1. Names are for sissies
Prelims
26 Questions (Why 26?)
Starred questions are … marked with a star (No surprises there)

2. #1
Mahatma Gandhi and Joseph Stalin are the
second and third most common among searches
on individuals in the Nobel Peace Prize nomination
database. Stalin was nominated in „45 and 48 and
Gandhi around five times between ‟37 and ‟48.
Who‟s the first?

3. #2
This 2003 book portrays the event held in
Reykjavik in 1972 against the backdrop of
cold war politics which “held the world
spellbound for two months with reports of
psychological warfare, ultimatums, political
intrigue, cliffhangers, and farce to rival a
Marx Brothers film.”
What has been blanked out?

4. #3
Basically a chemical compound (functional group)
consisting of Carbon atom triple bonded to a
Nitrogen Atom, its name stems from the Greek
“dark blue” so called because it first had been
obtained by heating the dye pigment powder
known as Prussian blue.
What?

5. #4
It is said that it was X‟s Persian translation of the
Upanishads Sirr-e-Akbar (The Greatest Mystery) in the
seventeenth century that first attracted the attention of
Western intellectuals. In the introduction, he boldly
speculates that the work referred to in the Qur'an as the
Kitab al-maknun or the hidden book, is none other than
the Upanishads itself.
Who?

6. #5
Google has several funny hidden features built in its
program. For example, searching for “Anagram” will result
in Google asking if you meant “Nag A Ram.” (Searching
for “Define Anagram” will result in Google asking if you
mean “Nerd Fame Again.”)
Typing “the answer to the ultimate question of life, the
universe, and everything“ in the calculator, one gets 42 as
the answer.
By what name are such features called in general?

7. #6
In a interview with the BBC, J K Rowling said that she found
these novels “sinister” because “they never had a
hormonal impulse - except that Anne was sometimes told
that she would make someone a good little wife whenever
she unlaid the picnic things”.
In another with The Guardian, “I don't want Harry stuck in a
state of permanent pre-pubescence like poor Julian…”
Which work, which recently celebrated its 70th anniversary
was she referring to?

8. #7 Whose house do you see in the
background?

9. #8
There are only a couple of stories where X is shown to be wearing
something that remotely resembles Y. The original illustrators decided
to go with it as that thing was the only one which came close to the
description provided by the author.
But the accesory is traditionally a rural outdoorsman's, not
appropriate for the properly dressed urban gentleman. Sidney Paget
and the other contemporaneous illustrators who portrayed X as
wearing this always placed him in the proper setting for such attire,
travelling cross-country or operating in a rural outdoor setting. Later
uninformed depictions of X that depict him wearing this in the city
fail to take into account that the fashion-conscious X would never
commit such a sartorial faux pas.
Id X (surname) and Y.

10. #9 Who?

11. #10
In the Simpsons episode Elementary School Musical where
Krusty wins the Nobel Peace Prize, Martin has a bet on this
person winning it for economics. Many say he should have
won along with Paul Krugman who built on his theories of
international trade.
Identify this other argumentative Indian.
(Image in next slide)

13. #11
A famous 1968 Hindi song was copied from this
1963 piece.
Name the Hindi version.
Also, give me the singer here.
https://soundcloud.com/user376267304/margu
erita-1963?in=user376267304/sets/names-arefor-sissies-preli

14. #12 What is (was) being parodied
here?

15. #13
Though she (X) is well known for the sheer political
power she maintained over the throne with
extraordinary levels of nepotism, we know her more
because of something which resulted out of her crafty
arrangement to marry her niece Arjumand Banu
Begum with Prince Khurram.
The upcoming Chitrangada Singh, Amitabh Bachhan,
Rishi Kapoor starrer Pehle Aap Janab was formerly
titled X, with Ms Singh playing the titular role. The
name of the movie/ her real name(X) is what I want.

16. #14 Cosmic Gall by John Updike.
What‟s the subject?
“They snub the most exquisite gas,
Ignore the most substantial wall,
Cold-shoulder steel and sounding brass,
Insult the stallion in his stall,
And, scorning barriers of class,
Infiltrate you and me! Like tall
And painless guillotines, they fall
Down through our heads into the grass.
At night, they enter at Nepal
And pierce the lover and his lass
From underneath the bed – you call
It wonderful; I call it crass.”

17. #15
The Icelandic naming system is not based on
family names. A surname indicates the first name
of the person‟s father or mother. For example, Mr.
Jón Einarsson‟s son Ólafur would be called Ólafur
Jonsson.
Similarly, if Thor (the Norse God) is Thor Odinson,
what is Odin‟s full name?

