Saarang Travel and Living Quiz 2017- Finals with Answers

Travel and Living Quiz
Saarang 2017
Varun Murthy
Gokul Nair

Question 1
In October 2016, Mexico City saw an increase in the number of visitors due to an
event which it hoped would become an annual occurrence. Taking cues from
similar events in Brazil and Italy, and borrowing props from a fictional 2015
depiction of the same name, the organizers hoped that the event would come to
be well loved.
However, not all residents of Mexico share this view. Some are calling the
organizers’ efforts an attempt to divert attention from the many problems plaguing
the country and the latest in a series of populist measures such as opening up
beaches and ice rinks in the national capital.
What is the event being talked about? What fictional occurrence from 2015 acts as
the creative inspiration for the event?

Answer
Day of the Dead Parade
Spectre

Question 2
Ambrosoli al Miele is a product not commonly available in British stores. Made by a
company based in Ronago, north of Milan and on the border with Switzerland, the
product is sure to receive a boost in popularity thanks to a rather vocal proponent
who recently made the switch to Britain and considers Ambrosoli al Miele an
integral part of his approach.
What exactly is Ambrosoli al Miele? Who brought it into the limelight in October
2016?

Answer
Throat lozenges
Antonio Conte

Question 3
X is a type of flatbread common in eastern parts of the country. Similar to the puri,
the main difference comes in the ingredient – puris are made with atta while X are
made with maida. They are typically served with a spicy potato gravy (aloo dum) or
with a cholar dal made with channa dal.
What is X?

Question 4
For those familiar with the dynamics of the Bombay property market, Juhu is where
the rich and famous and movie stars live. Writing in early October 2016, Vir Sanghvi
credits the move of one particular individual into the neighbourhood with
“quadrupling property prices” and making living by the beach fashionable in India.
Which early adopter of the jet-setting elite, often credited as India’s first fashion
designer (among other things) is Sanghvi talking about here?

Question 6
Jennifer Reut is a historian whose work on the notes behind a certain series of guidebooks
has thrown up interesting insights into the American city and the forces of urban renewal
and gentrification active in them. Titled “Mapping the Green Book”, her project tracks
individual establishments referenced in that and documenting the changes since then.
The Green Book itself was first published in 1936. Over the years, it grew from covering
towns along the iconic Route 66 into including overseas listings in countries like Panama
and Mexico. It came at a time when rising income levels had made the automobile more
accessible but social mobility was still limited. Writing in the preface to the 1949 edition of
the book, Green says “There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will
not have to be published”. It eventually stopped being published in the 1960s.
What were the listings in the Green Book?

Answer
List of establishments that would serve African-Americans. The full
name of the Green Book is “Negro Motorist Green Book”

Question 7
“Skhina”, literally meaning hot in Arabic, is a Jewish Moroccan dish with eggs, beef,
chickpeas, rice, potatoes, wheat, bulghur, or anything else that was readily
available. The meat and the vegetables would be thrown into a pot, with rice and
bulghur kept in muslin bags and thrown in with the meat so that they drain the
flavour from the other ingredients. The distinctive pot also lends its name to the
common name for the dish dafina. Similar dishes can be found in multiple places.
The salient feature of the dish, though, comes from it’s long preparation time.
Traditionally slow-cooked in a wood-fired stove, the dish may take over a day to
cook depending on the cut of meat used.
When is skhina most likely to be made?

Answer
On Fridays, because they aren’t allowed to work on the Sabbath

Question 8
This two-word term comes from the colonial era. Originally used by
hunters to denote the relative difficulty of hunting game on foot, it is
now used extensively by brochures and tourist guides in Africa. A total
of 11 countries can claim to have this distinction.
Give me the term.

Answer
Big Five – African elephants, lions, and leopards; Cape Buffalos and
rhinoceros

Question 9
Barclay and Stenner are a duo purveying “bespoke private safari expeditions” in
Botswana. Some of the overindulgent ways in which they treat their guests is
through personally accompanying their guests on safari, and providing mobile
luxury safaris with “family silverware, Persian carpets and fine dining under the
stars (that) will make sure you do not miss home’s creature comforts.”
The camp and all it’s creature comforts were first shown to a wide audience in
2015, and the party which did it included the son of a famous Hollywood celebrity.
Why did the company gain prominence/ Who was the celebrity involved in this?

