10Q (February 24, 2018)

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

1. An underground version of this path-breaking 1970s English movie, dubbed in Tamil, was doing the rounds when I was in college in Madras in the '80s. It was titled (in translation) 'Supriya Shocks Selva', which is both appropriate and absurd. Which movie?

A. 'Sybil', the cult classic
 

2. This image depicts St X of Y, a 4th-century Bishop nicknamed the Doctor of Grace whose writings were very influential in the development of Western Christianity. He is the patron saint of brewers, printers, theologians, sore eyes, and a number of cities and dioceses. An order named after him built a church (also named after him) on Monte Santo in Old Goa between 1597 and 1602, which was abandoned in 1835 due to repressive government policies, and has fallen into ruin since.
Y is a place in modern-day Algeria that was the site of a number of church councils and synods in the 4th and 5th century CE. Its name comes not from the Latin for 'horse' but the Punic 'ûbôn', meaning 'harbour'. Name the good doctor.

 

A. St Augustine of Hippo
 

3. Who, in 1917, formed the Socialist Party that soon became the Communist Party of Mexico, the first Communist Party formed outside Russia, before forming the Communist Party of his own country in, of all places, Tashkent in 1920?

A. MN Roy
 

4. The circulation of entries such as the ones below for a 1998 contest organised by online magazine Salon led to what persistent myth on the Internet?

Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
_______ is like that.

Three things are certain:
Death, taxes, and lost ____.
Guess which has occurred.

Everything is gone;
Your life's work has been destroyed.
Squeeze trigger (yes/no)?

A. Haiku
 

5. Who in Hindu mythology is originally called Bhargava Rama, using the name of his kul, but later gets named for the weapon that he wields?

6. The Quds Force is a special unit of Iran's Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (usually called the Revolutionary Guard). It has been tasked with "exporting" Iran's Islamic revolution, and is responsible for "extraterritorial operations" of the Revolutionary Guard. What is Quds the Arabic for?

7. This picture shows a technology called OptimEyes in operation at one of Britain's biggest retailer Tesco's petrol stations. The technology, which Tesco said is like something out of 'Minority Report', was blasted by privacy campaigners when it launched. What does OptimEyes do? [Disclaimer: I had first put this info away some five years ago. When I do a search now, I can't locate anything about it more recent than that, so I don't know if Tesco is still using it.]

8. The X are an indigenous people, the majority of whom live in Meghalaya, with small populations in neighbouring Assam, and in parts of Bangladesh. Their language, also called X, is the northernmost Austro-Asiatic language. This language was essentially oral until the arrival of European missionaries. A Welsh missionary, Thomas Jones, transcribed the alphabet in Roman script as shown below. What is X which, in a different Indian language, would sound like an ailment or affliction?

9. In 2010, publishers Frederick Warne & Co. sent this Oscar-winning British actor and screenwriter (she has won BAFTAs and Academy Awards in both categories) a box containing half-eaten radishes and a letter from Peter Rabbit asking her to write him another adventure. Over the next few years, she produced these three sequels to Beatrix Potter's original. Who?


10. The component parts of the name of which financial institution come from the Dutch word for 'general' and the names of the cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam?

Answers
1. St Augustine of Hippo
2. Manabendra Nath Roy, generally known simply as M. N. Roy, who later also founded the Communist Party of India. 
He had fled, via Indonesia, Japan and the US, to Mexico after unsuccessfully attempting to launch an armed insurrection against British rule in India in the first decade of the 20th century. In Mexico, he became associated with like-minded revolutionaries, including then President Venustiano Carranza, and formed the Socialist Party. 
3. That Windows' Japanese edition uses haiku error messages
4. 'Sybil', the cult classic
5. Parashurama ('parashu' means 'axe')
6. In this context, it's the Arabic for Jerusalem
7. It scans customers' faces so that advertising can be tailored to their age and gender
8. Khasi
9. Emma Thompson

10. ABN AMRO Bank
In 1991, Algemene Bank Nederland (ABN – meaning 'General Bank Netherlands') and AMRO Bank (itself the result of a merger of the Amsterdamsche Bank and the Rotterdamsche Bank in the 1960s) merged to create the original ABN AMRO.