Question Bank on Indian

Literature in English
From the Contemporary Period to the Beginnings

1. The Hindu Literary Prize 2012 was awarded to the novel Em and the Big
Hoom, written by ................ .
A: Jerry Pinto

2. Asylum and Other Poems is a collection of poems by .................... .

A: Jerry Pinto

3. Which is the book of contemporary Indian love poetry that Jerry Pinto
co-edited in 2005? A: Confronting Love

4. Who is the ‘Em’ in the title of Jerry Pinto’s novel Em and the Big Hoom
?
A: The mentally afflicted mother, Imelda Mendes

5. The Em and the Big Hoom gives a picture of the life of the ...................
in Bombay.
A: Goan Christians

6. Which is the book based on the Bollywood actress and dancer Helen,
written by Jerry Pinto, that won the 2006 National Film Award for Best
Book on Cinema?
A: Helen : The Life and Times of an H-Bomb

7. The famous Shiva trilogy is written by .................. A: Amish Tripathi

8. Who is the scientist figure in Part I of the Shiva Trilogy predominantly
involved in the production of Somras in Mount Mandar? A: Brihaspati
9. How did the Meluhans identify Shiva as the Neelkanth ?
A: The throat of Shiva turned blue when he drank the Somras
10. Who is the consort of Shiva in the Shiva Trilogy? A: Sati
11. The Meluhans wage war against the ......................... in the Shiva
Trilogy.
A: Chandravanshis
12. Which is the Naga capital mentioned in the novel The Secret of the
Nagas ?
A: Panchavati
13. What is discovered as the true evil in the novel The Oath of the
Vayuputras ?
A: Somras
14. Which is the land of the Vayuputras?
A: Pariha
15. Why did Mahadev use the pasupatiastras even when he was not
granted permission by the vayuputras?
A: He was angered by the murder of Sati
16. Malabar Mind is a collection of poems written by ................... .
A: Anita Nair
17. Which novel of Anita Nair features a middleaged Indian woman
Akhila who travels to Kanyakumari in search of her independence? A:
Ladies Coupe

18. Who is the detective protagonist in the novel Cut Like Wound (2012)?
A: Inspector Borei Gowda

19. Koman is the famous Kathakali dancer in Anita Nair’s

novel....................... .
A: Mistress (2005)

20. Who is the housewife protagonist of the novel Lessons in Forgetting

(2010), the writer of cookery books in Lilac House?
A: Meera

21. The eccentric character in The Better Man who helps the retired
government official transform is ...................... .
A: Bhasi

22. The subtitle of Anita Nair’s sixth novel Idris ? A: Keeper of the Light
23. The Puffin Book of World Myths and Legends is written by
...................... .
A: Anita Nair
24. Who is the Indo-Australian writer who won the 2008 Man Booker
Prize?
A: Aravind Adiga
25. The protagonist of Aravind Adiga’s Man Booker Prize winning novel
The White Tiger is .......................... .
A: Balram Halwai
26. Balram Halwai’s letter, written in seven consecutive nights, is
addressed to the Chinese Premier.............................. .
A: Wen Jiabao
27. When does Balram acquire the title ‘White Tiger’?
A: He acquires the title when he impresses a school inspector with his
intelligence
28. Which Muslim poet does Balram Halwai quote when he says about the
slaves thus, “They remain slaves because they can’t see what is beautiful
in this world”?
A: Iqbal
29. Who does Balram strike dead with a bottle? A: Ashok, the son of a rich
landlord of
Laxmangarh
30. Which novel according to its author, “attempt[s] to catch the voice of
the men you meet as you travel through India — the voice of the colossal
underclass”?
A: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
31. Between the Assassinations and Last Man in Tower are novels by
................ .
A: Aravind Adiga
32. Between the Assassinations (2008), which takes place in the fictitious
town of Kittur, is a collection of ............................ .
A: short stories

33. Between the Assassinations bears considerable similarity with Aravind

Adiga’s novel
........................ .
A: The White Tiger
34. What is the real name of Masterji, the retired schoolteacher, in the
novel Last Man in Tower ? A: Yogesh A. Murthy

35. Which work by Monica Ali follows the life of Nazneen, a Bangladeshi
woman, who gets married to an older man, Chanu?
A: Brick Lane

36. The midwife in Brick Lane, who claims to be one hundred and twenty
years old, is ............................ . A: Banesa

37. What does Chanu call the tattoo lady who lives in the opposite flat?
A: Hell’s Angel

38. Chanu uses the proverb, “A blind uncle is better than no uncle” to
describe ....................... . A: His wife Nazneen

39. Who is the sister of Nazneen in Brick Lane, who leads a carefree life in
Bangladesh?
A: Hasina

40. Which are the two words that make up the English of Nazneen initially
in the novel? A: Sorry, Thank you

41. Who is the leader of Bengal Tigers in Brick Lane ?

A: Karim
42. Alentejo Blue, In the Kitchen and Untold Story are
novels by .................. .
A: Monica Ali
43. Which novel by Monica Ali is set in the small
Portuguese village Mamarrosa?
A: Alentejo Blue
44. Who is the executive chef of the Imperial Hotel
in the novel In the Kitchen ?
A: Gabriel Lightfoot
45. Who is the young attractive woman who enters
the life of Gabriel and changes the course of his
life in the novel In the Kitchen ?
A: Lena
46. Manju Kapur’s novel that won the
Commonwealth Prize in 1999 is .............. .
A: Difficult Daughters
47. Who is the New Woman in Difficult Daughters
(1998)?
A: Virmati
48. Who reconstructs Virmati’s history in
retrospect?
A: Her daughter Ida
49. Where did Virmati go to study, rejecting the
confinements of her mother Kasturi’s world of
marriage and child bearing?
A: Lahore
50. What is the name of the cousin who inspires
Virmati to rise above her limitations?
A: Shakuntala
51. Who is the author of the novel Custody ?
A: Manju Kapur
52. In the novel Custody, who leaves Raman for
another man?
A: Shagun
53. In A Married Woman, .................. dissatisfied,
begins an affair with the widow of a political
activist.
A: Astha
54. Which novel by Manju Kapur centers on a
thirty-year old English lecturer, Nina, living with
her widowed mother in New Delhi?
A: The Immigrant
55. The Banwari family with the traditional
business of selling sarees, collapses in their
fortune with the arrival of jeans and salwar
kameez in Manju Kapur’s ..................... .
A: Home
56. Which of Kiran Desai’s work is set in the Indian
village of Shahkot (Punjab) and follows the life
of Sampath Chawla who settles down in a guava
orchard as a false clairvoyant in order to escape
the complexities of adult life .............. .
A: Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard (1998)

57. Who is the real-life character upon whom the character of Sampath
Chawla in the novel Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard is based? A: Kapila
Pradhan

58. The Booker Prize winning novel By Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of
Loss, centres around the characters .............. and ................. .
A: Biju and Sai

59. What is the name of the dog of Sai?

A: Mutt
60. What is the historical backdrop of the novel The Inheritance of Loss ?
A: The Gorkhaland movement
61. Who is the retired judge in the novel The Inheritance of Loss ?
A: Jemubhai Patel
62. The first South Asian to win Pulitzer Prize in Fiction is .................. .
A: Jhumpa Lahiri
63. The first South Asian to win the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry is
............................ .
A: Vijay Seshadri
64. Which is the debut short story collection of Jhumpa Lahiri?
A: The Interpreter of Maladies
65. Which novel of Jhumpa Lahiri spans over 30 years of the life of the
Ganguli family? A: The Namesake , her first novel
66. Who names their son after the Russian author Nikolai Gogol?
A: Ashoke and Ashima in Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake
67. Which work by Nikolai Gogol does Ashoke read in the novel The
Namesake ? A: “The Overcoat” included in a short story collection of
Gogol
68. The parents of the boy Gogol, wants him to be called by the name
............................... in
kindergarten.
A: Nikhil
69. What was written in the note pinned to Gogol’s shirt when he returned
from school?
A: The note stated that the boy will be called by the name Gogol as that
was his preference
70. Which name does the boy in the novel The Namesake hate by the time
he is a teenager? A: Gogol
71. Where was Ashoke teaching when he died of a heart attack?
A: Ohio
72. Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel The Namesake has been adopted into a film by
............... .
A: Mira Nair.
73. What is the subtitle of Lahiri’s The Long Way Home ?
A: Cooking Lessons

74. A New World, A Strange and Sublime Adress, Freedom Song and The
Immortals are all novels by ....................... .
A: Amit Chaudari

75. Who acknowledged Amit Chaudari’s study of D. H. Lawrence’s poetry

in D. H. Lawrence and ‘Difference’ as ‘truly groundbreaking’? A: Terry
Eagleton

76. Where is the Freedom Song by Amit Chaudari set?

A: Calcutta

77. Which are the first two novels of Amit Chaudari? A: A Strange and
Sublime Address and Afternoon Raag

78. Jayojit Chatterjee in the novel A New World is a professor of

.......................... .
A: Economics

79. Where does Jayojit Chatterjee go with this son Bonny to spend his
summer holidays? A: His home at Calcutta

80. Which novel by Amit Chaudari is about music in the modern world?
A: The Immortals (2009)
81. What does the sixteen-year-old Nirmalya Sengupta want to study in
The Immortals ? A: Indian classical music

82. Where does Ananda rent a house in Odysseus Abroad by Amit

Chaudari?

