KQA Mega-Whats National Face-Off - Semi-finals 2

Mega-Whats 2014
The 5th National Open Quizzing Championships
Conducted by
The Karnataka Quiz Association
Est. 1983
Set by
Arun Hiregange and Kiran Vijayakumar

The Rules
1. +10/-5 on the pounce; +10 on the bounce
2. Part points available on the pounce
3. If you give one part correct and one part
wrong, you get -5
4. If you just attempt one part and if you’re
wrong, you get -5
5. If you just attempt one part and if you’re
right, you get +5 (or as the case maybe)

The Design
Three rounds:
I. Written  5
II. Clockwise  18
III. Anti-clockwise  18

1
Identify the person.
[Video removed]

2
Give a 7-letter adjective which comes via Greek
and means “of the groin”.

3
Identify this gentleman from his college days.

4
This picture
was taken a
few minutes
before another
which we’ve
seen often in
quizzes. Which
photo or
identify what is
going on?

5
From Khushwant Singh’s Joke Book 8: A husband
and wife were both Members of Lok Sabha. While
he was in the Socialist Party, she was a Congress
member. Once when someone drew the attention
of the husband to the fact that he was criticizing
the Congress party which had attracted his own
wife, the quick-witted husband retorted, “All these
years I thought Congressmen were stupid. But I
never knew they were also gangsters who ran
away with others’ wives.” Identify the couple.

5
Acharya and Sucheta Kriplani.

1
This documentary is about a South American
creature called the Uakari. Locals call it by another
name because of its appearance which it seems
reminds them of visitors from another country
across the ocean. What name? Why?
[Video removed]

1
English Monkey.
Its red face and bald head reminded them of
sunburnt Englishmen.

2
In 2007 Mongolia issued a 500 Tugrik coin to
honour President Kennedy, apparently because he
is beloved in the country for launching the Peace
Corps. Or perhaps it is a tongue-in-cheek
illustration of an adage. Why did collectors snap
up these coins immediately on release?

2
If you press a button on the coin, it plays “Ich bin
ein Berliner”.

3
An extract from this animal’s pineal glands was
used as a base for perfume. Later it was found
that an extract from a certain seed could be used
as a replacement, so this plant/seed came to be
commonly known by the animal’s genus name.
Further, the scientific name of the plant comes
because the seed was said to look like this insect
when it was bloated. Give both the common and
scientific names (genus) of the plant.

3
Common name 
Scientific Name 

3
Castor. Ricinus.
The beaver’s genus name is Castor. Ricin means
“tick”.

4
John Scott ____, father of the triple-initialled
scientist whom we have all heard of, himself was
no mean scientist. He is said to have come up with
the “canary in a coalmine” concept used in mining.
Engineers sought his opinion on ventilation and
respiratory issues when designing submarines,
tunnels, mines and ships. He also features in the
scuba diving hall of fame for a set of tables he
produced. Who and what were these tables used
for?

4
John Scott Haldane came up with decompression
charts to avoid diver’s “bends”.

5
Former White House chief economist Alan Krueger
said he once visited an off-track betting site in the
middle of the day in hopes of finding jobless
people cut off from employment benefits and
interviewing them about how they were supporting
themselves. “I still couldn’t figure it out”, said
Krueger, who returned last year to his job teaching
economics at Princeton University. He dubbed the
phenomenon the ____ effect, after an eccentric TV
character who had no clear means of support but
seemed to get by just fine. Who?

6
He has been rector of the Royal College of Art and
chairman of the Arts Council. The Guardian has
called him a one-man department of cultural
history. And he is a big fan of spaghetti Westerns.
So when Christopher Frayling was knighted in
2001 for his services to art and design education,
he chose as his motto: Perge scelus mihi diem
perficas, which translated means “Proceed, varlet,
and let the day be rendered perfect for my
benefit”. Explain this choice.

7
On the final lap of the season’s final race he was
leading when the engine on his dark green Cooper
stopped; the car coasted several hundred yards
before coming to a halt. As McLaren and then
Trintignant and Brooks swept past, he climbed out
of his car. Though as it turned out, it didn’t matter,
but he did something unusual after which he
collapsed. His closest rival Stirling Moss was there
in the mob to congratulate him. Who and what did
he do?

7
Jack Brabham pushed his car 200-300 metres to
the finish line.

8
The death of a Sufi saint is regarded as wisaal
(union with the beloved), and so their death
anniversaries are celebrated accordingly. What is
the word for such celebrations and what does it
literally mean?

