10Q (October 7, 2024)

1. The city [X] was founded in 1703 by the man in the image below, and named for the apostle whom he was named after. In 1914, it was renamed [Y] to remove the German aspect of the original name, and give it a more local suffix. The religious element was also dropped, with the specific intention of renaming the city after its founder. In 1924, after the death of a popular leader, the name was changed to [Z] in his honour. On 6 September 1991, the original name [X] was restored by citywide referendum. What are [X], [Y], and [Z]?

2. In 2012, this Goan-American (pic below) released the conspiracist political film '2016: Obama's America', an anti-Barack Obama polemic based on his 2010 book 'The Roots of Obama's Rage'. It earned $33 million, making it the highest-grossing political film of all time. Two years later, he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of making an illegal campaign contribution to a Senate candidate, and was sentenced to eight months' incarceration, five years' probation, and a $30,000 fine. In 2018, he was issued a pardon by President Donald Trump. Name him.

3. In 1924, a wealthy Massachusetts Prohibitionist named Delcevare King sponsored a contest in which he asked participants to coin a word for a violator of Prohibition rules. Two respondents, Henry Dale and Kate Butler, came up independently with the winning 8-letter word, using for the main part a 5-letter verb meaning 'to jeer at'. They split King’s $200 prize. The word surprisingly managed to pick up steam in English and expand to a meaning that went beyond its Prohibition roots, referring to one who flagrantly violates any rules, not just those related to drinking. What word?

4. This paired term made popular by a path-breaking 1999 Hollywood movie has been used in many contexts since. In the cybersecurity world, it is used to refer to a special type of malware that can take over a CPU in a way that allows it to execute any type of operation, while the operating system "believes" itself to be running directly on physical hardware. The two parts of the terms refer respectively to the concept of infecting the machine on one hand, and helping the operating system to detect the presence of such a hypervisor on the other. What's the 4-word term?

5. Popping up online in the wake of a historic sports double from a fortnight ago, what is this (image below) a state-wise breakdown of?

6. The name of an unscrupulous seducer of women in "The Impertinent Curiosity", a story-within-the-story in 'Don Quixote', has become a word in English for a womaniser. What name/word?

7. 'Clitic' is not baby talk for 'critic'. It's a word for a common element of grammatical usage – the letters that follow what punctuation mark?

8. Adopted in 1954, the state emblem of country [X] has four components – a crescent and star crest above a shield, which is surrounded by a wreath, below which is a scroll. The quartered shield in the centre shows cotton, wheat, tea and jute. The floral wreath, surrounding the shield, is Jasminum officinale (the national flower). The scroll supporting the shield contains the national motto in the national language, consisting of three words translated as 'Faith, Unity, Discipline'. Which country is this?

9. [X] is a tea blend with a distinctive flavour and aroma derived from the addition of oil extracted from the rind of the bergamot orange, a fragrant citrus fruit. Traditionally the term [X] was applied only to black tea; however, today the term is used for other teas that contain oil of bergamot. The blend is named after the 2nd [X], seen in the photo below, who was British Prime Minister in the 1830s. According to his family, the tea was specially blended by a Chinese mandarin for him, to suit the water at Howick Hall, his family seat in Northumberland, using bergamot in particular to offset the preponderance of lime in the local water. Who / what is [X]?

10. The first simple classification of this natural phenomenon was devised by Domenico Pignataro in the 1780s. However, the first recognisable scale in the modern sense of the word was drawn up by P.N.G. Egen in 1828. The first one that was widely adopted was the Rossi-Forel scale, introduced in the late 19th century. Since then numerous scales have been developed and are in use in different parts of the world: the scale currently used in the United States is the Modified [X] scale (MM), while the EMS-98 is used in Europe, the Shindo scale in Japan, the MSK-64 in India, Israel, Russia and throughout the countries of the former Soviet Union, and the Liedu scale in mainland China. Most of these scales contain 12 degrees of differentiation. What do all these scales measure (2-word answer required), and what is [X], the best known of them?