18. #16
What does
this index
measure?

19. #17
In addition to the four classical elements (water,
earth, fire, air), Aristotle added Ether, the omnipresent
medium said to permeate all things. Unlike the other
classical elements, ether remained completely
passive, not changing, hence pure.
Which word in the modern English vocabulary, used
to mean “the perfect embodiment” of something
refers to this addition?

20. During the 1962 war The PLA soldiers on the indo-Tibet border,
taunted Indian soldiers by shaking, defiantly, high in the air, their
pocket-sized, bright-red copies of Quotations from Chairman
Mao-better known in the West as "Mao's Little Red Book.“
Balasubramanian, then a conscript on the border studying in his
spare time, soon grew tired of these taunts. So one day, as soon
as the PLA soldiers started waving Mao's Little Red Book in the
air again, he and two fellow Indian soldiers picked up and held
aloft the three big, bright-red volumes of The Y. He wrote to me
and after recounting the "red-books" incident on the SinoIndian frontier saying "Now, twenty years later, whose red books
are still being read?
-Paraphrased from the foreword of the book(Y).
Identify Y and the author.
#18

21. #19
The term was first coined by Mahatma
Gandhi as the title of his 1908 translation of
John Ruskin‟s Unto This Last. It stands for
“Universal upliftment or progress of all”.
Gandhi came to use the term for the ideal
of his own political philosophy. Identify.

22. #20

23. #21
Her father, Alfred Kroeber earned the first Ph.D. in
anthropology in the United States from Columbia
University. He went on to establish the second
anthropology department at UC Berkeley.
Her mother, Theodora Kroeber, a respected anthropologist
too, is best known for her accounts of Ishi, the last member
of the Yahi tribe of California, and for her retelling of
traditional narratives from several Native Californian
cultures. These accounts were also the basis for a 1992
movie The Last of His Tribe Jon Voight and Graham
Greene.
Who is their more famous daughter?

24. #22
The following appeared in a 1968 issue of a teen
magazine called Fave. The magazine had
apparently published a letter addressed to Y the
month before, written by a mixed-race girl who
was having trouble finding her place. Y was
moved and penned a detailed response that
didn‟t just offer words of courage, but concrete
advice on how to overcome.
(image in the next slide)
Id X.

25. Y
X

26. #23
Similarities between the Beatles and which band?
1. First hit is a sped-up version of a slow ballad.
2. First appearance: Lennon is accompanied by the caption,
"Sorry Girls, He's Married". With X, it is, "Careful Girls, He's
Engaged“.
3. Both acts first reach fame after replacing their original
drummer.
4. Each group loses its original bass player.
5. Group manager is gay.
6. Girlfriend gets mistaken for a female fan, stopped by the
police from following the band. Unlike what happens with X,
no one comes back to retrieve Cynthia Lennon.

27. #24
Hermione Granger: "I mean, you could
claim that anything's real if the only basis for
believing in it is that nobody's proved it
doesn't exist!“
X: "Yes, you could. I am glad to see that you
are opening your mind a little.“
Id X, whose name literally translates into
“One who loves the strange”.

28. #25
Variations of the phrase apparently go as far back as Samuel
Richardson‟s Clarissa (mid 18th century)
“And it teaches me to be covetous of time; the only thing of which
we can be allowably covetous; since _____________ in this world;
Goethe is supposed to have used it in his play Clavigo (mid 19th) as
the title of a waltz - "Man lebt nur einmal!“.
And then we have Sinatra on his 50th birthday: “I expect to swing for
50 more. ______________ … I stole that from Joe E. Lewis.”
It was also the title of a 1937 noir film starring Henry Fonda and Sylvia
Sidney.
Which phrase? And who is it popularly attributed to today?

29. #26
The earlier name was an adaptation of a word
which means “river that swallows all rivers”. The
referenced river also happens to be the world‟s
deepest and the second largest by volume of
water discharged.
Today, it is known by the name of the ancient
kingdom which first inhabited the lands at the
mouth of the river. By what name was it known
before?

30. Answers

31. #1
Mahatma Gandhi and Joseph Stalin are the
second and third most common among searches
on individuals in the Nobel Peace Prize nomination
database. Stalin was nominated in „45 and 48 and
Gandhi around five times between ‟37 and ‟48.
Who‟s the first?

32. Adolf Hitler

33. #2
This 2003 book portrays the event held in
Reykjavik in 1972 against the backdrop of
cold war politics which “held the world
spellbound for two months with reports of
psychological warfare, ultimatums,
political intrigue, cliffhangers, and farce to
rival a Marx Brothers film.”
What has been blanked out?