A: Warren Street
83. Who is the uncle of Ananda, whom he goes to
see in Belsize Park?
A: Rangamama
84. What is the subtitle of Meena Alexander’s Nightscene ?
A: The Garden
85. The women in romanticism according to Meena
Alexander are ................................... .
A: Mary Wollstonecraft, Dorothy Wordsworth
and Mary Shelley
86. The Illiterate Heart and Raw Silk are collections
of ........................... by Meena Alexander.
A: Poems
87. Nampally Road and Manhattan Music are novels
by ................. .
A: Meena Alexander
88. Who is raped by the police in Nampally Road?
A: Rameeza Be
89. Manhattan Music is set in .......................... and
........................... .
A: Manhattan and India
90. What is the nationality of the man to whom
Sandhya Rosenblum of Manhattan Music is
married?
A: American Jewish
91. Meena Alexander’s autobiography is .................... .
A: Fault Lines

92. Which novel is set in Ayemenem in the period from 1969 to 1993?
A: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
93. Who has studied in Oxford to return later to run the family pickle
business, after divorcing his English wife, Margaret?
A: Ammu Ipe’s brother, Chacko

94. Who is called Baby Kochamma in the novel The God of Small Things ?
A: Navomi Ipe, the sister of Pappachi who is Ammu’s father

95. Who is the young Irish priest who came to Ayemenem to study Hindu
Scriptures and with whom Baby Kochamma fell in love?
A: Father Mulligan

96. What did Baby Kochamma do to get closer to Father Mulligan?

A: She converted to Roman Catholicism and joined a convent. She left the
convent after a few months when she realised the futility of her plans.

97. In which subject did Baby Kochamma take a diploma in America

following the failure of her love affair?
A: Ornamental Gardening

98. The names of the twins in Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things
are ............... .
A: Rahel and Estha.

99. The family in Ayemenem goes to the theatre to watch

.............................. .
A: The Sound of Music

100. Whom does Ammu call “the millstones around her neck”?
A: Rahel and Estha

101. Which age is referred to as the “viable, die – able age” in the novel
The God of Small Things ? A: 31

102. Who dies in the novel The God of Small Things as a result of
drowning?
A: Sophie, the daughter of Chacko and Margaret
103. What is the nationality of Vikram Chandra? A: Indian-American
104. Vikram Chandra’s first novel that was inspired by the autobiography
of James Skinner, an Anglo-Indian soldier is ..................... .
A: Red Earth and Pouring Rain
105. In Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Mistress of Spices , the “mistress
of spice” is ..................... . A: Tilo
106. Where is The Mistress of Spices set?
A: Oakland, California
107. Who is the American man with whom the mistress of spices falls in
love?
A: Raven
108. The sequel to Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s novel Sister of My Heart
that focuses on the story of Anju and Sudha is ............................ .
A: The Vine of Desire
109. Arranged Marriage is a collection of
............................ by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. A: Short stories
110. Who is the first English playwright to be awarded the Sahitya
Academy Award in 1998? A: Mahesh Dattani
111. Which is the radio play written by Mahesh Dattani for BBC?
A: Seven Circles Round The Fire (1998)
112. Where There’s a Will by Mahesh Dattani belongs to the genre
........................... .
A: Drawing room comedy
113. Where There’s a Will has a .......................... setting. A: Gujarati
114. Who tries to control his family even after his death through his will
in the play Where There’s a Will ?
A: Hasmukh Mehta
115. In Dance Like a Man , who does not like Jairaj’s career as a dancer?
A: His father, Amritlal Patel
116. Jairaj’s father, Amritlal is a ........................... , an important figure
whose reforms his son does not appreciate.
A: Freedom fighter
117. Whose help does Amritlal seek to discourage his son from training
himself as a dancer? A: Ratna, his daughter-in-law
118. Who form pairs in Dance Like a Man performing double roles?
A: Young Jairaj – Viswas, Young Ratna – Lata, Old Jairaj – Amritlal
119. Who is the boyfriend of Lata?
A: Viswas
120. What is the father of Viswas?
A: A businessman
121. In which play of Mahesh Dattani does a crescent
– shaped ramp dominate the stage?
A: Final Solutions
122. The time period in which the play Final Solutions is set is ............. .
A: From the Partition(1947) to the end of the 20th century
123. In Final Solutions, ........................... represents the first generation.
A: Hardika
124. The granddaughter of Hardika, who is not allowed to have a
relationship with a Muslim boy is ................... .
A: Samita
125. Who comments, “Yes, things have not changed that much”?
A: Hardika, after reading the diary entry made nearly four decades ago
126. Hardika is also called by the name ...................... . A: Daksha
127. In which of Mahesh Dattani’s plays does Ramnik Gandhi, a Hindu
businessman who gives refuge to two Muslim boys, Javed and Bobby
appear? A: Final Solutions
128. In which of Dattani’s plays do the Siamese twins named Chandan and
Tara appear?
A: Tara
129. Which is the debut film of Mahesh Dattani, adapted from his play On
a Muggy Night in Mumbai ?
A: Mango Souffle
130. Which work of the Gujarati playwright Madhu Rye influenced
Mahesh Dattani in writing his plays?
A: Kumarni Agashi
131. In the play Tara , who changes his name to Dan as an expression of
guilt?
A: Chandan, after he feels responsible for the surgery performed on his
Siamese twin, Tara, at birth whereby he received two of the three legs, on
account of him being a boy
132. Who is the mother of the Siamese twins in the play Tara ?
A: Bharati
133. Which play of Mahesh Dattani features the Trivedi family, the urban
Indian milieu? A: Bravely Fought the Queen
134. What is the name of the mother of Praful, Dolly and Alka?
A: The mother does not have a name in the play
135. Who is the baby of Jiten Trivedi, born deformed as a result of the
cruelty inflicted on Dolly by her husband (Jiten), upon the suggestion of
his mother Baa?
A: Daksha
136. Why does Praful marry his sister Alka to Nitin? A: Alka is married to
Nitin as a cover of his homosexual relationship with Praful
137. Which historical figure does Alka identify with? A: Rani of Jhansi
138. In the play Bravely Fought the Queen, the alluring cook is
.......................... .
A: Kanhaiya
139. In the play Bravely Fought the Queen, who is the character that
expresses an obsessive love for bonsai?
A: Lalitha
140. Sridhar is the husband of ........................... . A: Lalitha
141. Who is the intelligent and beautiful woman in the play 30 Days in
September who changes her sexual partner every 30 days?
A: Mala
142. How did Mala’s mother react when she told her about the sexual
assault of the uncle upon her? A: Upon hearing it, Mira’s mother either
stuffed her mouth with food or escaped to the Pooja room
143. Whom does the uncle molest in 30 Days in September ?
A: Mala and also her mother Shanti in her younger days
144. In Dattani’s play, On a Muggy Night in Mumbai, who is the
homosexual character with a macho heterosexual exterior and happily
married, but enjoys the gay relationship in secret?
A: Bunny Singh, the TV actor
145. Which character in the play, On a Muggy Night in Mumbai went
abroad (UK) because he thought that India was not a country for
homosexuals? A: Ranjit
146. Who attempts to commit suicide at the end of the play On a Muggy
Night in Mumbai ? A: Ed
147. What does Ed, the homosexual partner of Kamlesh, do following the
advice of his psychiatrist?
A: He switches to a heterosexual orientation and courts Kamlesh’s sister
Kiran
148. In The Circle of Reason by Amitav Ghosh, who is the young master
weaver suspected of being a terrorist?
A: Alu
149. Why does Alu flee to Al-Ghariza and Algeria? A: He flees because he
was wrongly accused of being involved in the terrorist activities
150. In The Circle of Reason, who is a devoted practitioner of phrenology?
A: Balaram, the uncle of Alu
151. Which scientist influences Balaram and consequently starts an anti-
campaign against germs and superstitions in the village? A: Louis Pasteur
152. Which is the hilarious student organisation that blends Hindu religion
and Western natural sciences and believes that Brahma is nothing but an
atom in The Circle of Reason ?
A: Rationalists
153. Amitav Ghosh’s non-fiction work on
ethnography is ............. .
A: In an Antique Land
154. Who is the 12th century Jewish merchant who appears in the second
section of In An Antique Land ?
A: Abraham Ben Yiju
155. Who are the slaves of Abraham Ben Yiju? A: Ashu and Bomma
156. Which Jewish manuscript fragements forms a source in In An Antique
Land ?
A: “Cairo Geniza”
157. Which of Ghosh’s novel has the partition of India as its backdrop
while the story deals with three generations of the narrator’s family that is
spread over Calcutta, Dhaka and London? A: The Shadow Lines
158. Which are the two parts of The Shadow Lines ? A: ‘Going Away’ and
‘Coming Home’
159. Which is the family of the unnamed narrator of the novel The Shadow
Lines ?
A: Dattachaudharis
160. What is the link between the Indian family Dattachaudharis and the
English family Prices? A: The friendship between Justice
Dattachaudhari and Lionel Tresawsen
161. Which shrine was desecrated in 1963? A: The Hazratbal Shrine in
Srinagar
162. The Shadow Lines features the communal riots of 1964 in
.......................... and ............................ . A: Dhaka and Calcutta
163. Who is Tridib admired by the narrator? A: Tridib is the son of the
narrator’s father’s aunt, Mayadebi in England
164. In which subject is Tridib doing a PhD? A: Ancient Indian history
165. Who is critical of Tridib and thinks he is a loafer?
A: Tha’mma
166. Who is the daughter of Tresawsen, whom Tridib is in love with and
dies to rescue her from the mobs in the communal riots of Dhaka? A: May
Price
167. Who is the 90 year old uncle of Tha’mma in Dhaka?
A: Jethmoshi
168. Tha’mma has been the .............................. of a school before she
retired.
A: Principal
169. Who escapes to London in search of freedom after her marriage with
Nick Price turns futile? A: Ila
170. Who says, “It’s a mirage; the whole thing is a mirage. How can
anyone divide a memory?” A: Robi, Tridib’s brother
171. What is the subtitle of Amitav Ghosh’s novel The Calcutta
Chromosome ?
A: “A Novel of Fevers, Delirium and Discovery”
172. Antar, the low-level computer programmer at the LifeWatch
organisation is from ........................ . A: Egypt
173. Who is the British Army officer who fascinated Murugan with his
discovery of how Malaria spreads?
A: Sir Ronald Ross
174. What is the peculiarity of the underground movement that is
described in The Calcutta Chromosome ?
A: The disciples of this underground movement could transfer their
chromosomes into one another and take over that person.
175. The protagonists of the novel The Calcutta Chromosome that takes up
the issue of Malaria is ........................ .
A: Murugan and Ross
176. Which of Ghosh’s novels has Burma as its setting and features the
deposition of the King Thibaw of Burma?
A: The Glass Palace
177. The Glass Palace opens with the war in .........................., where the
British defeat the Burmese in 1885.
A: Mandalay
178. Who is the eleven year old Burmese orphan in the novel The Glass
Palace, who later marries the former queen’s maid Dolly, when he grew
up?
A: Rajkumar
179. Piyali Roy, Kanai, Mashima and Fokir are characters in Ghosh’s novel
............. .
A: The Hungry Tide

