Travel and Living Quiz

Saarang 2017Varun Murthy

Gokul Nair

Question 1 In October 2016, Mexico City saw an increase in the number of visitors due to an event which it hoped would become an annual occurrence. Taking cues from similar events in Brazil and Italy, and borrowing props from a fictional 2015 depiction of the same name, the organizers hoped that the event would come to be well loved.However, not all residents of Mexico share this view. Some are calling the organizers’ efforts an attempt to divert attention from the many problems plaguing the country and the latest in a series of populist measures such as opening up beaches and ice rinks in the national capital.What is the event being talked about? What fictional occurrence from 2015 acts as the creative inspiration for the event?

Answer Day of the Dead ParadeSpectre

Question 2 Ambrosoli al Miele is a product not commonly available in British stores. Made by a company based in Ronago, north of Milan and on the border with Switzerland, the product is sure to receive a boost in popularity thanks to a rather vocal proponent who recently made the switch to Britain and considers Ambrosoli al Miele an integral part of his approach.

What exactly is Ambrosoli al Miele? Who brought it into the limelight in October 2016?

Answer Throat lozengesAntonio Conte

Question 3 X is a type of flatbread common in eastern parts of the country. Similar to the puri, the main difference comes in the ingredient – puris are made with atta while X are made with maida. They are typically served with a spicy potato gravy (aloo dum) or with a cholar dal made with channa dal.

What is X?

Answer

Question 4 For those familiar with the dynamics of the Bombay property market, Juhu is where the rich and famous and movie stars live. Writing in early October 2016, Vir Sanghvi credits the move of one particular individual into the neighbourhood with “quadrupling property prices” and making living by the beach fashionable in India.

Which early adopter of the jet-setting elite, often credited as India’s first fashion designer (among other things) is Sanghvi talking about here?

Answer Parmeshwar Godrej

Question 5

Answer

Question 6Jennifer Reut is a historian whose work on the notes behind a certain series of guidebooks has thrown up interesting insights into the American city and the forces of urban renewal and gentrification active in them. Titled “Mapping the Green Book”, her project tracks individual establishments referenced in that and documenting the changes since then. The Green Book itself was first published in 1936. Over the years, it grew from covering towns along the iconic Route 66 into including overseas listings in countries like Panama and Mexico. It came at a time when rising income levels had made the automobile more accessible but social mobility was still limited. Writing in the preface to the 1949 edition of the book, Green says “There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published”. It eventually stopped being published in the 1960s.

What were the listings in the Green Book?

Answer List of establishments that would serve African-Americans. The full name of the Green Book is “Negro Motorist Green Book”

Question 7“Skhina”, literally meaning hot in Arabic, is a Jewish Moroccan dish with eggs, beef, chickpeas, rice, potatoes, wheat, bulghur, or anything else that was readily available. The meat and the vegetables would be thrown into a pot, with rice and bulghur kept in muslin bags and thrown in with the meat so that they drain the flavour from the other ingredients. The distinctive pot also lends its name to the common name for the dish dafina. Similar dishes can be found in multiple places.The salient feature of the dish, though, comes from it’s long preparation time. Traditionally slow-cooked in a wood-fired stove, the dish may take over a day to cook depending on the cut of meat used.

When is skhina most likely to be made?

Answer On Fridays, because they aren’t allowed to work on the Sabbath

Question 8This two-word term comes from the colonial era. Originally used by hunters to denote the relative difficulty of hunting game on foot, it is now used extensively by brochures and tourist guides in Africa. A total of 11 countries can claim to have this distinction.

Give me the term.

Answer Big Five – African elephants, lions, and leopards; Cape Buffalos and rhinoceros

Question 9 Barclay and Stenner are a duo purveying “bespoke private safari expeditions” in Botswana. Some of the overindulgent ways in which they treat their guests is through personally accompanying their guests on safari, and providing mobile luxury safaris with “family silverware, Persian carpets and fine dining under the stars (that) will make sure you do not miss home’s creature comforts.”The camp and all it’s creature comforts were first shown to a wide audience in 2015, and the party which did it included the son of a famous Hollywood celebrity.

Why did the company gain prominence/ Who was the celebrity involved in this?

AnswerThey were engaged during the shooting of the Wildest Dream video by Taylor Swift, with all the proceeds from the video going towards African Parks Foundation of America.The celebrity mentioned is Clint Eastwood and his son is Scott Eastwood.

