BRAIN GRILLThe General Quiz

Indian Ceramic Society in association with

Department of Ceramic Engineering presents

QM: Mahendra Mohan Das10th April, 2014

Welcome to the finals!• The rounds in the finals:

• The Starter:1) Trivia Bites• Main Course:2) Brain Fry3) The Core Quotient4) Pick Your Pill• Dessert:5) Mega Connect

Special Thanks: Somnath Chanda

Trivia Bites• +5/0• +5 bonus if all correct.

• Questions on topics which came in news in the last 6 months.

1)• The _____ War (October 1853 – February 1856) was

a conflict in which Russia lost to an alliance of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia. While neutral, the Austrian Empire also played a role in defeating the Russians.

• The immediate issue involved the rights of Christians in the Holy Land, which was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. The French promoted the rights of Catholics, while Russia promoted those of the Orthodox.

• This name also came to news recently. Which war?

2)• This is a crime thriller

published last year. Who wrote this book in the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith?

3)• Some of the famous books written by which famous

personality?

• Delhi: A Novel, 1990• The Company of Women, 1999• Truth, Love and a Little Malice (an autobiography),

2002• The Illustrated History of the Sikhs, 2006• Why I Supported the Emergency: Essays and

Profiles, 2009• The Good, the Bad and the Ridiculous, 2013 (Co-

authored with Humra Qureshi)

4)• He currently serves as the Head of the Scientific

Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India. A few months ago, he became the third scientist after C.V. Raman and A. P. J. Abdul Kalam to be a part of an elite list.

• Who?

5)• Identify

all three.

Exchange your sheets

1)• The _____ War (October 1853 – February 1856) was

a conflict in which Russia lost to an alliance of France, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia. While neutral, the Austrian Empire also played a role in defeating the Russians.

• The immediate issue involved the rights of Christians in the Holy Land, which was controlled by the Ottoman Empire. The French promoted the rights of Catholics, while Russia promoted those of the Orthodox.

• This name also came to news recently. Which war?

Crimean war.

2)• This is a crime thriller

published last year. Who wrote this book in the pseudonym of Robert Galbraith?

J K Rowling.

3)• Some of the famous books written by which famous

personality?

• Delhi: A Novel, 1990• The Company of Women, 1999• Truth, Love and a Little Malice (an autobiography),

2002• The Illustrated History of the Sikhs, 2006• Why I Supported the Emergency: Essays and

Profiles, 2009• The Good, the Bad and the Ridiculous, 2013 (Co-

authored with Humra Qureshi)

Khushwant Singh.

4)• He currently serves as the Head of the Scientific

Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India. A few months ago, he became the third scientist after C.V. Raman and A. P. J. Abdul Kalam to be a part of an elite list.

• Who?

C N R Rao.

5)• Identify

all three.

Oh yes!• Arvind Kejriwal• Narendra Modi• Rahul Gandhi

Brain Fry• +10/0 in direct or pass.• +10/-10 on pounce.

• 12 questions.• Questions covering all the topics under the sun;

especially entertainment (who doesn’t watch movies, TV series or listens to songs?)

1)• This is the Royal

Standard of Thailand, the official flag of the King of Thailand, adopted in its present form in 1910 under King Vajiravudh, or Rama VI. Which figure from Hindu mythology is depicted on the flag?

Garuda.

2)• An Absolut ad is shown.• FITB.

3)• It is a cold and sweet

beverage made by mixing rose syrup with vermicelli noodles, psyllium (ispaghol) or basil (sabza/takmaria) seeds, jelly pieces and tapioca pearls along with either milk, water or ice cream.

• What Hindi phrase is originated from this beverage?

Izzat ka falooda.

4)• Who is the lyricist of the song?

• (video inserted)

Kapil Sibal.

5)• Which two famous names are missing? What is this

a list of?

1. Abu'l-Fazl2. Abdul Rahim Khan-I-Khana3. Faizi4. Hamim Humam5. Raja Man Singh6. Raja Todar Mal7. Shaikh Mubarak8. X9. Y

Birbal, Tansen.• Navaratnas of Akbar.

6)• Majdur paida huwe, majdur hi marogeVote na diya hamein, to zinda jaloge.

• Jal kar hum shola bane hai, Kaun jalayega zinda aap ko, jab hum aap ke saath khade hain.

• Slogans of which famous political rivalry?

7)• In this meme, Davy Jones asks

if one fears death, and when he sees the person in the middle panel, he is shocked and frightened.

• Who is the person? Or, what is his famous creation?

George R R Martin.• Writer of A Song of Ice and Fire series, on which the

Game of Thrones series is based.

8)• A minimalist poster

is a type of poster which signifies a main plot, dialogue, portion or minimal portraying of a movie/song/series/painting etc. with which it can be identified.

• The poster on the right is a minimalist poster of a famous Bollywood movie. Name the movie.

Deewaar.

9)• Which famous Indian is missing from the list? What is this a list of? (non-exhaustive)

Mahatma Gandhi.• Father of the Nation.

