10Q (January 12, 2018)

[For most of the images, larger versions can be viewed by clicking on them]

1. The name that the Persians used for the nomadic tribe that the Greeks called Scythians is associated in India with what is known as the Indian national ________. This may give the official marker, but hardly anyone knows it. You can get to the relevant figure by subtracting 78 from the equivalent figure in the more commonly used global system. What am I talking about? [For full points, you have to give me a two-word answer in which the first word is the Persian name for the Scythians, and the second word is what comes in the blank.]

2. This diamond was seized in 2007 by the U.S. Marshals Service in a federal drug and money laundering investigation, and auctioned in 2011 for $2.84 million. After which James Bond movie has it been named, on account of its unusual colour?

3. With seven appearances at the FIFA World Cup, which country's men's national football team — nicknamed Les Lions Indomptables (The Indomitable Lions or Untameable Lions) in French — has been the most successful African team at the top level?

4. The most common form of what everyday object on European churches, farms and homes traces its origins back to a decree made by Pope Nicholas I in the 9th century, that decree made in reference to the prophecy that Peter would deny Jesus “before the cock crows”?

5. The man on the left, Sunil Narkar, played the man on the right in a popular ad from some eight years ago. For a point apiece, name the company, the product advertised, and the real-life person Narkar played.

6. Its full ceremonial name is: Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit. In English, this translates to "The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishwakarma." By what short name is it commonly known?

7. Until the introduction of automatic weapons, infantry troops tended to fight in a certain formation to repel cavalry or superior forces. What word for a small group of soldiers, now applied to sports teams and other such groups, shares its etymology with the word for the shape of the formation, as evidenced in the shared four letters at the beginning of both words?

8. This is a language in the Munda subfamily of Austroasiatic languages, related to Ho and Mundari. It is spoken by around 6.2 million people in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, although most of its speakers live in India, in the states of Jharkhand, Assam, Bihar, Odisha, Tripura, and West Bengal. The language has its own alphabet, known as Ol Chiki, created in 1925 by Raghunath Murmu (it had till then been written using the Latin alphabet). What language?


9. Identify (a) this 1970 movie based on a 1962 book whose title has become a term used in English, and (b) the actor playing the American soldier (it was his debut film).

If you have any problem viewing the YouTube video above, you can access the clip here.

10. China and Russia top this list, with 14. Brazil is next, with 10. The Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo come next, with 9 each. India's tally is officially 7, though the situation on the ground makes it 6 for all practical purposes. What is this a list of?

Answers
1. The Saka calendar
2. Golden Eye

3. Cameroon

4. Weather vanes
Pope Nicholas I decreed that a figure of a rooster should be placed atop every church as a reminder of the incident, and from there it was adopted on other buildings and used for the weather prediction function. 

5. Intel's USB ad, in which Narkar played USB inventor Ajay Bhatt


6. Bangkok
7. Squad, from 'square'
8. Santali
9. (a) Catch-22 (b) Art Garfunkel
10. Countries which share land borders with the largest number of neighbouring nations