Answer
They were engaged during the shooting of the Wildest Dream video by Taylor Swift,
with all the proceeds from the video going towards African Parks Foundation of
America.
The celebrity mentioned is Clint Eastwood and his son is Scott Eastwood.

Question 10
The Wood Buffalo Brewing Company was in the process of brewing a batch of pale ale in
May 2016 when it had to abandon the warehouse and escape what would come to be
known as “The Beast”. When they came back after four weeks, they found the building to
have been moderately affected.
Of more concern to them was the condition of their beer. Most of the brews they had had
going were rendered useless by The Beast, but some of the millet which had been left out
took on “smoky notes, balanced with a sweet peat flavour to it and the campfire flavour
has brought through spruce and mint”. This is being used to make a batch of 200,
distinctive bottles which will be auctioned for charities helping local communities.
Where is the Wood Buffalo Brewing Company located? What is The Beast, which some
reports claim is still lurking underneath the original lands as far away as November 2016?

Answer
Fort McMurray
The Beast is the name given by firefighters to the forest fire that ravaged the town
in May 2016.

Question 11
Shown in the next slide is the Kyffhauser mountain monument , built after the death of
Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany. It stylistically recalls the statues and castles of 12th and 13th
century Germany
The monument also features a 6.5m tall statue of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick
Barbarossa. Notice his appearance in the statue shown in the next slide.
This is in direct reference to a local legend ,which is a common motif that can be seen in
various legends as well as works of literature , like Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien , The
Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan , The Call of Cthulu by H.P. lovecraft e.t.c.
What is the legend/motif and why was it considered appropriate to place the statue of
Kaiser Wilhelm at Kyffhauser ?

Answer
The motif is that of the sleeping king. Accept sleeping warriors/heroes /comatose
heroes and other variations on the same . (5)
As per the legend , Barbarossa was supposed to be sleeping there. It is said that
one day Barbarossa will wake up and bring glory to Germany. Keeping a just woken
up statue of Barbarossa under that of Kaiser Wilhelm in his glory , symbolises that
Wilhelm is the reincarnation of Barbarossa / the woken up Barbarossa who brought
Glory to Germany .

Question 12
X Matsuhisa is a rather unconventional sushi chef. After finishing off his training in
Japan, he moved to Peru and Alaska. Here he had to contend without having access
to many ingredients that he had taken for granted, resulting in him improvising and
delivering his food a unique taste.
In 1987, X started his own restaurant in Los Angeles to critical acclaim. It was here
that he attracted a clientele of the rich and famous, and he received his big break
when Robert de Niro invited him to setup his restaurant across the country in New
York. The pair have since become business partners, opening up restaurants and
hotels across the world under the name “X” and as “Matsuhisa’s”.
X even used his friendship with de Niro to score a guest appearance in Scorsese’s
1995 film Casino as a wealthy Japanese businessman.

Answer
Toblerone. The cartoon is a reference to the new shape of Toblerone
that is being sold in the UK since Brexit.

Question 14
Shown in the next slide is a map with the route of an iconic train
journey. It is consistently ranked among the best train journeys one can
take.

Question 15
“Look, this is where he would fling down the windows to address the crowds.
Thousands would turn out to adore him at every station”
“And all along the corridors there is opulence unchecked. The state compartments,
bathrooms, kitchens and sleeping areas are a riot of Sixties deco – all chrome and
veneer that might put to shame the skills of G-Plan’s finest.”
These are excerpts from an interview on the relaunch of the Blue Train that ran
between Belgrade and Bar in neighbouring Montenegro. Dignitaries ranging from
Jawahar Lal Nehru to Queen Elizabeth have made the journey at the favour of the
original commissioner of the train. Who?

Question 16
Shown on the following slide is the picture of the Deutsche Bank headquarters in
Frankfurt am Main. The towers rise up to a height of 155m. The twin towers are
often called by a two-word term that forms the basis of the banking and accounting
systems.
What is the term used?

Question 17
During the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly spoke of one of his projects and cited
it’s being “under budget, ahead of schedule, saved tremendous money” as proof of
his ability to make America great again. This, at a time when a 30-second spot in
the commercials cost anywhere between $120,000 and $300,000 during the
Presidential debates, meant it was getting airtime pretty much for free.
What is the beneficiary of this unpresidented bit of product placement?

