The Annual Republic Day India Quiz held at IIM Ahmedabad Chaos 2020 - presented by Quiz Cetera. Questions on a range of topics including Indian history, arts, politics, technology, travel and living, language and literature, cinema, arts, sports and business - practically everything Indian.

1. Chaos 2020
MELA Quiz

2. Presented by
Quiz Cetera
-
75+ quizzes across
25+ campuses, incl.
IITs, IIMs, and NITs
Aniruddha Mitra
p15aniruddham@iima.ac.in 9426310784
Dhanraj B.
p14dhanrajb@iima.ac.in 8123955150
Minakhi Misra
p13minakhipm@iima.ac.in 9998154540
Tauseef Warsi
p14tauseefw@iima.ac.in 8691045534

3. MELA Prelims
25 Questions
11 - 15 starred

4. Rules of Engagement
● 25 questions in total
● 11-15 are star marked and will be used to resolve ties (please mark them on
your answer sheet)
● In case of further ties, sudden death will be used
● The prelims are written so please do not shout out the answers
● 6 teams will qualify for the finals
● Please refrain from relying on electronic devices or nearby participants

5. Questions

6. Q1. What is the title of the show ?
A 2019 documentary, based on the process of genetic engineering and especially the
DNA editing technology of CRISPR, was released on Netflix and features a host of
corporations and scientists currently involved in the field.
What was the documentary named, a reversal of a theory that is widely regarded
and has been a popular belief for over 150 years ?

7. Q2. What is the name of the movie ? Who
was the lead ?
This 1982 musical film (based on a 1979 creation) had animated segments by
cartoonist Gerald Scarfe and centered around a rock star ____ who had been driven
insane by the death of his father.
Who played the lead role of ____ ? He came into prominence three years later as the
main factor behind a certain event.

8. Q3. ID the character.
A to-be-released biopic of an
Indian “businessman” played by
Abhishek Bachchan. Identify the
“businessman” in question.

9. Q4. What is he referring to ?
At a recent awards show, after receiving the award for best foreign film, the Korean
director Bong Joon Ho commented that “Once you overcome the 1-inch tall barrier,
you will be introduced to so many amazing films” in a barb to Hollywood culture.
What is the 1-inch barrier he is referring to ?

10. Q5. Which division ? What event ?
X, a division of Harlequin, seemed to be struggling around 30 years ago with their
sales dropping in most of their major areas, most of all at home. It seemed that the
charm had finally worn off.
However, due to a new market opening up right around that time, X made an early
market entry into the region, selling 1 million copies that year as people flocked for a
taste of new-found freedom and the ability to express themselves.
The region grew so much that it accounted for 9% of X’s sales the following year.
Identify X. What was the event that helped them enter a new region ?

11. Q6. Which movie ? Which band ?
With the amount of extraterrestrial footage that this movie had to deal with, lighting
was always a major issue for them even with the budget they had. While shooting a
particular scene, they were unable to procure a set of blue stage and pinpoint lights
to highlight the scene.
However, the band practicing next door, known particularly for their use of lighting
during concerts, generously lent them their set of lights.
Which movie ? Which band ?

12. Q7. Who, writing in the preface of his book ?
'व्यंग्य’ अब 'शूद्र’ से ‘क्ष त्रिय’ मान लया गया है । वचारणीय है क वह शूद्र से क्ष त्रिय हुआ है, ब्राह्मण
नहीं, क्यों क ब्राह्मण ‘कीतर्तन’ करता है । नस्संदेह व्यंग्य कीतर्तन करना नहीं जानता, पर कीतर्तन को
और कीतर्तन करनेवालों को खूब पहचानता है ।
Satire has now been recognised as a Kshatriya and elevated from the status of a
Shudra. It is worth pondering that it has not become a Brahmin, because Brahmins
do Kirtan. Without a doubt, Satire doesn’t do Kirtan but it recognises those who do
so pretty well.

