Gargi College MELA Quiz 2017 Finals

Researched and Conducted by Jayant Verma

Three Rounds

Clockwise (16)

Themed Written (07)

Anti-Clockwise (16)

Bounce: +10 (for the Clock and Anti-Clock rounds) Part points through the quiz, at QM’s discretion. Surnames would do, unless specified otherwise.

Gargi College MELA Quiz by Jayant Verma9 October 2017 2

CIVILIZED POUNCE

Raise your hand if you know the answer.

Let the QM finish the question. Wait for the QM team to approach

your seat to verify the answer +10/-5

UNCIVILIZED POUNCE

Shout out before question is over. Approach QM instead of waiting

patiently. Create general nuisance and all that. Make fun of the QM/ his questions Yell “ye toh peter hai!” +5/-10


9 October 2017 Gargi College MELA Quiz by Jayant Verma 4

Since his father was in the Navy, he was educated across the peninsular India, mostly KVs, and he started making films at the age of 15, and by the time he turned 23, he had 12 shorts and 2 feature films.

Who is he, a guy whose own version of “Chai Pe Charcha” made him insanely famous?


+10/-5; +5/-10+10


M. Chandrakumar is a Coiambatore based auto rickshaw driver who spent his earlier days in Guntur, AP.

There, two of his friends were picked up by the police, and were tortured for thirteen days before being let go.

The experience prompted him to write a book, published in 2006. How did this book come to limelight about a decade later, and what

first, with regard to an annual event, did the last year (or, 2015) project achieve?


Lock Up (the book), was made into Visaranai.

Visaranai is first Tamil movie to be shown in competition section of Venice film festival.

Also India’s entry to Oscars 2017.


The series has ample references and parallels to religion and myth, but Norse myth plays a crucial element in the naming of objects.

For example, a ship in the series is called Skidbladnir, a ship which could fit all the Gods, and the entire planet of Harvest has location names from the same myth.

What genre defining series is this, first released in 2001, and is seeing the second trilogy right now?

What is the protagonist’s armor called, which would make you think of a weapon only meant for the worthy?


Halo Master Chief’s armor is

called MJOLNIR, after Thor’s hammer


It dates back to 1687, with Newton defining it, and further work being done by French physicists, who showed that no analytical solution exists, and called it ________ des _____ corps.

A mathematical representation is shown on the next slide. What are we talking about, and while you are at it, also tell me why it

features in this quiz? Image follows


Three Body Problem, also the title of Cixin Liu’s 2015 Hugo winning Sci Fi novel.


Named neither after Olivia Newton-John’s anthem nor after the Coleridge poem, this effect, coined in 2001 by Edward Tenner is a classic example of “vanity comes before fall”, and takes its name from a location in a 1941 masterpiece.

What effect is this, and what is it all about, with examples including Sarajevo, Sochi, Athens, Rio de Janerio, and closer home, one can find plenty of examples across NCR?


The Xanadu Effect, named after Xanadu from Citizen Kane

Huge buildings built during boom sitting empty in hard times.

The locations were all Winter/Summer Olympic host cities or unsold flats in NCR.


Enjoy the video, identify the duo at work, and whose work serves as a very obvious inspiration to the video’s aesthetic?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp_0GThdZDQ


Parekh and Singh, the song being I love you baby, I love you doll\ Wes Anderson’s works


In an episode of The Man in the High Castle, after watching an ongoing scene of ritual suicide, Chief Inspector Kido of the Kempitai warns his assistant, Sergeant Yoshida, that he will have to act as Kido’s kaishakunin, should he fail to identify, and bring to justice, the crown prince’s attacker.

What exactly is the role of a kaishakunin?


The kaishakunin is the appointed second whose duty is to put the seppuku committing person out of his agony, mostly by beheading.

First published in early 1930s, this travel guide, listed hotels, motels, restaurants, “sundown towns”, and other things, even about conduct.

Hence, the book, which was selling as much as 15k copies at one point, had advice like this

Obey all traffic regulations.

Be sportsmanlike with fellow-drivers.

Start earlier, progress slower and keep speed reasonable.

What is this book, whose last edition was published in 1964, which will remind you of an Arab leader’s book, and who were the target audience.


