Question Ably - 30: Answer

The connect is Leander Adrian Paes. He partnered these ladies to win his six mixed doubles titles. For those interested in a little more gyan:

Wimbledon (1999) with Lisa Raymond
Australian Open and Wimbledon (2003) with Martina
US Open (2008), Australian Open (2010) and Wimbledon (2010) with Cara Black

As you may have noticed I'm on first name terms with Martina. 

Question Ably - 30

Lisa Raymond, Martina Navratilova and Cara Black: Please give a very specific connect between these tennis players

Question Ably - 29: Answer

Parle and Parle-G it is.

Question Ably - 29

Back to back questions on business.

This Indian company is family owned. It started operations in 1929. The chairman says they're interested neither in selling off, nor in buying any more businesses, nor in going public. Such 'conservatism' hasn't stopped the company from becoming a Rs.10,000 crore business. The product it makes measures 53 mm and is reputedly the world's largest selling single brand, selling 15 billion units a month.

Brand and product please.

Question Ably - 28: Answer

Skoda Auto and Volkswagen are the two brands. Skoda Auto was hived off from Skoda Works.  I found a nice picture of what look like gun turrets being made at Skoda Works.

Question Ably - 28

For many decades this brand was associated with the largest industrial works in Eastern Europe, mostly manufacturing a wide array of armaments. During the inter-war years when Churchill was impressing upon his government about the impending Hitlerite threat, he specifically mentioned this industrial plant as a key strategic element which the British would give up if they allowed Nazi Germany to acquire the country in which it was situated.

After the Second World War when the Communists took over the country, they nationalized this factory and dismembered into various specialist plants.

Today this brand is associated, at least in India, with something completely different from munitions. Somewhat ironically, another famous brand from what was once the aggressor-country now owns the brand we're talking about.

Which brand?

Question Ably - 27

Abraham Lincoln had engaged their services. Dashiel Hammett was employed with them. They were used to break labour union strikes. They even featured in the iconic movie 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'. At the height of their power, their employees were said to number more than the standing army of the US. Their influence was so pervasive and pernicious that a law was passed prohibiting the federal government from employing them and their ilk. Which organisation?

Question Ably - 26: Answer

(Courtesy: Wikipedia)

Sir Charles van Dyck or van Dyke (1599 - 1641) is the painter. Though a Dutchman, he became the court painter in England. He is known for his paintings of King Charles I, which is why the beard style is also known as 'Charlie'.

van Dyke has other things named after him.

Van Dyke Brown is an early photographic printing process named as such because the brown colour obtained by using the process resembled the brown oil paint used by the painter.

A Van Dyke suit is a velvet suit worn by young men in the late 19th and early 20th centuries (don't ask for further details, Wiki hasn't any). 

Question Ably - 26

A goatee is a tuft of facial hair on the chin, with the cheeks shaven clean. The style is named after the similar growth of chin hair on goats. Of course, the difference is that goats have no choice in the matter.

Sometimes, a related style of facial hair is mistakenly called a goatee. This style differs from the goatee in that it combines a mustache with the typical goatee. The style is named after a celebrated painter of the 17th century. He wore one himself. He also painted a king of England with it and therefore, the style is sometimes nicknamed after the king.

Identify the painter and you have identified the style.

Out of the question!

These days, the quiz bug has bitten me and a few friends. With lunch, we also chew up year after year of the Karnataka Quiz Association's (KQA) 'Mahaquizzer' question banks. Which takes me back to the times when I did a decent amount of quizzing.


I was in Std VIII when somebody sponsored this quiz in Chowdiah Memorial Hall. Every school could send as many teams of two as it wanted. My school sent 24. Yes, that's right. 24 teams. 48 students. With yours truly at the helm. Unbelievably, none of the 24 entered the final round; we were all eliminated in the written prelims. After this hiding, the feeble hearted gave up seeking answers to even existentialist questions like 'What's your name?'.


Some of us quizzed on undettered, even giving our teams fancy names. Two of my friends and I set the stage on fire during the prelims of the Std X inter-class event with the name 'Thunderboys'. In the finals, before we knew what was happening, we were bringing up the rear, prompting an unprecedented, mid-event change of team name to 'Blunderboys'.

When I walked into my first quiz event in the National Law School, Bangalore, as a member of the audience, I heard questions like, 'What do you call the plastic-protected tip of a shoelace?', 'What is the name of the canal connecting the nose to the upper lip?' and so on. After that, I thought it wise to forage for glory elsewhere and did not quiz even once in Law School while I was there.

It was safer to quiz in Sasken. In 2002, we were right at the top till the rapid-fire round, at which point we lost our wits and with them, the first place. I remember that quiz for the most innovatively named teams. The one that got the prize was called 'Quizbul Mujahideen'. Come to think of it, with a name like that, they could not have had much competition coming their way.

I am sure one of the most looked-forward-to events in quizzing these days is KQA's 'Mahaquizzer', the solo written quiz held simultaneously in several cities. If getting 'Mahaquizzer' is not easy, not to worry. The interesting questions give you a good enough kick. This time, the event is to be held simultaneously in ten cities, Guwahati being the latest addition to the venues. The tentative date is May 24. For all the 'Mahaquizzer' papers from 2005 to 2008, visit http://members.tripod.com/~asimha/.