Jul 16
If you haven’t yet checked out the prelims questions of Chakde India Quiz, then you can do so at this link.

Posted below are the questions/answers from the final.

  1. The name of which Indian deity has made its way into the English language and has come to mean “a massive inexorable force or object that crushes whatever is in its path”? Ans: Juggernaut from Lord Jagannath
  2. At which popular religious destination in India can you find Ram Jhula and Lakshman Jhula? Ans: Rishikesh
  3. Which character in Hindu mythology got his name from his pot shaped head? Ans: Ghatotkacha
  4. Which Indian musical instrument’s name when translated into English means Royal Flute? Ans: Shehnai
  5. What was the new lifeline introduced in Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) 2 apart from the three which were already present? Ans: Flip the question
  6. Who along with Batukeshwar Dutt was arrested in 1929 for throwing bombs in the Central Assembly at New Delhi? Ans: Bhagat Singh
  7. Of what’s English translation is this the first line. “Thou art the ruler of the minds of all people, dispenser of India’s destiny” Ans: Jana Gana Mana
  8. On March 16,2005, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, were found not guilty on all counts by a Canadian court. What crime were they accused of? Ans: Air India Kanishka Bombing
  9. On 14th January every year, during the Makar Sankranti, what international festival is held at Ahmedabad? Ans: International Kite Festival
  10. Oh, Creator of the universe! We meditate upon thy supreme splendor. May thy radiant power illuminate our intellects, destroy our sins, and guide us in the right direction.” What is the significance of the above prayer? Ans: Gayatri Mantra
  11. Identify the character. Ans: Shikari Shambu
  12. Her mother’s name is Bonnie Pandya, a Slovenian American. She is the second person of Slovenian descent to be sent to space. She apparently likes Samosas! Who? Ans: Sunita Williams
  13. Originally introduced from India, it is the word for an open portico or light roofed gallery extending along the front of a dwelling or other building, and erected chiefly as a protection or shelter from the sun or rain. What word? Ans: Verandah
  14. What started initially in 1984 between Esplanade and Bhavanipur, now covers a distance of 16.84 kilometers for Dumdum in the north to TollyGanj in the south? Ans: Kolkata Metro
  15. Which famous jewel’s name means “mountain of light”? Ans: Kohinoor
  16. Kiron Kher had an unique credit in the titles of “Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge”. For what? Ans: Credit for title-writing, as she suggested the title. “Title Suggested By”
  17. What is full form of T.T.E as in the guy who checks the tickets on our trains. Ans: Travelling Ticket Examiner
  18. In August 1990, in a test match between India and England at Manchester, Sachin won the man of the match award. He was presented the award by X. The next day, the Manchester Police issued a warning notice to X and also said that they would not consider this as a serious offense just because of the situation this time. What was the warning issued? Ans: A bottle was champagne was given as the man of the match award and sachin was a minor then. It is legally forbidden to give alcohol to a minor.
  19. Jermaine Jackson, Dirk Benedict, Ian Watkins, Danielle Lloyd, Jack Tweed, Cleo Rocos, Jo O’Meara, Jade Goody, Carole Malone, Leo Sayer Day, Jackiey Budden, Ken Russell Day, Donny Tourette and? Ans: Shilpa Shetty (Big Brother Celebrity Series)
  20. What does the W/L sign seen on Indian Railway tracks indicate? Ans: Whistle For level Crossing
  21. Connect Pavo cristatus, Panthera Tigris, Mangifera indica and Nelumba nucifera. Ans: All are National Symbols. Peacock, Tiger, Mango and Lotus
  22. Complete the list: Meenakshi Temple in Madurai, Brihadeshwara Temple in Thanjavur, Arunachaleshwara Temple in Tiruvannamalai, Golden Temple in Amritsar, Bahubali Gommateshwara Statue in Shravanabelagola, Mahabalipuram near Chennai, Lotus Temple in New Delhi, Ranakpur Jain Temple and _________. Ans: Taj Mahal. The list of all Indian monuments which appeared in the original list of the new seven wonders
  23. What is the planet Rahu responsible for, according to Hindy Mythology? Ans: Responsible for causing Solar eclipses
  24. Identify the product for which this print ad was prepared. Ans: Fevicol
  25. This message from the Mumbai Police was put on something and placed randomly on the roads of Mumbai. What was it placed on? Ans: 1 Rupee coin
  26. There are 5 of these labs at different locations. The largest lab consists of fourteen major geometric devices for measuring various parameters. Each is a fixed and ‘focused’ tool. The largest instrument here is 90 feet high and has its shadow carefully plotted. Its face is angled at 27 degrees, the latitude of Jaipur. The Accuracy of the largest instrument measuring time is about two seconds. Ans: Jantar Mantar
  27. The proposed name for this institution was ‘Imperial university’ which was not selected. The Maharaja of Mysore laid the foundation stone in 1911. How do we know it today? Ans: Indian Institute of Science
  28. When asked ‘Why are you so sure that the first man, Adam, was an Indian?’, he replied ‘Who else will stand beside a naked woman and eat an apple?’. Who? Ans : Osho
  29. In the Ramayana, Vishwamitra takes Rama and lakshmana with him to slay the demoness Tataka. During the course of the Journey, they often slept on the banks of Sarayu river. Vishvamitra did something to wake Rama up every morning before dawn so that he can do his rites. What did he do? Ans: He composed and sang the Suprabadam
  30. According to the legends the Gods & Goddesses pleaded with Lord Brahma to create another ‘Veda’ which would be simpler for the common man to understand. Lord Brahma created the ‘Panchamaveda’, an essence of the four other vedas. It is believed he has taken ‘Pathya’(words) from the ‘Rigveda’, ‘Abhinaya’ (gesture) from ‘Samaveda’ & ‘Rasa’(sentiment & emotional element) from the ‘Atharvaveda’. After creating this he gave it to Sage Bharatha & asked him to popularise this on Earth. What did this lead to? Ans: Bharatnatyam
  31. What was carried in a third class compartment numbered 2949 to Triveni, Allahabad on February 12, 1948? Ans: Ashes of Gandhi
  32. The members of the Muduvar tribe, which inhabits the mountain ranges around Valparai (Tamil Nadu) and Munnar (Kerala) in the Western Ghats, have a unique method for calculating their ages. What is it? Ans: They calculate their age with the blossoming of the Kurinji flower, which blooms only once every 12 years
  33. Bulgar, Gansu, Taklamakan Desert, Kashgar, Kokand, Karakum Desert, Merv. Which music band? Ans: Silk Route
  34. Who is missing? Ans: Zakir Hussain
  35. In an economic times article which was talking about business and marketing opportunities in India, there was a statement “There are three main religions in India. Hinduism, Islam and ____”. Which was the third that they mentioned ? Ans: Cricket
  36. What is the name given to the class of tourist trains modeled on the “Palace On Wheels” but meant to serve tourists with a budget? Ans: Village on Wheels
  37. Manoj Singh Naruka became a celebrity (for the wrong reasons) last week because of his Orkut community. What was his community’s name? Ans: I hate Mayawati
  38. Which famous politician played the role of Santa Claus at Beur Jail in Patna during the Christmas celebrations in 1998? Ans: Laloo Yadav
  39. In Hindi it is called Saunf what is it called in English? Ans: Fennel Seeds
  40. It is the national game of Bangladesh, and the state game of Punjab and Andhra Pradesh in India. Ans: Kabaddi
  41. Which company is the manufacturer of the 155mm FH-77 B howitzer artillery system?Ans: Bofors
  42. Which tree takes its name from the caste of merchants who often conducted meetings under these trees in the marketplace?Ans: Banyan from Baniya

