BQC Aug 2012

 Pandit Ravi Shankar’s seminal contribution (of the musical
variety!) is so immense that many raagas created by him
have become concert staples and it is hard to believe that
they have been around for only about 60 years or less.
 In a concert in Bombay in the mid 90s, Panditji was
explaining how he created many raagas- Gangeshwari,
Rangeshwari, and Kameshwari from the main raaga
Parameshwari by the method of 'moorchhana' or shifting
the tonic of the base raaga to obtain a derivative. So after he
demonstrated one such derivative, someone from the
audience quipped : "Pandit-ji, is ke baad kya aap abhi
________ sunaayenge?"
 Which creation of his did he play? Fill in the blank as well.

 Jogeshwari
 Goregaon
 Suburban train stations on the Western Line in Bombay.

 Ram Gopal Verma’s October 1999 release ‘Mast’
featured the song ‘ruki ruki thi zindagi/ jhat se chal
padi’ which was responsible for catapulting
Sunidhi Chauhan’s playback career into big league.
The song was also used by a set of people later that
year in a non-showbiz context because they felt it
best described that stage in their careers.
 Ironically for them, the first line has become a
leitmotif of sorts for a good part of the rest of their
personal lives. Who are the people involved, and
for what purpose did they use the song?

 In the shower in the dressing room
afterwards, two naked men look at each
other, exhausted. These were boys
playing first together in late 1994 who
dared not even fantasise about winning
Wimbledon. Now the world No. 1 pair look
at each other. Mahesh: "Dude, do you realise
we just won Wimbledon?" Leander: "I never
thought we could win this one." - Rohit
Brijnath, India Today, July 19, 1999.

 This elite regiment of the British Indian Army which
served in the North West Frontier had a unique
composition; it was part infantry and part cavalry. The
regiment was noted for its skills in tracking and survival.
They were also the first unit in the Indian/British
Armies to dress in "khaki". They also feature in Rudyard
Kipling's ‘The Ballad of East and West’ and M.M. Kaye's
novel ‘The Far Pavilions’.
 What 1910 'brand extension' whose creation was spurred
by the popularity amongst young girls of the parent 1907
creation, was named for them?

 When Baden Powell started a parallel Scouting
movement for girls, it was named Girl Guides for
Corps of Guides, the frontier regiment from India.

 Excerpts from a famed 1958 report. Who about what?
“Of all the objects we have seen and admired ---- stands out as perhaps
the greatest, the most beautiful. The village women have a process
which, with the use of tamarind and ash, each day turns this brass into
gold.”
The quote above is followed by the text in the exhibit below.

 Ray and Charles Eames in their 1958 India Report
which recommended a national design institute which
became NID. They considered the humble lota as a
shining example of excellent design.

 The SPSS Modeler is a GUI based data-mining
software tool now belonging to IBM, post the takeover
of SPSS by IBM.
 It was originally named SPSS Clementine by SPSS Inc.
 Why the name Clementine?

 The software was named after the American folk song
Oh My Darling, Clementine about a miner’s
daughter called Clementine.

In a cavern, in a canyon,
Excavating for a mine
Dwelt a miner forty niner,
And his daughter Clementine

Chorus:
Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling, Clementine!
Thou are lost and gone forever
Dreadful sorry, Clementine
 http://soundcloud.com/vibhendu-tewari/clementine

 Television Inventor JL Baird and his Baird Television
Limited conducted some of their early broadcasting
experiments from a location in South London chosen
for the presence of two water towers 1068 feet apart at
either end of the site. The 275 feet high towers
afforded an extensive view for miles around and the
South Tower was an ideal location for VHF
transmissions, which are essentially line-of-sight. The
facility was the only source of television broadcasts in
the UK till the launch of BBC's service in Aug 1936.
 The broadcasts and research at this facility abruptly
came to a halt in Nov 1936. Why?

