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Week 500 Special Quiz

(NOTE: This quiz is now over. See below for quiz answers and winners)

Introduction

Dear Rasikas,

Welcome to our Special Quiz 500 - The Coding Challenge

We would like to take a moment to thank all our rasikas for traveling with us in this musical journey called Raga Surabhi for all these 500 weeks and for their continuous encouragement and support. Without you this would not have been possible! A BIG thanks to each one of you from all of us at Raga Surabhi!

We have all been thinking that coding is only for computer professionals, isn't it? Well, what if we could write numeric codes for raga phrases? This interesting thought process resulted in the special quiz for week 500! It is totally a fun quiz and the idea behind this quiz is just to understand and appreciate how the swara patterns are constituted in different phrases.

Let's start with the rules of the game
(NOTE: This quiz is now over. See below for quiz answers and winners)

Week 500 Special Quiz Winners

A note to participants from Raga Surabhi:
Dear Rasikas,

We are excited to announce the results of this special quiz. First of all, thanks to all our rasikas for their participation and many congratulations to all the participants and winners of this special quiz! This quiz required a bit of understanding of the arohanam avarohanam of ragas and their application to the numeric codes. Even though not very difficult, it would require some time to get into the groove and start finding the answers.

Like always, this time too, you have all amazed us with your great performances. Special congratulations and three cheers to the perfect scorers!

Results:

» Perfect scorer: (500/500) - Vijay Kannan, Vasuki Prabhakar, Lalitha Shyamsundar, Sarath R, Krishnaprabha Chari, Chandramohan Nair, Raveendranathan R M, Swarnalakshmi S, Varsha Venkataraghavan, R S Anuradha, Sumana Alladi
» Missed by a whisker (480,490) - Krishna Kumari, Nagarajan Narayana Iyer, Geetha Nagarajan, Umagiri, Lakshmi SLP, Priya Balasubramanian, Prerna Sivakumar
» Missed a few (400 - 480) - Lekshmi Vijai, Swathy Vasudevan, Denuka R, Sonti Siddharth, Shaila Kamath, Deepa Ramesh,Sukanya Ramesh, Uddhavan Rangarajan, P Jyothi, Srikar Kannapalli, Uma Prasanna, Meera Narayanan, Saraswathy Umamaheswaran, Hema

Scroll down below to end of this page for quiz answers (Click here for Special Quiz 500 answers)

Rules of the game

1. Every question is a numeric code. Rasikas have to choose the raga phrase corresponding to that code from the 4 audio clips given below. Wait... wait... but what is a numeric code?? Read on...

2. Every raga is constituted with a set of swaras. One has to start by assigning numbers to the swaras in the Arohanam / Avarohanam.
* For Melakarta ragas which contain all the swaras, S R G M P D N S in the Arohanam - Avarohanam, the number codes will be 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and the reverse. (If you want to go beyond higher S, just continue to assign 9, 10 etc)
* For Pentatonic raga like Mohanam which has the swaras S R G P D S, the coding will be 1 2 3 4 5 6 and its reverse.
* For a raga with vakra sanchara like Ananda Bhairavi, S G R G M P D P S / S N D P M G R S, the coding will be 1 3 2 3 4 5 6 5 8 / 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1.
* For a raga with different ascent and descent like Vasantha S G M D N S / S N D M G R S, the coding will be 1 3 4 5 6 7 / 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
* So what is clear is the number codes for swaras will vary depending on the raga.

3. Let's now understand how to solve the quiz. The question is a numeric code. You are provided with 4 audio clips, with the raga being mentioned in each clip. After listening to the clip, you need to match the audio with the numeric code.
For a simple code like 1234, a phrase with four successive swaras on the ascent, let us try to write down the answers in different ragas -
Mayamalava Gowlai - S R G M
Mohanam - S R G P
Amrithavarshini - S G M P and so on.
An audio clip which features any one of these phrases would be the correct answer. Once you have figured out the correct answer, look for other clips with the same pattern and include them in your answer. That is, any other clip which has a similar four note ascent pattern. R G M P, G M P D, M P D N…..all these patterns of any Melakarta raga would match with the initial S R G M pattern. Similarly R G P D, G P D S patterns of Mohanam would be the identical patterns to the S R G P pattern. So your answer would be the one which directly matches the numeric code and other matching patterns if any.

4. Important Note: Kaarvais need not be considered, only the swara pattern and how swaras are placed within a pattern is important.

The Coding Challenge - Sample Questions and Answers

Listen to these sample clips and familiarise yourselves with the codes and then go to the real sample question:

Sample question: CodeExplanation
(Raga Mohanam) Two notes on the ascent, back to the first note and then skipping a note (dhaattu) and coming back to it.
(Raga Hamsadwani)Three notes on the ascent and descent back to the starting note
(Raga Kalyani) Four notes on the ascent and two notes on the descent
(Raga Vasantha) Three notes on the ascent and then back to first note and going for a dhaattu prayoga

Real Sample Question

Sample question 5 code: 543456

In the above clips, the first clip in Mayamalava Gowlai matches the code exactly. A three note descent followed by a three note ascent pattern suggested in the code can be found in the clips Hamsanadam and Saveri as well. So the correct answer is as follows:
SQ5 Answer: 5a, 5b and 5d
(Note that 5c does not follow the code mentioned).
Got it??

Rules of the game (cont'd)

You are beginning to feel this quiz is slightly tricky?? Well, it is the 500th week of Raga Surabhi, sure it should make you think a little hard :) We are quite sure you all would enjoy cracking the raga codes and would amaze us with your performances as always!!
Have fun solving and wishing you all the very best!
Please note the following:
    - Deadline for submission: 5th April 2019
    - Send answers to quiz@ragasurabhi.com
On your marks, get, set and go!!

The Coding Challenge - Questions

Question 1 code: 3 4 2

Question 2 code: 4 3 5 4

Question 3 code: 6 6 5 4

Question 4 code: 4 5 6 4

Question 5 code: 1 2 3 5 4

Question 6 code: 3 2 3 4 5

Question 7 code: 2 3 2 3 4 5

Question 8 code: 3 4 5 4 3 4 2

Question 9 code: 3 4 5 4 3 2 1

Question 10 code: 5 4 5 6 7 6 5 4

Please send in your answers in a simple format indicating the question number and mentioning correct option or options for that question. The maximum marks for this quiz is 500 (coinciding with week 500 :) More details on that while we announce the results!

Please mail your answers to quiz@ragasurabhi.com before 5th April 2019. All the best!

Have fun solving and wishing you all the very best!

 

Special Quiz 500 Answers

Click here to view answers (Spoiler alert: All answers are shown at once)