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 Tuesday—as will the monthly leaderboard. 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 899 in value—so it’s pretty darn good:) Rule to note: this is all about who sends in the correct answers first.
The answers: to the previous week’s quiz are at the bottom.
One: Pictured below are images of the interior and exterior of an Airbnb rental. Covered in moss and nestled beneath a colossal tree, it is a faithful recreation of what?
Two: Think laterally and connect the following elements.
a) A malt chocolate drink mix that is popular in India
b) The former name of a neighbouring island nation
c) A toothpaste brand acquired by Dabur in the ‘90s
Three: Identify this championship trophy which is one of the most coveted prizes in the sporting world—and named after a North American politician. Hint: It shares its name with a wildly popular collectible—whose sales recently hit a whopping $700 million.
About last week’s quiz…
Here are the answers to the third edition of the splainer quiz:
One: Think laterally and connect the three elements below. What do they have in common?
- A shrub that causes an itchy rash on contact
- A popular character from ‘The Wizard of Oz’
- A cute mascot of a computer operating system
Answer: Batman Villains.
Poison ivy is a noxious shrub indigenous to the eastern regions of North America. Its various parts contain urushiol, a substance that, upon contact, induces a distressing and itchy skin inflammation in many individuals. The Scarecrow, made of straw, is the first travelling companion Dorothy meets on her way to the Emerald City in the Oz series of books by L Frank Baum. Although there are many stories, according to one, during a Australia trip, a penguin bit Linus Torvalds, the founder of Linux, this incident led to the creation of Tux, its iconic mascot. You can read about Poison Ivy, Scarecrow, Penguin, and many other Batman villains here.
Two: A certain team recently achieved a remarkable feat—the first in nearly two decades. It drew a record number of viewers—though the reason for all that attention was not playing on the field. Name the sporting achievement.
Answer: Kansas City Chiefs win their second straight Super Bowl title
The Kansas City Chiefs staged a second-half comeback to secure a 25-22 overtime victory against the San Francisco 49ers to win Super Bowl LVIII, making history as the first team to achieve back-to-back Super Bowl championships since the New England Patriots won the championship in 2004 and 2005. Dubbed as the Taylor Swift effect, ever since she started dating the Kansas City Chiefs’ Travis Kelce, it has captivated not only her devoted fanbase, the Swifties but also captured the attention of American football enthusiasts.
Three: Connect the three novels in the collage below—‘Girti Divaren’ by Upendranath Ashk, ‘Gujrat Pakistan Se Gujrat Hindustan’ by Krishna, and ‘Pachpan Khambhe Lal Deewaren’ by Usha Priyamvada. Hint: Their connection won a major literary prize a couple of years back.
Answer: Daisy Rockwell
Daisy Rockwell has translated these Hindi novels into English. Their English titles in order are: ‘Falling Walls’ by Upendranath Ashk (2015); ‘A Gujarat here, a Gujarat there’ by Krishna Sobti (2019); and ‘Fifty-five Pillars, Red Walls’ by Usha Priyamvada (2021). You can read more about these and her other translations here. Geetanjali Shree’s ‘Ret Samadhi’ (2018, Rajkamal Prakashan), published as ‘Tomb of Sand’ in 2021 and translated by Daisy Rockwell became the first Hindi Novel to win International Booker Prize.
And the winners are…
Here are the top five scorers for the fourth week of February. Congratulations!
