 he married Bertha Marie Potter, and in 1934, accusing him of monopolistic practices, his company was broken into 3 divisions. He had a thoroughbred farm near Seattle named Aldarra. Name him and the company.

The person was WILLIAM BOEING, and the company was BOEING. Some guessed CARGILL, and yeah Henry Ford too.

3) 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.

SEATTLE, cracked by all, STARBUCKS was a give away here.

4)

On July 15,1997 he was shot dead by Andrew Cunanan at his famous mansion on Miami Beach( above pic), as he returned from his customary morning walk on Ocean Drive. His body was cremated and his ashes were later returned to his family's estate at Cernobbio,Italy.

GIANNI VERSACE, again cracked by most.

Self portrait of a famous artist. Identify.

REMBRANDT, again many got this.

6) Born in Long View, TX, his family later migrated to Los Angeles in 1965. His grandfather was a novelist, while his mother was an educator. His first major movie role was in the 1982 Cameron Crowe flick Fast Times at Ridgemont High. He also appeared in Martin Scorcese's The Color of Money, and co starred with Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam. Known as a method actor, one of his more famous roles has been in Jim Jarmusch's 1999 movie Ghost Dog. He was also named as a chief among the Igbo tribe in Nigeria. Name this well known black actor.

FORREST WHITAKER, most of the respondents got it

7) In 1964, Ronnie Van Zant, Allen Collins, Gary Rossington formed a band "The Noble Five", which then changed to My Backyard when Larry Junstorm and Bob Burns joined them in Florida. Billy Powell a roadie joined them in 1970, and they tried a new name. Finally they choose a name that was a parody of their high school physical education teacher's name, who was strict in acting against boys with long hair. In 1972, Al Kooper discovered the band during one of their shows in Atlanta. Their 1973 song Free Bird was a major hit, propelling them to stardom. In 1974, their second album Second Helping, contained the hit single "Sweet Home Alabama" which was highly political in nature. In 2005, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Name this band.

LYNRD SKINNRD, again cracked by most.

Identify this iconic guitarist. He began to learn the guitar from age of 14 after death of Jimi Hendrix. In 1978, he became a high profile guitarist with Frank Zappa, and he later taught in California, where his students included Kirk Hammet( Metallica) among others. His 1987 album Surfing with the Alien was a major success, and his 1992 album The Extremist, was one of the most critically acclaimed ones. He has received 15 Grammy nominations, and he has been using his own signature guitar Ibanez JS Series since 1988. Name him.

Not many can really miss out JOE SATRIANI in any form.

9) Le quatorze juillet is a public holiday in France. Which historical event is commemorated here?

Got a set of replies, the answer i was looking for was STORMING OF BASTILLE, even BASTILLE DAY will do.

10) This airlines was founded in 1934 as Varney Speed Lines, and operated out of El Paso, Texas. In 1936, Robert Six, bought over the airline, and was awarded an airmail contract. In 1937, it was renamed to it's current name, and the headquarters were relocated to Denver,CO. The routes expanded further in 1946, and in 1953, Pioneer Airlines was merged with it. Initially operating in South Western US, it later expanded all over US, thanks to Six's lower fares strategy. It made history in 1963, when Marlon Greene, became the first Black pilot to work for any major airlines in US. Currently operating out of Houston, Texas, its slogan is "Work Hard, Fly Right".

Hmm there were wide guesses ranging from Southwest Airlines, United, but the answer i was looking for was CONTINENTAL AIRLINES, yeah the same one in controversy recently due to the Kalam incident.

Scores

Anand-7

Sriram-10

Somak-8

Nirad-4

Mayura-10

Manish-9

Ashwin-3

Kartheegeyan-10

Anant -5

Tejas-7

Kaustubh-5

Jyotesh-8

Connect-I-Cut- 1

2009-06-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

This is a connection Quiz, with a slight difference. The answers to the questions below are all connected to a common theme. So you would need to give the answers as well as the Theme.

If you get the Theme right, you get 5 Bonus Points in addition to your existing score. And the connection funda has to be explained properly.

Thanks for the response, am giving the reply, and connection.

1)

Identify this popular British playwright, actor, director and composer. His father was a piano salesman, and his maternal grandfather Henry Veitch was a surveyor in Royal Navy. His 1924 play Vortex earned him lot of fame and acclaim. Also famous for his plays Hay Fever, Private Lives many of which have been adapted to screen. He worked with the British Secret Service during WW2, and also acted in movies like The Italian Job(1969).

NOEL COWARD

2) This Graham Greene novel is a murder thriller, and is centered around Pinkie Brown, a teen sociopath and anti hero character. Like most of the other Graham Greene novels, this also explores themes of sin, morality and Catholic sensibilities.

BRIGHTON ROCK

3) Connect "Cooler King", "Scrounger", " Tunnel King", "Forger", "Mole".

NICKNAMES OF CHARACTERS IN THE GREAT ESCAPE.

4) The only fiction novel to be written by him was Savrola, set in the fictional land of Laurania, and deals with the revolution against its despotic ruler Antonia Molara. The author later won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953. Name him.

WINSTON CHURCHILL.

5) Identify this person during his much younger days.

This is of course SATYAJIT RAY, taken during his Shantiniketan days.

6) The book dealing with a well known WW2 operation takes it's name from a comment made by Gen . Frederick Browning to Gen. Bernard Montogomery-"I think we may be going ____________".

A BRIDGE TOO FAR.

7)

Identify the person in the picture.

MAHATMA GANDHI, as a volunteer during the Boer War.

Identify this anti apartheid activist, a student leader and founder of Black Consciousness Movement. He was famous for his slogan "Black is Beautiful". Arrested by the cops in 1977 under Anti terrorism act, he died in prison of torture. He is also the author of the book "I write what i like".

STEVE BIKO

9) 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 reburried under 2 m of concrete to prevent further attempts.

CHARLIE CHAPLIN

10) The name of this fictional island means "Cloudy Island" in Spanish. It is located 120 miles away from coast of Costa Rica. It measures 8 miles long and 3 miles wide.

ISLA NULBAR. which became famous in JURASSIC PARK.( Pls note that Jurassic Park does not get points, i was looking for the name of the Island specifically).

The theme was of course SIR RICHARD ATTENBOROUGH.

He made his debut with NOEL COWARD's In Which we Serve. He acted in the movie version of BRIGHTON ROCK, and was "Mr. Big" in THE GREAT ESCAPE. He of course directed biopics on WINSTON CHURCHILL( Young Winston), MAHATMA GANDHI( Gandhi), STEVE BIKO( Cry Freedom) and CHARLIE CHAPLIN( Chaplin). He also directed the movie A BRIDGE TOO FAR, based on the disastrous Operation Market Garden. And yes who could ever forget him as Sir John Hammond in JURASSIC PARK. He also acted as Gen Outram in SATYAJIT RAY's Shatranj Ke Khilari.

Scores

Chitho-14

Kartheegayan-15

Kamal-9

Shrey-15

Aviral-3

Somak-7

Manish-14

Kshira- 15

Maximus Indicus Quiz-Mixed Bag 8

2009-04-22T02:33:00.000-07:00

I am back with another Mixed Bag Quiz. Hope you folks enjoy it.

1) 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".

The place was MANHATTAN.

2) Identify the artist of the above painting. He was a noted painter of historical scenes, but he is more remembered for his achievements in another field.

SAMUEL MORSE, who was a noted artist too.

This Nazi officer was notorious for the experiments he conducted on concentration camp inmates, giving him the nickname of "Angel of Death". He conducted studies on heredity, twins and also attempted to change the eye colors of children by injecting chemicals. After the War, he escaped to South America, where he first spent some time in Argentina. However after the capture of Adolf Eichmann, he migrated to Paraguay, where he lived in Hohenhau for some time. In 1979, he died of drowning at a beach in Bertioga, Brazil, and was burried at Embu Das Artes under the name of Wolfgang Gerhard.

DR. JOSEF MENGELE.

4) Lys Assia won it the first time in 1956 for Refrain, Alexander Rybak won it in 2009 for Fairytale, what am i referring to?

All winners of Eurovision Contest.

5) Daniel Gabriel _________ was born to a merchan family in 1686 in Danzig, and the eldest of 5 children. In 1717 he settled in The Hague, making barometers, altimeters. He also lectured in Chemistry in Amsterdam in 1718, and visited England in 1724, where he became a member of Royal Society. He is famous for his 1724 study of temperatures.

FAHRENHEIT

6) Shabtai Zisel ben Avraham was born on May 24, 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota and was raised later at Hibbings, MN. He formed The Golden Chords band in High School, and in 1959 he joined the University of Minnesota. He changed his name later in tribute to his favorite poet. His first album produced by John Hammond, sold only 5000 copies in 1962, and it was nicknamed as "Hammond's Folly". His latest album is Together Through Life. Chronicles: Volume 1 is the first part of his 3 series planned memoir.

BOB DYLAN

7) This British rock band was formed by Mark Knopfler, David Knopfler, John Illsley, Pick Withers in 1997, was so named due to their poor financial situation. Their first 5 song demo tape contained their biggest hit Sultans of Swing. After their success in the US tour, Bob Dylan invited Mark Knopfler to play on his album Slow Train Comming. Their 1980 single Tunnel of Love was featured in the soundtrack of the movie An Officer and a Gentleman. On Every Street was the last album they produced before breaking up. Name the band.

DIRE STRAITS

8) This term was coined by US Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, during the Cold War. It refers to the act of pushing a dangerous situation close to the verge of disaster, in order to derive the best advantage. It was used as a tactic during the Cuban missile crisis. In Dulles own word's this means "The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war". Name the term.

BRINKMANSHIP

9) Identify the couple in the above picture.

Yes it is BONNIE & CLYDE.

10) This nursery rhyme was written and published by Sarah Josepha Hale in 1830. Lowell Mason later set it to a musical form. Name it.