The Green Book, by Victor H. Green

Target audience were Blacks

Sundown towns were places where it was dangerous for a black person to be out after sunset


Geoffrey Boothroyd, a gun expert, is known for criticizing a choice. Here is the text from a letter he wrote

I have, by now, got rather fond of Mr. X. I like most of the things about him, with the exception of his rather deplorable taste in firearms. In particular, I dislike a man who comes into contact with all sorts of formidable people using a .25 Beretta. This sort of gun is really a lady's gun, and not a really nice lady at that. If Mr. X has to use a light gun he would be better off with a .22 rim fire; the lead bullet would cause more shocking effect than the jacketed type of the .25.May I suggest that Mr. X be armed with a revolver?

What change was introduced as a result of this letter, and how do we better know Mr. Boothroyd today?


James Bond started using the Walther PPK

Mr. Boothroyd, as a result of his contribution, was made the armourer of James Bond, in Dr. No, a character which eventually became Q.

Shakambaridevi was a goddess of Bimba Raja of Gujrat, whose abode was shifted when a Mughal invasion happened.

She then appeared in the dream of a Shyam Nayak, whose rich family constructed the new temple some 300 years ago.

What is the other, more prominent name of the goddess, and how did it come in the limelight recently?


She is now known as Prabhadevi The doomed Elphinstone Road station lies very close to the

temple and is to be renamed Prabhadevi


In the Bible, she visits Jerusalem with spices, stones and gold, as gifts for King Solomon, should he answer her questions correctly, he does that, and she returns to her land.

Historically though, her kingdom was somewhere in modern day Yemen, even though women rulers in the area were rare.

How do we know her, and what character did she inspire in a 16 year old novel, that has entered popular consciousness again?

Image if all teams agree


The Queen of Sheba She is the inspiration behind the character of Bilquis in American Gods


Rabindra Bhavan is a building located on Copernicus Marg, Delhi, close to the Mandi House metro station.

It houses a few (three, to be precise) organizations, and has served as their HQ for a very long time.

The youngest of the organizations was founded on 12/3/54, and was in the news a few years ago, for all the wrong reasons.

Identify the organization, and any one of the other entities housed in Rabindra Bhavan.


He lost his parents when he was four, after having moved to LA for the sake of their health, but that and neither his skin color, could stop him from pursuing architecture as a profession.

He was responsible for designing a wide array of buildings, residential, commercial, public in the said area, with a list of clients which included, but was not limted to Sinatra, Bill Robinson, Lucille Ball.

Who, recently awarded posthumously and what has he been called the architect of, keeping in mind his clientele and area in which he worked?


Paul Revere Williams, American Institute of Architects 2017 Gold Medal Winner

He has been called the Architect of Hollywood, as most of his work is located around the LA area.


A contribution from🌏 Anuradha is a 1960 movie directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Meera

is a 1979 movie directed by Gulzar. To this date, these remain the only two Bollywood projects a certain

someone chose to work on, a very right decision, given the fact that he would go on to produce some of his best work in the years between the two. However, his foray into cinema incidentally was with a trilogy.

Who? What trilogy?


Azadirachta indica was an Indian venture that was based on a short by Vilayat Jafri, who was the station director at DD Lucknow.

The venture follows the eponymous character’s life, and a person who shares his birthday with him, through their rise, and the subsequent fall, the former being used as a metaphor for the events in latter’s life.

How do we know the project better? The venture was hailed by speakers of a dialect of Eastern Hindi, who

lauded it for its accurate portrayal of the language, what language?


Azadirachta indica is commonly known as Neem ka Ped Dialect is Awadhi (DD LKO is the clue)


Girdhar Das, a Banaras native, visited Puri Jaggannath at the age of 15 in 1865, and was greatly influenced by the Bengal renaissance there.

In 1881, he wrote the work that is the most popular to this date, AndherNagari, which has since been adopted into many films and theatre.

He also wrote a translation of a work that was written between 1596 and 1599 and called it Durlabh Bandhu (Invaluable Friend).

How do we know Girdhar Das better, and what is Durlabh Bandhu a translation of?


