prelude  The Colosseum Quiz that appears every Friday in The Assam Tribune is completing 11 years on October16 this year. To celebrate this occasion, the countdown has began for yet another episode of The Colosseum Open Quiz Fest, 2009 to be held on Sunday, October 25, 2009 at the Pragjyoti ITA Cultural Complex, Machkhowa, Guwahati. The event is organised by The Assam Tribune and Social Action Network (SAN), a North-East based NGO. Since last year, there has always been a question as to why this is even called a festival. In the last episode of The Colosseum Quiz Fest, we had four quiz masters to grill you and each quiz master had their own set of questions, all of which had distinct identities. Therefore, even if the quiz is organised at the same venue and time, it is a quiz festival conducted by different quiz masters. The theme of this quiz event is Culture. But, unlike the previous episode, expect something different this time. For the winners we have more exciting prizes than last year. And hmmmm… !!! For the audience, there are some exciting prizes too, which we will declare on October 23, in this column. Altogether, we have some prizes worth more than Rs.1,00,000/- to be won. So, folks, get ready for a three corner interrogation from the quiz masters – Professor Dilip Kumar Barua, Neelotpal Deka (columnist, The Colosseum) and Sailen Baishya (columnist, Quizone). The event is being sponsored by the State Bank of India, Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre (National Bamboo Mission, Guwahati), etc. Our sponsors in kind are: UBISURFER, Vivel, Classmate, Bharali Brothers and Gold Cinema, etc. Registration will be on the spot. There is no Registration fee. This event will see the birth of the “Neelotpal Deka and Quiz Associates” team to work for research, conducting and organising quiz events in the North-East. Volumes 1 and 2 of The Colosseum (collection of the best from last ten years published quiz) are available in N L Publications, Panbazar (opposite Don Bosco School), Guwahati. E-mail your questions with answers at: only4_pol@yahoo.co.uk or post at: THE COLOSSEUM, Mosaic, Friday Supplement, The Assam Tribune, Guwahati-781003 or SMS at: 9864102417. Send your name in each SMS.

side screen  1) Picture Clue: Identify this poet. (Himjyoti Talukdar, Sunlight Colony II, Ashram, New Delhi-14)

harmonisers From Prosenjit ‘Piklu’ Dutta, Tezpur – 2) Which organisation’s head has been called as ‘Superior General’? 3) John Lennon’s last live concert, held at Maddison Square Garden in 1974, was as a guest. Who was the main performer? 4) When Kesto Mukherjee died, on his funeral day, entire Mumbai paid respect in an extraordinary way. How? 5) Which Latin phrase means “intelligent animal”?

unities  From Saroj Kr. Deka, Guwahati – 6) Which film by Akira Kurosawa was a reworking of Shakespeare’s play King Lear? 7) The Shakespearean play Pericles is the inspiration for which Ariel poem written by T. S. Eliot in 1930? 8) Which movie directed by P.W. Griffith was based on Thomas Eixon’s novel The Clansman?

do-re-me  9) Who was the first Roman Catholic President of the United States? 10) What is the official language of Haiti? 11) What in America was the original name for a cinema? 12) Which British newspaper is the oldest Sunday newspaper in the world? 13) In which industry did former U.S. President Ronald Reagan work before he entered politics? 14) What sort of snake was said to have caused the death of Cleopatra?

crescendo  15) From which book(s) did Baden Powell, the founder of Scouting, use many themes in setting up his movement, as well as the names of the leaders within it? (Maharnav Gogoi, AEC, Guwahati)

answers  1) Nalini Bala Devi 2) Missionaries of Charity 3) Elton John 4) It was a dry day 5) Homo sapiens 6) Ran 7) Marina 8) Birth of a Nation 9) John F. Kennedy 10) French 11) Nickelodeon 12) Observer 13) Film industry 14) An asp 15) The Jungle Book stories and Kim.