Mindgames ed. 9

In which I scour Open and other news sources for questions based ONLY on recent events.

Q1. The large birds lift and point their bottoms towards the SUN, making their bright white tail feathers more conspicuous. Without resorting like ‘stupids’ to Google, can you name the bird? Clue: IN CAPS

Q2. Originally, I lacked any flavour and was made for what I am called. It took almost 20 years for this to change. What am I called?

Q3. Why were the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremonies held indoors? Incidentally, they were the first ever to be shunted in.

Q4. Still on the subject of the five-ringed ones, Olympic gold medals are made out of?

Q5. Roman being, the toast of Germany. Who and what are in hiding in the question?

Q6. Name the strip and the cartoonist.

Q7. A rare animal was spotted in the Himalayas recently. Clue: Spotted in the Himalayas.

Q8. India’s most famous ‘quality temple’ is in south India. Name it.

Q9. Like Phoolan Devi. Unlike Phoolan Devi. (Anagram) ‘Jai Grey Kasab’ (6, 6)

Q10. Last week’s award for ‘idiotic behaviour’ goes to him. Clue: Flip-flop

Your first task in this round is to identify the person/thing shown in the picture. Then, connect a, b and c to another well-known person, your final answer. All three ‘connections’ have to be explained for an entry to qualify as a ‘final answer’. Note: The picture clue a) is not the final solution.

a) Clue: Perfect

b) Black Water

c) Tsunami hit

Q: Who or what is connected to A, B and C?

Solutions to Mindgames 8 and the winner/s: Eight completed editions of Mindgames and we finally have a winner. Anand Kadkol, take a bow. (You’ll be contacted by Open shortly. If you’re not, please contact me.) You’ve won yourself a six-month subscription to Open magazine. Congratulations, Anand. And thanks for playing, everyone. Do keep playing.

A1. Like the Rainman. Not like the Rainman? ‘My name is Khan’ is the name of the movie I was alluding to, in which Shah Rukh Khan is a victim of Asperger’s Syndrome.

A2. Don’t step on it until we fix it, said this company, for once, in the news for the wrong reasons. Toyota Corp. in the news for its massive vehicle recall owing to faulty accelerator pedals.

A3. ______ will take a bite out of Apple (4). Adam Tablet PC from Notions Inc. A little Hyderabad-based IT company. Way to go, guys!

A4. 1969, 1971, 1972 … (Name the big prize.) The Man Booker Prize. 1970 being the Lost Year for the Booker as the organisers changed the mode of the award (shifted from awarding books published in the previous year to books published in the same year)

A5. His business empire is estimated to be worth nearly Rs. 500 crores a day. Nowadays, though, he makes only Rs. 21/day as a semi-skilled. Who and where? The owner of Haldiram, Prabhu Shankar Agarwal who is now incarcerated in Alipore Central Jail and working as a semi-skilled manual labourer tending to the prison gardens.

A6. “Is this what he gets for ending a 30-year war?” Is this what who gets? Gen. (Retd.) Sarath Fonseka, who stamped out the LTTE; alleged to be roughed up, arrested and treated like a ‘dog’ by the Sri Lankan President. (His wife asked the question.)

A7. Name the cartoonist? The superlative Keshav in The Hindu. (See, the little ‘k’ and a part of an ‘e’ in the bottom right corner?)

A8. Black for the eyes and brown-skinned. Name the actor. Clue: Question 1. Answer: The Indian word ‘Kajol’ is the Indian word for ‘kohl’. Kajol is also one of India’s top actors and the leading lady in ‘My Name is Khan.’ (Hence, the clue.) She is dusky and very, very, very beautiful.

A9. ‘Bombay’ for ‘Pune’. ‘Bombay’ was the official name for ‘Mumbai’. And ‘Poona’ for ‘Pune’. (I would have also accepted ‘Mumbai’ as an answer.)

A10. Red Queen, Mani Ratnam, Boys. Please connect. (And please don’t say ‘movies’.) Siddharth. Protagonist of the film ‘Striker’ (Red Queen/Carrom). He started out as assistant to Mani Ratnam and also acted in the Tamil film ‘Boys.’

a) Bofors 155mm Howitzer gun ties in with The Bachchan family because their names were mentioned in connection with the kickbacks-ridden, scandal surrounded gun deal.

b) Amar Singh and Jaya Bachchan are both members of the Samajwadi Party.

c) Narendra Modi? Amitabh Bachchan has just been appointed Brand Ambassador of Narendra Modi’s state of Gujarat by the ‘monarch’ of Gujarat, Narendra Modi.

Final answer: The Bachchans or Amitabh Bachchan

In which I scour Open and other news sources for questions based ONLY on recent events.