10Q (September 25, 2024)

1. While attending the Universal and Colonial Exposition in Lyon in 1894, brothers Edouard and André [X] noticed a stack of tires that suggested to Edouard the figure of a man without arms. Four years later, André met French cartoonist Marius Rossillon, popularly known as O'Galop, who showed him a rejected image he had created for a Munich brewery – a large, regal figure holding a huge glass of beer and quoting Roman poet Horace's phrase, "Nunc est [Y]", meaning "Now is the time to drink". André suggested replacing the man with a figure made from tires. O'Galop transformed the earlier image accordingly, to create the widely recognised trademark figure [Y]. What are [X] and [Y]?

2. The post-colonialist thinker Edward Said examined this term in its late Victorian framing and referred to it as an “extended prank”. He asked: Why should a century of European power conflicts over Central Asia that caused so many Afghan, Indian, British, and Russian deaths get such a ludic name? Even the phrase’s purported inventor, Captain Arthur Conolly, was beheaded in the public square of Bukhara on the orders of its King Nasrullah Khan. What term?

3. The 3-metre-tall bronze statue in the pic below was originally installed in 1960 in the garden of what used to be a Franciscan monastery in Old Goa. After the annexation of Goa into India, the monastery was converted into the Archeological Museum, and the statue moved into that, where it stands today. Whose statue is it?

4. Before becoming a professional actor, [X] was a lounge singer. After he retired from acting in 1999, he pursued a further career in singing. 'Vincent LaGuardia Gambini Sings Just For You' was his second studio album. A music video was produced for the song "Wise Guy" from the album, featuring [X] reciting his lyrics in various mob-themed settings. Who is [X]? The title of the album is named for the eponymous character from which 1992 movie?

5. In the Foreword to a special edition of a 1969 book sub-titled "The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death", its author wrote: "The Dresden atrocity, tremendously expensive and meticulously planned, was so meaningless, finally, that only one person on the entire planet got any benefit from it. I am that person. I wrote this book, which earned a lot of money for me and made my reputation, such as it is. One way or another, I got two or three dollars for every person killed. Some business I'm in." Name book and author.

6. What brand put out materials such as this with the characters Ram and Shyam on the back covers of children's magazines and comics in the 1970s and '80s? The brand name wasn't, as far as I can tell, influenced by a children's book character created by P.L. Travers.

7. The Incident at Petrich, informally referred to as 'the War of the [X]' (2 words), was the short invasion of Bulgaria by Greece near the border town of Petrich in 1925, an outcome of many disputes between the two countries in the post-World War I era. It allegedly started when a [X] wandered across the border from Greece at Demirkap, and a Greek soldier ran after it. The border was guarded by Bulgarian sentries, and one of them shot the Greek soldier, which resulted in the short skirmish. Interestingly, a famous Saadat Hasan Manto story parallels this real-life incident, transposed to the India-Pakistan border, though in the story, it's the [X] that is killed. What is [X], and what is the name of the Manto story?

8. The name by which we know this geographical feature was given by its original inhabitants, the Taínos. When Christopher Columbus landed here in 1494, he named it Puerto Grande. It was briefly known as Cumberland Bay when the British seized it in 1741, during the War of Jenkins' Ear. The name has become synonymous with extra-judicial atrocities in the past couple of decades. What place?

9. This is the new poster for an acclaimed National Award winning Kannada film originally made in 1977, which was restored in 4K and re-premiered at the Venice Film Festival this year on September 3. Name the movie and its director.

10. In recent years, [X]n iconography has gained popularity among young American men with white supremacist leanings. Infatuation with [X] first received media attention after it was discovered that Dylann Roof – the white supremacist shooter who killed 9 black churchgoers in 2015 – had a personal website called 'Last [X]n', where he posted his manifesto. [Y] – the man who led [X] from 1965 till its independence in 1979 – famously declared that “the white man is master of [X]. He has built it, and he intends to keep it.” It was a state defined by military conflicts with African people. To Dylann Roof and many others like him, [X] is a symbol of militarised white nationalism and the fantasy of a race war. What is [X] (internationally known by a different name now), and who was [Y]?

