This document contains questions from a quiz made for Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai. The questions cover a wide range of topics including history, literature, religion, science and current events. One question asks the reader to identify the island located northeast of Parel island in Bombay based on a 1906 map. Another asks for the last person to hold the title of Emperor of India. The document tests the reader's breadth of knowledge across many domains.

1. Questions from a quiz made for TISS, Mumbai
ILLUMINATIX
© Anannya Deb, 2010

2. 1
Based on Proverbs 24:5 “A wise man has great power and a man of knowledge
increases strength”, what classic phrase was first published by Francis Bacon in his
Meditationes Sacrae in 1597?
You can give the original Latin or the English translation (3 words)

3. 1
“Scientia Potentia Est” – Knowledge is Power

4. 2
The archipelago of Bombay was more than the cliched “seven islands”. As the
visual (in the next slide shows) there were numerous others – small and big – which
have been merged into one metropolitan city. Name the island to the north east of
Parel (which is masked).

5. (Map of Bombay,1906)

6. (Map of Bombay,1906)

7. 3
No trick question this, who is / was the last person to hold the official title of
Emperor of India?

8. 3
King George VI who held the title till 1947
King / Queen of England is not enough.

9. 4
Whose face, in letter if not in spirit, should be on the fourth box?
?

10. 4
Barack Obama
The four US Presidents to win the Nobel Prize (whether all of them earned it or not
is a different matter)

11. 5
Who is this person in the news recently (last couple of months)

12. 5
Potti Sriramulu
His name was on the airwaves as the Telangana movement hit the front pages

13. 6
Identify this person, a former functionary of the British Raj, who has a geographical
feature named after him

14. 6
Sir George Everest, Surveyor General of India, 1830-43
There’s a signature of Sir Edmund Hillary at the bottom right

15. 7
Johannes Hendrikes Hubert de Mol, a Dutch media tycoon, through his production
company launched this show on the Dutch channel Veronica on 16th September
1999. This show currently has versions in over 70 countries
Two of the people who appeared in the first show later on became Playboy models
(Dutch editions)
Name the show

16. 7
Big Brother
Not Bigg Boss which is only the Indian version.

17. 8
It's Greek for smell. Sax's Dangerous Properties of Industrial Materials describes it
as a colourless (sometimes pale blue) gas (dark blue in liquid form) and its quantity
in the atmosphere is measured using Dobson units. What is it?

18. 8
Ozone

19. 9
Harivanshrai Bachchan, in his autobiography, describes the origin of his caste
saying that while the four main castes came from different parts of Brahma, this
particular caste came out of Brahma’s entire body, or “____” . Over the years,
members of this caste have become writers, administrators, accountants, historians.
They are outcasts as they do not belong to the four main divisions. This allowed
them to work in both Hindu and Muslim courts over the years. Name the caste.

20. 9
Kayastha

21. 10
Salil Chowdhury wrote the original Bengali story. In the Bengali film, he was the
music composer as well as in the Hindi remake. The Hindi remake won awards at
Cannes, Karlovy Vary and the top ones in India (National and Filmfare). Hrishikesh
Mukherjee started off working as editor in this film. Name the Hindi film

22. 10
Do Bigha Zameen
Directed by Bimal Roy. The original story is called Rickshawala and is a magnificent
example of Salil Chowdhury’s work

23. 11
The ruins of which city were rebuilt in part by Saddam Hussein where the bricks
contained the inscription "This was built by Saddam Hussein, son of
Nebuchadnezzar, to glorify Iraq"?

24. 11
Babylon

25. 12
One of the four Great Ancient Capitals of China, it's original name meant "Perpetual
Peace". It has been the capital of over 13 dynasties in China and has over 3000
years of history. What starts from here?

26. 12
The Silk Route
The place is Xian or Chang’an or Sian. The Silk Route started from here. You’ll also
find the famous Terracotta Army here

27. 13
Which form of English has three variants – Broad, Central and Cultivated?

28. 13
Australian English also called Strine

29. 14
This fish has a peculiar trait where the father fish can take on the female form to
breed his babies in case of death of the mother. Easily recognised by its bright
orange colour with three white and black markings, the demand for this fish as pet
suddenly trebled in 2003. Name the fish?

30. 14
Clownfish

31. 15
In 2005-6, Time magazine listed him as one of 100 most influential people for
something he started in 2001. His philosophy was "Imagine a world in which every
single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.
That's what we're doing". Who and what did he start?

