10Q (May 21, 2024)

1. India did not qualify in hockey for the Beijing Olympics in 2008 but Kenneth Pereira, an attacking midfielder of Goan origin (in pic below), was there. Playing for which national team?

2. The land encompassing the village of Ossining in the US state of New York was bought from the Sintsink Native American tribe in 1685 by a Dutch trader. In the 1820s, the facility you see in the picture below was constructed on a part of the land. Derived from the name of the tribe, what is the name by which it is known?

3. When it first appeared in English in the 16th century, it meant the distance bounding the range of ordinary vision at sea – about 30 km. British author John Lyly used that sense in 1580 when he wrote, "They are safely come within a ___ of Dover." Other 16th-century writers used it to mean 'range of vision' ("Out of ___ we were ere the Countesse came from the feast." – Thomas Nashe) or 'sight' ("'Tis double death to drown in ___ of shore." – Shakespeare). Its most famous usage in poetry is perhaps in the lines "Then felt I like some watcher of the skies /
When a new planet swims into his ___", written by Keats in his poem 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer', and often quoted in humourous contexts by PG Wodehouse. Today, however, the word almost always implies a range of comprehension, understanding, or knowledge. What word?

4. Christened Chastity Bono and now named Chaz Bono, this man has been an LGBT activist for most of his adult life. In 2008, he began the gender transition process, which took nearly two years to complete. In the aftermath, Bono made an award-winning documentary about his journey, and continued to fight for the LGBT community as an outspoken contestant on 'Dancing With the Stars'. Who are his largely mononymous parents?

5. 'The Delhi Detectives' Handbook' (cover shown below), published in 2017, is ostensibly written by Delhi detective Vish Puri. Puri is actually a fictional character created by which British journalist and writer?

6. Xs (sometimes also called X eels) are an order of jawless fish-like vertebrates, whose adults are characterised by a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth. The common name X is derived from a Latin term meaning 'stone licker'. Long used as food by humans, they were widely eaten by the upper classes throughout medieval Europe, especially during fasting periods, since their taste is much meatier than that of most true fish. King Henry I of England is said to have died from eating "a surfeit of Xs." What is X?

7. Male pogonotrophy is often culturally associated with wisdom and virility. Abraham Lincoln is said to have indulged in it because an 11-year-old girl named Grace Bedell wrote to him, suggesting it. What is pogonotrophy? 

8.  You will probably know of the ancient belief that one's health and temperament are the products of a balance or imbalance of four bodily fluids, or humours: blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile. It was believed that a deficiency of yellow bile, or choler, the humour that governed anger, spirit, and courage, would leave a certain organ colourless or white. Someone with this deficiency would be spiritless and a coward. This is the origin story of the hyphenated 2-word term that connects a typically white flower with the organ in question. What's the term? 

9. Xstan is a mountainous region located near the Karakoram mountain range that borders Gilgit to the west, China's Xinjiang to the north, Ladakh to the south-east, and the Kashmir Valley to the south-west. It takes its name from an indigenous tribe that has inhabited the area since pre-Islamic times, and has nothing to do with a vessel commonly used in Indian households. Name the region. 

10. What 2-word term, literally meaning 'keep to eat' in French, is used for a cool, well-ventilated area in a hotel or large home where savoury cold dishes (such as salads, hors d'œuvres, appetizers, canapés, pâtés, and terrines) are prepared and other foods are stored under refrigeration?

Answers
1. Canada
2. Sing Sing Correctional Facility
3. Ken
4. Sonny (Bono) and Cher

5. Tarquin Hall

6. Lamprey
7. The growing of facial hair, especially beards
8. Lily-livered
9. Baltistan
10. Garde manger

10Q (May 8, 2024)

1. Van Bengalen is a surname that from the 17th century onwards popped up in records in Banda, Batavia, Cape Town and other places. What was the history of the bearers of that name?

2. The city [X] has been known by many names in the past -- Wiryeseong (during the Baekje era), Bukhansangun (during the Goguryeo era), Namcheon (during the Silla era), Hanyang (during the Northern and Southern States period), Namgyeong (during the Goryeo era), Hanseong (during the Joseon era), and Keijō or Gyeongseong (during Japanese rule). What is it called now?

