In keeping with the rest of the issue, this quiz is all about ghosts, including a few living ones thrown in for variety!

1 The ouija board, also known as the spirit board, is a flat board marked with the numbers zero to nine and a few letters. It is commonly used to communicate with spirits during a séance. What is the name of the small heart-shaped wooden indicator which spells out the spirit’s message?

2 Which word in the English dictionary, and the name of a hit film, is a combination of the German words for ‘noisy’ and ‘ghost’?

3 The 1996 film The Ghost and the Darkness about two man-eating lions with seemingly supernatural abilities was based on which early 20th century account by big game hunter John Henry Patterson? Val Kilmer plays the hunter in the film.

4 The White House has its fair share of ghosts, but the most common one is that of a former president. It is supposed to have scared Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands into a dead faint, surprised Winston Churchill in his bathtub and frightened countless security staff. Whose ghost are we talking about?

5 The 1958 hit Madhumati was one of the first mainstream hits to explore the theme of reincarnation. Which leading director co-wrote the script with Rajinder Singh Bedi for this Bimal Roy production?

6 Which legendary American ghost was first mentioned in a set of short stories titled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent that told the story of a Hessian artilleryman who lost his life in the battle of White Plains in 1776?

7 In the mid 1990s, who used to be known as the ‘Phantom of Fine Hall’?

8 In the same vein, which tennis star, notorious for his deadpan expression while playing, was known as the ‘Ostrava Ghost’?

9 Which variety of Indian ghost are found in three kinds — Poshi, Soshi and Toshi?

10 According to some sources, Bernard Fokke, who died in the 17th century, is the inspiration for this legend. However, an 18th-century magazine mentions a certain Hendrick Vanderdecken as the real person. What legend are they supposed to have inspired, which has been spotted around the world?

Answers

1. Planchette, the more common term for séances in our part of the world.

2. Poltergeist (‘poltern’ and ‘geist’)

3. The Man-eaters of Tsavo

4. Abraham Lincoln; his wife Mary Todd’s apparition has also been spotted fairly often.

5. Ritwik Ghatak

6. The Headless Horseman, he was decapitated by an American cannonball and his comrades carried his body away but could not find his head.

7. John Nash, the Nobel Prize-winning mathematician and subject of the film A Beautiful Mind who used to wander around Fine Hall, the mathematics block at Princeton University.

8. Ivan Lendl; he hailed from the town of Ostrava in Czechoslovakia.

9. These are the famous churels — the Poshi and Toshi variety serve their partners even after death, while the Soshi are the ones who have been wronged and return to drain the blood of their husbands.

10. The ghost ship ‘The Flying Dutchman,’ which can never make port and is doomed to sail the seas forever.

Joy Bhattacharjyais a quiz master, Director - Kolkata Knight Riders and author of Junior Premier League — The First XI

Follow Joy on Twitter >@joybhattacharj

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