Qriosity 2016 - Finals With Answers - AFMC

T H E F I N A L R O U N D
QRIOSITY
SILHOUETTES 2016
ARMED FORCES MEDICAL COLLEGE, PUNE
ANMOL DHAWAN
&
PRANJAL GUPTA

DISCLAIMER SLIDE
• This quiz has been prepared by Anmol Dhawan and
Pranjal Gupta of Armed Forces Medical College, Pune
for Silhouettes 2016, the annual cultural, sports and
literary festival of the college.
• Please do not circulate this quiz without permission,
and please do not steal questions! 

THE BASIC PLAN
• IR 1 – 15 questions (clockwise)
• LVC – 6 elements + connect
• IR 2 – 15 questions (counterclockwise)
• The Round Without Summer – 10 elements

1
• By long tradition, a match between two state teams
had been played at this venue over this period, much to
the chagrin of the visiting team. It was in 1974, that
this tradition was started, but it wasn’t until 1980, that
annual rights for this were secured.
• Since 1980, this tradition has continued every year,
except for a slight variation in 1989.
• ID the venue and the sporting tradition (for half point)
and the 1989 variation (full point).

THE BOXING DAY TEST AT THE MCG
IN 1989, IT WAS REPLACED BY THE BOXING DAY ODI

2
• Who meeting whom? You know this, I presume? 

H. M. STANLEY MEETING DAVID
LIVINGSTONE
• HM Stanley was a Welsh journalist and explorer famous
for his exploration of central Africa and his search for
missionary and explorer David Livingstone. Upon finding
Livingstone, Stanley reportedly asked, “Dr.
Livingstone, I presume?” Stanley is also known for his
search for the source of the Nile.

3
• The origin of the English word X, a central tenet to
many religious faiths, is attributed to a meeting of the
Preston Temperance Society in 1833. The story ascribes
the word to Richard Turner, a member of the society,
who in a stammering speech said “I'll be reet down
out-and-out _-_-_____ for ever and ever.”

TEETOTALISM
• Richard Turner spoke with a stammer, and said “I'll be
reet down out-and-out t-t-total for ever and ever,” and
this is where we get the word “teetotalism” from. 

4
• X was an Indian businessman, who was knighted in 1910
for his contributions to industry in British India.
• He was also extremely fond of sports, and was a
pioneer in the Indian Olympic movement. As President
of the Indian Olympic Association, he financed the
Indian contingent to the Paris Olympics in 1924.
• ID X. Full name please.

5
• X is an ancient Indian unit of
distance. It can represent either
a distance of approximately 1.8
kilometres (1.1 mi) or 3.2
kilometres (2.0 mi).
• In the 16th century, Afghan ruler
Sher Shah Suri and later on many
Mughal emperors erect many
towers at every X on the royal
route from Agra to Ajmer via
Jaipur, and from Agra to Lahore
via Delhi. Modern Indian highways
have come up along roughly the
same routes as those marked by
these towers.
• What were these towers called,
serving as milestones along the
way?

KOS MINAR
• The Hindi word “kos” that is casually used is an actual
ancient Indian unit of distance!

6
• The Pears advertisement shown on the next slide is inspired from a poem X by the
noted English writer and poet Y.
• The poem was originally written for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee; and Y later
changed the text of X to reflect the subject of American colonization of the
Philippines, recently won from Spain in the Spanish–American War.
• The poem consists of seven stanzas, following a regular rhyme scheme. At face
value it appears to be a rhetorical command to white men to colonize and rule
other nations for the benefit of those people.
• Because of its theme and title, it has become emblematic both of Eurocentric
racism and of Western aspirations to improve and industrialise the developing
world. A century after its publication, the poem still rouses strong emotions, and
can be analyzed from a variety of perspectives.
• ID the poem X and the poet Y.

X – WHITE MAN’S BURDEN
Y – RUDYARD KIPLING

7
• The Alcatraz was the only prison in America to offer
this “luxury” service (that sometimes many complain
about in government college hostels), so that the
inmates aren’t able to escape successfully.
• What service and why?

HOT WATER SHOWERS
• The inmates at Alcatraz used to shower in warm water
and not the usual cold water, so that they are not able
to acclimatise to the cold waters around the Alcatraz if
they ever decided to escape and swim ashore!

