PRELIMS
Opening with a literary question - an ad for Amazon Kindle; identify the
person.
Ashwin Sanghi; author of bestsellers like ‘The Rozabal Line’, ‘Chanakya’s
Chant’ and ‘The Krishna Key’
Identify these two legends
Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Vint Cerf
On March 11 2015, this tech company opened
its first ever store in London in a bid to get
closer to its customers. ‘The X Shop’ is based
in the store of U.K. electronics retailer Currys
PC World on London's Tottenham Court Road –
a street packed with tech and gadget retailers
and a short distance from Apple's U.K. flagship
store.
As well as product sales, the store will display
an "immersive" large screen installation called
Portal where people can take a virtual trip
through any part of the world using a tablet &
virtual maps. There will also be a wall where
customers can use digital spray paint cans to
make artwork on the walls, typical of the
company’s online presence.
ID the company.
The Google Store
In 2011, graffiti and street
artist Martin Heuwold repainted a
bridge in the North Rhine-
Westphalian city of Wuppertal,
Germany, receiving national and
international media attention for
his work. The work was awarded
the Deutscher Fassadenpreis
Advancement Prize in 2012.
The painting of the bridge took 13
days, finishing on 15 September
2011.
By what name is it now known as?
Lego-Brücke/Lego Bridge
This is Ila ___, a peace activist and a former
MP in South Africa from 1994 to 2004. Born in
South Africa, she grew up in an ashram of the
Phoenix Settlement near Durban, South
Africa.
In 2014, she was awarded the ‘Pravasi
Bharatiya Samman’ award - the highest
honour for overseas Indians conferred by the
President of India.
While she is famous in her own right, who is
her much more famous grandfather?
Mahatma GandhiThe lady is Ila Gandhi
For years, Canadians have been defacing their $5 bills, turning the portrait of former Prime
Minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier into the pop-culture figures he eerily resembles: Harry Potter’s
Severus Snape and X
Though the bills that lend themselves to this practice are on their way out of circulation
as Canada introduces new plastic currency (and a new Laurier portrait), this practice has gained
special poignancy due to certain recent events.
ID X.
Spock
Strength of a material is defined as resistance to breaking, while hardness is
resistance to scratches.
So while diamond is the hardest naturally occurring substance, in Feb 2015, scientists
found that limpet teeth are the strongest naturally occurring material known to man,
replacing X. X is hailed by scientists for its strength and structure, but researchers in
Britain have discovered that limpets - snail-like sea creatures with conical shells -
have teeth with structures so strong they could be copied and used in making cars,
boats and planes. The teeth were so hard that a diamond saw had to be used to slice
them into tiny pieces which were then reduced further in size by being bombarded
with atoms from an ion beam.
Give me X
Hint: It is involved in superhero fantasies for many
Spider Silk
Chandi Prasad Bhatt received the International Gandhi Peace
Prize 2013, an annual award given to individuals and institutions
for their contributions towards social, economic and political
transformation through non-violence and other Gandhian
methods. A 1982 Magsaysay awardee, Bhatt is known for his
work on subaltern social ecology, and considered one of India's
first modern environmentalist.
Bhatt’s crusade of sorts started when he heard a speech by
Gandhian leader Jayaprakash Narayan in 1956. However he is
most familiar to us for something he did in 1973, something
which had been done first by Amrita Devi in 18th century
Rajasthan.
What’s his claim to fame?
Chipko Movement
Haemagglutinin is a glycoprotein found in certain pathogens, responsible for
binding the pathogen to host cells with sialic acid on the membranes, such as cells
in the upper respiratory tract or erythrocytes. The name comes from the protein's
ability to cause red blood cells (erythrocytes) to clump together in vitro.
Neuraminidase is an enzyme found on the surface of these pathogens that enables
the them to be released from the host cell.
What do the first variants of both of these combine to give rise to?
H1N1 – also known as the Swine Flu
This group is a part of BSF (Border Security Force), called ‘Jaanbaaz’ which was
started in 1990 to showcase the bravery and adventure streak in the BSF. Initiated
with just 20 men, they shoot into the national limelight every alternate year, with
an exception being made in 2015 due to a special reason. Only willing under-30
men are taken in the team as fresh faces every year before they go through months
of gruelling training in BSF's training institute in Takenpur, MP.
How are we familiar with them?
Daredevils at Republic DayThey performed in both 2014 and 2015, due to Obama’s visit
This young X. We better know him as Y. He is the
recipient of six Laurence Olivier Awards, a Tony
Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors
Guild Award, a BIF Award, two Saturn Awards,
four Drama Desk Awards and two Critics' Choice
Awards. He has also received two Academy
Award nominations, four BAFTA nominations and
five Emmy Award nominations. His work spans
genres ranging from Shakespearean and modern
theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction.
He was knighted in 1991 for his contribution to
performing arts. Id X.
Sir Ian McKellen
This is a picture of the Taj Mahal
during a very specific period of
history, the first time it was
decked up as such. What is the
event and why did the Taj have
this scaffolding?
Event- The 1942 World War II
Reason- To protect the Taj from bombs from fighter jets. The scaffolding
was used a camouflage technique to make the Taj appear like a stockpile
of bamboo.
This is the group which is responsible for a current media phenomenon which has gone viral since
it’s release. What is the media phenomenon which is being talked about?
Mauka Mauka Ad
The person to be
shown in the next
picture is the
inspiration behind
one of television
history’s greatest
shows. Name the
show.
Breaking Bad
X was started by Evan Spiegel, and Reggie Brown as a project for one of Spiegel's
classes at Stanford University, where Spiegel was a product design major. Beginning
under the name "Picaboo," the two later brought Bobby Murphy into the project to
code the application. When Spiegel floated the idea in April 2011 in front of the
product design class for his final project, classmates balked at the idea. X was first
launched in July 2011 under the name Picaboo in Spiegel's father's living room,
though the application was later renamed and re-launched under the name X. The
name of X’s mascot is Ghost face Chillah.
Identify X.
Snapchat
X stands 13½ inches tall and weighs in at a robust 8½ pounds. Each January,
additional new golden Xs are cast, moulded, polished and buffed by R.S. Owens &
Company, the Chicago-based manufacturer recruited for this job since 1982. The
original design of X as made by Cedric Gibbons is 1928 is still retained till today
with only minor alterations which were made in 1945. Identify X.
X- The Oscar Statue
Identify this Italian royal who has a place named after
her in Assam.
Queen Margherita
The X made its debut in IPL with Matthew Hayden in the third season of the IPL in
2010 and many believed it would revolutionise the game. It was made by a
company of the same name and though specifically prepared for T20 matches it
soon lost it’s popularity as it was said to be very difficult to play defensive strokes
with it though with it’s peculiar design it was made sure that even mishits fly over
the boundary. X was definitely made for attack than defense. What is X?
The Mongoose Bat
Name the potato-head character
Tony Starch