Another Bout

What is so beautiful about this nation that every time I hear a tune , a song or a tale told as an ode to its beauty I am ready to fall in love with her ..all over again . I heard the shenai once more this morning .. the one that is played in swadesh and all of a sudden the place around me felt deeper than ever bfore.

So, I didnt give out new questions last Sunday ... i didnt feel like even this Sunday ... but both of them owing to different reasons .... last Sunday i was busy and this Sunday ..well this weeks K-Circle quiz was just so mesmerizing ..so well compiled that i am finding it hard to actually select a few out of its bouquet.

But that complexity cannot hinder me long from getting my fingers running ... So here we go ..

1) Balls to you . What a question to start with ..

He is a former world no 1. player from Sweden.

He created a minor controversy during the 2006 French Open when he criticized several top players, including Roger Federer and Kim Clijsters, as lacking the competitive edge to beat their toughest rivals.
He particularly got after Federer after his 1–6, 6–1, 6–4, 7–6 loss to Nadal in the final. He said that "Federer, today, unfortunately came out with no balls... you don't find too many champions in any sport in the world without heart or balls. He might have them, but against Nadal they shrink to a very small size and it's not once, it's every time."
Who ? Sorry Federer fans :)

2) Whats goin on here .... (give me a story !)

Tis there's the stone that whoever kisses
He never misses to grow eloquent;
'Tis he may clamber to a lady's chamber,
Or become a member of Parliament.
"A noble spouter he'll sure turn out, or
An out and outer to be let alone;
Don't try to hinder him, or to bewilder him,
For he is a pilgrim from the ________________.





3) Connect-- I could make it a little simpler though - its a personality that I am looking for


























4) Rich Uncle Pennybag --and a story from riches to rag :( ... Connect them

















4)What could be so unique about this picture --- look gaur se :) .. I do not want to know the name of the painter nor the name of the painting .. just what it wants to tell .


6) Uhuuuu .... Whats Roger Federer doing here .... full funda please ...




7) This word literally means ‘the void month’. The origin of this word has two theories: the first says that when the pagan Arabs went on their looting expeditions they would leave their houses empty or ‘sifr’ meaning void.

The second theory says that the word is derived form the Arabic word for yellow called ‘sufr’: as when it was first named it fell in the time of autumn, hence the derivation the word yellow as all the leaves at that time turned yellow. The word please ...


8) In a 2004 poll conducted on the worldwide listeners of BBC's Bengali radio service, he was voted the "Greatest Bengali of All Time" beating out many other prominent personalities of Bengal ..
Who ...maybe an image would help :


9) The word is onomatopeic, it representing the impression of random hubbub produced by hearing a spoken language that one cannot understand, similar to blah-blah, babble or rhubarb in modern English.
Related imitative forms are found in other Indo-European Languages, such as Sanskrit where it could mean "stammering" or "curly-haired."

Depending on its use this term either described a foreign individual or tribe whose first language was not Greek or a Greek individual or tribe speaking Greek crudely.

10) Like you and like me :

They are locally made motor vehicles that are used mostly in small villages as a means of low cost transportation in our country.
They cost around Rs. 40,000 (US$1,000) and are known for having poor brakes and can not go beyond 40 km/h They operate on diesel fuel and are just ordinary water pump sets converted into engine.

The brakes of these vehicles very often fail and one of the passengers jumps down and applies a manual wooden block as a brake. These vehicles do not have any vehicle registration plate as they are not registered with the RTO. Hence, they end up not paying any road tax.

Okay folks .... Its late and 10 questions are on the board .... try answering and happy quizzing ....
As the spanish would say --- Hasta La Vista ..gdnite .

Answer Pack

I cannot say people have been waiting for these answers :) ... but i certainly was quite eager to get started with them

Answers for the : Take Off Quiz

1. Some people ,i guess ,have it right --- Leela Chitnis , the 1st Indian woman to endorse the Lux Soap (maybe the hint makes little sense now).

2. The Taj Palace Hotel, Mumbai -- many did crack this one

3.This one was close to the one above --- Leopold Cafe.

4. Haha ! ... This one was raw trivia , the funda behind this is that sardines are packed in cans with Olive Oil and since Olive oil is costlier than the thing it preserves ,these sardines are tightly packed .

5. This one is the band AC-DC.

6. I think all and one cracked this --- remote control

Zenith’s aptly named Lazy Bones was the world’s first commercially available TV remote control, but it had a hang-up, the cord that tethered it to the TV and posed an obvious danger during commercial breaks.