MARY HAD A LITTLE LAMB.

Scores

Somak-6

Sri Ram-8

Shruti-5

Shreenath-6

Akshay-8

Raghavendra-8

Nirad-3

Mostly Clueless-8

Jaykumar-6

Ravi Kiran-4

Malcaluffin-8

Cintom-8

Also i request people commenting to give their name. Anonymous replies are not accepted.

Maximus Indicus Quiz- Movie Quiz

2009-03-08T23:43:00.000-07:00

Comming back with a movie Quiz after a very long time. Something i always loved posting. So hoping all movie maniacs love this Quiz.

1) "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands: one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty ________." Complete the quote.

AND JUSTICE FOR ALL

2) Identify this person in the picture along with Al Pacino.

LEE STRASBERG

3) As a movie student, George Lucas was choosen by Columbia pictures to shoot short behind the scene documentaries on the making of this Western in 1967. Lucas was actually on location in Utah for the shooting of this movie. He released a documentary version called 6-18-67, which was the day the shooting of this movie finished. This movie would later be an influence on another famous epic adventure. Name the movie.

MACKENNAS GOLD

4) Under the name of Rus le Roq, he recorded a tune called "I want to be Like Marlon Brando". He and his friend formed a band called Roman Antix, which later became an Aussie pub rock brand called 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, in 1992. He also collaborated with Alan Doyle of the Canadian band Great Big Sea in 2005. He changed the name of his band to The Ordinary Fear of God, though the acronym TOFOG remains the same. Which actor am i referring to?

RUSSEL CROWE

What is the claim to fame of this building?

THIS IS THE HOTEL FEATURED IN HOTEL RWANDA

Real name Joseph Pistone. Special Agent FBI . How do we know him better?

DONNIE BRASCO

7) X appeared for the first time in a 1955 novel by Patricia Highsmith. It was first made into a 1960 French movie Plein Soel( Purple Noon in English), starring Alain Delon as X. In 1999, Antony Minghella made another movie adaptation, Z, of the same novel starring Y as X . Identify X, Y and Z. ( 3 points).

X- MR.RIPLEY, Z- THE TALENTED MR.RIPLEY, Y-MATT DAMON

8) She is the only person to learn The 5 Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, a method by which an assailant can be killed by quickly striking the 5 pressure points around the heart. She faked her own death ,lived in rural Texas under name of Arlene Machiavelli and was engaged to Tommy Plympton. Name the character and movie( 2 points).

BEATRTIX KIDDO AKA THE BRIDE, KILL BILL

9)

Born in Minnesota, he was class president, senior prom king and voted "Most Likely to Succeed". He started his career as an animator for Help! magazine. His first two movies as a director were animated shorts Storytime and The Miracle of Flight. A member of the Monty Python group, his first movie as a solo director was a comedy which took its title from a nonsense poem by Lewis Caroll. Name the director.

TERRY GILLIAM

10) During the early 1900's, Dr. Duncan MacDougall, sought to measure the weight purportedly lost by a human body when the soul departed the body on death. He weighed dying patients to prove that the soul could be measured and had a tangible mass. Though his experiments were rejected scientifically, the figure of ____ became synonmous with the mass of a soul.

21 GRAMS

Scores

Ajay Parasuraman-5

Shubendu-9

Prasad-8

Santosh-10

Saikumar-7

Kamal-8

Vijaynath-7

Arun Thulasi-5

Ashwin-4

Animesh-9

Bharath-2

Maximus Indiucs Quiz- Mixed Bag Quiz-7

2009-02-15T08:21:00.000-08:00

Another mixed bag Quiz from my side, hope you find it enjoyable.

1) This city is located at confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, and was founded by French settlers in 1764. It was a major river port, on the route to New Orleans. From 1766 to 1768 it was ruled by French Governor, Ange De Bellerive. In 1803, the city was acquired from France by Thomas Jefferson as part of the Louisiana Purchase. The city came into news when it secured funding for Charles Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic. Also famous for the Wainwright Building, and in 1893, Nikola Tesla demonstrated radio communication here.

ST.LOUIS

2) The Great Ormond Street Hospital in London received the copyright to this particular literary work in 1929 from the author himself. This entitled the institution to receive royalties from any performance or publication of the play. When this expired in 1987, the UK Government gave it perpetual copyright to collect royalties. Name the work and the author.( No part points here).

PETER PAN, J.M.BARRIE

3)

Identify this Civil War General who later went on to become the 18th President of the US.

GEN. ULYSEES GRANT

4) On Feb 15, 1933, Giuseppe Zangara, attempted to assasinate X in Miami. He was however unsuccesful and ended up shooting Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who died later in hospital. Name X.

F.D. ROOSEVELT

5)

On Feb 15, 1942 , Lt. Gen Arthur Percival surrendered to the Japanese Army, after this place fell after 7 days of fighting. About 80,000 Indian, British, Australian soldiers become POW's making it one of the largest surrender of British forces. Winston Churchill called it the "worst disaster" and "largest capitulation" in British history. After the capture, the Japanese renamed the place as Syonan-To meaning "Light of the South Island". What event i am referring to?

FALL OF SINGAPORE TO JAPAN

6) Connect these 4 pics.

STEVE CHEN, CHAD HURLEY, JAVED KARIM, ALL EX EMPLOYESS OF PAY PAL, WHO STARTED YOU TUBE.

7) Born in Paris in 1877, Louis ____, loved engineering and mechanics, and in 1898, he built his first car, which he called the Voiturette. On Feb 25,1899, he founded the ____ Freres company, along with his brothers Marcel and Fernand. He is credited with many inventions in automobile industry like hydraulic shock absorber, the drum brake and turbocharger. He was decorated with Legion of Honor after WW1, due to the effectiveness of the battle tank developed by him. After France was liberated from Nazi rule his company was nationalized on charges of collaboration and Louis himself was arrested by French Govt on this charges. He later died in prison. In 1996, the company was privatized and it also has an alliance with Nissan. Name the company.

RENAULT

8)

Born into a Jewish family, he was encouraged to participate in the Manhattan Project while he was at Princeton, and was assigned to Hans Bethe's division. He developed the formula to calculate the yield of a fission bomb, named after him partly. He also won the Nobel Prize For Physics in 1965 along with Julian Schwinger and Sin-Itiro Tomanaga for his work on quantum electrodynamics. He developed a pictorial representation for mathematical expressions governing behaviour of sub atomic particles. He is famous for his semi autobiographical books like What Do you Care what Other People Think?. Free spirited in nature he loved to discuss on topics like lock picking, Maya hieroglyphs, percussion, art and biology. Who?

DR.RICHARD FEYMANN

9) What went into service for the first time on Feb 16, 1968 in the small town of Haleyville, in Alabama?

911 WAS USED AS THE EMERGENCY NUMBER

10)

Identify this notorious dictator who was overthrown by the 26th of July movement, and finally resigned on January 1, 1959.

FULGENCIO BATISTA, OVERTHROWN BY FIDEL CASTRO

Scores

Aviral-2

Gautam-6

Animesh-10

Ashwin-4

Swarun-6

Republic Day Special Quiz on Modern India

2009-01-25T02:07:00.000-08:00

Commemorating the Republic Day, this special Quiz is dedicated to India.

1) Connect the following pictures, this is not an exhaustive list, but am looking for a very specific connection.

ALL THE ABOVE LEADERS WERE GUESTS AT REPUBLIC DAY PARADE

2) Indian Standard Time is calculated on the basis of 82.5° E longitude, which is just west of the town of X, near Allahabad. X is a small town also famous for it's carpets and brassware.

MIRZAPUR

3) According to the Surya Siddhanta, the earth was spherical in shape, and the prime meridian passed through this historic city, also the site of one of the Jyotirlingas. As per anicent Indian astronomers, day began with sunrise at this holy place. Which one?

UJJAIN

4) His father was an Engineer in the East India Railway. After graduation he worked as a lecturer from 1916 to 1921 in Calcutta University. In 1924, his paper on Planck's quantum radiation was translated into German by Albert Einstein himself. He worked with Einstein, Curie, De Broglie in Europe too. His work led to discovery of X-Einstein condensates, and a group of particles with integer spin were named after him.

S.N.BOSE

5)Born in Goa, he graduated from Bombay University in Chemical Engineering. He served for over 11 years as Director of CSIR and also the 3rd Indian engineer to be elected as FRS in the 20th century. In 1997, Business India named him as one of the Top 50 path breakers in Post Independent India. In 1998, he became the first scientist to win the JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award. He has been credited for turning CSIR into a professionally run, user driven, accountable organization. He succesfully challenged US patents on Turmeric and Basmati Rice.

R.A.MASHELKAR

6) This instrument gets it's name from a Persian word meaning "Beautiful sound". It is believed to be derived from a Central Asian instrument, the rubab. Mohd. Hashmi Khan Bangash, popularized this instrument in the court of the Maharaja of Rewa. The present form of this instrument dates back to 1820 A.D. The strings are made either from steel or phosphor bronze and plucked with a triangular pelctrum.

SAROD

7) In the famous hit song Hai Apna dil to Aawara from the Dev Anand starrer Solva Saal, who played the mouth organ in it. The song was composed by Hemant Kumar.

R.D.BURMAN

8) This Indian viceroy was the subject of this doggerel, due to his often arrogant attitude

My name is George Nathaniel ________,
I am a most superior person.
My cheeks are pink, my hair is sleek,
I dine at Blenheim twice a week.

LORD CURZON

9) As per legend, Parashuram, purified the corpses of 14 people, who were washed ashore by the sea at the foot of the Sahayadris, by burning them. On purification, they came to life, and settled in the surrounding region. Which community gets it's name from this?

CHITPAVAN BRAHMINS

10) Gyanam paramam balam or "Knowledge is Power Supreme", is the motto of which famous educational institution in India?

