Discovery of India
1 The Beighton Cup is India’s oldest hockey tournament, instituted in 1895. Which organisation ran the Beighton Cup before it was taken over by the Calcutta Hockey League in 1905?
2 If the first two words of this world famous battle cry are ‘Jai Mahakali’, what are the next two?
3 After giving his famous Dilli Chalo call, at whose tomb did Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose vow to free India from the British?
4 What did Lata Mangeshkar stop accepting after 1970 and Asha Bhosle after 1979?
5 Which international first is claimed but never really credited to the 1968 Hrishikesh Mukherjee film Ashirwad?
6 Born in Lucknow in October 1930, she joined the Bar in 1959. She was the first woman to top the London Bar exams in 1958. Her biography is titled On balance. Identify this feisty and talented woman.
7 In the mid-’80s, the acronym BIMARU was first coined by analyst Ashish Bose, in a paper submitted to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. What is the full form of BIMARU?
8 Ya Aeshu Suptaeshu Jagruti — one who is awake among those that sleep — is the motto of which Indian organisation?
9 Baba Budan, a 17th-century Sufi saint revered by both Muslims and Hindus, has his shrine at Baba Budangiri, Karnataka. According to legend, what did he introduce to India?
10 Rabindranath Tagore won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. Which project did he use his prize money for?
Answers
1. The Indian Football Association
2. Ayo Gorkhali — the battle cry of the legendary Gorkha regiments who have served both the Indian and British armies with distinction
3. Bahadur Shah Zafar, the last emperor of India. Bose was in Rangoon at the time
4. Filmfare awards for best singer; Mangeshkar won four awards before she decided to let other singers get a chance; Bhosle had won seven
5. Ashok Kumar claimed that a song from the film ‘Rail Gadi Chhuk Chhuk’ is the first international rap song. Listening to it, he probably has a case
6. Leila Seth, the first woman judge of the Delhi High Court; she was also the first woman to become Chief Justice of a State High Court (Himachal Pradesh) in 1978
7. Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and UP, the States slowing down India’s growth. It was also a play on the Hindi word for ‘sickly’
8. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
9. Coffee
10. Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan
Joy Bhattacharjya is a quizmaster and Project Director, FIFA U-17 World Cup; Follow Joy on Twitter @joybhattacharj