8
• The Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx is an urban legend that
states that individuals or teams who appear on the cover
Sports Illustrated will subsequently be jinxed.
• For example
1. Tiger Woods got entangled with his infidelity issues;
2. Serena Williams lost to unranked Italian Roberta Vinci in the semi-finals
after appearing on the cover;
3. Luis Suárez after being featured on the cover received a 4-month ban
after biting Giorgio Chiellini in the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
• What happened when noted American football coach Chip
Kelly was profiled with the headline titled “Chip Kelly’s
Beautiful Mind” on May 25 2015?

DEATH OF JOHN FORBES NASH, ON WHOM THE
MOVIE “A BEAUTIFUL MIND” WAS BASED

9
• Vihara is the Sanskrit and Pali term for a Buddhist monastery,
originally meaning, “a secluded place in which to walk”. The
state of Bihar derives its name from this word, due to the
abundance of Buddhist monasteries in that area.
• Interestingly, it also made its contribution in nomenclature,
for the same reason, to a Central Asian city famous for its
rich culture. The flagship restaurant of the Maurya Hotel in
Delhi is named after this city, and has served kebabs to every
US President since Clinton when they have been in Delhi.
• ID this city.

10
• Isadora Duncan was an American
dancer, who lived in Western
Europe and the Soviet Union from
the age of 22 until her death at
age 50.
• Her fondness for flowing scarves
was well-known and contributed
to her death in 1927 in Nice,
France.
• An unwitting legacy of Duncan
was to give the medical
profession the injury known as
the “Isadora Duncan Syndrome”,
an injury common in India
• What exactly is the Isadora
Duncan Syndrome?

• Isadora Duncan syndrome results when an article of
clothing or hair becomes entangled in a piece of
machinery or moving object.
• The injury is common in India where flowing garments
become entangled in the wheels of rickshaws.

11
• In August 2015, the French government repealed a law
that dates back to 1798, when members employed in a
particular kind of establishment all over Paris were
forbidden from taking a long leave without permission
and leaving the city.
• The holidays of all such people were coordinated by the
government, so that these facilities remain open
throughout the year.
• Which establishments and why?

BAKERIES OR BOULANGERIES
• This is because in the late 1700s, there was a huge
famine while the royals ate lavishly, and this was one of
the reasons that led to the French Revolution.
• So, for over 200 years, the French government was
scared that if all the bakers went on holiday at the
same time, people won’t have bread to eat, and there
will be a second French revolution!

12
• Eli Roth, the director best known for horror films such
as Hostel and Cabin Fever, and also appears in
Inglorious Basterds as Donny Donowitz (The Bear Jew).
• Where might you have seen one of his shorter films –
“The Nation’s Pride”?

IN THE MOVIE ‘INGLORIOUS BASTERDS’ ITSELF!
(THE SHORT NAZI PROPAGANDA FILM SHOWN)

13
• “The Battle of the ____” (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945)
was a phrase coined by contemporary press to describe to describe
the way the Allied front line moved inwards on wartime news
maps, and became the most widely used name for this battle, in
which a major German offensive campaign launched through the
densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France,
and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World
War II in Europe.
• Along with the Battle of Okinawa and the Battle of Luzon, it was
one of the largest and bloodiest battles fought by the United
States in World War II.
• FITB. (Image on next slide)

14
• X was a group of four people that signed a petition to
screenwriter Terry Southern in Feb 1968.
• “We, the undersigned, do hereby protest with extreme
vehemence, as well as shattered illusions (in you) the
preference of David Hemmings above Z in the role of Alex in
the movie Y.” This letter went on auction in October 2015.
• As it turned out, the British Board of Film Classification
banned Southern’s script, and the project was taken over by
someone else, and neither Hemmings nor Z went on to play
the role of Alex in the 1971 cult film.
• ID X, Y, Z.

X – THE BEATLES
Y – A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
Z – MICK JAGGER

15
• He started his journalistic career as the Editor of the Hindi daily '‘Hindosthan’' in
1887, after being offered this post by Raja Rampal Singh of Kalakankar.
• When the English Government tried to bring in the Press Act and Newspaper Act in
1908, he started a campaign against it and called an All India Conference in
Allahabad. He then realized the need of an English Newspaper to make the
campaign effective throughout the country. As a result, with the help of Motilal
Nehru he started an English daily the "Leader" in 1909.
• In 1924, he along with the help of national leaders Lala Lajpat Rai and M. R.
Jayakar and industrialist Ghanshyam Das Birla, acquired Hindustan Times and saved
it from an untimely demise. He was the Chairman of Hindustan Times from 1924 to
1946, and his efforts resulted in the launch of its Hindi edition 'Hindustan' in 1936.
The paper is now owned by the Birla family.
• Whom are we talking about, who was in the news in 2013, many years after his
death?

