Mindgames ed. 4

(In which I scour Open and other news sources for questions based on recent events.)

Q1. A coloured leader going through trying times in Britain. Name him.

Q2. 7/10 is very bad for this country (5).

Q3. For once in our lifetime, this ‘Lord of the Ring’ was back. What?

Q4. It’s just been discovered that some monkeys floss their teeth with (5, 4).

Q5. The next Robin Uthappa? Hope not. Who?

Q6. Search in _______ (5)

Q7. Last week, they were subject to a stick up. Who?

Q8. What does the Straits Times Index have to do with biodiversity?

Q9. Trained by the Indian Railways to do things for themselves. Name the town.

Q10. We just had a close encounter with ‘203L A100’ (4, 4) ‘Anagram’

Your first task in this round is to identify the person shown in the picture. Then, connect a, b and c to another well-known person, your final answer. All three ‘connections’ have to be explained for an entry to qualify as a ‘final answer’. Note: The picture clue a) is not the final solution.

a)

b) Nevada

c) White and Blue

Q Who is connected to A, B and C?

Solutions to Mindgames 3 and then some: Once again, Anand Kadkol scored the most correct answers (7). Congratulations, Anand! You need to get them all correct to win a free subscription to Open magazine. Hard? Well, that’s life. Thanks a bunch, all of you, for playing. Keep coming back.

A1. P Chidambaram

A2. The Blue whale

A3. The Titanic

A4. Richard Reid, the ‘Shoe bomber’

A5. Asif Ali Zardari, Kashmir

A6. The Maharatnas

A7. Amar Singh

A8. Chetan Bhagat. Decode is as follows, E(c) j(h) g(e) v(t) c(a) p(n) Z(b) f(h) y(a) e(g) y(a) r(t). Two steps back from the first ‘coded’ name and two steps forward from the ‘coded’ surname gives you the name of the popular writer. An additional clue lay in the question, “5 points”, alluding to Bhagat’s book ‘Five Point Someone’.

A9. AR Rehman (He celebrated his birthday last fortnight, and therefore his name is the one I was looking for. Recent news, remember?)

A10. Sri Lanka (The Persian name for it is ‘Serendip’)

a) Captain Underpants is the name of the character

b) Lagos is the capital city of Nigeria

c) Sa’na is the capital of Yemen

A. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the ‘underpants bomber’ from Nigeria, who was reportedly ‘trained’ in Yemen.

(In which I scour Open and other news sources for questions based on recent events.)

Q1. A coloured leader going through trying times in Britain. Name him.

Q2. 7/10 is very bad for this country (5).

Q3. For once in our lifetime, this ‘Lord of the Ring’ was back. What?

Q4. It’s just been discovered that some monkeys floss their teeth with (5, 4).

Q5. The next Robin Uthappa? Hope not. Who?

Q6. Search in _______ (5)

Q7. Last week, they were subject to a stick up. Who?

Q8. What does the Straits Times Index have to do with biodiversity?

Q9. Trained by the Indian Railways to do things for themselves. Name the town.

Q10. We just had a close encounter with ‘203L A100’ (4, 4) ‘Anagram’

Your first task in this round is to identify the person shown in the picture. Then, connect a, b and c to another well-known person, your final answer. All three ‘connections’ have to be explained for an entry to qualify as a ‘final answer’. Note: The picture clue a) is not the final solution.

a)

b) Nevada

c) White and Blue

Q Who is connected to A, B and C?

Solutions to Mindgames 3 and then some: Once again, Anand Kadkol scored the most correct answers (7). Congratulations, Anand! You need to get them all correct to win a free subscription to Open magazine. Hard? Well, that’s life. Thanks a bunch, all of you, for playing. Keep coming back.

A1. P Chidambaram

A2. The Blue whale

A3. The Titanic

A4. Richard Reid, the ‘Shoe bomber’

A5. Asif Ali Zardari, Kashmir

A6. The Maharatnas

A7. Amar Singh

A8. Chetan Bhagat. Decode is as follows, E(c) j(h) g(e) v(t) c(a) p(n) Z(b) f(h) y(a) e(g) y(a) r(t). Two steps back from the first ‘coded’ name and two steps forward from the ‘coded’ surname gives you the name of the popular writer. An additional clue lay in the question, “5 points”, alluding to Bhagat’s book ‘Five Point Someone’.

A9. AR Rehman (He celebrated his birthday last fortnight, and therefore his name is the one I was looking for. Recent news, remember?)

A10. Sri Lanka (The Persian name for it is ‘Serendip’)

a) Captain Underpants is the name of the character

b) Lagos is the capital city of Nigeria

c) Sa’na is the capital of Yemen

A. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the ‘underpants bomber’ from Nigeria, who was reportedly ‘trained’ in Yemen.

About The Author

Avinash Subramaniam