January 2016 CET Informal

CET Quiz Club Informal
Nisha Pillai
January 15, 2016

Written round.
+5 for each, no negatives.
Unless otherwise specified, name the main character in each story.
IMMORTAL CAPTIVATING STORIES (12)

2.
What was built as a
result?

6.
Chandragupta Maurya
& Nanda

TRAVEL (8)
+10 each, no negatives.
Occasional bonus points available.

in 1972, Tony and Maureen Wheeler set
off on the Asia overland trip, from London
to Australia. Their intention was to be
away for a year, get travel out of their
system, and then settle down.
They drove from London to Afghanistan in
a beat up minivan and eventually arrived
in Sydney, Australia, with 27 cents
between them.
The continual questioning from people
they met afterwards inspired them to turn
their diaries into a book, titled “Across
Asia On the Cheap”.
What resulted?
TRAVEL: QUESTION 1

The Lonely Planet guidebook empire.
The company they created to publish this
first thin volume was named “Lonely
Planet”.
TRAVEL: ANSWER 1

He went on a famous journey and
wrote a book about it. These are the
only notable things he did in his life.
They were enough.
His book is usually found at the top of
“best adventure-travel writing” lists. Its
title was suggested by his neighbor
George Bernard Shaw.
Name the book, or the author.
TRAVEL: QUESTION 2

Apsley Cherry-Garrard.
The Worst Journey In the World, the
authoritative account of Robert Falcon
Scott’s expedition to the South Pole.
Cherry-Garrard was the youngest
member of that expedition team.
TRAVEL: ANSWER 2

In a letter written in 1932, she wrote: “The great
and almost only comfort about being a woman is
that one can always pretend to be more stupid
than one is and no one is surprised.”
She was one of the first women to be inducted
into the Royal Geographical Society. Two of her
pre-war books, describing her travels in the
Middle East, are acknowledged classics. One of
them describes her visit to the ruined stronghold
of the Seven Lords of Alamut, a medieval cult of
hashish-eating political killers in Iran whose
exploits had been legendary in the West since the
Crusades.
Who? Bonus for naming the book.
TRAVEL: QUESTION 3

Freya Stark. The Valleys of the Assassins.
TRAVEL: ANSWER 3

It was his job in the 1920s to fly the mail
from France to Spain across the Pyrenees,
in all kinds of weather, with bad maps and
no radio. The engine on his plane would
sometimes quit, he says, "with a great
rattle like the crash of crockery."
He crashed once in the Sahara, and there
was no water. He and his companion
wandered for days, and on the verge of
death before being rescued by a Bedouin
on a camel. This plane crash is the central
event in his award-winning travel book
(see picture).
Name the author, or his most famous
work, which also features a plane crash.
TRAVEL: QUESTION 4

The book is, of course, The Little Prince.
TRAVEL: ANSWER 4

This was the beginning of the style of comic travel writing, still popular today. It is
“one of the few 19th-century travel books that is still read eagerly for pleasure”,
according to The Smithsonian. Originally a series of articles published in the Alta
California newspaper, the content was later reworked into this book. Name it.
Bonus points for naming its twin “comic travel” book, often described as an anti-
adventure, which details the author’s stint as a miner in the American West.
TRAVEL: QUESTION 5

Mark Twain’s account of the trip to
Europe was published as “The Innocents
Abroad”, subtitled “The New Pilgrim’s
Progress”.
The “anti-adventure” was titled
“Roughing It”.
TRAVEL: QUESTION 5

It was a club of self-styled explorers. They
made journeys to places remote from
London and report on their findings to the
other members of the club for one
purpose: “to extend researches into the
quaint and curious phenomena of life”.
A “Faithful Record of the Perambulations,
Perils, Travels, Adventures and Sporting
Transactions ” of this club became a
publishing phenomenon and a literary
landmark.
Name that club.
TRAVEL: QUESTION 6

In late May of 1987, Alexander Frater
landed in India. He was on a pilgrimage
of sorts, trying to realize a dream from
his childhood growing up in the South
Pacific.
His main stops were Kanyakumari,
Trivandrum, Calicut, Goa, and Bombay,
then over to Delhi, Calcutta and finally,
Meghalaya. His reportage on India, and
dealing with the Byzantine bureaucracy,
is nothing short of brilliant.
The book that resulted from this journey
was later made into a very popular BBC
documentary. What was Frater doing on
this journey?
TRAVEL: QUESTION 7

