Trivia Blast was a 30 question trivia game done on Menti.com on July 31, 2021 for the IIT Kanpur Alumni Association hosted by Arun T P. It included questions about famous individuals like Mahatma Gandhi, movies like Andaz Apna Apna, sports athletes like Saikhom Mirabai Chanu, and places like Long Island. The questions tested knowledge across topics in history, literature, science, and pop culture.

1. Trivia Blast
30 questions
Done on Menti.com
On 31 July 2021
For the IIT Kanpur Alumni Association
Arun T P

2. In 1934, the Maitra brothers
started Sulekha, a Swadeshi ink
company, at a person's insistence.
You would normally associate him
with an equipment other than a
pen, but he is known to have
written over 31,000 letters in his
lifetime.
Surname is enough (6)

3. Mahatma Gandhi

4. The last lines of Hitoshi Matsubara's short
story, "The Day a computer writes a novel"
are as follows.
“I writhed with joy, which I experienced for
the first time, and kept writing with
excitement. The day a computer wrote a novel.
The computer, placing priority on the pursuit
of its own joy, stopped working for humans.”
It was selected for the first round of the
prestigious Nikkei Hoshi Shinichi Literary
Award among other 1450 entries. (2 or 8)

5. AI or Computer

6. "These trees are very tall. The fruit grows out
from the bottom of the tree. The one that grows
nearest to the earth is extremely sweet and very
tasty. It resembles a very big gourd and its skin is
like that of an ox. It grows ripe and yellow in
autumn, and then folks gather and divide it.
Each fruit has 100s of seeds, which resemble
cucumbers, and the seeds have a stone which
resembles a large bean. One can roast the seed,
and it would taste like a bean. These are the best
fruits in Hindustan."
About which fruit is Ibn Battuta salivating? (9)

7. Jackfruit / Kathal / Breadfruit

8. "My brothers and cousins would come back all
dirty after a day of playing football. I wanted to
play a clean and tidy sport, so I turned to archery.
Unfortunately, when I went to the main sports
training centre in the state, the archery facility was
closed for the day. I saw the lifting room was
open, was mesmerised by the photos of legends,
and so... I dropped archery."
She said that the daily routine of gathering
firewood and going up and down the hill gave her
really strong legs.
Give me the athlete's surname. (5)

9. Saikhom Mirabai Chanu

10. The rumours were that both the lead actors
were not cordial with each other. In actuality,
the leading ladies were fighting. It got to such
a level of craziness, that in the climax scene,
where both the ladies were tied to a pillar,
they refused to speak to each other. The
director threatened to not untie them if they
didn't make up.
Which 1990s cult Bollywood movie are we
referring to? (5 4 4)

11. Andaz Apna Apna

12. Yarlung Tsangpo is the largest untapped river
in China. Downstream it becomes India's
Brahmaputra. In recent news, the Chinese
plan to build a dam in a gorge here has
invited the anger and ire of the Indian and
Bangladeshi government.
Given its location, this river is also called the
_______ of Rivers. FITB. (7)

13. Everest

14. This instrument is used to make what? (7)

15. Braille

16. From one kind of journalism to
another.
Give me 2 first names separated by a
space. (5 6)
e.g.
Narendra Modi and Amit Shah should be
answered as
Narendra Amit

17. Rajat Sharma + Ravish Kumar

18. On July 17 2002, Steve Jobs
launched iCal (Apple's Calendar)
with the logo seen in the picture,
which is still used in the macOS
today. Two years later, this was used
as the day to celebrate what
ubiquitous element of modern-day
communication, which helps convey
emotions?
We celebrate this every July 17th. An
animated movie from Sony also
came out in 2017 celebrating these.
World _____ Day. FITB. (5)

19. Emoji

20. In his book The Serendipity Mindset : The Art and
Science of Creating Good Luck, Christian Busch
talks about 3 kinds of serendipity.
Thunderbolt : a solution that comes out of
nowhere, even though you weren’t looking for one
X-Y : finding an unexpected solution to a problem
you will only find later. A very famous sticky
stationery from 3M (6)
Z : an unexpected solution to a problem you are
trying to solve. A famous naked scientist who
shouted Eureka(10)
Need answer as 6 10
(disregard the hyphen in first part)

21. Post-it notes, Archimedes

22. In the 2020 Tunisian movie, The Man Who Sold his
Skin, Sam Ali gets separated from his girlfriend
during the Syrian Civil War. She gets married off to
a rich European guy, while he is left back in Syria,
trying to figure out a way to reach her.
He chances upon a European artist, known as the
Devil, and strikes a Faustian bargain, to tattoo his
back with something that will let him free and open
access to any place in Europe. He will be a living
piece of art displayed and sold to the highest
bidder.
What does the Devil tattoo on Sam’s back, known
to everyone if they have been to Europe? (8 4)

