3. Format
- 42 questions on Infinite Pounce*
- One written round
- One theme round
* Or what Suraj “Demigod” Menon calls “The Dominique Strauss Kahn approach”
4. Rules
10 points per correct answer
+15/-10 on the pounce
You can pounce on your direct questions
Please wait till the pouncing is done to
give out the answer
6. Q1
• The first edition of this festival took place
on May 1, 1956 and was organized by
Arturo Uribe, a member of the Board of
the Office of Development and Tourism.
• The festival lasted for 5 days with an
exposition of flowers displayed in the
Metropolitan Cathedral, which was
organized to celebrate Virgin Mary day.
• This parade represents the end of slavery
when slaves carried men and women on
their backs up steep hills.
• Name the festival.
8. Q2
• Türkmenabat also known as Chardjui (the
Persian for 'four canals‘ or ‘four streams’) is a
town in Turkmenistan.
• It’s ancient name gives a river known as ‘Oxus’
to the greeks, it’s more popular/ famous name
• This name would be familiar to most of us in
India for a completely different reason.
• What was the ancient name of this place?
9. • Amul
• The river is Amu Darya – meaning “ river of
Amul”
10. Q3
• This is a song by Jagjit Singh from an album
released in 1999
• Who is the lyricist for this song (as well as all
other songs from this album)
12. Q4
In geology this term refers to a fold in stratum layers. These folds are
generally with straight limbs and small angular hinges. They typically form
in multilayers, consisting of regular alternations of beds with contrasting
mechanical properties
13.
14. Q5
• Wadi Rum is a valley in the Aqaba governerate.
• In the 1980s this rock formation in Wadi Rum was named in memory of a
book penned in the aftermath of the Arab Revolt, though what is referred
to in the book actually has no connection with Rum.
• What is this called?
15.
16. Q6
• In 1903 a small town called Wyrley was the scene of the
"Great Wyrley Outrages", a series of slashings of horses, cows
and sheep.
• A local solicitor was tried and convicted for the eighth
attack, on a pit pony, and sentenced to seven years with hard
labour.
• While he was released in 1906, he was not pardoned, and the
police kept him under surveillance.
• A rather famous chap a the time was persuaded to turn
detective to prove the man's innocence.
• This he achieved after eight months of work and the solicitor
was exonerated by a Home Office committee of enquiry.
• Name both these people.
18. Q7
• "The Library of _________" is a short story by Jorge Luis Borges
• Borges's narrator describes how his universe consists of an
enormous expanse of interlocking hexagonal rooms, each of which
contains the bare necessities for human survival—and four walls of
bookshelves.
• Though the order and content of the books is random and
apparently completely meaningless, the inhabitants believe that the
books contain every possible ordering of just a few basic characters
(letters, spaces and punctuation marks). The narrator notes that the
library must contain all useful information, including predictions of
the future, biographies of any person, and translations of every
book in all languages.
20. Audience
• Sam Bartram, goalkeeper at Charlton Athletic was one
of the most loved characters in English football in the
1940s. He was known to be brave and more than
willing to stick his head in a flurry of boots. He is also
known for his theatrics on the field. In safe situations
he would take the ball forward, dribbling on his own.
He is also, on one instance, known to dived under the
ball for an incoming shot and pulled off something we
all associate with an international match in the mid
1990s.
• What did he do?
22. Q8
• One of many advertisements
published in the papers on behalf of
the person whose name is blanked
out.
• Whose name has been blanked out?
23.
24. Q9
• In 1931, the Nazi party encouraged the publication of a
book, “Hundred authors against ____X____”
• It contained very short texts from 28 authors, and excerpts of
publications from other 19 authors.
• Hans Reichenbach described the book as an "accumulation of naive
errors", and as "unintentionally funny".
• Albert von Brunn interpreted the book as a backward step to the
16th and 17th century, and _____X_____ is reported to have said
with irony, "If I were wrong, it would only have taken one."
• Among these authors, there was only one physicist (Karl Strehl) and
three mathematicians (Jean-Marie Le Roux, Emanuel Lasker and
Hjalmar Mellin)
• X?
