Suresh is taking a quiz that covers topics related to history, culture, and languages. The first question asks for the Sanskrit term for the leader of traders in ancient Indian cities, as well as its equivalent in Tamil Nadu. The answer given is Shreshti from Sreshth and Chetti / Shetty / Seth. [END SUMMARY]

1. PS Senior Secondary School
Quiz Finals
Suresh Ramasubramanian

2. 1. In Sanskrit
The leader of all the traders in ancient Indian
cities was known by a term derived from the
Sanskrit word meaning “first” or “greatest”.
Variants of that term are found in the names
of communities all over India (Gujarat, Tamil
Nadu, Karnataka etc). Just give me the old
Sanskrit term, and its equivalent in TN.

3. Shreshti from Sreshth
Chetti / Shetty / Seth

4. 2. A different kind of “Indian” word
The name of this fruit
… is actually the Nahuatl (Aztec Indian) word for
any sort of soft, edible fruit. A very well known
fruit whose Linnean name is Manilkara ______
(the dash is a form of the Nahuatl word) was first
native to several parts of South America such as
Mexico, Nicaragua etc.
Spanish and Portuguese colonists introduced the
fruit to various parts of Asia, including India,
where the local word for the fruit is again a form
of its Linnean name / the Nahuatl word. Name it.

5. Sapota
Manilkara zapota / Nahuatl “Tzapotl”

6. 3. The famous Portuguese explorer
Vasco da Gama first landed in India and was
told a local story about how a certain city got
its name.
Apparently, whenever a Rooster crowed from
a particular spot in the city centre, its crowing
could be heard all over the city, so that the
city’s name means “Rooster Crow” in the local
language. Just name the city.

7. Kozhikode (Kozhi + Kode)
Any rooster crowing at the Thali Shiva temple
could apparently be heard all over the city

8. 4. Roosters .. Now name this Chicken dish
One of the most popular theories about the origin of this
dish is that a restaurant chef in Glasgow, Scotland, invented
it by marinating Chicken in a sauce made with cream,
yogurt and spices, and then baking it in a charcoal oven.
Mohammad Sarwar, a Pakistani-British MP from Glasgow,
tried in July 2009 to table a motion in the House of
Commons, asking that the UK apply for “European Union
Protected Designation of Origin” for the dish (like
Champagne can only be used to describe wines grown in a
particular region of France).
This suggestion was thankfully not adopted, or else only
Glasgow restaurants (rather than restaurants the world
over) could have this dish on their menu.

9. Chicken Tikka Masala
The UK has lots of Indian restaurants :)

10. 5. While we’re talking about British MPs
William Pitt the Younger was the British Prime Minister in the 1790s, and
introduced this measure in 1798 in order to fund the wars against the
French under Napoleon.
This measure was extremely unpopular with the general public and was
abolished in 1802 when Britain and France signed a peace treaty at
Amiens. This peace only lasted a year, so that it was reintroduced in
1803 and lasted for over a decade as the war dragged on.
In 1816, a year after Napoleon was defeated, the British Parliament voted
not just to end this measure, but to burn all documents connected with
the measure so that future generations would never remember that such
a measure existed. Unfortunately for all of us around the world,
governments don’t forget all that easily. So, for what still unpopular fact
of life do we have to blame William Pitt the Younger?

11. Income Tax

12. 6. Tax Evasion is of course a crime
If you hide your income from the authorities in order to
pay less income tax, you can be fined or even
imprisoned.
However, there are several entirely legal ways for you
not to pay tax on your income. For example, you could
show your property in the name of your retired parents
to claim a lower tax rate, or if you are self employed,
you could claim your phone and electricity bills as
business expenses, for a tax deduction.
What is the term for such a legal measure that enables
you to pay less tax, and not get arrested?

13. Tax Avoidance

14. 7. The only crime he could be found guilty
of was tax evasion
During the early stages of his career, he was also the
doorman at a nightclub in Brooklyn, New York.
He apparently insulted a woman visitor to the club,
so that her brother Frank Galluccio picked a fight
with him and injured him in a certain way that gave
him his famous nickname.
He subsequently apologized to Galluccio and even
hired him as a bodyguard.
Who is he and what was his nickname?

15. Alphonse ‘Scarface Al’ Capone

16. 8. Vishal Bharadwaj’s movies Maqbool and
Omkara are stories about Mumbai gangsters
However, they are actually faithfully adapted
from two classic stories (which too start with
M and O). Just name them.
Maqbool involves a gangster who is convinced
by his girlfriend to kill his gang leader and take
over the gang.
Omkara involves a gangster who is tricked into
suspecting his wife, so that he kills her, finds
out the truth and then commits suicide.