BITS, PILANI

Scores

Karthikeyan-10

Rithwik-6

Aviral-2

Abhinaya-7

Animesh-10

Kamal-9

Tanuj-9

Nirad-7

Prateek-5

Anand Shankar-5

Shubendu-9

Maximus Indiucs Quiz- Mixed Bag Quiz-6

2008-12-07T03:15:00.000-08:00

Well am up again with a quiz after a long time. Was stuck up with some work, and then all those Mumbai terror attacks, just threw me off, was not in the mood for anything. So back again with another Mixed Bag Quiz.

1) Identify the scientist in the picture above. Born in Kiel in 1858, his father was a professor of Law and he graduated in Physics. He was also a gifted music player. His professor Phillip Von Jolly warned him against study of Physics saying that "in this field, almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few holes." In 1879 he defended his dissertation, On the second fundamental theorem of the mechanical theory of Heat, and in 1885 he joined as associate professor in University of Kiel and in 1892 he became a full professor at University of Berlin. His second son Erwin was amongst those sentenced to death in 1945 for the assasination attempt on Hitler. In 1918 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics, for his pathbreaking theory. Who?

MAX PLANCK

2) It was originally a shallow embayment called Wai Momi or Pu' uloa by Hawaiians. In local legend this was regarded as home of shark goddess Ka'ahupahau . Initially it was not considered a good place for ships because of its shallow waters. By what name is this place better known to us?

PEARL HARBOR

3) On Dec 7,1982 Charles Brooks Jr, a convicted murderer, was executed at the Huntsville Prison in Texas. It was the first execution in Texas after 64 years. But it also had another first to it, what was it?

FIRST PERSON TO BE EXECUTED BY LETHAL INJECTION

4)Name is the person in the picture along with Bill Clinton and Yasser Arafat.

YITZHAK RABIN

5)

Richard Warren ________ in Minnesota he assisted his father in their wagon making business for some time. He learnt telegraphy and became the station agent in the Redwood Falls station on Minneapolis-St.Louis railroad line. In 1886, he made a profit of 5000$ selling watches to station agents all along the line, and this made him start his first company R.W._________ Watch Company and he also made use of mail order to reach out to clients in rural and small town areas. He later moved his company to Chicago, and hired his first employee Alvah Curtis with whom he later co founded the firm officially in 1893. Today this is one of America's most popular departmental store chains. Which one?

SEARS, ROEBUCK AND CO

6) Born as Ghanshyam Pande in Chhapaiya near Ayodhya in 1781, in 1792 he adopted the name of Nilkanth Vani and took a 7 year pilgrimage across India. In 1799, he settled in Gujarat where he began to preach. Initiated into the Uddhav Sampraday by his guru Ramanand Swami, he was named as Swami Sahajanand. After his Guru had passed away, he became the leader of the Uddav Sampradhay, and his followers referred to him by another name, which became the name of the sect also. By what name do we know him better.

SWAMI NARAYAN

7) Born to Jewish parents in Philadelphia, he often described his family as a sort of Jewish Ghetto split into a Yiddish side and a Hebrew side. At age of 10 he wrote an article about spread of Fascism, after the fall of Barcelona in the Spanish Civil War. He did his PhD in linguistics from University of Pennsylvania.

NOAM CHOMSKY

8) Connect Gatun, Pedro Miguel, Miraflore.

LOCKS ON PANAMA CANAL

9) William Smeile was the first editor in 1768 and Dale Hoiberg is the current editor since 1997. What am i referring to here?

ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITTANICA

10) Designed by Robert Mills, a prominent architect, the construction of this monument started in 1848. However lack of funds and Civil War, caused delays and it was finally completed in 1884. On Feb 21,1885 it was dedicated to the nation, and until 1889, it was the worlds tallest structure. As of now its one of the tallest stone structures in the world, and in 1982, an anti nuclear protester Norman Mayer held 8 tourists hostage, threatening to blow up the monument. Name it.

WASHINGTON MEMORIAL

And the Scores

Ajay -5
Rabi Sankar-10
Beckhamdravid-3
Shreenath-7
Anagha-5

Maximus Indiucs Quiz- Mixed Bag Quiz-5

2008-10-21T05:45:00.000-07:00

Sorry for delay in response. Was preoccupied with some work, and then last one week put me off totally, what with all those terror attacks in Mumbai, and i was just not in the mood.

1) This place was founded by Samuel de Champlain in 1608 AD, as the administrative seat for the French Colony of New France. It gets it's name from an Alonquin word meaning "it narrows", referring to the fact that the St. Lawrence River narrows to a cliff here. It became a province in 1763 after France transferred this to Britian. This place also has one of the largest French speaking community in the world.

QUEBEC

2) On OCt 23,1911, what took place in the Italian-Turkish war, that would be the first of it's kind?

FIRST TIME AIRPLANES WERE USED

3) Should be a sitter, what starts at Broadway in the East and ends at South Street on East River?

WALL STREET-SURPRISED MANY DID NOT GET THIS

4) This picture is of a War Memorial at a famous battlefield of World War II. Name the place

EL ALAMEIN

5) Connect the following pictures

THE CONNECT WAS DEEP THROAT

MARK FELT WAS THE REAL DEEP THROAT
CHARACTER IN X FILES
LINDA LOVELACE ACTED IN PORN MOVIE DEEP THROAT

6)

This political leader in the picture, was born in Tel Aviv. Basically of Lithuanian descent, his father was a professor of Jewish History. His elder brother Yonatan was killed in the Entebbe operation and he served in Sayeret Matkal, an Israeli special task force. He graduated from MIT in 1977, and worked for some time at BCG, before returning to Israel. He was also the Israeli Ambassador to US from 1984-1988. In 1996, he became the first Israeli Prime Minister to win a direct election, beating Shimon Peres. Nicknamed as Bibi, he negotiated with Yasser Arafat for the Wye River accords.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU

7) Connect Classic, Mini, Nano, Shuffle, Touch.( Should be a sitter).

IPOD MODELS

8) Though Douglas Jardine, started the Bodyline practice, in reality he never referred it as such. What was the name he gave to this technique?

LEG THEORY

9) This novel written by Czech writer Milan Kundera in 1982, is set in the backdrop of the 1968 Prague Spring. The central character is Tomas, a succesful surgeon who is removed from his job for his ant Communist stand. Also made into a 1988 movie starring Daniel Day Lewis and Juliette Binoche.

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING

10) He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1969, and while in Med School, wrote novels under the pseudonym of John Lange and Jeffrey Hudson. He also co authored another novel Dealing under the pen name of Michael Douglas. The first novel published under his real name was The Great Train Robbery in 1975. He also wrote Electronic Life, a book on BASIC programming. He was also the director for Westworld, Coma and the 1979 screen version of The Great Train Robbery.

MICHAEL CRICHTON

Scores

Rithwik-6

Muni-6

Swarun-5

Anaimesh-8

Arun Thulasi-6

Cimtom-7

Aravind-8

Kamal-9

Ashish-4

Tarun-4

Anand Shankar-3

qe qq -4

Minhaj-7

A Paul Newman Special Quiz

2008-09-28T06:35:00.000-07:00

A tribute to a great actor, race car driver, a humanist and a philanthropist. A man famous for his blue eyes, and looks. And yet who enthralled us with his intense performances in movie after movie. Not just a great actor, but also a great human being. Paul Newman is no longer with us, but his movies and roles will be forever with us. This quiz is on Paul Newman and his movies.

1)

The 1956 movie Somebody Up there Likes Me, which was Paul Newman's first major role was based on the life of which famous boxer. This boxer was famous for his knockouts.

ROCKY GRAZIANO

2)

Identify this Paul Newman- Elizabeth Taylor starrer based on a famous play by Tennesse Williams.

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF

3) Paul Newman was famous for his role of Fast Eddie in the 1961 movie The Hustler. In which 1986 movie, co starring Tom Cruise, did he play the same role, and won his only Oscar for acting to date?

THE COLOR OF MONEY

4)

This 1966 movie where Paul Newman appears along with Julie Andrews, to date remains the only movie where he worked with Alfred Hitchcock. Based on the defection of British spies to the West, however the movie became famous for the tiffs between Hitchcock and Newman during the filming.

TORN CURTAIN

5) "What we've got here is...failure to communicate."
This quote is taken from which iconic Paul Newman movie of the 60's.

COOL HAND LUKE

6) X- "Wait a minute - you didn't see Lefors out there did you?" Y: "Lefors? No, why?" X: "Thank God for that. For a moment there I thought we were in trouble."

Just identify X and Y.

BUTCH CASSIDY AND SUNDANCE KID

7) Complete the series The Setup, The Hook, The Tale and __________.

THE STING

8) Which famous star of early Hollywood musicals, acted in the 1974 disaster flick The Towering Inferno starring Paul Newman and Steve McQueen, and was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor award for his role?

FRED ASTAIRE

9) "You know, so much of the time we're just lost. We say, "Please, God, tell us what is right; tell us what is true." And there is no justice: the rich win, the poor are powerless. We become tired of hearing people lie. And after a time, we become dead... a little dead. We think of ourselves as victims... and we become victims. We become... we become weak. We doubt ourselves, we doubt our beliefs. We doubt our institutions. And we doubt the law. But today you are the law. You ARE the law"
Again another famous quote, name the movie for which Paul Newman received a nomination too.

THE VERDICT

10)

This was the last movie in which Paul Newman appeared on screen, where he played an Irish mob boss.

THE ROAD TO PERDITION

And the Scores

Mihir-6
Karthik-10
Chiranjit-10
Anathakrishnan-4
Manas-5
Shyam-10
Anand Shankar-3
Kamal-10
Hari-10
Niraj-2

Maximus Indiucs Quiz -Mixed Bag-4

2008-09-19T07:06:00.001-07:00

Another mixed bag Quiz from me, most of the questions are easy and can be worked out.

1) Starting off with a sitter, If you were convicted under the Lindbergh Law in US, what crime would you be committing?