13. Q8. What is the album called ? Who was on
the original cover ?
Like his previous album “Kamikaze”, Eminem dropped
his new album on January 17 without any prior
warning.
The name of the album and it’s cover art (picture on
the right) is inspired by a 1958 song by Jeff
Alexander.
What is the name of the album ? Who was on the
original album cover in 1958 ?

14. Q9. Who is the painter ? Which painting ?
This is an Airbnb listing found in two
places : one in Cote D'Azur in France
and the other in Chicago near the art
museum. They are almost exactly the
same.
Who stayed in a similar room to this
and what masterpiece did he/she
paint based on that stay ?

15. Q10. Why did this hold significance ?
In 1935, a wealthy Romanian woman was robbed by a man she was travelling with
and pushed out of a window, resulting in her death. What was this event and why did
it hold so much significance due to the location ?

16. *Q11. What moniker do they share ?
Neil Innes and Carol
Cleveland are two
personalities who share a
common moniker based on a
famous group. The size of the
actual group has started to
reduce, as recently as three
days back.
What moniker do they share ?

17. *Q12. Why was the name changed ?
All Platinum Records was a records company started by Sylvia Robinson and her
husband. In an era of large record companies, this flourished as a small, independent
concern.
Though they started as Platinum records, they had to change their name due to two
reasons, one of them being the existing Miami label Platinum records.
What was the second reason, due to them being a smaller company and which
contributed to them flourishing in the business ?

18. *Q13. Which martial art ? Who brought it
into public consciousness ?
_________ is an eclectic martial art and self-defence method originally developed in
England during the years 1898–1902, combining elements of boxing, jujitsu, cane
fighting, and French kickboxing (savate). It was developed by Edward William
Barton-Wright while he was in Japan.
It came to public consciousness in 1903 when an author wrote his character
performing ________ (slight change on the original spelling) to get out of a tight
situation.
Which martial art ? Who brought it into public consciousness (author) ?

19. *Q14. FITB/Put Funda
OH, MY LOST CITY - Pablo Neruda
I liked Madrid and now
I can’t see it again, not anymore, a bitter
but desperate certainty, coming
from having died at the time
when my friends died, as if
half of my spirit had gone to the grave
and lay there among dry plains,
prisons and prisoners,
and an earlier time when the towers
were not stained with blood, the ___ with ___ ___.

20. *Q15. Who is X that these people are talking about ?
X himself:
"I’m told that mine was the biggest screen test in history. I think there were 800
applicants and 300 screen tests. They tested me for four months. They tested me every
which way — fights, horseback riding, swimming.”
Diana Rigg:
“I could never understand why X behaved as he did because he was given such a glorious
opportunity and he threw it all away. I’m sorry for him, if you really want to know. At some
stage, it just went to his head.”
Peter Hunt about why he never spoke to X during the shoot:
"I wanted that feeling of isolation. That is [the character]. He’s a loner. X wasn’t
experienced enough to interpret this feeling of utter emptiness.”

21. Q16. Give X and Y.
X is a 1999 biographical drama film starring Jake Gyllenhaal, based on the true story
of Homer H. Hickam, Jr., a coal miner's son who was inspired by the launch of
Sputnik 1 in 1957 to take up rocketry against his father's wishes and eventually
became a NASA engineer.
Y is the name of the memoir published by Homer Hickam Jr in 1998, upon which X is
based. X and Y are anagrams. No part points.

22. Q17. Give X and Y.
Many consider X to be the first great writer of the age of globalization. X's
masterwork Y, for instance, has his protagonist leading a wondrous deputation
“from all the isles of the sea, and all the ends of the earth”. People of at least 13
nationalities are “federated along one keel”.
Y has been described as the biography of the last days of Adolf Hitler and has been
deployed to decry the Vietnam war, George W. Bush’s crusade against the “axis of
evil”, Osama bin Laden’s jihad against the West, Vladimir Putin’s hatred of NATO,
Donald Trump’s pursuit of a border wall and Theresa May’s quest for a Brexit
withdrawal agreement.