3. Ever since they met as first-year graduate students at Princeton University in 1970, Steven Zucker and David A. Cox wanted to author a scientific paper together. They finally did so, in a 1979 article in 'Inventiones Mathematicae', titled "Intersection numbers of sections of elliptic surfaces". The algorithm described in that paper is known by their names. Why had they been keen to co-author a paper, even before they had any idea what they would be studying or working on?

4. Meaning lacking in adult sophistication or immature, this 6-letter word originally meant 'bald' in Old English. By the 17th century, it had come to mean 'without feathers' and was applied to young birds not yet ready for flight. The term then began to be used for those who hadn't yet spread their wings in a figurative sense. What's the word?

5. It is the most frequently translated literary product of India, and its stories are among the most widely known in the world. There is a version of it in nearly every major language of India, and in addition there are 200 versions in more than 50 languages around the world. The earliest known translation, into a non-Indian language, is in Middle Persian (Pahlavi, 550 CE) by Burzoe. One version reached Europe in the 11th century, and before 1600 it existed in Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, German, English, Old Slavonic, Czech, and perhaps other Slavonic languages. What work, attributed to a teacher and scholar named Vishnu Sharma born somewhere between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE?

6.  The picture below shows workers with the Compagnia Vecchi Sminatori or Company of Old Miners based in Mantua, one of Italy’s 30-odd private companies specialising in a certain activity. These firms together continue to recover some 60,000 items every year, even though it's been close to 80 years since those items stopped being deployed. What are they looking for?

7. Much more than demons or spirits, the race of Xs are described as intelligent, free-willed creatures who live close to nature and are endowed with magical powers. The race is filled with different types – shaitan, nasna, ghul, ifrit and marid. What are Xs?

8. Shown below are a couple of the large number of 'benchmarks' that you will find on the Las Vegas Strip. What purpose do they serve?

 

9. This multi-peaked mountain range near Barcelona takes its name [X] from its saw-toothed appearance. It is the site of the Benedictine abbey, Santa Maria de [X], which hosts the Virgin of [X] idol. In 1493, Christopher Columbus named a Caribbean island after the deity. With a Lusophone spelling, it is also the surname of a Goan politician. What is [X]?

 

10. The current issue of 'Marg' magazine (cover below) features the ‘Risha’, which was accorded the geographical indication (GI) tag in March this year. The Risha is a part of the traditional attire of which Indian state?

 

 

Answers
1. People from Bengal enslaved by the Dutch East India Company and taken to work in their colonies or, in a few cases, back home in the Netherlands – the painting below shows the 10-year-old Filander van Bengalen serving at a party at his masters' home in Dokkum in Friesland

2. Seoul
3. In order to have the punny Cox-Zucker attribution in a serious scientific publication. The algorithm is now referred to as the Cox-Zucker machine, and no doubt elicits giggles whenever it comes up.
4. Callow
5. Panchatantra
6. Unexploded ordnance from World War 2
7. Jinn – marid are usually the ones we find imprisoned in bottles
8. To identify possible dangerous changes caused by the weight of the buildings surrounding them. Besides serving as absolute position markers, these benchmarks also help surveyors determine if the ground under the strip is stable with the weight of all the casinos surrounding it. Every decade or so, the points are measured to see if they have moved. If they have moved, this information is researched and the issue is corrected to ensure the safety of the guests and the buildings that line the strip.
9. Montserrat, meaning 'the serrated mountain'
10. Tripura

10Q (May 2, 2024)

1. In Middle Persian, it was known as Spahān, but since New Persian did not allow initial consonant clusters such as 'sp', a vowel was added in front of the name. In Ptolemy's 'Geographia', it appears as Aspadana, which translates to 'place of gathering for the army'. It is believed that Spahān derived from spādānām 'the armies', the Old Persian plural of spāda. What is this place called today? Also, what related word came through Persian into Urdu from the same root?