Kidnapping- So named after Charles Lindbergh's son was kidnapped and killed.

2)Ed Grier is the current president of this place since 2006. Other former presidents have been Jack Lundquist, Paul Pressler, Cynthia Hariss and Matt Quimmet. Which place am I referring to?

Disneyland

3) Identify the man in the picture, his real name is Theodore John Kaczynski.

He is the Una Bomber.

4) Born in California, he was adopted by a Greek-American couple. He took part for the first time in the Olympics at Montreal, 1976, and came second in diving. He won golds in both the springboard and tower diving events in the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles. His most famous achievement came in the 1988 Seoul Olympics , where he came back with stitches after a head injury sustained while diving and went on to win the Gold. He also took part in the 1994 Gay Games, and his autobiography is titled Breaking the Surface.

Greg Louganis

5) The title of this 20^th century novel is a literal translation of Beelzebub. Set on an isolated island, it revolves around 2 English boys Ralph & Piggy, who are the sole survivors of a plane crash, and stranded on the island. It is an allegory about the conflict between civilization and will to power.

The novel was Lord of the Flies.

6) Identify the man in the picture, whom Paul McCartney called as The 5^th Beatle.

He is Brian Epstein, their manager.

7) One of the greatest Olympians of all time, he won his first Gold at 1956 Games in Melbourne, in the discus throw. He also won the gold at the 1960 Games in Rome. But his greatest feat was at the 1964 Games in Tokyo, where inspite of tearing a cartilage in his ribs, he took part, and won the gold again. He also won in 1968, making him the only other athlete along with Carl Lewis and Paul Elvstrom, to win a gold in the same event for 4 consecutive Olympics. After he retired, he dabbled in abstract painting and was famous for his “Impact” series.

Al Oerter

8) This British actor in the picture was born in Isle of Wight, and trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theater School. He was the romantic lead opposite Judi Dench in the BBC TV version of Langrishe, Go Down. He shot into fame playing the role of Charles Ryder in the 1981 TV adaptation of Brideshead Revisited. He made his movie debut in 1980 with Nijinsky. He gained fame for his role in the Mission and in 1990 won an Oscar for his role in Reversal of Fortune. He also appeared opposite Meryl Streep in The French Lieutnant’s Woman. His other famous roles include Die Hard with a Vengenance, The Man in the Iron Mask, and he sang the song “Be Prepared” for movie The Lion King.

The actor is Jeremy Irons.

9) During the siege of Belgrade in 1456, John Hunyadi successfully defended the city against the onslaught of the Ottoman Sultan. In order to celebrate a victory, which has been hailed as deciding the fate of Christendom, Pope Callixtus III, ordered this act, which to date is followed in most of the Catholic churches around the world. What act?

The ringing of the Church bells at noon.

10) With which historical event would you associate the 1911 Graf & Stift Double Phaeton car shown in the below picture.

This was the car in which Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife were
assasinated.

Scores

Arun Thulasi-4
Sayantan Bose-7
Karthik Chander-8
Kamal Rathi-10
Jaya Mukherjee-10
Nutzlos-3
Anand-9
amlan-6
Deepti-3
Swarun-5
Abhinaya-6
Rams-8
priya-6
Anand Shankar-6
Sujatha-8

Maximus Indiucs Quiz -Mixed Bag-III

2008-09-09T05:35:00.000-07:00

Giving results and scores. Thanks again for response.

1) In his 1510 book The Exploits of Esplandian, Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, wrote about a mythical island, west of the Indies:
Know, that on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called X very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of Amazons.
Name X.

X was California.

2) This song was a big-band/swing song which was featured in the 1941 movie Sun Valley Serenade, which starred amongst others Sonja Henie, Glenn Miller and his Orchestra, The Modernaires, Milton Berle and Joan Davis. It was performed in the film as an extended production number, featuring vocals by Tex Beneke, Paula Kelly, and the Modernaires followed by a production number showcasing Dorothy Dandridge and an acrobatic dance sequence by The Nicholas Brothers. This was the #1 song across the United States on December 7, 1941. Which song am i referring to?

Chattanooga Choo Choo

3)
Identify this famous 20th century statesman and political leader, whose masoleum is located at Anitkabir.

The statesman was Mustafa Kemal Attaturk., the Turkish leader.

4)
Born to a police commander in Panjshir, he was of Tajik origin. Though his native tongue was Persian, he was equally fluent in French, Pashto, Hindi and Urdu. He led the rebellion against the Mohd Daoud Khan's government in 1975 from the Panjshir valley. He played an active part in the revolt against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, inflicting heavy losses on the Russian troops. He was famous for his effective guerilla attacks. One of the important leaders in the Northern Alliance, he was assasinated in a suicide bombing at Khwaja Bahauddin by Arab militants. In 2001, after the fall of the Taliban, he was named as the "Hero of the Afghan Nation" and he is also nicknamed as "Lion of Panjshir".

The person was Ahmad Shah Masood.

5)Born in 1737 in Bologna, he attended the famous medical school there and became a doctor. His celebrated theory of animal electricity he enunciated in a treatise, De viribus electricitatis in motu musculari commentarius published in the 7th volume of the memoirs of the Institute of Sciences at Bologna in 1791, and separately at Modena in the following year, and elsewhere subsequently. He is noted for his famous experiments on a frog, when he saw it twitching its legs after charge was applied to it. This phenomenon was later renamed after him. Name the scientist.

The scientist was Luigi Galvani and of course the phenomenon being Galvanism.

6)

In 1776 he was was selected by Captain James Cook for the position of Sailing Master on the Resolution and accompanied Captain Cook in July 1776 on Cook's third and fatal voyage to the Pacific. He reached England again at the end of 1780 and was able to give further details of Cook's last voyage.He also went on to serve under Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Copenhagen on 2 April 1801, in command of HMS Glatton, a 56-gun ship of the line, which was experimentally fitted exclusively with carronades. After the battle, he was personally praised by Nelson for his contribution to the victory. He also served as the Governor of New South Wales. He would however be remembered for a very controversial incident in history, which later became the subject of a book and movies too. Name this person, and also the incident. ( 2 points).

It was William Bligh, of The Mutiny on The Bounty fame.

7)

Identify the man in the picture, and what was founded by him.( 2 points).

Cracked by many, Col Harlan Sanders, Kentucky Fried Chicken.

8) This word comes from a Tibetan word meaning a Mountain Pass. It was mentioned by James Hilton for the first time in his book The Lost Horizon in 1933. In the book, it is a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains.The people who live there are almost immortal, living years beyond the normal lifespan.

The place is Shangri La.

9) With which controversial decision, in the history of soccer, would you associate Swiss referee Gottfried Diens and Azerbajani linesman Tofik Bakhramov with?

The 3rd Goal in the 1966 FIFA cup final between England and Germany.

10) Cliff Robertson won an Academy Award for Best Actor in the 1968 movie Charly as a mentally retarded baker. He is famous for a cameo in a recent superhero movie series, and one of his quotes in the movie has become very famous. Name the movie and the character he played.

Universally cracked again, Spiderman and of course Uncle Ben.

The scores

Sujatha-5
Siddartha- 4
Kamal- 10
Abinaya-4
Cintom-11
Sayantan-11
Aishwarya-10
Sukrit-9
Anand Shankar-6
Sijut-11
Sandip & Jaya-13
Anand Sivakumar-11
Hussain-4

Maximus Indiucs Quiz -Mixed Bag-II

2008-08-29T23:52:00.000-07:00

Pretty good response for this Quiz. The Answers and scores are as follows.

1) If your wedding ceremony is Anand Karaj, and the laava phere are the hymns sung during your marriage, to which community would you belong to?

SIKH COMMUNITY

2) In August 1836, two real estate promoters, John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen, were seeking a location where they could found a " great city for commerce". They found the ideal location near the confluence of White Oak Bayou and Buffalo Bayou, and named the city after the man in the picture, whom they admired and idolized, especially after his exploits in the Battle of Jacinto. Name the person in the pic, and the city. ( 2 points)

THE PERSON IN THE PIC IS SAM HOUSTON, AND IT WAS CITY OF HOUSTON

3) Identify the woman in the picture , and which famous institution was founded by her( 2 Points).

RUKMINI DEVI ARUNDALE AND SHE FOUNDED THE KALAKSHETRA

4) Name the ship shown in the painting. A famous Hollywood movie has been made around it.

THE SHIP WAS THE AMISTAD, ON WHICH SPIELBERG MADE THE MOVIE.

5) Born in New Zealand to a farmer, he graduated from Canterbury College and did his post graduation from Cambridge. While investigating radiocativity he coined the terms Alpha and Beta to identify the type of radiation. From 1900 to 1903 he conducted research at Mc.Gill university in Montreal along with Frederick Soddy, on the transmutation of elements. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908, for his discovery of structure of atom. Element No 104 is named in his honor. Name this famous scientist.

ERNST RUTHERFORD

6)

Connect the 2 images above.( A very simple one).

THE TITLE ALL THE KINGS MEN IS TAKEN FROM A LINE IN HUMPTY DUMPTY.

7) This company was started in 1876 by John.M.________ and Isaac _________. In 1881 Moses ________ and his wife Endel begin to start sewing shirts and selling them to local coal miners in Pennsylvania. It later becomes a succesful business in NYC, and the first ever shirt ad is placed in the Saturday Evening Post. Izod, Arrow, Speedo, Calvin Klein are some of the more famous brands owned by it. In 2008 it will start to manufacture men's apparel under the name Timberland.

