BWW LIterature Quiz 001 0719

© Shom Biswas 2020
BWW Socials Quiz 001
07.19.2020
QM: Shom Biswas

© Shom Biswas 2020
Anannya Deb
Acknowledgements
Logik

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https://bit.ly/32qs9YX

© Shom Biswas 2020
Four rounds
1. Write thing
2. Simple direct (12 questions)
3. Let’s cross that out - an easy crossword
4. Major scoring! (8-9 questions)
Old Jungle
Saying:
The depths of hell
are reserved for
folks who resort
to using search
engines for a zero
prize-money quiz

© Shom Biswas 2020
Make teams

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Simple.
And you have a choice. Either…
A) Name the Nobel-prize winning
writers between 2001-2019 (both
included)
B) Name the speciﬁc books that won
the Booker between
2001-2019 (both included)
(0.5 point each, and +5 if you get the full set)

© Shom Biswas 2020
ROUND 2
SIMPLE DIRECT

© Shom Biswas 2020
Round 2
Simple direct questions (12)
a. 1 or 2 points questions; same points for direct and passing (points highlighted)
b. One Free hit for each team (double positive/negative i.e. +4/-4; +2/-2)
c. You can Free hit on direct or pass; but you cannot Free hit on a question where
someone else has Free Hit earlier
d. On a Free Hit, part answers get you double plus and double minus
e. Example:
i. The ﬁrst world cup cricket ﬁnal outside of England happened in a) which year b) between which two teams.
ii. An answer of 1988| England / Australia gets you
iii. -2 | +2 = 0 points
10

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Trial Question: Testing Testing…... Whose voice
This Bengali writer talks about Kolkata, and that when she was small, she used
to stay in her ancestral home in Tollygunge for 2-3 months at a time, and since
she would not go to school during that time, she would sit around and start
writing.
Identify the writer.
A

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Which author, and the character?
On a walk through Mochudi, north of Gaborone, I met a woman who gave a chicken to the
people with whom I was staying. I remember thinking at the time: This is a remarkable
woman – I wonder what her life story is. I never found out, but this meeting made me think
that one day I would like to write about such a woman – resourceful, amusing, and
intelligent. Then, out of my subconscious, knocking on the door so to speak, came ________
________. I wrote a short story about her, and then discovered that I liked her and wanted to
continue to record her life.”
Which author, and the character?
1

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Alexander McCall Smith
Mma Precious Ramotswe

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Identify the two protagonists
They have broken the nose of the sphinx, met Jesus Christ’s parents,
invented bullﬁghting and mountain rappelling, brought a close to the
Roman circus, discovered tea, started the practice of drug tests in the
Olympics, met the Beatles and defeated coronavirus in a race. Who are
these two people and where do they live?
1

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ASTERIX AND OBELIX, OF GAUL

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Need a name
On June 14, 1942, the first entry was: “I hope I will be able to confide everything
to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a
great source of comfort and support.” This journal has entries right up ‘til August
1, 1944.
Who was the writer, whose notes continues to inspire millions around the
world?
1

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ANNE FRANK

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Publishing House
Gerald and Charles started a publishing house in 1908 after working together at
Methuen & Co. The company was planned as a diversified publisher, publishing both
fiction and non-fiction titles. After World War I, the company’s fortunes declined.
After Gerald’s death, Charles reshaped the company in 1930 and made it what it is
today. Interestingly, they are one of the few publishing houses with a name that’s
more famous than their titles. What are the surnames of these two gentlemen?
1

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Gerald Rusgrove Mills
and
Charles Boon

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Person | Book
On February 23, 1455, a very signiﬁcant event in human history took place. It led
to the spread and dissemination of language and culture across time and
borders. Prior to this, only extremely wealthy and inﬂuential people had access
to books as they were very expensive and time-consuming to make. Then this
German goldsmith borrowed money from a lender and after working on the
project for three years, published 180 copies of his result. Who was this person
and what did he publish that changed the world of books?
2

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Johannes Gutenberg
published the
Gutenberg Bible
— the first mass-produced book
in the world.