Question 10 The Wood Buffalo Brewing Company was in the process of brewing a batch of pale ale in May 2016 when it had to abandon the warehouse and escape what would come to be known as “The Beast”. When they came back after four weeks, they found the building to have been moderately affected.Of more concern to them was the condition of their beer. Most of the brews they had had going were rendered useless by The Beast, but some of the millet which had been left out took on “smoky notes, balanced with a sweet peat flavour to it and the campfire flavour has brought through spruce and mint”. This is being used to make a batch of 200, distinctive bottles which will be auctioned for charities helping local communities.

Where is the Wood Buffalo Brewing Company located? What is The Beast, which some reports claim is still lurking underneath the original lands as far away as November 2016?

Answer Fort McMurrayThe Beast is the name given by firefighters to the forest fire that ravaged the town in May 2016.

Question 11 Shown in the next slide is the Kyffhauser mountain monument , built after the death of Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany. It stylistically recalls the statues and castles of 12th and 13th century GermanyThe monument also features a 6.5m tall statue of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. Notice his appearance in the statue shown in the next slide.This is in direct reference to a local legend ,which is a common motif that can be seen in various legends as well as works of literature , like Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien , The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan , The Call of Cthulu by H.P. lovecraft e.t.c.

What is the legend/motif and why was it considered appropriate to place the statue of Kaiser Wilhelm at Kyffhauser ?

Answer The motif is that of the sleeping king. Accept sleeping warriors/heroes /comatose heroes and other variations on the same . (5)

As per the legend , Barbarossa was supposed to be sleeping there. It is said that one day Barbarossa will wake up and bring glory to Germany. Keeping a just woken up statue of Barbarossa under that of Kaiser Wilhelm in his glory , symbolises that Wilhelm is the reincarnation of Barbarossa / the woken up Barbarossa who brought Glory to Germany .

Question 12 X Matsuhisa is a rather unconventional sushi chef. After finishing off his training in Japan, he moved to Peru and Alaska. Here he had to contend without having access to many ingredients that he had taken for granted, resulting in him improvising and delivering his food a unique taste. In 1987, X started his own restaurant in Los Angeles to critical acclaim. It was here that he attracted a clientele of the rich and famous, and he received his big break when Robert de Niro invited him to setup his restaurant across the country in New York. The pair have since become business partners, opening up restaurants and hotels across the world under the name “X” and as “Matsuhisa’s”.X even used his friendship with de Niro to score a guest appearance in Scorsese’s 1995 film Casino as a wealthy Japanese businessman.

Answer

Question 13

Answer Toblerone. The cartoon is a reference to the new shape of Toblerone that is being sold in the UK since Brexit.

Question 14 Shown in the next slide is a map with the route of an iconic train journey. It is consistently ranked among the best train journeys one can take.

AnswerBlue Train

Question 15“Look, this is where he would fling down the windows to address the crowds. Thousands would turn out to adore him at every station”“And all along the corridors there is opulence unchecked. The state compartments, bathrooms, kitchens and sleeping areas are a riot of Sixties deco – all chrome and veneer that might put to shame the skills of G-Plan’s finest.”

These are excerpts from an interview on the relaunch of the Blue Train that ran between Belgrade and Bar in neighbouring Montenegro. Dignitaries ranging from Jawahar Lal Nehru to Queen Elizabeth have made the journey at the favour of the original commissioner of the train. Who?

AnswerJosip Tito

Question 16Shown on the following slide is the picture of the Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt am Main. The towers rise up to a height of 155m. The twin towers are often called by a two-word term that forms the basis of the banking and accounting systems.

What is the term used?

AnswerDebit and Credit

Question 17During the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly spoke of one of his projects and cited it’s being “under budget, ahead of schedule, saved tremendous money” as proof of his ability to make America great again. This, at a time when a 30-second spot in the commercials cost anywhere between $120,000 and $300,000 during the Presidential debates, meant it was getting airtime pretty much for free.

What is the beneficiary of this unpresidented bit of product placement?