PHILIPS VAN HEUSEN

8) This comic character was created by Jean De Brunhoff in 1931, based on a story told by his wife Cecile, which she made up for her kids. His associates are a monkey called Zephir, his old elephant counsellors Cornelius and Pompadour and his children Pom, Flora and Alexander. Which one?
BABAR THE ELEPHANT

9) It is reported that this multi billionaire does not own a cell phone or computer, and drives his own car. When he purchased a private jet, he jokingly called it "The Indefensible", as he was against any kind of extravagant living. At the age of 13 he filed his first Income Tax return. Turned down at Harvard, he joined Columbia and was mentored by Benjamin Graham. He remains an avid bridge player and in 2006 he auctioned his 2001 model Lincoln Town Car on E-Bay.
WARREN BUFFET

10)

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

HEZBOLLAH

Scores

Thirusai-9
Ramakarthy-5
Anand Sivakumar-8
Hussain-1
Srinivasan- 2
John Kong-10
Shrinidhi-1
Sriram Shankar-11
Anand Shankar-5
Swarun-4
Kuldeep-12
Ashish- 5
Aishwarya-11
Pradeep-7
Cintom Kasyap-9
Arun Thulasi-5
Rekha-10

Maximus Indiucs Quiz -Mixed Bag

2008-08-07T03:51:00.000-07:00

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

SEOUL

2) This Pacific island was discovered in 1568 by Alvaro De Mendana, and his subordinate named it after his hometown in Spain. This town in Seville, gets it's name from an Arabic word Wadi Al Khanat, meaning Valley of the Stalls, and it's Spanish version was used. The island was the site of a fierce battle in WW2, between American and Japanese forces.

IWO JIMA.

3) Connect the 2 images.

THE RAFT IS KON TIKI, THE IMAGE IS THAT OF THE POLYNESIAN SUN GOD, AFTER WHOM IT WAS NAMED.

4) In Time Magazine's 1999 List of 20 Most Influential Asians of the 20th century, there are only 3 Indians. Two of them are Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore. Who is the 3rd?

GOT MANY MOTHER THERESA AS ANSWERS, BUT IT IS M.S.SWAMINATHAN, FATHER OF AGRICULTURAL REVOLUTION IN INDIA.

5) This scientist was born in Vaversunda in Sweden and he later graduated in medicine from Uppasala University. In 1807 he joined as professor of chemistry at Karolinska Institute.He is famous for law of constant proportions and also the system of chemical notation. He is also the first person to differentiate between organic and inorganic compounds. Name him.

J.J. BERZELIUS

6) The Sons of the Desert is the name of an group started by John McCabe in 1965. He was an admirer and a biographer of this famous comic duo. The group now has chapters all over the world, and each chapter is called as a tent. Each tent is named after one of the duo's famous movies. The group itself takes its name from one of the duo's most well known movie. Which comic duo is this?

LAUREL AND HARDY

7) This nobleman and astronomer was born in the Danish town of Scania. While studying law at University of Copenhagen in 1559, he became interested in astronomy and started to create his own instruments. He discovered a supernova star in 1572. Johannes Kepler was his assistant, and he used his data to come up with the now famous laws of planetary motion. This person was also famous for his artificial nose made of gold, as he had lost part of it in a duel.

TYCO BRAHE

8) Identify this famous Urdu poet in the picture. His original pen name was Asad, but he adopted a later pen name which means all conquering, superior.

MIRZA GHALIB

9) Identify the famous battle field where this memorial and cemetery is located.

AGAIN GOT MANY WATERLOO RESPONSES, BUT IT WAS GETTYSBURG.

10) In which nation did the "8888 uprising" take place. It is so called, because university students started it demanding more democracy on Aug 8,1988(8-8-88).

MYANMAR.

Scores

Sujatha-2
Bharath-3
Aishwarya Raj-7
Abhi Binani-4
Anubhav-1
Pranav-5
Kamal-6
Anand Shankar-3
Prashanth-6
Deepanshu-4
Hussain-3
Kuldeep-10
Tarun-5

Maxima Indicas Just Another Movie Quiz

2007-10-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

Hi this is another movie Quiz, for all movie lovers out here.

1."Gordon - killed with a Chef's knife sharpening steel by Dog
Smithy Robinson - bludgeoned to death with "a 15-inch black rubber cock" by Harry
Mickey - shot by Gloria
Paul - killed in the shootout at Eddie and Bacon's place
John - killed in the shootout at Eddie and Bacon's place
Plank - shot several times, until finally killed by Rory Breaker
Rory Breaker - shot by Plank"-

Chronological sequence of the deaths in which 1998 cult classic British heist movie.

LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS

2. Mario Girotti born in Venice, Italy and a survivor of the Dresden bombing. His first major role was in the 1963 Italian movie Il Gatopardo. Also acted in many German movies.

Carlo Pedersoli was born in Naples, Italy and represented his country in swimming in the 1952 and 1956 Olympic Games. His first role was that of an extra in Quo Vadis.

Together both of them came in a 1967 movie called God Forgives I Dont for the first time. And later formed a succesful combo in the 70's. Who?

TERENCE HILL AND BUD SPENCER

3. Seargent was the first in 1958, and Columbus was the most recent one in 1992. What am i referring to here?

CARRY ON SERIES

The original Italian name was Giu La Testa, translated into English as Duck You Sucker. Another title of this movie starring James Coburn and Rod Steiger was Once Upon A Time... The Revolution. The more popular title of this movie is a throwback to one of the director's more sucessful Westerns. Centered around the Mexican revolution, it is believed to be the director's more underrated movie. Name the director and the more popular title of this movie.

SERGIO LEONE, A FISTFUL OF DYNAMITE

5. This song was written by Phil Philips and George Khoury and it was in the No1 on Billboard R&B chart in 1959. The Honeydrippers version of this song hit the No 3 spot in 1984. The song was the title as well as the backdrop for a 1989 Al Pacino thriller. Name the song.

SEA OF LOVE

6. The Man Who Knew Too Much was a 1996 Vanity Fair article written by journalist Marie Brenner about a real life person. In 1999 X and Eric Roth adapted this article into a movie . X also directed the movie, while Y played the lead role of the protagonist. Name X & Y.

MICHAEL MANN, RUSSEL CROWE, THE INSIDER

What was the popular phrase used by the man in the picture?

GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK

8. Mott the Hoople and the Game of Life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

A in the wrestling match. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Monopoly, twenty one, checkers, and chess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Mister Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Let's play Twister, let's play Risk. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

See you in heaven if you make the list. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Hey Andy, did you hear about this one? Tell me, are you locked in the punch?

Hey Andy, are you goofing on Elvis? Hey baby, are we losing touch?

If you believed they put a B.

Just identify A and B.

ANDY KAUFMANN, MAN ON THE MOON

9. 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?

THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE

10. The movie gets it's title from a song by the rock band B-52 in their 1980 album Wild Planet. Loosely based on Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part I, this 1991 movie is about 2 street hustlers Mike and Scott. Name this indie movie directed by Gus Van Sant.

MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO

SCORES

Aditya-3.5

Rajiv-5

Jaykumar-7

Venkatesh R-10

Kamal-7

Shashank-3

Ramsu-9

Maxima Indica Western Quiz

2007-09-09T04:48:00.000-07:00

3:10 to Yuma starring Russel Crowe and Christian Bale, has bought back the Western genre into focus. And this quiz is dedicated to the Western, a genre that has thrown up icons like John Wayne, Henry Fonda and of course Clint Eastwood. Good response again.

1. This 1958 Western directed by William Wyler, starred Gregory Peck as a retired sea captain James Mc Kay who heads out to the West and finds himself in the middle of a battle between two ranchers, Charlton Heston also stars as a ranch foreman in this movie.

THE BIG COUNTRY

2. The picture below is that of the climax of an iconic western. The climax scene itself is hailed as a classic. Name the movie.

BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID

3. The Indians called him as Shu-mani-tu-tonka O' Wa-chi. He also married an Indian girl Stands with a Fist, and he is in charge of Fort Sedgwick. By what name do we know this Western movie character better?

DANCES WITH WOLVES

4. The 1960 Western starring John Wayne as Davy Crockett, and Richard Widmark as Jim Bowie, was based on the real life 1836 battle during the Texas Independence struggle. The movie however did not do too well financially, and the 2004 version was also a disaster at the box office. Which one?

THE ALAMO

5. Complete the trilogy She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Fort Apache and ……….

RIO GRANDE(CAVALRY TRILOGY)

6. The 1957 movie Gun Fight at OK Corral is one of the best on the famous incident. Directed by John Sturges, the screenplay for this movie was written by a famous bestselling novelist. Name him.

LEON URIS

7.

This still is from one of Clint Eastwood’s more underrated westerns. This 1968 movie, stars him as a rancher Jed Cooper who survives a lynching by nine men and then comes back as a US Marshal to take revenge. Name this movie.

HANG EM HIGH

8.

Opening shot of a famous 1959 Western starring John Wayne. Howard Hawks directed this movie, as a right wing response to High Noon, which Wayne labeled “the most un American thing I have seen in my life”. Wayne stars as Sheriff John .T.Chance, who has to single handedly fight off a group of ranchers after he arrests the brother of a powerful rancher. Also starring Dean Martin, this movie was the inspiration for Assault on Precinct 13.

RIO BRAVO

9. Apart from the Dollars trilogy Clint Eastwood again played a Stranger with no name in this 1973 revisionist Western, which was directed by Eastoowd himself. The movie is famous for it’s cryptic ending where the Sheriff says “I don’t know your name”, and to which he replies “Yes you do” and rides away into the horizon. Name this movie.

HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER

10. The movie had 3 directors Henry Hathaway, John Ford and George Marshall directing the 5 segments Rivers, Plains, Outlaws, Civil War and Railroad. Populated with a star cast of Henry Fonda, Gregory Peck, John Wayne, Eli Wallach, James Stewart, this 1962 movie traces 4 generations of a family as they move from New York to the Pacific. Name this epic Western.

