Welcome to Quiz No: 4 of India Quiz

For each question, click "Show" to reveal the correct answer.
Questions having hints have two frames, the top one reveals the hints, while the bottom one reveals the answer.

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Quiz Questions

QUESTION 1: Who is the first Indian to become a European star on television and what was the character?

QUESTION 2: Name the sage who reportedly drank Ganga (when she came down at the call of
Bhagirath). However, the sage later let Ganga leave through his ear.

ANSWER 2: Rishi Jahnu

QUESTION 3: Name the major change to the plot devices of Valmiki's Ramayana and Vyasa's story
of Sakuntala (as narrated in Mahabharata) as done by Tulsidas and Kalidas.

ANSWER 3: The Durvasa curse in the story of Sakuntala was an insertion by Kalidas. Also, in Tulsidas's interpretation, Sita has a duplicate who is kidnapped instead of her. Also, Sita is not banished at the end.

QUESTION 4: What rakshasi was on The Cosby Show?

ANSWER 4: Erika Alexander played the role of Hidimbi in Peter Brook's 1989 adaptation of Mahabharata and was also Pam Tucker on The Cosby Show.

QUESTION 5: Connect "Operation Shakti" to Major General Natraj and Major General Prithiviraj?

ANSWER 5: On May 11, 1998, defence research chief A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was in Pokhran wearing battle fatigues, masquerading as Major-General Prithviraj. His colleague and chief of the Department of Atomic Energy, R. Chidambaram, was playing his own part in India's nuclear play, acting as Major-General Natraj.

QUESTION 6: Which famous Indian bollywood related personality had the initials ASDK at birth
(now this person has changed their name)?

HINT
The last 2 initials (DK) also stand for the name of a popular Indian actor born in 1922, who also changed his name from his birth name.

ANSWER 6

A. R. Rahman was born A. S. D. K., A. S. Dileep Kumar. DK, i.e. Dilip Kumar was born Yusuf Khan.

QUESTION 7: Connect Texas Instruments and Shabana Azmi.

ANSWER 7: Texas Instruments India in July 1998 announced the first digital signal processor designed and developed wholly in India. It was code named "Ankoor". Shabana Azmi's breakthrough film was Ankur in 1974.

QUESTION 8: Link novelist Jack London to Mahabharata anti-hero Karna.

HINT
You can similarly link folk singer Arlo Guthrie to Bhima.

ANSWER 8

Jack London had a short story (and collection of short stories) titled "A Son of the Sun". Also, Arlo Guthrie wrote a song Son of the Wind, which was what Bhima was.

QUESTION 9: This building is home to more Indian nationals in France than any other. The building celebrates Republic Day every January 26 and Independence Day every August 15. Even Naseeruddin Shah visited this building in November 2000. Name this Parisian building.

HINT
It's the House of India

ANSWER 9

Maison de l'Inde, located on the campus of Cite Universitaire (or University City). Cite Universitaire houses new University of Paris students from abroad in houses based on their country of origin to help support them when studying. Maison de l'Inde is the "House" of India.

QUESTION 10: Mr. U V (U is his first name and V is his family name), on the birth of a son,
approached Jawaharlal Nehru and asked him to suggest an appropriate name. Nehru suggested the name X. When Indira Gandhi got to know of this, she became livid as she wanted to name her own son X. She now named her son Y instead. However, her grandson was named X, after some years. Mean while, Mr. X V named one of his own sons as Y. The question: Name U, X, Y and V.

ANSWER 10: U is Kamalnayan, V is Bajaj, X is Rahul, Y is Rajiv.

QUESTION 11: What is common between the last Nizam of Hyderabad, the defence minister of
India during Sino-Indian war, the Prime Minister of India during the destruction of the disputed structure at Ayodhya and the daughter of a Bharat Ratna who composed music for the film Gandhi?

ANSWER 11: All of them appeared on the cover of Time magazine.