Flora Tristan, in her relatively short life (died
age 41), campaigned for workers’ and women’s
rights and is considered one of the founders of
modern feminism.
In 1833 she travelled to Peru to claim her
paternal inheritance, which was in possession
of an uncle. Her acclaimed work,
Peregrinations of a Pariah, contain her
observations of life in Peru.
Mario Vargas Llosa, in his historical novel The
Way to Paradise, analyzes Flora Tristan and her
grandson’s contrasting quests for the ideal life
through their experiences in and outside their
native land. Who was her grandson?
TRAVEL: QUESTION 8

INSIDE THE BOOK (8)

At the Tabard Inn, a tavern in Southwark, near London, the
narrator joins a company of twenty-nine pilgrims.
The narrator gives a descriptive account of twenty-seven of these
pilgrims. The Host, whose name is Harry Bailey, suggests that the
group ride together and entertain one another with stories. He
decides that each pilgrim will tell two stories on the way to their
destination and two on the way back. Whomever he judges to be
the best storyteller will receive a meal at Bailey’s tavern, courtesy
of the other pilgrims. The pilgrims draw lots and determine that
the Knight will tell the first tale.
What am I talking about?
BOOK: QUESTION 1

The last stage direction in the play is:
[The sound of a door shutting is heard from below.]
Though it was hailed as “the slammed door heard around the
world”, the ending is much more ambiguous than the reception
would imply.
Admiring the author’s originality and technical mastery, a critic
wrote: "Not a single declamatory phrase, no high dramatics, no
drop of blood, not even a tear.“
BOOK: QUESTION 2

BOOK: ANSWER 2
The Doll’s House
Henrik Ibsen

Name that novel.
Introduced in novel form the following
classic attributes of the detective story:
• English country house robbery
• An "inside job“
• red herrings
• A celebrated, skilled, professional
investigator
• Bungling local constabulary
• Detective enquiries
• Large number of false suspects
• The "least likely suspect"
• A rudimentary “locked room" murder
• A reconstruction of the crime
• A final twist in the plot
BOOK: QUESTION 3

Author, Phrase, Characters.
X's novel Ajeeb Aadmi is about a suicidal actor-director Dharam
Dev, his rather doomed passion for Zarina Jamaal, the dancer from
Madras who he discovered, and his actress-playback-singer wife
Mangala.
The novel is a take on a real-life trio of those times. Name X.
BONUS 1: Give a three-word phrase that best describes such a
novel.
BONUS 2: Name the three real life people this was based on.
BOOK: QUESTION 4

Author, Phrase, Characters.
Ismat Chughtai
Ajeeb Aadmi about Guru Dutt, Waheeda Rahman, and
Geeta Dutt.
Three word phrase: Roman à clef -- French for 'Novel with
a key' -- novel about real life, overlaid with a façade of
fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real
people, and the "key" is the relationship between the
nonfiction and the fiction. This "key“ may be produced
separately by the author, or implied through the use of
epigraphs or other literary techniques.
BOOK: ANSWER 4

Play and author, please.
One of the earliest Sanskrit plays, thought to have been composed in the
2nd century BC, describes its author thus:
“The Sāmaveda, the Rigveda too,
The science mathematical, he knew;
The arts wherein fair courtezans excel,
And all the lore of elephants as well.
Through Shiva's grace, his eye was never dim;
He saw his son a king in place of him.
The difficult horse-sacrifice he tried
Successfully; entered the fiery tide,
One hundred years and ten days old, and died.”
The play was path-breaking in many respects, notably:
• Focused on a fictional scenario rather than a classical tale or legend.
• Departs from Natya Shastra rules that specify that dramas should focus
on the lives of the nobility; incorporates many middle and lower-caste
characters who speak a wide range of Prakrit dialects.
• Features a lesser character constantly spouting bad similes
BOOK: QUESTION 5

BOOK: ANSWER 5
Mṛcchakatika
(The Little Clay Cart)
By Sudraka

Who, introducing which work:
“To these I owe a debt past telling:
My several muses, harsh and kind;
My folks, who stood my sulks and yelling,
And (in the long run) did not mind;
Dead legislators, whose orations
I’ve filched to mix my own potations;
Indeed, all those whose brains I’ve pressed,
Unmerciful, because obsessed;
My own dumb soul, which on a pittance
Survived to weave this fictive spell;
And, gentle reader, you as well,
The fountainhead of all remittance.
Buy me before good sense insists
You’ll strain your purse and sprain your wrists.”
BOOK: QUESTION 6

BOOK: ANSWER 6
“But I too hate long books: the better, the
worse. If they're bad they merely make me
pant with the effort of holding them up for a
few minutes. But if they're good, I turn into a
social moron for days, refusing to go out of my
room, scowling and growling at interruptions,
ignoring weddings and funerals, and making
enemies out of friends. I still bear the scars of
Middlemarch.”