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Type of Poem + # of lines
Between June 1592 and March 1594, the Plague ravaged London leading to 11,000
deaths in a population of just 2,50,000. So a lockdown was ordered (just like now) and
this led to a huge loss for the London entertainment industry. Since there was no
demand for plays, Shakespeare stopped writing plays during that time.
Instead he started writing poetry, and experimented with an entire genre of poetry, to
essentially make this previously-unremarkable form famous. What were these poems
called, and how many lines did each poem have?
2

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SONNET
14 LINES

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Q4 Writer, Book
The Sahitya Akademi Award is one of the highest literary awards in
India. First awarded in 1955 in certain Indian languages, it was not
awarded to an English work till 1960, when it went to a certain novel
that was also turned into a pretty well-known ﬁlm in 1965. Who is the
recipient of the ﬁrst Sahitya Akademi Award for an English work and
what is the title of the novel?
2

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Blanked out word, and speaker/writer
The word that is blanked out is the same in both cases
If by XXXXX I had meant God I would [have] said God, and not XXXXX.
It would be fatuous of me to pretend that I am not aware of the meanings attached to the word XXXXX, and the
opinion of many that it means 'God'. But you must remember – I wrote the play in French, and if I did have that
meaning in my mind, it was somewhere in my unconscious and I was not overtly aware of it.
2

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Plot Summary: Name the book + writer
In the Malnad region in Karnataka, Chandrayya Gowda is a rich and powerful
landowner. He has got a lot of property, a big family, lot of servants yada yada - and is
basically a tyrant. Subbamma is his fourth wife --- Chandrayya’s three previous wives
had died.
Hoovayya, Chandrayya’s nephew, is an educated guy, and returns to his (i.e.
Chandrayya’s) village and confront a decadent society in a state of ﬂux. What
happens then, is the story of which legendary Kannada novel?
2
Made into a movie….

© Shom Biswas 2020
Shyam narrates the story of his youth, and of his friend Manik Mulla. They were all young guys
then - just finished their education and joined the workforce. Manik was the leader of their pack,
and a born raconteur.
One day, Manik tells his friends three stories of three women he had known at different points of
time in his life: Jamuna, a metaphor for the middle class, Lily a metaphor for the intellectual and
affluent, and finally Sati, from the financially poorest section. At the end, we see that Manik Mulla
is basically telling the same story -- the three stories are revealed to be three different strands of a
single tale as seen from the points of view of the different lead characters in the book.
2

© Shom Biswas 2020
Khitish, commonly called Khid-da is a swimming coach - idealistic, righteous - who
teaches swimming to underprivileged kids. He sees this impoverished girl called
Kanak Lata Paul, from a slum of Calcutta - who participates in an open-water
swimming competition and loses, and sees a spark in her. He starts to train her to
be part of the Bengal Swimming team to compete at the National Swimming
Championship. Khid-da has picked up many enemies along the way - will politics,
poverty and social stigma let this dream of coach and protege come through?
2

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Atulya Chakraborty arrives from the countryside to seek his fortune in Calcutta, where he
gets a job and residence in the mansion of a large family - of the Choudhury’s, a family of
zamindars, while working beyond its compound at the Mohini Sindoor factory run by
Subinay Babu, a dedicated member of the Brahmo Samaj.
The youngest of his brothers is a wastrel who spends all his time drinking and sleeping with
prostitutes. Atulya becomes infatuated with the wife of this younger brother, and befriends
her - but is saddened when he witnesses the increasingly desperate measures she takes to
woo back her husband.
2

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ROUND 3
CROSSWORD

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CROSSWORD- SCORING
- Famous First-Lines, Last-Lines (or) Any-Lines from novels, short stories, poems and other books.
- Either the name of the book (A/The etc articles excluded); or Writer
- 1 point for each correct
- 3 points extra if you get all 12 right
- 15 is maximum you can get

© Shom Biswas 2020
Across
3. Book (character’s name only): So we beat on,
boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly
into the past. (6) Last lines
5. Poet:
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan |
A stately pleasure-dome decree: |
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran |
Through caverns measureless to man |
Down to a sunless sea. (9)
7. Writer: What do they know of cricket that only
cricket know? (1,1,1,5) Some lines
8. Book: The creatures outside looked from pig to
man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man
again; but already it was impossible to say which
was which. (6,4) Last lines
9. Writer: It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I
have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to
than I have ever known (7) Last lines
11. Book: Dead men are heavier than broken
hearts. (3,5) Some lines
Down
1. Writer: If you really want to hear about it, the first
thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born,
and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my
parents were occupied and all before they had me, and
all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel
like going into it (8) First lines
2. Writer: He runs. Ah: runs. Runs. (6) Last lines
4. Book: The eyes and faces all turned themselves
towards me, and guiding myself by them, as by a
magical thread, I stepped into the room.(4,3) Last lines
5. Writer: There was a boy called Eustace Clarence
Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.
(1,1, 5) First lines
6. Poet:
Do not go gentle into that good night |
Old age should burn and rave at close of day |
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. (5,6)
10. Poet:
Half a league, half a league | Half a league onward |
All in the valley of Death | Rode the six hundred. (8)

© Shom Biswas 2020
G A T S B Y
C O L E R I D G E
C L R J A M E S
A N I M A L F A R M
D I C K E N S
B I G S L E E P
S
A
L
I
N
E
R
U
P
D
I
KE
L
J
A
R
S
L
E
W
I
Y
A
T
H
O
M
A T
N
N
Y
S
O
N

© Shom Biswas 2020
Round 4: Major Scores
You get a chance to to massively increase your score
Point choices are given - you have the option
for playing one free hit - and double your
score for that question
No sitting out. If you have chosen to play a set, you would have to play it. No answer = wrong answer.