AnswerThe Trump Washington

Question 18In August 2009, Tiffany’s and Co. brought on a tennis player as their new brand ambassador and announced that a renowned architect would design a new collection called Stria. The special group of earrings captures her natural grace and gives customers and fans access to the Tiffany jewelry preferred by the then three-time Grand Slam winner.Speaking about the tennis player and the inspiration for his creations, the architect said "I wanted to design earrings for X that were interesting yet light enough to wear during play. It was a new idea inspired by corrugations, like a river or a waterfall.“

Incidentally, the architect is renowned for his incorporation of the same elements in one of his most famous works and is arguably the world’s first ‘starchitect’. ID both.

AnswerMaria Sharapova

Frank Gehry

Question 19In 1901, German tailor Ambrosius Hiltl got rheumatism which left him unable to work at his occupation. However, he began following Maximillean Bircher-Benner’s (who soon after came up with the idea for muesli) wondrous diet and found out that it was actually helping him deal with his rheumatism. Enthused by this, he tookover and turned around an ailing club in 1903 and set up a restaurant called Hotel Hiltl in Zurich. The menu was soon expanded to offer options from countries such as India and Thailand, and were an instant hit with the Swiss crowd and even illustrious dignitaries such as Dr. Rajendra Prasad.

What first did he accomplish by doing so, a feat which you would intuitively associate with an Indian establishment in the first place?

AnswerThe oldest continuously running vegetarian restaurant in the world.

Question 20WelectGo is an app that gives away free rides to commuters in Düsseldorf, in a bid to popularise public transport. The rationale behind the app is that commuters will be given a free ride in exchange for doing something we try to avoid on a daily basis, and that commuters are so annoyed by having to perform the act that they just buy the ticket rather than wait for the free ticket. However, the app owners were not able to foresee the public appetite for something so close to a free lunch. The economics behind the app were shown to be flawed pretty quickly. Calculating that the average duration of each act is 80 seconds, and the payoff on performing the act a cool $2.80, the average earnings of a commuter are close to $120 an hour. The developers have been thinking of new ways to increase revenue streams, including increasing the duration of the act itself.

How does one get a free ride using the app?

AnswerThey have to watch a series of ads.

Question 21(4 slides)The Greatest ________ inventions is a TV Miniseries in which people voted online for what they think is their country’s best invention. The results were as shown on the next slide .

ID the country(2). At number 10 and number 13 are a food and a cocktail respectively. Their descriptions are on the following slides. Give me X (4)and Y(4)

Question 21• Insulin• Telephone• Light Bulb• Five-pin Bowling• Wonderbra• Artificial pacemaker• Robertson Screw• Zipper• Electric Wheelchair• X• Cobalt 60 Cancer treatment• Java programming language• Y• Shuttle Remote Manipulator System

X is a fast food dish consisting of french fries and cheese curds topped with a light brown gravy, traditionally a chicken or teal gravy. There are many variations with different toppings as well. It is a popular comfort food.

Y contains Vodka, a mix of tomato juice and clam broth , hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce and is served with ice in a large celery salt rimmed glass, typically garnished with a stalk of celery and a wedge of lime. What distinguishes it from a Bloody Mary is the inclusion of a clam broth. It was invented by restaurateur Walter Chell.

AnswerX – PoutineY – CaesarCanada

Question 22 Following are some views from a monument in the town of Weiliczka in Southern Poland. What is special about this ?

Answer It is basically a salt mine. It is the oldest salt mine in the world. All the statues are carved out of rock salt.

Question 23 The word X is believed to be derived from the Spanish or portuguese word for rough

or imperfect pearl. This term was initially used in a derogatory sense to describe the eccentric redundancy and noisy abundance of detail in contrast with the clear and sober rationality of the Renaissance. While the term was first applied to music , it later became applicable to architecture and art of that period. Some artistes from this period are Caravaggio and Antonio Vivaldi.

Some time later, came Y , also known as late X , which developed in the late 18th century in Paris. Unlike the political X, Y had playful , lighthearted ,and witty themes , as you can see on the next slide. It usually covers the sort of style and design associated with the reigns of Louis XV and XVI and the end of Louis XIVs.

