10Q (November 27, 2024)

1. This is a screen grab from a song in a popular 1990s Bollywood movie. In the song, the woman says her name is Monica. The guy's name, which he proclaims loudly throughout the song, is one that comes via Portuguese from the Latin for 'dry well'. Name the song (1st line will do) and the movie in which it appears.

2. Every quizzer worth their salt is aware that G.I. as used to describe soldiers of the United States Army is an initialism of 'Government Issue' or 'General Issue' stemming from the Second World War. Only thing is, that is not its true origin. During World War I, American soldiers sardonically called incoming German artillery shells as 'G.I. cans', in reference to a certain material used in guns and shell-making at the time. Over time, it transformed into the expansion we are more familiar with and it was only during World War II that the term got applied to 'G.I' Joe'. What was the original expansion, which has an Italian scientist to thank for its name?

3. What word for an underground burial place was originally used specifically for the region of underground tombs near Rome between the 2nd and 3rd milestones of the Appian Way (where the bodies of apostles Paul and Peter, among others, were said to have been laid)? The word is of obscure origin, perhaps created from a Latin phrase combining the prefix for 'among' and the word for 'tomb'.

4. Who is shown (at left, in the cap) in the sketch below, drawn by Pariplab Chakraborty of 'The Wire' during his appearance at a Delhi event on Nov 11, 2024? 

5. Gangkhar Puensum in Bhutan, at 7,570m, tops what list? Muchu Chhish, a 7,452m peak in the Karakorams in Pakistan, used to be at #2, but left the list in July this year.

6. The image below shows a group of American students checking out a replica of the cabin built by [X], whose bronze statue is seen in the foreground. [X] spent two years experimenting with 'simple living' at this place next to the water body [Y], now the [Y] State Reservation, in Concord, Massachusetts, USA. Who is [X] and what is [Y] (2 words)?

7. Azharuddin's unmatched 3 centuries in his first 3 Tests is a well-known fact. The man with him in this recent photo, a fellow Hyderabadi, also had a record-breaking start to his career. Playing against Australia in his debut Test in Adelaide in 1967, he scored 33 runs in both innings and took 6 wickets for 55, the best bowling figures by an Indian on Test debut at that point. Name him.

8. The 'objet trouvé' entered the Western art world in the early 20th century, a time when many artists challenged traditional ideas about the true nature of art. (a) What is the English version by which this term is known? (b) What other 2-word term in English, often associated with pirates, gets one of its words from the root 'trouvé'?

9. The following are all euphemisms for what?
* German: It's strawberry week
* Afrikaans: Granny's coming in the red car
* French: The English have landed
* Hungarian: Santa Claus has come
* Danish: There are communists in the funhouse

10. The image you see on the building below had become pervasive throughout a certain country in the first half of the 2010s, printed on T-shirts, billboards, walls and buildings around the nation, as a reminder and veiled threat by the ruling Partido Socialista Unido de _________ (PSUV). They are known as 'XY eyes', where XY is the person from whose visage the image is derived. Who is XY?

Answers
1. "Naam hai mera Fonseca" from 'Jo Jeeta Wahi Sikandar' (Fonseca traces back to the Latin 'fons sicca')
2. Galvanised iron (the Italian scientist is Luigi Galvani, from whose name comes the word for the process of galvanisation)
3. Catacomb, perhaps from 'cata tumbas'
4. Joe Sacco
5. Highest unclimbed mountains. Gangkhar Puensum is of religious significance to the locals, and climbing it is prohibited
6. X: Henry David Thoreau, Y: Walden Pond
7. Syed Abid Ali
8. (a) Found object (b) Treasure trove, from the Anglo-French 'tresor trové', literally meaning 'treasure found'
9. Menstrual periods
10. Hugo Chavez