1. What unusual arrangement that first took place in the 1956 Summer Olympics was repeated in the 2008 Beijing Olympics?
2. What word in traditional Indian
theatre refers to the actions of Maria and the von Trapp children in the Lonely Goatherd song featuring marionettes in The Sound of Music?
3. The odd name octothorpe for this ancient symbol for numbering derives from Thorpe, the Old Norse word for a village or farm that is often seen in British place names. The symbol was originally used in mapmaking, representing a village surrounded by eight fields, so it was named octothorpe. What do we call it now?
4. Who wrote the obituary that appeared in The London Times in November 1962 when James Bond was presumed dead after an attack on Blofeld in the novel You Only Live Twice?
5. In Hindu mythology, during the distribution of amrit after the churning of the ocean, which two asuras had a sip of the nectar of immortality by surreptitiously joining the devas?
6. And following from the previous question, which two devas discovered this and informed Vishnu, who cut off Rahu’s head?
7. Why do dogs turn around in circles when they want to sleep?
8. Which song from the film High Society inspired the title of a famous quiz show?
9. What are the tramlines found on a tennis court?
10. What typeface did Stanley Morrison, together with Starling Burgess and Victor Lardent, design for a well-known British newspaper in 1931?
11. What did Bill Wright devise based on his experiences with the Gestapo interrogation techniques, that was aided by famously ominous theme music titled Approaching Menace by composer Neil Richardson.
12. What term describing the Mumbai explosions of …. is also the name of an international chain of convenience stores?
13. What was unusual about the centigrade scale created by Anders Celsius that was modified to its present well-known form created by Carolus Linnaeus?
14. In 1956 Godrej made 17 lakh units of a certain product for an important event in 1956. This happens to be the very first product made by the company at its new Industrial Park in Vikhroli. What was this product?
15. What is fridge googling?
Answer
1. The equestrian events were held in Hong Kong at the Hong Kong Sports Institute in Fo Tan, Sha Tin. Because of strict quarantine laws, a similar arrangement was in place between Melbourne, Australia, and Stockholm, Sweden, for the 1956 Summer Olympics.
2. Sutradhar. From Sanskrit meaning the ‘string puller’ or ‘string holder’ because the person holds the entire narrative of the play together. Inspired by Kalidasa’s Shakuntala, the German playwright Goethe introduced this concept into European theatre.
3. The hash sign #
4. M
5. Rahu and Ketu
6. Surya and Chandra. This is why Rahu and Ketu are forever devouring them temporarily resulting in the solar and lunar eclipses.
7. Dogs evolved from wolves. When wolves want to sleep, they dig a hole to curl up and keep warm (the exposed earth being warmer than the cold surface). Dogs exhibit this evolutionary behaviour. Outdoors, dogs actually can be seen to be digging before they curl up to sleep.
8. Who Want’s to be a Millionaire (the Hindi version is Kaun Banega Crorepati?)
9. Times New Roman serif typeface.
10. These are the pairs of horizontal lines on the right and left sides of the court that differentiate the extent of the court in singles and doubles matches.
11. Mastermind, the quiz show
12. 7/11
13. Celsius made 0 degrees as the boiling point of water and 100 degrees as the freezing point.
14. Godrej made 17 lakh ballot boxes for India’s first general election.
15. Looking up Google search based on contents of your fridge to find a recipe that fits!