The word Y is seen as a combination of the French rosaille(stone) and coquilles(shell)

Answer X - Baroque , Y - Rococo

Question 24 Cacio e pepe, cheese and pepper, is one of Rome’s iconic primi piatti, a pasta dish that sums up the simple, thrifty brilliance of the city’s traditional cooking. Pasta is tossed vigorously with grated pecorino romano cheese, black pepper, pasta cooking water and possibly olive oil until the ingredients come together into a pale creamy sauce flecked with black that clings seductively to the pasta. The enduring popularity of the dish (it was voted New York’s trendiest dish in 2016) is sometimes attributed to the absence of an ingredient that we take for granted in most of Italian cuisine, thus appealing to a more traditional Italian palate. What ingredient, native to South America, but whose usage really took off in the mid-19th century, are we talking about?

AnswerTomatoes

Question 25 Il pomo d'oro is an opera in a prologue and five acts by the Italian composer Antonio Cesti with a libretto by Francesco Sbarra (1611-1668). It was first performed before the imperial court in a specially constructed open-air theatre Vienna in 1668. The work was so long it had to be staged over the course of two days: the Prologue, Acts One and Two were given on July 12; Acts Three, Four and Five on July 14. Originally planned to mark the wedding of the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and Margaret Theresa of Spain in 1666, the production was rescheduled to mark the Empress's 17th birthday in 1668.The story marks a variation on that of the Judgment of Paris, with the opera ending with Jupiter deciding to give Margaret Theresa the prize in an attempt to keep his women from quarrelling. What is pomo d’oro? The Italian word for tomatoes is derived from this.

Answer Pomo d’oro literally translates to Golden ApplePomodoro is the Italian word for tomatoes

Question 26 This is an example of a Sari whose top and bottom borders are in different colours. By what geographically inspired name are these Saris known as ?

Answer Ganga Jamuna sari

Question 27 August Zang was a serial entrepreneur most famous for setting up the Austrian newspaper “Die Presse” in 1848. In his obituary, however, the newspaper omitted to mention all of his role in banking and spoke in passing of the time he spent in Paris. His time in Paris, though, was actually quite momentuous. He introduced the kipfel through his business there, which quickly caught on. The name changed and is today assimilated to such a large extent into French cuisine that even Wikipedia lists the origin of this food item as French. This is obviously not true, as other food items of a similar type are collectively called viennoiserie, and indicates its true origins.

What did Zang introduce to Paris, which is today synonymous with the French?

Answer

Question 28Sometime in July 2016, a tumblr page was created by Samantha with the name “Samantha goes to Restaurants”. This is the description on the page:“Brutally honest reviews of the finest Hollywoo dining establishments. All restaurants are reviewed on a scale of 0 to 1,000,000,000.”The page only has four posts, all made in July. The lowest ranked restaurant in the list is Elefante, with a total rating of 412 stars. This rating is caused in part due to the food taking hours to arrive, the owner of the restaurant engaging in a very public argument with his one-time agent and ex-girlfriend and the staff either quitting en masse or being on fire during the course of one meal.

Who is the owner of the Elefante?

Answer

29.Where in the world (No points for country :P. More specific answer

required. ) can you find this particular sequence of nucleotides in a DNA double helix whose chirality is intentionally opposite to that of normal DNA ?

atctggtcgagctcgggtccactccggattctgtgtgtgtgtgtgtgtcaactgaatga

Ans : Double Helix Bridge , Marina Bay , Singapore

30. ______ ______ trails arise when there is a rise in the number of western backpackers travelling to an area and thus there are more restaurants serving foods adapted to western tastes like ______ _______ . This phrase is used to describe the most frequently visited places by foreigners in southeast Asia , india e.t.c

Similarly, ______ trails refer to most frequently visited places by foreigners/”______” in South America like Chichen Itza, Antigua e.t.c.

Ans : Banana Pancake, Gringos

Special Round 1 : Food Mascots

1.A mascot for McDonald’s , the name of this bad dude is a pun on the main product of the fast food chain

2. The Great ____ ____ . FITB . Hint : Pun

3.The X was created in 1954 and portrayed cowboys with a ________.

This was with the intention of popularising a particular type of _________ which at the time were considered feminine. The advertisement was particularly clever in that it did not touch upon the health benefits of this type of __________ as it would remind people of the adverse effects of __________ themselves on health.

It was ironic that out of the six people who played X , four died of the same disease.

Give me X and what disease ?

Answers

1. The Hamburglar

2. The Great Root Bear

3. The Marlbro Man, Lung Cancer

Special Round 2

Identify the city or country from the posters of the now-defunct PanAm Airways

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers

Answers