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 second week of June.
One: Name the unlikely e-sport award being flaunted by the champion below.
Two: Piece together these clues to arrive at a literary bestseller.
a) Pulled from a vintage Swiss watch ad
b) Head of state without his famous headgear
c) OG sniper
Three: What creation of this artist has become a new luxury phenomenon?
About last week’s quiz…
Here are the answers to the previous edition of the splainer quiz:
One: Name the ensemble cast of this 1960s TV series that went on to birth a blockbuster franchise three decades later? 
Answer: Mission Impossible
The Mission: Impossible films are inspired by the hit 1960s TV series of the same name, created by Bruce Geller. The original show ran from 1966 to 1973, with a two-season reboot in 1988. Led by the cool-headed Jim Phelps (played by Peter Graves), the series was all about high-stakes espionage, clever disguises, and self-destructing messages. Since 1996, the film franchise has evolved with each installment, with Tom Cruise turning Ethan Hunt into a legendary figure doing real stunts, racing through iconic cities like Prague, Rome, and Abu Dhabi, and adding heart to the chaos. As the eighth and possibly last chapter (?), ‘The Final Reckoning’ was released in May, it's a good time to revisit why The Guardian calls it the “best franchise in Hollywood.”
Two: One film premiered to global acclaim just last month, and the other is an adaptation of a Shakespeare play. Who/What connects the two?
Answer: Basharat Peer. (The two films are ‘Homebound’ and ‘Haider’)
In March 2020, as International Opinion Editor at New York Times, writer and journalist Basharat Peer came across an image: a Muslim man, Mohammad Saiyub, cradling his Hindu friend, Amrit Kumar, during their 1500-km walk home during India’s lockdown. This moment of solidarity inspired Peer’s poignant NYT op-ed, ‘A Friendship, a Pandemic and a Death Beside the Highway’. That story now forms the heart of ‘Homebound’—Neeraj Ghaywan’s latest film, which premiered at Cannes 2025 in the Un Certain Regard section, earning a nine-minute standing ovation. Over a decade ago, Peer’s acclaimed memoir ‘Curfewed Night’, an account of growing up in conflict-torn Kashmir, was reimagined on screen as ‘Haider’ by director Vishal Bhardwaj.
Set in the 1990s, ‘Haider’ drew heavily from Peer’s personal experiences during a time when violence, disappearances, and the weight of AFSPA shaped everyday life in the Valley. In an interview with The Hindu, Peer says, “With Haider, I adapted Hamlet and co-wrote the screenplay with Vishal Bhardwaj. In Homebound, Neeraj and his team of writers adapted my story.”
Three: Double up a Dickensian novel title to arrive at the starry life story of this person. What is the title and who is the person? (5+5)
Answer: ‘My Tale of Four Cities’ and Dr. Jayant Narlikar. The Dickensian novel in question was his 1859 work, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’.
Dr. Jayant Narlikar, one of India’s most respected astrophysicists and science communicators, passed away in Pune last month. A pioneer in cosmology, Dr. Narlikar’s career spanned over six decades. He co-founded the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) in Pune, a world-class research hub that continues to nurture new generations of scientists. Deeply committed to bringing science to the public, Narlikar gave hundreds of lectures and authored widely-read books in both English and Marathi. His autobiography, ‘My Tale of Four Cities’, based on the original Marathi ‘Chaar Nagrantale Majhe Vishwa’, won the Sahitya Akademi Award The “four cities” of the title, Banaras, Cambridge, Bombay, and Poona, were the places where he spent most of his life, each shaping different parts of his journey.
And the winners are…
Here are the top five scorers for the second week of June. Congratulations!