180. What is Orcaella brevirostris in the novel Hungry Tide ?

A: A rare endangered species of river dolphin

181. The young illiterate fisherman who rescues Piyali Roy from the
crocodile infested waters is ............................... .
A: Fokir

182. Who is the rich businessman whom Fokir finds as a translator for
Piyali Roy, to aid in her research?
A: Kanai Dutt

183. Which historical incident of 1978-79 forms the backdrop for some
parts of the novel Hungry Tide ?
A: Morichjhanpi massacre

184. Rohinton Mistry’s famous work about the consequences of a bank

fraud in which Gustad Noble, his wife Dilnavaz and Bilimoria are
involved is .............. .
A: Such a Long Journey

185. Where does Gustad Noble live?

A: Khodadad Building, north of Bombay
186. Why does Sohrab, the son of Gustad Noble leave the house?
A: Sohrab wants to pursue art but Gustad Noble wants his son to do his
studies in IIT. Therefore a conflict arises between the father and the son.
187. Who is the neighbour of Gustad Noble practising black and white
magic?
A: Miss Kutpitia
188. ............................. is the 9 year old daughter of Gustad Noble and
Dilnavaz who is chronically ill. A: Roshan
189. The cancer patient in the novel Such a Long Journey, passing lewd
comments on the typist Laurie Coutino is ......................... .
A: Dinshawji
190. Who is nicknamed Scrambled Eggs?
A: Tehmul Lungraa
191. How did Tehmul Lungraa become mentally deficient?
A: He fell from a neem tree at the centre of the compound
192. In the novel Such a Long Journey , who is working in RAW (Research
and Analysis Wing)? A: Bilimoria
193. What did Gustad Noble find in the parcel received from Bilimoria
through Ghulam? A: Stacks of new currency notes of one million rupees
194. What does Bilimoria instruct Gustad Noble to do with the money?
A: To deposit it in the bank as a relief for the Bengali refugees
195. According to the reports in the newspaper, where did Bilimoria die?
A: He died in the New Delhi prison
196. Nariman Vakeel, an old Parsi widower affected by Parkinson’s
disease, appears in Mistry’s ........................ .
A: Family Matters
197. Who is the real daughter of Nariman Vakeel, married to Yezad, whose
household duties burden her?
A: Roxana
198. What is the subplot of the novel Family Matters ? A: Yezad’s plot to
cheat his employer, Vikram Kapur, of a large sum of money
199. What is the sea change seen in Yezad towards the end of the novel?
A: The athiest Yezad becomes a fanatic
200. The epilogue informs that .................. is dead and Roxana’s family
lives with Jal.
A: Coomy
201. Which of Rohinton Mistry’s novel is set in Bombay during the
Emergency?
A: A Fine Balance
202. In the novel A Fine Balance, Dina Dalal is the daughter of the
idealistic physician ...................... . A: Dr. Shroff
203. What was the ambition of Dina Dalal?
A: She wanted to be a doctor like her father.
204. What is Rustom Dalal, the husband of Dina Dalal, run over and killed
on their third anniversary?
A: A pharmaceutical chemist
205. Why does Dina Dalal conceal her tailoring business from the rent
collector?
A: According to the rent deed, the flat should not be used for other
purposes except as a residence.
206. The family of Narayan and Ishvar Darji belonged to the
.............................. .
A: Chamaar caste (Untouchables)
207. Who is the son of Narayan, who goes to the town to be Ishvar Darji’s
apprentice?
A: Omprakash
208. At the end of the novel A Fine Balance, who commits suicide by
letting a train run over him? A: Maneck Kohlah
209. Tales from Firozshah Baag is a collection of short stories by
................ .
A: Rohinton Mistry.
210. How many stories comprise the collection Tales from Firozshah Baag
?
A: 11 stories
211. “Swimming Lessons”, “Squatter”, “One Sunday”, “Auspicious
Occasion”, “The Collector”and “Lend Me Your Light” are part of
..................................... .

