Q.2054

In 2015, "Honk Honk Taxi" and "Speedy Taxi" merged, and later that year became "Honk Honk Commute". In 2016, a partially bitten fruit that physicians are allergic to, showed a lot of interest in "Honk Honk Commute".

What are we talking about?

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The Chinese taxi-hailing app Didi Chuxing ('Honk Honk Commute') received a $1 billion investment from Apple Inc. in May 2016. Didi Chuxing was a rebranded version of Didi Kuaidi, a result of a merger from two rival Uber-like firms. More here.

Q.1860

‘Punjabi’ in the first week of November 2015 became the third most common language spoken in which country’s parliament?

The reason being, 20 Punjabi-speaking candidates were elected to this parliament in October 2015. Out of them, 18 are Liberals and 2 are Conservatives. Among the newly-elected Punjabi-speaking MPs, 14 are men and 6 are women.

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Parliament of Canada

Twelve candidates were elected from Ontario, 4 from British Columbia, 3 from Alberta and one belongs to Quebec. As per the Statistics of Canada’s 2011 National Household Survey, 430705 Canadians identified Punjabi as their mother tongue.

Q.1806

Kaloji Narayana Rao or Kalanna was an Indian poet, freedom fighter, anti-fascist and political activist of Telangana. He was awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1992. On his 100th birth anniversary on 9th September 2015, the state Government of Telangana decided to honour him by declaring the first of this kind of ‘special day’.

Thus, what will be celebrated on every 9th September?

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Telangana Language Day

First Telangana Language Day (Telangana Bhasha Dinosthavam) was observed on 9 September 2015. Besides, the state Government also awarded its first ever Kaloji Award on renowned litterateur Dr Ammangi Venugopal for his contribution to the literary world of Telangana.

Q.1804

The Supreme Court of Pakistan on 8th September 2015 directed federal and provincial governments to take an action. A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Jawwad S Khawaja directed the government to fulfil its constitutional obligation. It was mentioned: In the governance of the federation and the provinces there is hardly any necessity for [something] which cannot be understood by the public at large. A lot of time is spent in deciphering which is absurd.

What is being talked about?

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Pakistan SC ordered adoption of Urdu as official language

With this order, Urdu will be used as an official language at the government offices of Pakistan. The petitioner Advocate Kokab Iqbal wanted promotion and implementation of the national language. The Court also ruled that under the 1973 Constitution it is must to adopt Urdu as official language.

Q.1737

What portmanteau word coined by Citigroup economist Ebrahim Rahbari in 2012 has been in most business headlines in mid-2015 and is easily the most commonly used word from something called the "Grexicon"?

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"Grexit" referring to the potential exit of Greece from the Eurozone. Other words include "Graccident" and "Grimbo". More here.

This day last year: Q1372.

Q.1605

February 21 is celebrated as International _______ _________ day. It has been observed since 2000. It was first announced by UNESCO and later recognised by UN General Assembly.

The date corresponds to the day in 1952 when students from the University of Dhaka, demonstrating for inclusion of something as a National symbol in East Pakistan were shot dead by police near the Dhaka High Court.

Fill in the blanks.

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International Mother Language Day
They were demonstrating for the recognition of Bengali as one of the two national languages of East Pakistan.

Q.1597

Don McLean, in Feb 2015, announced that he’ll be selling 16 pages that contain the original working manuscript and the first typed draft of his song ‘American Pie’. The estimated amount is 1.5 Million USD.

Which term for an unfortunate event that occurred in 1959 was coined in this song?

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The Day the Music Died
It refers to the death of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper in a plane crash.

Q.1568

The winners of these awards receive a plaque and a cash prize of Rs.1 Lakh. The plaque awarded was designed by the Indian film-maker Satyajit Ray. Prior to this, the plaque occasionally was made of marble, but this practice was discontinued because of the excessive weight. During the Indo-Pakistan War of 1965, the plaque was substituted with national savings bonds.
Which awards are we talking about?

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The Sahitya Akademi Award
The award's purpose is to recognize and promote excellence in Indian writing and also acknowledge new trends. Eminent Sanskrit scholar Prabhu Nath Dwivedi was on 14th Jan named as the winner for Sanskrit language.

Q.1433

The TV series "Breaking Bad" expectedly won the 2014 Emmy awards for Best Dramatic Actor (Bryan Cranston) and Best Dramatic Supporting Actress (Anna Gunn). They both won for an episode in the 5th and final series of the show.

The episode's title comes from a famous poem by P.B.Shelley about a king, as a reference to the situation of the lead character. Which poem?

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"Ozymandias". More here.

This day last year: Q.1068

Q.1427

In August 2014, the Indian Minister for IT launched the first ever top-level domain name in the Devanagaari script (which is used to write languages such as Hindi). This provides an option of registering domain names ending in a word related to the country written in this script (akin to .in or .co.in).

What does this launched domain name end in?

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.bharat. More here.