17. Adaptations of Shakespeare
Maqbool – Macbeth
Omkara - Othello

18. 9. This is a page from Asterix and Caesar’s Gift.
Where is it adapted from?

19. Hamlet – mostly Act V Scene ii
*Hamlet’s Death Scene+
287 He's fat, and scant of breath.
254 Give us the foils. Come on.
281 A hit, a very palpable hit.
358 Which have solicited. The rest is silence.
[Dies.]
The “Rogues and Peasant Slaves” in the last
panel is from Hamlet’s Soliloquy in Act II
Scene ii

20. 10. Hamlet died after he drank poisoned wine
and was wounded with a poisonous sword
In France, and in other French
speaking parts of the world such as
French Canada (the state of Quebec),
you may come across something
called “Poisson d’Avril”. What is it?

21. An April Fools Joke
Pinning a paper fish called an “April Fish” on someone’s back
“you will be at matignon = be the french pm = till 2012” “owl”

22. 11. A fish-bodied deity from Fijian mythology
Dakuwaka is a Fijian sea god with a body like that of a
monstrous ______ fish, who is supposed to be the
guardian of all Fijian fishermen. He was once going
to conquer Kadavu (a Fijian island) when a rival god,
(also a sea monster, an _______) challenged him.
This rival managed to win the battle, forcing
Dakuwaka to swear that he would protect Kadavu.
Something very similar to this battle was depicted in
a 2009 movie _____ that is available for sale in those
pirate DVD stores you can find all over Chennai.

23. Dakuwaka was a Shark
The rival god was an Octopus

24. 12. Octopus
Where else in Hong Kong (other than
in restaurants or places like Ocean
Park) will you see an Octopus?

25. Prepaid smart card for paying bus
and train fares, buying from 7-11..

26. 13. While we’re in Hong Kong
Stephen and Stitt are very famous in Hong
Kong (and you can even see their pictures on
some Hong Kong dollar bills).
You can also see them in different cities
around the world (eg: London, Toronto), at a
particular location that is associated with
Hong Kong .. and you can see their
photographs at that HK associated location in
many other cities. Who are Stephen and Stitt?

27. The HSBC Lions
(named for two senior HSBC bankers
in the 1920s, AG Stephen and GH Stitt)

28. 14. When Buddhism first came to China…
Chinese artists began to draw paintings themed on the
life of the Buddha, one of whose titles was “Shakya
Singha”, the Lion of the Shakyas. So, they wanted to
include a lion in their painting, but didn’t know what a
lion looks like, and so used their imagination to draw
all kinds of fantastic beasts.
When at last a real lion was brought to China and
presented to the Emperor, he noticed that the lions
resembled an animal that was quite commonly found
in China - so this animal was immediately protected,
and only the emperor and his nobles were allowed to
own these animals. Which animal is this?

29. Pekingese dogs … aka Lion Dogs

30. 15. What does “an apparatus for trapping
lions in the Scottish Highlands”
… have to do with, for example …
• The element “Unobtainium” from Avatar
• Indiana Jones’ Crystal Skull
… and in older movies
• “Rosebud” from Citizen Kane

31. MacGuffin – a central plot point in a movie
that interests all the movie’s characters
Alfred Hitchcock, in a 1966 interview with Francois Truffaut –
It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two
men in a train. One man says "What's that package up there in
the baggage rack?", and the other answers "Oh, that's a
McGuffin".
The first one asks "What's a McGuffin?". "Well", the other man
says, "It's an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish
Highlands".
The first man says "But there are no lions in the Scottish
Highlands", and the other one answers "Well, then that's no
McGuffin!". So you see, a McGuffin is nothing at all.

32. 16 Elstree Studios had a lot of old, deactivated 1st and 2nd world
war weaponry used for war movies. For one particular movie,
their appearance was altered by gluing on plastic pipes and
pieces of sacks, sawing off some parts of the guns etc. Why?
[clockwise – Mauser C96, Lüger, Sten Gun, Mauser MG42]

33. Star Wars Weaponry
From clockwise, Han Solo’s Blastech DL-44, Leia’s STW122, and
two varieties of Stormtrooper Laser Rifles (E11, DLT19)
R2D2 is a classic example of a McGuffin

34. 17. Famous World War I fighter pilot
Count Francesco Barracca was a World War I
fighter ace who shot down 34 enemy aircraft
before he was himself shot down in 1918.
He was earlier a cavalryman before joining the
Air Force and so always used to paint a horse
on the planes that he flew.
In 1923, his mother the Countess Paolina met
______ and suggested that he use the same
horse design that her son had used in the war.