A: Tales from Firozshah Baag by Rohinton Mistry

212. The Great Indian Novel is a work by .................. . A: Shashi Tharoor

213. The story of the epic .............................. is recast in the context of the
Indian independence and post-independence movement in The Great
Indian Novel .
A: Mahabharata
214. The narrator of The Great Indian Novel shows irreverence to the two
heroic figures
........................ and ........................ .
A: Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru
215. Allusions and puns to the famous works by Rudyard Kipling, E. M.
Forster and Paul Scott are found in the novel ...................... by Tharoor. A:
The Great Indian Novel
216. The Great Indian Novel is written in ............ books. A: 18
217. Tharoor’s work about Ashok Banjara, a Bollywood Superstar is
.................. .
A: Show Business
218. Which film establishes Ashok Banjara as an action star?
A: Godambo
219. Who is the wife of Ashok Banjara, whom he convinces to stay away
from films after marriage?
A: Maya
220. Mehnaz Elahi is the mistress of ...................... . A: Ashok Banjara
221. Which is the film produced by Banjara that turns out to be a flop?
A: Mechanic
222. Ashok Banjara meets with the accident on the sets of the film
......................... .
A: Kalki
223. Which novel by Shashi Tharoor is set against the backdrop of the
communal riots in the wake of the Babri Masjid agitation?
A: Riot: A Love Story
224. In the novel Riot: A Love Story by Tharoor, the murder of an
American student ................... is featured.
A: Priscilla Hart
225. Where does Priscilla meet the married government official,
Lakshman and falls in love with him?
A: Zalilgarh
226. “The Five Dollar Smile” is a ....................... by Shashi Tharoor.
A: Short story
227. “The Solitude of the Short-story Writer” is a short story in the
collection ................................ . A: The Five Dollar Smile and Other
Stories
228. What is the subtitle of Pax Indica by Tharoor? A: India and the World
of the Twenty-first Century
229. The illustrated coffee table book by Gita Mehta is ................... .
A: Eternal Ganesha
230. Which work by Gita Mehta features the Westerners (hippies)
pilgrimage to the mystic East?
A: Karma Cola
231. What is the subtitle of Karma Cola ?
A: Marketing the Mystic East
232. Which novel of Gita Mehta features a young princess Jaya of the
royal household of Balmer? A: Raj: A Novel
233. What is the subtitle of Snakes and Ladders ? A: Glimpses of Modern
India
234. Snakes and Ladders by Gita Mehta is a collection of ....................... .
A: Essays
235. The structure of A River Sutra closely resembles ..................... .
A: The Canterbury Tales
236. In A River Sutra, ............. (number) pilgrims are on their way to the
Narmada.
A: Six
237. From whose perspective is the narrative of A River Sutra recounted?
A: A retired bureaucrat’s perspective who is now the Manager of the
Narmada Rest House
238. The monk in the first tale of A River Sutra practises .................... .
A: Jainism
239. Who is the pupil of the music teacher, Master Mohan of the second
tale in A River Sutra ? A: Imrat
240. What does the dacoit in the fourth tale discover through intuition
after abducting the virgin courtesan?
A: He discovers that she has been his wife in many of the previous births
241. The Veena is likened to .................... in the fifth tale.
A: Goddess Parvati
242. Who is declared as the daughter of Narmada in the sixth tale of A
River Sutra ?
A: Uma, the girl rescued by Naga Baba
243. English, August: An Indian Story based on the life of the protagonist
Agastya Sen is written by ....................... .
A: Upamanyu Chatterjee
244. Where was Agastya Sen posted as a trainee civil servant?
A: Madna
245. ....................., the fourth novel of Upamanyu Chatterjee, is a dark
comedy.
A: Weight Loss
246. Which are the two short stories written by
Upamanyu Chatterjee?
A: “The Assassination of Indira Gandhi”,
“Watching Them”
247. Which is the sequel to Upamanyu Chatterjee’s
English, August ?
A: The Mammaries of the Welfare State 248. Who is the workless young
man in The Last
Burden ?
A: Jamun
249. The novel The Last Burden opens at the death
bed of ...................... .
A: Urmila
250. The sequel to Upamanyu Chatterjee’s novel The
Last Burden is .............. .
A: Way to Go
251. Vijay Tendulkar’s Silence! The Court is in Session
is in .......... acts.
A: Three
252. Who is the main character in Silence! The Court
is in Session, a school teacher proud of her
profession, accussed of becoming pregnant with
an illegal child?
A: Leela Benare
253. Why do the play group members put up the
mock trial?
A: One of the actors Rawte is sick. Samant, who has taken his place, does
not know anything
about the court.
254. Who is the judge in the court of the mock trial, a
social reformer and also the chairperson of the
play group?
A: Mr. Kashikar
255. In the mock trial, Leela Benare is accused of
.......................... .
A: Infanticide
256. Which actor in the play is a failed intermediate
but thinks of himself as a scientist?
A: Ponkshe
257. Who is an experimental theatre actor?
A: Karnik
258. Who is the actor absent from the stage but is the
source for Leela Benare’s pregnancy?
A: Professor Damle
259. According to Ponkshe, why did Leela Benare
want to marry him?
A: Leela Benare wanted to marry Ponkshe to
give her illegal child a father.
260. What is the irony in the play Silence! The Court is
in Session ?
A: The accusation raised turns out to be the
verdict of the court
261. Who are the two brothers in the play The
Vultures who establish a construction company
through sheer hardwork?
A: Pappa and Sakharam
262. Who plans to betray Pappa, after he deceives his
brother Sakharam and divides his wealth among
his children?
A: His sons, Ramakant and Umakant and his
daughter Manik
263. What is the opening setting of the play The
Vultures ?
A: It opens in the garage of Pappa’s household 264. Who is Rajaninath,
who lives a solitary life,
writing poetry and has an affair with the
daughter-in-law of Pappa, Rama?
A: The illegitimate son of Pappa
265. “I stood/ A living corpse, a watchful stone. / Like
a worm, I watched and watched her. / For
twenty-two long years.” In which play do you
find these lines?
A: In the prologue to Vijay Tendulkar’s play The
Vultures
266. In the play Kanyadaan , why is Nath, the MLA
happy and Seva, the social worker shocked to
know that their daughter Jyoti wants to marry
Arun Athavle?
A: The family belongs to the Brahmin
caste/upper class. Seva, the mother is shocked because Arun is a Dalit but
the father is happy
since abolishing the class system is his dream. 267. In the course of the
play, what does Arun
publish?
A: His autobiography
268. In the play Ghashiram Kotwal, who is the Diwan
of Pune?
A: Nana Phadnavis
269. How does Ghashiram attain the post of the
Kotwal of Pune?
A: By exchanging her daughter to Nana
Phadnavis for the post
270. Who is the scapegoat in the play Ghashiram
Kotwal, the one killed for the crimes of Nana
Phadnavis?
A: Ghashiram Kotwal
271. Which is the play of Vijay Tendulkar based on a
novel of the same name written by D. B.
Mokashi?
A: Anand Owari
272. His Fifth Woman by Vijay Tendulkar is written in
........................... (language).
A: English
273. The plays An Island Named Man and The
Vultures are written by .................................... .
A: Vijay Tendulkar
274. Who translated Girish Karnad’s Tughlaq into
Marathi?
A: Vijay Tendulkar
275. My Son’s Father is the autobiography of .......... .
A: Dom Moraes
276. Which is the first collection of Dom Moraes for
which he won the Hawthornden Prize in 1958?
A: A Beginning
277. Yayati and The Fire and the Rain are plays of
Girish Karnad based on the epic .......................... .
A: Mahabharata
278. The theme of the play The Fire and the Rain is
taken from ...................... of Mahabharata .
A: “Vanaparva”
279. The play by Karnad that draws on the
Mahabharata myth of Yavakri is .................... .
A: The Fire and the Rain
280. The theme of Yayati is taken from the first
chapter of Mahabharata ............................. .
A: “Adiparva”
281. Yayati is written in the style of .......................... .
A: Yakshagana
282. The play Yayati opens with the speech of
......................... .
A: Sutradhar
283. Who is the daughter of the sage Shukracharya?
A: Devayani, the first wife of Yayati
284. What is the curse that Shukracharya places on
Yayati when the sage learns that he has married
Sharmishtha, an asura girl?
A: Shukracharya places a curse on Yayati that he will lose his youth and
become decrepit by
nightfall
285. In the play, who is willing to take over the curse
bestowed upon his father and offers his youth to
Yayati?
A: His son Pooru married to Chitralekha 286. Which is Girish Karnad’s
allegory on the
Nehruvian era that started with ambitious
idealism and ended up in disllusionment?
A: Tuqhlaq
287. What are the two important projects of Tughlaq
that fails to achieve its purpose?
A: His idea of shifting the capital of the empire
from Delhi to Daulatabad and the introduction
of the copper currency which will be equal in
value to the silver currency
288. Which is the work of Thomas Mann that has
influenced Girish Karnad in the composition of
his play Hayavadana ?
A: The Transposed Heads
289. The play by Karnad which draws inspiration
from Vetalapanchavimshati katha is ....................... .
A: Hayavadana
290. Who is the white stallion in the play, the son of
the princess of Karnataka and the prince of
Araby?
A: Hayavadana
291. Why does Bhagavata send Hayavadana to seek
the blessings of the Goddess on Chitrakoota
mountain?
A: To achieve completeness
292. Devadatta and Kapila, the two inseparable
friends, are introduced to the audience by the
.......................... .
A: Female Chorus
293. Whom does Padmini marry?
A: Devadatta
294. Which flowers do Kapila fetch for Padmini?
A: Fortunate Lady’s flowers which are
auspicious for a married woman
295. Which are the temples Devadatta and Kapila
want to go?
A: Kapila wants to go to the temple of Rudra and
Devadatta to the temple of Kali
296. How does the great rishi resolve the issue of
transposing the heads of Devadatta and Kapila?
A: He said that just as the Kalpa Vriksha is
supreme among the trees, the man with the
head of Devadatta is the rightful husband of
Padmini
297. Devadatta goes to ....................... to bring new dolls.
A: Ujjain fair
298. What is the source of Girish Karnad’s
Nagamandala ?
A: The oral tales narrated by A. K. Ramanujan 299. What is the symbol
used to represent the female
in Nagamandala ?
A: Flame
300. Which flame tells the story of Rani?
A: Flame 4
301. Who is the unfaithful husband of Rani?
A: Appanna
302. Who helps Rani to drug her husband with the
love root?
A: Kurudavva
303. Which play of Girish Karnad has references to T.
S. Eliot’s Wasteland?
A: A Heap of Broken Images
304. Who is the less known Kannada short story
writer in A Heap of Broken Images ?
A: Manjula Nayak
305. Where did Malini, the sister of Manjula, settle
down after marriage with Pramod?
A: Jayanagar
306. Who is the true author of the English novel in A
Heap of Broken Images ?
A: Malini
307. In which play do you find the Kannada proverb,
“A respone is good. But a meaningful response is
better”?
A: A Heap of Broken Images
308. Which play of Girish Karnad recounts the last
days and the historic moments in the life of Tipu Sultan from both the
perspectives of the British Oriental Scholar and the court historian?
A: The Dreams of Tipu Sultan
309. ....................... is Rushdie’s first published novel
that is a science fiction.
A: Grimus
310. In the novel Grimus, the protagonist Flapping
Eagle lives for ............. .
A: 777 years 7 months 7 days
311. Which book of Rushdie has won the Booker
Prize in 1981?
A: Midnight’s Children
312. Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children spans over a
period of ...................... years.
A: 70 years
313. Who are the narrator and the listener in the
novel Midnight’s Children?
A: Saleem Sinai is the narrator and Padma is the
listener
314. Who is Saleem Sinai’s rival?
A: Shiva of the Knees
315. In the novel Midnight’s Children , which children
are imbued with special powers?
A: All the children born in India between 12 a.m.
and 1 a.m. are imbued with special powers 316. The nurse who switches
Shiva and Saleem as an
act of rebellion is ..................... .
A: Mary Pereira
317. Who is referred to as the witch in Midnight’s
Children ?
A: Parvati
318. Where does Saleem Sinai regain his memory
after being hit by a spittoon in an air raid?
A: He regains his memory in the jungle of
Sunderbans
319. Rushdie’s Shame opens in an imaginary town
called ........................ .
A: Q
320. In which of the novels by Rushdie does Omar
Khayyam appear as a character?
A: Shame
321. Who is the wife of Omar Khayyam and the
daughter of Hyder?
A: Sufiya Zinobia
322. How does the novel Shame end?
A: Sufiya becomes a savage killer and the other
women also join her in her act of vengeance 323. The narrator of Rushdie’s
novel The Moor’s Last
Sigh that traces four generations of the
narrator’s family is ................................ .
A: Moraes Zogoiby
324. The Moor’s Last Sigh is set in ....................... and
.......................... .
A: Bombay and Cochin
325. The Zogoibys trace their ancestry back to
.......................... .
A: Boabdil, the last Moorish king of Granada 326. What does Zogoiby
mean in Arabic?
A: Unfortunate
327. In the novel, who makes Moor paintings, a
postmodern junkyard collage, which reflects the
changes in the nation?
A: Aurora, the mother of Moor
328. How is Moraes Zogoiby different from the other
characters?
A: His body ages twice as fast as that of a normal
person. He also has a deformed hand.
329. Who says in the novel, “The truth is always
exceptional…”?
A: Moraes Zogoiby
330. What is the Hindu fanatic Raman Fielding
nicknamed?
A: Mainduck
331. Which is the first full-length non-fiction book by
Salman Rushdie?
A: The Jaguar Smile
332. The first non-fiction work of Rushdie The Jaguar
Smile is subtitled ................................ .
A: A Nicaraguan Journey
333. In the novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet, with
what does Rushdie replace Orpheus’ Lyre?
A: Rock Music
334. Who are the two men in love with the same
woman, Vina Apsara?
A: Ormus Cama and Umeed Rai Merchant 335. Where is the title of the
novel The Ground
Beneath Her Feet taken from?
A: From a song in the novel composed by Ormus
Cama after Vina’s death
336. Malik Solanka, the Cambridge educated
millionaire in the novel Fury, is originally from
................ .
A: Bombay
337. Where does Malik Solanka travel to, hopeful that
he can transform himself?
A: New York
338. ‘Little Brain’ is a character in Rushdie’s work
...................... .
A: Fury
339. The Carribean writers who worked in the
program Carribean Voices are .................... .
A: George Lamming, Sam Selvin, Derek Walcott
and V. S. Naipaul
340. Which book of V. S. Naipaul won the Booker
Prize in 1971?
A: In a Free State
341. Which novel of V. S. Naipaul is written in the
form of a travel journal, its frame narrative
described in the prologue and the epilogue?
A: In a Free State
342. Which are the three short stories in the novel In
a Free State ?
A: “One out of Many”, “Tell Me Who to Kill”, ”In a Free State”