 The facility was at Crystal Palace, which was destroyed
in a fire in Nov’ 1936.

 Textile and Ornamental Arts of India was a 1955 exhibition at
New York’s Museum of Modern Art curated by architect, textile
designer and folk-arts evangelist Alexander Girard. It was the
first large-scale exhibition of Indian culture in the United States
and got a lot of favourable press. Many names associated with
the exhibition went on to acquire great reputations as culture-
vultures.
 To accompany the exhibition MoMA had organized a series of
cultural programs that was especially well received by the press.
It included the American debuts of the Sarodiya Ali Akbar
Khan, and Bharatnatyam dancer Shanta Rao. What was the
program on the concluding day of the exhibition?

 The program on the concluding day of the exhibition
was a screening of Pather Panchali. The un-subtitled
print which was sent in a great hurry brought Ray to
world notice.

 What connects these photographs?

 The last few photographs of Gandhi, Raman Maharishi
and Shri Aurobindo were all shot by Henri Cartier
Bresson. Bresson also shot the funerals of Mahatma
and Maharshi.

This small bird of prey Identify the bird, also
(Accipiter Badius)- found celebrated in an eponymous
widely in Asia and Africa was Shiv Batalvi poem made
a favourite of sub continental famous by Jagjit Singh.
falconers due to the ease with
which it could be trained and
also for its ability to take on
much larger birds, a quality
put to good use to procure
foods for more prized falcons
and reflected in its common
name, meaning the hunter. A
French variation of the name
was however given to another
species-the Red-necked
Falcon by Levaillant.

 Shikra
 Levillant erroneously named Red-necked Falcon La Chiquerra.

http://soundcloud.com/vibhendu-tewari/bird

 Akbar’s 1572 Gujarat campaign was quite eventful; he
set his eyes on the sea for the first time at Cambay, had
his first encounter with Europeans (Portuguese at
Surat) and managed to capture the rich kingdom
which by next year was yielding more than five million
Rupees to his treasury (so much for Narendra Modi’s
claims of transforming Gujarat’s fortunes). Why else
would we remember his Gujarat victory?

 Sikri was renamed Fatehpur Sikri after Gujarat’s fateh.

 Luóhàn Zhāi, from luóhàn from the Chinese
transliteration of Sanskrit arhat, meaning an
enlightened, ascetic individual and Zhāi meaning
"vegetarian food" is a popular dish in Chinese cuisine.
It is increasingly seen as a vegetarian option in Chinese
restaurants worldwide. It consists of 10 or more
vegetarian ingredients cooked in Soy sauce and other
liquids. By what evocative name is it known in the rest
of the world?

 Buddha's Delight. Buddha is the Arhat or the
enlightened one in its Chinese name.

 On 15th December 1947, Ramanuj Pratarp Singh Deo
signed the merger agreement by which his princely
state (which shares its name with two nations) was
merged to the Central Provinces and Berar (and
consequently, to the Indian Union) and ceased to exist
independently. A few months earlier, the Maharajah
was instrumental in another act where another entity
ceased to exist. What?

 Maharajah Ramanuj Pratap Singh Deo of Korea came
across three male cheetah cubs, all believed to be of
the same litter, one night in 1947 and shot all three of
them.
 This is the last record of cheetah in wild in India.

 In 1930, this businessman had to seek royal permission
through a special firman for use of this state symbol as
a commercial trademark, as the symbol was being
used on the currency of its time. Who and which
product?

 Vazir Muhammad of Vazir Sultan Tobacco (VST) had
to seek Nizam’s permission to use Charminar as a
brand and on the packaging.

 Manchester Science Festival has launched a mass
science experiment where volunteers are encouraged
to grow sunflowers to generate substantial data,
paying tribute to this person whose theory that
sunflower heads featured Fibonacci sequences
remained unproven for want of bigger datasets and
also his untimely death. In a 1951 paper on
morphogenesis (form in biology), this person had
proposed a theory to explain why Fibonacci sequences
appeared in plants. Who is Manchester Science
Festival paying a tribute to?

