General Knowledge : Part 1 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Crickets

According to Paul McCartney, the Beatles were tickled by the name of the band, Crickets because of the double meaning (the insect and the game), and decided to keep a name which also signifies a double meaning. Ironically enough the Crickets, an American band, never realized that cricket is also the name of a game played in England and in a large number of its former colonies.

Answer: Coca-Cola

Obviously, not the right image that should pop up in people's minds when they reach out for a Coke, so the advertising agency changed the name to sound like ke-kou-ke-la, which loosely translates as "happiness in the mouth". (The Economic Times)

Answer: Douglas Adams

Apparently, he totally forgot about this for more than a year and upon returning to London much later, remembered this when he was asked to come up with a script for a radio program. So the 'Hitchiker's Guide' was born. The rest, as the cliche goes, is history.

Answer: The Battle of Balaclava

Lord Tennyson wrote the immortal poem, 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' on the Battle of Balaclava where 630 charged straight into the mouths of cannons to death and destruction. Less than 200 came back from that foolhardy charge, which was a result of a "communications error". Lord Raglan and General Cardigan are of course the officers whose names have been given to raglan sweaters and cardigan pullovers.

Answer: The Vietnamese New Year

The Tet offensive unleashed by the NVA and the Vietcong came as a rude shock to the Americans who had been insisting all along to the public back home that they were winning and the enemy was fading away. Ironically enough, the US actually WON the Tet offensive and the Vietcong's operations in South Vietnam suffered a massive blow from which it never really recovered.

However, this incident sowed the first seeds of discontent in the minds of the American public at large, on the capacity of its government to conduct this war.

Answer: Padma

India's most sacred river and the third longest on the sub-continent is called the Padma, when it flows into the sea, in Bangladesh, where it also links up with the Bramhaputra river. The Ganges Delta is one of the most fertile places on the subcontinent and can thus support a large population in a small area.

The Ganga is also instrumental to the needs of the jute industry in India and Bangladesh, where 90% of the world's jute is grown.

Answer: Sedna

Sedna was named after the Inuit goddess of the Sea, although its official designation is 2003 VB12. The discovery was made on the Samuel Oschin Telescope at the Palomar Observatory east of San Diego on 14 November 2003 by the team of Mike Brown (Caltech), Chad Trujillo (Gemini Observatory) and David Rabinowitz (Yale).(http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/sedna/) The discovery was announced to the world in March 2004 and Sedna is believed to be part of the Oort cloud.

Although it has been hypothesized that the planet has a moon orbiting it, no conclusive proof has emerged so far.

Answer: They played barefoot or with socks

According to the rules, the teams could not play barefoot and hence, the Indian team was disqualified. It was only in 1985 that India attempted to take part in the Football World Cup qualifiers, though it has not gotten beyond the first round since. It is the opinion of almost all football fans, that the 1950 team was easily the best India ever fielded, especially after their 3-0 victory over the Brazilian football side in an exhibition match. Since then, football standards in India have fallen and it has a following only in the south and east of the country, but simply cannot compete on an equal level with cricket or tennis for sponsorship and corporate support.

Answer: Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi, in his autobiography, states that the case was one of maintenance for an abandoned wife by the husband, and he was arguing for the destitute wife. Well, arguing maybe a misnomer here, since Gandhi states that he lost the case, as he was too frightened and overawed by the judge to even open his mouth.

The shame of this incident caused him to abandon practice in India and join a family friend's firm in South Africa. In South Africa, he gained first hand experience of the racial nature of British rule, when he was thrown out of the First Class compartment of a train onto the platform, simply because he was not white, and only whites could travel on the first class coach.

This sparked a new turn in Gandhi's life as he fearlessly launched an agitation, that in the next decade and a half would give Indians in South Africa dignity and self respect, with his relentless non-violent struggle against racial laws.

He would later go to India and gain the honorific 'Mahatma' or Great Soul for his leadership of the non-violent struggle against all odds, in gaining India its freedom. Those more interested in Gandhi's life and struggle may read his excellent autobiography entitled, "My Experiments with Truth" and maybe watch Richard Attenborough's all time classic, "Gandhi".

Answer: John Lennon

Forrest meets John Lennon on a television talk show, where both of them are participants. John Lennon was shot by Mark Chapman after he had signed a copy of his latest album for the latter. Interestingly, some people tied the assassination of John Lennon to J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye", since it was the last book Chapman read before he assassinated Lennon.

Answer: North Korea

The Yalu river separates China from the Korean Peninsula. During the Korean War, General Douglas MacArthur's decision to bomb the Yalu River Power plants led to an intensification of the war, with the entry of China into the field.

Answer: False

Actually, the Adulterer's Bible was so called due to a printer's devil in a 17th Century , King James' edition, in which Exodus 20:14 was rendered as "Thou shalt commit adultery", omitting the word 'not'. Needless to say, the printer and proof reader found themselves at the wrong end of a hangman's noose.

Answer: Imola

The race, in 1994 seemed particularly jinxed, with the terrible accident to Rubens Barrichelo, who survived, during the qualifiers and the death of the Austrian Ratzeberger earlier in the race. Ayrton Senna died when his car crashed into the fence after a collision. This accident shocked the racing fraternity, into putting greater emphasis on the safety aspect of the sport from then on.

Answer: True

Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard and with his savings and of course, poker winnings, started Microsoft along with Paul Allen, and the rest of the world found a new thing to hate....Ctrl-Alt-Del.;)

Answer: Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore, India's first Nobel Laureate composed "Jana Gana Mana" (Thou Art the Ruler of our Minds) and "Amar Shonar Bangla" (Eternal Golden Bengal), which became the national anthems of India, in 1947 and Bangladesh, in 1972, respectively. Interestingly, the Bengal Tagore was referring to in the song, referred to both West Bengal state in India and what is now Bangladesh or East Pakistan, when it was first partitioned, as one Bengal.

Answer: True

One of the reasons why more and more countries, most recently India, are giving up nuclear testing is because they no longer need to actually build an atomic weapon and blow it up in the air or underground to find out if it really works. Supercomputing has advanced so much that today's fastest computers can predict whether a nuclear device will work and what sort of yield it will give on detonation.

Answer: Lagaan

Lagaan, made by Ashutosh Gowariker and starring Aamir Khan, Gracy Singh and Rachel Weisz, was a smash hit in Indian cinemas and made it to the Oscar last five, before losing out to one of the best war movies in a long time, 'No Man's Land'. The film revolves around a cricket match played between the peasants and their English masters to get their taxes reduced, when the monsoons don't turn up and their crop fails.

This movie was filmed in a village in Bhuj district of Gujarat state, which was also the epicentre of a devastating earthquake in 2001.

In a noble gesture, the stars and the production team of the movie donated close to 2.5 million rupees ($500,000) for the rehabilitation of the victims.

Answer: Nicole Kidman

It is said that Tom Cruise never allowed Nicole Kidman to wear high heels when they both appeared together, so as to not make obvious the fact, that she was at least four inches taller than he!

Answer: Fred Astaire

This was apparently written when Fred Astaire appeared in the screen test for the film, Gay Divorce, made by Cole Porter, in 1932. Ultimately he did get the part.

Answer: False

Christianity reached Britain only around 300AD, whereas in India, St. Thomas, one of the disciples of Christ is believed to have come to India around 52AD and the descendants of the first converts, the Syrian Christians still live in the South Indian state of Kerala.