Quiz of the Day

A wide. One arm held out sideways is a no ball, so it is the second arm that turns the call into a wide.

Au. It comes from aurum, the Latin word for gold. Ag is silver, from argentum, by the same logic.

1989. यह दीवार 1961 में खड़ी की गई थी और अट्ठाईस वर्ष तक पूर्वी तथा पश्चिमी बर्लिन को अलग करती रही।

Peacock. The Indian peafowl was chosen in 1963, and only the male grows the long fan of feathers.

Bombay. The Hindi film trade grew up in the city now called Mumbai, and Tamil cinema is nicknamed Kollywood after the Chennai suburb of Kodambakkam.

1983. India bowled the West Indies out for 140 at Lord's and defended a total of 183 to win by 43 runs.

Shah Jahan. He raised it as a tomb for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, and his son Aurangzeb later confined him in Agra Fort.

चीन. यह विधि वहाँ हान राजवंश के समय निकली थी; मिस्र का पैपाइरस असल में नरकट की चिपकी हुई परतें था, कागज़ नहीं।

Bat. A flying squirrel only glides. A bat wing is a hand, with skin stretched between very long fingers.

Salim-Javed. Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar wrote Zanjeer and Deewaar, the films that made Amitabh Bachchan a star. The other three pairs are composers.

लाल रक्त कोशिकाएँ. इनमें भरा हीमोग्लोबिन फेफड़ों में ऑक्सीजन बाँध लेता है और उसे ऊतकों तक पहुँचाकर छोड़ देता है।

Root. A carrot is a fat taproot where the plant stores sugar, which is why it tastes sweet.

A playback singer. The song is recorded before the scene is shot, so the actor works to a track that is already finished.

Byes. Byes are extras, so they go on the team total and are never charged against the bowler in the figures.

1945. It ran from 1939 to 1945, six years in all, while the First World War had ended back in 1918.

सिंधु. मोहनजोदड़ो का अर्थ मुर्दों का टीला है, और उसी सभ्यता का दूसरा बड़ा नगर हड़प्पा रावी के किनारे मिला था।

Mercury. Mercury also has the shortest year of all. It goes round the Sun in just 88 Earth days.

Aditya Chopra. His father Yash Chopra produced it, and a good part of the story plays out on a rail trip across Europe.

England. Australia won at Melbourne by 45 runs, and the centenary match a hundred years later finished by the same margin.

Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore wrote Jana Gana Mana. Bankim Chandra wrote Vande Mataram, which is the national song.

Gujarat. Its coast folds around the Gulfs of Kutch and Khambhat, which is why it runs much longer than a straight line down the map.

प्रशांत महासागर. यह अकेला पृथ्वी की सतह के लगभग एक तिहाई हिस्से पर फैला है, और इसकी सबसे गहरी जगह मरियाना गर्त कहलाती है।

Blue whale. It lives on tiny shrimp-like krill, and a newborn calf is already longer than a car.

The Black Lady. Filmfare gave out its first awards in 1954. The Golden Peacock is the top prize at India's international film festival instead.

Slip. Slips stand in a line next to the keeper, and gully fills the gap a little squarer of the last one.

1,000. Milli always means one thousandth, which is why a millimetre is a thousandth of a metre too.

यकृत. यह पित्त बनाता है और रक्त से विषैले पदार्थ छानता है; कटने के बाद दोबारा बढ़ जाना इसी अंग की ख़ूबी है।

Mount Everest. It sits on the border of Nepal and China, and it is still pushed a few millimetres higher each year.

A colour release. K. Asif had shot only a few sequences in colour, and the 2004 version colourised the whole film digitally.

Kolkata. Eden Gardens opened in 1864, which makes it one of the oldest grounds anywhere outside England.

206. A baby starts with about 300, and many of them fuse together as the child grows.

Raja Harishchandra. Dadasaheb Phalke made it as a silent film, and India's highest film honour now carries his name.

Run out. A no ball cancels bowled, caught and lbw, but a batter stranded halfway down the pitch can still be run out.

Great Pyramid. Greek writers listed seven wonders. Six were lost to earthquakes and war, and only this one survives.

गंगा. यह गंगोत्री हिमनद से निकलकर लगभग 2,525 किलोमीटर बहती है, और गोदावरी दक्षिण भारत की सबसे लंबी नदी मानी जाती है।

Pacific Ocean. It covers more of the planet than every piece of dry land added together.

Alam Ara. It carried seven songs, and Hindi films have treated songs as part of the storytelling ever since.

Two. Two bails rest in grooves across three stumps, and the wicket is only broken once a bail is dislodged.

Ganga and Brahmaputra. They join the Meghna near the coast, and their silt feeds the largest mangrove forest on Earth.

मौर्य. कलिंग युद्ध के बाद अशोक ने बौद्ध धर्म अपनाया, और उनके स्तंभ का सिंह शीर्ष भारत के राजचिह्न में शामिल है।

Rangeela. He had already made his name in Tamil cinema with Roja in 1992, three years before Hindi producers came calling.

Five. Five days give both sides two innings each, which is why a draw counts as a genuine result.

C. Rajagopalachari. He took over from Louis Mountbatten in 1948, and the post itself vanished when India became a republic in 1950.

बंकिमचंद्र चट्टोपाध्याय. उन्होंने यह गीत अपने उपन्यास आनंदमठ में रखा था, जबकि जन गण मन के रचयिता रवींद्रनाथ ठाकुर हैं।

Greek. Alpha and beta are the first two Greek letters, so the word really just means 'a b'.

A masala film. The word borrows from the spice blend, because the film serves several genres in one helping instead of picking a lane.

Fifty. The early World Cups ran to sixty overs a side, and fifty became the standard in the late 1980s.

Red blood cells. Haemoglobin inside them picks up oxygen in the lungs and lets it go in the tissues.

100. दशमलव प्रणाली 1957 में लागू हुई थी; उससे पहले एक रुपये में सोलह आने चलते थे, और हर आने में चार पैसे होते थे।

24. It is the Ashoka Chakra, copied from a stone pillar carved more than two thousand years ago.