KQA Non-Fiction QuizVarun Shenoy

Rajagopal

Non-Fiction is anything other than

The title essay is over a controversy that erupted when the US Post Office released a series of stamps and the nomenclature in one was in dispute since 1903.The cover is a painting by paleo-artist Charles Knight from 1897.What is the name of the collection of essays by Stephen Jay Gould?. Or what is the disputed nomenclature?

1

1

BACK

ANSWER

Bully for Brontosaurus is the name of the book. Brontosaurus / Apatosaurus was the nomenclature dispute, resolved recently by making Brontosaurus a separate sub-species.

1A

The book gets it title from what’s shown in the right image. It is considered to be most influential of its type in recent years. What is the title of the book?

2

ANSWER

Save the Cat – title inspired by Ripley from Alien saving Jones the cat, making the audience like the hero (Ripley).

2A

The title of this classic 1987 pop-sci book refers to the moment when a telescope is starts to be of use.It is also used in cosmology for the moment when stars and galaxies formed out of a dark universe and brought to an end the cosmological dark age.

The central character of the book is the Hale telescope on Mount Palomar.

What is the name of the book?

3

3

BACK

ANSWER

First Light

3A

In this eyewitness account book X (much of which has been disputed and thought to be “fiction”) of events from late 1917, the author proclaims Y to be the greatest Jew since Jesus. The author died of typhus in 1920 and was buried in a place that he referred to as “Brotherhood Grave” in his book X. The author was also the protagonist in a multi oscar winning movie decades later.

What is X (book) and who is Y (“greatest Jew since Jesus”)?

4

ANSWER

X = 10 days that shook the worldY = Leon Trotsky

4A

What is this book about or what inspired this book?

5

ANSWER

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

5A

The name of this book came from something devised Chuck Daly, who explained it as“… we forced him left and doubled him. If he was on the left wing, we went immediately to a double team from the top. If he was on the right wing, we went to a slow double team. He could hurt you equally from either wing—hell, he could hurt you from the hot-dog stand—but we just wanted to vary the look. And if he was on the box, we doubled with a big guy.… any time he went by you, you had to nail him. If he was coming off a screen, nail him. We didn't want to be dirty—I know some people thought we were—but we had to make contact and be very physical.”What is the title?

6

6

BACK

ANSWER

Jordan Rules

6A

X was a writer for “The Independent: Australia’s National Quality Monthly” when he wrote his first book (Y) in 1993 - it was the end product of a “massive data-quest that entombed the writer in his flat”, his mother saving him with light, sustenance and hygiene. The book was about a controversial time more than a decade earlier and quoted 48 key players, 126 books and theses.In the intro to his latest book from 2013 “On -----(Z)”, he writes, “it’s best in journalism not to like your subjects too much, lest you forget the roles of the respective parties. … I’m bound to say that it was harder to set this aside with ----- than almost anyone I have interviewed.” Id X(writer), Y (debut book/subject), Z(subject of latest book).

7

ANSWER

X = Gideon HaighY = The Cricket War: The Inside Story of Kerry Packer’s World Series Cricket Z = Warne

7A

Who had it coming?

8

ANSWER

Pluto

8A

Author X wrote a New Yorker piece in 2012 to provide a secondary source in a dispute over a Wikipedia article that suggested that his novel Y was based loosely on the life of one Anatole Broyard.

X wrote that that it was based on an incident involving Princeton professor Mel Tumin, who in 1985 noted in the middle of a semester that two students had registered for his class but never shown up for class or explained their absence. Tumin said “Does anyone know these people? Do they exist or are they spooks?”. Spook was a pejorative for Blacks and Tumin was hauled before the Dean. The novel Y opens with an identical incident. X and Y?

9

ANSWER

X = Philip RothY = Human Stain

9A

Calcio Storico may have started in the 16th century Italy as the revival of a Roman version called harpastum. It was reserved for aristocrats and even popes at that time. It is translated as “historic --------” and the modern version in Italy is called Calcio, unlike everywhere else in the world. What is Calcio?

10

ANSWER

Football

10A

The book and the accompanying CD detail the legal issues related to fair use that bankrupted the bank Negativland following their sampling of music by another band and Casey Kasem ‘s rant about the band off-air. Which band filed the cases and bankrupted Negativland?.

11

6

BACK

ANSWER

U2

11A

Illustrated version of which book first published in 1959?

12

12

BACK

ANSWER

Elements of Style

12A

X went on his self described anthropological field trip in 1980 and later wrote of his last name as a reason for the welcome by the ‘tribe’:“But I had reason to thank the shorter form (a family peculiarity) because my new informants were utterly convinced, despite my disclaimer, that I could trace my ancestry to a long forgotten Bengali pilgrim in southern India”.

X?.

13

ANSWER

Ramachandra Guha in his essay Comrades and Companions.

13A

Cover of which book?.Which film poster inspired the work used on the cover?

