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