7. I feel sad that no one even made n attempt for this one --- its Ustad Bismillah Khan , the shahnai maestro ..

8. Kohima(Nagaland) -- pretty workable and the poem is a lovely piece .

9.Well someone had this right - the country is Maldives and the boats are called Dhoni (wonder if our Indian captian has a hint of this)

10. Hmmm ... no replies for this one too , its Lego the toy company and the image below is the original ,which was the inspiration for this ad.

Tomorrow is Monday

"How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd."

Hmm .. So another Sunday , another quiz , another set of questions and i am still waiting for more responses .Gud nothing's changed much ..
Waise(dont mind these slangs) .. if u people dont want to discuss answers , u can just tell me how ur weekend was (that is if u kno me and wish to disclose :) ) ,or u could maybe conjure stories abt ur hypothetical date with some hypothetical babe :) on a day called the Valentines day ( this u can tell me even if u dont kno me)

Okay .. the questions now ,

1) Whats in a name > u shall c :)

This is an important oil producing area, and has Turkey's oldest refinery, established in 1955. A 494 km long pipeline transports crude oil from here to Iskenderun The railway track at nearby Kurtalan connects this city with Istanbul.
According to the EU-Turkey Civic Commission Submission on Recent Violence, on March 30, 2006, a 3-year-old boy was shot and killed by Turkish Security forces during a police raid on a civilian house in this province during a series of violent clashes in the Kurdish regions of Turkey.
On November 7, 2008,the mayor of this province began looking into the possibility of suing Christopher Nolan, director of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, and Warner Bros, distributor of the films. Why?

2) St Bride's Church is a church in the City of London, at Fleet Street and it's most recent incarnation was designed by Sir Christopher Wren in 1672.
The point : William Rich (1755-1811), a baker on Ludgate Hill, got 'this' idea from the steeple of the church (as in image) he could see from his window.Have a look at the image carefully and u shall get the idea , which according to legend is inspired from this churche's spires .


3) W. W. Skeat wrote in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica:

A Malay will suddenly and apparently without reason rush into the street armed with a kris or other weapons, and slash and cut at everybody he meets till he is killed. These frenzies were formerly regarded as due to sudden insanity. It is now, however, certain that it is the result of circumstances, such as domestic jealousy or gambling losses, which render a Malay desperate and weary of his life. It is, in fact, the Malay equivalent of suicide.

The word was in use in India during the British Empire, originally to describe an elephant gone mad, separated from its herd, running wild and causing devastation. The word was made popular by the colonial tales of Rudyard Kipling.

Early travellers in Asia sometimes describe this as a kind of military act, in which soldiers facing apparently inevitable defeat suddenly burst into a frenzy of violence which so startles their enemies that it either delivers victory or at least ensures an honourable death. This form appears to resemble the berserker of the Norse.
Give the word / phrase which is explained in the facts above.

4)
Noel Thomas David Gallagher (born 29 May 1967 in Manchester, England) is the principal songwriter, lead guitarist, and occasional vocalist of English rock band Oasis.

Noel Gallagher, has many claims to fame for being a bad brat .

Joining Oasis
Noel attended one of their concerts at Manchester's Boardwalk, but was unimpressed by the group's act. After persuasion from Liam(his younger bro), he agreed to join the band, on the condition that he take creative control of the group and become its sole songwriter.
"Let me write your songs and I'll take you to superstardom, or else you'll rot here in Manchester". His control over the band in its early years earned him the nickname "The Chief"

On His epitaph(he comments):
"Here lies Noel Gallagher - who should have fucking done that solo record."

The Battle of the Britpop(1995-1998)
Noel Gallagher told The Observer ... that he hoped Damon Albarn and Alex James of Blur would "catch Aids and die", which caused a media furore.He subsequently apologised for this in a formal letter to various publications.

The Question ?
Noel Gallagher famously dismissed them saying "Traditionally speaking, the three biggest twats in any band are the singer, the keyboardist and the drummer. I don't need to say anything else."
Which band was Noel's target this time : ( u can work it out -- ya ! provided u kno the band)


5)
Parker pen ran an advertising campaign in the early 1970s, simply showing a hand using a Parker Pen to write the following 'mathematical' formula on a piece of paper:


The result was that they received numerous inquiries by chemists, mathematicians, and physicists, asking for the meaning of the formula, as they could not figure it out ? Can u :)

6) Shit of importance

Made from coffee berries which have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Asian Palm Civet this is the most expensive coffee in the world, selling for between $120 and $600 USD per pound, and is sold mainly in Japan and the United States.


The civets eat the berries, but the beans inside pass through their system undigested. it has been proposed that enzymes in the stomach of the civet add to the coffee's flavor by breaking down the proteins that give coffee its bitter taste. This process takes place on the islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi in the Indonesian Archipelago, in the Philippines in East Timor .

