KQA January 2007 Open Quizzes

BRIEF REVIEWS
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Two quizzes were conducted by the KQA at the Daly Memorial Hall, Bangalore on 7 January 2007. One was a general quiz while the other was a speciality quiz (the theme was "Maps")

1) At Las' (The Map Quiz)
QM: Arun Hiregange of WALTW and Arul Mani

2) Open Quiz
QM: Anustup Datta of WALTW

Both the quizzes were extremely intriguing. I would even go so far as to say that a Sunday afternoon could not have been better spent by a trivia-buff!

The map quiz was a written affair comprising of around 50 questions. Arul Mani and Appu shared QM-duty. The questions, expectedly, blended geography with an eclectic mix of topics while still retaining the "map focus". Even so, the unbeliever could justifiably claim that many were just normal trivia questions being passed on as map questions by just displaying a map on screen! Also, the blanking of some areas of text on the maps even in cases where they would only have helped as "workouter helpers" was somewhat dubious. And on some of the maps, more profound and less arbit questions could have been framed. But all in all, it was an excellent set of questions and a good show by the QMs.

The open quiz was conducted by the Derek O'Brien-crowned ;-) "Brain of Bangalore" Anustup Datta. The enthusiasm and diligence shown by the QM was contagious. The selection of questions was judicious; unanswered questions were few and far in between and when they were, were applauded for ingeniousness and uniqueness of perspective by everyone within hearing distance! The questions of the prelims, thankfully, had good correlation with the questions asked in the finals too. The standard of the questions was generally very good and pretty much uniform, though the odd sitter and "too-arbit"ter were also there.

The final round was a marathon by the master quizzer; it lasted for nearly 4 hours. In fact and jest, towards the end, when the QM needn't have said "Anyone in the audience?" for unanswered questions! (There was no "one" left or only one choice of one was possible ;-) Jokes apart, thank you Anustup for your wonderful and sincere effort at both enlightenment and entertainment!

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
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I participated in both the quizzes though my regular partners had backed out because of other commitments.

My partner for the Map Quiz was Dr.Krishnan who came up with more than a few strokes of brilliance during our fate-imposed collaboration. We scored only around 10 points on the entire set but there were more than a few near-misses. I am mostly to blame; I rue the fact that I haven't perused the mammoth geographical encyclopaedia that I purchased in 2005! :-)

For the general quiz, I teamed up with my erstwhile nemeses and rivals(for a brief time) from REC Calicut- Praveen, Vipin and Atul. We called ourselve Oomph, an abbreviation of the Sanskrit verse on Praveen's T-shirt. For a change :-), we managed to qualify and also placed sixth (I think) in the finals.

Excuse-time! None of us had had anything to eat the whole day and an excess of Food-For-Thought in place of Food-For-Body led to momentary blackouts. Any newbies reading this, really, it makes a difference; this has happened to me before also. Quizzing is a mind-sport and we need to be fit both mentally and physically to sustain high levels of focus and concentration. Self-note: Next time onwards, I have to make sure that I am better nourished for the quizzes that I attend...both ways! ( body... eat more! and perhaps more importantly, mind.. read more! ) ;-)