Answers
1. X: Michelin, Y: Bibendum

2. The Great Game
3. Luís de Camões
4. Joe Pesci, 'My Cousin Vinny'

5. 'Slaughterhouse 5' by Kurt Vonnegut

6. Poppins

7. Stray Dog, 'Titwal ka Kutta'
8. Guantanamo Bay
9. 'Ghatashraddha', Girish Kasaravalli

10. Rhodesia, Ian Smith

10Q (September 13, 2024)

1. Born in Nairobi of Goan parents, journalist, politician and freedom fighter [X] was elected Member of the Kenyan Parliament in 1963, the year Kenya gained independence from Britain. Less than two years later, he was assassinated, the first Kenyan politician to face this fate after the nation's independence. Name him.

2. [A] is a 7-letter word for a type of tale, usually one with a moral. [B], the 8-letter Latin word from which it derives, also survives in English, as a geometric shape. What are [A] and [B]?

3. Chanel came up the design of these bags (pic below) in 2008, inspired by a certain 'accessory' a celebrity was forced to wear around that time. Who and what?

4. Which author would include 'coded' messages like the ones shown below, in his books' title pages?

5. The beautiful pink-concrete building shown below is the Zebun Nessa Mosque, named after the late mother of the owner of the land where it stands. Designed by Saiqa Iqbal Meghna of Studio Morphogenesis and completed earlier this year, it is situated in the middle of an industrial area, whose workers it serves. In which city would you find it?

6. This man in the photo collage below is Indi Khanna who has worked in the X industry for around 50 years. After stints in Kerala, Dubai, Assam, and Sri Lanka, he moved in 2005 to the Nilgiri Hills, where he set up the X Studio, an architecturally stunning micro-factory in Coonoor. In 2022, he won the Lifetime Achievement award at the Leafies International X Academy Awards, a major highlight of the X industry's year, whose logo is shown above Khanna's picture. What is X?

7. After working almost all her life in Osaka, Japan, Ayano Tsukimi (pic below) retired in 2003. Returning to her native village of Nagoro on the island of Shikoku, she was surprised to find how lifeless her village was, with many people having left for work in the cities. To bring some life to the village, and to have something to do during her retirement, she decided to create 'kakashi' modelled on the absent people. About 350-400 of these now populate Nagoro, which has come to be known as 'kakashi no sato', meaning 'village of __________'. What does kakashi mean in Japanese?

8. Staying in Japan, the popular Japanese cooking style X was introduced to the island nation in the 16th century by Portuguese missionaries. Taking its cue from dishes made during Lent by the clerics, the word X originates from a Latin word for 'time', referring in this case to the fasting period. What is X?

9. At age 25, X took leave from his position as an officer in the Prussian Army in 1863 and travelled to the United States to act as a military observer with the Union Army during the American Civil War. Afterwards he travelled through the north-western United States. In St. Paul, Minnesota, he encountered German-born balloonist John Steiner. That encounter led, through a series of steps, to the founding in 1909 of DELAG, Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft, the world's first airline, with the first passenger air service commencing the next year, in aircraft named after X. Who was X? Just a surname will do.

10. Combining the names of two people well known to us on the Konkan coast, in which film franchise would you find the character Sumbhajee Angria, a member of the Brethren Court?

Answers
1. Pio Gama Pinto
2. Parable, parabola
3. Lindsay Lohan's ankle monitor

4. JRR Tolkien

5. Dhaka
6. Tea
7. Scarecrows

8. Tempura
9. Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
10. 'Pirates of the Caribbean'

10Q (August 30, 2024)

1. As an anti-colonial poet, [A] is much revered in [B], his being the most translated works into the local language. Published in the newspaper Dong-A Ilbo in 1929, about which nation [B] – under foreign rule at the time – did [A] write the following short poem titled 'Lamp of the East'?
“In the golden age of Asia,
_____ was one of its lamp-bearers
And that lamp is waiting to be lighted once again
For the illumination in the East.”

