India Unplugged 2009

Set II Questions

By

Malcaluffin

1

• The Government of India honors the achievers in the field of Adventure Sports by constituting the National Adventure Awards.

• The Award consists of a bronze statuette, a scroll of honour, a blazer with a silken tie/a saree and cash award of Rs. 3,00,000/- or the same amount as for Arjuna Award for that particular year.

• This award has been named after a legendary mountaineer who passed away in 1986.

• Identify.

2

• Connect (exhaustive)

3

• The Jacobin Club was the largest and most powerful political club of the French Revolution. It originated as the Club Benthorn, formed at Versailles as a group of Breton deputies to the Estates General of 1789. Among its early members were the dominating Mirabeau, Parisian deputy Abbé Sieyès, Dauphiné deputy Antoine Barnave, Jérôme Pétion, the Abbé Grégoire, Charles Lameth, Alexandre Lameth, Robespierre, the duc d'Aiguillon, and La Revellière-Lépeaux.

• At this time its meetings occurred in secret and few traces remain of what took place at them, or where they were convened.

• A contemporary Indian ruler was also among its ranks.

• Identify.

4

• Identify the artist who depicts several traditional styles of draping the sari in this painting.

5

• If the lady below was the second one, who was the first?

6

• Connect

7

• Identify these winners of the 5th World Carrom Championship held at Cannes, last year, who made India proud.

8

• If your flight lands in Birsa Munda Airport, in which city would you be in?

9

• ______ ______ was an Indian Astronomer and President of the International Astronomical Union.

• The ______ ______ Observatory in Kavalur (Tamil Nadu) is named after him. This houses the ______ ______ Telescope which, according to the Indian Institute of Astrophysics is the largest in Asia.

• This telescope is associated with two unique discoveries in the solar system. In the year 1972, atmosphere was detected around Jupiter's satellite Ganymede and in 1977 rings were discovered around the planet Uranus. In 1984, the observatory reported the discovery of a thin outer ring around Saturn.

• Who is he? (all blanks refer to the same name)

10

• The motto of which organisation is “atmano mokshartam jagat hitaya cha”, meaning “For ones own liberation, and for the welfare of the world”

10a

• “The wavy waters in the picture are symbolic of Karma; the lotus, of Bhakti; and the rising-sun, of Jnana. The encircling serpent is indicative of Yoga and the awakened Kundalini Shakti, while the swan in the picture stands for Paramatman (Supreme Self). Therefore, the idea of the picture is that by the union of Karma, Jnana, Bhakti and Yoga, the vision of Paramatman is obtained.”

• What is being described here?

11

• This member of the sighthound family was the favoured hound for Maharajah’s in Northern India for jackal control. It was even used to hunt lions, tigers, leopards and panthers.

• HRH Ahmed Ali Khan Bahadur bred these dogs by combining the blood lines of very powerful but ferocious Tazi, brought in by the Afghans, and the English Greyhound that was more obedient but less resistant to the varying climatic conditions.

• With the decline in hunting in India the dog's popularity plummeted. It was no longer fashionable or practical for the rich to keep them, while the poorer population simply could not afford to keep them. In recent years, however, its popularity has risen, and along with this, the breed's numbers. This remarkable breed balances on the fine line of extinction. Outside of India, only a handful are known and registered, and are all located in the United States of America, in state of New Jersey.

• Which breed of dog is referred to here?

12

• He was a celebrated painter of modern India. He became the Principal of the Kala Bhavan (Art Department) at Shanti Niketan in 1922. The Vishwabharathi University conferred him the title of “Deshikottamma”

• At the behest of Pandit Nehru he designed the emblems for the Bharat Ratna, Padma Vibhushan Padma Bhushan and Padma Shree.

• He received the Padma Vibhushan in 1954• Who is being referred to?

13

• Where in India, would you find, of all kinds of museums, one entirely dedicated to different kinds toilets?

14

• One of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in India located in Madhya Pradesh, these rock shelters house the earliest traces of human life in India; its Stone Age rock paintings are approximately 9000 years old.

• Its name comes from the mythological association of the place with Bhima, from the epic Mahabharatha.

• The caves have evolved over time into excellent rock-shelters, ideal sites for aboriginal settlements. The smooth shape of the rocks has led some scientists to believe that the area was once under water. The rocks have taken on incredible shapes in several stunning hues and textures. Apart from the central place the aboriginal drawings have in human history, the caves themselves offer interesting material for a study of the earth's history.

• Which is this heritage structure?

15

• An authoritative book about a powerful predator that is today threatened by plain human greed, the author even went on to opine that this may be his ‘last book’ on the troubled tiger population in our country.

• Name the author of this book

16

• Name this weapon, which is now the standard assault rifle of the Indian Armed Forces, manutactured by the Indian State Ordnance Factory Board, Ishapore.

17

• He was not only a good orator but also a prolific and versatile writer. His journal Arya Gazette concentrated mainly on subjects related to the Arya Samaj. Bande Mataram and People, contained his inspiring speeches to end oppression by the foreign rulers. He founded the “Servants of the People Society”, which worked for the freedom movement as well as for social reform in the country. He also wrote an autobiography in English titled “The Story of My Life”.

• He presided over the first session of the All India Trade Union Congress in 1920. In 1923, he became a member of the Imperial Legislative Assembly. He also went to Geneva to attend the eighth International Labour Conference in 1926 as a representative of Indian labour.

• Which great freedom fighter is being referred to?

18

• It means “bamboo death” in the Mizo language. This is a cyclic ecological phenomenon that occurs every 48 years in the northeastern states of Mizoram & Manipur which are 30% covered by wild bamboo forests. At this time, Melocanna baccifera, a species of bamboo, flowers at one time across a wide range, followed invariably by a plague of bandicoot rats, which multiply in response to the temporary windfall of seeds; they subsequently turn to forage on stored grain, which in turn causes devastating famine.

• The most recent outbreak of this “bamboo death” occurred in 2006.

• Name this phenomenon.

Thank you!!