Special Topics: Cricket

1) Who was the vice-captain of the Indian cricket team for the twenty20 world cup? Ans: Yuvraj
2) What is the contribution of Paul Hawkins to the world of cricket? Ans: Hawk Eye
3) Amay Khurasia had an unique claim fame in the 1999 world cup held in England. What? Ans: Didn’t play a single match

Special Topics: Indian Mythology

1) Ten warriors survived the Kurukshetra war. Satyaki, Yuyutsu, Ashwathama, Kritavarma,Kripacharya were five of them. Who were the other five? Ans: Pandavas
2) Who is on the Flag of Arjuna? Ans: Hanuman
3) The 100 Kaurava brothers had one sister. Name her!Ans: Dushala

Special Topics: History

1) Which company manufactured the rifles whose “greased” cartridges was one of the factors leading to the 1857 revolution? Ans: Enfield
2) Which Indian King was the first to use rockets in warfare? Ans: Tipu Sultan
3) Which famous Indian king was called Sandracottus by the Greeks? Ans: Chandragupta Maurya

Hope you enjoyed this quiz. You can find hundreds of other quizzes on my quiz page. If you want your quiz blog/site listed on that, just drop in a mail.

written by Rajaram S

Jun 29

UPDATE: The answers to all the puzzles below have been posted here.

I has organized a daily puzzle contest (for 5 days) sometime back. I had prepared around 4-5 puzzles every day and sent them across by mail. Given below are all the puzzles. Answers in a week’s time.

PUZZLE 1: Head of the Pack

Let me tell you a thing or two about solving puzzles. It is much easier than you think it is. Maybe, all the big puzzle competitions happen only in the capitals of the various countries, but this doesn’t mean you can’t capitalize on the other opportunities. Actually, the capitalism existing in our country is preventing us from spending more time on solving puzzles. Sometimes, this lack of time to solve puzzles results in lesser innovation in organizations. So, it is time to throw out the bureaucracy and come together to solve all the puzzles. One always wonders whether such techniques do yield results, but believe me, they do. Last, but never the least, we hope that you were able to find the name of the city.