14

ANSWER

Mumbai Fables. Inspired by poster of Baazigar.

14A

One was seen in 15th century and was called the Medici -------. After that, this was the first one seen in Europe for 3 centuries. Zarafa, retrospectively named so, was a gift from a Mohammed Ali to win the favor of Charles X.

Who or what was Zarafa?

15

ANSWER

Giraffe

15A

Whose autobiography?

16

ANSWER

Boy George

16A

Written by Mena Silas, Baghdadi Jew living in Bombay, and recorded in 1936 by Crickett Smith and Teddy Weatherford, the lyrics are ambiguous and may refer to the their employers. A non-fiction book from a few years back took its title from the name of this song. What is the name of the song?

17

ANSWER

Taj Mahal in Foxtrot

17A

Philip Ball, the former writer at Nature, wrote a book titled _____ which is described thus. With the recent landing of the Mars rover, it seems safe to assume that the idea of being _____ is alive and well in modern science—that it’s not merely encouraged but is seen as an essential component of the scientific mission. Yet there was a time when _____ was condemned. Neither Pandora nor Eve could resist the dangerous allure of unanswered questions, and all knowledge wasn’t equal—for millennia it was believed that there were some things we should not try to know. In the late sixteenth century this attitude began to change dramatically, and in the book, Philip Ball investigates how ______ first became sanctioned—when it changed from a vice to a virtue.Based on the clues, identify the name of the work

18

Curiosity

Name the book/whose biography in Manga?A very specific answer please(image in the next slide)

19

An Esquire essay titled Invasion: The Lord God first divided the darkness from the light. Then he divided the heavens from the earth and the earth from the sea. Evolution did the rest: It divided the earth between humans and _____, and in so doing created another fundamental dichotomy. There are billions of humans on earth, and trillions upon trillions of ____— an estimated 1.6 million for every human being. If the earth were a scale, and all the humans were placed on one side and all the ____ on the other, it would not budge. ____ have answered the ever-expanding human biomass with an ever-expanding biomass of their own, so that the planet is poised, teetering between its two most successful civilizations — each of which is social, aggressive, expansionist, and well suited for war.Which common creature I described thus?

20

Ants

Sudeep Chakravarthy, the author of Red Sun, wrote in his Mint column(November 2013)regarding Kerala’s plan to recruit tribal youngsters to pre-empt Maoist activity as follows:“(…)government’s plan runs the danger of eventually raising an abomination like ____ _____, the millstone of Chhattisgarh’s maladministration since 2005.(…) Cumulatively, it destroyed tribal society in a manner that will take a generation or more to repair. (Moreover, Maoism remains, and thrives.)What is he talking about?

21

Salwa Judum

When asked if he travelled with the person whose biography he was writing, he said “ we spent many hours and days working together in England. While I spend my summers in Oxford researching my academic projects, he spends a considerable amount of time in the UK in summer. So again it was not a problem co-ordinating dates and times. What transpired is the end product! But the sessions were fantastic. We had many meals together and for me it was a process of discovering the man who hardly anyone except his family know. His quirks, his habits, likes and dislikes and his obsession for perfection. It was fascinating.” Further, when asked about how he convinced the author, he says “I kept telling him that the book is important for posterity. It is through the prism of the man's career that we can best understand contemporary India.”Author, subject and the book please.

22

Boria MajumdarSachin TendulkarPlaying it my way

An excellent review on Hollywood reporter. “Presenting India as a severely dysfunctional state with one foot in the 19th century and one in the 21st, this slow-burning procedural breaks little new ground in formal terms but was of sufficient distinction to nab top honors . The director excels with an ensemble that seamlessly combines professionals and non-pros and weaves together dialogue in multiple languages”

Identify the movie being reviewed

23

Court

This memoir traces the history of the organisation from 1968(year of its creation) to 1994, when the author retired. The title of this book is reference to the name given by a diplomat Apa Pant to the recruits of this organisation. In this memoir, the author clarifies the oft mistaken fact about Pakistan’s use of terrorism against India. He says that it(terrorism) started with the ISI training followers of Phizo in Nagaland in training camps set up in Chittagong.Identify author(0.5), organisation(0.5), and the work(0.5).The author wrote this book at the insistence of X(0.5) who died of sudden illness in 2007.Author. Organisation. Work. X == 2 points

24

Before her death, X was a celebrated blogger, editor and was part of the reddit.com journal “India Abroad”. Her husband Y is a Sahitya Academy award winning novelist, whose father(Z) is a reputed writer/columnist who contributed a column titled “Point of View” dealing with China, corruption and politics in The New Indian Express.

Z is also a biographer and his biography of P(0.5), took almost 10 years to complete. Z says that he spoke to 300 people but he never met P for an official interview, thereby making his book an independent biography.

A section of this book deals with a “sorry spectacle” from 1966, where P’s partner, with the view of “gilding the lily”, made P do something unique at an important event. The idea for this, according to P’s partner, originated from General K.M. Cariappa. P’s partner sought Rajaji's approval and Rajaji himself was “involved” in gilding the lily.

