1. Krishna helped defeat Jarasandha (X) by giving Bhima a hint to defeat him in wrestling, earning himself the name Ranchod (Y). 2. The song in the movie X-Men Days of Future Past was Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle", and the character was Quicksilver. 3. The mathematician who drank lots of coffee and took an amphetamine bet was Paul Erdos.

1. Forty-First Official
Delhi-42 Quiz Meet
9th September 2015
Aditya Salapaka

2. Rules
Flat scoring of +10. Questions on infinite bounce. No negative marking
on directs or passes.
The answer to none of the questions is 42. Any team answering 42 will
receive -42 immediately. No exceptions!

3. Having conceded defeat to X several times, Krishna moved his capital to
the island city of Dwarka, acquiring the moniker Y for himself, meaning
“deserter”. X planned to sacrifice 100 kings to gain the means to capture
Dwarka, and the 95 he had already captured secretly requested Krishna to
save them. To defeat X, Krishna devised a clever plan. Sparing the details, X
chose Bhima for a wrestling match. This went on till 14 days, and Bhima
had all but given up on defeating X. Krishna then picked up a twig from the
ground and split it into two, a hint which Bhima understood, and this was
critical for Bhima’s victory.
Identify X and Y.
1

5. X – Jarasandha
Y – Ranchod
1

6. Jim Croce wrote this song after his wife told him that she was pregnant
with his child. The song, which speaks of mortality and the wish to have
more time, added weight to itself after Croce died in a plane crash soon
after the song was recorded. It became Croce’s second and final #1 hit
single, in the late 70s. The song was long forgotten, when it faced
resurgence in 2014.
The song was used in a scene in the movie X. While the movie itself was
well-received, the scene was considered one of the most memorable
sequences in cinema that year. The central character in the scene wore
clothes from the 80s, even though it was set in the 70s, to “show his
irreverence”. Identify X and the central character.
2

8. 2
X-Men DOFP
Quicksilver

9. “A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems.” is a
quote wrongly attributed to X, although he did drink lots of coffee. X began
consuming large amounts of amphetamines, when one of his friends
famously bet $500 that X could not stop consuming them for a month. X
took the bet, won it, but admitted that mathematics had been set back by
a month. He said, “Before, when I looked at a piece of blank paper my
mind was filled with ideas. Now all I see is a blank piece of paper.” Identify
X.
3

11. Paul Erdos.
3

12. Due to difficulty in evaluating their merits, their sale offered great
opportunity for dishonesty, giving rise to the two-word phrase X. It has
come to refer to complex bargaining, wherein sellers can capitalise on
these opportunities and these specific sellers gained a reputation for
underhand business practices.
Criticizing a proposed law which would make it illegal for a newspaper to
falsify its circulation figures, The New York Times wrote, “if the lying were
stopped by law, the business of X would come to an end, and the country
taverns and groceries in the Winter season would be deprived even of the
limited eventfulness which they now enjoy.”
Now, X is almost exclusively used in political contexts. Identify X.
4

14. Horse trading
4

15. In October 1952, X contracted tuberculosis. He lost six kilos in weight and
two litres in lung capacity. While X recuperated at a mountain village near
Montserrat, Barcelona slipped to fifth in the league, and it did not look like
they would retain their title which X had won them the previous season. X
gained eight kilos and after a miraculous recovery, helped Barcelona
demolish Zaragoza 8-0 in his first home game. Barcelona retained their title
after eight consecutive victories. X ended his Barcelona career with 131
goals in 186 appearances, winning 14 trophies. Identify X.
5

17. Laszlo Kubala, the greatest Barcelona player of all time.
5

18. Alavandhan (released as Abhay in Hindi) stars Kamal Hasan as psychopathic
serial killer. In a bizarre scene from the film, Hasan’s character goes berserk
and brutally murders Manisha Koirala’s character. The stylistic depiction of
violence in this particular scene inspired X to portray violence in one of his
films in a similar way. X said, “Yes, I saw this Indian serial-killer film which
showed violence as _______.” Kamal Hasan later said, “When I did the
action sequence 12 years ago it was seen as self-indulgent and odd by a lot
of people. Now that it has been endorsed by a filmmaker of such brilliance,
critics will be kinder to some of the things I attempt in my films.”
Identify X and his movie.
6

20. The animated killing style from Abhay was used by Quentin Tarantino in Kill
Bill.
6

21. X is running for the 2016 United States Presidential Elections and public
polls put him at 8-9% in multiple states, emerging as a serious third-party
candidate. X believes that Congress should not spend more than what it
earns via taxes and advocates slashing of salaries to balance the budget. X
supports cutting subsidies to oil companies, considers all adult illegal
immigrants as violators, opposes the belief that the US is a Christian nation
and believes in abortion and same-sex marriage. X claimed that he was
inspired by Kentucky Presidential candidate Limberbutt McCubbins and
many voters are hopeful they will pair up for the elections. Sadly, X does
not meet the minimum age requirement of 35 years to serve as President.
Identify X.
7

23. Deez Nuts
7

24. In the annual X-Y “football” game, Y students, disguised as a/an X “pep
squad”. They distributed placards to X fans which, when raised together,
read, “we suck”. Identify X and Y.
8

26. X – Harvard
Y – Yale
8

27. Although it is a divergent series and does not (seemingly) posses a finite
value, several successful methods have calculated the same exact value for
this series. Ramanujan famously calculated the value of the series in a
letter to G.H. Hardy, and wrote, “If I tell you this you will at once point out
to me the lunatic asylum as my goal”.
This has also been experimentally observed while calculating Casimir force
for a scalar field in one dimension. Smoothing of the series leaves only the
constant term, which is the value Ramanujan calculated.
What famous formula did Ramanjuan give?
9

