Places To Be, People To See
Pl. du Casino, 98000 Monaco
Casino de Monte-Carlo, Monaco, 2025
A marathon is 26.2 miles. How many kilometres is that, to the nearest tenth?
42.2 kms
This category's theme word (gyan) comes from a Sanskrit root that also gave English the words know, gnosis and diagnosis. What's the Sanskrit word?
Jnana.
Carcassonne is named after a real fortified city. Which country?
France
Hing, or asafoetida, is used constantly in Jain and Brahmin vegetarian cooking for a very specific reason. Why?
It mimics onion and garlic taste.
6 Parvis - Pl. Jean-Paul II, 75004
Notre-Dame, Paris, 2016
What is the largest and heaviest muscle in the human body?
The gluteus maximus.
Name the Hindi word for "science."
Vigyan
Faraway scores its cards in an order that surprises everyone on first play. What is it?
Reverse order scoring, last played is scored first.
In 2007, Guinness certified a chili from Northeast India as the hottest in the world - name its Hindi name as well as English.
Bhut Jolokia/ Ghost Pepper
Athens 105 58
Acropolis of Athens, Greece, 2017
Roughly how many calories are stored in one pound of body fat: the number behind the old "500-calorie daily deficit = 1 pound a week" rule?
3,500 - answer is literally in the question NIVEDITA
On almost every meditation poster, the hands rest on the knees with thumb and index fingertip touching and three fingers extended. Name the action.
Gyan-mudra/ Jnana-mudra
Ponniyin Selvan is a board game based on a Tamil literary epic later adapted by Mani Ratnam into two films. Which dynasty does it centre on?
The Cholas
Chili, potato and tomato are pillars of Indian vegetarian cooking and none of them existed in India before the 1500s. All three are New World crops. Which European traders introduced them to the subcontinent?
The Portuguese, via Goa
R. Me. Deus 4, 1900-312 Lisboa
Museu Nacional do Azulejo, Lisbon, Portugal, 2025
When you lose body fat, most of it leaves your body through one particular route. What is it?
You breathe it out. Majority is exhaled as carbon dioxide, rest leaving as water.
Swami Vivekananda never wrote these lectures down. They survive because an English stenographer named Goodwin transcribed them in New York and London, then abandoned his career to follow him. Karma, Bhakti and Raja all came out of that work. Name the fourth in the series - with the suffix.
Gyan Yoga / Jnana Yoga
The word Jenga is derived from which African language commonly used in countries like Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
Swahili
Crystallised sugar was invented in ancient India, and English still carries the receipts: the word "sugar" descends from the Sanskrit word "sharkara", travelling through Persian and Arabic on its way west. A second everyday English sweet-word made the same journey, starting from the Sanskrit word "khanda" - a lump of crystallised sugar. What's the English word?
Candy
Тверской район, Москва, Россия
The Moscow Kremlin, Russia, 2018
Fat, protein and carbohydrate all provide energy, but one has more than double the calories per gram of the other two. Which, and how many?
Fat, 9 cals per gram
India's oldest and most prestigious literary award, given annually to a single author for lifetime contribution to Indian literature. Name it.
Gyanpith Award / Jnanapith Award
Brass: Birmingham is currently ranked #1 overall on BoardGameGeek. It plays across two eras: Canal, then Rail. Between them, something happens that catches out every single first-time player. What is it?
The board is wiped, all Level 1 buildings are removed and the entire canal network is destroyed before the Rail Era starts.
Artificial maple syrup gets its flavour mainly from a compound in an everyday Indian spice - one that smells uncannily of maple. Which spice?
Methi (Fenugreek) - sotolon is the compound.