1 +30/-25
• In late 1885, his father died, on a night when X had just left his
father, choosing to go and sleep with his wife instead, in spite of
the fact that she was pregnant. The couple’s first child was born
shortly after, but survived only a few days. This double tragedy
haunted X throughout his life.
• X wrote about the incident, “The shame, to which I have referred
in a foregoing chapter was this of my carnal desire even at the
critical hour of my father’s death, which demanded wakeful
service. It is a blot I have never been able to efface or forget… I
was weighed and found unpardonably wanting, because my mind
was at the same moment, in the grip of lust.”
• ID X.

2 +25/-20
• ID the mythological figure
on the right, also known as
Soumitri and Bharatanuja.
• According to legend, he is
one quarter component of
manifest Vishnu and is
considered to be an avatar
of Shesha, the serpent
associated with Vishnu.
• Played on screen by Sunil
Lahri, Ujjwal Rana, Ankit
Arora, Neil Bhatt and Karan
Suchak.

3 +20/-15
• ID the ruler on the right, who was
given the very famous title he is
associated with, at the age of
eleven by the Mughal Emperor,
Aurangzeb in the year 1699, who
had summoned him to Delhi,
impressed by his wit.
• On 21 April 1721, the Mughal
emperor Muhammad Shah
bestowed upon him the title of
Saramad-i-Rajaha-i-Hind and on 2
June 1723.
• These titles adorn his
descendants even to this date. He
had a great interest in
mathematics, architecture and
astronomy.

4 +15/-10
• According to legend, the ruler X was building a fort near Kolhapur,
but the walls kept collapsing during construction. The king’s
astrologer recommended the sacrifice of a woman and her
newborn to appease the gods of the mountain. Y was the only
person nearby whose wife had just delivered, so he, puffed up
with self-importance, offered his wife Jakkubai and his newborn
child as a sacrifice. A tomb still exists inside the fort for Jakkubai
and her child.
• As Y became prideful, he realised that only he could come to the
aid of a king, comparisons came to be drawn between him and the
emperor X, mostly in favour of X. This tale brought about a very
famous Hindi proverb, dismissing Y as being unimportant compared
to the emperor X.
• ID X and Y. X contributes to the connect.

5 +10/-5
• X, meaning “lion”, is one of the many names of the
Caliph Ali Ibn Ali Talin, who was known for his lion-like
valour in warfare.
• A controversial but highly critically acclaimed Indian
film of the same name X, written by Basharat Peer,
came out in 2014 and was a huge box office hit.
• ID X.

6 +5/0
• ID the deity to which
this famous temple is
dedicated.

X – RAJA BHOJA
Y – GANGU TELI
• कहााँ राजा भोज,
कहााँ गंगू तेली !

IT’S SO OBVIOUS NOW, ISN’T IT? 

NOMENCLATURE OF INDIAN STATE CAPITALS
1. Gandhi – Gandhinagar
2. Lakshmana – Lucknow
3. Maharaja Jai Singh II – Jaipur
4. Raja Bhoja – Bhopal
5. Haider – Hyderabad
6. Mumbadevi - Mumbai

1
• This fruit was originally marketed as the Chinese gooseberry,
but Cold War concerns surrounding China hampered sales. To
make matters worse, at the time, American importers had to
pay higher tariffs for berries and melons than they did for
other fruits, and customs agents assumed that the fruit was
a berry due to its name.
• The producers and importers got together to rename the
fruit for these reasons, after another country where the fruit
was commonly imported from.
• Which fruit?

2
• Brian Johnston was an English commentator who, in an
England vs West Indies test match at the Oval in 1976, is
reported to have said on air, to inform the listeners about
who’s bowling and who’s batting, “The bowler’s X, the
batsman’s Y.”
• He is said to have been subsequently alerted to his gaffe by
a letter from a lady who was listening to the commentary.
Sadly, no audio records of the commentary exist, so we’ll
never come to know if Johnston really said that or not.
• What was it, that was uttered by Johnston which has
become something of an urban legend?

