Aditya Gadre, from his Sports quiz at Mood Indigo 2013
1. In July 2013, 80,645 flowers - "yellow marigolds and black, pink and gray petunias" - were used to make what sports-related announcement in a spectacular fashion?
2. Manu Tuillagi plays rugby for the England and Ireland Lions. In 2013, he did something that caused former England hooker Brian Moore to say "People are saying they are offended. Are they really offended, or is it more a case of Tuilagi being an absolute prat again and taking the attention away from his team-mates?"
The other person (a politician) involved in the incident played it down and said "it was just a bit of fun". So what did Tuillagi do?
B.V. Harish Kumar
3. Frederick Sanger, who passed away in 2013, is the only person till date to have won the Nobel prize for Chemistry twice. He started his work on proteins in 1943 and chose something to research, not just for its medical significance but also because he could buy it from the local drugstore. What?
Salil Bijur
4. 2008: President of France
2009: President of Kazakhstan
2010: President of South Korea
2011: President of Indonesia
2012: Prime Minister of Thailand
2013: ________
5. Following whose death in 2013 did Nicolas Maduro succeed as the President of his country?
Thejaswi Udupa
6. 'One Out Of Many' is a short story by VS Naipaul that was originally published as a supporting narrative to his 1971 Booker Prize winning novel 'In A Free State'.
What is the premise of this short story, something that closely resembled one of the big news stories of late 2013?
J. Krishnamurthi, from a Dec 2013 quiz at K-Circle
7. A December 2013 headline went: "Andhra Pradesh High Court asks Telugu actors Mohan Babu, Brahmanandam to return Padma Shri". Why were they asked to do so?
8. Saudi Arabian artist and activist Hisham Fageeh recorded a song in 2013 that used the tune, and almost the entire title, of a famous Bob Marley song. The song was meant to highlight a women's rights issue that has been gaining ground of late.
What was the name of Hisham Fageeh's song?
V.K.Handa
9. The United Nations' fight against droughts, desertification and land degradation in in Africa started in 1994 with the signing of Convention to Combat Desertification by all its member countries and the European Union. This suffered a setback in March 2013 with an industrialized country leaving this Convention. Which country?
Omkar Kamlapur, from his MELA quiz at Mood Indigo
10. In 2013 to increase road safety, Kolkata's police employed what image from the world of music with the caption "If they can, why can't you?"?
11. Sid Lowe, a writer on Spanish football has a written a book in 2013 titled '____ ___ _______ __ __ ____' on the fierce rivalry in the El Clasico. It is about how the two clubs are not exactly founded on principles. The two clubs often are bad losers and revel in each other's misery.
The title, however, is a slight reworking of the title of a 1998 movie based on a 1971 novel. Identify the title of Sid Lowe's book.
12. Very recently there was a change that was made to the rules of the Man Booker prize. Here are some of the views of people about the rule change. What is the rule change?
"The trustees have not made this decision quickly or lightly"
"I am very strongly against this decision because it will make judging impossible. At the moment the Booker is the best literary prize because all of the judges read all of the books."-AS Byatt
"I think what has forced their hands is the announcement of the Folio Prize...The Man Booker felt they didn't want to be outflanked. They want to retain their place as the most prestigious prize for fiction in this country and they felt this would steal the thunder of the Folio - the distinctiveness of that prize was that it was going to be more international, but now that's been blurred somewhat."
Rajib Phukan
13. He was selected as one of the "sexiest men of 2013" by Cosmopolitan magazine. In August 2013, he became an ambassador for Nordic Semiconductor. In 2013, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world, writing that he "is a force of nature whose time has come". Who is he?
This day last year: Q.823