QUESTION 12: What sometimes fatal disease has a common name that is in Hindi, and a second
name that is named after a geographic location in West Bengal.

ANSWER 12: Kala azar, also known as DumDum fever.

QUESTION 13: This museum is unique because most of the exhibits were collected by a single
person in his life time. Which museum, which place? Who was the person who collected them? What was he?

ANSWER 13: Salar Jung Museum, Salar Jung III, He was a nobel/jagirdar/ Prime Minister in the Nizam's court. Was once the largest individual collection

QUESTION 14: Song Sample Here
Guess the Musician, and the song name — Size:657 KB

HINT
This song is from a recording by a very well known musician/composer. Some very famous movie songs are his, though he was actually an original Indian rock star in the 80s, recording songs on Social and Political themes

ANSWER 14

Remo Fernandes

QUESTION 15: 20 years ago, this bird was rediscovered. Name it, who discovered it and where is it found?

ANSWER 15: Jerdon's Courser

QUESTION 16: India ceded a portion of its territory to Pakistan. Name the location, area and year.

ANSWER 16: A part of Sir Creek (900 sq miles) in Gujarat was given to Pakistan in April 1968.

QUESTION 17: In whose name was the famous Dakshineshwar Kali Temple officially registered
after it was completed in 1855? And why?

ANSWER 17: Rani Rashmoni built it but since she was from a farming caste, there were problems from people in acepting registration or consecration in her name. It was registered in the name of her Guru Ramkumar, who is a brahmin.

QUESTION 18: Find one degree of separation between George Lucas and Santosh Sivan.

ANSWER 18: Ayesha Dharker appeared in Santosh Sivan's The Terrorist (1999) as Malli and in George Lucas's Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002) as Queen Jamillia.

QUESTION 19: An English indie band paid tribute to a playback singer with a song that went on to
be a Top 40 hit in many countries in 1998. That playback singer later contributed to a Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. Name (1) The English indie Band (2) The playback singer and (3) How the playback singer contributed to the Grammy award?

ANSWER 19: 1.)Cornershop who made the song "Brimful of Asha", 2.) Asha Bhosle, 3.) the Black Eyed Peas sampled her song "Aye Naujawan Hai Sab Kuchchyahan" in their hit single "Don't Phunk With My Heart".

QUESTION 20: A is sometimes called the book of life. B is a person who, along with other peers,
figured out how to translate A into C, discovering and using what is now called D. B along with two others received a Nobel prize for this effort. Who are A, B, C and D?

ANSWER 20: A is any Genetic Information or Genome or DNA sequences, B is Har Gobind Khorana, C is Proteins or Amino Acid Sequences and D is the Genetic Code. Dr. Khorana got the nobel prize along with Robert W. Holley and Marshall Warren Nirenberg for describing the genetic code and how it operates in Protein biosynthesis. He was also the first to come up with stable methods to synthesize oligonucleotides that were more than a few bases long.

QUESTION 21: This word, used today mostly to refer to an equestrian event has its origins in India.
It is loosely a corruption of the Hindi/Persian words for 'ball' and 'house'. Originally, it referred to any of various sporting contests. What word is being talk of?

ANSWER 21: Gymkhana, which now refers to a meet for any sporting event. From geind (ball) and khana (house).

QUESTION 22: Name the only India-born head of a state or provincial government in North America (current or prior; excluding the West Indies)

ANSWER 22: Ujjal Dosanjh, previously premier of British Columbia.

QUESTION 23: This person was among the first to talk of the concept of Swaraj. He also
propagated Vedas. Who?

ANSWER 23: Swami Dayananda Saraswati

QUESTION 24: Connect dacoitry and Sita?

ANSWER 24: Legend has it that Valmiki may have been a dacoit named Ratna. Valmiki offered refuge to Sita on banishment.

QUESTION 25: Some believe that Kabbadi may have been inspired by which construct of the
Kurukshetra war?

ANSWER 25: Chakravyuha inspired Kabbadi.