35. Enzo Ferrari, who used the Prancing Horse as the Ferrari Logo
Here is the original, painted on Count Francesco Barracca’s plane

36. 18. During World War I
Aeroplanes were used as fighter and bomber aircraft
by both sides. Air Force pilots in World War I
unfortunately had to face a very unpleasant side
effect caused by inhaling fumes from the lubricant
commonly used for the newly developed internal
combustion rotary engines that powered the aircraft.
What was the lubricant used for these engines (and a
common brand of lubricant gets its name from the
lube that was used for this). No points for guessing
the side effect.

37. The lubricant was Castor Oil, from which
CASTROL
derives its name.
no points for guessing the side effect

38. 19. This Aluminium compound is also
used as a cure for “that side effect”
It is much more famous for another use it has.
It was first introduced outside its country of origin
China, in 1727, when a French Jesuit missionary,
François Xavier de Entrecolles, saw a huge pile of this
compound outside the town of Jingdezhen.
He asked a Chinese passerby what it was, and the
local replied in Chinese that it was a “big hill”, so that
is the name that was given to this compound in
French, and later in English. What is the compound
and what is it most famously used for?

39. Kaolin from Chinese 高陵 (Kao Ling)
Used to make Porcelain.
Kaolin + Pectin is used to make Kaopectate

40. 20. Food you should not have eaten may cause “that
side effect”. It sometimes has other consequences too
When Adam ate the “forbidden fruit” that Eve got
from the Serpent (Satan) and gave him, he is said to
have immediately realized that he made a mistake in
eating it though God had warned him not to. This
caused something to happen, and that something is
still seen today in the human body.
I’m not looking for the story about how Adam
acquired forbidden knowledge by eating the fruit.

41. the Apple stuck in Adam’s throat
adam’s apple = the angle of the thyroid cartilage around the larynx

42. 21. Another sort of Apple
When Apple Inc. was formed, its employees were be
assigned employee IDs.
At first, Steve Wozniak’s ID was #1 and Steve Jobs got
#2. Jobs didn’t want to be #2 in anything at all, so he
first tried to get the #1 employee ID, and when that
didn’t work, he got himself another ID number.
What was Jobs’ new employee ID, and how did the
ID numbers of Wozniak and Jobs form another part
of Apple’s history?

43. Jobs’ new employee ID was 0
1/0 = ∞
Apple’s HQ is 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino CA

44. 22. To infinity and beyond!
That is of course Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story
[The executive producer, for Pixar, was Steve Jobs]
Version 1.1 released on June 17, 1996 and
codenamed “Buzz”. Subsequent releases over
the years have all been named after Toy Story
characters (Rex, Bo, Hamm, Slink, Potato,
Woody, Sarge, Etch, Lenny, Sid, Squeeze and
soon to come – Wheezy).
This was first developed by ___ Murdock and
named after himself and his then girlfriend
___ Lynn. So, what is it?

45. Debian Linux
Ian Murdock, Debra Lynn

46. 23. The mascot of Linux is ‘Tux the Penguin’
Because the Linux mascot penguin wears a
Tuxedo (a formal black dinner jacket worn
with a white shirt) – and this is similar to how
an emperor penguin looks.
Another tuxedo wearing penguin, who also
wears a top hat and carries an umbrella, was
called Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot.
Where would you find Oswald Cobblepot?

47. The Penguin in Batman – based on a Kool
Cigarettes mascot penguin from the 1940s
[below – Danny deVito in Batman Returns]

48. 24. Chesterfield
What is a Chesterfield? You would
very likely find one in your home.

49. A Sofa
with back and armrests the same height

50. 25. How would you connect
So Fa to these two pictures?

51. Do Re Mi from the Sound of Music
*makes a decent LVC too for which we don’t have time+
Doe- a deer, a female deer
Ray- a drop of golden sun
Me- a name i call myself
Far- a long long way to run
Sew- a needle pulling thread
La- a note to follow so
Tea- a drink with jam and bread

52. 26. What is the word for “tea” in
Xiamenese (a southern Chinese dialect)?
And similarly, can you also tell me what the
Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese Chinese
words for Tea are?
If it helps, Mandarin is the version of Chinese
spoken in most of China, and is the official
Chinese language you would learn if you took
Chinese lessons. Cantonese is the dialect
spoken in Hong Kong

53. Xiamenese – Tee or Tay  Tea
Mandarin / Cantonese – Cha  Chai

54. 27. This Chinese snack is eaten along with tea, and is based on a food item
___ introduced by Portuguese traders. The Portuguese also introduced this
food item in India, where it is known by the same name the Portuguese call it.

