Jan 27

General Quiz in IPL Auction Format

game, quiz 3 Comments »

I recently conducted a quiz at work. It was a general quiz, but not in the usual format. it was done in the format of the IPL cricket auctions. See the screen below.

IPL Auction format quiz

Every team was given a budget of 10000 INR. The questions were grouped into categories such as Uncapped, batsman, foreigners etc. Each of the categories had a base price , marked within brackets in the header of the category e.g. a bowler question’s base price is 100. Now, teams were shown the question and then had to bid for it. The “runs” that they score if they got the question right are the numbers printed on the buttons. So, the teams have to manage their bidding based on their knowledge of the answer, the number of runs a question would fetch them and the amount of money they have. Also, if a team gave a wrong answer, they got negative runs, equal to the number printed on the square.

The quizzing was interesting with teams fighting it our for questions they were confident about and some teams bluffing knowledge of the question so as to increase the money spent by the other teams. Given below are some of the questions used.

  • Gandhari had many children. One of them is Dushala – her daughter. Who were the others?
  • Whoever cheats and thereby dishonestly induces the person deceived any property to any person or to make/alter or destroy the whole or any part of a valuable security shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine. Which section of IPC is this (not the complete description)?
  • Which modern-day game was earlier known as Poona as it was originally played in Indian city of Pune?
  • Name the country in Asia where you have to be a Sunni Muslim to be its citizen.
  • Who is the hero in the comics “Sunare Panjon wala Kekda” & “Tuta Hua kaan”
  • Referred to as a sugar pill these contain no active ingredients but people feel better without having any physical effect. What are such medicines known as?
  • The world’s number one smoking cessation brand has been launched in India. Name it?
  • If you were to win the Golden Bails award which profession would you be in?
  • X Mobility Holdings and X Solutions are the two companies which have been formed after X split. Identify X
  • Sushruta identified this group of metabolic diseases and associated it with a sedentary lifestyle. He classified it as Madhumeha. What medical condition did he refer to as Madhumeha?
  • This term in sports comes from a military term for a man trapped behind enemy lines where he is said to be “away from the strength of his side”. Which term?
  • Who fetched the highest amount amongst non-Indians in the recent IPL4 auction?
  • One key on the keyboard has its own “day” on October 22 when people observing this day use this key. Which key?
  • The Ayodhya verdict was a 3 way split between the Muslims (Sunni Waqf board) Hindus (Ram Lalla) and who?
  • Which technology received a patent under the name “Classifying Apparatus and Method”. One of the scientists who came up with this technology said that he received inspiration for the technology by drawing lines in the sand on a beach.
  • Which is the first IT company from India to be listed on NASDAQ?
  • Which building would you see on the reverse side of a Rs 50 note?
  • Which airline in India has aircrafts named Oregano/Fenugreek/Sesame?
  • A new breed. The first Indian Crossover. The finesse of a Sedan with the muscle of a SUV. Which vehicle from TATA?
  • What is the brand of condoms given in lieu of change in the new Lava A10 mobile phone ad?
  • What is classified into the types Pure/Virgin/Extra Virgin?
  • In which state were the first Aadhar cards (UID Cards) issued?
  • Who established the Missionaries of Charity in 1950 in Calcutta?
  • There are 3 national holidays in India: 26 January/15 August and… ?
  • His name is Bholu the elephant. What is he the mascot of?
  • After Sachin who holds the record for the most number of Test Cricket centuries?
  • The Bandra-Worli Sea Link Bridge is officially named after which former Prime Minister?
  • Neral – Hardal Hill – Jammapatti Station – Bhekra Station – Mount Barry- Panorama Point – Simpson Point – ? Which is the last station for this train?
  • What is the common English name of the Middle Eastern dance form of which there are 2 types – Raqs sharqi and Raqs baladi
  • Expand GPRS
  • What is the name of the process which converts carbon-di-oxide into organic compounds using the energy from sunlight?
  • Which country would appear first in the list of alphabetically arranged country names?
  • Expand ATM (where you withdraw cash)
  • Of which state/UT is Silvassa the capital?

written by Rajaram S

Oct 28

Answers to Puzzle Mix

game, puzzle 2 Comments »

In case you haven’t yet checked out, i had posted 19 puzzles here. Given below are the answers to all the puzzles.

PUZZLE 1:  Head of the Pack.

Let me tell you a thing or two about solving puzzles…

–> “Head of the Pack”, “Capitals”, “Capitalize”, “Capitalism” have been given to hint at capitals. If you look at the first letter (in Capital) of all sentences, they spell out LIMASSOL

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?

–> Straight-forward mathematical puzzle. Almost everyone who replied got this one right. The answer is 54.

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!” 10 POINTS

99, 15, 53, 8, 11, 32

—> Someone even asked, “On whose table should i get the puzzle?” :-)

The words table, elementary have all been added to hint at the periodic table. Once you list the elements whose atomic numbers have been given above, you get EsPIONaGe.