__________ was a large man, standing 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m)
and weighing around 286 pounds (130 kg).
His girth gave rise to a famous anecdote. During the First World
War a lady in London asked why he was not "out at the Front"; he
replied, "If you go round to the side, you will see that I am.”
P. G. Wodehouse once described a very loud crash as "a sound like
__________ falling onto a sheet of tin".
FITB.
BOOK: QUESTION 7

A man of around 27 with a tall (6' 2"), athletic figure. Brought up
by his father's younger brother after his parents’ death when he
was only 9. Taught in a school before his detective career, and was
a student of Scottish Church College.
Despite being a strongly built man adept in martial arts, he relies
mostly upon his superb analytical ability and observation skill to
solve cases. He possesses a revolver, but the weapon is used very
infrequently and mostly for non-violent purposes. Known to be
good at sleight-of-hand, and disguises.
He is an early riser and is often shown starting his day with yoga.
Which fictional character?
BOOK: QUESTION 8

BOOK: ANSWER 8
Prodosh Chandra Mitra
(aka Feluda)
Drawing at right by Ray

MIXED BAG (12)

MISC: QUESTION 1
The man in the picture was a
Protestant pastor who spent the
last seven years of Nazi rule in
Saschenhausen and Dachau as a
“personal prisoner” of Hitler.
His anti-Semitic statements in
the pre-war (WW2) years are
well documented. He later
became a prominent Nazi critic
and spent the postwar years
lecturing on the evils of Nazi
rule.
What is he best known for?

Martin Niemoller.
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
MISC: ANSWER 1

Rather appropriately, whose official residence?
MISC: QUESTION 2

Malacañang Palace, official residence of the President of
Phillippines.
The country is an archipelago, consisting of 7000+ islands.
MISC: ANSWER 2

The Yarlung Tsangpo, often called the “Everest of rivers”, originates
near Mount Kailash, and flows east across the Tibetan plateau.
1700 kilometers later, near the Eastern edge of the Himalayas, this
mighty river disappears.
Just downstream of a little village called Gyala, the Tsangpo roars
into a narrow canyon between the 24000 ft+ peaks of Namcha
Barwa and Gyala Pelri, whose summits are separated by just 13
miles.
Through the era of the great British led adventures (1800s…until
1913), the subsequent fate of the Tsangpo was unknown. Popular
theory had it that it emerges from the Himalayas, hundreds of
miles away, as the only major river in the vicinity that emerges
from the Himalayas flowing east. Which river is that?
MISC: QUESTION 3

This is the Ayuwang Buddhist temple in Ningbo, one of the oldest
cities in China with a history going back to 4800 B.C. Its most prized
possession is a bone of Sakyamuni, the Buddha, dug up in the late
3rd century. The temple and nearby mountain are both named in
honor of the provider
of this precious relic.
How do we know
Ayuwang better?
MISC: QUESTION 4

Ashoka.
After Sakyamuni passed away, King Ashoka ordered pagodas built all
over the world to house the body relic (bone ash) of Sakyamuni. A
total of 84,000 pagodas were built. According to Buddhist
scriptures, nineteen such pagodas were built in China. They were
all named after Ashoka, and this is the only surviving one.
MISC: ANSWER 4

There are only 3 true elective monarchies in the world.
1. Cambodia: King is chosen for life, candidates all have royal blood
2. The Vatican: Pope is elected in conclave by College of Cardinals
3. X: Supreme Head of State is elected to a 5 year term. Nine
hereditary rulers elect one of themselves as the Supreme Head
of State, by secret ballot.
What is X?
MISC: QUESTION 5

Malaysia.
While there are ambiguous cases and similar forms (e.g., Saudi
Arabia), none are elective monarchies.
MISC: ANSWER 5

The indigenous people of this country refer to themselves as
“normal” (as opposed to deities and spirits) or “people of the land”.
One of the main landmasses is called “the fish of Maui”.
Their founding mythology goes as follows:
The original explorer came to this land in a canoe. In some versions
of the story, he named the land after his canoe. In other versions, his
wife or daughter was watching the horizon and saw a cloud as they
were crossing the ocean. In these versions, he named the land after
the cloud.
What modern-day country?
MISC: QUESTION 6