55. The Chinese bun is “Bao”
The Portuguese and Indian name is Pao

56. 28. Bombay Irani cafes serve you “brun muska”, hot buttered
buns. Who wrote this 1972 poem based on signboards you see
at such cafes? [should be easily guessable]
IRANI RESTAURANT INSTRUCTIONS
Please
Do not spit
Do not sit more
Pay promptly, time is valuable
Do not write letter
without order refreshment
Do not comb,
hair is spoiling floor
Do not make mischiefs in cabin
our waiter is reporting
Come again
All are welcome whatever cast
If not satisfied tell us
otherwise tell others
GOD IS GREAT

57. Nissim Ezekiel
*and here’s a real sign for you to compare+

58. 29. Mumbai Irani cafes are now
increasingly forced out of business
Besides the increasing popularity of McDonalds and
KFC compared to Irani Chai, another reason is
because they all occupy prime “corner” locations.
In fact most if not all the Irani hotels in Mumbai are
built on street corners, now considered prime real
estate so that unscrupulous builders even hire
gangsters to scare away the café owners.
How did the Persian immigrants who set up all the
original Mumbai Irani hotels get these corner plots in
the first place?

59. These were seen as having poor vastu so the landowners would
earlier sell them cheaply and the Irani hotel owners, being
Muslims, of course did not believe in Vastu so bought them up
Even today, houses built on corner plots or
facing a crossroads in Chennai have a Ganesha
idol installed on the wall to avoid bad luck.

60. 30. This Mr and Mrs Shetty hired some
gangsters to threaten a businessman
Because he owed their daughter several lakh rupees
and was delaying repayment. The police taped a
conversation where the gangsters, as well as Mr. and
Mrs. Shetty threatened the businessman.
This hit the headlines in India, and also in the UK,
where their daughter had become extremely famous
not more than a few weeks before these headlines
made their way into the UK papers.
So who was the daughter and why was she recently
famous in the UK?

61. Shilpa Shetty / Big Brother
“poppadom” racism by Jade Goody
[last question connects back to q1 on the origin of the name Shetty]

62. BONUS
ROUND

63. BONUS ROUND = SOLVE FOR A TO P
5 points per correct answer, 16 x 5 = 80 + 20 bonus = 100 if you get all of A..P
The [A] factory (demolished in 2004 and now the site
of the under construction ITC Grand Chola hotel) was
built on land owned by a family from the town [B]
that claims the hereditary title [C] from the name of
their home town. The [B] family is famous for its
patronage of the arts over the centuries , financially
supporting people like [D] and [E].
An ancestor of the [B] family, and [F], were both
petty feudal “village chieftains” (known as *G+) who
owed allegiance to the [H] dynasty whose capital
was [I], till the dynasty faded out. The last queen-
regent of that dynasty was Queen [J], (named after
the goddess [J] whose temple is in the city of [I]).

64. Continued
[K], the grand-nephew of another ruler [L], swore an
oath of friendship with Queen *J+ on a “Koran” that
was actually a brick wrapped in silken cloth.
*K+ then proceeded to “help” her by eliminating all
other claimants to the throne. Once this was done,
[K] deposed Queen [J] and grabbed control of the
throne. Queen [J] then committed suicide,
effectively ending the [H] dynasty.
Some years later, the *L+ dynasty’s rule was ended
after its last ruler died in a battle with [M] in the pass
of Damalacheruvu.

65. Continued
[K] was briefly taken prisoner by the [M] army. [M]
allied themseles with *N+ while *K+ sided with *N+’s
centuries old enemy, [O]. [O] came out on the losing
side and [K] was killed in battle with the [M] and [N]
forces. This led to all the territory of the [H] dynasty
being controlled by [N].
Village Chieftains (G) such as [B] and [F] ended up
having to pay taxes to [N]. However, [F] refused to
pay, and took up arms against [N], so he was caught
and hanged by *N+’s troops, who were assisted by
[B], who was a neighbour and enemy of [F].

66. finally … done
*B+’s descendant (the owner of the land on which
the [A] factory stood) had a dispute with a
prominent author and politician [P].
[P] wrote a biography of [F], made into a hit
movie, in which he took considerable pains to
blacken *B+’s reputation. So, *B+’s name is now a
proverbial term for villainy in the local language.
[phew, done. solve for all the variables]
[exchange sheets when you are done]

67. #6 - The Answers
• A - Campa Cola
• B - Ettayapuram
• C - Ettappan
• D - Muthuswami Dikshitar
• E - Subramania Bharathi [or vice versa D and E]
• F – Kattabomman
• G – Polygars / Palayakarars
• H – Nayak Dynasty
• I – Madurai
• J - Meenakshi

68. #6 Answers Continued
• K – Chanda Sahib
• L – The Nawab of Arcot
• M – The Marathas
• N – The British
• O – The French
• P – Ma Po Sivagnanam / Ma Po Si