Travel, Living and Culture Quiz at AFMC - Finals

THE TRAVEL, LIVING & CULTURE QUIZ
QM – Anmol Dhawan
Silhouettes 2017
Armed Forces Medical College, Pune

THE FORMAT AND THE RULES
 Two rounds of infinite rebound
 One picture round in between
 In case of tie, it will be settled by the scores of
the preliminary round

1
 In 1965, the government of ______
commissioned the Swedish
engineering company VBB (‘Sweco’
since 1997) to develop and
implement a plan for a modern
water-supply system for its capital
city. The company 31 water towers,
designed by its chief architect Sune
Lindström, called "the mushroom
towers” (pictured on this slide).
 The tower groups are distinguished by
number, height, colour and
ornamentation and they serve as
landmarks for their districts.
 For a sixth site, the head of state
wanted a more spectacular design.
This last group, known as the ______
______, consists of three towers, two
of which also serve as water towers,
where water from the desalination
facility is pumped up.
 What am I talking about?

2
 The Baba Umer Dargah is a
famous Islamic shrine in
Solapur, India.
 It is known for a peculiar,
possibly barbaric, ritual
involving a 15-meter
platform.
 This practice, followed by
Hindus and Muslims alike,
is estimated to be five to
seven hundred years old;
and is said to have been
originated on the advice of
a pir.
 What unique ritual am I
talking about?

3
 Statues commemorating famous individuals of the
past attract many pranksters in cities of Scotland,
which is usually blamed on two factors – alcohol;
and the prevalence of roadworks of some kind in
city centres.
 The Glasgow City Council claims that “fixing”
them costs £10,000 a year but such efforts are
generally futile as usually “another one
miraculously appears the next day”.
 What is the ‘prank’?

PLACING TRAFFIC CONES ON STATUES

4
 Rudyard Kipling described his 1889 visit to this
Asian building in From Sea to Sea and Other
Sketches, Letters of Travel, as
 “Then, a golden mystery upheaved itself on the
horizon, a beautiful winking wonder that blazed
in the sun, of a shape that was neither Muslim
dome nor Hindu temple-spire. It stood upon a
green knoll, and below it were lines of
warehouses, sheds, and mills. Under what new
god, thought I, are we irrepressible English sitting
now?”

5
 This Mumbai neighbourhood derives its name from
a statue of King Edward VII mounted on a horse,
built in the neighbourhood by Albert Abdullah
David Sassoon.
 The statue was removed in 1965 and subsequently
placed inside the Byculla Zoo, but the name of the
neighbourhood still persists.
 Which neighbourhood?

6
 This is a unique phenomenon in a certain Asian country, wherein the
streets are almost empty and traffic is practically non-existent (picture
on next slide). It is a huge hassle to commute because there are almost
no available public transportation (the jeep/taxi drivers have taken an
off).
 Some businesses allow half day work, and some even allow paid leave
to all staff.
 The police say that often, crime rates drop almost to 0%. Even
insurgent fighting in the south of the country comes to a halt, as the
guerrillas lay down arms and have a temporary ceasefire.
 However, certain establishments (such as stores and restaurants) are
typically jam-packed.
 Which country am I talking about? And what is the occasion, that last
occurred on 5 Nov 2016, and is next scheduled for 22 April 2017?

PHILIPPINES
MANNY PACQUIAO’S MATCHES

7
 Wet sand differs from dry sand such that with just
the right amount of dampness, capillary bridges –
essentially microdroplets of water that bind grains
of sand to one another through capillary action,
form across the grains, which doubles the
material’s relative stiffness.
 Artwork discovered in the Victorian era depicts
people wetting the sand so as to achieve
something. What?

CARRYING HUGE PYRAMID STONES ACROSS DESERT
SANDS

8
 Many reasons have been cited for this… What?
1. Due to the absence of a major trading port on this
historical island, not attracting “foreign invasion”
2. Entrenched local culture of isolationism and the system of
a state religion before Dutch rule
3. The influx of people from the neighbouring island wanting
to preserve their culture during the fall of an empire
4. Sparing of this island by the invaders of the neighbouring
island out of respect for the indigenous custom
5. Allying with the Franco-Dutch bloc during Napoleonic wars,
ensuring its sovereignty in the wake of European scrambles

WHY BALI IS A HINDU-MAJORITY ISLAND IN AN ALMOST
ENTIRELY ISLAMIC-MAJORITY INDONESIA

9
 This is one of the most famous landmarks in the world
and attracts a lot of tourists. For decades, people
living below this landmark have been battling the
constant wave of sightseers, creating gridlocks and
preventing emergency vehicles from responding in
time.
 The urban design of the neighbourhood served as its
best protection, until about 2009, which saw a vitriolic
campaign by the locals to “keep tourists away”.
 In 2011, the local councilmember proposed a method
to get around this problem that seemed to solve the
problem and still works.
 Which landmark? What did they do?