10)• Sonu Nigam and Taufiq Qureshi sang this song.

What is this song based on?

• (video inserted)

The Shiva Trilogy.• Jo vayuputra ho.

11)• The first building is located on the hill top of the

Mashobra, Shimla; whereas the second one is located at Bolarum, Hyderabad. These two are part of a certain list of 3 buildings. Which list is being talked about? What is the third building?

Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi.• Presidential palaces of India.

12)• About one tonne of besan flour, 10 tonnes of sugar,

700 kg of cashew nuts, 150 kg of cardamom, 300 to 500 litres of ghee, 500 kg of sugar candy and 540 kg of raisins are used daily.

• The spices are bought at the auction at the Commodities and Spices Exchange in Kochi.

• Where in India is such huge quantity of these is used and why?

Tirupati laddus.• To make Tirupati ladoos at Tirupati balaji Temple in

Andhra Pradesh.

The Core Quotient• +10/0 in direct or pass.• +10/-10 on pounce.

• 12 questions.• Questions covering topics related to Ceramics and

Materials Science.

1)• These are sedimentary rocks consisting of round

fragments and individual clasts within a finer-grained matrix that have become cemented together.

• With which business term does it share its name?

Conglomerate.

2)• This organization was

established in 1919 as the successor of the ‘International Congress of Applied Chemistry’, for the advancement of chemistry. However, it finds importance in all the branches related to chemicals.

• Which organization? Just the acronym will do.

IUPAC.

• International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.

3)• Alexandre Grilletta created this game after getting

enraged by the closing of two furnaces of a well known steel company at its plant in the French town of Florange. The ultimate aim for players, who take on the role of factory workers, is to defeat the owner, who appears in the game as a robot.

• Who is the owner of that company?

• (picture on the next slide)

4)• In 1938, a gentleman named Roy Plunkett was

attempting to make a new CFC refrigerant. He saw that the tetrafluoroethylene gas in the bottle stopped flowing before the bottle’s weight had dropped to the point signaling ‘empty’. He finally resorted to cut the bottle apart and found a waxy white material which was oddly slippery.

• What was thus accidentally discovered?  

Teflon.

5)• This star in the Alpha Centauri star system is of

prime importance to human beings because of the presence of substance X, which is valued at $20 million a kilo, the cost escalating to $3 billion when one takes into account the effort required in transporting it to earth. X is a valuable room-temperature-superconductor and the largest reserves are found beneath a structure approximately 460 metres tall.

• No need to identify the star. Which material is being talked about?

Unobtainium.• (Avatar)

6)• Whose ad?

Saint-Gobain.

7)• This titanium-rich mineral with the chemical

formula (Mg,Fe2+)Ti2O5 was first found at Tranquility Base on the Moon in 1969 and was named Armalcolite.

• Why was it named so?

Armstrong-Aldrin-Collins.• Named after the first three people to go to the

moon.

8)• At a quarry and

mine near the village, the rare earth mineral yttria was discovered and named after the village. This crude mineral eventually proved to be the source of four new elements.

• Name the village/mine.

Ytterby.

9)• The X process or ammonia-soda process is the

major industrial process for the production of soda ash, which was developed by Belgian industrialist Ernest X. The exploitation of his patents brought him considerable wealth, which he used for philanthropic purposes, including establishment of various educational institutions of higher studies.

• What did he famously introduce/establish in 1911, which usually takes place every 3 years?

Solvay conference.

10)“Glenn T. SeaborgLawrence Berkeley Laboratory,BerkeleyCaliforniaAmerica”

• What is so special about this old mailing address of Glenn Seaborg?

• Jeffrey Winters, writing in the January 1998 issue of Discover Magazine, made the following observation:

• “Not only is Seaborg the first living scientist to have an element named after him, he’s also the only person who could receive mail addressed only in elements: Seaborgium, Lawrencium (for the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory where he still works), Berkelium, Californium, Americium.”

11)• Austria

commemorated which 1856-invention on the occasion of the 15th anniversary of nationalization of the steel industry?

Blast furnace.

12)• Dated to between AD 1

and AD 25, it is the best known piece of Roman cameo glass and has served as an inspiration to many glass and porcelain makers from about the beginning of the 18th century onwards.

• Name the famous piece.

Portland vase.

Pick Your Pill• Sports• Business• Entertainment• India• Etymology• Science

• As your quizmaster is not that much into sports, he has picked one of the easiest one for you.

• Connect.

WC Man of the Tournaments.

• Which brand/product?

• There are two Hindi TV shows that have been inspired from this show.

• Name either.

• (video inserted)

Comedy Nights with Kapil;Batliwala House No. 43

• The original show: Kumar’s at No. 42

• During the National conference of the Indian National Congress at Kakinada, he suggested something. Gandhi liked the proposal and suggested that he came up with details.

• Who is he and why is he famous for?

Pingali Venkaya.• Designer of the Indian National Flag.

• Some legends suggest, that the term comes from a practise started by the ruler of the Mahim village( now in Mumbai).