HOW THE WEST WAS WON

THE SCORES

Suresh-9

Anush-4

Kamal-9

Sayantan-10

Gaurav-9

Mayukh-4

Nishanth-3

Aditya-4

Ramsu-8

Pradeep-5

Biju-7

Maxima Indica- Mixed Bag Quiz-1

2007-08-16T19:59:00.000-07:00

Got a good response for the quiz here. Giving the answers and scores.

1)Titusville is a small town in Pennsylvania, with a population of just over 6000 residents. Mostly known for lumbering and saw mills, it however created history in 1859, due to Edwin Drake and William Smith. What happened.

FIRST TIME OIL WAS STRUCK HERE

2) It was mentioned for the first time in a World Map by Lucas Janszoon. One theory states that this island got it’s name from the sounds made by the white parrots living there. Another theory indicates that it comes from the Sanskrit word for crab. Another indicates it comes from a Malay word for white winged ant. It shot into fame in 1883, due to an incident here. Name the island.

KRAKATOA

3) Born in London, he started one of Britain’s first car dealerships, when he started to import and sell French made vehicles. He is a well known aviator, and one of the founders of the Royal Aero Club, and the second Britisher to have a license to fly. On June 2, 1910, he became the first man to make a non stop double crossing of the English Channel by plane. He died at Bornemouth in an air crash, making him the first Britisher to die so. Name this person, who is also famous in another way.

CHARLES ROLLS

4) This fictional character was born on July 4,1776 in Kent. He was tutored in mathematics, French and well versed in Greek and Latin. Characterized by a self doubting nature, he remains a loner throughout. He suffers from sea sickness like Nelson, is a good whist player, tone deaf and finds music an irritant. His best friend is William Bush, and among other famous sea battles, he also takes part in Battle of Trafalgar. He first made his appearance in a book called The Happy Return(1937), which was called as Beat to Quarters in the US. Who is he?

HORATIO HORNBLOWER

5) This song from the soul genre, has music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. With over 500 versions, it is one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century. It was used as a theme song for the first time in a 1955 prison movie, from which the song gets it’s name in fact. The vocals were given by Todd Duncan. Harry Belafonte sang it at the 1956 Academy Awards. In 1990 it shot into the Billboard, when the Righteous Brothers version of this song was used for the movie Ghost.

UNCHAINED MELODY

6) Whats happening in the picture above?

LYNDON JOHNSON TAKING THE OATH AFTER KENNEDY'S ASSASINATION ON AIR FORCE ONE

7) Self portrait of an artist whose real name is Tiziano Vecelli. He was also called as Da Cadore, after his birthplace of Pievi Da Cadore.

TITIAN

8) Born in Canton, South Dakota, he received his doctorate from Yale, and worked as an asst. professor there. One of the youngest professors at Berkeley in 1928, he was nicknamed as the “Atom Smasher”. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1939, for his work on the cyclotron. He was responsible for introducing Robert Oppenheimer into the Manhattan Project. The Chemical element 103, was named in his honor. Who?

ERNST LAWRENCE

9) This Rajput clan was originally called as Guhilot and owes it’s origin to Bappa Rawal. After Allaudin Khilji, attacked and sacked the fort of Chittor in 1303, also famous for Rani Padmini’s Jauhar, some of the Rajputs survived the massacre. One of them was Hamir, who later re occupied Chittor after 23 years of Muslim rule. The dynasty he founded takes it’s name from his native village. Name this clan.

SISODIAS

10) 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.

ANTOINE LAVOISIER

THE SCORES

Ramgopal-8

Sumant-9

Jacob-2

Sadashiv-4

Suraj Menon-4

Kamal-9

sandip & Jaya-10

Udayan-3

Prasoon-6

Nishanth-8

Pradeep-7

Decameron Mixed Bag Quiz

2006-11-24T23:09:00.000-08:00

1. Growing up in Alaska, he earned reputation as a boxer. In 1918, he was assigned to Signal Corps Aviation Section as a second lieutenant. As a pilot he made the first cross country flight from Florida to California in 1922. He distinguished himself in aeronautics from MIT in 1924. During WW2, he received approval from Gen Arnold to lead an attack from USSHornet on Japan. The daring mission he conducted bears his name. On screen he was portrayed by Spencer Tracy and Alec Baldwin. Name this WW2 hero.

JIMMY DOLITTLE

2. Connect Alvah Bessie, Herbert Biberman, LesterCole, Edward Dymtryk, Ring Lardner Jr, John Lawson,Albert Matz, Samuel Ornitz, Adrian Scott and DaltonTrunbo.

THE HOLLYWOOD BLACKLIST

3. During filming of Monte Carlo Baby, writer Colette noticed this actress and said “Voila! There’s our Gigi”. The actress however was reluctant to act in theBroadway version as she felt that she was too inexperienced. When Gigi made it’s Broadway debut in1951, the actress received top billing. ElizabethTaylor was originally considered for this role, however William Wyler the director said about her “She had everything I was looking for: charm, innocence and talent. She also was very funny. She was absolutely enchanting, and we said, 'That's the girl!' . And she won an Award for her role in that movie. Name the actress.

AUDREY HEPBURN

4. Born in Louisiana, he had a very erratic school record. He became attracted to Marxist ideology whenhe was 15 years old, and at 17 years joined the US Marines in 1956. Due to his small build, he was nicknamed as Ozzie Rabbit by fellow marines. In 1959 he defected to Soviet Union, after renouncing his UScitizenship. He later came back to US in 1962, and he was in the news for his assassination attempt on Gen Edwin Walker. He later became a vocal supporter of Fidel Castro. Name this person who achieved notoriety later in life.

LEE HARVEY OSWALD

5. Born as Farukh Bulsara in Zanzibar on Sep 5,1946,his parents were Parsi migrants from India. He attended the St.Peter’s Boarding school near Mumbai,where he learnt the piano. In 1964, his family fled toEngland, and he had a Diploma in Art and Design. He was also a singer for bands like Ibex and Sour MilkSea. In 1970 he formed this band along with Brian Mayand Roger Taylor, and he also designed the band’slogo. Along with his work for the band, he also produced two solo albums Mr Bad Guy and Barcelona.Name the singer and the band( 2 points)

FREDDY MERCURY, QUEEN

6. The ship gets it’s name from a shirt worn by the fleet footed witch in Robert Burns poem Tam o Shanter.She was designed by Hercules Linton and launched in1869. It was primarily meant for Tea Trade with China.After the opening of the Suez Canal, she was used for trading wool with Australia. It’s nowadays preservedas the last clipper ship at the Greenwich Museum. Name the ship.

CUTTY SARK

7. On 27 August, 1979 a boat explosion in Donegal,killed 4 people. Baroness Brabourne, Nicholas Knatchbull, Paul Maxwell. Thomas Mc Mahon was sentenced to life in prison for this act. Who was the 4th person killed?

LORD MOUNTBATTEN

8. 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 fromGreek letter omega. What was the symbol?

SYMBOL FOR INFINITY

9. This 1974 movie was the first of a planned trilogy around a fictional detective J.J.Gittes and LosAngeles. However the second part The Two Jakes released in 1990 was a critical and commercial failure. Actor X, who starred in the 1974 movie directed the second part. This scuttled all plans of making a third installment called Clover leaf. The detective’s name was taken from X’s friend, Harry Gites. Name X and the movie.

JACK NICHOLSON, CHINATOWN

10. In 1905, a paper called "Does the Inertia of aBody 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?

EINSTEIN'S E=MC2

Achtung, Achtung, Quiz on Germany

2006-06-08T21:04:00.000-07:00

The 2006 World Cup kicks off in another 24 hrs inGermany,and this Quiz is dedicated to all thingsGerman. A general Quiz on Germany itself,its people,it cities,its history.But considering that Germany isa treasure trove of information, 10 Q's is just a dropin the ocean. So all the best. Achtung.

1. The first city which you would find in any encyclopedia or dictionary, it was the site ofCharlemagne’s coronation, and also contains his tomb.It’s cathedral contains Charlemagne’s tomb and duringWW2, it became the first city to surrender to AlliedForces.

AACHEN

2. Felix Alfarth, Andreas Bauriedl, Theodor Casella,Martin Faust,Oskar Komer were some of the people who were considered as martyrs after their death in this highly notorious incident. Which one?

MUNICH BEER HALL PUTSCH

3. This region was originally located inCzechoslovakia, but had a large population of Germans residing in it. Covering the provinces of Bohemia,Moravia and Silesia, after Hitler had annexed Austria,he claimed the mistreatment of Germany minority by Czechs as a pretext for annexing it. And after the infamous 1938 pact with Chamberlain, the Nazis took over this region.

SUDENTENLAND

4. This city in Germany broke away from Catholicism and became one of the early adherents to Protestantism following Martin Luther’s call in 1542 A.D. In 1631 itwas totally destroyed in the 30 years war. It however gained a lot of fame in 1654 A.D when Otto VonGuericke conducted his famous experiment of separatingtwo hemispheres.

MAGDEBURG

5. Frederich Kekule witnessed a snake seizing it’s own tail in a dream, which was primarily an ancient symbol called Ourobros. He claimed that his helped him discover the shape of the molecule of an organic chemical compound. Which one?

FREDERICH KEKULE

6. The Soviets called it as Friedrichstrase during Cold War, by what name do most of us know it better.

CHECKPOINT CHARLIE

7. It’s motto was “Shield and Sword of the Party”. Ithad its HQ in East Berlin with a sprawling complex atLichtenberg. It made news in 2004, when its former HQ were sold for an amount of 1 Euro or 1.2$. Name this notorious organization.

STASI

8. Born in Berlin she was named after Mary Magdalene.Her first role was in the Blue Angel directed by JosefVon Stenberg in 1930. Her only Oscar nomination was for Morocco, but she made her mark in many Hollywood movies like Witness For Prosecution and A Touch ofEvil. During WW2, she raised war bonds and entertained troops on the front lines. Hitler considered her the epitome of Aryan grace and even offered her thecitizenship of Germany which she promptly refused.