Q1. The large birds lift and point their bottoms towards the SUN, making their bright white tail feathers more conspicuous. Without resorting like ‘stupids’ to Google, can you name the bird? Clue: IN CAPS

Q2. Originally, I lacked any flavour and was made for what I am called. It took almost 20 years for this to change. What am I called?

Q3. Why were the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremonies held indoors? Incidentally, they were the first ever to be shunted in.

Q4. Still on the subject of the five-ringed ones, Olympic gold medals are made out of?

Q5. Roman being, the toast of Germany. Who and what are in hiding in the question?

Q6. Name the strip and the cartoonist.

Q7. A rare animal was spotted in the Himalayas recently. Clue: Spotted in the Himalayas.

Q8. India’s most famous ‘quality temple’ is in south India. Name it.

Q9. Like Phoolan Devi. Unlike Phoolan Devi. (Anagram) ‘Jai Grey Kasab’ (6, 6)

Q10. Last week’s award for ‘idiotic behaviour’ goes to him. Clue: Flip-flop

Your first task in this round is to identify the person/thing shown in the picture. Then, connect a, b and c to another well-known person, your final answer. All three ‘connections’ have to be explained for an entry to qualify as a ‘final answer’. Note: The picture clue a) is not the final solution.

a) Clue: Perfect

b) Black Water

c) Tsunami hit

Q: Who or what is connected to A, B and C?

Solutions to Mindgames 8 and the winner/s: Eight completed editions of Mindgames and we finally have a winner. Anand Kadkol, take a bow. (You’ll be contacted by Open shortly. If you’re not, please contact me.) You’ve won yourself a six-month subscription to Open magazine. Congratulations, Anand. And thanks for playing, everyone. Do keep playing.

A1. Like the Rainman. Not like the Rainman? ‘My name is Khan’ is the name of the movie I was alluding to, in which Shah Rukh Khan is a victim of Asperger’s Syndrome.

A2. Don’t step on it until we fix it, said this company, for once, in the news for the wrong reasons. Toyota Corp. in the news for its massive vehicle recall owing to faulty accelerator pedals.

A3. ______ will take a bite out of Apple (4). Adam Tablet PC from Notions Inc. A little Hyderabad-based IT company. Way to go, guys!

A4. 1969, 1971, 1972 … (Name the big prize.) The Man Booker Prize. 1970 being the Lost Year for the Booker as the organisers changed the mode of the award (shifted from awarding books published in the previous year to books published in the same year)

A5. His business empire is estimated to be worth nearly Rs. 500 crores a day. Nowadays, though, he makes only Rs. 21/day as a semi-skilled. Who and where? The owner of Haldiram, Prabhu Shankar Agarwal who is now incarcerated in Alipore Central Jail and working as a semi-skilled manual labourer tending to the prison gardens.

A6. “Is this what he gets for ending a 30-year war?” Is this what who gets? Gen. (Retd.) Sarath Fonseka, who stamped out the LTTE; alleged to be roughed up, arrested and treated like a ‘dog’ by the Sri Lankan President. (His wife asked the question.)

A7. Name the cartoonist? The superlative Keshav in The Hindu. (See, the little ‘k’ and a part of an ‘e’ in the bottom right corner?)

A8. Black for the eyes and brown-skinned. Name the actor. Clue: Question 1. Answer: The Indian word ‘Kajol’ is the Indian word for ‘kohl’. Kajol is also one of India’s top actors and the leading lady in ‘My Name is Khan.’ (Hence, the clue.) She is dusky and very, very, very beautiful.

A9. ‘Bombay’ for ‘Pune’. ‘Bombay’ was the official name for ‘Mumbai’. And ‘Poona’ for ‘Pune’. (I would have also accepted ‘Mumbai’ as an answer.)

A10. Red Queen, Mani Ratnam, Boys. Please connect. (And please don’t say ‘movies’.) Siddharth. Protagonist of the film ‘Striker’ (Red Queen/Carrom). He started out as assistant to Mani Ratnam and also acted in the Tamil film ‘Boys.’

a) Bofors 155mm Howitzer gun ties in with The Bachchan family because their names were mentioned in connection with the kickbacks-ridden, scandal surrounded gun deal.

b) Amar Singh and Jaya Bachchan are both members of the Samajwadi Party.

c) Narendra Modi? Amitabh Bachchan has just been appointed Brand Ambassador of Narendra Modi’s state of Gujarat by the ‘monarch’ of Gujarat, Narendra Modi.

Final answer: The Bachchans or Amitabh Bachchan

About The Author

Avinash Subramaniam