29. 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + … =
−1
12
9

30. Ever since the Premier League began from 1992, X has been the top scorer
17 times out of 23. X has been beaten only five times, and Thierry Henry
accounts for three of these defeats. Since 2005-06, X always been the top
scorer in each season. Identify X.
10

32. Own Goal!
10

33. The Letters of Last Resort are four identically-worded handwritten letters
written by the UK Prime Minister to the commanding officers of the four
British ballistic missile submarines. They contain a series of checks to
ensure if society still survives in case of an attack.
One of the checks include checking the operational status of X. X has been
in operation continuously since 1967 and if found unavailable, it verifies
the annihilation of organised society in Great Britain. Submarines on patrol
briefly went on nuclear alert in 2004, when X mysteriously ceased
operations for 15 minutes. Identify X.
11

35. BBC Radio 4
11

36. X is a subcritical mass of plutonium, weighing 6.2 kg and measuring 89mm in
diameter. It is placed at the Los Alamos laboratory.
While performing some experiments, Harry Daghlian accidentally dropped a brick
onto the core. Receiving a fatal dose of radiation, he died within a month.
In another incident, physicist Louis Slotin was performing experiments on X. The
only thing stopping X from going supercritical was a screwdriver, which slipped a
fraction of an inch from his hand. This resulted in a half-second long flash of
brilliant blue light, leading to his eventual demise.
After these incidents, X received its name, signifying its hellish existence and
propensity for death. Experiments on X are now remotely performed from a
quarter mile away.
(Picture on next slide.)
12

37. 12

39. Demon core.
12

40. Peter Benchley has authored various books such as The Deep, The Island and
Beast. While several of his works were reasonably successful, his debut novel X
remains his most successful work till date. In the last decade of his career, Peter
moved to writing non-fiction works, which were somewhat opposite to X’s theme.
He once said, “The ______ in an updated X could not be the villain; it would have
to be written as victim; for, worldwide, ______ are much more the oppressed than
the oppressors.”
Identify X.
13

42. Jaws.
13

43. The Legbala River in northern Congo is the headstream of the Mongala River, a
tributary of the Congo River. The river is better known as X, which is a French
corruption of Legbala.
The first instance of Y was discovered 60km from the river in the town of Yambuku.
However, Y was not named after Yambuku so that the town isn’t associated with
the stigma of Y. Due to the town’s proximity to X, Y was named after X.
Identify X.
14

45. X – Ebola River
Y – Ebola Virus
14

46. During the Second World War, Germans allowed care packages to be distributed to
their prisoners of war. The Allies took advantage of this and sent clandestine
escape kits – included tools such as compasses, metal files, money and maps. They
used X for this purpose. X was way too innocent to arouse suspicion and was the
ideal size for a top-secret escape kit. The Allies collaborated with John Waddington
Ltd, the UK manufacturer of X. X was chosen because Waddington had perfected
the art of printing on silk. Silk was harder than paper, did not dissolve in water, and
was light enough to be folded away at a moments notice – perfect for maps.
Identify X.
15

48. Monopoly. The compasses and files were disguised as playing pieces, money is an
integral part of monopoly and the maps were hidden in the board.
15

49. X was appointed as a Japanese ambassador in March 2008 by the foreign minister.
A straight-faced Komura said, “X, I hope you will travel around the world as an
ambassador and deepen people’s understanding of Japan so they will become our
friends.” X promised to convey “what ordinary Japanese people think, our lifestyles
and what kind of future we want to build.” The Japanese foreign ministry
confirmed with this action that X was one of the great Japanese cultural icons.
Identify X.
16

51. Doraemon.
16

52. Denys Parsons developed the Parsons code in 1975 which helps developing a
notation for melodies. The first note of a melody is denoted with an asterisk (*)
and succeeding notes are denoted as
“u” for up (note higher than previous note)
“d” for down (note lower than previous note)
“r” for repeat (note is same as previous note)
For example, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star can be represented as “rururddrdrdrd…”
Where do you see the implementation of the Parson’s Code today?
17

54. Shazam. Parson’s code creates a unique fingerprint for any melody, aiding in quick
indexing and searching in a database.
18

55. Outlook Magazine released a list of 20 Best Hindi Film Songs Ever, created by a jury
composed of Gulzar, Hariharan, Javed Akhtar, Kumar Sanu, Shantanu Moitra and so
on. X was ranked at 19, the only contemporary selection on the list.
X was featured on Hindustan Times’s list of “Songs of the Century”, described as,
“one of the most unforgettable tunes in recent times.”
X won the National Award for Best Male Playback Singer, IIFA Best Male Playback
Award, Filmfare Best Male Playback Award, IIFA Best Lyricist Award and Filmfare
Best Lyricist Award.
Identify X.
19

57. Kal Ho Na Ho.
19

58. San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker designed X in 1978, originally comprising eight
stripes. These signified sexuality, life, sunlight, healing, nature, magic, serenity and
spirit. After Harvey Milk was assassinated, demand for X grew rapidly and Baker
ramped up production, stripping a stripe from X. In 1979, X was redesigned again
to comprise six stripes, the design we are familiar with today. In June 2015, the
Museum of Modern Art acquired X as a part of its design collection.
Identify X.
20

60. The gay pride Rainbow Flag.
20

61. What is the answer to life, the universe and everything?
?

62. RTI and Women Empowerment.
!