26. Q10
• This influential 4th century Christian theologian was the bishop of
Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia (modern-day Turkey).
• This guy, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa are
collectively referred to as the Cappadocian Fathers.
• His principal theological writings are On the Holy Spirit, an appeal
to Scripture and early Christian tradition (to prove the divinity of
the Holy Spirit), and Refutation of the Apology of the Impious
Eunomius, written in 363 or 364, three books against Eunomius of
Cyzicus.
• Who is this guy?
28. Q11
This picture was taken aboard the Maud
during her unsuccessful attempt to cross
the Northeast Passage.
The person at the wheel successfully
journeyed eastward along the coast of
Siberia to Nome, but his plan of freezing
the ship in the polar ice pack and letting it
drift northward did not work as the
currents were uncooperative.
Who is at the wheel?
30. Q12
• In a letter to P.K.Rao, dated September 10, 1935, Gandhi disputes
that this idea of civil disobedience was derived from the writings of
X
– “The statement that I had derived my idea of Civil Disobedience
from the writings of X is wrong. The resistance to authority in
South Africa was well advanced before I got the essay ... When I
saw the title of X’s great essay, I began to use his phrase to
explain our struggle to the English readers. But I found that even
"Civil Disobedience" failed to convey the full meaning of the
struggle. I therefore adopted the phrase "Civil Resistance."
32. Q13
• This German physician had an interest in astronomy, and theorised
that there was a natural energetic transference that occurred
between all animated and inanimate objects that he called
magnétisme animal (animal magnetism).
• In 1766 he published a doctoral dissertation with the title On the
Influence of the Planets on the Human Body, which discussed the
influence of the Moon and the planets on the human body and on
disease.
• The evolution of his ideas and practices led Scottish surgeon James
Braid to develop hypnosis in 1842.
• Name this guy, whose name is also the root for an english verb.
38. Q15
• His work on geometry is called the
Four Books on Measurement
(translated)
• The first book focuses on linear
geometry. The second book moves
onto two dimensional geometry, i.e.
the construction of regular polygons.
The third book applies these
principles of geometry to
architecture, engineering and
typography. In architecture he cites
Vitruvius but elaborates his own
classical designs and columns.
• Identify this artist?
40. Q16
• This style of ceramics is
named after the town in
western Anatolia where it was
made.
• This town in ancient times
hosted two councils of
Christian bishops in A.D. 325
and AD 787
• What is the style of ceramics
called?
41. • Iznik ceramics
• Present day Iznik is the location of Nicaea
• The First Council of Nicaea was a council of
Christian bishops convened by the Roman
Emperor Constantine I in AD 325. The Council
was the first effort to attain consensus in the
church through an assembly representing all
of Christendom.
42. Q17
Todor Diev Stadium is a football stadium in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. It
is the home ground of FC Spartak Plovdiv.
The stadium is also known as Plovdiv's _________- a tribute
to another team which plays in the same blue hooped kit as
Spartak.
44. Q18
“Over the course of the Solar System's existence, the orbits of
comets are unstable; eventually, dynamics dictate that a comet
must either collide with the Sun or a planet, or else be ejected from
the Solar System by planetary perturbations. Moreover, their
volatile composition means that as they repeatedly approach the
Sun, radiation gradually boils the volatiles off until the comet splits
or develops an insulating crust that prevents further outgassing.
Thus a comet could not have formed while in its current orbit, and
must have been held in an outer reservoir for almost all of its
existence.”
This was the reasoning of a Dutch astronomer reviving the work of
Ernst Öpik from the early 1930s.
Name the Dutch astronomer.
45. • Johann Oort
• The Oort cloud or the Öpik–Oort cloud is a hypothesized spherical
cloud of comets which may lie roughly 50,000 AU from the Sun
46. Q19
Quoting from a BBC travel article about a certain island and
possibly it’s most famous resident
Indeed, upon his arrival, X spun into a veritable tornado of
activity, ordering a plethora of public works, like boosting
agriculture, road-building, marsh draining and a thorough
overhaul of the legal and education systems. He also oversaw
improvements to the island's iron-ore mines, the revenue of
which now kept him comfortably stocked in hair care products.