9
People have fought for various reasons but which war
was fought because the British governor of the region,
Sir Frederick Hodgson, made this speech without
realizing its incendiary nature?
“Your king is in exile and will not return. His power and
authority will be taken over by the Representative of
the Queen of Britain. ... You have to pay with interest
the sum of £160,000 a year. Then there is the matter of
the ____. The Queen is entitled to the ____; she must
receive it. Where is the ____? I am the representative of
the Paramount Power. Why have you relegated me to
this ordinary chair?”

10
Oxy-haemoglobin accounts for the initial red, then
as the area gets starved of oxygen deoxy-
haemoglobin causes the red-blue, then
macrophages degrade the haemoglobin into
hemosiderin which is brown, then to hematodin
(bilirubin) for the green/yellow. Lastly, its time for
phagocytes to finish their job and remove these
pigments and things go back to normal. What are
we talking about?

11
Exhibits like this which you will find all over India
like Ahmedabad, Hampi, Rameswaram etc. all
claim to have come from which specific area?

12
PJ question: referring to this footballer’s woman should
remind you of which opening line of an act in a Verdi
opera?

12
La Donna Immobile / La donna e mobile.

13
“In earlier riots, when we left home we carried with
ourselves two caps. A Hindu topi and a ____. When
passing through a Muslim mohalla, we put on the
____ and when walking through a Hindu mohalla,
the Hindu topi. In this riot, we also bought Gandhi
topis. These we kept in our pockets to be pulled
out wherever needed. Religion used to be felt in
the heart, but now, in the new Bombay, it must be
worn on the head.” Fill the blanks in this extract
from a 1942 essay by Saadat Hassan Manto and
why was it referred to so?

13
Rumi topi, where Rumi referred to Byzantium, the
new Rome.

14
These were the first two. What links them?
A 1961 instance that started like this:
“The land was ours before we were the land's.
She was our land more than a hundred years
Before we were her people. She was ours
In Massachusetts, in Virginia,
But we were England's, still colonials,
Possessing what we still were unpossessed by,
Possessed by what we now no more possessed.”

14
The next instance was much later, in 1993, and started
like this:
“A Rock, A River, A Tree
Hosts to species long since departed,
Marked the mastodon,
The dinosaur, who left dried tokens
Of their sojourn here
On our planet floor,
Any broad alarm of their hastening doom
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.”

14
Poets reading out their works at the US
Presidential inaugurations.

15
Of the 22 scheduled languages listed in the Eighth
Schedule of the Indian Constitution (English is not
one of them), only one is non-regional i.e. it is not
native to any part of India. Which language?

16
Variants of this disclaimer have included
bricklayer, psychiatrist, physicist, escalator,
mechanic, engineer, magician, moon-shuttle
conductor and coal miner. What?

16
Dr. McCoy’s variations of “I’m a doctor, not a …”.

17
Many other family members were named similarly,
like brother Castor, mother Nana (short for
Banana), niece Deezil and uncle Lubry Kent.
Favourite mannerism “Oh Dear” was said to have
been taken from ZaSu Pitts. Who?

18
This gentleman was given a consolation prize of
sorts in the form of a gold medal in 1903 from
King Edward VII, though many think he was an
equal contributor as his co-worker who won the
more prestigious prize in 1902. In fact he was
already gathered a lot of experience in the field
due to his work in the village of Panihati because
of which he was selected by his co-worker. Name
both people.

18
Kishori Mohan Bandyopadhyay and Ronald Ross.

1
Debut with A in 1976. Followed up in 1978 with B.
Who are we talking about?
A B

1
Subhash Ghai who is supposed to have named his
first two movies after Alvin Kallicharran and
Gundappa Viswanath.

2
Sir Hugh William Bell Cairns was a British
neurosurgeon. He was a key figure in the
development of neurosurgery as a specialty, the
formation of the University of Oxford Medical
School, and the treatment of head injuries during
the Second World War. His greatest contribution
was the research that led to the use of helmets by
both motorists, first in England, followed by the
rest of the world. What 1935 incident acted as the
trigger point for him to pursue this research?

2
The accident and death of T.E. Lawrence. Cairns
was one of the doctors attending to him.

3
In 1821, London was abuzz about the arrival of a
colossal statue, acquired for the British Museum
by the Italian adventurer Giovanni Belzoni (in
1816). Its repute in Western Europe preceded its
actual arrival in Britain since Napoleon had
previously made an unsuccessful attempt to
acquire it for France. The most famous side effect
of the hype surrounding it manifested in the form
of something published in the January 11, 1818
issue of The Examiner, written by one Glirastes.
How do we know it better?