32. 15
Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia
Half-point each

33. 16
The band United Colours of Sound stand with two people at the launch of
something which Christopher Martin Jenkins says “The only way to approach the
whole adventure is with an open mind”. What was launched?

34. 16
The first T20 Cricket tournament, Twenty20 Cup, England

35. 17
Which is "The great city of angels, the supreme unconquerable land of the great
immortal divinity, the royal capital of nine noble gems, the pleasant city, with plenty
of grand royal palaces, and divine paradises for the reincarnated deity Vishnu, given
by Indra and created by the god of crafting Visnukarma"?

36. 17
Bangkok, capital of Thailand. The official name is Krung Thep…
Much of Thai culture originates from Hindu-Buddhist origins.

37. 18
What is the English translation of the Spanish phrase used to refer to Spanish
nobility / royalty who were deemed pure i.e. free of Moorish or Jewish ancestry /
parentage?

38. 18
Blue Blood from Sangre Azul. Since the pure stock Spanish were fairer than the
Moors, the bluish veins were more visible . Hence the phrase used to describe
royalty or nobility.

39. 19
Towards the end of the WW2, the tables had turned on the Italian-German
friendship with Mussolini loosing his grip and finally his life. Hitler ordered the Nazi
armies into Italy to take control. This particular piece of art in the possession of Dr.
Ottarino Bassini had to be hidden at all costs. He did so by hiding it in a shoe box
and keeping it under his bed. Many years later it found a permanent home in Brazil.
But in 1983, this piece was stolen from an office in Rio De Janeiro and apparently
melted down by the thieves. What piece of art am I referring to?

40. 19
The Jules Rimet Trophy

41. 20
This novel is a story of Sal Paradise, the narrator, who meets Dean Moriarty, the
protagonist, who puts a perspective to the story to follow.
Quoting from the book: "with the coming of Dean Moriarty began the part of life you
could call life ___ ___ ____".
Name the novel (or fill in the blanks)

42. 20
On The Road by Jack Kerouac

43. 21
Revelations 13:18 of the Bible says (from the King James’ Bible):
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the ______ __ __ ____: for
it is the ______ of a man; and his ______ is ___ ______ _____ ___ ___.
This has particular interest to heavy metal music fans, especially Iron Maiden. What
concept is being referred to here?

44. 21
Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for
it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six (666).
If you have written any of the underlined phrases, you get points

45. 22
What word (used as a name) in Hebrew means "One who has struggled with the
challenges of God and triumphed"?

46. 22
Israel

47. 23
Name the infamous secret police of the Tsar of Russia which was formed in the 19th
century and among other events, was responsible for the Bloody Sunday killings of
peaceful demonstrators in 1905.

48. 23
Okhrana or the Department of Defense and Public Security and Order.

49. 24
Of what are Stoors, Fallohides and Harfoots three different varieties?

50. 24
Hobbits (JRR Tolkein, The Hobbit)

51. 25
His name has coined a word in Hindi meaning "champion" or "extremely skilled". In
Arabic, he is known as "Dhul-Qarnayn" meaning two-horned because in the coins
minted during his time, he was depicted with horns of a ram like the Egyptian God
Amon. Name this megalomaniac from history?

52. 25
Alexander the Great

53. 26
1st: What is the _____ _____? Everything.
2nd: What has it been heretofore in the political order? Nothing.
3rd: What does it demand? To become something herein.
This is from a famous pamphlet published by a French abbot Sieyes. What are the
blanks.

54. 26
Third Estate
Published in 1789 when the Third Estate was finally allowed to participate in the
Estates-General

55. 27
What is the Persian word for "quatrains" meaning a four line verse or poem, usually
a stanza in a longer poem?

56. 27
Rubai, hence the Rubai’yat of Omar Khayyam i.e. the Quatrains of Omar Khayyam

57. 28
Sister of Cratus, Bia and Zelus, she is usually depicted by Ancient Greeks as a
small winged figure perching on another god's arm or the like. She also features in
similar vein in all Olympic medals. Who?

58. 28
Nike

59. 29
What social concept is being described in these quotations below:
12th July 1992, New York Times, on Kosovo:
“The nationalists have a two-point platform, according to Becir Hoti, an executive secretary
of the Communist Party of Kosovo, first to establish what they call an __ __ Albanian
republic and then the merger with Albania to form a greater Albania.”
2nd August 1991, Washington Post, reporting from Croatia:
“The Croatian political and military leadership issued a statement Wednesday declaring that
Serbia’s “aim...is obviously the __ __ of the critical areas that are to be annexed to Serbia.”