Who is X and what is the island?
58. Answers
1. Will Eisner
2. Sergei Prokofiev
3. Berliner
4. Robert Burns
5. Hokusai
59. Audience
The German punk band Die Ärzte hold the record
for the shortest single ever released, with a
runtime of 30 seconds
Farin Urlaub sings about a person that annoys
him in several ways, stating that this person is
"more annoying than X”.
X is a controversial figure in the world of music
and an artist who ‘everyone knows, but no-one
knows what she does’.
X?
61. Theme Round
• Please write down the answers
• 5 points per correct answer
• 7 elements
• Order is important
• You could take it as exhaustive
• Scoring:
– +30,+25, +20, +15, +10, +10, +5
– No negatives
– One attempt per question
62. Theme Q1
+30
• Alex Von Tunzelmann wrote a book called ‘Indian Summer, The
Secret History of the End of Empire’
• This was supposed to be made into a film of the same name by
director Joe Wright with Cate Blanchett and Hugh Grant playing the
two major roles.
• The film was shelved. Wright gives the reason as “The Indian
government wanted us to make less of the love story while the
studio wanted us to make more of the love story.“
• What character was Hugh Grant supposed to play?
63. Theme Q2
+25
• This guy was leader of the Muslims from the United Provinces and a
longtime mayor of Lucknow
• He presided over elections for Pakistan’s newly formed assembly in
Lahore
• He later became Governor of East Pakistan
• It is said Lucknow came to a standstill when news of his death (in
1973) reached there
• Who?
64. Theme Q3
+20
• ??? - 13 May 1952 to 12 May 1962
• Dr. Zakir Hussain - 13 May 1962 to 12 May 1967
• Sh. Varahagiri Venkata Giri - 13 May 1967 to 3 May 1969
• Gopal Swarup Pathak - 1 September 1969 to 1 September
1974
• Basappa Danappa Jatti - 1 September 1974 to 25 July 1977
65. Theme Q4
+15
• In October this year, it was announced that a rare pink gold
Rolex Oyster Perpetual watch, it’s dial decorated with the map
of India with the date 26 January, 1950 inscribed on it, would
be auctioned by Sotherby’s as part of a collection of rare
timepieces
• Who did this watch belong to?
66. Theme Q5
+10
• Along with X, one of his twin grandsons, Nicholas, 14, and
Paul Maxwell, 15, a local employed as a boat boy were killed
in an explosion.
• They were aboard his boat, Shadow V, which had just set off
from the fishing village of Mullaghmore,
• Nearby fishermen raced to the rescue and pulled X out of the
water, but his legs had been almost severed by the explosion
and he died shortly afterwards.
• The local police kept watch on Classiebawn castle but his boat
was left unguarded in the public dock in Mullaghmore where
it was moored.
• X?
67. Theme Q6
+10
This lady was a prolific writer .
Some of her literary contributions in Gujarati are Bavlana
Parakrama , a translation of Pinnachio and Golibarni Musafari, a
translation of Gulliver`s Travels.
She translated into Gujarati Shakespeare`s Hamlet and Merchant of
Venice; Valmiki`s Ramayana from Sanskrit;
She published three tracts in English as Women Under the Hindu
Law of Marriage and Succession, Post-war Educational
Reconstruction and Civil Liberties.
On the International scene, she represented India on the Status of
Women in the United Nations and United Nations Human Rights
Commission.
Who?
68. Theme Q7
+5
• Husband
– Jivaram
– Studied at FC
– One of the founders of the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party
– Moved the first ever no-confidence motion in Indian Parliament
• Wife
– Born to bong parents (Maiden name: Mujumdar) in Ambala
– Went from strength to strength in the government, held several
cabinet posts and also became CM of a state at one point
• Name the wife
69. Answer – First Independence Day
Ceremony
1. Nehru gave the first speech
2. Khallikuzzaman gave the second speech
3. Radhakrishnan gave the third speech
4. Rajendra Prasad spoke in the end
5. Mountbatten was accepted as Governer
General
6. The tricolour was accepted as national flag from
Hansa Mehta
7. Sucheta Kriplani sang Vande Mataram
73. Q23
While this was patented by Charles F. Foley and Neil Rabens, a
few questionable sources also mention a man by the name of
Reyn Guyer.