 This 1966 film’s USP was initially attributed to the
need for creating an eerie, other-worldly feeling
appropriate for its horror theme, however on the
Special Features section of the DVD the makers claim
that the perceived greater international sales was the
reason for this particular creative choice. What choice?

 Incubus (1966) was entirely in Esperanto

 Where were the interiors of this Commack ranch
house, albeit with an altered floor plan to aid gawking,
most famously replicated in 1959? The alterations by
Andrew Geller resulting in the nickname splitnik,
however, were the least controversial aspects of the
project.

 The house served as the prototype of the exhibit called
Typical American House in the American National
Exhibition in Moscow. The interiors stuffed with
latest home-appliances showcased the American life to
the Soviets and was the scene of the famed Kitchen
Debate between Nixon and Khrushchev.

 Obligatory Faiz question- Faiz Ahmed Faiz had a short
stint in British Indian Army as a commissioned officer
in Inter-Services Public Relations and was posted in
Delhi from 1943-1946. The road leading to the house
where he lived in Karol Bagh is now called Faiz Road,
but from 1997 onwards the bungalow itself was put to
great use by a bunch of people. The address has
acquired some new fame in recent years, which
address?

 16/330 Khajoor Road.
 Indian Ocean named their last album for their rehearsal pad.

 This witticism is often attributed to the lady in the
photograph but she credited it to a fellow traveler who
confirmed it in these words, “My inspiration arose from
being involved in the renascent women's movement at
the time, and from being a bit of a smart-arse. I scribbled
the phrase on the backs of two toilet doors, would you
believe, one at Sydney University where I was a student,
and the other at Soren's Wine Bar at Woolloomooloo, a
seedy suburb in south Sydney. The doors, I have to add,
were already favoured graffiti sites." Which phrase?
Identify the lady as well.

 After her Bollywood career failed to take off despite
hits like ‘Laila my laila’ and ‘kya khoob lagti ho’,
playback singer Kanchan reinvented herself by
performing live and recording covers of several hits
from 60s and 70s- most of them originally sung by a
pioneering singer. Along with her husband Babla, she
became a touring success abroad. One such song-
‘phulowri bina ______ kaise bani’, a cover of a hit 1974
originally sung by the same singer became fairly
popular in India as well.
 So tell me what was special about these songs, or
simply provide the missing word.

 Kanchan’s success came from covers of Chutney
pioneers like Sundar Popo. She went back to her
Trinidadian roots and was popular in the Caribbean
and North America in 80s and 90s. Her biggest hit in
India incidentally was ‘Phulowri bina chutney kaise
bani’ again originally sung by Popo in 70s.

http://soundcloud.com/vibhendu-tewari/kaise-ban1
http://soundcloud.com/vibhendu-tewari/kb2

 The Satellite Sentinel Project is an early warning
system to deter mass atrocities using satellite imagery
and analysis. SSP currently produces reports on the
state of the conflict in the border regions between
Sudan and South Sudan. Their reporting is then
released to the press and policymakers by the Enough
Project.
 Apart from Enough Project co-founder John
Prendergast which other person is behind SSP?

 Interiors shots of which iconic Bombay building?

 Kanchanjunga at Kemp’s corner by Charles Correa

 Shot close to where he spent a few years. Exact
location, please.

 Juhu, Mahatma stayed at the Theosophical Society’s
premises for several years in 1940’s.

 Which entrepreneur called his memoirs ‘Oontavarcha
Pravas’?

 The Kashmiri word for ‘autumn’ caused some
controversy in literary circles around this time last
year, and created a buzz in cinematic circles earlier this
month. What’s the good word?

 Who is the star of this film from the 1980s?

 What term, according to Niall Fergusson was originally
propagated by James I to reconcile Scotland to being
annexed by England- and the England to being ruled
by a Scot?