New Zealand.
Aotearoa == Land of the long white cloud.
North Island is Te Ika a Māui, The fish of Māui.
MISC: ANSWER 6

Representation of a legendary
creature…
…and its supposed resting place
Name the city.
MISC: QUESTION 7

Prague.
Creature is Joseph (Yossele), the Golem of Prague. Supposedly
created by Rabbi Loew to defend the ghetto against pogroms,
and resting in the attic of the old synagogue in Prague, to be
revived in time of need.
MISC: ANSWER 7

This mountain is a collection of three volcanoes, two of which are
extinct and the last one dormant. The existence of a crater on top
was only confirmed in 1889. The crater was named after Gustav
Otto Reusch, upon his summiting the mountain 25 times.
The name of the summit translates to “Freedom Peak”. Name it, or
the well-known character from popular culture who shares the
name.
MISC: QUESTION 8

Uhuru Peak.
Or Uhura.
The mountain is, of course, Kilimanjaro.
MISC: ANSWER 8

Different renditions of a character from Commedia dell’Arte.
Name that accessory he’s carrying & why is it called so?
MISC: QUESTION 9

Slapstick.
(“batacchio” in Italian, in origin a magic wand used by the devil
character to change the scenery of the play)
Used by Harlequin in his comic capacity to hit other characters.
The stick makes a loud noise when clapped, without
transferring much force.
One of the earliest ever “special effects”, dating back to at least
the 1500s.
MISC: ANSWER 9

It is a town of ~10,000, situated in a valley in the Ardennes
mountain chain, 45km southwest of Aachen. As the site of healing
cold springs, it has been frequented since as early as the 14th
century.
In 1918, it was the Principal Headquarters of the German Army.
From here, German delegations set out for consultations leading up
to the Armistice that ended WW1.
It is also the birthplace of Hercule Poirot.
Name the town.
MISC: QUESTION 10

The Ballad of _______ was first transcribed in the Musical Records
of Old and New in the 6th century. The original work no longer
exists, and the text of the poem comes from another work known
as the Music Bureau Collection, compiled during the 11th or 12th
century. The author explicitly mentions the Musical Records of Old
and New as his source for the poem.
Over time, the story of rose in popularity as a folk tale among
Chinese people. In Chinese, _________ means “magnolia”. We all
know the story through one of its many modern adaptations.
FITB.
MISC: QUESTION 11

This is the original poster
for an opera set in India,
and first performed in 1883
in Paris.
The opera subsequently
lent its name to a top Indian
brand. Its music is probably
best known today because
of a famous commercial.
Name the opera.
MISC: QUESTION 12

Lakmé
http://youtu.be/8Qx2lMaMsl8
(the first minute of so. British Airways, and many others)
BA Commercial: https://youtu.be/RVi6GgQBkwE
MISC: ANSWER 12

Science Fiction & Fantasy (8)
Infinite bounce, no pounce.

SF&F: QUESTION 1
“On Tuesday night, the Sci Fi Channel aired its
final installment of ___________, the
miniseries based on my books. The
books, which were published more than 30
years ago, are about two young people
finding out what their power, their freedom,
and their responsibilities are.
I don't know what the film is about. It's full of
scenes from the story, arranged differently, in
an entirely different plot, so that they make
no sense. My protagonist is a boy with red-
brown skin. In the film, he's a petulant white
kid. ”
So begins a 2004 review by which highly
respected (and vocal) SF author?
SF&F: Q1

SF&F: QUESTION 2
Who are these two, plotting to “fix the political problem” on Earth?
Picture credit: xkcd
SF&F: Q2

This book is presented as an abridgment of an
older version by "S. Morgenstern", which was
originally a satire of the excesses of European
royalty. The older version, in fact, does not exist.
The book's actual roots are in stories the author
would tell to his daughters. There are two “rival
nations” depicted in the book, which are named
after coins that were interchangeable in reality.
The author, among other things, has won two
Oscars for screenwriting: Butch Cassidy and The
Sundance Kid and All The President’s Men.
Name this beloved book, turned into a cult classic
movie in 1987. BONUS: name those coins.
SF&F: QUESTION 3
SF&F: Q3

