India Quiz [2010]

INDIA QUIZ

QM- Souvik Basu / Aniruddha Biswas

1. Why have three advertising professionals, Jaidev Rupani, Rachana Brar & Abhilash Krishnan, been in the news recently?

Ans. Meter Jam

2. What is the contribution of Margaret Cousins (an expert in European music and wife of Irish poet James Cousins), to the history of India?

Ans. Tagore along with Margaret Cousins set down the musical notations of our national anthem.

3. Identify this gate which is often overshadowed by more famous structures in the vicinity.

Ans. Alai Darwaza,the main entrance to the Qutb complex.

4. The British prime minister David Cameron in a recent interview said: "If you say yes to one you suddenly find the British Museum would be empty." What was he referring to?

Ans. The Kohinoor Diamond

5. He received the Arjuna award in 1993, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award jointly with P. K. Garg for overall best performance in sports for the year 1994-95 and the Dronacharya Award for the year 2002. Together with Garg, he won the bronze medal in the enterprise class at the 1990 and 1994 Asian Games held at Beijing and Hiroshima respectively. They were also the world champions in the same class in 1993.A Commander with the Indian Navy,he received its gallantry award, the Shaurya Chakra, in 1983.Identify him from this pic and the sport he excelled in.

Ans, Homi Motivala

6. His uncle called him 'Nawab' which he took up as his pseudonym initilly. Presiding over the Progressive Writers' Conference in Lucknow in 1936, he said that attaching the word 'Progressive' to a writer was redundant, because "A writer or an artist is progressive by nature, if this was not his/her nature, he/she would not be a writer at all."Identify him from this picture.

Ans. Munshi Premchand

7. One of the founders of Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan, X wrote abridged versions of the 2 epics Mahabharata and Ramayana in English, which are still widely read today. Nicknamed the 'Mango of Salem', he was fiercely against nuclear arms. Gandhiji called X the 'keeper of my conscience'. Identify X.

Ans. C Rajagopalachari

8. Where will one find these?

Ans. Bhimbetka

9.Anand Bakshi once sang a qawwali 'Chand Sa Koi Chehra' for R.D.Burman along with Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey and Bhupinder. The qawwali was recorded but never shot. Bakshi was most disheartened. "Perhaps if they had kept it' he wondered 'I might have had a career as a singer". For which film was this song recorded?

Ans. Sholay
Our tribute to the 35 years of the movie.

10.____ is a form of folk theatre ,said to have originated in Maharashtra in the 18th century.The plays originated as entertainment for encamped armies.The word literally means drama in several Indian languages.Which word?

Ans. Tamasha.

11.The cuisine is said to have originated from the descendants of cooks from Samarkand,who came to India after "Timur the lame" invaded the country in the early 15th century.A traditional banquet is usually made up of 36 courses,out of which 30 courses may be preparations of meat.Guests are seated in groups of four and share their meal out of a metal plate called "trami".What are we describing?

Ans. Wazwan of Kashmir

12.Cheraw is performed on many occasion these days. But, originally, the dance was performed only to ensure a safe passage for the soul of a mother who died at childbirth. Long bamboo starves are used for this dance.The dancers move by stepping alternatively in and out from between and across a pair of horizontal bamboos, held against the ground by people sitting face to face on either side.With which Indian state is this dance form associated.

Ans. Mizoram. The dance is popularly called the "Bamboo Dance".

13.Which Indian State/UT's capital  gets its name after naval surveyour of the British East India company.

Ans. Port Blair, named after Lt. Archibald Blair of the British East India company.

14.Identify the organisation from its logo.

Ans. Archaeological Survey of India

15.He won the “Rolex International Award” for Enterprise in 1996, for his seeking to break new ground with the project ‘Ecological Silk Farming to Improve Living Standards’In 2006 he received Chevalier Légion d'honneur from the French government.Can you identify the graduate from National Defence Academy ,better known for his exploits in another field.

Ans. Captain G R Gopinath


Thanks for the overwhelming response.

The 2009 edition of the India Quiz can be found here

Happy Independence Day