343. The prologue to the novel In a Free State depicts the narrator on a
ferry from Greece to .............. . A: Egypt

344. Which novel is set on an unnamed, remote Caribbean island and has
intertextual relations with Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights? A: Guerillas

345. Who is the owner of Thruscross Grange in the novel Guerrillas ?

A: Jimmy Ahmed

346. What was the masseur in the novel The Mystic Masseur before
becoming the politician? A: A frustrated writer

347. The screenplay for Naipaul’s The Mystic Masseur , adapted into a
film in 2001, is written by ................................ .
A: Caryl Phillips

348. Which novel of V. S. Naipaul revolves around the slapstick

circumstances surrounding a local election?
A: The Suffrage of Elvira

349. The novel set in wartime Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago is
........................... .
A: Miguel Street

350. The Tulsi family in the novel A House for Mr. Biswas lives in
......................... .

A: Hanuman House
351. Who are the sons of Mrs. Tulsi in the novel A
House for Mr. Biswas ?
A: Shekhar and Owad
352. What age was Shama, Mrs. Tulsi’s daughter,
when Mr. Biswas married her?
A: 16 year old
353. What was the inauspicious element associated
with the birth of Mr. Biswas?
A: He was born with six fingers on each hand 354. Who are the children of
Shama and Mr. Biswas?
A: Savi, Anand, and two babies
355. Where did Mr. Biswas work as a reporter?
A: Trinidad Sentinel
356. Who is the implied narrator of the novel A House
for Mr. Biswas ?
A: Anand, Biswas’s son
357. The novel A House for Mr. Biswas has echoes of
Shakespeare’s ............................. .
A: King Lear
358. The subtitle of V.S. Naipaul’s The Middle Passage
is .................... .
A: The Caribbean Revisited
359. The Enigma of Arrival: A Novel in Five Sections is
a novel by ........................................ .
A: V.S. Naipaul
360. Willie Somerset Chandran is the protagonist of
the novels ................. and ................. by V.S. Naipaul.

A: Half a Life and Magic Seeds

361. What is the parentage of Willie Somerset
Chandran?
A: He is the son of a Brahmin father and a Dalit
mother
362. Willie’s middle name is a homage to the writer
..................... .
A: Somerset Maugham
363. What is the ancestry of Ana, the girl Willie
loves?
A: A mixed race of Portuguese and Black African 364. After the 18 years
stay in Africa, Willie moves to
....................., where his sister Sarojini stays.
A: Berlin
365. The sequel to Half a Life is ............................. .
A: Magic Seeds
366. Where is the novel The Enigma of Arrival set?
A: Wiltshire, England
367. Who is the role model for the character of the
landlord in the novel The Enigma of Arrival ?
A: His real-life landlord, Stephen Tennant 368. Which novel by V.S.
Naipaul is set in an
unnamed African country and is narrated by
Salim, the Indian Muslim shopkeeper?
A: A Bend in the River
369. “The world is what it is; men who are nothing,
who allow themselves to become nothing, have no place in it.” In which
novel do you find these words?
A: A Bend in the River
370. The Mimic Men by Naipaul, set in the Isabella
Island, has the protagonist ................... .
A: Ralph Singh
371. Where did Ralph Singh live after being exiled
from the island of Isabella?
A: London
372. V.S. Naipaul’s autobiography is ................................. .
A: A Way in the World
373. Which is the history book written by V. S.
Naipaul about Venezuela and Trinidad?
A: The Loss of El Dorado
374. Which are the books in the India trilogy by V. S.
Naipaul?
A: An Area of Darkness, India: A Wounded
Civilisation and India: A Million Mutinies Now 375. A Flag on the Island
is a collection of ........................
by V. S. Naipaul.
A: Short stories
376. The novels The House of Blue Mangoes, The
Solitude of Emperors and Ithaca are written by
...................... .
A: David Davidar
377. Which novel of David Davidar chronicles the life
of the Dorai family?
A: The House of Blue Mangoes
378. What is the name of the Blue Mango?
A: Chevathar Neelam
379. Which are the two major castes of the village? A: Andavars and
Vedhars
380. Who is the thalaivar or headman of the village? A: Solomon Dorai of
the Andavar caste
381. Who is the leader of the Vedhar caste? A: Muthu
382. Why has a tension build up between the two castes?
A: As the result of a girl being sexuality assaulted in the acacia forest
383. Who is the priest figure in the novel with the opinion that the
Scriptures should be
refashioned?
A: Father Paul Ashworth
384. What is the wife of Solomon Dorai, Charity famous for?
A: For making the finest fish biriyani in the world
385. Which is the fairness cream that Daniel claims to invent?
A: Dr. Dorai’s Moonwhite Thylam
386. Whose conversion to Chrustianity is steeped more in communal
mischief than in religious faith?
A: Vakeel Perumal
387. Zachariah Thomas, a rising star in international publishing, is the
protagonist of the novel ......................... .
A: Ithaca
388. Jejuri , the poem by Arun Kolatkar is written in ........... sections.
A: 31
389. The deity of the temple in the religious place Jejuri is ..................... .
A: Khandoba, an incarnation of Shiva
390. The Kala Ghoda Poems and Sarpasatra are collection of poems by
......................... .
A: Arun Kolatkar
391. The image of a twenty feet high tortoise on which children play
appears in Arun Kolatkar’s ....................... .
A: “A Low Temple”
392. Mamoni Baideo is the pen name of which Assamese poet and
novelist?
A: Indira Goswami
393. The novel about the plight of Radhaswamis in Vrindavan, living in
abject poverty and sexual exploitation, is .................... .
A: The Blue Necked Braja
394. The Blue Necked Braja revolves around the plight of the young
widows especially the main character .................. .
A: Saudamini
395. Which work by Indira Goswami is a comparative study of the
Ramayana of Tulsidas and the Assamese Ramayana of Madhava Kandali?
A: Ramayana from Ganga to Brahmaputra
396. The short stories of Indira Goswami like “Hridoy”and “Nagoth
Sohor”, are set in ............... . A: Delhi
397. Ahiron, The Rusted Sword, Uday Bhanu, Dasharathi’s Steps and The
Man from
Chinnamasta are written by ........................... . A: Indira Goswami
398. The Moth Eaten Howdah of a Tusker is a novel about the plight of
Assamese Brahmin Widows and it is written by ................................ .
A: Indira Goswami
399. In which language was the novel The Moth Eaten Howdah of a Tusker
originally written? A: Kamrupi language
400. Who translated the novel The Moth Eaten Howdah of a Tusker from
Kamrupi language to English?
A: The author herself
401. Who is the Brahmin widow in the novel The Moth Eaten Howdah of a
Tusker, the
protagonist?
A: Giribaala
402. Which work of Indira Goswami was
anthologised in The Masterpieces of Indian Literature ?
A: The Moth Eaten Howdah of a Tusker
403. Which work of Indira Goswami won the Bharatiya Jnanpith Award in
the year 2000? A: The Moth Eaten Howdah of a Tusker
404. The film version of the novel The Moth Eaten Howdah of a Tusker is
................. .
A: Adajya
405. Goswami’s novel about gory Sikh pogrom in New Delhi after the
assassination of Indira Gandhi is ............................... .
A: Pages Stained with Blood
406. Which is the major historical event related to the Sikhs that figure in
the novel Pages Stained with Blood ?
A: Operation Blue Star at the Golden Temple in Amritsar
407. Which novel of Indira Goswami was written as a protest against the
animal sacrifice in the Kamakhya Temple in Assam?
A: The Man from Chinnamasta
408. The British woman in the novel The Man from Chinnamasta, who has
a relationship with the tantric of the Kamakhya Temple is ................ . A:
Dorothy Brown
409. Who is the titular character of the novel The Man from Chinnamasta
?
A: The tantric
410. .................... is about the militancy that has affected the North-
Eastern frontier since the Indian independence.
A: Jatra (The Journey)
411. Who wrote the poem “Ode to A Whore”? A: Indira Goswami
412. Which is the film made on the life of Indira Goswami, directed by
Jahnu Barua?
A: Words from the Mist
413. “From Bombay Central”, “On Killing a Tree”and “God Or” are
poems by ...................... .
A: Gieve Patel
414. Princes, Savaksa and Mr. Behram are ................. written by Gieve
Patel.
A: Plays
415. The protagonist of the novel Roots and Shadows, who leaves the
house at the age of 18 to marry the man she loves is ................ .
A: Indu
416. The domineering matriarch in the novel Roots and Shadows who
makes Indu the sole heiress to her property is ............... .
A: Akka
417. Why does Indu come back home after a gap of 11 years?
A: To attend her cousin Mini’s marriage
418. Which is the first novel of Shashi Deshpande? A: The Dark Holds No
Terrors
419. Saritha, a doctor in the path of self-discovery, is the protagonist of
Shashi Deshpande’s novel ................................ .
A: The Dark Holds No Terrors
420. The husband of Saritha, Manohar, is a teacher of ................... .
A: English
421. Who is the brother of Saritha, the boy favoured by her parents?
A: Dhruva
422. How did Dhruva die at the age of seven? A: By drowning
423. What is the opening of the novel The Dark Holds No Terrors ?
A: Saritha returns to her father’s house after 15 years
424. Who is the narrator of The Binding Wine by Deshpande?
A: Urmi
425. Who is the husband of Urmi, the educated Merchant Navy officer?
A: Kishore
426. Who is the mother of Urmi?
A: Inni
427. Who is the one year old daughter of Urmi, over whose death she is
grieving?
A: Anu
428. Who is the sister-in-law of Urmi, who was also a childhood friend?
A: Vanaa
429. Who is the mother of Kalpana, the rape victim in The Binding Vine ?
A: Shakutai
430. Who is Prabhakar, the rapist in the novel The Binding Vine ?
A: Shakutai’s sister Sulu husband
431. Who fights a lonely battle for Kalpana in the novel The Binding Vine
?
A: Urmi
432. In The Binding Wine, how does Urmila attain self-realisation?
A: Through her dead mother-in-law, Mira’s diary and poems
433. At what age did Mira die, giving birth to a son? A: 22
434. Babri Masjid Demolition is the backdrop of the novel ................ by
Deshpande.
A: Small Remedies
435. Which work of Shashi Deshpande can be called a biography within a
biography?
A: Small Remedies

