A list of puzzling questions
Editor’s note: Every week, we feature three questions from our quiz master Shantanu Sharma—who is a researcher-writer, and has a side hustle as a professional quiz guru. He’d love to hear from you—so send your feedback/suggestions or just say ‘hi’ over at sharmashantanu312@gmail.com or @shantorasbox on Twitter.
How this works: Every correct answer is worth 10 points. If a question has multiple parts, each is worth 5 points. You have until Friday 12 pm to send in your answers to talktous@splainer.in or via DMs on Insta or Twitter. The correct answers will be published every Monday. The grand prize for the winner at the end of the month: a quarterly subscription for anyone of your choice—including the option of adding three months to your sub. That’s Rs 499 in value—so it’s pretty darn good:)
Rule to note: We will pick winners each month using a lucky draw.
The answers: to the previous week’s quiz are at the bottom—as are the winners for the first week of December.
One: The woman sitting next to Javed saheb is a Hindi film industry pioneer who broke barriers and paved the way for women to take on specific professional roles in films. Identify the woman and her occupation. (5+5)
Two: As the year draws to a close, work out the lexical connection among the following elements (non-exhaustive list).
Three: These are some of the works shown at a 2024 exhibition celebrating the anniversary of a pivotal moment in modern art history. Can you name the exhibition and where it took place? (5+5)
About last week’s quiz…
Here are the answers to the previous edition of the splainer quiz:
One: Identify the business honcho making a ceremonial first move below—at the final of a global championship. For bonus points: Which exclusive club of achievers did he join less than two months ago? (5+5)
Answer: Demis Hassabis and Nobel Prize Winner
Shown here is Google DeepMind’s CEO Demis Hassabis, a chess prodigy in his youth. Check out his chess statistics here. On October 9, Demis was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with two other researchers “for computational protein design.”
FYI, he made the ceremonial first move at the 2024 FIDE World Chess Championship which marks the historic moment of being the first in 138 years to feature two Asian players: reigning champion Ding Liren from China and challenger Dommaraju Gukesh. At the time of publishing the answers to this question, the 11th game of the championship concluded with Gukesh taking the lead over Ding. Score: 6-5. Read more about the game here.
Two: Connect these former visual identities to name the brand that once soared with wings and later leaped with grace—and is now the talk of the town.
Answer: Jaguar
Jaguar, the luxury car brand owned by Tata Motors, has revealed a new logo and branding as part of its shift to an electric-only future. The three images in question are its earliest logos from the 1920s onwards when it was founded as the Swallow Sidecar Company, hence “SS.”
Three: This expanded detail is from a 19th-century French painting, named after the visible gesture. Name the location of these excited spectators—and the name of the gesture—which is also the title of this painting. (5+5)
Answer: Colosseum and Pollice Verso
The painting ‘Pollice Verso’ (1872) by Jean-Léon Gérôme depicts a gladiatorial combat scene—as you can see below:
The phrase "pollice verso" is Latin for “with a turned thumb,” but its meaning remains ambiguous, as explained by Gallery Educator Christine Spier. Debate has raged over whether a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" signaled the gladiator’s fate. Some sources suggest "thumbs down" meant sparing the opponent, while "thumbs up" indicated death. In the book ‘Gladiator: The Making of the Ridley Scott Epic’, he reveals that Gérôme’s painting influenced his decision to direct ‘Gladiator’ (2000).
And the winners are…
Here are the top five scorers for the first week of December. Congratulations!