HOLLYWOOD SIGN
WROTE TO GOOGLE, APPLE ETC TO NOT SHOW DRIVING
DIRECTIONS TO THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN
 The urban design of the
neighbourhood served as its best
protection – due to the
confusingly named, corkscrewing
streets, it was extremely
difficult to guide someone to it,
until about 2009 – when Google
Maps came along.
 When you try to get directions
to the Hollywood Sign, the maps
redirect you to one of the places
designated as Hollywood Sign
viewing areas (such as Lake
Hollywood Park and the Griffith
observatory) and asks you to see
the Hollywood Sign from there,
marking your line of sight with a
dashed grey line.

10
 X, literally the Portuguese word for a city in the
Middle East, is a Brazilian municipality, the capital
and largest city of the state of Pará in the
country's north, and was the first European city to
be established on the Amazon, but did nt become
a part of Brazil until 1775.
 ID X, also known as the City of Mango Trees.

11
 This is the map of a
particular city in the USA,
built on a grid layout (a
requirement so that
emergency vehicles could
be directed to an "address")
in 1997, designed by
architect Rod Garrett.
 What is the name of this
city? For what purpose was
it built?
 (Bigger picture on next
slide)

ANS – BLACK ROCK CITY, VENUE OF THE BURNING
MAN FESTIVAL

12
 ID the painter of the following artworks.

REMBRANDT 
 Rembrandt made 25 “Indian
drawings,” based on miniatures
from the Mughal Empire that he
saw in a Dutch collection and
presumably studied over a long
period. Adopting some aspects
of the extremely precise manner
of these miniatures--so unlike
his usual loose, evocative style
of draftsmanship--Rembrandt
nonetheless enlivened the
figures' poses by giving them
more sense of action than did
the Mughal style. Despite their
looseness, his lines present the
figures in the three-quarter
body and profile head view
common in Indian painting.

THE PICTURE ROUND
AERIAL VIEWS OF WHAT?
10 pictures in total
+10 for each identified correctly

PLEASE EXCHANGE YOUR ANSWER SHEETS!
10 pictures in total
+10 for each identified correctly

2 – THE BUNGLE BUNGLES, PURNULULU NATIONAL
PARK, AUSTRALIA

1
 What is this the flag
of?
 What is so peculiar
about it?

HAWAII
 The peculiar thing is
that the flag has a
small Union flag even
though Hawaii was
never a British colony!
 It was added by the
Hawaiians as a token
of friendship with the
British!

2
 Reasons for this indigenous Asian practice are as
follows. What tribe and what practice?
 Exaggerating sexual dimorphism
 Protecting them from being used as sex slaves by
making them less attractive
 To make the women resemble dragons – an important
figure in folklore
 To protect from tiger bites (symbolically)

KAYAN TRIBE
NECK RINGS TO ELONGATE THE NECK

3
 _______ fighting is a blood sport involving the fighting of
male creatures of a particular species. Unlike most blood
sports (such as bullfighting and cockfighting), _______
fighting rarely causes injuries to the animals. It is a popular
pastime in China, where _______s are popular pets, and
dates back more than 1,000 years to the Tang Dynasty.
 In the 13th century, the Southern Song Dynasty prime
minister Jia Sidao wrote a how-to guide for this sport, and
his obsession with it is believed to have contributed to the
fall of the empire.
 It was banned during the cultural revolution (from 1966 to
1976), but has undergone a tremendous rise in popularity.
 Fill in the blanks.

4
 The name of this city originates from an Old East
Slavic word meaning “market place”.
 In 1809, this city briefly became the capital of this country,
but soon (in 1812) lost out to another, as the emperor felt
that it was too far from Russia.
 A great fire broke out in this city in 1827 that nearly
destroyed the whole city. After the fire, a new and safer city
plan was drawn up by German architect Carl Ludvig Engel,
who had also designed the new capital.
 It was adjudged the European Cultural Capital for the year
2011.
 Which city?

5
 X Tower is a tower in St.
John's, Newfoundland and
Labrador. Construction of
the tower began in 1898 to
commemorate the 400th
anniversary of X's discovery
of Newfoundland,
and Queen Victoria's
Diamond Jubilee.
 In 1901, it was the site of a
landmark development in
the world of
communication. What?
 Also, ID X.

