The QFI Open Quiz 2007

Following the immense success of the first two editions, the Quiz Foundation of India (Chennai Chapter), in association with Indian Terrain is proud to announce 'The QFI Open Quiz 2007', the third edition of the annual quiz.

The QFI Opens of the last two years have been resounding successes, attracting more than 120 teams each time, including some from Hyderabad, Bangalore, and even Ahmedabad. This time, the quiz promises to be both bigger and better. You can read The Hindu's review of the QFI Open 2006 here.

Apart from being original, well researched and immensely entertaining, the QFI Open also aims at making quizzing a fun experience for everyone involved. It will try and bring to a wider audience the same mix of light-hearted fun and serious high-standard quizzing that is seen at QFI's fortnightly meetings.

It is an open quiz with no conditions whatsoever for participation. All are welcome to participate. Total prizes worth nearly Rs.35,000 on offer! The details are as follows:

Date: 3rd of June 2007 (Sunday)

Schedule: Prelims - 14:00 p.m. and Finals - 15:45 p.m.

Team size: Maximum of 3 members

Registration Fee: Rs. 50 per team. (This fee is waived for school teams. The registration fee must be paid at the registration desk in front before the quiz.)

Venue: 'Tattvaloka' Auditorium
No. 76 (Old No. 138), Eldams Road
Teynampet,
Chennai 600018
Ph: 044 24328124 / 25 / 26

I will be conducting the quiz along with my regular quiz team mates Krishnamurti and Vikram. Please do come and have fun. There will an Indian Cinema quiz in the morning at 10:00 a.m at the same venue. Plenty of audience prizes from Landmark also on offer. Also, if it's not too much to ask for, please put this up on your blogs and bulletin boards and help spread the word. Thanks!!

Sample Questions from the last edition

Q1. The Korean, Japanese and Chinese words for denoting a 'round object' share a common root, and all three of them have identical representations in their script form also. What are the three words?

Q2. The members of the Muduvar tribe, which inhabits the mountain ranges around Valparai (Tamil Nadu) and Munnar (Kerala) in the Western Ghats, have a unique method for calculating their ages. What is it?

Q3. According to local legend, centuries ago, a village in the Madurai district of Tamil Nadu was hit by a small pox epidemic. The people of the village desperately prayed for a cure and in the end, offered a blood sacrifice to the deity. Even now, the belief in the village is that even if a single year goes by without a drop of blood smearing the village earth, then the local goddess will make sure an epidemic wipes out the entire population of the village. Which village is this and how do the villagers make sure that the goddess is appeased?

Q4. T.Rajeevnath is a 54-year-old movie director who has been acclaimed for his Malayalam films, including ‘Janani’, the story of seven nuns who care for an abandoned baby, which won a national award. He is currently planning a movie about Nobel Prize Laureate and Catholic Saint Mother Teresa. After using computers to match the facial features of many current actresses to that of the Albanian-born nun, Rajeevnath has zeroed in on a suitable candidate to play the lead role in his film because according to him, her features closely match that of Mother Teresa. Who is the actress in question?

Answers

A1. The three words are 'yen' (Japanese), 'yuan' (Chinese) and 'won' (Korean). They are also the currencies of the nations.

A2. They calculate their age with the blossoming of the Kurinji flower, which blooms only once every 12 years.

A3. The village in question is Alanganallur. They organise the annual "Jallikattu."

A4. Paris Hilton, whose prior movie experience includes appearing in a home video made by a former boyfriend that appeared on the Internet :), and small parts in several Hollywood B-films.