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OPEN QUIZ
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PRELIMS
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1.Kajol sequence in KANK Rock & Roll Sonia - inspired by 1950s film Tum Sa Nahin Dekha
(miss,went with a Shammi kapoor film)
2. Barbarians - term comes from Greek, adopted by Romans - unintelligible sounds
(hit, sitter)
3.State animal of Sikkim - Ailures fulgens Why in news- Firefox
(Miss, Inspired attempt: Sleepycat software acquired by Oracle. ailure=>cat, animal is very lethargic)
4. Visual of ISKCON temple Bangalore
(miss)
5.Commissaires (police), pleureurs (criers), bisseurs (encorers), rieuers (laughers) == Claque (Professional applauders)
(miss, featured in Yaake quiz, should have got)
6.Started in '50s. Average 34-25-34 "The girl next door without any clothes on" == Playboy's Playmate of the month
(Went against hunch and missed, attempt Barbie)
7.Visual of Jan 2, 1928 issue of time - Charles Lindbergh, First TMoY
(Hit, another sitter)
8.Author about most famous creation - I have a feeling of having had too much to eat. Conan Doyle about Holmes
(Miss, Went with Disney about Donald)
9.Coptic text discovered by local peasants - Gnostic Gospels or Nag Hammadi library
(miss)
X.Visual of Red Umbrella - Citigroup HQ
(miss,Vipin's input lost in noise)
Y.Anthem composed by Joseph Haydn - used by Austria - Deutschland uber alles
(miss)
Z.Brief bio. Question about Tom Stoppard.
(miss)
A.Audio: Cliff Richards - Theme from a Dream ==> Pal Pal from Lage Raho Munnabhai
(hit, sitter)
B.Artist, son of tailor, brief bio = Auguste Renoir
(miss)
C.Film clip with blue umbrella = Ruskin Bond's Blue Umbrella
(miss)
D.Letter with dashes Dear ____ Swami = Graham Greene to RK Narayanan
(hit)
E.Visual - Dilmom Dilbert's mom
(miss, +I - Dilbert's dad is Dogbert)
F.brief tech/management bio, 8 people left in 1950s- William Shockley
(miss, wrote John Bardeen)
G.Ancient egyptians started, napoleon thought of continuing - Suez Canal
(miss)
H.Visual connect : Dead Man's Chest, KLM logo - Flying Dutchman
(miss, KLM didn't flash)
I.Poem snippet "In memory yet green" etc - Isaac Asimov
(hit, dug deep into recesses of memory!!)
J.When Mecca under fidels, Muslims prayed facing - Solomon temple, Al-Aqsa mosque, Jerusalem
(hit)
K.Map with 30 spots highlighted - NGEO Biodiversity Hotspots
(miss, went with tourism)
L.Monster hit 2002, now reappear with "Bloody Mary" single - Las Ketchup
(hit)
M.Only Pindar's house spared when rumours of Alexander's death surfaced
(hit)
N.Brief bio and funda about journal - Mc Graw, Hill
(miss, went with Prentice Hall)
O.Military system ==> Braille
(hit, sitter of the quiz)
P.ABCL talent-finds = Arshad Warsi, Chandrachur Singh
(hit)
Q.Song played, identify lyricist - Salman Rushdie, acoustic version of U2 Ground Beneath her Feet
(miss, too acoustic to recognize)
R.Changed name to claim lineage - Benjamin Disraeli
(hit)

FINALS
titled "The Revenge of The Baby SAT"
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The first round was a Multigroup Connect -
9 groups of 5 visuals each..
Theme was "...for dummies books"
TJ: Very lame and stupid. Unguessable. I would say this was the worst part of the quiz.
Jezebel, Mel Brooks, Dancer In The Dark - shot entirely digitally

Regular Rounds
*"Saurav's"= restaurant, "Tendulkar's"= restaurant. Lillees's and Thommo's = Beds reserved in Perth hospital
*Hat in Brokeback Mountain. From spanish for "gold" - Ten Galleon Hat
*Description of encounter in store - who met whom? - Eva Braun with Hitler
*85 functions. "No fish in the southern face of Himalayas" - Swiss army knife
*Video of Mediterranean - Tarantella dance, based on bite of Tarantula spider
*Peyton Place
*Chateau de Cheverney ==> Marlinspike Hall. "Search for identity" - Tintin, Herge
*"Killer" name of car in which Godse travelled.
*Peyton Place
*video.Casino royale, car accident scene - in Guinness Book for most number of rolls by a car
*Sporting term called "side" in England. Rest of the world = "English" snooker
*Anecdote about somebody's death. Both sides of the Atlantic mourned = Little Nel
*Audio, singing style why so- Kumar Gandharv, only one lung
*started because "no major sporting events to cover" = Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition
*Pause before continuing good=Zeigarnik effect ==> Cliffhanger plot device
*Asteroid named for its highly irregular orbit - Toutatis, protector of Asterix and compatriots
*First supporter for Salman Rushdie after fatwa - Orhan Parmuk
*Quarantine changed from 30 days to 40 days. Why? - Because Jesus spent 40 days in wilderness
(We scored on this. I didn't know this one but my answer "Because Jesus took 40 days for something" was accepted)
*Glen Burke baseball play, one of the first openly gay - invented the high-five!
*Beetle which fetches a lot of money - named after Hitler
(I tried: Beetle after which Volkswagen's Beetle was named!)
*Isambard Kingdom Brunel
*Description of sequence of spots in Bombay - Shantaram Trail
(Praveen said "Something to do with Shantaram". Accepted! Hazy answers seemed to be our way)
*Visual + description - Rajapalyam dog (Was too easy)
*Risus sardonicus
*Why baker's dozen still 13? - 13 gets the best packing ratio, while baking in rectangular
*Descriptive. last screenwriter hired by etc = Gore Vidal, Ben Hur
*Poem with title Saint _______ - Saint Maudlin
(I answered Saint Lachrymose!)
*Eris (Greek deity lawlessness)new "planet" which caused demotion of Pluto is appropriately named. Why? - Earlier named Xena, acted by Lucy Lawless
*Apple glass box in NY controversial - exact dimension Kaaba
*Impressionists, quakers (few more)... what's common - derogatory references which became their names
*"Turn on, tune in, dropout story - Timothy Leary, Marshall McLuhan
*Description of something starting. Chinese eating carrion. - SARS
*"Anyone who __, ___ or ____ this will " - Bramah safe challenge
*"Half the money I spend on ads is wasted..trouble is I don't know which half" Also associated with PGA - Joe Wanamaker
*Visual of hill in Ogden - Paramount Pictures logo
*Poem __ the butcher ___ the boy who buys beef etc - reference to West Port murders a la Noida
*Writing on the wall from Belshazar's feast, Indian ocean song - Aramaic
*Ripley's Believe it or not for most number educational institutions - Tonse Madhav Anant Pai
*Bob Dylan plagiarism
*PG Wodehouse. Psmith Journalist. Dialogue What followed? - "Elementary my dear Watson"
(I got this one out of the blue. Long evening=> blackout ==> Smoke-break==>Brain cells awoke)