60. 29
Ethnic Cleansing or Ethnically Clean

61. 30
Fill in the missing words of this famous poem
Take up the ____ ______ _____
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.

62. 30
White Man’s Burden
Rudyard Kipling

63. 31
What did the man say next?
“It is your fault that I am ten minutes late. It is the duty of nurses to carry on their
work even if God himself should be present there. If it is time to give medicine to a
patient and one feels hesitant about it, the poor patient will die. So it is with prayers.
It irks me if I am late for prayers even by a minute.”

64. 31
Hey Ram
The last remark made by Gandhi before being shot at.

65. 32
Give one word for "the categorical prohibition of cooperation with state authorities or
reliance on its services, even when one has been victim of a crime"?

66. 32
Omerta, the code of the Sicilians in their struggle (later associated with the Mafia)

67. 33
Give the last name of this newsmaker: Eldrick Tont _____

68. 33
Woods a.k.a Tiger Woods

69. 34
As president of the Indian Olympic Association in 1924, who paid for the Indian
contingent to the 1924 Paris Olympics?

70. 34
Dorabji Tata

71. 35
Connect this text (opening lines given) to the picture.
In the reign of the new king who was Lord of the diadems, great in glory, the
stabilizer of Egypt, but also pious in matters relating to the gods, superior to his
adversaries, rectifier of the life of men, Lord of the thirty-year periods like
Hephaestus the Great, King like the Sun, the Great King of the Upper and Lower
Lands, offspring of the Parent-loving gods, whom Hephaestus has approved, to
whom the Sun has given victory, living image of Zeus, Son of the Sun, Ptolemy the
ever-living, beloved by Ptah; …

73. 35
The Rosetta Stone & The Rosetta Project
The Rosetta Stone opened up Egyptian hieroglyphics (that is the English translation
of the text).
The Rosetta Project is an international movement to document all the human
languages from time immemorial to the present

74. 36
Sometime in 1897, Virginia O’Hanlon had a question to ask. Her father Dr. Philip
O’Hanlon told her to write to the New York Sun saying “If you see it in the Sun, it’s
so”. So the 8 year old girl wrote. The editor Francis Church duly replied with an
editorial on Sept 21, 1897 which is considered one of the greatest ever and one of
the most reprinted pieces.
What did Virginia ask?

75. 36
Is there a Santa Claus?
And Francis Church replied, “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus”
“Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as
certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist,
and you know that they abound and give to your life
its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would
be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would
be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There
would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no
romance to make tolerable this existence. We
should have no enjoyment, except in sense and
sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the
world would be extinguished.”

76. 37
Two statues of the same Buddhist icon – there is a Tibetan name and a Sanskrit
name. He is the patron deity of a region of India which according to legend he had
blessed. Name him (either of the Tibetan or the Sanskrit name will do)

77. 37
Guru Rinpoche or Padmasambava (The Lotus Born)
The patron deity of Sikkim, he blessed the area and deemed it fit for Tibetan
Buddhists to settle there.

78. 38
Which predator, an endangered species, has its habitat shown in the NatGeo map
below?

79. 38
The Royal Bengal Tiger

80. 39
This is a family photograph of four cricketing brothers Give the family name and any
two of the brothers (5 points)?

81. 39
The legendary Palwankar brothers – Baloo, Vithal, Yeshwant, Shivram
They were Dalits. Baloo, the eldest, was the first Dalit to play first class cricket when
he was selected for the Hindus team in 1905-06. He was India’s first exponent of
left arm spin
Vithal joined the Hindus team later and was made captain of the Hindus in 1922.
This was special as previous year India saw Mahatma Gandhi enter the Indian
political and social sphere.

82. 40
The first woman to graduate out of medical school in Italy, she was nominated for
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1949, 1950 and 1951. Her face replaced Marco Polo on
the 1000 lire bank note and stayed there till Italy adopted the Euro. Who?

83. 40
Dr Maria Montessori

84. 41
Violin player, jailed freedom fighter from Karnataka, as a cinematographer he has to
his credit one of the greatest scenes in the history of Indian cinema - the climax of a
1959 Black and White classic. The film flopped with the then President, Dr.
Rajendra Prasad walking out in disgust. Today it is rated as a one of those films that
cognoscenti consider pathbreaking. Name the cinematographer (5 points) and the
film (5 points)

85. 41
VK Murthy, Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959)

86. 42
In the book “The Edge of the Unknown”, Arthur Conan Doyle, who believed in
spiritualism, expressed his deep anguish and anger at his close friend who spent
much of his time chasing and ridiculing godmen and mystics. This person would
attend seances in disguise and ridicule them. Name this friend of Doyle.

