A Question of Answers

I have this fetish for persisting at things Iam not great at.

I play the guitar diligently though Jim Croce would turn in his grave if he heard my effort. I go through the entire CAT/GD/PI rigmarole regularly without ever getting closer to a top b-school. I optimistically keep taking the lead in making small talk with strangers, though I dry up around 20 seconds into the conversation.

And I regularly take part in quizzes, even though I get eliminated as regularly in the prelims.

Why? Why do I subject myself time and again to this ignominy? What is it that keeps dragging me back to these contests inspite of knowing that history would invariably repeat itself?


Maybe it's because you get to pretend you have an IQ of 150.

Connect an egg, Rebecca, and the battle of Arnheim.

Well, basically, the connection is Maurier. You see, the term 'curate's egg' comes from a cartoon penned by George Maurier in the magazine 'Punch' in 1851. Punch, incidentally, was the first magazine to officially include cartoons. Anyways, George's grand-daughter was none other than Daphne du Maurier who wrote the literary masterpiece 'Rebecca' in 1938. By the way, the opening lines for the book happen to be "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again". Aah, but I digress! The battle of Arnheim was the setting for the movie 'A Bridge too Far' and credit for coining this phrase goes to General Frederick Browning, husband of Daphne du Maurier. Now Arnheim was a key struggle during the Allied invasion of Europe during World War II. Let me elucidate further, during September 1944,........

Zzzzzz..............


Maybe it's because you get to pretend you're all sophisticated, arty and cultured.

What is the connection between painting 1 and painting 2?

Well, basically, painting 1 was done by Edouard Manet while painting 2 was done by Claude Monet. Manet depicts Monet in painting 1 while Monet depicts Manet in painting 2. You see, Monet and Manet, more than being just peers in the mid-19th century, had a great deal of influence on each others' works, which was more of an impressionistic, neorealistic, surrealistic depiction of society. So yeah,Manet and Monet would be the connection.

Ma?..Mo?....Bah!


Maybe it's because this is more a test of creativity than anything else.

What was unique about Nazi war vehicles in WW II?

My probable answer a year ago: Err......Pass...
Today: Umm....Swastikas painted on all of them?
Next year: Lets see...they didn't have a reverse gear coz Der Fuerher didn't believe in retreat?
And......bingo!


Whatever......me being my incorrigible self, attended another prelims the other day. And it felt like a better effort than usual. Results expected shortly.
Hmm....Iam getting there. Yep, I can feel it, Iam getting there.....

I might even have Jim Croce smiling down at me some day.