It is said that Guyer originally called this ‘Pretzel’, but that the
name by which we now know it was chosen as ‘Pretzel’ was
not allowed to be trademarked.
What are we talking about?
74.
75. Q24
She was the daughter of King Bebrycius and was a lover of
Hercules. She bore a serpent and became so terrified that she
fled to the woods where she died. Hercules created a tomb
for her by piling up rocks thus forming the mountain range
named after her.
Who is this?
79. Q26
Jack Tinn knew more about it that anyone else. He knew that
it held 11 pints. He also knew that was insured for 200
pounds. He put it a local bank for extra security, but expecting
an air raid had taken it home for some time. It spent most of
the war years in Havant police station.
What are we talking about?
80.
81. Q27
• A 1982 movie starts with this song
• This is not the only song in the movie
• Which movie?
82.
83. Q28
• In Shakespeare’s Henry VI part 1, there is a scene set in the
gardens of the Temple Church in London in which the
noblemen pick a flower to signify their allegiance.
• Sir Walter Scott was the first to use the phrase
“______________” in his historical novel Anne of Geierstein.
• Thereafter the term entered widespread use among
historians and the general public.
• What phrase?
85. Audience
These are fundamental requirements for
classification of animals in two similar systems
What are X and Y?
X: Mammals must chew cud as well as have cloven
hooves.
Y: Animals must survive on grass and leaves.
87. Q29
• This guy was a explorer, diplomat, champion skier and a PhD
in zoology.
• However he is most famous for his work with the League of
Nations in the last 10 years of his life, which also earned him
the Nobel peace prize.
• An organisation started by the League of Nations in his
honour (to take forward his work) was awarded the Nobel
peace prize beating arguably the two most famous
personalities of the 20th century.
• Name this guy
88. • Fridjtof Nansen
• Nansen
International Office
for Refugees won
the Nobel Prize for
Peace in 1938
beating Gandhi and
Hitler to win
89. Q30
In 2008, a noted Serbian filmmaker directed a documentary
about a sportsman.
The documentary came under severe criticism (especially in
the English speaking world) for making the movie too
“blusteringly macho”
People were also pissed about the director featuring in almost
every scene
Another issue was the unusual focus on one incident set to
the background score of “God Save the Queen” which some
found insulting
Name the sportsman and the director
90.
91. Q31
• New comic from
SpiltMoonArts
• The first Muslim super
hero in America
• The hero takes his name
from the Arabic for
"lightning”, also the name
of a mythological steed.
• Name the hero.
92.
93. Q32
• In the Mughal period, the translation of a series of books into
persian was commissioned. This translation was called
“Kalilah wa Dimnah” where the name referred to two
characters the first and longest book.
• Which series of books? (5 points)
• Name the two characters (5 points)
94. • Panchatantra
• Karataka and Damanaka – narrators of Mitra- bhed
• The lion (Pingalaka) who is the king of the forest and a
bull (Sanjivaka) become freinds. Karataka and
Damanaka are two jackals who are retainers to the
lion. Damanaka breaks the friendship between the lion
and the bull as he became jealous.
• This has around thirty stories that have been narrated
by the two jackals.
95. Q33
Quoting from a BBC news article
(Yes, www.bbc.co.uk is my homepage. How did you guess?)
‘David Lloyd is the man who created the original image for a graphic
novel. He compares its use by protesters to the way Alberto Korda's
famous photograph of Argentine revolutionary Che Guevara
became a fashionable symbol for young people across the world.
A curious Lloyd visited the Occupy Wall Street protest in Zuccotti
Park, New York, to have a look at some of the people sporting this
image. He says , "My feeling is the Anonymous group needed an all-
purpose image to hide their identity and also symbolise that they
stand for individualism - ___________ is a story about one person
against the system.”’
96.
