When the answers are part of the question
War and peace, infection and deception, felicitation and affectation. It took all kinds of news to make our quiz this week. How will you fare?
1
You’ll find this icon on every touchscreen, keypad and Ludo gameboard. It’s also the title of Rojin Thomas’s heartwarming Malayalam film about a techchallenged dad trying to reconnect with his sons. It’s fast become a streaming hit. But what is its name?
2
One XX costs Rs 20 crore. One XX stands in Connaught Place and another XX stands in Anand Vihar. It promises to purify air quality around a one kilometre radius. It has multiple layers of filters and fans at the base to suck in the air. But are XXS effective? What are we talking about?
3
A long, long time ago /I can still remember how that music/ Used to make me smile. Musician Don Maclean was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last week. Name his famous song, which turns 50 this year. It’s also the title of an unrelated 1999 teen film about getting laid, Jim.
4
Sold as a powder or paste, it’s usually a mix of turmeric, chilli, coriander, cumin, ginger and pepper. And it’s a common flavouring outside India, not locally. So when Gene Weingarten calls it single spice, appearing in all Indian food, he’s not just wrong, he’s racist too. Name the ingredient.
5
“You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.” America’s Food and Drug Administration issued this exasperated message on Twitter last week, after Americans were stockpiling Ivermectin, a medicine used to deworm livestock. What do they mistakenly believe it can treat?
6
When Jennifer Aniston did it in October, she shared a photo from a night in with the Friends cast. When Angelina Jolie did it last week, she shared an Afghan girl’s letter. Jolie hit a record 2 million followers in 3 hours. But for doing what? 7
This 44-year-old rapper, songwriter, sneaker afficionado and famous frowner approached the US courts to legally change his name to Ye. It’s already the tail end of his short first name and is the title of his 2018 album. And it’s used throughout the Bible, as a plural of thou. How have we known him so far?
8
In 1980, he founded the Himalayan Rally Association and started the Himalayan Rally. He conceived the 4,000-km long Great Desert Himalayan Rally. He put India on the world motorsport map and was posthumously inducted into the Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens’s Heritage Hall of Fame last week. He’s not Aamir Khan’s uncle, he just sounds like he could be. Name that roadster.
9
A baby girl was born to an Afghan mother fleeing the Taliban on a US military plane last week. She’s being given an unusual name, after the aircraft’s call sign. Fittingly, the dictionary defines the verb as “to arrive at a place, especially after spending a long time or a lot of effort travelling”. Her name?
10
A Uk-india study has just set a Guinness World Record for the most authors on a single peer-reviewed academic paper. A total of 15,025 scientists globally collaborated to study the impact of what virus on surgical patients? Hint: None of them recommend Ivermectin.