436. In Small Remedies, who is commissioned to write the biography of

Savitribai Indorekar, the doyenne of Gwalior Gharana? Madhu Saptarishi
437. Where did Madhu stay with the young couple, Hari and Lata?
Bhavanipur
438. The son of Madhu, who died in the 1992 Babri Masjid Bombing, is
............... . Adit
439. Which work of Shashi Deshpande won the Sahitya Academy Award in
1990? That Long Silence
440. What is the significance of the title That Long Silence by Shashi
Deshpande? Women do not raise their voice against suppression.
441. Who is the failed writer in the novel That Long Silence , troubled by
the seventeen-year-old marriage? Jaya Kusum
442. Why is the protagonist of the novel That Long Silence named Jaya by
her father? It is because jaya meant victory
443. Who is the husband of Jaya?
A: Mohan
444. Which novel of Shashi Deshpande centers on Jiji who cares for her
ailing father and discovers her father’s diary after his death?
A: Moving On
445. The autobiography of Kamala Das that appeared in 1976 is
.................... .
A: My Story

446. Which is Kamala Das’s first book of poetry? A: Summer in Calcutta

447. “ Gift him what makes you woman, the scent of Long hair, the musk
of sweat between the breasts,” are lines from .................... .
A: Kamala Das’s poem “The Looking glass”
448. Who translated Das’s Ente Katha into English? A: The author herself
449. Who is the protagonist of Ente Katha ? A: Aami
450. Pakshiyude Manam, Thanuppu and Neypayasam are ....................... of
Kamala Das.
A: Short stories
451. Alphabet of Lust is a ................ by Kamala Das. A: novel
452. ..................... is a novel by Kamala Das that won the Vayalar Award.
A: Neermathalam Pootha Kalam
453. Kamala Das won the Asian Poetry Prize in ............. for the collection
The Sirens .
A: 1998
454. Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets and An
Illustrated History of Indian Literature in English are written by
................................. .
A: A.K. Mehrotra
455. Which is a volume of Prakrit love poems, a translation?

A: The Absent Traveller by A. K. Mehrotra 456. Who is the editor of

Collected Poems in English
by Arun Kolatkar?
A: A. K. Mehrotra
457. What is the subtitle of the collected volume of
essays Partial Recall by A. K. Mehrotra?
A: Essays on Literature and Literary History 458. Middle Earth and Nine
Enclosures are a
collection of ..................... by A. K. Mehrotra.
A: Poems
459. Shiv K. Kumar was born in ................... (place).
A: Lahore, British India
460. Cobwebs in the Sun and Woolgathering are
poems by ............................ .
A: Shiv K. Kumar
461. The Bone’s Prayer is a ............. by Shiv K. Kumar.
A: Novel
462. Which collection of poems of Shiv K. Kumar won
the Sahitya Academy Award in 1987?
A: Trapfalls in the Sky
463. The woman in Shiv K. Kumar’s poem “Indian
Women” is compared to .............. .
A: Empty pitcher
464. The length of the hair braid of the women in
Mehrotra’s “Indian Women” is compared to
.................. .
A: Mississippi
465. “Come, my dearest, feign/ Some movement of
the soul/ Beyond the empiric point” are lines
from the poem .................... by Shiv K. Kumar.
A: “Lear to Cordelia”
466. Which is a sequence of twelve poems by Shiv K.
Kumar?
A: Broken Columns
467. The Last Wedding Anniversary is a .............. by
Shiv K. Kumar.
A: Play
468. Tum Kaho Main Sunoon is a collection of poems
by Shiv K. Kumar in ............. (language).
A: Urdu
469. What is the subtitle of Voice of Buddha by Shiv K.
Kumar?
A: A Poetic Transcreation of the Dhammapada 470. In Bharati
Mukherjee’s novel The Tiger’s
Daughter, the protagonist is ........................
A: Tara
471. Tara was educated in ..................... in New York.
A: Vassar College
472. What was the nationality of the husband of
Tara?
A: American
473. Desirable Daughters and Jasmine are novels by
the Indian writer ...................... .
A: Bharati Mukherjee
474. The sequel to Bharati Mukherjee’s Desirable
Daughters is ................................. .
A: The Tree Bride
475. In the novel Jasmine , Jasmine was called by the
name ............. in Iowa.
A: Jane
476. Who is the 53 year old banker with whom
Jasmine lived in Iowa?
A: Bud Ripplemayer
477. ............ is the adopted son of Bud.
A: Du
478. Who is the neighbour of Bud contemplating
whether to sell the farm he inherited from his
family?
A: Darell Lutz
479. By which name is Jasmine known in India?
A: Jyoti
480. What did Masterji teach Jasmine?
A: English
481. Who called Jyoti by the name Jasmine for the
first time?
A: Prakash, her husband
482. Who encouraged Prakash to go and study in
America?
A: Professor Vadhera
483. How did the husband of Jasmine die in the novel
Jasmine ?
A: In a bomb attack
484. Who set off the bomb that killed Prakash?
A: Sukhwinder
485. Where were Jasmine and her husband planning
to go when he was murdered in a bomb attack?
A: Florida
486. Who takes Jasmine into her residence following
the bomb attack?
A: Lillion Gordon
487. Who is the daughter of Lillian working as a
photographer in the city?
A: Kate
488. Why does Jasmine go with Wylie and Taylor to
Manhattan?
A: To take care of their (Wylie and Taylor)
adopted daughter Duff
489. Before meeting Jane, Bud was married to
................. .
A: Karin
490. Who shot Bud because of some issues in the
bank?
A: Harlan Kroener
491. Where does Du, the adopted son, live when he
claims Jasmine?
A: California
492. Who won the Sahitya Academy Award in 1978?
A: Anita Desai for her novel Fire on the Mountain 493. Which work of
Anita Desai won the British
Guardian Prize?

A: The Village by the Sea

494. What is the subtitle of the novel The Village by
the Sea ?
A: An Indian Family Story
495. Where is the novel The Village by the Sea set?
A: Thul
496. Who is the eldest child of the family in the novel
The Village by the Sea ?
A: Lila
497. Who is the brother of Lila who works hand in
hand with her?
A: Hari
498. Who are the two younger sisters of Lila?
A: Bela and Kamal
499. Who leaves for Bombay to find work?
A: Hari
500. Who owns the summer-house Mon Repos?
A: De Silvas
501. The kind restaurant proprietor who offers Hari
a job is ............. .
A: Jagu
502. Who is the watch repairer whose shop is beside
the restaurant of Jagu?
A: Panwallah
503. Which is the start up business suggested in the
novel?
A: Chicken farm
504. Games at Twilight by Anita Desai is a collection
of .................... .
A: Short stories
505. Which is the novel about an Italian couple,
Matteo and Sophie seeking enlightenment in the
East and meeting the mysterious Mother?
A: Journey to Ithaca
506. Which novel by Anita Desai is set in India and is
about Deven, a Hindi teacher, who gets an
opportunity to interview the Urdu poet Nur?
A: In Custody
507. Under whose advice did Devan procure a
secondhand tape recorder?
A: Murad
508. The German Jew protagonist in Anita Desai’s
Baumgartner’s Bombay is ........................ .
A: Hugo Baumgartner
509. Maya, the unmarried woman haunted by the
prophesy of a great disaster is the protagonist of
Anita Desai’s novel ................................. .
A: Cry, the Peacock.
510. What is the profession of Gautama, the husband
of Maya?
A: Lawyer
511. In which novel of Anita Desai does the
protagonist push her husband over the parapet
to death, meeting with the same fate later?
A: Cry, the Peacock

512. Which of Anita Desai’s novel is about Das family re-union, symbolic
of the Partition of India? A: Clear Light of Day

513. Who is India’s ambassador to USA in the novel Clear Light of Day ?
A: Bakul, the husband of Tara

514. Who is the sister of Tara, who lives in the family’s Old Delhi home?
A: Bimla

515. Who is the autistic brother of Bimla and Tara, taken care by Bimla
alone?
A: Baba
516. Who is the brother of Tara who lives in Hyderabad?
A: Raja

