1. This entity began operations on April 1, 1935, with 100 shares owned by private shareholders and was later nationalised in 1949. In 1947 and 1948 it also operated (playing the same role) in Burma and Pakistan. The emblem is a Panther and a Palm tree, inspired from a British mohur gold coin. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the only person to have led this institution and entering politics after that. Which vital institution is this?
2. On April 1, 1946, this place became a separate Crown Colony and in 1959 became self-governing. It gets its name from an animal that was allegedly spotted by a prince, although this animal has never existed in this land. Only its striped cousin is a native here. The place holds two nocturnal records: having the first ever night safari in the world and hosting the first ever night F1 race. Which tourist-friendly place is this?
3. On April 1, 1778, Oliver Pollock, a New Orleans businessman, created this symbol. At that time America was a British colony in revolt, so the preferred currency was the Spanish peso, commonly obtained through illicit trade. Pollock was Irish, and believed that fighting Britain was his duty and so donated a huge amount to the Americans. He kept a record of his transactions and in those ledgers he wrote down the ‘peso’ as ‘ps’. Because he tended to run the letters together they appeared to look like something else. The origin of which symbol is attributed to Pollock?
4. The first disc record changer that was produced was the Automatic Change Gramophone, which was released on April 1, 1927, by an English company. This machine was the assembly-line-type, meaning that each record on this type of changer went through a series of moves, as though it were on an assembly line. The company gets its name from a painting by Francis Barraud of a Terrier called Nipper. It features Nipper intently listening to a wind-up Edison-Bell cylinder phonograph. Nipper was a male dog, so what is the name of the gramophone company?
5. Edgar Wallace was an English writer who was a war correspondent for Reuters during the Second Boer War and then covered crime for the Mail in London. He claimed to be the first reporter to notice that when a jury comes into court to return a guilty verdict, they never look at the prisoner in the dock. Merian Copper, a movie producer, called Wallace to Hollywood and asked him to write a screenplay for a movie under the pretext that it would be billed as ‘Based on the novel by Edgar Wallace’. It was called The Beast . Wallace, however, died before he could finish it. The movie was eventually made but only very few scenes from the draft were used, such as a memorable one featuring the Empire State Building. What movie is this named after the protagonist?
6. This free advertising-supported service was launched on April 1, 2004. It was the first app on Google Play Store to hit one billion installations and currently has 1.2 billion active users. Initially launched with 1GB of storage (which far outdid the competition at that time), it currently offers 15GB of free storage. What is this service that is estimated to service 94% of the internet population?
7. Nutopia is a conceptual country founded on April 1, 1973, by a musician and his wife as a response to the immigration troubles they were having in the U.S. According to them, “NUTOPIA has no land, no boundaries, no passports, only people”; their flag is just white, their anthem is four seconds of silence and the official seal is a picture of the marine animal — a seal. The official declaration states that the country lives up to the ideals of a song written by the founder which goes ‘I hope someday you’ll join us, And the world will be as one.’ Who are the founders of Nutopia?
8. On April 1, 1973, this project was launched by the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. Its main objective was to save an endangered animal from illegal hunting and to increase its population and save it from extinction. At the turn of the century there were around 35,000 of these animals in the wild. In 2006, there was an estimated 1,411 of them. In 2011, it had increased to 2,500 and hopefully has continued to do so. Which animal is this project helping survive?
9. The International ____ Book Festival is an annual event usually held on April 1. It is held to commemorate “the birthday of French gastronome Jean Brillat-Savarin (1755–1826), famous for his book Physiologie du goût , a witty meditation on food” and is “the perfect day to eat your words.” Fill in the blanks with an adjective you might not normally associate with books.
10. On April 1, 1948, a paper was published on the Big Bang and the elements created in it. The first author was Ralph Alpher and his advisor was George Gamow. Just for fun they added physicist Hans Bethe along as second author after Ralph Alpher. Due to this by what three letters is this paper referred to?
Answers
1. The Reserve Bank of India
2. Singapore
3. The Dollar sign — $
4. HMV — His Master’s Voice
5. King Kong
6. GMAIL
7. John Lennon and Yoko Ono
8. Project Tiger
9. Edible Book Festival
10. α, β, and γ (alpha, beta, gamma)
A molecular biologist from Madurai, our quizmaster enjoys trivia and music, and is working on a rock ballad called ‘Coffee is a Drink, Kaapi is an Emotion’. @bertyashley
