Getting off the mark..

Welcome to the Sultans of Quizikistan,

This is Viv & P3 (We are actually androids disguised as quizmasters) welcoming you to our first of many blog entries that are going to be peppered with fun quizzes , a lot of trivia , puzzles, reviews and stuff that we want to surprise ourselves with....

We strongly believe quizzing is for everybody and we want to clear the myth and correct the notion that quizzes are only for people who get married to books, always attend quizzes and remember weird-insignificant pieces of information. Quizzing is the art of identifying yourself with your environment, your world and your history. And the way we want to do that is by framing questions that are enjoyable to read, making most questions highly guessable & workable and hoping that on reading the answers, you would say "Oh, wow! I didnt know that!".

If you like racking your head to solve something and your hunger for quizzes & puzzles never dimnishes, this is the resort you need to visit often. No booking required, no travelling needed and totally free. :)

So, without further ado ... We present the first quiz of QuizzaHut. [Answers in about a week] - Remember most answers are workable!! Starting with a question about the "New Year Day"!

1. In 1562, when the New Year day was changed from a certain date to January 1st , in France there were a lot of people who were not informed and some who just did NOT believe it. This gave rise to a new term/ phrase that was applied to those people (to ridicule them) that we still use today. What is it?

2. William Wright, a Royal Air Force gunner of World-War II started X and based this upon his experience as a POW in Germany. Specifically, what he designed was based on the ‘interrogation techniques’ he faced and the way he was interrogated. The first edition of X was aired on BBC in 1972 at Liverpool University. In India, it was held in different heritage sites. What is X?

3. X was watching a quiz contest being aired on Doordarshan in February 1967 and was appalled to see contestants answer complex questions pertaining to greek mythology but floundering when asked simple questions related to Hindu Myth, one of the questions being "Who was Rama’s Mother?". He decided to do something about this, he immediately quit his job and started Y as a consequence. X/Y?

4. Would it be possible to play forever in the game? Multiple thesis and investigations later, it was concluded that a player is inevitably doomed to lose if there were a continuous sequence of S pieces followed by a torrent of Z pieces and a perfect random number generator would eventually produce this sequence. To combat this, it was decided in 2001, that the random number generator used to produce this pieces would be tweaked and made ‘less random’ (pseudo) so as to never produce the fatal S-Z sequence and hence, in theory, let a player play forever. Which game?

5. He is an interpretation of the Bodhisattva Maitreya, the predicted Buddha to succeed Gautam Buddha in the future. He is now an integral part of Buddhist, Taoist and Shinto culture and is said to be based on an eccentric Chinese Zen Monk who lived during the time of the Liang Dynasty. His smiling, often laughing image graces many temples, restaurants, amulets and businesses. Who?

6. It is said that when this sage/Rishi was young and meditating he was covered by an ant-hill. The princess of the kingdom playing nearby thought there was something funny with the ant-hill and poked it to accidentally blind the sage. As a compensation she became his wife to take care of him. After a few years when he asked her to request a boon, she said she wanted him [her husband] to become young and regain sight. So this sage meditated and took the help of Ashwini Twins [2 Special Devas]. Then … [blah – blah – blah happened] and the ashwini Twins parted with a special secret with the help of which the Rishi set out to create X. This in turn gave youth and good health to the rishi.

Now this X took his name and is a very popular item in India and am sure most of us have encountered it back in India [Did we give it away :-) ??]. Identify the Rishi and consequently X.

7. He came to life on a napkin illustration in a restaurant in 1985. When Susan Rose first sketched him, he needed just 15 lines inclusive of an un-complicated triangular head and a few strands of scary of hair. She was perhaps saying ‘You are what you are and what you are is okay’. He was then licensed to Pepsi-co in the 80s and was dormant until the 90s where he really took off featuring on brands and merchandise alike. Who was he?

8. What is the longest word that can be typed using only the letters in the top most row of a typewriter? [ maybe computer keyboard too ..]

9. What is common to the following sports? Rugby, Golf, Lacrosse, Cricket and Tug of War.

10. By Law, a Bankrupt person can be asked to sell anything by his creditors , to pay up his loans or debt except for 1 thing. What is that 1 thing, no one can ask him to sell or take possession of?

So go ahead and throw your darts on the quizboard. They might land somewhere very near the answer and if so, subsequent posts/ comments will include more clues for you to inch closer to the answer(s).

Have a fantastic 2008 !! :)

- Viv & P3