IZ #25.125 - Stop Sign
#Entertainment #Travel #India
It’s Monday, so hail the arrival of your weekly IZ quizletter!
Before you get to today’s question, here are some IZ bonuses:
For fellow Maharashtrians and India Geography geeks: I wrote up a short quiz on how some Maharashtrian districts got their names. The quiz is here.
This month’s Prize Contest is on National Flowers. While researching for the quiz, I stumbled upon something: that the Lotus is NOT officially India’s National Flower. In the sense that the Government says: hey, who declared it so? We don’t have any record of doing so.
In 2019, the government stated in Parliament that no such notification had ever been issued. Even the government’s pages don’t show such an entry for National Flower.
However, other wings of the government, such as India’s Ministry of External Affairs has asserted this as if it’s a fact.
Curious, right?
Turns out that many countries don’t have an officially declared National Flower, even though it is so in the popular imagination. So the Lotus? Kind of like how Hockey is supposed to be India’s national sport but isn’t.
If you are new to IZ, welcome! The question of the week is below. To give you a moment to consider what the answer could be, there’s an interludez section with a quote before the answer is revealed.
And now to today’s question:
Michael Palin was a famed member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, and later also became a TV travel journalist.
In 2004, he recorded the TV series ‘Himalaya’, in which he traveled around the Himalayas. In episode 2, Palin is visiting a certain place and observes the activities there.
He remarks jokingly that the people there may have been inspired by his fellow actor John Cleese’s famous Ministry of Silly Walks routine (see below).
So where was Michael Palin visiting when he said this?
#interludez
Answer
At the Attari-Wagah border between India and Pakistan, famous for its robust, cock-strutting ceremony. This has been paused in the wake of the tensions between India and Pakistan after the Pahalgam massacre of April 2025.