23. Q18. Whose Museum ?
On the Indiana Avenue in Indianapolis, Indiana stands the new X Museum and
Library. Its repetitious address chimes with the author's views on geography and
belonging. X believed that a person should never forget where he came from. “All my
jokes are Indianapolis,” he once said. “All my attitudes are Indianapolis. My adenoids
are Indianapolis. If I ever severed myself from Indianapolis, I would be out of
business. What people like about me is Indianapolis.” As much as he mocked the
term—and those who used it—in his novel Cat’s Cradle (1963), X was a bona fide
Hoosier.

24. Q19. Probably the costliest Indian Painting.
Painting and Artist.

25. Q20. Who composed Fidelio ?
“Fidelio” tells the tale of Leonore, who rescues her husband Florestan from unjust
imprisonment by disguising herself as Fidelio, a lowly prison guard.
Vienna was occupied by French troops when the composer wrote the score; the
premiere was on November 20th 1805, six days after Napoleon took up residence at
Schönbrunn Palace.
Setting the action in 18th-century Seville, the composer took care to give his
characters vaguely Spanish names, avoiding the implications of French or German
ones.

26. Q21. The historical figure ? The two actors ?
In comparing the 1992 and 2019 portrayals of a historical figure by two legendary
actors, the New York Times article says:
"It’s not hard to see what drew two of the finest actors of their generation to play
______. Sure, the man spent decades in the public eye, led what was then the nation’s
largest labor union, sparred with the Kennedys and disappeared in one of the
quintessential unsolved mysteries in recent history. But he’s also a great character, a
sizzle reel of big, boisterous speeches, roaring dressing-downs and showy
theatricality. It’s the kind of role an actor can really sink his teeth into, especially if
he’s known for chewing a bit of scenery — a delicacy frequently enjoyed by [both
actors]."

27. Q22. What is WWBD ? Which show ?
Students and followers of politics, especially the liberal minded and believers of
do-good politicians, quite regularly use the #WWBD tag to speculate what the best
response to some political scenario can be. This trend intensified critically during the
Bush administration's war (this was before hash-tags were the holy grail), mollified
slightly during the Obama administration, but has exploded since the 2016 US
presidential elections. Now, almost every time President Trump makes a political
move, the growing community replies with their version of WWBD.
Coat-tailing the trend, Netflix added a certain show to its US catalog, and Amazon
Prime Video added it to its international catalogue, including India. The show which
ran between 1999 and 2006, is reportedly gaining almost as much viewership now
as it did during its peak.

28. Q23. Which moon ?
In June 2019, NASA announced a mission to one of the most popular moons of one
of the outer ring planets. The name of the moon refers to the deities in Greek
mythology that preceded the Olympians. They were the children of the primordial
deities Uranus (heaven) and Gaea (earth).
The announcement got fans of a certain manga and anime to speculate possible
storylines, though it is pretty obvious that the moon in reality is very different from
the place depicted in the manga/anime.

29. Q24. Give X and Y.
When X began writing in the 1970s, there were no books about black girls. In 1987,
X wrote the masterwork Y, which tells the story of a runaway slave who murders her
baby rather than allow it to be captured. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize and Oprah
Winfrey, who called X "our conscience", starred in its film adaptation in 1998.
X went on to win the Nobel Prize in 1993 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in
2012.

30. Q25. Whose biopic and why this title ?
Gul Makai, literally “corn flower”, is the heroine of a Pakistani folk tale, a Romeo and
Juliet story, where the lovers meet at school. The romance between Gul Makai and
her lover, Musa Khan, creates a war between their tribes. But the tale doesn’t lead to
tragedy as Gul Makai teaches her elders, interpreting the Quran to demonstrate
how this war is frivolous – they listen, cease the war, and unite the lovers in
marriage.
It's also the title of a biopic released recently that stars Reem Sheikh, Om Puri, Atul
Kulkarni, Divya Dutta, Pankaj Tripathi, and Mukesh Rishi.

