The Open General Quiz (Prelims) at the NSIT Quiz Fest 2015, conducted by the NSIT Quiz Club from 20th-22nd March. Quizmaster: Vikram Joshi, World Quizzing Champion 2014

1. The NSIT Quiz Fest 2015
GENERAL QUIZ (OPEN) PRELIMS
Quizmaster:
VIKRAM JOSHI

2. The Format
• 30 questions
• 1 point each, no negative scoring
• Questions marked with a * resolve ties
• In case of further tie, sudden death will be used
to determine finalists
• The top 8 teams qualify for the finals
• The Quizmaster is “considered to be” right in
case of any quibbles
VIKRAM JOSHI

3. 1
Each year roughly 100 Indian Government employees are imprisoned for 9
days and nights in an underground room which is sealed and guarded 24/7
by Indian intelligence officers. Food for them is prepared in a Government
hospital under intelligence supervision and is tasted before being passed to
them through a secure hole in the door.
No cellphones, letters, computers, newspapers, televisions or radios are
permitted to them. No one is allowed to leave under any pretext.
Ironically, this is NOT a punishment and is part of their job. In fact before they
enter this underground prison, there is a ceremony where halwa is made and
eaten by all.
What work is being done by them in this cellar?
VIKRAM JOSHI

4. 1
Printing and binding of the Indian Budget – 10,000 copies in all
VIKRAM JOSHI

5. 2
The symbol on the roundel of the Royal
New Zealand Air Force is an ironic choice.
What would you find in the blank space shown?
VIKRAM JOSHI

6. 2
A kiwi - a flightless bird
VIKRAM JOSHI

7. 3
Every year, over 5000 letters (mostly love letters) arrive at the post
office in the Italian city of Verona addressed simply as “X, Verona”.
For the past 20 years, a group of 15 local volunteers known as the Club
di X faithfully replies to each letter in character.
This also forms the backdrop to the 2010 Amanda Seyfried movie
“Letters to X”.
Who is X?
VIKRAM JOSHI

8. 3
Juliet
VIKRAM JOSHI

9. 4
What is the connecting factor in this series of amazing artworks (2012)
by a range of famous artists including Sir Peter Blake, Damien Hirst,
Zaha Hadid and Giles Deacon.
VIKRAM JOSHI

13. 4
The iconic British Red Telephone Box
VIKRAM JOSHI

14. 5
The Eagles song Hotel California has the lyric “Warm smell of colitas
rising up through the air”
According to Don Henley and Glenn Frey, what does “colitas” mean in
Mexican Spanish slang?
VIKRAM JOSHI

15. 5
VIKRAM JOSHI
Marijuana

16. 6
VIKRAM JOSHI
In 1806, Napoleon’s attempts to freeze out British trade from Italy hit
the cost of chocolate. Chocolatiers in Turin added chopped hazelnuts to
the mix to stretch their supplies – the result was dubbed gianduja.
A century later, rationing in Europe during the Second World War
meant chocolate was again scarce and an Italian pastry-maker, Pietro
Ferrero, reprised the old hazelnut trick. People liked it, so in 1946 he
launched Pasta Gianduja, making a creamy version which he renamed
to the name we all know it as today.
What is this brand?

17. 6
VIKRAM JOSHI
Nutella

18. 7
VIKRAM JOSHI
The clip you will see is from the movie Adhura Sapna –the first movie to
be made in this language.
It was entirely funded by the members of the community and seeked to
depict their daily life. It was a runaway success with approximately 80%
of the community having watched or purchased it.
Name the language it is made in.

19. VIKRAM JOSHI
7
Fiji Hindi

20. 8
In the table given, from an exhaustive set of 14, those ranked 2 to 10
are given. What is this list and what is the first entry in this list?
VIKRAM JOSHI

21. VIKRAM JOSHI
Date People
29-05-53 <???>
31-07-54 Compagnoni / Lacedelli (ITA)
25-05-55 Band / Brown (GBR)
18-05-56 Luchsinger / Reiss (SUI)
15-05-55 Couzy/Terray (FRA)
19-10-54 Joechler / Tichy / Pasang (AUT / NEP)
13-05-60 Diemberger / Diener / Nawang / Nima /
Forrer / Schelbert (AUT / GER / NEP / SUI)
09-05-56 Imanishi / Gyalzen (JPN / NEP)
03-05-53 Buhl (AUT)
03-06-50 Herzog / Lachenal (FRA)

22. 8
Hillary / Norgay (NZ/NEP)
The first scaling of the
eight-thousanders (there are 14
peaks above 8000m)
VIKRAM JOSHI

23. 9
The name of this river derives from the Ganga and in some of the six
countries it passes through, like the Ganga, it is addressed as Mother X.
Name the 12th longest river in the world passing through two capitals
and whose delta has been a war zone for much of the 50’s and 60’s?
VIKRAM JOSHI

24. 9
The Mekong
VIKRAM JOSHI

25. 10
The video below shows the on-screen debut of a legendary actor,
director and poet. The clip is from the 1951 movie “Queen for a Day”
which was an on-screen adaptation of a popular radio and television
game show. He however tasted major success only nearly a decade
later.
Identify him.
VIKRAM JOSHI

