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 overall winners for the month of August.
One: At which annual event would you raise this toast to the champions—capturing the flavour of the season?
Two: Identify the speaker whose work is loved and loathed by women readers in equal measure. Hint: A version of the work has recently been in the news—for being both a big hit and a serious miss.
Three: Think laterally and figure out the person who connects these three images.
a) Four countries across three continents
b) another tech company that ousted its founder
c) Enuf said.
About last week’s quiz…
Here are the answers to the previous edition of the splainer quiz:
One: Name the singer who is making Fahadh Faasil aka FaFa sound good in this clip.
Answer: Sooraj Cherukat aka Hanumankind is trending worldwide with his latest track ‘Big Dawgs’ and redefining Indian hip-hop on the global stage. This clip is from ‘The Last Dance’, a hip gangsta rap from the Fahadh Faasil starrer ‘Aavesham’, composed by Sushin Shyam. Hanumankind has already broken into the Billboard Global 200 Top 10 and surpassed the likes of Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not Like US’. More power to desi hip-hop! Watch the full music video below:
Two: Think laterally and work out a single word that connects these:
a) A band that makes ‘90s kids swoon
b) This National Film Award-winning actor
c) A former Asian airlines
Answer: Silk
Vidya Balan was declared the Best Actress at the 59th National Film Awards for portraying South siren Silk Smitha in Milan Luthria’s 2011 ‘The Dirty Picture’. The band Silk Road was a big contributor to the 1990s Indie-pop scene featuring Mohit Chauhan (vocals, guitars), Atul Mittal (guitars, clarinet), Kem Trivedi (keyboards), and Kenny Puri (drums). If you haven’t heard it already, enjoy their biggest hit, ‘Dooba Dooba’ here. SilkAir began as Tradewinds Charters in 1975, before ceasing its independent operations in 2021, finalising its merger with Singapore Airlines.
Three: One of the highlights of the Democratic National Convention was a panel of leading women politicians. Which woman—with “vast experience in high office”—moderated this discussion?
Answer: Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Actor, producer, and activist Julia Louis-Dreyfus hosted a roundtable with Democratic female governors at the Democratic National Convention, highlighting the role of women in state leadership. She holds the record for the most Emmy wins for the same role, Vice President Selina Meyer for the HBO show ‘Veep’. You can watch the full discussion here.
And the super quizzers for August are…
How we picked winners: This month, we continue our new system which involves a lucky draw among those with the most correct answers. You can see the lucky draw below:
Here is the leaderboard at the end of August. Congratulations to the lucky three for acing the splainer quiz! We will be emailing you soon with details of your prize—a quarterly splainer sub!