2. When the Notre Dame Cathedral burnt down in 2019, which unlikely company stepped in to help restore it, donating €500,000 but more importantly making available the complete 3D model of the edifice, which it had built for one of its creations?

3. Most famously visible on the originally copper-coloured Statue of Liberty, what material has a name that comes from an Anglo-French phrase literally meaning 'Green of Greece'?

4. In general, MPs in the Lok Sabha take their oaths in the language of the state that they represent. Which 5-term MP from Andhra Pradesh / Telangana, is the only MP from the state who has consistently taken the oath in Urdu?

5. In the films of which franchise would you hear the characters speak of the following, and what are they? The Boesky, the Jim Brown, the Miss Daisy, 2 Jethro's, the Leon Spinks, the Ella Fitzgerald, the Lost in Translation, the Swinging Priest, the Crazy Larry, the Soft Shoulder, the Looky-Loo with a Bundle of Joy, the Reverse Big Store, the Billy Martin, the Gilroy, the Brody, the Irwin Allen, the Susan B. Anthony, and the Cartwheel.

6. Trust the Japanese to come up with the strangest of sporting and cultural rituals. The Yukigassen competition originated in Japan, where the 'World Championships' continue to be held in Sōbetsu, in the northernmost island of Hokkaido. There are now also annual tournaments in Kemijärvi in Finland, Vardø in Norway, Murmansk in Russia, Mount Buller in Australia, Luleå in Sweden, Anchorage in Alaska, Aparan in Armenia, and Jasper and Saskatoon in Canada. If 'gassen' means 'battle' in Japanese, what natural substance is the 'Yuki' part in the name of the competition, whose playing arena is depicted below?

7. In the 15th century, the name des Graven hage came into use for this place. The name literally meant 'The Count's Grove', with the connotation being 'The Count's Hedge, Private Enclosure or Hunting Grounds'. From the 17th century onward, this was officially shortened to 's-Gravenhage, making it one of the few place names to begin with a punctuation mark. This unusual name continues to be used in some official documents such as birth and marriage certificates. What is the more commonly used name for this global hub of international law and arbitration?

8. He has been the target of unsuccessful assassination attempts in Jalandhar in 1986, and in Bucharest in 1991, the latter while he was India's Ambassador to Romania. Who is this, whose surname is Portuguese for 'by the river'?

9. Salaf, meaning predecessors, refers to the very early practice of Islam by the Prophet Muhammad and his immediate successors. Salafism seeks to revive the practice of Islam as it was at the time of Muhammad and can be critical of too much emphasis being placed on thinkers from after this period. The 18th-century person depicted in the illustration below, Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al ______, was an important figure in the resurrection of this ideology, and therefore Salafism is commonly also known as ______ism. Fill in the blanks (both blanks are the same).

10. The man in the photo below, Nasir Shaikh, claims to have made his cult films without ever leaving the city you see behind him. And yet he has managed to put the name of the city firmly in the minds of aficionados of offbeat films. Which city?

Answers
1. A: Tagore; B: Korea 

2. Ubisoft, which had mapped the cathedral for its game 'Assassin's Creed: Unity'
3. Verdigris, the green patina that covers copper over time when it is exposed to air. The word comes from 'vert de Grece'.
4. Asaduddin Owaisi
5. Types of cons in the 3 Ocean films
6. Snow – it's a snowball fighting competition

7. The Hague – the count in question was the Count of Holland
8. Julio Ribeiro
9. Wahhab
10. Malegaon – Shaikh is the director of movies like 'Malegaon ke Sholay' and 'Malegaon ke Superman'

10Q (August 22, 2024)

1. The name of this business might make you feel it has a Spanish origin, but it was simply chosen because it's a short, memorable word that can be written without taking up too much space. The origins of the business lie in a weekend roadside stall selling clothes, set up in 1973 on the Portobello Road Market by three brothers of Indian descent: Nitin, Arun and Milan Shah. What company?