Question 18
In August 2009, Tiffany’s and Co. brought on a tennis player as their new brand
ambassador and announced that a renowned architect would design a new
collection called Stria. The special group of earrings captures her natural grace and
gives customers and fans access to the Tiffany jewelry preferred by the then three-
time Grand Slam winner.
Speaking about the tennis player and the inspiration for his creations, the architect
said "I wanted to design earrings for X that were interesting yet light enough to
wear during play. It was a new idea inspired by corrugations, like a river or a
waterfall.“
Incidentally, the architect is renowned for his incorporation of the same elements
in one of his most famous works and is arguably the world’s first ‘starchitect’. ID
both.

Answer
Maria Sharapova
Frank Gehry

Question 19
In 1901, German tailor Ambrosius Hiltl got rheumatism which left him unable to
work at his occupation. However, he began following Maximillean Bircher-Benner’s
(who soon after came up with the idea for muesli) wondrous diet and found out
that it was actually helping him deal with his rheumatism.
Enthused by this, he tookover and turned around an ailing club in 1903 and set up a
restaurant called Hotel Hiltl in Zurich. The menu was soon expanded to offer
options from countries such as India and Thailand, and were an instant hit with the
Swiss crowd and even illustrious dignitaries such as Dr. Rajendra Prasad.
What first did he accomplish by doing so, a feat which you would intuitively
associate with an Indian establishment in the first place?

Answer
The oldest continuously running vegetarian restaurant in the world.

Question 20
WelectGo is an app that gives away free rides to commuters in Düsseldorf, in a bid to
popularise public transport. The rationale behind the app is that commuters will be given a
free ride in exchange for doing something we try to avoid on a daily basis, and that
commuters are so annoyed by having to perform the act that they just buy the ticket rather
than wait for the free ticket.
However, the app owners were not able to foresee the public appetite for something so
close to a free lunch. The economics behind the app were shown to be flawed pretty
quickly. Calculating that the average duration of each act is 80 seconds, and the payoff on
performing the act a cool $2.80, the average earnings of a commuter are close to $120 an
hour. The developers have been thinking of new ways to increase revenue streams,
including increasing the duration of the act itself.
How does one get a free ride using the app?

Answer
They have to watch a series of ads.

Question 21(4 slides)
The Greatest ________ inventions is a TV Miniseries in which people voted online
for what they think is their country’s best invention. The results were as shown on
the next slide .
ID the country(2). At number 10 and number 13 are a food and a cocktail
respectively. Their descriptions are on the following slides. Give me X (4)and Y(4)

Question 21
• Insulin
• Telephone
• Light Bulb
• Five-pin Bowling
• Wonderbra
• Artificial pacemaker
• Robertson Screw
• Zipper
• Electric Wheelchair
• X
• Cobalt 60 Cancer treatment
• Java programming language
• Y
• Shuttle Remote Manipulator System

X is a fast food dish consisting of french fries and cheese curds topped with a light
brown gravy, traditionally a chicken or teal gravy. There are many variations with
different toppings as well. It is a popular comfort food.

Y contains Vodka, a mix of tomato juice and clam broth , hot sauce and
Worcestershire sauce and is served with ice in a large celery salt rimmed glass,
typically garnished with a stalk of celery and a wedge of lime. What distinguishes it
from a Bloody Mary is the inclusion of a clam broth.
It was invented by restaurateur Walter Chell.

Answer
X – Poutine
Y – Caesar
Canada

Question 22
Following are some views from a monument in the town of Weiliczka in Southern
Poland. What is special about this ?

Answer
It is basically a salt mine. It is the oldest salt mine in the world. All the statues are
carved out of rock salt.

Question 23
The word X is believed to be derived from the Spanish or portuguese word for
rough or imperfect pearl. This term was initially used in a derogatory sense to
describe the eccentric redundancy and noisy abundance of detail in contrast with
the clear and sober rationality of the Renaissance. While the term was first
applied to music , it later became applicable to architecture and art of that
period. Some artistes from this period are Caravaggio and Antonio Vivaldi.
Some time later, came Y , also known as late X , which developed in the late 18th
century in Paris. Unlike the political X, Y had playful , lighthearted ,and witty
themes , as you can see on the next slide. It usually covers the sort of style and
design associated with the reigns of Louis XV and XVI and the end of Louis XIVs.
The word Y is seen as a combination of the French rosaille(stone) and
coquilles(shell)

Answer
X - Baroque , Y - Rococo

Question 24
Cacio e pepe, cheese and pepper, is one of Rome’s iconic primi piatti, a pasta dish
that sums up the simple, thrifty brilliance of the city’s traditional cooking. Pasta is
tossed vigorously with grated pecorino romano cheese, black pepper, pasta cooking
water and possibly olive oil until the ingredients come together into a pale creamy
sauce flecked with black that clings seductively to the pasta.
The enduring popularity of the dish (it was voted New York’s trendiest dish in 2016)
is sometimes attributed to the absence of an ingredient that we take for granted in
most of Italian cuisine, thus appealing to a more traditional Italian palate. What
ingredient, native to South America, but whose usage really took off in the mid-19th
century, are we talking about?