MICHAEL HOLDING AND PETER WILLIE
“THE BOWLER’S HOLDING THE BATSMAN’S WILLIE”

3
• The increasing number of sexually transmitted diseases
among prostitutes in Hamburg, Germany in the 60s led
to the passing of a law, that only those sex workers will
be allowed to operate who had a certificate saying they
were free from any STD. This came to the notice of the
band X, who saw the certificate as their “______-__-
____”.
• Which band? And which song did this inspire?

4
• In the Humayun’s Tomb
complex lies a tomb of the
emperor’s favourite ______.
Because of this fact, it is
often confused to be the tomb
of a much more famous
individual, and a number of
people visiting the structure
actually dismiss the spelling
on signages as a typographical
error.
• What is the name of this
structure and why is it
confused with something else?

NAI KA GUMBAD
• This structure is known as “Nai ka Gumbad” or
“Barber’s Tomb” in English, which is frequently
confused by tourists with “Babur’s Tomb”, which is
actually in Kabul!

5
• After WW1, writer J. M. Barrie founded an amateur
cricket team for his friends. The people who played on
the team at different times included luminaries such as
Arthur Conan Doyle, H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, P. G.
Wodehouse, A. A. Milne, Walter Raleigh and the son of
Alfred Lord Tennyson.
• The name of the team is derived from a religious
invocation and comes from the mistaken belief that it
meant “Heaven help us,” rather than “God is Great”.
• What was the name of this legendary team?

6
• Xs are characterised by their rounder appearance which
increases the rate of oxidation, whereas Ys are
generally narrower, reducing surface area and in turn,
the rate of oxidation.
• Xs and Ys are usually found on dinner tables.
• What am I talking about?

SHAPES OF GLASSES FOR RED AND WHITE
WINES
X - Red Wine Y - White Wine

7
• In 1941, American photographer Philippe Halsman met
the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí; they began to
collaborate in the late 1940s. The 1948 work “Dalí
________” explores the idea of suspension, depicting
three cats flying, a bucket of thrown water, and Dalí
in mid air. The title of the photograph is a reference to
Dalí's work “Leda _______”, which can be seen in the
right of the photograph behind the two cats. Halsman
reported that it took 28 attempts before a satisfactory
result was achieved.
• Which work of art?

8
• X is credited with the discovery of methane, in addition
to his most famous invention.
• He drew admiration from Napoleon Bonaparte for his
invention, and was invited to the Institute of France to
demonstrate his invention to the members of the
Institute. He enjoyed a certain amount of closeness
with the Emperor throughout his life and he was
conferred numerous honours by him.

9
• The ____ is a 1973 American film set in September 1936, involving a
complicated plot by two professional grifters (Paul Newman and Robert
Redford) to con a mob boss (Robert Shaw). The story was inspired by real-
life cons perpetrated by brothers Fred and Charley Gondorff and
documented by David Maurer in his book The Big Con: The Story of the
Confidence Man.
• The title phrase refers to the moment when a con artist finishes the "play"
and takes the mark's money. If a con is successful, the mark does not
realize he has been "taken" (cheated), at least not until the con men are
long gone.
• It was nominated for 10 Oscars and won 7, including Best Picture, Best
Director and Best Original Screenplay.
• The name of the movie gave rise to two-word term, widely used today.
What?

10
• In the early 1950s, when enthusiasts of western music in the
USSR couldn’t etch the songs on vinyl because that material
was largely unavailable, they found another solution.
• This material was rather common at the time in the USSR
and, once used and reviewed, these were often tossed away
with garbage, making them cheap. As it turns out, this
material was capable of being grooved, just like vinyl could,
and then be played on turntables.
• The sound quality wasn’t great of course, but it was good
enough, and earned the nickname “Bone Music”.
• What alternative to vinyl did they use?

11
• The Gate of Mercy Synagogue is the oldest synagogue in
Mumbai, built in 1796 by two brothers of the Bene
Israeli community in South Bombay, as thanksgiving
after having been spared by Tipu Sultan, after being
captured in the Anglo-Myslore Wars.
• It was later rebuilt and moved to the present location
at Mandvi in 1860.
• It very ironically gives its name to a neighbouring
establishment, which sees large crowds at all times.
Which establishment?