CABOT TOWER, ST JOHN
IT WAS HERE THAT MARCONI RECEIVED THE FIRST EVER
TRANS-ATLANTIC TRANSMITTED RADIO SIGNAL

6
 This structure was built in the 1958, when faith in
scientific progress was great, and a monument was
commissioned to embody the enthusiasm of the
atomic age, depicting nine iron atoms in the shape
of the body-centred cubic unit cell of an iron
crystal, magnified 165 billion times.
 What is the name of this structure and where will
you find it?

7
 X is an iconic symbol of independence, built in
1752.
 After about 90 years of its use, in 1840, it
acquired a defect. In order to restore its
functionality, the defect was spread further using
a method called “stop drilling”.
 Unfortunately, the repair job resulted in a second
defect, which has since rendered X dysfunctional
forever.
 What am I talking about?

8
 The Lærdal Tunnel is a 24.51-kilometre long road
tunnel connecting Lærdal and Aurland, part of a
picturesque highway in Norway, and is the longest road
tunnel in the world, opened in 2000.
 The design of the tunnel takes into consideration the
mental strain on drivers, so the tunnel is divided into
four sections, separated by three large mountain caves
at 6-kilometre (3.7 mi) intervals, meant to break the
routine and provide a short rest and help lift
claustrophobia.
 What other method did they adopt to combat the
mental strain on the drivers?

 The tunnel and caves
have blue lighting with
yellow lights at the
fringes to give an
impression of sunrise,
so that the view
doesn’t let them go to
sleep.

9
 After an earthquake ravaged the city of X in 1925,
the city founded a formal Architectural Board of
Review, the first in the nation, to strictly enforce
a particular style of design across the city, which
was probably to facilitate movie directors to use
the real buildings as sets and save on costs of
making large movie sets.
 Which city?

SANTA BARBARA – BUILT IN MEDITERRANEAN STYLE

10
 The Shettihalli Rosary
Church was built in the
1860s by the French
missionaries in Karnataka.
 In 1960, the construction of
the Hemavati Dam and
Reservoir led to the
abandonment of the
church, as the villages
around this church had to
be moved upstream.
 Interestingly, it now
attracts a much larger
group of tourists and
photographers to witness
an interesting phenomenon.
 Why is that?

TO SEE THE CHURCH SUBMERGED IN WATER DURING
THE MONSOONS

11
 In the year 1769, the man in the picture united
a bunch of small kingdoms into one – a popular
travel destination today. According to a popular
story, while the king was about to march into
the kingdom that would eventually become his
empire’s capital, he encountered a sage. The
king offered the sage some yogurt, which the
sage tasted and gave back to the king as
blessed. However, unwilling to eat what the
sage had already tasted, the king threw the
yogurt on the ground, covering his feet in the
action. The sage then chastised the king for his
pride, and said if he had taken the yogurt he
would have had every wish fulfilled. But
instead, the yogurt covering the king’s ten toes
meant his dynasty would fall after ten
generations.
 ID the king. How did the prophecy come true?

PRITHVI NARAYAN SHAH OF NEPAL
 Assassination of King Birendra by Prince Dipendra.
 Dipendra & King Gyanendra belonged to the 11th
generation. Gyanendra was overthrown by a
revolutionary movement for democracy in 2008.

12 – THE FINAL QUESTION OF THE QUIZ
 The Bengali Calendar is a solar calendar used in
the region of Bengal. A revised version of the
calendar is the national and official calendar in
Bangladesh and an earlier version of the calendar
is followed in the Indian states of West Bengal,
Tripura and Assam.
 Today (25 Feb 17) is the 11th day of Falguni 1423 in
the Bengali calendar.
 What event marked the beginning of the calendar?
What was peculiar about the year 963?

 The beginning was marked by the Hijra (the migration
of Prophet Mohammad from Mecca to Medina) in the
year 622 AD (just like the Islamic calendar) and worked
like a lunar calendar.
 The Bengali calendar was given official status by
Emperor Akbar. The year 963 in the Islamic/Bengali
calendar was the year of Akbar’s coronation. From this
year onwards, the Bengali calendar became a solar
calendar.
 It is interesting to note that the calendar typically used
to calculate the date for the Durga Puja every year is
one whose beginning is marked by the migration of
Prophet Mohammad from Mecca to Medina!

END OF QUIZ
Hope you enjoyed it 

Travel, Living and Culture Quiz at AFMC - Finals

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