prelude  My heartiest congratulations to all the members of THE COLOSSEUM family, who have won THE COLOSSEUM Annual Awards, 2009, which will be given away in THE COLOSSEUM Open Quiz, 2010 event, to be held in the month of October, 2010. But behind the announcement of the Awards, there is another person, Prosenjit ‘Piklu’ Dutta of Tezpur, who has been keeping track of the list of contributors, along with their number of contributions in each sub-section of the column for a couple of years, and at the same time, he is one of the members of the Event Management Team that successfully organised The Colosseum Open Quiz Fest these last two years. Prosenjit is also responsible for assisting in the publication of the two volumes of The Colosseum Quiz Books, published by N.L. Publications, Panbazar, Guwahati. His association with THE COLOSSEUM is laudable. He has also been contributing questions and answers to this column since its very inception, i.e., the last eleven years. Prosenjit means a lot to The Colosseum, and the entire Colosseum family is grateful to him, and cannot afford to forget him in all the years to come. Quiz Result: The All Assam State Level Inter Institutional (School/College/University) Quiz Competition organised by Howajan Quiz Forum, Lakhimpur was held on Saturday, December 26, 2009. Gauhati University (Kamal Medhi and Rajiv Saha), Gogamukh College (Babul Gogoi and Shaan Panging) and North Lakhimpur College (Surajit Gogoi and Partha Sarathi Barma) won the first, second and third prizes respectively, while Debajit Ghosh of Biswanath College won the Best Audience prize. The quiz was conducted by Neelotpal Deka.

side screen  1) Picture Clue: Identify this actress. (Sonmani Das, Nalbari)

harmonisers  From Saikh Md Sabah Al-Ahmed, Guwahati – 2) What was the unique rarity about the simultaneous tenures of President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, as well as Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee? 3) What was the other uniqueness about the simultaneous tenures of President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh? 4) Name the Pulitzer Prize winning American investigative journalist who recently broke the story of America's secret aid to Pakistan's discreet nuclear programme? 5) In global musical parlance, how is John Francis Bongiovi (Jr.) popularly known as?

unities  From Kamal Medhi, Guwahati – 6) In Franco Zeffirelli’s 1990 film, who played the role of Hamlet? 7) In the film Ghulam, the name of Aamir Khan’s character was Siddharth. What was his popular short name in the film? 8) Sanjay Dutt debuted as an actor in the film Reshma Aur Shera. He was then only 12. What was his role?

do-re-me  9) What is Ceres the Goddess of, in Roman mythology? (Jayanta Topadar, Dhemaji) 10) Name the world’s largest circulated magazine, which is seeking bankruptcy protection in the US recently? (Muzibur, IOB, Tezpur) 11) Who owns the Navketan Film company? (Gaurav Goswami, J.B. Law College) 12) The Wanch Oriah Festival is celebrated by the Wancho tribe in Arunachal Pradesh to seek blessings for a bumper harvest and peace. Who is worshipped in this festival? (Saroj K. Deka, MBA Deptt., G.U.) 13) Which masterpiece records the Nazi invasion of Paris on August 1942, and the subsequent events of the following week? (Biman Chalila) 14) Phunsok Wangdo is the main protagonist of which film? (Deepjyoti Deka, Nalbari)

crescendo  15) This process appeared only in two movies – Radio Parade in the year 1935 for two sequences, and Sons of the Sea in the year 1939. It was cheaper than Technicolour, and this was the only success in cinematic process until Polaroid developed a similar version in the 1970s. What is that? (Sonmani Das, Nalbari)

answers  1) Marilyn Monroe 2) Both of them were 'confirmed bachelors', when they simultaneously served India as the President and the Prime Minister 3) Both of them were from religious minority communities; Dr. Kalam being a Muslim and Dr. Singh being a Sikh 4) Seymour Myron Hersh 5) Jon Bon Jovi 6) Mel Gibson 7) Siddhu 8) A Quawali singer 9) Agriculture 10) Reader’s Digest 11) Dev Anand 12) Their deity Rang 13) Is Paris Burning? by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre 14) 3 Idiots 15) Duffacolour