7) Noise Music

On January 16, 2004, at the Barbican in London, the BBC Symphony Orchestra gave the UK's first orchestral performance of this work. The performance was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3, and one of the main challenges was that the station's emergency backup systems are designed to switch on whenever apparent silence (dead air) is detected. They had to be switched off for the sole purpose of this performance.

The anarchist punk band Crass alluded to -------------- with their song "They've Got a Bomb", which includes a silent gap in the music. The band has acknowledged the influence of its creator and said that the idea of the space in the song, when performed live, was to suddenly stop the energy, dancing and noise and allow the audience to momentarily "confront themselves" and consider the reality of nuclear war (a film projected onto a screen behind the band continued to show images of Hiroshima and Nagasaki).

Name this famous composition as well as the composer .

8) Give the interesting funda that connects these bridges : (not exhaustive , but these are few of there kind)

1) The Lotus Bridge -- b/w Hongkong and mainland China.
2)The Thai-Myanmar Bridge(opened in 2006)
3)The Friendship Bridge b/w Thai and Laos
[images in the same order-- try working it out from the 1st image]







9)

This device has its roots dating back to ancient China, where night watchmen would blow into the tops of acorns to alert the towns to invading Mongolians.In ancient Egypt two blades of the papyrus plant along the Nile river were held together in between the palms to give the desired effect.

They were not mentioned in the Laws of the Game (LOTG) of football until very recently.
The ones first adopted were made by Joseph Hudson at Mills Munitions in Birmingham, England. It is frequently stated they were first used in a game between Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Norfolk in 1878. Joseph Hudson had perfected them and he released the world's most successful to date, the "Acme Thunderer". What?

10)

The company's name combines an initial n — a letter usable as a pronumeral in mathematical statements — and from Latin videre, "to see", thus implying "the best visual experience" or perhaps "immeasurable display".
The name suggests "envy" (Spanish or in Latin, Italian, or Romanian); and one of its product uses the slogan "Green with envy" as its byline.

Conversations..

The Sage: I haven't seen u here before by the lake .

He: I haven't been here by the lake before. I travel from far and in solitude.This lake is new to me.

The Sage: So you travel. How long is thy sojourn here.

He: I do not know. I have never known that , but as I see it the lake has water to drink and these trees bear fruit , night can pass .. tomorrow will be yet another day.

The Sage: You shall come with me , I can give you shelter.

He: Are you wise ?

The Sage: I have prayed long ... These hills echo my chant , but I do not know if that makes me wise.

He: Why have you prayed long ?

The Sage : I search for truth, like you I too am a traveler . Why do you ask?

He : Long have I been haunted by questions .. solace is what I seek . Why I ask .. the night shall tell. I shall spend it with you , where among these hills is your shelter?

The Sage: Come with me .. darkness is about to fall .

He (not aloud) : This darkness I have seen before , this is not that haunts me .

Snippets ....

Hi again .............. its nite time ..my tummy is full .... i m pissed off as usual ..... nothing to do ....and ..i am bored . All this drag me to my blog , I sign in and start writing this post ...

Pom- Pom

1) Which brand is being advertised in the ad-pic below ?

2) In the Stanley Kubrick film The Shining, a ghostly bartender asks what Jack Torrance will be drinking; he responds "Hair of the dog that bit me." Well hair of the dog is a colloquial English term used for a supposed way to treat this 'effect' the scientific name of which is viesalgia ? Just blurt out this effect

Hint: don't ask for one u drunk bastards !


3) Connect these pics : give the funda :)





4) My precious :

I was introduced to the world on the 1st of January 1999. In one of my forms , I have a common side and a national side. All my common sides were designed by Luc Luycx(LL)- his intials are inscribed under my 'O'. In my other form , my recto features windows or gateways while the verso has bridges. Care has been taken so that the architectural examples do not represent any actual existing monument .Robert Kalina of the National Bank of Austria created the T 382 design on a Power Macintosh PC using Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Freehand software ; which was chosen as the winning design for my creation . Guess me out ?

Well Well ........ 1 and half ours wiki and googling .......and all i hav are 4 questions ....gud nite ...

Take off

So here i am ... on the road again ....

I had convinced myself that i would post innumerable questions in the start , but i guess laze got the better of me. Anyways here is my first set of questions. I guess that's how its going to be ... new questions every Sunday :) These questions are in fact picks from the last 2 K-Circle quizzes i have been attending here at hyderabad ... (its an awesome exp. ) .. and here and there, could be fillers from my own .