 What effectively ended on June 17, 1991 with the
repealing of Population Registration Act, 1950?

 What word completes the title of collection of lyrical
poems by Goethe inspired by the Persian poet- Hafez-
West-östlicher (West-Eastern) _____?

 Who designed and illustrated this advertisement?

 Popular etymology for which element in Periodic Table
suggests that it get its name from the fact that it is
never found unalloyed, or never alone? Another theory
suggests the name comes from monk-killer, because of
its poisonous nature.

 Which single entity occurs thrice to complete this
exhaustive list?
 Telugu Desam Party-Andhra Pradesh
 Jammu & Kashmir National Panthers Party-J&K
 Kerala Congress- Kerala
 Manipur People's Party- Manipur

 Samajwadi Party has the election symbol ‘ bicycle’
reserved in UP, MP and Uttarakhand.

 Which is the longest English word you can type using
the first row of a QWERTY typewriter?

 Early misconceived reputation of this animal as
implacably vicious resulted in earlier names like
Beelzebub's pup , Sarcophilus satanicus ("Satanic
meatlover") and Diabolus ursinus. The reputation
survives in the present day common name as well.
Which animal?

 Give me a three-word connect for:
 An Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman..."

 What name did the Christians of North Konkan who
were British subjects adopt to distinguish themselves
from Goan and Mangalorean Christians who were
Portuguese subjects on the occasion of The Golden
Jubilee of Queen Victoria?

 In Tom and Jerry cartoons, which cheese variety is the
source of all the mayhem?

 In the clip you hear Mir Baqir Ali, the last practitioner
of an art-form, who died in 1928. Which art-form?
 http://soundcloud.com/vibhendu-tewari/art-
practitioner

 This is the second highest peak in its continent. Which
country does it lend its name to?

“I won World titles, and others too – but not an Olympic
Games Gold medal.
People often ask me why I didn’t, thinking that I had failed. It
is understandable as our sport is very much the sort of
worldwide sport that would be.
There are so many other points that we can tick off to show
why ______ should be considered for a place. It is played in
185 countries by 20 million men and women of all ages. All
five continental regions have produced both male and female
world champions.”
Excerpts from an article which appeared last month. Who
about what?

William Walcot, the Russian born British architect known for
his Art Nouveau style in Moscow, shifted to graphic art in
1920s and found reputation as the best architectural
draftsman in London. What oversight resulted because of a
series of his watercolours like this one?

 Apart from Sanjay Gandhi National Park, which other
place in Bombay was declared a National Park in 1952?
 It is also the only natural formation to be declared a
Grade II heritage structure.

 Excerpt from a Yes Minister episode called The Official
Visit; a diplomatic crisis unfolding in a cramped train
booth. What four words alluding to a 1756 incident
feature in the press officer’s quip at the end?

 Instead of cashing on the success of their debut LP-
Unforgettables- the second LP by Jagjit & Chitra Singh featured
poems by Shiv Kumar Batalvi. As the poet was on his deathbed
and no decent picture was available- the Singhs & HMV got this
artist to do a portrait for the album cover. The artist’s other
association with the album was that his companion of many
years wrote the foreword on the album sleeve. The painter and
the writer’s association is also celebrated in a literary title- not
the one known to quizzers! Which couple?

 She harboured literary ambitions and wrote plays on themes as
didactic as her non-fiction works, including a play called Our
Ostriches, which dealt with society's approach to working class
women forced to produce babies all their lives.
 Noel Coward who met her aboard a transatlantic liner wrote this
ditty on her::
If through a mist of awful fears
Your mind in anguish gropes
Dry up your panic-stricken tears
And fly to _____ _____.
"If you have missed life's shining goal
And mixed with sex perverts and Dopes
For normal soap to cleanse your soul
Apply to _____ ______.

 Who?