Question 25
Il pomo d'oro is an opera in a prologue and five acts by the Italian composer Antonio
Cesti with a libretto by Francesco Sbarra (1611-1668). It was first performed before the
imperial court in a specially constructed open-air theatre Vienna in 1668. The work was so
long it had to be staged over the course of two days: the Prologue, Acts One and Two were
given on July 12; Acts Three, Four and Five on July 14. Originally planned to mark the
wedding of the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I and Margaret Theresa of Spain in
1666, the production was rescheduled to mark the Empress's 17th birthday in 1668.
The story marks a variation on that of the Judgment of Paris, with the opera ending with
Jupiter deciding to give Margaret Theresa the prize in an attempt to keep his women from
quarrelling.
What is pomo d’oro? The Italian word for tomatoes is derived from this.

Answer
Pomo d’oro literally translates to Golden Apple
Pomodoro is the Italian word for tomatoes

Question 26
This is an example of a Sari whose top and bottom borders are in different colours.
By what geographically inspired name are these Saris known as ?

Question 27
August Zang was a serial entrepreneur most famous for setting up the Austrian newspaper
“Die Presse” in 1848. In his obituary, however, the newspaper omitted to mention all of his
role in banking and spoke in passing of the time he spent in Paris.
His time in Paris, though, was actually quite momentuous. He introduced the kipfel
through his business there, which quickly caught on. The name changed and is today
assimilated to such a large extent into French cuisine that even Wikipedia lists the origin of
this food item as French. This is obviously not true, as other food items of a similar type are
collectively called viennoiserie, and indicates its true origins.
What did Zang introduce to Paris, which is today synonymous with the French?

Question 28
Sometime in July 2016, a tumblr page was created by Samantha with the name “Samantha
goes to Restaurants”. This is the description on the page:
“Brutally honest reviews of the finest Hollywoo dining establishments. All restaurants are
reviewed on a scale of 0 to 1,000,000,000.”
The page only has four posts, all made in July. The lowest ranked restaurant in the list is
Elefante, with a total rating of 412 stars. This rating is caused in part due to the food taking
hours to arrive, the owner of the restaurant engaging in a very public argument with his
one-time agent and ex-girlfriend and the staff either quitting en masse or being on fire
during the course of one meal.
Who is the owner of the Elefante?

29.
Where in the world (No points for country :P. More specific answer
required. ) can you find this particular sequence of nucleotides in a
DNA double helix whose chirality is intentionally opposite to that of
normal DNA ?
atctggtcgagctcgggtccactccggattctgtgtgtgtgtgtgtgtca
actgaatga

Ans : Double Helix Bridge , Marina Bay ,
Singapore

30.
______ ______ trails arise when there is a rise in the number of
western backpackers travelling to an area and thus there are more
restaurants serving foods adapted to western tastes like ______
_______ . This phrase is used to describe the most frequently visited
places by foreigners in southeast Asia , india e.t.c
Similarly, ______ trails refer to most frequently visited places by
foreigners/”______” in South America like Chichen Itza, Antigua e.t.c.

Special Round 1 : Food
Mascots

1.
A mascot for McDonald’s , the name of this bad dude is a pun on the
main product of the fast food chain

2. The Great ____ ____ . FITB . Hint : Pun

3.
The X was created in 1954 and portrayed cowboys with a ________.
This was with the intention of popularising a particular type of
_________ which at the time were considered feminine. The
advertisement was particularly clever in that it did not touch upon
the health benefits of this type of __________ as it would remind
people of the adverse effects of __________ themselves on health.
It was ironic that out of the six people who played X , four died of the
same disease.
Give me X and what disease ?

3. The Marlbro Man, Lung Cancer

Identify the city or country from the posters of the now-defunct PanAm
Airways

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