MARLENE DIETRICH

9. Complete series Adolf Dassler: Adidas:: RudolfDassler: ----

PUMA

10. Born in Hanover, he dropped out of school, butjoined the army to learn engineering. He invented a telegraph that used a needle to point to the letter,instead of Morse code. Based on this invention he started his own company in 1847. Also regarded as the father of electrical engineering in Germany. He received patents for moving coil transducer, electric meter and trolley bus. He has an electrical unit named after him.

OHM

Just Another Movie Quiz

2006-04-24T06:40:00.000-07:00

1. "In feudal Japan, the warrior class of samurai were sworn to protect their liege lords with their lives.Those samurai whose liege was killed suffered great shame, and... were no longer referred to as samurai...Such men were called X”. Opening lines of which movie.

RONIN

2. In the 1982 comedy movie Tootsie, X played the role of Dustin Hoffman’s casting agent George Fields, whois exasperated with Hoffman’s perfectionism. X had many an argument off screen with Hoffman over Tootsie,and it was Hoffman in fact who suggested that X play the role.

SIDNEY POLLACK

3. Complete the series Group Capt Lionel Mandrake,President Merkin Muffley and ________.

DR.STRANGELOVE

4. Connect the movie A Fish Called Wanda with CaryGrant.

ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER LEACH

5. Founder member of the experimental theater group The Wooster, he was noted for his harsh facial features due to which he ended up playing negative roles. When he played Jesus Christ, Sergio Leone remarked, “This is the face of a murderer, not of ourLord”. He himself remarked “To this day, I cant thinkI was so brazen to think I could pull off the Jesus role”. Who?

WILELM DAFOE

6. Apart from Alien, in which other 1992 Ridley Scott movie did Sigourney Weaver play a major role. Starring Gerard Depardieu in the lead role, the movie was however a disappointment at box office. Name the movie and the role also.

1492: CONQUEST OF PARADISE

7. By what name are Dr.Egon Splender, Dr. Ray Stantz and Dr.Peter Venkman collectively known as?

GHOSTBUSTERS

8. “How Happy is the blameless Vestal’s lot,

The world forgetting, by the world forgot,

________________________________,

Each pray’r accepted and each wish resign’d”

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF SPOTLESS MIND

9. Fill in the blanks : __________ Highlands and_______ Farms.

GLENGARY, GLENROSS

10. This 1974 movie has Dustin Hoffman as Babe and Sir Laurence Olivier as Nazi doctor Dr.Szell. Famous for a graphic torture scene where Szell drills into histeeth without using anaesthesia asking all the while“Is it safe?”.

THE MARATHON MAN

Lights, Action, Cut- Indian Movie Directors

2006-04-05T06:31:00.000-07:00

1. Ashutosh Gowariker who made a name for himself with“Lagaan” and “Swades” started off with a couple of movies which were rip offs of Hollywood flicks. Baazi had shades of Die Hard, but his first movie PehlaNasha was a total lift of which Brian De Palma thriller.

BODY DOUBLE

.2. He did his Masters in Chemical Tech from Atlanta and worked as an environmental consultant till his return to India in 1997. He had done an acting course at Warehouse Actor’s Theater in Atlanta and in 1995 co-produced and directed a short movie One Culture at atime. He produced and directed his first movie withthe money he made from his career in US on a shoestring budget of 40,000 $.

NAGESH KUKUNOOR

3. Born in Panipat, he graduated from AMU in 1933.From 1935-47 he worked as film critic for BombayChronicle. From 1941-86, he is famous for “The LastPage” the longest running political column in India.He made his directorial debut with Dharti Ke Lal in1946.

K.A.ABBAS

4. Born in Ajmer, he started his career as acartoonist with Blitz magazine. He was the asst director for Teesri Kasam and Saraswati Chandra. His first movie as a director Sara Akash(1970) was aserious off beat movie. But his later movies were mostly frothy, light comedies. He is also famous for his TV serials Kakaji Kahin and Byomkesh Bakshi.

BASU CHATERJEE

5. His first directorial venture was a short movie inGujarati Gher Betha Ganga(1962). His first two movies were a damning criticism of India’s feudal village society. He is also related to Guru Dutt. Initially from advertising industry, he produced over 900 ads and is the founder of the Hyderabad Film Society.

SHYAM BENEGAL

6. He graduated in Physics from Delhi University in1970 and his first movie as a director was a short documentary Rhythms of the Land and its People. His first two movies were diametrically opposite, one was a feel good movie about a football coach, and the other one was an expose of the brutal feudalism inBihar. He also made a TV series which was based on“The Life of Walter Mitty”.

PRAKASH JHA

7. Born in Lahore, he did his MA in English Lit fromLahore University. He started his movie career writing reviews for Cine Herald. He migrated to Mumbai after partition and his first movie as a producer Karwat in1949 was a flop. He hit success with his 1951 movie Afsana starring Ashok Kumar, and in 1955 he started his own production firm with release of Ek Hi Raasta.

B.R.CHOPRA

8. Ketan Mehta started out as a director with this landmark movie in 1980, which he dedicated to BertoltBrecht, Goscinny and Underzog, and Asait Thakore. The movie is in form of a group of Harijans who migrate to a city for a night. Name the movie.

BHAVNI BHAVAI

9. He is an alumnus of BITS Pilani and he runs his own production house called Bhairav Productions. Heprefers to work from his Banjara Hills Studio. He started off as a director for Telugu serials onDoordarshan. His first Hindi movie was a thriller set against Indo Pak backdrop and did moderately well. His second movie a supernatural thriller, was however a major turkey at the Box office.

MANI SHANKAR

10. Born on Dec 29.1917 at Asal Guru Ke near Lahore,he was adopted by his maternal grandmother who changedhis real name Chandramauli. .In 1933 he published Pritam Pariksha a piece of prose poetry when he was just 16. He won the title of Munshi Fazal in Persian from Lahore University. In the 1940’s he wrote Diaryof a TB patient based on his experiences as a TBpatient in a Srinagar sanatorium. And he finally made his screen debut writing the story and screenplay forRaj Kapoor’s Barsaat in 1951.

RAMANAND SAGAR

Mixed Bag 1

2006-03-16T03:36:00.000-08:00

1. The Battle of Mactan was fought on April 27,1751 byLapu Lapu a local tribal chieftain of the island of Mactan against Spanish colonizers. The battle was chronicled by Antonio Pigafetta. Who was killed inthis battle?

FERDINAND MAGELLAN

2. Set in Puritan New England in 17th Century, this novel narrates the story of Hester Prynne, who gives birth due to an adulterous affair and the consequent fall out. It gets it’s title from the practice of having an “A” on her clothing to identify her as an adultress during those times.

THE SCARLET LETTER

3. Born in Worcester, he was highly impressed by H.G.Well’s The War of the Worlds, and this fuelled his interest in rocketry. In 1926 he launched the first liquid fuelled rocket at Auburn in Aunt Elfie’s farm.Using a music rack as launcher he developed the basic idea of the bazooka. His theories on the probabilityof inter space travel using rockets was ridiculed bythe media. Ironically, while the US Army rejected his designs, it was the Nazis through Werner Von Braun who developed the V2 rockets based on his designs and he is often called as one of the “fathers of modern rocketry”.

ROBERT GODDARD

4. One of the volcano islands, north of Guam, it getsit’s name from a local world meaning “Sulphur Island”due to the huge sulphur deposits located on it. Itwas the site of a major battle during WW2, and ended with the Americans capturing Mt. Suribachi, theisland’s highest point. Name the island.

IWO JIMA

5. On March 17,1970 14 officers of the US Army weresuspended for their role in this event during theVietnam War. In 1971 Lt. William Calley was convictedfor ordering this massacre, and the photos of thisincident in fact were a major catalyst in turningpublic opinion against the war. Name the incident.
MY LAI MASSACRE

6. This place gets it’s 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 theworld. It was the first city to be handed over toPalestinian Authority in 1994 after the Gaza agreement. After Israel reoccupied it, it was againhanded over to Palestine in 2005. Name the place.

JERICHO

7. On March 16,2005 Ripudaman Singh Malik and AjaibSingh Bagri, were found not guilty on all counts by aCanadian court. What crime were they accused of?

AIR INDIA KANISHKA BOMBING

8. Born in Erlangen, Germany, he became Maths professor at Jesuits College, Cologne in 1817. Andlater in 1852, professor of experimental physics atUniversity of Munich. His first major publication washis 1827 pamphlet titled Die galvanische Kettemathematisch bearbeitet and is one of the major works dealing with electricity.

GEORG OHM

9. Nicknamed as Beppo, this Nazi officer was called asTodesengel or Angel of Death by concentration campinmates. One of his famous quotes was “the more we doto you, the less you believe we are doing it”. Famousfor his experiments on prisoners, he escaped to Brazil after the war, and was drowned at a beach in Embu in1979 while swimming.

DR.JOSEF MENGELE

10. This song is set to the melody of the Bulgarian “SadiMoma” and a metal version was written by Jono Bacon.It belongs to the genre of filk and begins with thelines

“Join us now and share the software;

You'll be free, hackers, you'll be free. "

THEME SONG OF FREE SOFTWARE MOVEMENT

On the Edge

2006-03-02T07:39:00.000-08:00

1. Eric Ambler’s 1962 novel The Light of The Day wasmade into this popular 1964 heist movie starring PeterUstinov and Maxmillian Schell. The plot deals with a small time crook Abdel Simpson getting involved with apair of jewel thieves in Turkey. Name the movie.

TOPKAPI

2. This 1997 movie starring Clint Eastwood and GeneHackmann is based on a novel by David Baldacci. It deals with the story of a small time crook Luther Whitney who is an eye witness to a crime committed byUS President, and the subsequent cover up operations.Name the movie.

ABSOLUTE POWER

3. This novel was written by the author when he was in bed suffering from illness. It was his first thriller and introduced the character of Richard Hannay. dealing with conspiracy theory set in WW1 was a great hit with the soldiers then.

