Answers to The Vacation Special General Quiz

Hi

Here are the answers and scores to "The Vacation Special General Quiz" .
Thank you all for the generous response and comments. People who attempted the quiz must have immediately received a personal mail with the answers. Hope all you guys will take a shot at the James Bond quiz that will be uploaded on the blog shortly.

regards,
Manjith

Answers:

1. What was Kaiserbad,a disused spa, in the town of Karlovy Vary,Czech Republic transformed into, during May 2006?

A: Casino Royale. The exterior of the casino was this spa. The gambling scenes may have been at a studio. I was hoping that guys would figure out the Czech Republic connection since the movie starts off in Prague. The casino in the movie was supposed to be at Montenegro though.

2.Died at the age of 28 or 30. Had a name that literally meant "Ox-head".Buried near Jalalpur Sharif in Pakistan on the banks of the Jhelum river.Identify.

A: Bucephalus, the horse of Alexander. He was killed in the "Battle of Hydaspes", where Hydaspes is the Greek name for the Jhelum!! The age 28-30 is surprising for a horse, i felt. And it certainly confused a lot of you as well.The clue(i hope!) was the area mentioned in the question and its connection to Alexander.
Incidentally, the city named after the horse is also in the same region.(as per wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandria_on_the_Indus)

3.Professor Krempe, teacher of natural philosophy at the university, criticized his new student when he told him that he had studied the works of alchemists and occultists like Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus and Albert Magnus. But Mr.Waldman, Professor of chemistry was more tolerant of the boy's background and encouraged him greatly.The boy made his greatest creation in November 1792- something that would destroy his life. who are we talking about?

A: Victor Frankenstein, in the novel by Mary Shelley. This was his story at the Ingollstadt university. The clues were "greatest creation ...- something that would destroy his life" and the connection with the alchemists/occultists.

4.William J Donovan and Felix Dzershinsky are regarded as the respective founders of two organisations that were pre-eminent in a particular field. What are we talking about?

A: They founded the CIA and the KGB respectively. Infact it was the "OSS"(Office of Strategic services) and the "Cheka", that were founded by these people. These organisations later grew into the spying enterprises. Rahul adds that KGB HQ was in the Dzershinsky square in Moscow. Clue: The Russian name "Dzershinsky" and him founding an organisation should lead you unmistakably to the KGB.

5.What was started in 1941 and named after the late Maharaja Sir Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhary, ruler of a now obscure kingdom?

A: Santosh trophy. This Maharaja was president of India's football association at the time and named the trophy after his kingdom-Santosh, now in Bangladesh.

6.Pretty interesting stuff. We have heard of different Al Quaeda leaders in Iraq like Al-Masri,Al Libbi,Al Suri and so on.What do these surnames stand for? They arent family names by the way.

A: I have given points for nationalities, native towns etc. Al Libbi="The Libyan"Al Suri=" The Syrian"Al Masri="The Egyptian"Al Zarqawi incidentally was "The man from Zarqa" , a town in Jordan.

7.In the Star Trek-The Next Generation series,the USS Ambassador,USS Adelphi, USS Enterprise, USS Excalibur, USS Exeter, USS Valdemar, USS Yamaguchi, USS Zhukov and the USS ______ (also know as NCC 26632) were ships that belonged to the ambassador class of vessels which were mainly used for peaceful and non-violent purposes. The NCC 26632 which had been deputed for a mission in the Lagana sector was also a former assignment of Lt. Riker. Who or What was it fittingly named after?

A: USS Gandhi. The words "peaceful and non-violent" should have given the answer.

8.X's wife told her husband that their hall would be beautiful only if a "Roc's egg" was hung up from the middle of the dome. X immediately decided to humor her and summoned Y. On hearing the request Y gave a loud shriek, admonished X and left him for good. Identify X and Y.

A: X=Aladdin. Y=Genie. My favorite, this question. As per the story, an evil sorcerer came as a woman and tricked Aladdin's wife into believing that her palace lacked a Roc's egg. The genie's original master had been a Roc(some kind of huge bird) and he was angry at Aladdin for asking him the egg of his master. He revealed the sorcerer's trickery to Aladdin and disappeared. Aladdin promptly killed the sorcerer.

9.Champawat,Muktesar, Panar, Talla Des,Chowgarh, Mohan, Kanda, Chuka etc were some of the more famous trophies added to his bag by a legend. What are these known together as and who was the legend ?

A: They were individually called "The Man-Eater of Champawat","The Man-Eater of Muktesar" etc..Together they were "The Man-Eaters of Kumaon" , each killed by the legendary hunter, Jim Corbett. There were other man-eaters, but these were the ones in the book of the same name.The tough clue was "trophies" which could point to sports or hunting.I have deducted half a point for people who did not mention Kumaon.

10. Which ship commanded by Captain Von Muller was finally sunk by the HMS Sydney off the coast of the North Keeling(Cocos) islands after a massive search by over 60 allied ships ?(Hint : The ship's name contributed a word to many south Indian languages and was used as a bogey to scare kids !)

A: The SMS Emden. The malayalam word "Emandan"/"Yamandan" denoting large size is derived from this. The ship bombed Madras during WWI causing a mass panic with large number of people fleeing the city.

Scores:
Dinkar A- 7.5(0.5 for missing Kumaon)

Anand Shankar-2.5

Arish Tavadia-good guesses!

Indranil Adak-6.5

Santanu Dey-4

Mithun Paul-2

Husain Poonawala-3

Arindam Sanyal-2.5

Harikrishnan A-5

Ancil James Concesso-7

Dr. Bhatia Ravi-1

Sadashiv N-4

Abid E H-5

Roshith Mohan-3.5

Vijay Krishnan-3

Shreyas Joshi-4.5

Arun Warrier-3

Abhinav Mouli-7

Ajay Joy-4.5

Harikrishnan Nair-6

Ajith Prasad B-6

Atul V Nath-2

Vipin S Nair-5

Praveen V R-2

Rajesh Mohan-4

Rahul Girish-7

Folks who answered with additional clues:

Dhanya Varghese-2

Mathews John-2

Ambili V-2

Safitha j Raj-2

Thats All folks!!!