2. Shown below is the patent drawing for a rotoscope, a device/ technique invented by Max Fleischer, a Polish-American animator, inventor, film director and producer, and studio owner. Fleischer used it in his series 'Out of the Inkwell' starting around 1915, using his brother Dave dressed in a clown outfit. What is rotoscoping used for?

3.  The [X] Estate in present-day Kolkata consists of [X] House (in pic below) and the 30-acre grounds surrounding it. The estate originally belonged to Mir Jafar Ali Khan, who became Nawab of Bengal after siding with the British to oust Siraj-d-Daulah in 1757. He gifted the estate to Warren Hastings, then Governor-General of  Bengal, after which it became the seat of the Governors-General of India. After the capital moved from Kolkata to Delhi in 1911, it served various functions until, in 1948, it became the home of the National Library of India. The word [X] comes from a combination of two Italian words that mean 'beautiful' and 'view'. What is [X]?

 

4. The list of first-class cricket scores of 400 or more has 11 items, with two names appearing twice each, one at #s 1 and 11, the others at #s 5 and 6. Name them both. Also, name the latest cricketer to join the list, which he did in July 2022, during a match between Glamorgan and Leicestershire.

5. The flower known as 'viola' and 'violet' in English is also commonly known by a name that is derived from the French word for 'thought', as the flower was regarded as a symbol of remembrance. What is that name, which in the 20th century also went on to become a derogatory slang word for an effeminate man?

6.  Traditionally, an uchiwa is made of bamboo. Today many uchiwa are made of plastic but still keep the shape of the original bamboo item. It's not uncommon to receive plastic uchiwa printed with advertisements, distributed free in the streets. One report suggests that an average of 36,000 uchiwa are produced every day, some 90% of them by craftsmen in Marugame city, in the Kagawa prefecture of Japan. What is an uchiwa?

7. Satras are institutional centres or monasteries associated with the Ekasarana tradition of Vaishnavism, particularly in the Indian state of Assam and neighbouring regions. In what isolated location specifically are Assamese saint Sankardeva and his disciple Madhavdeva said to have set up the first of them, having taken refuge there in the 15th century? The place continues to house 20-odd extant satras, down from a one-time count of 65.

8. The company [X] got its start as Chouinard Equipment, selling the climbing gear that Yvon Chouinard was making for his friends. Its first venture into apparel was equally functional, designed to resist rock: sturdy corduroy trousers, stiff rugby shirts like the ones Yvon brought back from a climbing trip in Scotland. When the clothing started to take off, they decided to separate the garments from the gear; they just needed a good name. As Chouinard explained: “To most people, especially then, [X] was a name like Timbuktu or Shangri-la—far-off, interesting, not quite on the map.” Using a name coined by Magellan in 1520 for an area populated – according to members of his expedition – by giants, what is [X]?

9. A study whose results were published online in the April 2017 journal of JAMA Dermatology, found the following dermatologic characteristics in the subjects studied:
-- Alopecia, or hair loss (30 percent)
-- Dark under-eye circles (30 percent)
-- Wrinkles (20 percent)
-- Facial warts (20 percent)
-- Facial scars (20 percent)
What subjects were they scrutinising, to try and find common patterns among them?

10. Remove one letter from the name of the brand shown at left below, and you will have the name of the language whose alphabet in the Baybayin script is shown alongside. Give me the names of the brand and the language.

 

Answers
1. Isfahan, sipahi
2. Converting live action into animation or compositing real-life and animated characters
3. Belvedere
4. Brian Lara, who neatly brackets this records category with scores of 501* for Warwickshire against Durham in 1994 and 400* in a 2004 Test match versus England, respectively the highest individual first-class and Test scores; and Bill Ponsford, who scored 437 and 429 for his home state of Victoria against Queensland (1927) and Tasmania (1923), respectively. The latest on the list is Englishman Sam Northeast.
5. Pansy, from 'pensée'
6. A Japanese hand fan

7. Majuli Island on the Brahmaputra in Assam
8. Patagonia
9. Hollywood movie villains
10. Tagalong / Tagalog