2. [A] is a 4-letter word for the introductory section of a journalistic piece in a newspaper or magazine, sometimes used for the intro piece itself. It comes from the regular English word [B] for something that comes first, but it's spelt differently because [B], pronounced differently, also refers to something more basic and technical in moveable-type printing. What are the two words?

3. Different spellings again. What name, spelt differently in each case, connects the man of Goan origin who was co-founder of the Board for Control of Cricket in India, the All India Radio commentator who spoke through the entirety of Mahatma Gandhi's 7-hour funeral broadcast, and Satish Shah's character in the 1983 black comedy film 'Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro'?

4. Which much-translated author of 'Ficciones' ('Fictions') and 'El Aleph' ('The Aleph'), both first published in the 1940s, said the following?
"I respect translators, and my stories have sometimes been greatly bettered by them. One of them told me so himself. Besides, I am so fond of English that I like anything better in English than in Spanish."
He was a well-regarded translator himself, having translated works of literature in English, French, German, Old English, and Old Norse into Spanish.

5. The dictionary provides these as meanings of the word [X]:
 
1 : relating to or characterized by occultism or abstruseness : recondite
 
2a : airtight

b : impervious to external influence

c : recluse, solitary
     
When it first entered English in the early 17th century, [X] was associated with writings attributed to Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom. Thoth, whom the Greeks called ______ Trismegistus ("thrice-great ______"), was believed to be the author of a number of mystical, philosophical, and alchemistic works. The obscure subject matter of these works may have made them difficult to wade through, for soon English speakers were also applying [X] to things that were beyond ordinary human comprehension. Additionally, ______ Trismegistus was said to have invented a magic seal that could keep vessels airtight. [X] thus came to mean 'airtight', both literally and figuratively. What is [X]? The blanks above are all the same, the name of the herald of the gods in Greek mythology.

6. In the picture below, taken during Mahatma Gandhi's visit to Britain in 1930-31, the robed woman to Gandhi's left was born Madeleine Slade, daughter of British Rear-Admiral Sir Edmond Slade and his wife Florence. After reading Romain Rolland's biography of Gandhi, she became a disciple of the Mahatma, and moved to Sabarmati Ashram to live as an ascetic. What name from Indian classical history did she adopt from then on?

 

 

7. The first rule of design in this field is the rule of tincture: metal should not be put on metal, nor colour on colour. This means that or and argent (gold and silver, which are represented by yellow and white) may not be placed on each other; nor may any of the colours (azure, gules, sable, vert and purpure) be placed on another colour. In the design of what are these rules of paramount importance?

 

8. Mutton-bustin' is an event held at rodeos similar to bull riding or bronc riding, but with two 'small' differences -- the rider and the ridee. The practice has been documented as having been introduced to the National Western Stock Show at least by the 1980s when an event was sponsored by Nancy Stockdale Cervi, a former rodeo queen. What does mutton-bustin' consist of?

 

9. French and Spanish sailors between the 17th and 19th centuries used a dame de voyage (French) or dama de viaje (Spanish), made of sewn cloth or old clothes. In Japan, there were 'Dutch Wives' ('dattchi waifu'), inspired by the thick rattan or bamboo bolster used to aid sleep in humid countries. What were these early examples of?

 

10. In Hindu mythology, sea god Varuna’s vahana, Jaladhi, was born from [X]'s earwax, while Paundraka, the black buffalo that Yama rides, was born from [X]’s thigh. Who is this multi-utility deity associated with storms, wildness and anger, whose name is generally translated as 'the roarer'?