© Shom Biswas 2020 +2 | 0
+5 | -3
As many as
you want
+6 | -4
One each for
each team
Only one
available
+4 | -2
+1 | 0
+3 | -1
Safety

© Shom Biswas 2020
Nursery Rhyme
In 1806, at the age of 23, Jane Taylor wrote a poem for a book of nursery rhymes
which she and her sister published. A few decades earlier, Mozart had composed
a piano piece called Twelve Variations on ‘Ah vous dirai-je, Maman’, the melody
of which is known for being easy to memorise. Soon Taylor’s poem was sung in
this melody. The penultimate verse is ‘In the dark blue sky you keep, And often
thro’ my curtains peep, For you never shut your eye, Till the sun is in the sky.’
Which rhyme is this that is still sung in Mozart’s melody?
RETURN
1

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Name of a novel
The Palais Garnier is an iconic building in Paris in which a part of the
7-ton crystal chandelier fell and killed an employee in 1896. This
incident, as well as the discovery of an underground lake, inspired a
1910 gothic novel by Gaston Leroux. What is the novel that
eventually also became a famous musical?
2
RETURN

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Novel + Writer
Samuel Clemens purchased his Remington typewriter in 1874 for a then
princely sum of $125. He tried to get rid of it as he thought it corrupted his
morals, because it made him want to swear, but eventually laboured on. Two
years later, his most famous work was published. He released it under a
pseudonym which refers to the second mark on the line that measured safe
depth (12 ft) for a steamboat.
Though it’s not conclusively proven, this is supposed to be the ﬁrst ever novel
written on a typewriter. What is the name of the novel, also give me the
pen-name of the writer
2
RETURN

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One Line
What is the opening line of Madeleine L‟Engle‟s
A Wrinkle in Time, a winner of the Newbery
Medal and the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, and a
runner-up for the Hans Christian Anderson
Award?
Later made into a pitifully poor movie.
RETURN
3

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Nickname
According to the British tabloid press, before her marriage to James Matthews,
a hedge-fund manager, Pippa Middleton was dating George Percy, heir to the
Duke of Northumberland. He is known by a nickname, derived from his
residence, Alnwick Castle. What is this nickname?
Perhaps some photos of his residence would help
RETURN
3

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The Earl of Hogwarts
Because Alnwick Castle was
used to represent the school in
the Harry Potter movies
RETURN
3

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Author + Protagonist
Sting wrote the song ‘Every Breath You Take’ at the same desk at which this author
used to write his novels. This was in a villa on the island of Jamaica. The author
was a keen bird watcher and even named his primary protagonist after an
ornithologist who wrote the definitive book on the subject of Caribbean birds called
Birds of the West Indies in 1936. He was a former British Naval Intelligence officer.
Name the writer and the primary protagonist.
RETURN
4

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Headline
"She had a point. She was making it accessible to millions of Generation Z readers reading
this on Facebook. For her, she was doing justice to that audience, not realising the gross
injustice to the stalwart of art, defacing his memory on a solemn day."
What headline faux-pas was justified in this manner?
(The stalwart wouldn't have probably minded this, the director of the film has gone on
record citing his key influence to the film, and having learnt immensely from his literary
stature & presence in the two films of the franchise.)
RETURN
5

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Identify the two writers
X and Y
The poem you see, is called The Mongoose. There is a
very speciﬁc reason for it to be called so, mainly on the
basis of the region of origin of the animal.
As you can see, this is basically an attack. The writer of
the piece, X, and the recipient of this barb, Y, are both
legends of literature, and both are Nobel-Prize winners.
They hail from the same part of the world, and are
near-contemporaries.
I have been bitten, I must avoid infection
Or else I’ll be as dead as _______’s fiction
Read his last novels, you’ll see just
what I mean
A lethargy, approaching the obscene
The model is more ho-hum than Dickens
The essays have more bite
They scatter chickens like critics, but
each stabbing phrase is poison
Since he has made that snaring style
a prison
The plots are forced, the prose
sedate and silly
The anti-hero is a prick named Willie
Who lacks the conflict of a Waugh or Lawrence
And whines with his creator’s
self-abhorrence
6
RETURN

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X= Derek Walcott Y= VS Naipaul
The mongoose was brought to the West Indies from India by the British
6
RETURN

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