The ___________ Starthinker is a
super-computer from the Seventh
Galaxy of Light and Ingenuity and it
has the ability to calculate the
trajectory of every single dust particle
during a five-week Dangrabad Beta
sand blizzard.
The Deep Thought computer called it
a pocket calculator in comparison to
itself.
FITB with the name of a destination of
choice for a certain type of tourist.
SF&F: QUESTION 4
SF&F: Q4

It debuted in 1959 as a short story and
promptly won the Hugo for short stories. In
1966, the author expanded it into an
epistolary novel, which won the Nebula. The
novel has never been out of print since then.
It has been turned into a musical, adapted
for film and TV, and inspired, among others:
- An episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- A Marvel Spiderman comic
- A Simpsons episode
Frequently challenged for removal from
libraries in the US and Canada, and regularly
taught in schools around the world, name
this story.
SF&F: QUESTION 5
SF&F: Q5

In Islam, God has 99 names, which are
described in the Quran.
In Judaism, G-d has seven names that are so
holy that they must not be erased and must be
written with special care. These names are only
used in prayer.
In Parsi tradition, there is a holy list of 101
names of God.
According to Arthur C. Clarke, how many
names does God have, per the traditions of one
(in)famous Tibetan lamasery?
SF&F: QUESTION 6
SF&F: Q6

SpaceX owns floating drone ships at sea,
one on each coast. In Jan 2015, Elon Musk
tweeted the name of their East Coast drone
ship (pic). He also disclosed that the West
Coast drone ship will be named Of Course I
Still Love You.
The names are a tribute to two Minds from
a classic SF series.
SF&F: QUESTION 7
SF&F: Q7
Just Read The Instructions
In this series, a semi-anarchist society formed by humanoid races and AIs live
mainly off-planet, and the biological population can have virtually anything
they want without the need to work. Minds are intelligent starships and space
stations that are extremely friendly and peace-loving, and have a tendency to
give themselves flippant names.
Name of series, please.

In Arabic, it is Sayyid al-Khawātim, In Swedish, Härskarringen, and in Spanish,
El Señor de los Anillos.
SF&F: QUESTION 8
SF&F: Q8

IN PICTURES (8) - QUESTIONS
Written round.

PICTURES: QUESTION 1
WHO?
30 seconds

What happens next?
30 seconds

Where? Artist?
30 seconds

FITB.
30 seconds

Supposedly the precursor to what modern practice?
30 seconds

WHO?
30 seconds

Name that « great new story »
30 seconds

IN PICTURES (8) - ANSWERS
Written round.

A young man--we can sketch his portrait at a dash. Imagine to yourself a Don
Quixote of eighteen; a Don Quixote without his corselet, without his coat of
mail, without his cuisses; a Don Quixote clothed in a wooden doublet, the blue
color of which had faded into a nameless shade between lees of wine and a
heavenly azure; face long and brown; high cheek bones, a sign of sagacity; the
maxillary muscles enormously developed, an infallible sign by which a Gascon
may always be detected, even without his cap--and our young man wore a cap
set off with a sort of feather; the eye open and intelligent; the nose hooked, but
finely chiseled. Too big for a youth, too small for a grown man, an experienced
eye might have taken him for a farmer's son upon a journey had it not been for
the long sword which, dangling from a leather baldric, hit against the calves of
its owner as he walked, and against the rough side of his steed when he was on
horseback.
D’Artagnan, riding into town
(original illustration from the first chapter of Three Musketeers)
PICTURES: ANSWER 1

What happens next?

PICTURES: ANSWER 2
Next, Sir Henry Baskerville is attacked
by the Hound.
Original caption:
HE LOOKED ROUND HIM IN
SURPRISE AS HE EMERGED INTO THE
CLEAR, STARLIGHT NIGHT.
The Strand Magazine, March 1902

Where? Artist?

PICTURES: ANSWER 3
Rivendell,
Looking East
By
J.R.R.Tolkien

Supposedly the precursor to what modern practice?

PICTURES: ANSWER 6
"Chauvelin looked at him
as he lay there, placid,
unconscious, at peace with
all the world and himself."
"I vow I never thought of
meeting you here."
Chauvelin & Percy
Blakeney, from The Scarlet
Pimpernel

PICTURES: ANSWER 7
Princess Flavia &
Rudolph Rassendyll
Prisoner of Zenda
Illustrator: Charles Dana Gibson,
creator of the Gibson Girl

Name that « great new story »

PICTURES: ANSWER 8
Serialized May – July 1886

January 2016 CET Informal

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