 

 

Answers
1. Pepe Jeans
2. Lede and lead (which metal type was made of)
3. D'Mello – Anthony de Mello, Melville de Mellow, and Commissioner D'Mello
4. Jorge Luis Borges
5. Hermetic
6. Mira Behn
7. Heraldry
8. Children riding or racing sheep

9. Sex dolls
10. Rudra (half points for Shiva, whom Rudra evolved into in post-Vedic times)

10Q (June 17, 2024)

 

1. Classical authors writing in Latin and Greek referred to popular legends that this city was founded by the mythical hero Ulysses. Its name was written Ulyssippo in Latin by the geographer Pomponius Mela, a native of Hispania. It was later referred to as "Olisippo" by Pliny the Elder and by the Greeks as Olissipo or Olissipona. Between the 8th and the 12th century, it was referred to as Al-Usbuna. What is it called today? Either an international / English name or one in the local language will do.

2. The Grand Jeté is notoriously one of the most difficult of them, as it requires continuous stretching. Other types include the sauté, which involves both feet; the temps levé, which involves just one; the jeté, which is more standard; the assemblé; and the sissonne. If you were doing any of these, what would you be performing or practising?

3. It was the first name of the American journalist and poet who wrote 'The Devil's Dictionary', and of the Union general from whose surname we get the English word 'sideburns'. It's the surname of a West Indian cricketer whose first name is an adverb meaning 'in a terse manner'. What is this name, that derives from the Greek word for 'immortal', from which you also get the Greek name for the food of the gods? 

4. While he was still alive (he died in 2017), Ved Prakash Sharma was a regular confidante of and consultant for Ekta Kapoor, providing regular inputs on Balaji Telefilms' serials. But his real claim to fame was elsewhere. What was he acknowledged as 'the king of", a genre/medium in which he achieved many record-breaking feats?

5.  In classical times, the Latin word for 'sheath' was not used in an anatomical sense. But after it came, intact, into English in the 1680s, it began to be used for a part of the human anatomy. What's the word?

6. Which northern Russian port is depicted in the 18th-century icon below?

 

 

7. As the result of a grisly and as yet unexplained discovery by a forest ranger in 1942, Roopkund in the Himalayas (photo below) is known by what macabre name?

 

 

 

8. Stretching a remarkable 120km in length, it is the longest uninterrupted natural sand beach in the world. It takes its name from the nearest town, which was founded in 1869 at the site of the existing village of Palongkee, some 150km south of Chittagong. The town was named after a former superintendent of the British East India Company, known for his rehabilitation work with Arakanese refugees who came into the region in the late 18th century. What’s the name of the town / beach in the photo below?

 

 

 

9. The Ancient Romans were fond of quincunxes. Tables at large dinners were often arranged in this form, as were beds in crop fields and gardens. It was also the name of a coin whose weight equaled five-twelfths of a libra, a unit of weight similar to the modern-day pound. The name comes from the Latin roots for 'five' and 'one-twelfth'. What is the quincunx pattern? You can describe it using a common example from our pastimes.

10. This ancient structure on Rawdah Island in Cairo is known in English as a stilling well, one of several that you will find along a certain stretch in Egypt. The column in the middle has a name that directly describes its traditional function. What is it called, or what is its function?

Answers
1. Lisbon
2. Ballet – these are all types of ballet jumps
3. Ambrose – the persons referred to are Ambrose Bierce, Ambrose Burnside, and Curtly Ambrose
4. Hindi pulp fiction, having written more than 170 murder mysteries and other novels, including 'Vardi Wala Gunda' that reportedly sold 80 million copies
5. Vagina
6. Arkhangelsk. Also known as Arkhangel, the city is named for the belief that the victory of St Michael over the devil took place near there, and that Michael still stands watch over the city to prevent the Devil's return. This belief is also reflected in the city’s coat of arms, shown below.

7. Skeleton Lake – the skeletal remains of some 500-odd people are strewn around the lake, and no one is sure how exactly they got there. Research shows that the remains do not all date to the same historical period, and don’t even share a common geographic origin. This means that, many centuries apart, different groups of different peoples from different parts of the world somehow all met their demise at this same spot.

8. Cox's Bazar Beach

9. The 5 dots on a die, or the arrangement of symbols on a '5' playing card

10. A nilometer, used as an early warning system for flooding of the Nile

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