This day last year: Q.1062

Q.1408

In 2014, the e-commerce site Amazon.com and the book publisher Hachette have been embroiled in a tussle over pricing of e-books. Several authors have taken Hachette's side, signing an open letter in August 2014 protesting against Amazon's stance.

An Amazon spokesperson asked Hachette to "stop using their authors as ___ ____". The blanked out phrase here has been used often in another, greater, conflict from 2014. What phrase?

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"Human shields", more prominent from the 2014 Gaza conflict. Here's more on the Amazon-Hachette fight.

This day last year: Q.1043

Q.1353

In May 2014, Pope Francis visited the Middle East, meeting with leaders such as the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. At one point, the two men seemed to have a minor argument, reported to have gone as this: Netanyahu said "Jesus was here, in this land. He spoke __X__". The Pope corrected him, saying Jesus spoke "___Y___".

What two languages were they referring to?

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X: Hebrew, Y: Aramaic. For more on this seemingly innocuous debate, read this.

This day last year: Q.988

Q.1339

In May 2014, a scientist at Bing (Microsoft's search engine) posted a blog post, talking about Microsoft's association with an annual American event. The post begins as follows:

"When spellcheck first became popular, there was somewhat of an elegiacal interlocutory fracas by those who practiced the antediluvian deification of autochthonous language and viewed a deteriorating emphasis on canonical spelling as an almost sacrilegious demarche against the euonym and akin to vivisepulture."

What was the event?

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The Scripps National Spelling Bee competition - most of the long words used in the post were 'winning words' correctly spelt by past winners. (We can't spell them right even as we look at them!). Here's the post. As usual, a child of Indian origin won, but there was a twist (sting?) in the tale.

This day last year: Q.974

Q.1302

Dr. Abdullah Abdullah is the former Foreign Minister of Afghanistan and the leading candidate in the 2014 Presidential elections of that country. What personal quirk associated with him seems to have happened due to reasons ranging from the insistence of Western newspapers, a misinterpretation at a news conference, or because of his own choice as he is sufficiently westernized to see the need for it?

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He only had a first name ("Abdullah" - apparently many Afghans use only one name), but due to the Western convention of a last name as well,it was duplicated. More here.

This day last year: Q.937

Q.1300

Considered India's best demographer (a person who studies population statistics), Ashish Bose passed away in April 2014. In an article in the 80s, he coined the acronym "BIMARU" that came to stand for the lack of development in North India at that time.

What did the acronym stand for?

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Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. More here on Bose.

This day last year: Q.935

Q.1297

Guest question by Aniket Khasgiwale | contribute questions

In 2002, when PWC's consulting arm was being spun off, it was announced that it will be called "Monday," drawing a variety of interesting comments. However, the name change never happened as IBM bought the consulting business.

PWC is again in the news for its quirky renaming of a consulting firm which it acquired in 2014. What is the new name of this consulting firm (with a 100 year history) that has been acquired?

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"Strategy&"; the consulting firm that they have acquired is Booz & Co. More here.

This day last year: Q.932

Q.1272

Did you catch our first ever IZ quizletter on the weekend?

With help from lexicographers who work on the Merriam-Webster dictionary, words like "Po" and "Da" will be added to this list, in an update in mid-2014. In what is undoubtedly a marketing exercise, one word will be chosen from an online poll in April 2014.

Run by the company Hasbro, to what list are these changes being made?

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The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary. More on this.

This day last year: Q.907

Q.1259

"300: Rise of an Empire" is a 2014 action film that is based on the Battle of Salamis involving the Greeks and the Persians. It is made by largely the same crew behind the 2007 film "300", and like it, is based on a Frank Miller graphic novel.

Since much of the film's story largely runs parallel to the main events of "300", the terms 'prequel' or 'sequel' don't apply well. What clunky term has been used to describe its relation to "300", which some may look askance at?

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"Sidequel". More here.

This day last year: Q.894

Q.1253

Shao Renleng died in Hong Kong in Jan 2014 at the age of 107, after an astonishingly successful career in entertainment and philanthropy. His brother (Shao Renmei) and he together became the most powerful makers of films in the China region, and were largely responsible for popularising the genre of films associated with Hong Kong.

The brothers adopted the first names "Run Run" and "Run Me" and a last name that anglicised their family name. Some anecdotes had it that their father gave them these first names because of how the family name sounded like a popular transport facility in the region.

How were these brothers known together? Incidentally, they were paid homage to by director Quentin Tarantino in the beginning of his film "Kill Bill Vol. 1"?

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The Shaw brothers, the joke being that their name was similar to "Rickshaw", though apparently the name comes from a simpler transliteration. Here's an obituary of Run Run Shaw.

This day last year: Q.888

Q.1246

"Fandry" is a 2013 Marathi film that achieved theatrical release in early 2014, after winning awards at several Indian film festivals. The film is about adolescent love, caste, and local fauna.

The name "Fandry" comes from a slang word for an animal (the protagonist's father catches this kind of animal, and this forms the basis of the film's climax). Which animal (which thus connects this film to Govind Nihalani's "Tamas", where the same type of animal features in the opening?)

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"Pig". More here.

This day last year: Q.881