26. 10
Leonard Nimoy
VIKRAM JOSHI

27. Starred questions begin here
VIKRAM JOSHI

28. 11*
Connect to the world of sport. The latest name is missing from this list as
“technically” the person concerned is not eligible according to the rules of
the system of that country. Who is that person?
Abdullah bin Mutaib al Saud
Constantine II of Greece
Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia
Ahmad Mohammed Hasher al Makhtoum
Princess Nathalie of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg
Olav V of Norway
VIKRAM JOSHI

29. 11*
Royals who have won Olympic medals
The latest “missing” name is Zara Phillips –
who won silver in Equestrian at the London
Olympics 2012.
VIKRAM JOSHI

30. 12*
VIKRAM JOSHI
This 6th century Indianized kingdom in Northern Java
was the oldest Hindu-Buddhist kingdom in Indonesian
history.
It got its name from the location in Eastern India that
the founders arrived from. The Indian location has a
special place in Indian (specifically Buddhist) history.
Derivatives of this name are still used to refer to Indians
in South East Asia (though considered derogatory now).
Name it.

31. 12*
VIKRAM JOSHI
Kalinga
(Indians are called Kelings in Indonesia and Malaysia even today)

32. 13*
During the Second World War, the Belgian Resistance recruited and
utilized old women whose windows overlooked railway yards to note
the trains entering and leaving to share the train numbers, what was
being transported in the trains and the destinations in code.
They got the idea from a plot point in a book that came out in 1859.
Name the book and the tactic used by the old women.

33. 13*
A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens.
The old women knitted the
information needed in a
specific code a la Madame
Defarge who knitted the names
of the guillotine victims.

34. 14*
VIKRAM JOSHI
For the 1997 American television showing, this film was broadcast virtually
unedited. The telecast was the first to receive a TV-MA rating under the TV
Parental Guidelines.
It also created controversy with US Senator Tom Coburn said that in airing
the film, NBC had brought television "to an all-time low, with full-frontal
nudity, violence and profanity", adding that it was an insult to "decent-
minded individuals everywhere".
He later clarified his opinion, stating that the film ought to have been aired
later at night when there would not be "large numbers of children watching
without parental supervision".
Which film was this?

35. 14*
VIKRAM JOSHI

36. 15*
And now it’s time for… Fun with Flags..
The national flag of country X has a certain phrase repeated 22 times –
11 times on top and 11 times at the bottom.
The significance of the number 22 is that on the night of the 22nd of
Bahman, (which is) the eleventh of February 1979, this phrase was used
on radio to announce the rebirth of this country.
The script on the flag renders the flag non-reversible.
Name the country X and the phrase.
VIKRAM JOSHI

37. 15*
Iran – Allahu Akbar (God is Great)
VIKRAM JOSHI

38. 16*
The next slide shows two examples of a natural geological phenomenon
where rocks move and inscribe long tracks along a smooth valley floor
without human or animal intervention.
In August 2014, the mystery was solved when researchers observed
rock movements using GPS and time-lapse photography. These rocks
move when large ice sheets a few mm thick floating in an ephemeral
winter pond, start to breakup during sunny days. These thin floating
ice panels, frozen during cold winter nights, are driven by light winds
and shove rocks at up to five meters per minute.
What are such stones called due to the reason they move?
VIKRAM JOSHI

39. VIKRAM JOSHI

40. 16*
Sailing stones
VIKRAM JOSHI

41. 17*
VIKRAM JOSHI
Since its inception in 1970, the New York City Marathon has been
cancelled only once.
The then Mayor Michael Bloomberg explained that: "While holding the
race would not require diverting resources from the recovery effort, it
is clear that it has become the source of controversy and division... We
would not want a cloud to hang over the race or its participants, and so
we have decided to cancel it.“
What was the reason? (Exact answer needed)

42. 17*
VIKRAM JOSHI
In 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck New York City the week before the
marathon.

43. 18*
The only indigenous language that arose in Polynesia was called
Rongorongo which meant “to chant out” and featured glyphs
representing humans, animals, fish and geometric shapes like crosses.
When discovered by Christian missionaries in the 1860s, the main
problem was that at the time almost none of the islanders could read
or interpret the glyphs. The language had been the preserve of the
ruling caste, all of whom had already being killed or captured by
Chilean pirates; the inscribed tablets were being used as firewood or
fishing reels.
Where was this language found?
VIKRAM JOSHI

44. 18*
Easter Island (Rapa Nui)
VIKRAM JOSHI

45. 19*
Queen Elizabeth I of England died in 1603 due to pneumonia and lung
infections made worse by a prolonged depression. Conspiracy theorists
have always maintained that she was poisoned – but it was not till
recently that scientists analyzing something realized that she indeed
was “self-poisoning” herself unknowingly.
Watch this clip from the movie Elizabeth starring Cate Blanchett and tell
me both what “poisonous substance” she was ingesting as well as the
“agency” by which this poison was consumed by her.
VIKRAM JOSHI

