The Quiz Page
1. What is common to Aspirin, Cellophane, Corn flakes, Escalator, Kerosene, Nylon, thermos and Zipper?
Brand names that have become words in English language.
2. Which TELCO product is named after its long time chief Sumant Moolgaonkar?
The Tata Sumo
3. What was concocted by a pharmacist named Caleb D Bradham as a cure for dyspepsia?
Pepsi
4. What did a newly wed Johnson and Johnson employee named Earl G Dickson come up with in 1920 because his wife, who was inexperienced in the kitchen kept burning and cutting herself?
Band –Aid
5. Which Indian brand gets its name from the Latin word for ‘strength’ or ‘vigour’?
Vim detergent
6. Which Indian product was launched by ace magician Franz Hararay at a magic show in Delhi?
The TVS Spectra
7. Which soft drink, invented in the 1920s by C.L.Briggs in Price’s Branch, Missouri was originally called Bib-Label Lithianted Lemon Hearted Soda and was guaranteed to take the ‘ouch out of the grouch’?
7-UP
8. The name of the cassette and record company TIPS is an acronym for what?
To Improve and Promote Singing
9. By 1861, this product, produced in USA, enjoyed higher sales abroad than in the USA. In Africa, salesmen had to customise the machine because the tribesmen wanted it to be noisier, because they believed ‘good iron made more noise’. Mahatma Gandhi described it as ‘One of the few useful things ever invented’. What?
The Singer Sewing Machine
10. What does the T in the name of the Indian entertainment conglomerate T-Series stand for?
Trishul
11. What do the letters ESPN in the name of the TV channel stand for?
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network
12. Which European supermarket chain opened their first Indian outlet in Bangalore and later sold out to the Tatas who renamed it ‘Westside’?
Littlewoods
13. What was designed by Umesh Rao, a young empoyee of the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency on an idea by Booby Kooka?
The Air India Maharaja
14. What do the letters in the names of the Indian corporate giants BPL and MRF stand for?
BPL – British Physical Laboratories
MRF – Madras Rubber Factory
15. What is common to MRF, Britannia, Elf, BPL?
All corporate giants who run sports academies in India viz. The MRF
Pace Foundation at Chennai, The Britannia Amritraj Tennis Academy at Chennai,
The Elf Vengsarkar Cricket Academy at Mumbai and the BPL Padukone Badminton
Academy at Bangalore.
© 1999 Gopal Srinivasan <mailgops@iname.com>