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. 10 POINTS

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

–> This one proved to the craziest one of the lot. If you look at the strange title, you should notice SMS at the end. Also, the before the numbers you find “Words:”. This should tell you that the numbers have to be converted to words through the intelligent mode in SMS and then inserted into the grid. The *** doesnt make any sense if you try to insert numbers into the grid.

This works on only phones of Nikoa and some other models. Even some Nokia models give a different word for the second one because of a different dictionary. But, you could have noticed the theme of baby animals in all the words. We have considered many variations as answers based on the explanations given.

the words (after trying them in SMS) are cub, calf, bunny, puppy and lamb. Once you insert them, the higlighted letters spell out CLUB.

PUZZLE 5: Counting the Extras

Corfu  Either  Viefi Nerves Open Sexi Wort

–> All the above words are expansions to numbers i.e. four +’c', three + ‘i’ and so on for numbers 1 to 7. the extra letters you get are c,i,i,r,p,e,r. You can easily anagram them to pricier. But, the logical step intended was to sort the numbers from 1 to 7 and you would have automatically got pricier rather then trying to find the anagram

PUZZLE 6: TOUR OF LIMASSOL

Can you find the password from the collage below? Thanks to Harish Mayavel and Anith Kumar for modeling for this puzzle. Btw, both are right-handed and hence, their right hands take priority over their left. 
–> You knew you had to somehow get a word. So, you should have guessed that it is something to do with the letters appearing in each photo. So, the natural way to proceed is to take the nth letter (n – number shown on the hands) from the letters in the same picture.
But, you would have a problem with the picture in (2.3) where there are no letters. Then, you should guess that the letters are taken from “other” pictures as shown by the direction of the hands.
So, this is what you do for the first picture (1,1). The right hand points in South-east direction, i.e. towards picture (2,2) and the number on the fingers is 3. So, u take the 3rd letter from MOTORS i.e. T. Then for the left hand (as it is given that the right hand takes priority over the left) points down showing 1 finger. So, you take the 1st letter from HOMEELE i.e. H.
The last two pictures have harish and anith pointing towards the camera. For these gestures, you have to take letters from the same picture. So, if you construct the letters, you get THE WORD IS MOOD.
Some people, ignored the left hand and got TEORISMOD, which conincedentally anagrams to a proper word MOTORISED. But, they get only half points as the left hand in the puzzle then doesnt serve any purpose!
Btw, thanks to the few who solved the puzzle. After all the time spent on this puzzle, it would have been disheartening if no one had solved it!

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”. 20 POINTS

–> Interesting puzzle, but easy. Kilo is the answer. Sierra could have been the problem, but the first result for Sierra on google brings up a s/w company!

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 (There are lot of online resources to do this) and then look for some pattern to find the 8-letter answer! 20 POINTS

—> if you do the prime factorization for all the numbers, you will find that all of them are a combination of 2/3/5/7/11/13/17/19 – 8 prime numbers and you need a 8-letters answer.

So, make a 3*5 grid, mark the positions where each prime number occurs and you will see shapes of letters which spell out DISPATCH.

PUZZLE 9: Just another day in Cyprus

This is how u solve this

- List down all combinations which a product of 36.

- then u check for their sums.

If there was a sum which was unique in the list, then guy doesnt need the third clue. So, you should look for duplicate sums.

so you get the sum of 13 for 661 and 922.

Then she says “my eldest” – the rest of the info is crap :-)

since she says eldest, that means that the eldest is unique. So the answer is 922.

PUZZLE 10: BILINGUALLY SPEAKING!

–> The second part of the puzzle can be found in the Alassia Menu Sheet. Thanks to Mr.Zenon from Alassia for this.

The last line of the puzzle text says “Russia – 1, England – 0″. So, if you substitute 1 for russian characters and 0 for english characters, you get numbers which are the ascii values for the alphabets.Converted into alphabets, you get VERY BORING.

PUZZLE 11: STUCK IN JAIL

Samuel is stuck inside a jail in Libya. He is full of remorse and has sent you the secret note below. What does it say?

–> As the text in bold hints, it is morese code i.e. dots and dashes.

So, the flags convert to -, .-, -,-,—,— which stands for TATTOO

PUZZLE 12: WATCH THE CHANGE!

–> Easy puzzle, but you have string ur eyes bit :-)

As it says “Better switch your brain to mode X OR you will never find the answer”

You have to do a XOR between individual frames, considering an on bulb as 1 and an off one as 0.

Answer is ATTUNED

PUZZLE 13: A Visit to Kykkos Monastery

–> Easy one, as you just have to trace on paper the directions which give you the word MUST. Sriram Bhattaru had taken the pain of drawing this and sending it across!

must

PUZZLE 14: The search for Cypriot villages

–> Few suggested that i should not have given the names of the villages to be found! Then, it would have been very tough. How many of us can recognise Cypriot village names ?