31. Answers

33. Q1. What is the title of the show ?
A 2019 documentary, based on the process of genetic engineering and especially the
DNA editing technology of CRISPR, was released on Netflix and features a host of
corporations and scientists currently involved in the field.
What was the documentary named, a reversal of a theory that is widely regarded
and has been a popular belief for over 150 years ?

34. Ans.
Unnatural Selection

35. Q2. What is the name of the movie ? Who
was the lead ?
This 1982 musical film (based on a 1979 creation) had animated segments by
cartoonist Gerald Scarfe and centered around a rock star ____ who had been driven
insane by the death of his father.
Who played the lead role of ____ ? He came into prominence three years later as the
main factor behind a certain event.

36. Ans.
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Bob Geldof

37. Q3. ID the character.
A to-be-released biopic of
an Indian “businessman”
played by Abhishek
Bachchan. Identify the
“businessman” in
question.

38. Ans.
Harshad Mehta,
portrayed by Abhishek
Bachchan

39. Q4. What is he referring to ?
At a recent awards show, after receiving the award for best foreign film, the Korean
director Bong Joon Ho commented that “Once you overcome the 1-inch tall barrier,
you will be introduced to so many amazing films” in a barb to Hollywood culture.
What is the 1-inch barrier he is referring to ?

40. Ans.
Subtitles

41. Q5. Which division ? What event ?
X, a division of Harlequin, seemed to be struggling around 30 years ago with their
sales dropping in most of their major areas, most of all at home. It seemed that the
charm had finally worn off.
However, due to a new market opening up right around that time, X made an early
market entry into the region, selling 1 million copies that year as people flocked for a
taste of new-found freedom and the ability to express themselves.
The region grew so much that it accounted for 9% of X’s sales the following year.
Identify X. What was the event that helped them enter a new region ?

42. Ans.
Mills & Boon
The fall of the Berlin Wall

43. Q6. Which movie ? Which band ?
With the amount of extraterrestrial footage that this movie had to deal with, lighting
was always a major issue for them even with the budget they had. While shooting a
particular scene, they were unable to procure a set of blue stage and pinpoint light
to highlight the scene.
However, the band practicing next door, known particularly for their use of lighting
during concerts, generously lent them their set of lights.
Which movie ? Which band ?

44. Ans.
Alien
The Who

45. Q7. Who, writing in the preface of his book ?
'व्यंग्य’ अब 'शूद्र’ से ‘क्ष त्रिय’ मान लया गया है । वचारणीय है क वह शूद्र से क्ष त्रिय हुआ है, ब्राह्मण
नहीं, क्यों क ब्राह्मण ‘कीतर्तन’ करता है । नस्संदेह व्यंग्य कीतर्तन करना नहीं जानता, पर कीतर्तन को
और कीतर्तन करनेवालों को खूब पहचानता है ।
Satire has now been recognised as a Kshatriya and elevated from the status of a
Shudra. It is worth pondering that it has not become a Brahmin, because Brahmins
do Kirtan. Without a doubt, Satire doesn’t do Kirtan but it recognises those who do
so pretty well.

46. Ans.
Harishankar Parsai

47. Q8. What is the album called ? Who was on
the original cover ?
Like his previous album “Kamikaze”, Eminem dropped
his new album on January 17 without any prior
warning.
The name of the album and it’s cover art (picture on
the right) is inspired by a 1958 song by Jeff
Alexander.
What is the name of the album ? Who was on the
original album cover in 1958 ?

48. Ans.
Music to be murdered by
Alfred Hitchcock

49. Q9. Who is the painter ? Which painting ?
This is an Airbnb listing found in two
places : one in Cote D'Azur in France
and the other in Chicago near the art
museum. They are almost exactly the
same.
Who stayed in a similar room to this
and what masterpiece did he/she
paint based on that stay ?

50. Ans.
Vincent Van Gogh
Bedroom in Arles

51. Q10. Why did this hold significance ?
In 1935, a wealthy Romanian woman was robbed by a man she was travelling with
and pushed out of a window, resulting in her death. What was this event and why did
it hold so much significance due to the location ?

