Q:1. The TMC described the Tamil Nadu budget as sweet and sour, and compared it to...
a. Krackjack biscuits
b. A Chinese meal
c. AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa's mood swings

Q 2. Vimla Mishra died in Gwalior a week ago. She was 80 and...
a. Indira Gandhi's close friend in Allahabad
b. A.B. Vajpayee's sister
c. Freedom fighter and heroine of the Quit India movement, 1942

Q 3. Books worth at least Rs 50,000 have been damaged at Loreto College, Darjeeling, by...
a. Gorkha militants who set the library on fire
b. Monkeys from a nearby temple
c. Parents of children denied admission

Answers: 1(a), 2(b), 3(b)

TELLY SCOPE
Question of Moving

LANKA Q&A: The whiz kids with O'Brien and Ranatunga

In the closing days of March, 126 Indians boarded planes from Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai for Colombo, Sri Lanka. Collectively, they constituted the biggest Indian television crew-if the definition of the word could be stretched-to go abroad. The Bournvita Quiz Contest (BQC), a radio favourite in the 1970s and 1980s and a TV regular since 1993, travelled to the beaches of south Sri Lanka for their first "outdoor" affair.

BQC, which has moved from Zee to Sony and will debut on its new channel sometime in April, is the televised finale of a contest that stretches to 4,500 schools and 11.5 lakh schoolchildren in India and west Asia. In Sri Lanka, quizmaster Derek O'Brien had local celebrities as special guests. The most popular guest, apparently, was former cricketer Arjuna Ranatunga.

The departure of O'Brien's BQC-which one producer calls a "low TRP, high profile show"-is not the first time Zee has lost out on a personality-based programme it virtually incubated. Rajat Sharma (Aap ki Adalat) and Sonu Nigam (Sa Re Ga Ma) are other examples. Sony's gain, however, is a somewhat different version of the earlier show. Gone are the studio shoots. The budget too is more expansively spent. Locations will alternate between India and, well, non-India. This summer the BQC team heads for Singapore. Will Lee Kuan Yew be a guest?

HERITAGE
Time for Replay on the First Track

STEAM AWAY: India's first train, 1853

The holiday cost Lord Falkland a place in Indian history. When the first passenger train of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway started its 57-minute journey from Boribunder to Tanna (now Thane) on April 16, 1853, the governor instead went to the hills for a vacation.

But current Maharashtra Governor P.C. Alexander plans to be an active participant in the Central Railways' celebration of 150 years of its existence. The festivities include exhibitions and travel promotion throughout the year. Alexander, along with 400 others, will witness two steam engines and vintage coaches run by retired railway workers begin a re-enactment of the historic journey. Incidentally, the trip still takes as long.
-Himanshi Dhawan

NEW RELEASES

CLASSIC GOLD
(HMV; Rs 70)
Bade Ghulam Ali's performances on 78 rpm discs, now as a cassette.
Classic indeed.

NAMAH SHIVAYA
(Sony Nad; Rs 55)
An album of Shiva mantras by Pandit Jasraj,
Roopkumar Rathod and Hariharan.

SHIVA STATION
(Free Spirit; Rs 100)
Chants from the Himalayas and the Bauls of Bengal.
Pleasing East-meets-West sound.

NA TUM JANO NA HUM
(HMV; Rs 55)
A promising debut by singer Pamela Jain. Rajesh Roshan leaves
his stamp on this one.