QUESTION 1: It is not uncommon for the Indian government to recognise foreign nationals (who
build partnerships with India in their country or work in India) with civilian awards. However, the bestowal of a Padma award has been objected to by some Indian organisations with sizeable following. Name the person, nationality, the Padma award and how such organisations would be classified by the media.

QUESTION 2: Name the ancient Indian text which dealt with the science of aeroplanes.

QUESTION 3: Connect Agra and Sasaram.

QUESTION 4: Which Indian connects Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the 52nd Oscar(R) awards
ceremony (1979)?

QUESTION 5: Protima Bedi dropped the suffix "Bedi" from her name and instead chose the suffix
"Gauri." Why?

QUESTION 6: Link Chandigarh to the planning of the cities of Washington, D.C., Chicago, Cleveland,
Montreal, Denver, and Madison, Wisconsin.

QUESTION 7: Arun Shourie found fault with Rajiv Gandhi the first time he did this. The second time
Rajiv Gandhi did this, Shourie's column became more stringent and much of the media debated joined the issue debating the pros and cons. Rajiv gandhi never did this after the second time as long as he was the PM. However, when Atal Bihari Vajpayee did this, there was no protest by Shourie probably because he was in Vajpayee's cabinet. Unlike in Rajiv Gandhi's time where media entered into debates, this time round, it just covered "Vajpayee doing this" as a news item. What was the "this" the two prime ministers did?

QUESTION 8: Which suburb of Mumbai had its own Municipal Committee before it was absorbed
by the Bombay Municipal Corporation?

QUESTION 9: This company owns the studio that produced King Kong recently. What was the first
major contribution/project of this company in India. When?

QUESTION 10: His name can be abbreviated to two alphabets (Mr. X. Y.). Mr. X. Y. is a popular
movie actor but he started off his career in another language. He wanted his screen name to be X. Y. Rama Rao in his first movie, to show his respect for N. T. Rama Rao. However, the director of the movie dissuaded him from doing so and his name appeared in the credits as his true name itself, i.e. the expanded form of X. Y. Who is this person and who is the director of his first film??

QUESTION 11: Name 3 Beatles songs that use the sitar.

QUESTION 12: This piece of architecture located in the Himalayas is the 'X'-est 'Y' in the world. Its
name is derived from the general name for such 'Y's. Name X and Y and the name of the piece of architecture.

QUESTION 13: A is a strange B phenomenon that has had a big socio-political impact in the past;
so much so that in anticipation of its recurrence, C, a very important organisation, has been pressed into service in that region to perform an unusual task. Find A, B, and C.

QUESTION 14: This 2-time Member of Parliament exposed a scam in insurance companies that
led to the resignation of a finance minister in one of Jawaharlal Nehru's cabinets. Identify this MP.

QUESTION 15: Town 1 (North India): contains erstwhile homes to Lord Kitchener and
Maharaja of Patiala. Town 2 (South India): Has been host to following personalities: Winston Churchill, Queen Elizabeth, Sardar Patel. Connect both.

QUESTION 16: Connect Aparna Sen and Indian Tobacco Company.

QUESTION 17: Connect the best performance of Dhyan Chand with the worst performance of
Indian football team.

QUESTION 18: Name the first newspaper in India, and the year. Raja Rammohan Roy started 3
papers for spreading the cause of social reform. Name them and the languages they were published in. Which famous leader (male) edited which paper, which was the first political paper started in 1851?

QUESTION 19: This organisation developed a software named after the game that arguably
originated in India. Besides Indians, name atleast two other nationalities that work/can work for the organisation.

QUESTION 20: Being called the best by the best is probably more important than the the Filmfare
awards. Lata Mangeshkar calls her the face she could sing for. Dev Anand identified her as the actress you could carry out an intelligent conversation with. Sadhana called her as her idol. She has incidentally won a large number of those Filmfare awards as well. Daughter of a director father and an actress mother, acting was always her destiny. She started her career as actress as a 14 year old in a movie which also was the debut movie of her sister (who is also a famous actress of the yesteryears). Her facial expressions were her greatest assets. She can be called Audrey Hepburn of Indian Cinema. Her son is also an actor. She passed away in the early nineties at the age of 54 due to cancer. Name her.

QUESTION 21: When Parikshit, the son of Arjuna, died after being bitten by a snake, his son
Janamejaya conducted a sarpasatra - a yagna intended to kill all the snakes in the world. But before he could complete it, he had to stop it at the request of a sage. What is common between the father of this sage and Navjot Sidhu.

QUESTION 22: Add:

• The number of states that share a border with Sikkim
• The number of sons of Kuntidevi that fought in the Mahabharata
• The number of consecutive months that Kumbhakarna would sleep before waking
• The number of members in Akbar's navaratana at any given time
• and the number of CCA A-1 cities in India

QUESTION 23: Vande Mataram was made the National Song rather than the National Anthem to
accommodate the feelings of the Muslim community. What were the two major objections from that community for making this the national anthem?

QUESTION 24: Add the years of the Battle of Panipats, the birth year of the creator of the quadratic
formula, and number of letters in the name of the largest slum in India.

QUESTION 25: This is claimed to be the oldest of its kind in Asia. It is highly unlikely that it is, but it
certainly is the oldest in South Asia. What is it, where is it, and how old?