12
• In the late 1930s, jazz music was big in Paris. During Hitler’s
invasion of Paris, he declared jazz as unlawful, since its
leading proponents were mostly blacks and Jews. But the
people who were largely addicted to it, devised a way
around it. They would carry their ____s, like you would carry
your books to a French library, underground, to basements
and enjoy the music in the vicinity of their homes without
the Nazis finding out. This came to be known as the X
culture, and these Xs sprouted all over Paris. Thus, Hitler
can be credited for the creation and rise of the X culture
around the world.
• ID X. Looking for a very specific word. A modern derivative
of it will only get you half points.

DISCOTHEQUE
(DISC + BIBLIOTHEQUE)

13
• The _________ ______ connects the Wannsee district of
Berlin with the Brandenburg capital Potsdam in
German, named after a nearby palace.
• The current structure, the fourth on the site, was
completed in 1907, although major reconstruction was
necessary after it was damaged during World War II.
• What did this structure come to be known as, the
subject of a 2015 movie?

GLIENICKE BRIDGE
(ALSO KNOWN AS THE BRIDGE OF SPIES)

14
• When Volkswagen came out with a new model of the
Beetle in 1964, their ads were trying to drive home the
point that it was incredibly spacious, and that no
matter how cramped it got, “there was always room for
one more”.
• So, they announced a savings bond of $25 for some
users of the Beetle to avail. By 1969, a total of 125
such users had been given this savings bond.
• What or whom were these bonds for?

BABIES BORN IN THE BACK OF A
VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE! 

15
• On 23 July 1983, an Air Canada Boeing 767 ran out of
fuel at an altitude of 12,500 metres. The flight crew
was able to glide the aircraft safely to an emergency
landing at an auto racing track that was previously an
air force base in Gimli, Manitoba. For this reason, it
was known as the “Gimli Glider”.
• The subsequent investigation revealed a combination of
company failures and a chain of human errors that
defeated built-in safeguards. What was the reason for
these errors?

THE CONFUSION FOLLOWING CONVERSION FROM
THE IMPERIAL SYSTEM TO THE METRIC SYSTEM

PLEASE WRITE DOWN A-J AND GUESS 
• The year 1815 was marked by a particular natural event A in
Indonesia, which was one of the most powerful events of its
kind in recorded history and is classified as a VEI-7 event.
• This led to a worldwide climatic change, making the year
1816 known globally as the “The Year Without Summer”.
• One of many consequences of this climate change was that B
was observed in Madras, making it perhaps the only time in
recorded history.
• Because of the cold, it led to crop failures across the world,
causing a typhoid outbreak in South India, a famine in
Ireland, food riots between France and England and a state
of emergency in Switzerland, among other things.

• One of the consequences of this event was that high
levels of tephra in the atmosphere led to “unusually
spectacular sunsets” across the world, influencing artists
like C, whose painting “Chichester Canal” is believed to
be inspired from it.

• The lack of oats to feed horses, caused by the famine
resulting from A, is said to have inspired German
inventor Karl Drais to research new ways of horseless
transportation, which led to the invention of the D,
also known as a “draisine”, the ancestor of the modern
E.
• Also, Justin von Liebig, a chemist who had experienced
the famine as a child was inspired to study plant
nutrition, and later introduced F into the markets, still
widely used today.

• In 1816, “incessant rainfall” during that “wet, ungenial summer”
forced G, H, John William Polidori and their friends to stay indoors
at a house overlooking Lake Geneva for much of their Swiss
holiday.
• They decided to have a contest to see who could write the scariest
story, leading G to write I, which is infused with elements of the
Gothic novel and the Romantic movement, and is also considered
to be one of the earliest examples of science fiction.
• It also led to H writing his famous poem “Darkness”, and the
unfinished “A Fragment of a Novel”. This inspired Polidori to write
“The _______”, viewed as the progenitor of this genre of fantasy
fiction, which was the central inspiration behind J, arguably the
most famous work in this genre.

ANSWERS
• A – Eruption of Mount Tambora
• B – Snowfall in Madras
• C – JMW Turner
• D – Velocipede
• E – Bicycle
• F – Chemical fertilizers
• G –Mary Shelley
• H – Lord Byron
• I - Frankenstein
• J - Dracula

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