Under The Banyan Tree » Guess the book

Of Apologies And Excuses

utbt — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 02:53:46 +0000

Sigh! Just realized that I announced the results of the book quiz on March 12, 2012, while the instructions clearly say March 19th. My sincere apologies if it had prevented people from participating. If it is of any consolation, family is not letting me book train tickets for them any more, because I am trying to make reservations a week earlier or a week later than the one they prefer! So you can join the club.

“You clearly said ‘Edited on March 12th’, then why the confusion?”, some might ask. I have been living a week ahead and a week behind all at the same time, for quite some time now. The past four months have been spent in making to-do lists for the current week, planning the week ahead and following up with the tasks I finished the previous week. Like I told a friend, there is pure chaos in my head. Multiple ideas are churning like no one’s business, hopefully it crystallizes in to something wonderful soon.

To ideas and to successfully taking them forward *clink*clink*

Guess The Book

utbt — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 15:47:36 +0000

March 12, wed. Edited to add.

The winner is Boo and I know exactly what to get you. Just thank me later

Growing up, listening to stories of Ramayana and Mahabaratha, my scales have always tilted towards Mahabaratha. I thought the later had much more realistic action. Realistic because the story had real human emotions. Plus it had Krishna, the ever charming persona who is okay with playing as well as praying.

Versus Ramayana had …..Rama. Rama whose face, according to the tamil poet Kambar was like a freshly blossomed lotus, even when Dasratha packed him off to the forest with nothing but clothes on his back. Can’t stand Mr.Goody two shoes. And even more irritating are the delicate darling heroines who mutely follow husbands in to the forest and sit and wait for 14 months to be rescued.

I had very many questions in my mind.

-What prompted Dasaratha to say yes to the unreasonable boons that Kaikeyi demanded?

-What is Mathara’s motive behind instigating Kaikeyi against her family. What happened to her later?

-Were the three queens(Kowsalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra) okay with sharing everything including a husband? Or was there friction between them?

-Did Kowsalya slap Kaikeyi silly after she knew what Kaikeyi did to her son?

-How can Dasaratha give off Rama to Vishwamitra without consulting the mother of the boy?

-Ravana also attended Sita’s swayamwaram. Did he face Rama? How did that go down?

-How can Gothama do what he did to his wife and still can live with himself. *serious eye rolling about fidelity imposed only on women*

-Living in a secluded spot, what was the dynamics of relationship between Lakshmana and Sita?

-Surpanakha, what prompted her to fall in love with Rama?

-How can a person stand behind a tree and kill another person and still be called a Kshatriya warrior? Can one really live with themselves after such a behavior?

-What made Ravana wait for almost 13 years before he tried kidnapping Sita?

-What is the dynamics of the Hanuman-Rama relationship.

-Last but not the least….. one would send the missus back to the forest?! Just like that?! Seriously?! Any decent man must have given up the crown and followed the missus in to the forest telling, “as a king I must to set an example to my citizens, but as a husband, I owe a duty to my wife”.

But looks like Banker had the same questions and his version of Ramayana has real people with emotions instead of pompous, self righteous creatures. His retelling has answers to most of my questions. I love his interpretation of Tatakavanam, his battle between humans and rakshas. His Sita….oh my, my, my…. she is a warrior princess, who fights shoulder to shoulder with Rama and Lakshmana. She even slaps Rama couple of times and the dude is okay with it. This me likes.

Tolkien(LOTR) must have been influenced by Ramayana at some level and Banker’s version seems to contain shades of Tolkien’s narration.

- the initial war between Ravana and Dasaratha + Kaikeyi + rest of the Kshatriya kings = initial war between Sauron and Elrond + Isildur.

- Rama giving up the throne = Aragorn giving up the crown.

-Sita following Rama = Arwen deciding to go with Aragorn.

-Lakshmana = Samwise, for his unwavering sense of duty to his brother/master.

-Rakshas = Orcs (that is a easy one!)

-Seers Vishwamitra and Vashishta = Gandalf

-Ravana keeping an ‘eye’ on the Kshatriya cities, more than reminded me of Sauron’s eye.

This is just a few. I am not going to spoon feed you with all the details, something are best when self discovered.

If I am to complain, his style story telling is giving detailed account through every character! Pick a few characters and the story in detail through these characters is okay, but he goes in to details through the eyes of many people! I can’t stand Ghuha, very boorish and I certainly do not want to read about Dasaratha romping around with his wives *eye rolling right here*.

I have finished three volumes, can’t wait for Hanuman to make his entry.

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- Guess the complete TITLE and AUTHOR.

- Quiz closes Friday, March 16th. 4.00PM IST.

- Results will be announced Monday, March 19th.