Of days of yore :

1)She was born in Dharwar, Karnataka to an English professor. She was one of the first educated film actresses. Her father was part of a Marathi theatre company called Natyamanwantar. Her early stage work included comedy Usna Navra (1934) and with her own film group Udyacha Sansar. She married and had four children but divorced her husband. She started acting to support her four children. She started as an extra and went on to stunt films. She was publicized in the Times of India as the first graduate society-lady from Maharastra. By then she had already made her first major mark as an actress on the silver screen. She worked at Prabhat Pictures, Pune and Ranjit Movietone before going on to be the leading lady in Bombay Talkies. Ashok Kumar was so impressed by her acting abilities that he admitted to learning how to speak with his eyes from her. Now name her
Hint : Latin word for "light" ;p Pride Hit :
2)The original Indian architects were Sitaram Khanderao Vaidya and D. N. Mirza, but the project was completed by an English engineer W. A. Chambers. The cost of construction was £250000 (£127 million today). During World War I, this was converted into a 600-bed hospital. Its dome is made from the same steel as used in the Eiffel Tower. It was the first in India to install and operate a steam elevator. What would i be talking about ?

3)On the Colaba Causeway, in the Fort area of Mumbai,located across from the Colaba Police station it was founded in 1871 by Iranis. It first started out as a wholesale oil store, and over the years has variously been a restaurant and store, and restaurant and pharmacy.It was made notorious by Gregory David Robert’s bestseller Shantaram.Its present owners are Fahrang S Jeha and Farzad Jehani.
Hint: u could link it with the above :)

4) Often packed tightly in cans for sale, Sardines provide an apt metaphor for crowded conditions in human society: "packed like sardines in a can." But why are sardines tightly packed in cans ? Hint : Be economical Rockers and Head Bangers - bang ur head on this too -

5) Which 'rock-and-roll' band supposedly gets its name from the words written on the back of a sewing machine . The brothers(yes! the band has brothers - though not all) felt that this name symbolized the band's raw energy, power-driven performances, and a love for their music.

For the Lazy Bums:

6) Which electronic device developed by Zenith Radio Corporation in 1950 was officially called "Lazy Bones".
Stupid Hint : we often fight over it !

Swadesh :

7)Born at Bhirung Raut Ki Gali, in Dumraon, Bihar as the second son of Paigambar and Mitthan, He was named as Qamaruddin to rhyme with Shamsuddin, their first son. His grandfather, Rasool Baksh uttered "__________" after looking at the newborn and thus he came to be known by the name we popularly know him by. Who?

8)The capital of which Indian state literally means the men of the land where the flower of KEW HI grows.This place has a large cemetery for the Allied war dead maintained by the Commonwealth Graves Commission and the epitaph carved on the memorial of the 2nd British Division in the cemetery reads the below (image)

The epitaph below has also become world famous as the _________ poem,
Fill in the dash and u get the answer to this question.
















2 in 1:

9)This is an island nation consisting of a group of atolls . Its twenty-six atoll encompass a territory featuring 1,192 islets, of which two hundred and fifty islands are inhabited. It is the smallest Asian country in terms of both population and area; It is the smallest predominantly Muslim nation in the world. Fishing remains the main occupation of the people and the government gives special priority to the development of the fisheries sector.The
mechanization of the traditional fishing boat in 1974 was a major milestone in the development of the fisheries industry and the country's economy in general.

Okay i guess naming the country is a bit easy with all these facts passed on . But what i also want is the name given to these 'mechanized traditional fishing boats' of this republic. (image provided).

10) Identify the company for which this advertisement poster has been made ; inspired from the famous "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper" photograph by Charles C Ebbets taken in 1932 during the construction of the GE Building at Rockefeller Center in New York.
Okay people , thats all i could put together , i am sleepy now and my yawn is shutting my eyes ..tata.. (and do reply smthng).

How to Start ?

I wont talk (as if i can here) --- ya I shall write , write questions and wait for the answers.

Questions ? what questions -- no ! You see i was suppose to ask the 1st question but since you have asked .....
I have long been thinking ... thinking about two things .... 1) that i should blog and 2) i need a place where i can 'store' (this makes this blog look like a store room) .. all the myriad multitudes of questions that keep popping at me ... sometimes when i attend a quiz .... sometimes when i read the paper(this actually is sometimes) ... or sometimes when i am 'all alone' in the U-Berth of the 2nd class compartment of a train ,with red-bulled people of 60+ who still think they can change the world and who haggle over issues that often bounce over my head without they even noticing my circumstances.

So when the above two points converged and howsoever late that phenomenon be , I decided to start a quiz blog . So that, more or less, i think is a good SOP .

For the rest of it , keep checking out this space ..... see in the start its going to be a flushing of all the questions that i have kept a lid on ...but ya slowly the frequency could dwindle . Anyway all i want you guys to do is pour in your answers ...comments and discussions ... its fun that way and that also is the primary purpose ... ! :)