35. #3
Basically a chemical compound (functional
group) consisting of Carbon atom triple bonded to
a Nitrogen Atom, its name stems from the Greek
“dark blue” so called because it first had been
obtained by heating the dye pigment powder
known as Prussian blue.
What?

36. Cyanide
From Greek kyanos, from which comes cyan.

37. #4
It is said that it was X‟s Persian translation of the
Upanishads Sirr-e-Akbar (The Greatest Mystery) in the
seventeenth century that first attracted the attention
of Western intellectuals. In the introduction, he boldly
speculates that the work referred to in the Qur'an as
the Kitab al-maknun or the hidden book, is none other
than the Upanishads itself.
Who?

38. Dara Shikoh

39. #5
Google has several funny hidden features built in its
program. For example, searching for “Anagram” will result
in Google asking if you meant “Nag A Ram.” (Searching
for “Define Anagram” will result in Google asking if you
mean “Nerd Fame Again.”)
Typing “the answer to the ultimate question of life, the
universe, and everything“ in the calculator, one gets 42 as
the answer.
By what name are such features called in general?

40. Easter Eggs

41. #6
In a interview with the BBC, J K Rowling said that she found
these novels “sinister” because “they never had a
hormonal impulse - except that Anne was sometimes told
that she would make someone a good little wife whenever
she unlaid the picnic things”.
In another with The Guardian, “I don't want Harry stuck in a
state of permanent pre-pubescence like poor Julian…”
Which work, which recently celebrated its 70th anniversary
was she referring to?

43. #7 Whose house do you see in the
background?

44. Gregory House‟s House

45. #8
There are only a couple of stories where X is shown to be wearing something
that remotely resembles Y. The original illustrators decided to go with it as
that thing was the only one which came close to the description provided
by the author.
But the accesory is traditionally a rural outdoorsman's, not appropriate for
the properly dressed urban gentleman. Sidney Paget and the other
contemporaneous illustrators who portrayed X as wearing this always
placed him in the proper setting for such attire, travelling cross-country or
operating in a rural outdoor setting. Later uninformed depictions of X that
depict him wearing this in the city fail to take into account that the fashionconscious X would never commit such a sartorial faux pas.
Id X (surname) and Y.

46. Holmes; Deerstalker Hat

47. #9 Who?

48. Kevin Systrom, Mike Kreiger.
Founders of Instagram.

49. #10
In the Simpsons episode Elementary School Musical where
Krusty wins the Nobel Peace Prize, Martin has a bet on this
person winning it for economics. Many say he should have
won along with Paul Krugman who built on his theories of
international trade.
Identify this other argumentative Indian.
(Image in next slide)

51. Jagdish Bhagwati

52. #11
A famous 1968 Hindi song was copied from this
1963 piece.
Name the Hindi version.
Also, give me the singer here.
https://soundcloud.com/user376267304/marguerita1963?in=user376267304/sets/names-are-for-sissiespreli

53. Kaun Hai Jo Sapne Mein Aaya; Elvis Presley
https://soundcloud.com/user376267304/kaun-hai-josapnon-mein-aaya?in=user376267304/sets/namesare-for-sissies-preli

54. #12 What is (was) being parodied
here?

55. Lucent‟s logo – The innovation ring

56. #13
Though she (X) is well known for the sheer political power
she maintained over the throne with extraordinary levels of
nepotism, we know her more because of something which
resulted out of her crafty arrangement to marry her neice
Arjumand Banu Begum with Prince Khurram.
The upcoming Chitrangada Singh, Amitabh Bachhan, Rishi
Kapoor starrer Pehle Aap Janab was formerly titled X, with
Ms Singh playing the titular role. The name of the movie/
her real name(X) is what I want.

57. Mehr-un-Nissa

58. #14 Cosmic Gall by John Updike.
What‟s the subject?
“They snub the most exquisite gas,
Ignore the most substantial wall,
Cold-shoulder steel and sounding brass,
Insult the stallion in his stall,
And, scorning barriers of class,
Infiltrate you and me! Like tall
And painless guillotines, they fall
Down through our heads into the grass.
At night, they enter at Nepal
And pierce the lover and his lass
From underneath the bed – you call
It wonderful; I call it crass.”

59. Neutrinos

60. #15
The Icelandic naming system is not based on
family names. A surname indicates the first name
of the person‟s father or mother. For example, Mr.
Jón Einarsson‟s son Ólafur would be called Ólafur
Jonsson.
Similarly, if Thor (the Norse God) is Thor Odinson,
what is Odin‟s full name?