- Winner is picked by a random number generation of the right answers.

- The prize is a book. I want to choose a book appropriate for you/your child. So will announce the title of the book after I announce the winner.

-Comment moderation is on.

-Play nicely children. Sorry about the so-so image, just feeling a little drained.

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Guess The Book

utbt — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 18:56:08 +0000

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April 6th, edited to add clues.

Clue 1: Yes, the island is Alcatraz, which all of you figured out.

Clue 2: Think young adult, 9 – 12 years.

I have one last clue which is as good as giving the answer, so I will hold on to it till Friday 9.00AM PST.

April 7th, edited to add last clue, as promised.

Many of you have guessed the correct answer already.

Clue 3: Think Newbery Honor. I am trusting you guys not to google.

April 11th: Please find the results at the end of the post.

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Here is the quiz for April 2011, yes, I am working towards a book quiz, first Monday of every month.

- Guess the complete TITLE and AUTHOR of this book.

- Quiz closes Friday, April 8th. 4.00PM PST.

- Results will be announced Monday, April 11th.

- Instead of picking the first person to respond with the right answer, I am doing a random number generation of the right answers to pick the winner.

- The prize is a book. I want to choose a book appropriate for you/your child. So will announce the title of the book after I announce the winner.

-Comment moderation is on.

- Clipart credit coolclips.com and clipartpal.com

Your picture clue is

Added on April 11th, Results:

-Seven people got it right before the announced closing time. Hema, Sreela, sorry, you guys were right, but your answers did not make it in time. Sandhya, you did not have the author, but I made an exception, because this is a tough one.

-I inserted the names of the people with right answers in an excel file, ordered by the time they sent their reply.

-To choose one person randomly, I used a RANDBETWEEN function.

-The winner is entry number 6, N.Chokkan. Please to get in touch with me through gmail(utbtkids@gmail.com) and we will discuss the prize.

-Thanks for playing folks.

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Guess The Book And Survey Result

utbt — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 05:55:25 +0000

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Edited to add:

The book is India Calling by Anand Giridharadas.

Congrats Reva on winning the quiz.

You can pick THE SEED or RADHA FINDS THE CIRCLE.

Please send me an email with your address.

I was surprised by the number of people guessing the right answer. Well done folks.

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As I was reading my older posts, yes I often do that to flatter myself, I almost gasped because I left the Sitcom Parenting survey hanging in midair. Sorry folks, way too many things going on.

Survey results are: 18 people answered the survey; 15 people voted for Claire Huxtable; 2 for Jill Taylor; 0 for Rosanne; 1 for Mrs.Beaver.

Now to the much neglected Guess The Book, book quiz.

- Guess the complete TITLE and AUTHOR of this book.

- Quiz closes Friday, March 4th. 4.00PM PST.

- Results will be announced Monday, March 7th, 4.00AM PST. Just in case I lapse in to short term amnesia, feel free to ping me.

- The prize is a book. I want to choose a book appropriate for you/your child. So will announce the title of the book after I announce the winner.

-Comment moderation is on.

Your picture clue is

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Guess The Book(s)

utbt — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 19:13:05 +0000

EDITED TO ADD ANSWERS

PV requested a Eric Carle quiz and here it goes.

-There are FOUR Eric Carle books. You have to find ALL four.

-There is a clue for EVERY word in the title of the book.

Example: Yesterday would be too soon, tomorrow would be too early, something in between (= TODAY) ; First half of DESI in reverse(= IS); Second day of the week(= MONDAY). Name of the book = TODAY IS MONDAY.

-Do not expect the title words to be in order. Decipher each word and from the 19 words, unscramble the four titles.

-Quiz closes July 28, Wed, 4.00PM PST. First person to list ALL FOUR titles, wins. First one to get ALL FOUR wins.

-Result will be posted July 29, Thursday, 4.00AM PST, latest.

(1) They dropped the why.

(2) A short line.

(3) Not unsaid.

(4) Thorough blending, in the past.

(5) Not a very fast adverb.

(6) My pronoun.

(7) 59 of its species exists in Madagascar.

(8) Famous movie with this dialogue.

Person1: Hey, let’s play a game. It’s called “see who can be quiet the longest.”

Person2: Cool! My mom loves that game!

(9) Teeny weeny.

(10) _____, set, go.

(11) One of the seven deadly sins, according to the Christian moral tradition.

(12) She _____________ ate her food.

(13) If you are texting or tweeting you would just type 4.

(14) Definitely an article.

(15) One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

(16) One of the magic words.

(17) Particular, three letter, article.

(18) If in tamil, a small baby girl will respond to this. In few other languages a small child will use this to address an adult.