3
Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley, inspired by
the statue of Ramesses II.

4
Joseph ____ was a Scottish geologist and explorer who
played an important part in the Scramble for Africa.
Excelling as an explorer rather than an exact scientist, he
avoided confrontations among his porters or with
indigenous peoples, neither killing any native nor losing
any of his men to violence. His book Through Masai Land
(1885) was a best-seller. One of the first to read it was the
young H. Rider Haggard, who promptly wrote a book of his
own, King Solomon's Mines. ____ was outraged since he had
provided the first credible reports of snow-capped
mountains on the Equator and had terrified the Maasai
warriors by removing his false teeth and claiming to be a
magician – the Captain Good character did the same in
King Solomon's Mines. Who?

4
Thomson after whom the Thomson's gazelle
(Eudorcas thomsonii) is named.

5
It is said that the person who used this would often
quote the following poem adapted from False Greatness
by Isaac Watts. Who?
'Tis true my form is something odd,
But blaming me is blaming God;
Could I create myself anew
I would not fail in pleasing you.
If I could reach from pole to pole
Or grasp the ocean with a span,
I would be measured by the soul;
The mind's the standard of the man.

5
Joseph Merrick (The Elephant Man).

6
It is an essay on economy first published in December
1860 in the monthly journal Cornhill Magazine in four
articles. It was published in a book form in May 1862.
The title is a quotation from the Parable of the Workers
in the Vineyard. "I will give ____ ____ ____, even as unto
thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine
own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last
shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but
few chosen.” — Matthew 20 (King James Version). A
famous translation meaning “well being of all”
appeared in 1908. Name the essay and its author. Also
name the translator and the title in vernacular.

6
Unto This Last by John Ruskin.
Mahatma Gandhi. Sarvodaya.

7
This work is called ____’s Revenge after its subject.
Identify the artist. What is so special about this
particular work? Or how is it different from his
usual works?

7
Al Hirschfield. Instead of the customary hidden
“Nina”s, he hid Nina’s parents – Al and Dolly.

8
According to mythology, the name of this place is
derived from the hill of Rishyashringa, that is
believed to have contained the hermitage of Rishi
Vibhandaka and his son Rishyashringa.
Rishyashringa appears in an episode in the Bala-
Kanda of the Ramayana where a story, narrated by
Vasishtha, relates how he brought rains to the
drought-stricken kingdom of Romapada. Which
place? Also, identify the cult Indian movie based
on the story of Rishyashringa.

8
Sringeri (from Rishyashringa-giri).
Vaishali (1998).

9
In May 2014, the FDA approved the marketing of Dean
Kamen’s DEKA Arm, the first prosthetic arm that can
perform multiple, simultaneous powered movements
controlled by electrical signals from electromyogram
(EMG) electrodes. The arm supports a variety of control
inputs including wireless motion sensors that can be
worn on the feet, EMG sensors, bump switches, and
pull switches. These extensive connections to the
wearer make it potentially a game changer for
amputees seeking to regain fine control of objects in
the hand. Who is it affectionately named after?

9
Luke Arm, after Luke Skywalker.

10
____ studied coal, coal balls, and the collection of
Glossopteris (seed ferns). This was an attempt to prove the
theory of Eduard Suess concerning the existence of
Gondwanaland or Pangaea. A chance meeting with Robert
Falcon Scott during one of his fund-raising lectures in
1904 brought a possibility of proving Suess's theory. ____'s
passion to prove Suess's theory led ____ to discuss with
Scott joining his next expedition to Antarctica. ____ did not
join the expedition, but Scott promised to bring back
samples of fossils to provide confirmatory evidence for the
theory. The expedition failed and Scott died during the
expedition (1912), but near the bodies of him and his
companions were fossils from the Queen Maud Mountains
that did indeed provide this evidence. Noel Coward wrote
about ____. Who?

10
If through a mist of awful fears
Your mind in anguish gropes,
Dry up your panic-stricken tears
And fly to ____.
If you have missed life's shining goal
And mixed with sex perverts and Dopes,
For normal soap to cleanse your soul
Apply to ____.
And if perhaps you fail all round
And lie among your shattered hopes,
Just raise your body from the ground,
And crawl to ____.

11
As per a century-old tradition, New Year’s Day at
the National Gallery Complex in Edinburgh marks
the opening of the annual display of thirty-eight
works. These were bequeathed in 1900 by Henry
Vaughan, a London art collector who amassed this
outstanding group of watercolours. In his will,
Vaughan stipulated that the collection must not be
subjected to permanent display and could only be
shown in January. Whose works? What is the
reason for this restriction?