97. Q34
• This guy was the Duke of Bohemia from 921 until his
assassination in 935, purportedly in a plot by his own
brother, Boleslav the Cruel.
• His martyrdom, and several stories, quickly gave rise to a cult-
like following and reputation of superhuman
goodness, resulting in his being elevated to
Sainthood, posthumously declared king, and seen as the
patron saint of the Czech state.
• Identify this ‘good king’
98. • Wenceslas
• “Good King Wenceslas looked
out, on the Feast of
Stephen, When the snow lay
round about, deep and crisp and
even; Brightly shone the moon
that night, tho' the frost was
cruel, When a poor man came in
sight, gath'ring winter fuel.”
99. Q35
• An explanation as to why it was totally safe to do
something
• 'Babies have a gag reflex. If you blow in their face, they hold
their breath.’
• What?
100.
101. Audience
• Buchanan is the third largest city in this
country, lying on Waterhouse Bay, part of the
Atlantic Ocean.
• It is named for Thomas Buchanan, cousin of
U.S. president James Buchanan.
• This is not the only city in the country named
after an American
• Name the country
103. Q36
• To encourage inter-tribal interaction and to promote cultural
heritage of Nagaland, the Government of Nagaland organizes
this festival every year in the first week of December.
• The festival showcases a mélange of cultural displays under
one roof. This festival usually takes place between the 1st and
the 7th of December every year in Kohima.
• The Festival is named after a bird which is displayed in
folklore in most of the state’s tribes.
• What is the festival called?
105. Q37
• It is said St. Francis Xavier requested that this be set up in
1545.
• It was set up in 1560 and was finally abolished in 1812
• The first heads, Aleixo Dias Falcão and Francisco
Marques, moved into a palace once occupied by the
Sultan, forcing the Viceroy to move to a smaller residence.
• What?
109. Q39
This guy was a naval surveyor in the Bombay Marine.
Between 1786 and 1788 he took part in a number of survey missions in east India
including to the Chagos archipelago, to Diamond Harbour south of Calcutta and to
adjacent parts of the Hooghly river.
A result of his first surveying voyage to a certain place, was the Governor-general’s
decision to colonise this place in order to provide a safe harbour in the war against
pirates.
He had surveyed the place and discovered a fine natural harbour which he initially
named after Lord Cornwallis.
He later returned to successfully establish a permanent colony, partly composed of
convicts.
This place he named after Lord Cornwallis is now named after him.
Who is this guy?
111. Q40
• This is a type of hat similar to the
fedora.
• It has a shorter brim which is angled
down at the front and slightly turned
up at the back versus the fedora's
wider brim which is more level.
• The hat's name derives from the stage
adaptation of a 1894 novel; a hat of
this style was worn in the first London
production of the play, and promptly
came to be called "a ______ hat"
113. Q41
• In February 2005 the Presidents of
Congo, Gabon and France, gathered at a
ceremony to lay the foundation stone for
a memorial to X, a mausoleum of Italian
marble.
• On 30 September 2006, his remains were
exhumed from Algiers along with those
of his wife and four children. They were
reinterred on 3rd October, in the new
marble mausoleum in a city named after
X.
• The ceremony was attended by three
African presidents and a French foreign
minister, who paid tribute to his
humanitarian work against slavery and
the abuse of African workers.
• X?
114. • Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazzà
• The mausoleum is in Brazzaville
115. Q42
• This is a light sponge cake. When cut in cross section, displays a distinctive two-by-
two check pattern alternately coloured pink and yellow. These coloured sections are
made by dyeing half of the cake mixture pink, and half yellow, then cutting each
resultant sponge into two long, uniform cuboids, and joining them together with
jam, to form one cake.
• Legend states that the four squares seen in the cross-section represent these four
people - Prince Louis, Alexander, Prince Henry, Prince Francis Joseph
117. Audience
• In 2009, when Denmark loaned Edvard Eriksen's
famous statue to China, X was asked to create a
replacement.
Instead, he installed a television feed of the
statue in its temporary home in Shanghai, saying:
"That's our real life. Everybody is under some
kind of surveillance camera.“
• Which Statue?
• And who is X?