61. Odin All-father

62. #16
What does
this index
measure?

63. Purchasing Power Parity
(The Big Mac Index)

64. #17
In addition to the four classical elements (water,
earth, fire, air), Aristotle added Ether, the omnipresent
medium said to permeate all things. Unlike the other
classical elements, ether remained completely
passive, not changing, hence pure.
Which word in the modern English vocabulary, used
to mean “the perfect embodiment” of something
refers to this addition?

65. Answer

66. Quintessence (The Fifth Essence)

67. During the 1962 war The PLA soldiers on the indo-Tibet
border, taunted Indian soldiers by shaking, defiantly, high in
the air, their pocket-sized, bright-red copies of Quotations
from Chairman Mao-better known in the West as "Mao's Little
Red Book.“ Balasubramanian, then a conscript on the border
studying in his spare time, soon grew tired of these taunts. So
one day, as soon as the PLA soldiers started waving Mao's
Little Red Book in the air again, he and two fellow Indian
soldiers picked up and held aloft the three big, bright-red
volumes of The Y. He wrote to me and after recounting the
"red-books" incident on the Sino-Indian frontier saying "Now,
twenty years later, whose red books are still being read?
-Paraphrased from the foreword of the book(Y).
Identify Y and the author.
#18

68. The Feynman Lectures,
Richard Feynman

69. #19
The term was first coined by Mahatma Gandhi as
the title of his 1908 translation of John Ruskin‟s Unto
This Last. It stands for “Universal upliftment or
progress of all”. Gandhi came to use the term for
the ideal of his own political philosophy. Identify.

70. Sarvodaya

71. #20

73. #21
Her father, Alfred Kroeber earned the first Ph.D. in
anthropology in the United States from Columbia University.
He went on to establish the second anthropology
department at UC Berkeley.
Her mother, Theodora Kroeber, a respected anthropologist
too, is best known for her accounts of Ishi, the last member of
the Yahi tribe of California, and for her retelling of traditional
narratives from several Native Californian cultures. These
accounts were also the basis for a 1992 movie The Last of His
Tribe Jon Voight and Graham Greene.
Who is their more famous daughter?

74. Ursula Kroeber LeGuin

75. #22
The following appeared in a 1968 issue of a teen
magazine called Fave. The magazine had
apparently published a letter addressed to Y the
month before, written by a mixed-race girl who
was having trouble finding her place. Y was
moved and penned a detailed response that
didn‟t just offer words of courage, but concrete
advice on how to overcome.

76. 2
1

77. 1 - Vulcan

78. #23
Similarities between the Beatles and which band?
1. First hit is a sped-up version of a slow ballad.
2. First appearance: Lennon is accompanied by the caption, "Sorry
Girls, He's Married". With X, it is, "Careful Girls, He's Engaged“.
3. Both acts first reach fame after replacing their original drummer.
4. Each group loses its original bass player.
5. Group manager is gay.
6. Girlfriend gets mistaken for a female fan, stopped by the police from
following the band. Unlike what happens with X, no one comes back
to retrieve Cynthia Lennon.

80. #24
Hermione Granger: "I mean, you could claim that
anything's real if the only basis for believing in it is that
nobody's proved it doesn't exist!“
X: "Yes, you could. I am glad to see that you are opening
your mind a little.“
Id X, whose name literally translates into “One who loves
the strange”.

81. Xenophilius Lovegood

82. #25
Variations of the phrase apparently go as far back as Samuel Richardson‟s Clarissa
(mid 18th century)
“And it teaches me to be covetous of time; the only thing of which we can be
allowably covetous; since _____________ in this world;
Goethe is supposed to have used it in his play Clavigo (mid 19th) as the title of
a waltz - "Man lebt nur einmal!“.
And then we have Sinatra on his 50th birthday: “I expect to swing for 50
more. ______________ … I stole that from Joe E. Lewis.”
It was also the title of a 1937 noir film starring Henry Fonda and Sylvia Sidney.
Which phrase? And who is it popularly attributed to today?

83. #YOLO; Drake

84. #26
The earlier name was an adaptation of a word which
means “river that swallows all rivers”. The referenced river
also happens to be the world‟s deepest and the second
largest by volume of water discharged.
Today, it is known by the name of the ancient kingdom
which first inhabited the lands at the mouth of the river. By
what name was it known before?

85. Zaire River, now the Congo river;
Kingdom of Kongo