11
J.M.W. Turner. Continuous exposure to light would
result in their fading. Though the technology now
exists to more easily protect these vulnerable
works on paper, Vaughan ruled that the collection
could only be shown in January, when daylight is
at its weakest.

12
A ____ is a plastic, cloth, paper or ceramic
substrate that has printed on it a pattern or image
that can be moved to another surface upon
contact, usually with the aid of heat or water. The
technique was invented by Simon François
Ravenet, an engraver from France; it became a
craze in the late 19th century. Fill in the blank.
Which English word, meaning “foolish / ill-
considered / silly / unbelievable” originates from
the same word (possibly because of their
outlandish designs)?

12
Decal or decalcomania.
Cockamamie.

13
At the Sarajevo 1984 Winter Olympics, Torvill and Dean
became the highest scoring figure skaters of all time
(for a single programme) receiving twelve perfect 6.0s
and six 5.9s which included artistic impression scores
of 6.0 from every judge. They skated to Maurice Ravel's
Boléro which is over 17 minutes long. Olympics rules
state that the free dance must be four minutes long
(plus or minus ten seconds). They went to a music
arranger to condense Boléro down to a "skateable"
version. However, they were told that the minimum
time that Boléro could be condensed down to was 4
minutes 28 seconds, 18 seconds in excess of the
Olympics rules. How did they circumvent the problem?

13
Torvill and Dean reviewed the Olympic rule book
and found that it stated that actual timing of a
skating routine began when the skaters started
skating. Therefore they could use Boléro if they
did not place their skates' blades to ice for the first
18 seconds.

14
What is the “technical” name for the activity these
people are doing? When would someone do this?

14
Divot stomping.
Social occasion for the polo spectators to move
into the ground (preferably with champagne
glasses) during half-time and smoothen the
upturned grass.

15
A chance meeting with Nelson Annandale, the director of the
Zoological Survey of India, at the 1920 Nagpur session of the
Indian Science Congress led him to analyse anthropometric
measurements of Anglo-Indians in Calcutta. He had been
influenced by the anthropometric studies published in the journal
Biometrika and he chose to ask the questions on what factors
influence the formation of European and Indian marriages. He
wanted to examine if the Indian side came from any specific
castes. He used the data collected by Annandale and the caste
specific skull measurements made by Herbert Risley to come up
with the conclusion that the sample represented a mix of
Europeans mainly with people from Bengal and Punjab but not
with those from the Northwest Frontier Provinces or from Chhota
Nagpur. This analysis was described by his first scientific paper
in 1922. Who? What concept did this lead to?

15
P.C. Mahalanobis.
Mahalanobis Distance.

16
Identify the missing pairs from this exhaustive list.
1. Australia vs. England, 1901-02, Melbourne --
Monty Noble and Hugh Trumble
2. Australia vs. England, 1909, Edgbaston -- Colin
Blythe and George Hirst
3. South Africa vs. England, 1909, Johannesburg --
Ernie Vogler and Aubrey Faulkner
4. Australia vs. Pakistan, 1956, Karachi -- Fazal
Mahmood and Khan Mohammad
5. Australia vs. England, 1956, The Old Trafford --
____ and ____
6. Australia vs. England, 1972, Lord's -- ____ and ____

16
All 20 wickets shared by a pair in a Test match.
1. Australia vs. England, 1956, The Old Trafford -
- Jim Laker and Tony Lock
2. Australia vs. England, 1972, Lord's -- Bob
Massie and Dennis Lillee

17
Other than the Puri Shankaracharya and the Gajapati
King of Odisha, only the Nepal king is allowed to
ascend the Ratna Vedi (the altar on which Jagannath,
Balabhadra and Subhadra are placed) at Puri. This is
because the Nepal royal family has been the traditional
supplier of something required during the
Nabakalebara ritual when the temple idols are replaced
with new ones. The deities were last replaced in 1996
and this will happen again next year. When the Odisha
government wrote to the Union external affairs
ministry, requesting it to obtain the item from Nepal,
environmental activists raised objections. What item
are we talking about?

18
What phrase denoting a successful completion
owes its origin to a practise used by medieval
writers who used quill and ink to do the writing?

18
Done and dusted. The writers used to sprinkle
pounce powder and dust it off once it dried up.

KQA Mega-Whats National Face-Off - Semi-finals 2

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KQA Mega-Whats National Face-Off - Semi-finals 2