23. Schengen Visa

26. Which Indian equaled a part of this record,
on a cold morning February day, in 1999?
(6)

27. Anil Kumble

28. Pica is the medical disorder of
consuming non-edibles like mud,
nails, cement, stones etc.
It is derived from the Latin name of
a bird, which is as intelligent as a
crow, likes shiny objects and most
importantly, is known to eat almost
anything.
What bird is this which might remind
you of a humble baked item and a
counting rhyme? (6)

29. Magpie

30. This is a leather alternative made
from coconut water. The water acts
as nutrients to microbes, which
converts sugars to cellulose. The
cellulose is aggregated to create a
tough material looking like leather.
What is the creamy name of this
company? Think in Hindi. (5)

31. Malai

32. Here is Heena Sidhu, explaining 2 issues
that happened recently with a cocking
lever and an overheating circuit.
Who was the unfortunate victim?
Surname only. (6)

33. Manu Bhaker’s pistol malfunction

34. What’s the blanked out word? (10)

35. population

36. Yukti underwent awake craniotomy, i.e. she had
to remain awake, while her brain was getting rid
of a tumour.
What easy recitation did she use to remain awake,
used by many common Hindus everyday, which
would remind one of the number 40?
(7 7)

37. Hanuman Chalisa

38. Here is an Indian gentleman standing
in an anechoic chamber, with a product
from his eponymous company.
Give me a simple surname (4)

39. Bose (Amar Bose)

40. This is the Andaman group of
islands. Right in the middle, is an
island marked in red, which is of
a bigger length than islands next
to it.
What name does this island have
that might remind you of a very
strong alcoholic cocktail, made
of vodka, tequila, light rum,
triple sec, gin, and a splash of
cola? (4 6)

41. Long Island

42. A question everyone should get.
No quiz is complete without a GI tag
product these days.
Which city in UP famous for its
tanneries is Asia’s largest centre for the
products on the slide?
(6)

43. Kanpur Saddleries

44. The first women to join this
occupation had to be
• Single
• < 25 years old
• Weigh less than 52 kgs
• Less than 1.63 m tall
• Be a registered nurse
They were paid handsomely.
What occupation?
(3 7)

45. Air Hostess

46. If you google it you will find that the
odour of this extremely fast-acting
toxic chemical is bitter-almond like,
while somewhere in the 21st century,
while an Indian gold merchant in
Kochi was trying to find an easy end,
wrote it quickly down in a piece of
paper, that its taste was acrid.
We can’t verify the story.
Give the common name for this
chemical.
(7)

47. Cyanide, the LTTE was famously known to carry cyanide capsules to commit
suicide if caught

48. This painting by Tyeb Mehta displays a
asura mating with a water buffalo. This
union had resulted in the birth of another
asura X.
Which goddess killed X? (5)

49. Durga as Mahishasuramardini
The buffalo is Mahisha, and an Asura mated with her to create Mahishasura.
Durga kills Mashishasura to become Mahishasuramardini

50. One of the greatest rock hits of all
time was inspired by a conversation
that this band’s keyboardist, Jonathan,
had with his father shortly after he
moved to LA in hopes of landing a
big break. "I said, 'Dad, should I just
give up on this thing and come home?
It seems like I might be pushing it
back to Chicago.' 'No, no, don't come
home. Stick to your guns. Don't stop
________. I went, 'OK.’”
FITB (9)

51. Believin’

52. This is a timelapse photo of a device
strapped with LEDs going around a
room.
What (6) letter machine are we talking
about?
Need a product name.

53. Roomba

54. In this book, Binoo talks about how First World
Countries and countries with extremely high
GDPs, win most medals in the Olympics.
Two smaller and less prosperous nations were an
exception to this and featured in the top 20 medal
winning nations in Rio 2016.
One was Kenya with 6 golds, which other
country won 6 gold medals, mostly thanks to
their athletic brilliance? (7)

55. Jamaica

56. The first one in India was 1872. This decade
synchronous data aggregation process in India
was postponed this year due to Covid and will
probably be done digitally.
The expectation is that this will reduce the
storage of physical records. India can look up
to countries like Austria, Eswatini and
Ethiopia which have decided to do this
digitally.
The initial purpose of this in Ancient Rome
was to estimate how much tax can be actually
collected?
What process? (6)

57. Census

58. Identify the movie
depicted in this Amul ad
(6)

59. Sherni

60. Sometimes baseball matches used to get
postponed or suspended due to sudden rain.
To make sure that spectators can watch the
match at a later day, these tickets were given to
the them at no extra cost.
What 2 word name is this ticket called which is
the operative part of an idiom in which one
politely refuses an offer and says they will take
up on the offer at another time?
(4 5)

61. Take a rain check / take a rain cheque

62. These natural formations were used extensively
by Native Americans to kill large prey. After
which big ungulates are these landmarks named

63. Bison Jump or Buffalo Jump