THE 39 STEPS

4. Born in Baltimore, he was son of a police detective. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutnantin US Marine Corps. After being seriously injured in a helicopter accident, he left the Navy and worked forMerill Lynch as a stockbroker. He married Caroline Muller, a medico student and did his Phd in Historyfrom Georgetown University and later worked as ahistory teacher at US Naval Academy. He is credited with inventing the Canary trap, a method for exposing an information leak. Name this character.

JACK RYAN

5. Justin Quayle finds his wife Tessa murdered in Nairobi. Investigation reveals a conspiracy involving pharma companies and a corporate scandal. Also made into a movie starring Ralph fiennes, name the book.

THE CONSTANT GARDNER

6. “Pride and Extreme Prejudice, “The Price of the Bride”,”A Casualty of War” and “A Little Bit of Sunshine” are the 4 novellas in this 1991 book. These 4 stories are actually narrated by a former SIS agent Sam Mc Ready during his trial. Name the book.

THE SHEPHERD BY FREDERICK FORSYTH

7. Typical John Grisham novel about a young lawgraduate Rudy Baylor, he joins as an associate toLyman “Bruiser” Stone a successful ambulance chasing lawyer. In his quest for picking up accident victims,he meets Deck Shifflet an unethical ex insuranc esurveyor.

THE RUNAWAY JURY

8. A “Da Vinci Code” sort of novel by Robert Ludlum,it centers around the Order of Xenope, a remote Greek Monastic brotherhood, which has some ancient manuscripts related to the death of Jesus Christ. Andalso a tale involving two brothers fighting over the document.

THE GEMINI CONTENDERS

9. The Chancellor Manuscript by Robert Ludlum, is thestory of an author, who uncovers a plot by Invar to assassinate a real life figure who was quite controversial during his time. Which personality?

J.EDGAR HOOVER

10. "But -" I paused. "Good God, Gregori, no sane man, not even the most monstrous criminal in history, wouldever dream of such, of such - In the name of heaven,man, you can't mean it!"

"It may be that I am not sane," he said.The above quote is taken from a very popular AlistairMcLean novel.

THE SATAN BUG

Bibliomania Quiz

2006-02-02T07:33:00.000-08:00

1. In the Green Hills of Africa, Ernest Hemmingway placed this novel in historical context saying “ All Modern American literature comes from one book called_______, But it’s the best book we had. All Americanwriting comes from that. There was nothing before.There has been nothing as good since “. Which novel was he referring to?
THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

2. Along with Truman Capote, he is considered ap ioneer of Creative non fiction genre. Born to aJewish family, he was bought up in Brooklyn, New Yorkand studied Aeronautical Engg in Harvard in 1939.During WW2, he served in South Pacific. Based on hispersonal experiences during the War he wrote a novel,which was hailed as one of the greatest American novels. He was awarded the Pulitzer for his nonfiction work on anti Vietnam war protests called Armies of the Night. He has also written biographiesof Marilyn Monroe, Pablo Picasso and Lee HarveyOswald. Name this author.
NORMAN MAILEY

3. Derived from a German word meaning “novel ofeducation”, it refers to a novel which traces thespiritual, moral and psychological growth of acharacter from childhood to maturity. DavidCopperfield, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harry Potterseries are examples of this sort of novel. What genre is this called?
BILDUNGSROMAN

4. Considered one of the greatest novels of all times,it deals with Philip Carey who suffers from a clubfoot.It traces the hero’s journey’s through London,Germany and Paris, and his destructive relationshipwith a Cockney waitress Mildred. Which novel?
OF HUMAN BONDAGE

5. He lives at No 7, Saville Row, Burlington Gardens,London. He is a member of the Reform Club. His mainpast time is reading newspapers and playing a game ofwhist. He fires his servant James Forster, as he hasbought the shaving water, four degrees below normal.Name this eccentric fictional character.
PHILEAS FOGG

6. Complete the quote : “Some say that SignorBonicini, Compared to Handel’s a mere ninny; Othersaver to him that Handel, is scarcely fit to hold acandle, Strange! That such high dispute should be‘Twixt _____________”
TWEDLEDUM AND TWEDLEDEE

7. Apart from his famous novels, this author was also one of the early writers of travel books. Based on histravels in France, he wrote Travels with a Donkey inCevennes in 1879, and this was one of the first books to promote hiking and camping.
ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

8. This 1992 Merchant Ivory production starring HelenaBonham Carter and Emma Thompson, was based on thisE.M.Forster novel dealing with life in England at thebeginning of the 20th century. It deals with 3 families Wilcoxes- rich aristocrats, the middle classSchlegel sisters and the working class of the Basts.
HOWARD'S END

9. This novel gets it’s name from the following linein Julius Caesar :” Cry havoc and let slip____________”. It is about the story of a group ofmercenary soldiers who are hired by a Britishindustrialist to overthrow the government of a fictional African country called Zangaro.
THE DOGS OF WAR

10. He used to stay in a trailer with his wifeTabitha. 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 atrash can. His wife encouraged him to write it, and he later sent it to Doubleday. This novel would prove tobe a cult favorite and later become a bestseller andalso a successful movie. Name the author and the book.
STEPHEN KING, CARRIE

The Hills Come Alive

2006-01-25T07:25:00.000-08:00

1. This hill station nested in the Shivaliks is widelybelieved to have taken it’s name from a Tibetan wordmeaning “Assembly of King’s ministers”. After theAnglo Bhutan war came to an end with the Treaty ofSinchula in 1840, this place was ceded to the Britishwho developed it as a hill station. Name the place.
KALIMPONG

2.Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh is located on thismountain range, which gets it’s name from the meaning“White Mountain”. These ranges are inhabited by theGaddi tribe.
DHAULADHAR

3. This Indian hill station contains a large number ofPlaywin lottery centers, and in fact the Govt of the state earns a lot of revenue through authorizedgambling. Which place.
GANGTOK

4. Legend has it that Lord Hanuman rested here on hisway to fetching the Sanjeevani herb. It also containsthe Pasteur Institute established in 1900 by Sir DavidSemple is one of the oldest and produces anti rabiesvaccines. Which place?
KASAULI

5. In 1819 two civil servants of the Madras Govt Whish and Kindersley, on a trip to Nilgiris, came backand reported the “discovery of a table land withEuropean climate”.. It was developed by John Sullivan,and take’s it’s name from the tribes living in the hills around it.
KOTAGIRI

6. This hill station is called the “Chiki” capital of India, as its famous for the large number of outlets manufacturing this sweet there. Which one?
LONAVALA

7. Discovered by Hugh Malet in May 1850, it wasdeveloped by Lord Elphinstone. It derives it’s namefrom a local word meaning “Mother Forest”. The placehas the famous Lake Charlotte and also it’s monkeys.
MATHERAN

8. This lake located in Mt.Abu is believed to havebeen dug by the nails of the Gods, and gets it’s namefrom that legend. Name it.
NAKKI LAKE

9. In 1827 Capt Young a British military officer explored and developed this place. The place is believed to have got it’s name from the native shrub that grew in that vicinity.
MUSSORIE

10. Often called as the “Scotland of India” due toit’s similarity with the Scottish highlands. The towngets it’s name from the name of the local deity,meaning Superpower of God, who is believed to be dwelling on the mountain peak that overlooks this place.
SHILLONG

Hollywood Biopics

2005-12-30T07:13:00.000-08:00

1. The 1992 biopic “Hoffa” about the controversialTeamsters Union leader “Jimmy Hoffa” starred JackNicholson in the title role. Which actor directed the movie and also played the role of Hoffa’s associate Bobby Ciaro?
DANNY DE VITO

2. Jerry Bruckheimer and Joel Schumacher are usuallyremembered for all those typical Hollywood actionblockbusters. This 2003 movie starring Cate Blanchettwas however a serious biopic about a real life Irishjournalist who takes on the Dublin drug mafia andultimately was gunned down by them. Name the movie.
VERONICA GUERNIN

3. The 1996 movie Michael Collins about the Irishrevolutionary leader who was later assassinated hadLiam Neeson playing the title role. The movie howeverwas criticized for showing Collin’s rival Eamon DeValera in a negative light. Which actor, usually seenas the bad guy in Hollywood movies, played the role ofValera?
ALAN RICKMAN

4. 1917: Theda Bara, 1934: Claudette Colbert, 1963: ?
ELIZABETH TAYLOR AS CLEOPATRA

5. In the 1965 movie The Agony and The Ecstasy ,Charlton Heston played the role of Michaelangelo, andeven put a rod in his nose, to make it look broken.This British actor who played the role of Pope JuliusII however refused to grow a beard for the role. Which actor?
REX HARRISON

6. The 1939 movie Jesse James starring Henry Fonda asthe outlaw became notorious after the death of a horseon it’s sets. What started as a result of it?
DISCLAIMER ABOUT ANIMALS NOT BEING HARMED

7. This 1992 movie Malcolm X about the controversialAmerican Black leader who later converted to Islam,had Denzel Washington in the lead role. Which reallife political leader played a cameo in the movie as ateacher?
NELSON MANDELA

8. The 1999 movie Man on the Moon starring Jim Careywas about real life American comedian Andy Kauffman.The movie gets it’s title from a song by a well knownrock band which in turn is taken from the albumAutomatic for the People. Name the band.
R.E.M

9. Should be a sitter, who traveled along with AlbertoGranado on the La Poderosa which means the “MightyOne” and what resulted because of it?
CHE GUEVERA, THE MOTORCYLE DIARIES

10. Halle Berry and Whitney Houston were consideredfor playing the role of Tina Turner in the 1993 biopic Whats Love Got to Do with It, before Angela Basset finally played the role. Which black actor turned downthe role of her abusive husband Ike Turner and finally accepted when he learnt that Basset was playing therole?
LAWRENCE FISHBURNE