Once you get all the villages, the rest of the letters read SORT VILLAGE DESC THIRD FROM LAST.

many got this and in spite of this, got wrong answers. The answer is ASKAS.

PUZZLE 15: GRAFFITTI OR GRAPH?

Plot the points and you will get the shape of letters. Many got HOBBIY which they thought was HOBBY, but if u reshape the last letter, you get a T  which leads to HOBBIT.

PUZZLE 16: A TIGHT FIT

The words you get are TOT,IRE,FADE,ORE,EAR,FOE,TIARA,ORDER,TEE

PUZZLE 17: FORM YOUR OWN QUESTION

If you work from the last set, it will be much easier, as you have the ? after BUM.

So, you get What weapon is was also a beatles album?

The answer i expected as REVOLVER, but i guess many just did a google search for beatles weapon and got beatle’s secret weapon in EMI case or something like that.

PUZZLE 18: READING BETWEEN THE WORDS

–> A straightforward one . Few even found RSA (Republic of South Africa)

The answers are : SPAIN/LATVIA, China, mali, Nepal, Chad, Niger, Lesotho and Ghana

PUZZLE 19: GOING TO THE MOVIES

1) Matchstick men – you match the stickmen!

2) Big trouble in Little china

3) Wizard of Oz, got something about magician in austria, but a rebus never talks about the content of a movie. You are not expected to know about the movie, just derive the name from the rebus

4) boron – fifth element

5) Something about mary

6) In good Company – co. is company

7) 21 grams – converted into ounces!

8) the greek symbol for PSI, so it becomes psycho

9) courageous – brave so, braveheart

10 ) dispute – argument – fight , so Fight Club

11) i do … 4 weddings and a funeral

12) COLT – Top Gun (colt, uzi, winchester – types of guns)

13) Dijons — Indiana jones and the last crusade – jones and the last crew said – the whole thing is in Diana.

14) the toughest one and the controversial one :-) ok, we have rows and columns ..we have jesus ..so it becomes Rows + Mary’s baby – Rosemary’s baby!

Hope you enjoyed the puzzles!

written by Rajaram S

Sep 15

Mini scavenger hunt – List

game, party No Comments »

Our team went on a project event to an adventure resort two weeks back. We had some time between the evening activities and dinner, so i organised a mini scavenger hunt with items that can be obtained within the resort (Note: The resort is as remote as a place can be, in the midst of the western Ghats)

Rules:
Do not do anything illegal. Do not hurt yourself doing any of the things below. Do not do anyting which may damage something on HANS premises.
Teams can share items. E.g. If 1 red t-shirt and 1 blue t-shirt are required and 1 team has 2 red t-shirts and another team 2 blue t-shirts, they can strike a deal and xchange them. But, at the time of presentation, no items can be shared between teams.
Plan and work on these items. Some of them can be obtained by only one team, so act fast!
Where ever you have been asked to take photos of the entire team, one team member can be left out to actualy take the photo.
Each entry below is called a task irespective of whether it requires you to get some item, take some photo or do some activity.

10 diffrent types of leaves
Pencil (< 5 cm) (not broken, but sharpened)
a girl (real live human) (There was another group of 4 (2 guys and 2 girls) at the resort. Two teams tracked them down and made deals with them so that they would appear for their teams. To my surprise, the other two teams also managed to find girls, actually old ladies! They went to the manager’s house, explained the event and requested the ladies living/working there to make an appearance!)
Live insect (not an ant)
42 USD or 33 Euro or Rs. 1412.20 (All the teams managed to get the 20 paise coin – from the people working at the resort)

Company ID of all team members
3 mobile phones – 1 Nokia, 1 Samsung and 1 Sony Ericsson
2 mobile fones of the same kind (Brand/Model/Colour)
a chair
a comb
a formal shirt neatly folded
God
Empty toothpaste tube (The next morning, we had a tough time finding enough toothpaste for the entire grp :-) )
Photo of the Entire team under a blanket with only the heads and feet showing outside
An empty PET bottle of Fanta
Get  the resort’s manager’s autograph here. Hurry, he will sign for only one team
a potato
an onion
Photo of the entire team making a fool of themselves
Photo of the entire team attempting to murder a GL/PM (I am invincible!)
Film a MMS Scandal on your mobile phone (This was amazing. Unfortunately, all the teams immediately deleted the videos as soon as they showed it to me, or at least the stars of the videos think so!)
Write my surname (proper spelling)
How many spelling mistakes (gramatical errors not to be included) are there in this document (includes titles, content etc).Highlight them on this sheet
A “Poster used in our team” Poster has been hidden somewhere. Hint: it is located within 10 metres of a water body. Hurry, there is only one!
To make sure no team scores zero!! What is the total number of tasks in this scavenger hunt? (Unfortunately, o one noticed that i had repeated a number in the list)

written by Rajaram S