52. Ans.
The first actual murder on the Orient
express; happened a year after Agatha
Christie published her novel.

53. *Q11. What moniker do they share ?
Neil Innes and Carol
Cleveland are two
personalities who share a
common moniker based on a
famous group. The size of the
actual group has reduced, as
recently as three days back.
What moniker do they share ?

54. Ans.
The Seventh Python

55. *Q12. Why was the name changed ?
All Platinum Records was a records company started by Sylvia Robinson and her
husband. In an era of large record companies, this flourished as a small, independent
concern.
Though they started as Platinum records, they had to change their name due to two
reasons, one of them being the existing Miami label Platinum records.
What was the second reason, due to them being a smaller company and which
contributed to them flourishing in the business ?

56. Ans.
Due to record companies being paid in
alphabetical order
Helped them get payments faster and stay
liquid

57. *Q13. Which martial art ? Who brought it
into public consciousness ?
_________ is an eclectic martial art and self-defence method originally developed in
England during the years 1898–1902, combining elements of boxing, jujitsu, cane
fighting, and French kickboxing (savate). It was developed by Edward William
Barton-Wright while he was in Japan.
It came to public consciousness in 1903 when an author wrote his character
performing ________ (slight change on the original spelling) to get out of a tight
situation.
Which martial art ? Who brought it into public consciousness (author) ?

58. Ans.
Bartitsu/ Baritsu
Arthur Conan Doyle

59. *Q14. FITB/Put Funda
OH, MY LOST CITY - Pablo Neruda
I liked Madrid and now
I can’t see it again, not anymore, a bitter
but desperate certainty, coming
from having died at the time
when my friends died, as if
half of my spirit had gone to the grave
and lay there among dry plains,
prisons and prisoners,
and an earlier time when the towers
were not stained with blood, the ___ with ___ ___.

60. Ans.
The Moon With Blood Clots

61. *Q15. Who is X that these people are talking about ?
X himself:
"I’m told that mine was the biggest screen test in history. I think there were 800
applicants and 300 screen tests. They tested me for four months. They tested me every
which way — fights, horseback riding, swimming.”
Diana Rigg:
“I could never understand why X behaved as he did because he was given such a glorious
opportunity and he threw it all away. I’m sorry for him, if you really want to know. At some
stage, it just went to his head.”
Peter Hunt about why he never spoke to X during the shoot:
"I wanted that feeling of isolation. That is [the character]. He’s a loner. X wasn’t
experienced enough to interpret this feeling of utter emptiness.”

62. Ans.
George Lazenby

63. Q16. Give X and Y.
X is a 1999 biographical drama film starring Jake Gyllenhaal, based on the true story
of Homer H. Hickam, Jr., a coal miner's son who was inspired by the launch of
Sputnik 1 in 1957 to take up rocketry against his father's wishes and eventually
became a NASA engineer.
Y is the name of the memoir published by Homer Hickam Jr in 1998, upon which X is
based. X and Y are anagrams. No part points.

64. Ans.
X: October Sky
Y: Rocket Boys

65. Q17. Give X and Y.
Many consider X to be the first great writer of the age of globalization. X's
masterwork Y, for instance, has his protagonist leading a wondrous deputation
“from all the isles of the sea, and all the ends of the earth”. People of at least 13
nationalities are “federated along one keel”.
Y has been described as the biography of the last days of Adolf Hitler and has been
deployed to decry the Vietnam war, George W. Bush’s crusade against the “axis of
evil”, Osama bin Laden’s jihad against the West, Vladimir Putin’s hatred of NATO,
Donald Trump’s pursuit of a border wall and Theresa May’s quest for a Brexit
withdrawal agreement.

66. Ans.
X: Herman Melville
Y: Moby Dick

67. Q18. Whose Museum ?
On the Indiana Avenue in Indianapolis, Indiana stands the new X Museum and
Library. Its repetitious address chimes with the author's views on geography and
belonging. X believed that a person should never forget where he came from. “All my
jokes are Indianapolis,” he once said. “All my attitudes are Indianapolis. My adenoids
are Indianapolis. If I ever severed myself from Indianapolis, I would be out of
business. What people like about me is Indianapolis.” As much as he mocked the
term—and those who used it—in his novel Cat’s Cradle (1963), X was a bona fide
Hoosier.