Bharatendu Harishchandra He is the father of modern

Hindi literature Merchant of Venice


The structure, now green with oxidation, having been built some ninety years ago, was started by Henry Merwin Shrady, a New York artist, and finished after his death by an Italian, Leo Lentelli.

The controversy that surrounds it now, is about half a decade old, with local elected officials and courts being employed to decide the future.

Even if the demands of the public at large are met, it would still cost the local authorities upwards of $300k.

Question is, who is the subject of this controversial artwork?


General Robert E. Lee, and his horse Traveler

This is the statue from the Charlottesville, VA park where alt right protested


What franchise, whose third reboot iteration came out recently, is based on the premise of a person trying to find a cure for his Alzheimer ridden father, by giving him ALZ112 without clearance.

When the Alzheimer returned even more potently, ALZ113 is developed, but becomes a pathogen.

What franchise?


Score Check


+10/0


Two works referenced here, identify both.


Identify the literature reference


Part points wherever applicable


Ophelia John Millais


Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) David Hockney


Dance II Henry Matisse


Two works referenced here, identify both.


Olympia by Manet The Last Supper by da Vinci


Figures at the Seaside Picasso


The Kiss Gustav Klimt


Identify the reference.


+10/-5; +5/-10+10


The lyrics of this song are said to be allegorical to the effects of fallout, and rightly so, since it was first written in a year which saw a watershed moment of the Cold War.

However, the songwriter has categorically denied any parallels with nuclear warfare, which holds true, as the song was first performed a full month before the event.

What song, and who is the songwriter? Where was the song most recently used, as an opening score to a

recently concluded, and very polarizing, ten part venture?


A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall, by Bob Dylan.

Used in the opening sequence of the recent Ken Burns episodic PBS documentary The Vietnam War


This 1995 show dealt with the upper middle class society in the 90s India, especially those in the thirties.

It follows the story of five MBAs, reunited after a decade, to confront a macabre secret from their past, and had a star studded line up, including Rahul Bose, and Millind Soman.

What show, and what first did it mark for Indian television?


A Mouthful of Sky First serial in English to

be produced in India


It was made by a company called Sinneslöschen, which in German, translates to sense deletion.

Originating in Portland, Oregon in 1981, it was said to be highly addictive, with lines forming around the machines. It was also rumored that the machines were visited by Men in Black to collect data, responses to the game's psychoactive effects.

What game is this, named quite aptly after a historian who said that historians should never report what they cannot verify through interviews with witnesses?


Polybius


Question by Baba Dhar In planetary geography, these are akin to the Grand Canyon, nothing

more than a complex of intersecting valleys, and/or ridges. Be a little imaginative, and tell me what are they called, named after a

structure built by Daedalus for royalty in Knossos, the oldest city in EU. What you see on the next slide is a collection of these features on

Saturn’s moon, Titan, what have they been named after?


Labryinthi On Titan, they have been

named after planets from Frank Herbert’s Dune series


Annelies is a choral work by James Whitbourn , nominated for the Grammy in Best Choral performance in 2014.

Some of the movements are listed below

The Dream

Devastation of the outside world

Passing of time

The hope of liberation and a spring awakening

What is the basis of this musical work?

Diary of Anne Frank

What does the light on top of this iconic building spell out, in Morse code?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL3ZmiJXFwQ


Capitol Records building in LA The light spells out Hollywood, for obvious reasons



He was born in Puerto Rico, so his anger at the apathy that the island is getting is justified, and while he is a very positive person on twitter, his attitude has shifted for all the right reasons of late.

He went from posting cat gifs, to pleading, but finally snapped and called someone out for their apathy.

Who is he, a Pulitzer winner, whose 2015 creation is a recurring theme in MELA quizzes, and who is he criticizing?

Lin Manuel Miranda DJT


In this rather new TV series, the plot deals (majorly) with an alien organism, that is captured by humanity, and is engineered as a bio WMD, leading to chaos around the solar system, as a rag tag bunch of five or six decide to stop the weapon and the destruction it will cause.

What TV series, based on a series of novels, which airs on an aptly named channel?

What was the name of the ship (from a God in middle eastern Mythology) on which the bio engineered weapon was stored, and subsequently discovered?


The Expanse, airs on Syfy The ship was called Anubis,

after the Egyptian god of afterlife


Woods Hole is a Massachusetts town that is home to one of the first patented architectural designs.