 Hinglaj is one of the 56 Shakti peeths, and according
to the Sati legend is the place where her head fell.
Once an arduous journey through difficult terrain, it is
fairly accessible now.
 Kalikananda Abadhut wrote a popular Bangla novel
‘Marutirtha Hinglaj’ based on his journey to the
shrine, made into an Uttam Kumar hit in 1959.
 In which present-day province, will you find Hinglaj?

 In Rio Olympics boxing, the much maligned blow-by-
blow scoring will be replaced with the professional "10-
point must" scoring system. Under that system, boxers
are subjectively judged on who wins a round, with the
winner receiving 10 points and the loser nine or less.
 That is not the only modification coming to amateur
boxing for Rio 2016. Which two other significant
changes will be brought in?

 Professional boxers will be allowed to compete for the
first time and headgear will be removed from the
men's competition.

 World over, they are
named for the elf-like
helpful-creatures-inspired
from a 1870 children story
by Juliana Horatia Ewing,
in which two children,
Tommy and Betty, learn
that they can either be lazy
boggarts or they can be
helpful _______.
 The Indian equivalents are
however named after the
entity show in the picture.
What am I talking about?

 Brownies- Girl scouts between age 7 to 10.
 Called Bulbuls in India

 Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner has frequently cited
an influential 1963 book by this woman along with its
polar opposite Betty Friedan’s “The Feminine
Mystique,” the feminist primer as his influences.
Commentators find shades of her in both Peggy Olson
and Joan Holloway- the two Mad Men characters.
Who?

 This Russian born German geographer, meteorologist,
climatologist and botanist frequently travelled to his
family's estate on the Crimean coast from St.
Petersburg, during his student days. The floral and
geographical diversity of the Crimean peninsula, and
the starker geographical transitions between St.
Petersburg encountered during those travels formed
the basis of his most important work.
 Who and what was his most important contribution,
which is named for him?

 During the 1977 general elections, a popular slogan in
North Bombay constituency was:
Paaniwali Bai Dilli mein, Dilliwali Bai paani mein

 Who are the two bais in question?

 Mrinal Gore & Indira Gandhi

 Connect the two videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tsnrb9mE0k

 Wolf howling choruses is an example of the Beau
Geste effect where combined howling has been
determined to make less number of wolves sound like
many more.
 Named for the novel by PC Wren where a similar tactic
is used by a French Legion.

 Who about a certain creative choice he made in his
career?
"I have one instrument that I know I can command, and that is
the English language. There was another instrument to which I
had listened all my life, and I wanted once to touch this new
instrument to see whether I could make any beautiful thing out
of it. [...] Of course, there are modes of expression that a
Frenchman of letters would not have used, but they give a
certain relief or color to the play.”
The playwright also ended up translating the play in
English after his translator and lover messed up the job,
leading to some trouble in their love-life. The lover,
eventually was the cause of much heartburn and fall from
grace for the author.

 Oscar Wilde on why he wrote Salome in French.

 Venezuelan fencer Ruben Limardo won a gold medal
in London Olympics 2012, the country’s first in 44
years. What’s special about the sword he is holding?

 The sword is a replica of one used by Simon De Bolivar

 The turban, was ruled out: “It takes up too much
cloth.” So was the pagdi: “A dirty thing, goes on
absorbing perspiration, but does not show it; and so
seldom gets washed.” The Gujarati conical cap was
“hideous”; the Maharashtrian ones were made of felt;
and the UP and Bihari caps were too “thin and useless”
and “not even becoming”.
 What got picked up?

 Kashmiri Cap as the prototype for Gandhi Cap.
Gandhi, obviously toned down the embellishments
and changed the material to Khadi to suit his purpose
and the climate.

 Disambiguate
 J: Compton Scattering, Cosmic Rays & Point Particles
 K: Post-colonial Studies, Hybridity, Mimicry

 J- Homi J Bhabha
 K- Homi K Bhabha

BQC Aug 2012

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