68. Ans.
Kurt Vonnegut

69. Q19. Probably the costliest Indian Painting.
Painting and Artist.

70. Ans.
Birth by FN Souza

71. Q20. Who composed Fidelio ?
“Fidelio” tells the tale of Leonore, who rescues her husband Florestan from unjust
imprisonment by disguising herself as Fidelio, a lowly prison guard.
Vienna was occupied by French troops when the composer wrote the score; the
premiere was on November 20th 1805, six days after Napoleon took up residence at
Schönbrunn Palace.
Setting the action in 18th-century Seville, the composer took care to give his
characters vaguely Spanish names, avoiding the implications of French or German
ones.

72. Ans.
Beethoven

73. Q21. The historical figure ? The two actors ?
In comparing the 1992 and 2019 portrayals of a historical figure by two legendary
actors, the New York Times article says:
"It’s not hard to see what drew two of the finest actors of their generation to play
______. Sure, the man spent decades in the public eye, led what was then the nation’s
largest labor union, sparred with the Kennedys and disappeared in one of the
quintessential unsolved mysteries in recent history. But he’s also a great character, a
sizzle reel of big, boisterous speeches, roaring dressing-downs and showy
theatricality. It’s the kind of role an actor can really sink his teeth into, especially if
he’s known for chewing a bit of scenery — a delicacy frequently enjoyed by [both
actors]."

74. Ans
Jimmy Hoffa
Jack Nicholson and Al Pacino

75. Q22. What is WWBD ? Which show ?
Students and followers of politics, especially the liberal minded and believers of
do-good politicians, quite regularly use the #WWBD tag to speculate what the best
response to some political scenario can be. This trend intensified critically during the
Bush administration's war (this was before hash-tags were the holy grail), mollified
slightly during the Obama administration, but has exploded since the 2016 US
presidential elections. Now, almost every time President Trump makes a political
move, the growing community replies with their version of WWBD.
Coat-tailing the trend, Netflix added a certain show to its US catalog, and Amazon
Prime Video added it to its international catalogue, including India. The show which
ran between 1999 and 2006, is reportedly gaining almost as much viewership now
as it did during its peak.

76. Ans.
“What Would Bartlet Do?”
The West Wing

77. Q23. Which moon ?
In June 2019, NASA announced a mission to one of the most popular moons of one
of the outer ring planets. The name of the moon refers to the deities in Greek
mythology that preceded the Olympians. They were the children of the primordial
deities Uranus (heaven) and Gaea (earth).
The announcement got fans of a certain manga and anime to speculate possible
storylines, though it is pretty obvious that the moon in reality is very different from
the place depicted in the manga/anime.

78. Titan

79. Q24. Give X and Y.
When X began writing in the 1970s, there were no books about black girls. In 1987,
X wrote the masterwork Y, which tells the story of a runaway slave who murders her
baby rather than allow it to be captured. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize and Oprah
Winfrey, who called X "our conscience", starred in its film adaptation in 1998.
X went on to win the Nobel Prize in 1993 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in
2012.

80. X: Toni Morrison
Y: Beloved

81. Q25. Whose biopic and why this title ?
Gul Makai, literally “corn flower”, is the heroine of a Pakistani folk tale, a Romeo and
Juliet story, where the lovers meet at school. The romance between Gul Makai and
her lover, Musa Khan, creates a war between their tribes. But the tale doesn’t lead to
tragedy as Gul Makai teaches her elders, interpreting the Quran to demonstrate
how this war is frivolous – they listen, cease the war, and unite the lovers in
marriage.
It's also the title of a biopic released recently that stars Reem Sheikh, Om Puri, Atul
Kulkarni, Divya Dutta, Pankaj Tripathi, and Mukesh Rishi.

82. Malala Yousafzai; Gul Makai was her pseudonym

83. Finals Coming Up!