Identify: |Y| |Father Z| |P| |P’s partner| |the idea| |Rajaji’s involvement| = 3 pointsOne bonus point for getting all 10 elements

24.a

Author – B RamanOrganisation – R&AWWork – The Kaoboys of R&AWX – Shakti BhattY – Jeet ThayilZ – TJS GeorgeP – M S SubbulakshmiP’s partner - SadasivamIdea – MS singing in English Rajaji’s involvement – Composed the lyrics for the hymn

Kuldip Nayar in his autobiography reminisces Kamraj’s choosing of a successor to Lal bahadur Shastri. He says “I asked Kamaraj several months later how he had arrived at the decision, he said, “The choice was really between Indira Gandhi and _________ _____. My colleagues, particularly N. Nijalingappa, then Mysore’s chief minister, and S.K.Patil from Bombay were in favor of _____. I selected Mrs. Gandhi.” Kamaraj added: “All warned me against the choice. Krishna Menon also told me not to trust her, but I thought she was better than Nanda.” Who is Kamaraj referring to? (The candidate won the Bharata Ratna in 1997)

25

Gulzarilal Nanda

In a rather long essay(Feb 2013), in this journal, author X termed Y as a “shop-window mannequin”. Prior to the article, the author in her lecture at the British Museum said that Y appeared to have been "gloss-varnished" with a perfect plastic smile, and having no personality.

Speaking about her comments, the author said “my lecture and the subsequent essay was actually supportive of the family and when I used those words about the ______ __ ______, I was describing the perception of her which has been set up in the tabloid press."My speech ended with a plea to the press and to the media in general. I said 'back off and don't be brutes; don't do to this young woman what you did to Z”X, Y, Z, and the journal. (2 points in total)

26

X – Hilary mantelY – Kate MiddletonZ – Princess DianaJournal – London Review of Books

The caricature shown in the next slide accompanied a NY Times review of a work that was published in1970. In the review, the writer says _____ has always had an affinity for mystical and primitive thinking (…) To him ____ ___ is a massive gesture of de-mystification and scientific sacrilege, and this book is partly his revenge ,a quest for the human and magical core of the act, an effort to steal back…

The author of the work(not the reviewer) and the name of the work(1)Or Topic of the work(0.5)Maximum of 2 points

27

An excerpt: The event was so removed… so unreal, that no objective correlative existed, to prove it had not conceivably been an event staged in a TV studio – the greatest con of the century… as great a creation in mass hoodwinking , deception, and legerdemain as the true ascent was in discipline and technology

Of a fire on the moon, which was serialised in Life magazine in 1969 and 1970, and published in 1970 as a book. It is a documentary and reflection on the Apollo 11 moon landing from Mailer's point of view.

Shubha Mudgal, in an essay titled Made in India, not in Bollywood , wrote a rebuttal to Pooja Bhatt -- who at one point claimed that there is far better talent to be found in neighbouring Pakistan.

“Now we all know that its both fashionable and lucrative to declare these days that one does _____ music. Never mind the fact that a lot of the nouveau _____ singers may not know whether this declaration refers to a genre or form of music or the poetic content of a song. With so many self styled _____ experts running around a dime a dozen, I m not sure I want to say this, but it has to do with In the midst of a whole host of freshman pseudo ___ singers there are those who have kept alive a family tradition.”

28

Sufi

In an interview to published on Edible Geography, the founder of this business says “I lived on 63rd Street between First and York. Easy access to the 59th Street bridge meant you could get out of New York quickly, so in that two or three block neighbour hood, there was a pile of airline stewardesses — and for whatever reason, there was also a whole bunch of models. Basically, a lot of single people all lived between 60th and 65th and between York Avenue and 3rd Avenue. It seemed to me that the best way to meet girls was to open up a bar”“The other thing is that my timing was exquisite, because I opened __________ the exact year the pill was invented. I happened to hit the sexual revolution on the head, and the result was that, without really intending it, I became the founder of the first such enterprise”. What New York business chain am I talking about?

29

T.G.I Friday’s

Mani Shankar Aiyer, in his review of MJ Akbar’s Tinderbox: the past and future of Pakistan, contends that the most telling aphorism, that will outlast the book itself, as: if Jinnah was the Father of Pakistan, _______ _______ was its Godfather.He adds that ______ has mattered as little in the politics of Pakistan as he as loomed large in the ideology of Pakistan. Yet, his powerful presence in the mind of Pakistan is, indeed, the root cause of Akbar’s other felicitous aphorism: that the Idea of India is stronger than the Indian while the Idea of Pakistan is weaker than the Pakistan. Identify this scholar who has, ironically, opposed to the creation of Pakistan for he(and his group) rejected the ideal nationalism based on territory.

30

Abul A'la Maududi aka Maulana Maududi