Google-proof quiz

Here are the answers to Joy Bhattacharjya’s Google-proof quiz, published on July 16 .

1 (Visuals: Muhammad Ali, Charles Laughton, Charlton Heston, Lawrence Olivier, Alec Guinness). These are just a few in a list that includes a Belgian racing champion, an Austrian analyst and at least two French presidents. What list?

A: The list of real-life people caricatured in Asterix comics. Cassius Ceramix in The Big Fight was modelled on Ali. Lawrence Olivier and Alec Guinness were actors in Asterix and the Cauldron and five-time Tour De France champion Eddie Merckx appeared in Asterix in Belgium.

2 In the 19th century there were two. There were three from 1907, four from 1912 and five from 1937. About a decade later, it was decided that this was not a good idea for a new nation. What am I talking about? Sport.

A: The Pentangular Cricket Championship, the first major domestic tournament in India where teams were organised along religious lines. Originally contested between the Europeans and Parsees, the Hindus joined in the early 20th century, followed by the Muslims in 1912. In 1937, another team was created — The Rest, for Indian Christians and other faiths. Obviously not the kind of competition the Mahatma wanted in independent India. But players like Palwankar Baloo and Vijay Hazare first showed their skills in this tournament.

3 (Visual: Rudyard Kipling) Connect this man to another who adapts the works of Bertolt Brecht and even better-known playwrights. Thinking of floral underwear could help.

A: Rudyard Kipling and Vishal Bhardwaj. Bhardwaj first came into prominence for composing the opening credits song of the ’90s TV series Jungle Book: ‘Chaddi pehen ke phool khila hai’, Gulzar’s masterpiece.

4 (Visuals: Propeller, bow tie, Zoroaster, Trident statue) What variety of product would you be researching if you came across these images?

A: Logos of car companies: the Chevrolet logo is known as the bow tie, Mazda gets its name from the Iranian god Ahura Mazda or Zoroaster, Neptune’s trident is the inspiration for the Maserati logo. And one of the stories of the BMW logo link it to an airplane propeller, as BMW originally also designed aircraft engines.

5 (Visuals: Eisenhower, Jonas Salk, Queen Elizabeth II). Popular culture: which sportsman is next. Just a little tricky!

A: Rocky Marciano, the next name mentioned in Billy Joel’s anthem, ‘We didn’t start the fire.’ “Eisenhower, Vaccine, England’s got a new queen, Rocky Marciano (...)” The second picture is that of Jonas Salk, the man who created the polo vaccine.

6 (Visuals: Arthur Conan Doyle, PG Wodehouse) The one on the left is supposed to have written it, the one on the right actually did. For full points, name both authors and the fictional characters involved.

A: “Elementary, my dear Watson.” The line was never used by Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective Sherlock Holmes in any of his stories. It was first used by PG Wodehouse’s inimitable Psmith in the story ‘Psmith Journalist’.

7 The first was the 6600. The best one is currently in China, made with almost 41,000 different ones. You measure them by a unit that Shah Rukh and Salman fear. What?

A: Supercomputers. Their speed is measured in FLOPS (Floating-point Operations Per Second)

8 (Visual: Emilio Garrastazu Medici). With which famous moment in international sport would you associate this dictator, who had no personal proficiency in sport?

A: Brazil’s fourth and final goal in the 1970 World Cup final, a brilliant finish by Carlos Alberto and regarded as one of the greatest goals in World Cup history. It was known as the ‘President’s Goal’ as the then Brazilian dictator Emilio Medici had predicted that Brazil would score four goals in the final.

Congratulations to our three winners: Swastik Udupa (Airody, Karnataka), Venkatesh Udupa (Kota, Karnataka) and Shrey Goyal (New Delhi).

They answered all eight questions correctly.

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