Written round
Toponymous dystopia. places (shown in map) + description of word ==> places, words
5 sets of words and places (Forgot to note down. Can anyone fill me in?)
(Shamefully, we didn't score in this round! :-( I'd been upbeat on hearing the them)

The audio round was cancelled due to lack of time!

The final Theme round Stage 2.
The theme was people who had won Emmy and Oscar for the same role in Broadway and movie
*Tmesis = "abso-blooming-utely" audio from My Fair Lady. Another example, How-heinous-ever from Shakespeare Richard
*"The Subject was roses"
*Yul Brynner
*Fill in the 5 blanks - Thomas More, "A man for all seasons"
*Mel Brooks and Ann Bancroft in "Silent Movie"

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MAP QUIZ
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(Just putting up answers, hope they make sense. Will meaning-ize later. Check this space)
0 Chorinti - spinach leaves, region in Italy
1.Grand Chapo Region - conflict referred to in Tintin & Broken Ear
2.Route of Captain Cook
3.Tombs of Mughal Emperors
4.Jersey and New Jersey
5.India coded map - literacy
6.Regions shaded - Asterix comics camp named after
7.English speaking Central American country - Belize
8.Island - Mount Terror and so on - Ross Island, Antarctica
9.Blanked out region - Munchkin Country, Map Of Oz
X.Connect of leaves - India
Y.Dots - Shankaracharya Mutts
Z.Route of Lief Erikson
A.9th largest country - Kazakhstan
B.Pentecost Island - Origin of bungee jumping
C. Connect Orange Free State, Yellow River China etc - Colours
D.Aerial shot - Istanbul
E.Two lowest - Dead Sea, Sea Of Galilee
F.Route of Vasco da Gama
G.(Two islands) clue: think linear - International Date Line passes through these
H.Chihuahua region of Mexico
I.Routes of Marco Polo & Ibn Batuta
J.Challenger Deep
K.Map of Kashmir, missing dot - Vaishnodevi
L.Connect Hudson Bay and something else - actor - Rock Hudson
M.Sargasso Sea
N.Map of world in - Orwell's 1984
O.Thomas Hardy's Wessex
P.Mulholland Drive
Q.Lake Ujiji - Livingstone
R.Railroute shown identify two stations - Putney and Motley or something
S.Map of Europe imposed on Antarctica
(naughty, naughty question from Arul Mani. Q was "What's happening in this?")
T.European Union shaded. (Also includes French Guyana)
U.Route 66
V.Map, turtle - Cayman Islands
W.Two islands renamed for tourism - Alexander Selkirk and Robinson Crusoe
a. Senegal and Cape Verde - named after westmost point of Africa
b. Dominica, Christmas, Easter - named after days on which discovered. Dominica=Sunday
c. Beagle Channel - after HMS Beagle
d. Thomas (can't recall question)
e. Radio, tea, etc connect - Ceylon
f. Peter O'Toole, coffee etc connect - Arabia
g. Bhandarpur - clue was famous temple
h. Sites of Asian Games
i. Prester John (can't recall question)
j. Contrast maps - Tribal and non-tribal regions of Andaman
k. Map with arrows - Spread of Indo-European languages
l. Moses route
(My partner Dr.Krishnan cracked this!)
m. Andorra
n. Lake Chad
o. Kourou
p. Achamenid Empire
q. Limerick