Question 616 to 640: 2nd Anniversary Celebrations

Hi all,
Its 20th May and Quizlexic is 2 years old now and has become Pune's best quizzing blog thanks to the efforts of the entire team. Cheers!
Here are 25 questions compiled together by Rohan, Rohit, Alok, Siddharth and Aditya. This particular set is open till May 30th. Answer in comments as usual.


1) This person was born on 9 April 1954 at his grandfather’s coffee plantation in Chikmagalur, adjacent to Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary and Project Tiger Reserve in Karnataka. He is of Tamil origin while he speaks Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and English.
His acquaintance with the natural world began when he was nine and was gifted Edward Pritchard Gee’s book The Wildlife of India which has stayed with him all these years.
He graduated with a B. Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. Between 1975-77 he studied at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College and received a Master of Science in Management and public policy. In 1977-78, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology he studied technology policy, economics, engineering, and management, as part of the newly-established inter-disciplinary technology policy programme.He is a founding member of the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad and is a member of the International Council of the New York-based Asia Society. He has been an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Chinese Studies, New Delhi since 2002. He considers himself a student of Buddhism. Who?

2) X is nothing but a virtual world networking and community site, an initiative by Y. X has five imaginary planets namely ‘Solaria’, ‘Mayuraprasth’, ‘Noom’, ‘Turqua’, ‘Snow-flash’, and ‘Re-janm’ each world with different landscape, architecture and life style. 13,000 registrations occured in the first 13 hours of the launch of the website. Identify X and Y.

3) X was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve original apostles of Jesus.
Of the twelve, he alone is reported to have kept a "money bag" ( but he is best known for his role in betraying Jesus into the hands of Jewish religious authorities.
Y is a character in the Arthurian legend, known as a notorious traitor who fought King Arthur at the Battle of Camlann, where he was killed and Arthur fatally wounded.
Tradition varies on his relationship to Arthur, but he is best known today as Arthur's illegitimate son by his half-sister Morgause. Identify X and Y.
This formed the basis for the storyline of which two famous literary characters?

4) X is a historical name used in the context of Ancient Rome in references to the region of Western Europe approximating present day France, Luxembourg and Belgium, but also sometimes including the Po Valley, western Switzerland, and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine. In English, the word X may also refer to an inhabitant of that region , although the expression may be used more generally for all ancient speakers of the language (an early variety of Celtic). This language was widespread in Europe, but it shared X with other languages (including at least the Aquitanian language, and also possibly a separate Belgic language. What is X?

5)In Norse mythology, X (from Old Norse for "chooser of the slain") is one of a host of female figures who decide who will die in battle. The X's bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla, ruled over by the god Odin. X also appear as lovers of heroes and other mortals, where they are sometimes described as the daughters of royalty, sometimes accompanied by ravens, and sometimes connected to swans. Connect X with the image below.

6)These 3 politicians have the unique distinction of being the only 3 ________ _________ of India. Fill in the blanks.

7) Identify and connect: (Order is important)

8) Connect to a place:

9) Simply Connect:

10) Put funda:

11) Identify the guy in the middle:

12) Identify this recently deceased personality.

13) Logo for which yet-to-come soccer tournament?

14) On what date was this iconic photograph taken?

15) Identify this pair:

16) Headquarters of which company?

17) Old logo of?

18) Identify the guy with MJ who has changed the life of many across the world:

19) Sitter: Identify:

20) Another sitter: Whose ride is this?

21) Inspiration for which recently released movie?

22) Identify:

23) This is the logo of which airport? (Give full name)

24) Who is he? Who's archenemy is he?

25) Identify the artist.

So long.....and thanks for all your support!

Answers
1. Jairam Ramesh
2. GoJiyo(X) and Godrej(Y)
3. Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape
4. Gaul
5. Valkyries (picture shows the last attempt on Adolf Hitler's life as as shown in the movie Valkyrie)
6. Acting Presidents of India: V.V. Giri, Muhammad Hidayatullah, Basappa Danappa Jatti.
7. Sean Connery(Indian Jones I), Harrison Ford(Indian Jones II) and Shia LaBeouf(Indian Jones III).
8. Iwo Jima (the soldiers who lifted the flag on Iwo Jima, the location of the island and the movie Letters from Iwo Jima)
9. Noah (Steve Carrell portraying a character similar to Noah in the film Evan Almighty, painting depicting Noah and a dove and Mt. Ararat where Noah landed his Ark after the great flood.
10. These are images taken by IBM through their revolutionary Scanning Tunneling Microscope. The three images are of surfaces of metals copper and iron.
11. Freddy Mercury in his first band The Hectics
12. Late Polish president Lech Kaczyński
13. UEFA Ero 2012
14. 6th June 1944 aka D-Day
15. Duckworth and Lewis
16. Air India in Mumbai
17. VH1
18. Simon Fuller, creator of American Idol.
19. 50 cent
20. John Lennon
21. Bum Bum Bole
22. Tiger Woods
23. Charles De Gaulle Airport of Paris
24. Green Goblin, archenemy of Spiderman
25. Andy Warhol