(19) Think blogs: tag____________

Answers:
(1) They dropped the why. = The
(2) A short line. = Hyphen mark (-)
(3) Not unsaid. = Said
(4) Thorough blending, in the past. = Mixed
(5) Not a very fast adverb. = Slowly
(6) My pronoun. = Me
(7) 59 of its species exists in Madagascar= Chameleon
(8) Famous movie with this dialogue = Up
Person1: Hey, let’s play a game. It’s called “see who can be quiet the longest.”
Person2: Cool! My mom loves that game!
(9) Teeny weeny. = Little
(10) _____, set, go. = Get
(11) One of the seven deadly sins, according to the Christian moral tradition. = Sloth
(12) She _____________ ate her food. = Slowly
(13) If you are texting or tweeting you would just type 4.= For
(14) Definitely an article. = The
(15) One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. = Moon
(16) One of the magic words. = Please
(17) Particular, three letter, article. = The
(18) If in tamil, a small baby girl will respond to this. In few other languages a small child will use this to address an adult. = Papa
19) Tag ……= Cloud (a tag cloud is a collection of tags)

The books are
Papa Please Get The Moon For Me
The Mixed-Up Chameleon
Slowly Slowly Said The Sloth
Little Cloud

PV wins the quiz. Chox, Sandhya, good try
PV, please pick one of the following books. That is going to be the award

Help! Help! (Kapathunga Kapathunga), Tulika English-Tamil bilingual picture book.
or Best Friends(Nalla Nanbargal), Tulika English-Tamil bilingual picture book.

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Guess The Book(s)

utbt — Wed, 26 May 2010 17:40:45 +0000

EDITED TO ADD CLUES.

Long time since we played this. So we have two pics.

Pic1: There are five books. Guess the names of the books.
Clue1: All are children’s books. Target age group 3+ – 8.
Clue2: If you have been following book publishers blogs, it is easy to pick out the cover art.

Pic2: This is the book I am reading currently.
Clue1: Young adult book, but……I read it anyway. So deal with it.
Clue2: It is Newbery Medal award winner.

Rules:
Quiz closes by May 28, 5.30PM PST.
Results will be out May 31, 4.00AM PST
The first person to get all the 6 books right before May 28, 5.30PM PST wins.
The reward is a big round of applause. Currently very affordable

The books are as follows.

Pic1: Assuming I have sorted out my left-right confusion,

Top left: The Boy Who Drew Cats by Anushka Ravishankar, Illustrations Christine Kastl, Published by Karadi Tales

Top right: The Rumour by Anushka Ravishankar, Illustrations by Kanyiki Kini, Published by Karadi Tales

Bottom left: When The Earth Lost It’s Shapes by Shobha Viswanath, Illustrations Chistine Kastl, Published by Karadi Tales

Bottom right: The Lizard’s Tail by Shobha Viswanath, Illustrations by Christine Kastl, Published by Karadi Tales

Left middle: All About Nothing, Concept and Art by Nina Sabnani, Written by Deepa Nayar, Published by Tulika

Pic2: A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Such a vision in 1962!! Amazing!! Planet Camazotz and IT reminded me of certain shades of 1984 by George Orwell. Considering that 1984 was published in 1949, it must have certainly influenced L’Engle. But Wrinkle In Time has a happy ending, unlike 1984(*shudder*), and sends a strong message that love is the ultimate messiah.

A big hand to Sandhya and Kaapi for getting pic 2: A wrinkle In Time right. Good job guys. Sandhya, keen eye, you picked out the Karadi Tales title from my bookshelf.

Guess The Book

utbt — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:48:02 +0000

See I simply cannot resist
Email, comment by Friday, 4.00AM PST.

And the clue is……

GuessBookFeb2010

Updated to add:

The answer is: THE GREAT INDIAN NOVEL by SHASHI THAROOR

The Print Lover nailed it. She says “Vyasa + Pillaiyar = Mahabaratha Twitter bird -> Shashi Tharoor?” And exactimo!

I have read Mahabaratha by many different authors and that was instrumental in me picking up this book. It took me a few pages to understand the allegory, but I was proud and pleased as plum that I did it all by myself without running to Wikipedia. Though I had to take a break from it I found it compelling enough to return to it. So far a good read.

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Guess What Book

utbt — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:00:46 +0000

I am reading currently.

Here is your clue and the condition is, YOU CANNOT GOOGLE.

Come on, be true to your heart.

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WAR IS PEACE

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

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Send your replies to me by email utbtkids@gmail.com.

You have till Jan 29, 2010 4.00AM PST

Edited to add

Law abiding citizens, the answer is

1984 by George Orwell

113 ppl have viewed this post. I get nada emails. So I take it tha ALL of you googled to find the answer. What honest citizens I say!!

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