PUZZLE 2: Piled up in Egypt

The boxes are arranged such that the number inside a box is equal to the sum of the numbers of the two boxes supporting it (i.e. the two boxes below it). No number is repeated and all numbers are greater than zero. What is the number in the topmost box?

PUZZLE 3: A puzzle on my table!

After seeing this puzzle kept on the table, even Dr.Watson would have been tempted to say, “It’s elementary, my dear!”

99, 15, 53, 8, 11, 32

PUZZLE 4: STR-ANG-E OR-GANI-SMS

Given below is an empty crossword. You have to fit the following words into the grid. Then the letters in the colored cells will give you the answer.

Words: 282, 2253***, 28669, 78779, 5262

PUZZLE 5: Counting the Extras

Corfu

Either

Viefi

Nerves

Open

Sexi

Wort

Look at the words above. All of them have something extra. Once you identify the “extra” bit, do the most logical thing and you will get the seven letter answer.

PUZZLE 6: TOUR OF LIMASSOL

Amdocs Social Club has organized a tour of Limassol. You are here, sharp at 8 AM on a nice Saturday morning. As you try to board the bus, the driver asks you for a password. You say to the driver that you were not given any password when you registered in the survey. The driver says that the survey system had crashed on Friday night and the only way they could allow people to get on the bus was through this password system. You try to argue, but to no avail. As you turn back, the driver says “Sorry, my friend. Maybe, you can have a look at some of the photographs taken by your friends during the previous tour”. You grab the paper thinking that the driver was just making fun of you. But, soon you realize otherwise. The paper seems to be a collage of 9 photographs with people gesturing through some strange signs. You immediately start decoding the message and realize that it indeed has the password. Can you find the password from the collage below? You can download a higher resolution picture here. Thanks to Harish and Anith for modeling for this puzzle. Btw, both are right-handed and hence, their right hands take priority over their left.

PUZZLE 7: MILITARY TALK

Do you know the NATO phonetic alphabet? If not, search it up on the net. In the passage below, the NATO phonetic code words of all letters of the alphabet (A to Z) but one have been encoded. Find the one alphabet which has been omitted. To get you started, I shall give an example: Alpha (for letter A) has been encoded as one of the “Two Greeks”.

(Repeat Twice): Tyson and his father (in a radiation outfit) went to a country, a Canadian province and a capital city. There they met Frankenstein, two Greeks, an African, an American and his angels. They danced twice (to critical acclaim), had a drink in the local Mariott, played a sport, watched a play by William and before December they founded a software company, for which they won an award.

PUZZLE 8: PRIME-TIME PUZZLE

All the numbers in the table below can be expressed as a product of some primes. Do the prime factorization for each of them and then look for some pattern to find the 8-letter word!

 

PUZZLE 18: READING BETWEEN THE WORDS
Each sentence below contains a country’s name within it. Find each of the countries.
a. My landlords went to a spa in Latvia for this year’s holidays.
b. To find the Great Wall, search in an Asian country.
c. It is normal in this country to walk to work.
d. This country has a fine palace where horses live.
e. You have to visit this city to enjoy such adventures.
f. While attending the innovation session i germinate ideas for the next big thing.
g. The crowd consists of thousands of people so those leaving cannot be monitored individually.
h. The rough analysis proved that this machine does not work.
PUZZLE 19: GOING TO THE MOVIES
For all you movie buffs out there, these puzzles should be a piece of cake! Each of these rebuses solve to a movie name. (14 movies)
Enjoy!!!!!!!!

written by Rajaram S

May 13

Got this puzzle in an email-forward today…
IF:
2+3=10
7+2=63
6+5=66
8+4=96
THEN
9+7=?

Answer in the comments section.

written by Rajaram S

Mar 24

clue

written by Rajaram S

Mar 24

Microsoft has decided to launch MCP (Microsoft Calculator Pro) as their flagship product from 2009. This product’s new version is capable of solving mathematical problems posed in the natural language and is currently in the System test phase and the ST team has raised numerous critical defects for the development team. The product manager needs your help to verify the results of few complicated calculations.

The six mathematical calculations which MCP is having problems with, are given below. The product manager wants to compare your results with the results shown by the software. So, please do the calculations and once you get the answers, anagram it and get the password for this clue.

1) Number of Oscars won by Titanic – 2

2) DCXCIV

3) The number of stars in the Universe (as of 24th March 2009 morning 9.23 am) is 4.2 x 10^24 . The average Cypriot family has 2.3 kids. So, if there are 43560 square feet in an acre, how many humps do 461 dromedary camels have?

4) 0!

5) Number of biscuits in a baker’s dozen + Number of stars on the American Flag + 3

6) 3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841?71693993751058209749445923078164

written by Rajaram S