The structure was commissioned in 1953, and was going to be a sea facing restaurant, called ____ and the design was just right for that purpose, with its triangular windows.

However, problems arose later, the glass caused a greenhouse effect, so fiberglass came in, and blocked the view. It also leaked, and later interior decorations ruined the design.

Who was the architect?


Buckminster Fuller


Eric Stonestreet is an actor who made his debut with Almost Famous, and has never looked back since then, raking up three Emmy nominations for Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.

Even though he plays a ___ man on-screen, he is not one, with his co-star describing him as ___-for-pay.

What is the role that he is best known for, and what was the clown character he created when he was young, and used to perform in the same character at birthday parties and other events.


Cameron Tucker on Modern Family The blank: gay He called his clown Fizbo


These two franchises, one by a Pole and the other by a Russian both were books originally but the ventures they spawned surpassed the popularity of the books.

The Pole, who writes Fantasy is miffed by it, and says that the only reason he is in it, is because it pays great money (like Biz quizzers), and says his work is famous, not the games.

OTOH, the Russian, writing post apocalyptic fiction, acknowledges the same fact, and credits his success to the games.

What are the two very popular works in question?


The Witcher

by Andrzej Sapkowski

Metro

by Dmitry Glukhovsky

The museum, sandwiched between two iconic Delhi institutions, was conceptualized and established thanks to the efforts of KamaladeviChattopadhyay, and today houses some 33,000 artifacts.

The architecture is heavily inspired by an Indian village, rightly so, as it has a huge tribal section. It also has elements from Mandala style and employs a lot of other vernacular designs.

What museum is this, which has now a lateral connect with Indian TV, and what form did Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay promote?


The National Handicrafts and Handlooms Museum

AA: Crafts Musuem It comes under the

Ministry of Textiles, which is headed by Smriti Irani

Kalamkari


Chirstine Gideon’s family are immigrants to the US, and moved only when she was three, she did go back to visit her hometown in 2006, but could not explore much.

Five years later, war came to her hometown, and destroyed all of it, she now preserves her memories, through her artworks, using the urban planning blue prints and maps.

Look at the works, and tell me which ancient and a UNESCO WHS is her hometown?


Aleppo, Sednaya is Assad’s Guantanamo


In a scene of this 2016 movie, the actor, whose character has a hobby of collecting rare pop culture related items, pulls out Action Comics #1.

This is a blink and miss homage to a character introduced in AC #1, and a fitting tribute, seeing as the actor appears alongside the very same character in another 2016 film.

For full points, tell me what character was introduced in AC#1, and the 2016 movie, which features AC#1 copy.


Superman, introduced in AC#1

The Accountant, with Ben Affleck in the lead, who also plays Batman/Bruce Wayne in DECU

Earlier movies is Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice


In the late 80s, Fox was fledgling, because they could not find any young takers for their shows.

This changed when Patrick Hasburgh and Stephen J. Cannell, pitched their show idea of police show, with ________ looking officers, who solved crimes in high schools and colleges, with their undercover squad based out of a church, with the initial title including the word chapel.

What show is this, with some 100+ episodes, and saw a spinoff venture some half a decade ago, with a sequel three years ago?

Why was the word chapel dropped from the initial title?


The word chapel was dropped because Fox did not want people to think of it as a religious show


Connect


Names of bastards in various regions of Westeros

Flowers: The Reach

Hill: The Westerlands

Sand: Dorne

Snow: The North

Storm: The Stormlands


Here’s hoping there are no ties.


Thank you to the Gargi College Quiz Society for having me over.

Bouquets and brickbats welcome at

+919953631951

[email protected]


mailto:[email protected]

She was the CM of Odisha for a small time in the 70s, and held a Masters in Odia from Ravenshaw University, Cuttack.

She was a prolific Odia writer as well, and translated a lot of works into Odia. The last major work she translated, was published in 1993 in a language that is in geographic proximity to Odia, and was extremely controversial, even though it did manage to sell 50,000 copies before being banned.

Who is she, and what work did she translate?


Nandini Sathpathy She translated Taslima Nasreen’s Lajja


Gargi College MELA Quiz 2017 Finals

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