• Everytime he wanted something accomplished he would ensure the circulation of a plate filled with X and betel leaves in a meeting of all able bodied men in the village.

• The one who picked up the first X from the plate indicated his willingness to do the job.

• What did this practice give way to which is considered punishable by our law?

Giving supari.• Which the underworld uses as a code to pay a

price for killing off someone.

• It is believed that X and Y weren’t given the Nobel Prize because of their animosity to each other. There is circumstantial evidence that each sought to minimize the other's achievements and right to win the award, that both refused to ever accept the award if the other received it first, and that both rejected any possibility of sharing it.

• Identify both.

Edison and Tesla.

Mega Connect• 7 questions.• Written round.• +10/0 for individual answers.

• If you crack the theme at any point, raise your hands, don’t shout it.

• If you crack the theme in the first 3 slides, +30/-15.• If you crack the theme in the next 3 slides, +20/-10.• If you crack the theme in the last slide, +10/-5.

• Some argue that it is impossible for Him to be born on a particular day. In rig veda he is described as Swayambhu. Still X Jayanthi is observed on the Kanya Sankranti Day, which follows the Ganesh Puja. It is the only Puja of a deity which is celebrated in accordance to the Gregorian calendar rather than Saka calendar.

• Who is X?

• Whose life is this book based on?

• Who was the first Indian to win an Oscar?• For which film did he/she win?

• This famous personality inspired Jamsetji Tata to set up a research and educational institution when they travelled together from Yokohama to Chicago on his visit to the West in 1893. Impressed by his views on science and leadership abilities, Tata established IISc in Bangalore and requested this personality to head the institution. But he declined it citing a conflict with his “spiritual interests”.

• Identify this famous personality.

• After his most famous discovery, he was confident of winning the Nobel Prize in Physics, but was disappointed when the Nobel Prize went to Richardson that year and to de Broglie the next year. He was so confident of winning the prize the next year that he booked tickets in July, even though the awards were to be announced in November, and would scan each day's newspaper for announcement of the prize, tossing it away if it did not carry the news. He did eventually win that year’s Nobel Prize in Physics.

• Which famous scientist?

• The X Rifles is the most senior rifle regiment of the Indian Army. It was originally raised in 1921 as part of the British Indian Army, when six previously existing regiments were amalgamated to form six battalions of the 6th X Rifles. The name X Rifles is derived from the Hindi word X which was the old name of Rajasthan. It is based on the Sanskrit word ___ meaning son of a king.

• What is X?

• He was a notable Indian engineer, scholar, statesman and the Diwan of Mysore during 1912 to 1918.

• Every year, September 15 is celebrated as Engineer's Day in India in his memory.

• Identify him. (Just the surname will do.)

Exchange your sheets.

• Some argue that it is impossible for Him to be born on a particular day. In rig veda he is described as Swayambhu. Still X Jayanthi is observed on the Kanya Sankranti Day, which follows the Ganesh Puja. It is the only Puja of a deity which is celebrated in accordance to the Gregorian calendar rather than Saka calendar.

• Who is X?

Vishwakarma.

• Whose life is this book based on?

Ramanujan.

• Who was the first Indian to win an Oscar?• For which film did he/she win?

Bhanu Athaiya, Gandhi.

• This famous personality inspired Jamsetji Tata to set up a research and educational institution when they travelled together from Yokohama to Chicago on his visit to the West in 1893. Impressed by his views on science and leadership abilities, Tata established IISc in Bangalore and requested this personality to head the institution. But he declined it citing a conflict with his “spiritual interests”.

• Identify this famous personality.

Swami Vivekananda.

• After his most famous discovery, he was confident of winning the Nobel Prize in Physics, but was disappointed when the Nobel Prize went to Richardson that year and to de Broglie the next year. He was so confident of winning the prize the next year that he booked tickets in July, even though the awards were to be announced in November, and would scan each day's newspaper for announcement of the prize, tossing it away if it did not carry the news. He did eventually win that year’s Nobel Prize in Physics.

• Which famous scientist?

C V Raman.

• The X Rifles is the most senior rifle regiment of the Indian Army. It was originally raised in 1921 as part of the British Indian Army, when six previously existing regiments were amalgamated to form six battalions of the 6th X Rifles. The name X Rifles is derived from the Hindi word X which was the old name of Rajasthan. It is based on the Sanskrit word ___ meaning son of a king.

• What is X?

Rajputana Rifles.

• He was a notable Indian engineer, scholar, statesman and the Diwan of Mysore during 1912 to 1918.

• Every year, September 15 is celebrated as Engineer's Day in India in his memory.

• Identify him. (Just the surname will do.)

M Visvesvaraya.

Connect: IIT BHU hostels.• Vishwakarma Hostel.• Ramanujan Hostel.• Gandhi Smriti Mahila Chatravas.• Vivekananda Hostel.• C V Raman Hostel.• Rajputana Hostel.• Visvesvaraya Hostel.

• For brickbats and bouquets:

• Mail me at:mohandas.mahendra@gmail.com

• Facebook:www.facebook.com/mahendra.mohandas