87. 42
Harry Houdini

88. 43
In 1906, in a study, Italian economist Vilfredo ______ observed a certain pattern in
the land holding in Italy. Later, when gardening, he found a similar pattern in the
productivity of peapods. Later this pattern was moved into business management
by Joseph Juran. Name the economist.

89. 43
Pareto. Hence the Pareto Principle or 80-20 Rule

90. 44
Eugene Polly and Robert Adler were two among a dozen scientists at Zenith
Electronics who in 1955-56 were working on an unique assignment. As part of this
Eugene Polly invented the “Flashmatic”, a wireless device using photo cells while in
1956 Robert Adler improved upon it using Ultrasonics. Both are credited as co-
inventors and were awarded an Emmy in 1997 for their contribution to television.
What did they invent?

91. 44
The TV Remote and by extension, the couch potato

92. 45
“Let us away, knights, this fellow will arise no more”. And thus Reginald
Fitzurse, Hugh de Moreville, William de Tracy, Richard le Bretan went their way.
Who is “the fellow”?

93. 45
Thomas Becket

94. 46
Daniele da Volterra was a 16th century Italian painter and sculptor. He was very well
renowned for his frescoes and other commissioned work. However, for one specific
job, he unfairly got the the dubious nickname "Il Braghettone" or The Breeches
Maker. It involved painting breeches on a particular fresco, to make it less
scandalous. Which fresco and who was the original painter?

95. 46
Michelangelo Buonorotti, The Last Judgment

96. 47
Who came third?
?
1st 2nd 3rd 4th

97. 47
Leander Paes
1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, Men’s Singles Tennis.

98. 48
Name the flower. Latin name: Leontopodium Alpinium; common name is German for
“Noble White”. There is an airline named after the flower. And a famous folk song,
often called the unofficial anthem of the country where it is maximum found.

99. 48
Edelweiss

100. 49
If the accidental discovery of happy things is called serendipity, what is the
suppression or censorship of such discoveries (very frequent in scientific research
circles) called?

101. 49
Bahramdipity
Originates from Bahram Gur, who tries to punish the Three
Princes of Serendip thinking they stole the camel

102. 50
Which movie title will you get if you were to complete this quotation from Hamlet:
"I am but mad ____ ____ _____
When the wind is southerly
I know a hawk from a handsaw."

103. 50
North (by) North West

104. 51
Which legendary voyage of the 20th Century is shown in the map below

105. 51
The Kon Tiki raft expedition of Thor Heyerdahl and company

106. 52
“Francis can’t draw, and I can’t draw, and we needed something done quick” said Dr
_____. “The drawing showed the essence of the structure and it became historically
important, reproduced over and over.”
Since neither could draw, Francis asked his wife Odile to draw. What iconic sketch
did Odile draw?

107. 52
The DNA double helix for Crick and Watson (who went on to win the Nobel Prize)

108. 53
What trail does this map show

109. 53
Ashtavinayak. 8 temples of Ganesh in Maharashtra
1. The Moreshwar Temple, Moregaon
2. The Siddhivinayak Temple, Siddhatek
3. The Ballaleshwar Temple, Pali
4. The Varadavinayak Temple, Mahad
5. The Chintamani Temple, Thevur
6. The Girijatmaj Temple, Lenyandri
7. The Vighnahar Temple, Ozar
8. The Mahaganapati Temple, Ranjangaon

110. 54
Depending on the source of the legend, he has a variety of names like Buttadeus,
Cartophilus, Isaac Laquedem and Juan Espera en Dios. His equivalent in Indian
legend would be that of Ashwathama who was doomed to remain a wandering leper
forever. His influence in literature cuts across entire Europe including an incomplete
work by Alexander Dumas. Who?

111. 54
The Wandering Jew

112. 55
His full name is Ab’ul Hasan Yamin al-Din. Considered the father of the qawwali,
among his poems is this bi-lingual poem (written in Persian and Brij Bhasha)
Zeehaal-e miskeen makun taghaful,
duraye naina banaye batiyan;
ki taab-e hijran nadaram ay jaan,
na leho kaahe lagaye chhatiyan
Name the poet.

113. 55
Amir Khusro