46. VIKRAM JOSHI

47. 19*
Her makeup caked on her every morning to disguise her smallpox
scarred face was made of white lead. She was being lead poisoned.
VIKRAM JOSHI

48. 20*
What connects the following book titles apart from the author Val
McDermid and the lead character Tony Hill.
VIKRAM JOSHI

49. 20*
Titles taken from the works of T.S. Eliot
The Mermaids Singing from ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’
The Last Temptation from ‘Murder in the Cathedral’
The Torment of Others from ‘The Dry Salvages’ (Four Quartets)
Beneath the Bleeding from ‘East Coker’ (Four Quartets)
VIKRAM JOSHI

50. End of Starred questions
VIKRAM JOSHI

51. 21
This traditional art, whose name derives from the local words for
“flower” and “container”, is part of UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural
Heritage list for that country. While its origins can be traced back as far
as 2,000 years, the modern form, infused with Muslim influences,
derives from ca. 14th Century CE, along with the floral and geometric
patterns that are associated with it. By the late 18th Century, it
contributed more than half of all exports by the East India Company.
Its decline today has been attributed to the availability of cheaper yarn,
the use of machinery, and the low remuneration of artisan weavers.
What are we talking about?
VIKRAM JOSHI

52. VIKRAM JOSHI

53. 21
Jamdani sarees native to Bangladesh and most closely associated with
Dhaka.
VIKRAM JOSHI

54. 22
Watch the video by Shania Twain of the song “Man! I feel like a
woman” and tell me what the video is an feminist riposte to.
I need the name of the song and the singer.
VIKRAM JOSHI

55. 22
Addicted to love – Robert Palmer
VIKRAM JOSHI

56. 23
VIKRAM JOSHI
The stamp series released in 2008 in Malaysia depicts the nation’s wide
array of nocturnal animals. What is so special about these stamps?

57. 23
Glow in the dark stamps
VIKRAM JOSHI

58. 24
A X waist refers to a woman's fashion silhouette, produced by a style
of corset and girdle, that has experienced various periods of popularity
in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Its primary feature is the abrupt transition from a natural-width rib
cage to an exceedingly small waist, with the hips curving out below. It
takes its name from its similarity to a particular creature's segmented
body.
What is X?
VIKRAM JOSHI

59. VIKRAM JOSHI

60. 24
X -Wasp
VIKRAM JOSHI

61. 25
This movie that took 7 years to make and was released in 4 parts in
1967 and 1968 was the first Soviet film to win the Academy Award
when it won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1968. It was also the
longest film to ever win an Oscar – it clocked in at nearly 7.5 hours.
It was initially proposed to celebrate the 150th anniversary of a seminal
event in Russian history – and a work of Russian literature.
Take a look at the screenplay on the next slide and name the movie.
VIKRAM JOSHI

63. 25
War and Peace (or if you prefer: Voyna I Mir)
VIKRAM JOSHI

64. 26
VIKRAM JOSHI
The painting of the Birth of Adam by Michelangelo on the Sistine
Chapel ceiling created a huge theological uproar after it was unveiled to
the Vatican clergy. Michelangelo was even branded a heretic by some
for his contradiction of basic Christian theology.
However, he was protected by the Pope and theologically, a reason was
found to account for a supposed “error” in the painting.
What error was this?

65. VIKRAM JOSHI

66. 26
VIKRAM JOSHI
The presence of a navel on Adam’s body.
If Adam was created directly by God in His own image – then where
does his umbilical cord come from? Also, does this mean God has a
navel too? In which case, who is God’s mother?

67. 27
Simple enough - Identify these 2015 Youtube viral sensations.

68. 27
The Justin Bibis (from Pakistan)

69. 28
In Commonwealth countries, an election called right after a victory in a
war is called a X election.
The aim of the ruling party is to cash in on prevailing patriotic wartime
or postwar sentiment.
The first use of the term was in the 1900 British General Election called
by the ruling Conservative party. The reason for this name is that the
main issue of that election was the Second Boer War, and “X" had been
universally adopted by both sides in that war as part of the new military
uniform of the day.
What is X?
VIKRAM JOSHI

70. 28
A Khaki election
VIKRAM JOSHI

71. 29
Everyday a staff of 350 people – all Brahmin – makes 2.78 lakhs of a
particular item utilizing 10,000 kilos of ghee, 12,000 kilos of besan,
2,000 kilos of cashewnuts, 1,000 kilos of raisins, 300 kilos of cardamom,
600 kilos of sugar crystals, and 25,000 kilos of sugar on a daily basis.
The item they create received a Geographical Indication mark in 2009.
What much-prized item is this? (full answer needed – no part points)
VIKRAM JOSHI

72. 29
Tirupati Laddu
VIKRAM JOSHI

73. 30
Identify the person whose life is
indicated in this minimalist poster.
VIKRAM JOSHI

74. 30
Julius Caesar
VIKRAM JOSHI

75. Stay tuned for the finals..
VIKRAM JOSHI