517. Who is the family Muslim landlord attracted by Raja’s fascination

with Urdu?
A: Hyder Ali

518. Who is Hyder Ali’s daughter, married to Raja? A: Benezir

519. When is Part Three of the novel Clear Light of Day set?
A: Pre-partition India
520. Which is the major event in Part Three? A: The birth of Baba
521. Who is the widowed aunt caretaker of the children?
A: Mira
522. Which characters bear the whims of becoming a hero when Tara
wants to become a mother? A: Bim and Raja
523. Nanda Kaul, Ila Das and Raka are characters in Anita Desai’s novel
........................ .
A: Fire on the Mountain
524. Who is the old widow in the novel Fire on the Mountain, retired
moves to Carignano in Kasauli?
A: Nanda Kaul
525. Why did Nanda Kaul not like the idea of receiving letters?
A: In Carignano, Nanda had found a personal space which she had craved
all her life. She did not want anyone to disturb her there.
526. What does the letter from Nanda’s daughter Asha reveal?
A: The arrival of Raka
527. Which disease affects Raka?
A: Typhoid
528. Who is Nanda’s childhood friend visiting Carignano, a former
lecturer in Punjab University?
A: Ila Das
529. Who worked as an officer in the Social Welfare Department, fighting
against child marriage? A: Ila Das
530. Who murdered Ila Das, for her role in stopping the child marriage of
his daughter?
A: Preet Singh
531. How is the news of Ila Das’ murder conveyed to Nanda Kaul?
A: It is conveyed through the telephone
532. What does Raka shout, rushing into the house, when Nanda collapses?
A: Raka shouts that she has set fire on the mountain
533. In Anita Desai’s Bye, Bye Blackbird, ‘blackbird’ symbolises
........................... .
A: Immigrants
534. Who are two Indians in Britain found in the novel Bye, Bye, Blackbird
?
A: Dev and Adit
535. Which are the three parts of the novel Bye, Bye, Blackbird ?
A: Arrival, Discovery and Recognition
536. Who is the Indian Bengali immigrant in Britain? A: Adit
537. Who is the English wife of Adit?
A: Sarah
538. What is the purpose of visit of Dev in England? A: Studies
539. Which is Anita Desai’s story about the Bohemian siblings Nirode,
Monisha and Amla inhabiting the ‘city of death’ Calcutta?

A: Voices in the City

540. Which is the lyrical novel of Anita Desai, an epic
of Calcutta?
A: Voices in the City
541. Which novel of Anita Desai contrasts the life of
an unmarried woman Uma with her brother
Arun?
A: Fasting, Feasting
542. Where did the parents of Uma try to ensure
Arun’s education?
A: University of Massachussetts
543. Who is the uncle of Nayantara Sahgal?
A: Jawaharlal Nehru
544. Whose works are Prison and Chocolate Cake and
A Time to be Happy?
A: Nayantara Sahgal
545. In Mistaken Identity , who is the son of the Raja
of Vijaygarh, arrested and thrown into jail?
A: Bhushan Singh
546. Who taught Bhushan Singh the Turkey Trot?
A: The American flapper
547. Which work won the 1986 Sahitya Academy
Award?
A: Nayantara Sahgal’s Rich Like Us
548. The protagonist in Nayantara Sahgal’s Rich Like
Us is ..................................... .
A: Rose and Sonali
549. Where is the novel Rich Like Us set?
A: New Delhi
550. Rose, the wife of the native businessman Ram, is
a .................. immigrant.
A: British
551. Who is the educated young woman civil servant
in the novel Rich Like Us ?
A: Sonali
552. Dev is Ram’s son from his wife ............... .
A: Mona
553. ............................. is the autobiographical poem by
Nissim Ezekiel in which he recounts some of the
experiences of his life from his boyhood
onwards.
A: “Background Casually”
554. In which poem do you find the phrase “A
mugging Jew among the wolves”?
A: “Background Casually “
555. Which work of Nissim Ezekiel won the Sahitya
Academy Award in 1983?
A: Latter Day Psalms
556. The Jewish Indian poet who was the editor of
the journal Quest is .......................... .
A: Nissim Ezekiel
557. Which poet is acclaimed as the father of post –
independence Indian English verse?
A: Nissim Ezekiel
558. Which collection of Nissim Ezekiel comprises
translations from the Marathi poet Indira Sant?
A: Snakeskin and Other Poems
559. The character Ganguli features in Ezekiel’s play
.................. .
A: The Sleepwalkers
560. What do the following lines from The
Sleepwalkers mean? “Give us this day our daily
American.”
A: Ezekiel satirises the Indian’s craze for
everything American
561. Who wrote the essays “How Normal is
Normality” and “Poetry as Knowledge”?
A: Nissim Ezekiel
562. How does the father in the “Night of the
Scorpion” react to the situation?
A: He reacts like a sceptic and a rationalist. He
tries every powder, herb and hybrid and even
pours paraffin on the bitten part and puts a fire
to it.
563. What was the consoling thought offered by the
neighbours about the pain suffered by the
mother?
A: The suffering will burn away her sins 564. What was the superstition
regarding the
movement of the scorpion?
A: Whenever the scorpion moved, the poison
moved in the mother’s blood.
565. How many hours did the mother suffer the pain?
A: 20 hours
566. In which of Ezekiel’s poem does the following
line appear?
A: “To force the pace and never to be still/ Is not
the way of those who study birds/ Or women.
The best poets wait for words.” “Poet, Lover,
Birdwatcher”
567. What is the last line of the Ezekiel’s poem
“Enterprise”?
A: “Home is where we have to gather grace.” 568. Which essay of Nissim
Ezekiel is a response to
Naipaul’s book An Area of Darkness?
A: “Naipaul’s India and Mine”
569. What is the name of the professor who speaks
an erroneous dialect in the poem “The
Professor”?
A: Professor Sheth
570. “The Professor” is included in the collection
.................... .
A: Collected Poems
571. The lines, “A poem is an episode, completed/In
an hour or two, but poetry/Is something more”
is from Ezekiel’s poem ...................... .
A: “Poetry”
572. Which poem of Ezekiel speaks about the arrival
of Ram Rajya?
A: “The Patriot”
573. “Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa TS” is a poem of
Nissim Ezekiel written in the form of a
monologue from the collection .................. .
A: Hymns in Darkness
574. The lines, “smiling and smiling for no reason,
but simply because she is feeling” is from the
poem .................... .
A: “Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa TS” 575. “The Abandoned British
Cemetery at Balasore”
and “The Lost Children of America” are poems
written by ............................. .
A: Jayanta Mahapatra
576. Which Indian poet edited the famous magazine
of Indian Writing, Chandrabhaga ?
A: Jayanta Mahapatra
577. In one of the poems of Mahapatra, a woman
watching her lover in the darkened room fails to
find her reflection in the mirror. Which is the
poem?
A: “A Missing Person”
578. Which book of Mahapatra won the Sahitya
Academy Award in 1981?
A: Relationship
579. “Dawn at Puri” and “Hunger” are included in the
collection ..................... .
A: A Rain of Rites
580. What are the two kinds of hunger signified by
the poem “Hunger”?
A: Physical hunger as well as hunger for sexual
gratification
581. Who offers her daughter as an object of sexual
gratification in the poem “Hunger”?
A: The fisherman
582. What is the last desire of the speaker’s mother
in the poem “Dawn at Puri”?
A: She wants to be cremated on the sandy seabeach at Puri
583. Which is the famine of 1866 that killed one third
of Orissa’s population mentioned in the poem
“Grandfather”?
A: NaAnka
584. The line, “Did you hear the young tamarind
leaves rustle in the cold mean nights of your
belly?” is from Mahapatra’s poem ................... .
A: “Grandfather”
585. Which poem of Mahapatra gives surrealistic
images of the Kalinga War?
A: “Dhauli”
586. Which poem of Mahapatra embodies the Hindu
faith that the parents are born to their children
as their offspring?
A: “The Hour before Dawn”
587. Who is the writer and Buddhist philosopher
born in Kenya?
A: G.V. Desani
588. The novel by G.V. Desani that is compared to
James Joyce’s Ulysses, which chronicles the
adventures of an Anglo-Malay man in search of
wisdom and enlightenment, is .................... .
A: All About H. Hatter
589. What does “H” in All About H. Hatter stand for?
A: Hindustanwallah
590. What are the nationalities of H. Hatter’s
parents?
A: The Father is a European while the mother is
from Malaya
591. Who adopts H. Hatter when his father dies?
A: An Indian-based Scotsman
592. When does Hatter run away from school?
A: At the age of fourteen
593. How many Indian sages educate Hatter?
A: 5
594. What is the fate of Hatter at the hands of the
fake sages?
A: They rob him of his clothes and money 595. Who is the woman
educator of Hatter, the wife
of a circus owner?
A: Mrs. Rosy
596. The novel by Attia Hosain which deals with the
fictional character Laila, who hails from a rich
Muslim family of Taluqdars is .......................... .
A: Sunlight on a Broken Column
597. Where is the title Sunlight on a Broken Column
taken from?
A: T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men”
598. What is the setting of the novel Sunlight on a
Broken Column ?
A: Lucknow during the pre-independence
period
599. Who are the poets in Parsi Quartet?
A: Adil Jussawalla, K. D. Katrak, Gieve Patel and
Keki N. Daruwalla
600. Keki N. Daruwalla was born in ................... .
A: Lahore
601. The Keeper of the Dead, the poetry collection of
Keki N. Daruwalla, won the Sahitya Akademi
Award in ................ .
A: 1984
602. Crossing of Rivers is a collection of .................. by
Daruwalla.
A: Poems
603. Who wrote the poem “Notes from the
Underground”?
A: Keki N. Daruwalla
604. In which poem does Daruwalla describe two
ways of paying the last respects to a corpse?
A: “Fire-Hymn”
605. According to the Parsi custom, where should
one expose the dead body to be eaten by birds?
A: Tower of Silence
606. “Coral Poem” by Daruwalla is about the scenic
beauty of ................. .
A: Chester Isle
607. Who is Mandelstam in the poem “Speaking to
Mandelstam through Poem 119”?
A: A Russian poet who died in the prison camp
in 1938
608. Who is described as “Riding an ascending wind
as he drilled the sky”?
A: The Hawk in the poem “Hawk” by Daruwalla 609. Keki N. Daruwalla’s
first book of poems is
........................... .
A: Under Orion
610. Which is Daruwalla’s poem that closely
resembles Ramanujan’s poem “A River” and
does not romanticize the beauty of nature?
A: “The Ghaghra in Spate”
611. In which of his works does Daruwalla employ
the narrative technique of Montage?
A: “The Epileptic”
612. Name the writer who translated the Tamil epic
Chilappatikaaram into English?
A: R. Parthasarathy
613. Name the poem by Parthasarathy which is
commonly described as “Sundari Poem”.
A: “And so it Eventually Happened”
614. The sections “Exile”, “Trial”, and “HomeComing” appears in
Parthasarathy’s collection of poems ...................... .
A: Rough Passage
615. By the end of “Homecoming”, the poet returns to
................... .
A: The language Tamil
616. Which is the popular anthology edited by R.
Parthasarathy?
A: Ten Twentieth Century Indian Poets
617. Which Indian poet wrote the Hindoo Poems?
A: A.K. Ramanujan
618. The poems “Of Mothers, Among Other Things”,
“Small scale Reflections on a Great House”, The
Striders and “The Black Hen” are poems written
by ............................. .
A: A.K. Ramanujan
619. “Looking for a Cousin on a Swing”, “Self Portrait”
and “A River” are poems from the collection
........................ .
A: The Striders
620. Who translated U. R. Ananthamurty’s novel
Samskara?
A: A. K. Ramanujan
621. The lines “Really what keeps us apart at the end
of years is unshared childhood” that discuss the
unshared childhood separating an aging
husband and wife is from the poem .................... .
A: “Love Poem for a Wife 1”
622. “Love poem for a Wife” is included in A. K.
Ramanujan’s poetry collection ................... .
A: Relations
623. Which work of Ramanujan has the subtitle
“Love Poems from a Classical Tamil Anthology”,
the work being translations from Kuruntokai, an
anthology of Tamil love poems?
A: The Interior Landscape
624. Hymns for the Drowning are poems about the
Hindu God ................... .
A: Vishnu
625. The poem “A River” by A.K. Ramanujan is about
...................... river flowing through Madurai.
A: Vaikai
626. What clogs the watergates of the river Vaikai?
A: Straw and women’s hair
627. What are the names of the two cows washed
away by the flooding of river Vaikai?
A: Gopi and Brinda
628. The lines “anything that goes out/ Will come
back” are from ..................... .
A: Ramanujan’s poem “Small Scale Reflections
on a Great House “
629. In which poem does Ramanujan speak about his
father who died a trivial death of heart failure at
the fruit market?
A: “Obituary”
630. According to Ramanujan, what did the deceased
father leave behind as a legacy?
A: Table heaped with newspapers full of dust,
debts and daughters
631. The poet compares the father’s eyes in the
funeral pyre to ..................... .
A: Coins
632. Which poem of Ramanujan describes the life of
Delhi in a picturesque manner?
A: “On a Delhi Sundial”
633. Ramanujan’s poem “The Last of the Princes”
describes the decline and fall of the .......,............
dynasty.
A: Mughal
634. Which poem of Ramanujan discusses the
positive and the negative effects of the red
champak tree?
A: “Ecology”
635. In one of Ramanujan’s poems, what do the
yellow veins of books in a library remind him?
A: Snakes
636. Which essay by Ramanujan discusses Indian
thoughts as context sensitive?
A: “Is There an Indian Way of Thinking” 637. Which essay of Ramanujan
discusses the
different versions of Ramayanas , a few versions
of them having Ravan as the virtuous hero? A: “Three Hundred
Ramayanas: Five Examples
and Three Thoughts on Translations”
638. Juggut Singh, a local gangster who is in love with
a village girl, is a character in Khushwant Singh’s
............................. .
A: Train to Pakistan
639. Which novel by Arun Joshi describes the Jungian
and the Freudian struggle of Som Bhaskar for an
authentic way of life?
A: The Last Labyrinth
640. The novel The Strange Case of Billy Biswas was
written by.............................. .
A: Arun Joshi
641. Which writer did the critics call the “last British
imperialist”?
A: Nirad C. Chaudhuri
642. Which is the first of the books of Nirad C.
Chaudhuri published in India?
A: The Intellectual in India
643. The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian is a
work written by......................... .
A: Nirad C. Chaudhuri
644. Chaudari’s essay “The Objective Method in
History” is a part of the book ..................... .
A: The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian 645. Which book of
Chaudari is dedicated to the
memory of British Empire in India?
A: The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian

646. Why was the writer Nirad C. Chaudhuri forced to a life of penury?
A: It is because of his controversial dedication to the book The
Autobiography of an Unknown Indian

647. A Passage to England is written by ........................... .

A: Nirad C. Chaudhuri

648. The sequel to The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian is

....................... , the title of which is inspired by Pope’s Dunciad.
A: Thy Hand! Great Anarch!

649. Which work of Arnold inspired Chaudari to become a writer, as

discussed in Thy Hand, Great Anarch!?
A: “Scholar Gipsy”

650. Name the novelist known as “Indian Jane Austen”

A: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

651. The German-born British and American Booker Prize winning

novelist who is a part of Merchant Ivory Productions is .................... .
A: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

652. Which book of Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is published as Travellers in

United States? A: A New Dominion

653. Who is the author of Esmond in India and My Nine Lives ?

A: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

654. Which Indian novelist wrote screenplays for
Howard’s End and A Room With a View?
A: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
655. In which of Jhabvala’s Booker winning works do
the characters Olivia, Mr. Douglas and Nawab
appear?
A: Heat and Dust
656. Who is Olivia in the novel Heat and Dust?
A: The step-grandmother of the narrator 657. Who is the homosexual
character in the novel
Heat and Dust, overpowered by Nawab?
A: Harry
658. What causes scandal in the town of Satipur?
A: The scandal is caused by Olivia’s decision to
abort the baby.
659. Which is the unnamed town where Olivia lived
following the scandal?
A: X
660. Who is the Indian writer to have won both a
Booker and an Oscar?
A: Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
661. Kamala Markandeya is the pseudonym of
................... .
A: Kamala Purnaiya Taylor
662. Nectar in a Sieve: A Novel of Rural India is a work
by ...................... .
A: Kamala Markandeya
663. The title of the work Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala
Markandeya is taken from ................. .
A: S.T. Coleridge’s poem “Work Without Hope” 664. Which novel of
Kamala Markandeya is
comparable with Pearl S. Buck’s The Good
Earth?
A: Nectar in a Sieve
665. At what age was Rukmani married to Nathan?
A: 12
666. Where did Rukmani’s son work as a doctor?
A: In the hospital built by Dr. Kennington 667. In the novel Two Virgins ,
who dreams of
becoming a movie star?
A: Lalitha
668. When was Lalitha’s dream of becoming a movie
star fulfilled?
A: When a film-maker casts her in his
documentary on village life, her dreams become
fulfilled.
669. In the novel Possession , who possesses the South
Indian boy painter Valmiki?
A: The aristocratic English lady Caroline Bell 670. The novel Possession
shifts its perspectives
between three places. Which are they?
A: India, England and America
671. What is the theme of the novel Possession ?
A: Art
672. Which is the novel by Kamala Markandeya
about the post-independence frustrations of
Ravishankar?
A: A Handful of Rice
673. Which of Kamala Markandeya’s novels begins
with the protagonist’s cry, “I’m hungry. I want a
meal.”?
A: A Handful of Rice
674. The sequel to Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s
Pather Panchali is ......................
A: Aparajito
675. Bhabani Bhattacharya is of .............. origin.
A: Bengali
676. A Goddess named Gold and A Dream in Hawaii are
works by .................. .
A: Bhabani Bhattacharya
677. Shadow from Ladakh is a work by .............................
.
A: Bhabani Bhattacharya
678. The novel by Bhabani Bhattacharya set against
the backdrop of Bengal famine of 1943 and Quit
India Movement is ............................ .
A: So Many Hungers!
679. Who is the destitute village girl personifying
hungers in the novel So Many Hungers!?
A: Kajoli
680. The protagonist of Bhabani Bhattacharya’s work
He Who Rides a Tiger which is a grim satire
about Hindu orthodoxy is................................ .
A: Kalo
681. Who is the poor blacksmith jailed for stealing a
bunch of bananas in the novel He Who Rides a
Tiger?
A: Kalo
682. What is the fraud practised by Kalo?
A: He posed as a holy brahmin who had a
miraculous vision
683. A Bend in the Ganges is a novel written by
..................................... .
A: Manohar Malgonkar
684. The first novel by Manohar Malgonkar is
...................................... .
A: Distant Drum
685. Which is the first novel by Chaman Nahal?
A: My True Faces
686. Which are the books in the Gandhi Quartet?
A: Azadi, The Crown and the Loincloth, The Salt
of Life and The Triumph of the Tricolour 687. Which novel of Chaman
Nahal won the Sahitya
Akademi Award in 1977?
A: Azadi
688. The novel by Chaman Nahal that focuses on the
family of Lala Kanshi Ram of Sialkot ...................... .
A: Azadi

689. What is the time period dealt in the novel Azadi ? A: From the
announcement of the Cabinet Mission Plan upto the assassination of
Mahatma Gandhi

690. Which part of the Gandhi Quartret centers on Gandhi’s salt

satyagraha?
A: The Salt of Life
691. The historical movement dealt in the novel The Triumph of the
Tricolour is ....................... . A: Quit India Movement

692. Which is the historical moment that forms a part of the novel The
Crown and the Loincloth? A: Jallianwala Bagh massacre

693. Which novel of Chaman Nahal is a psychological study of Harivansh,

an architect in his forties? A: Sunrise in Fiji

694. Which is the satire against the elitism of the English speaking groups,
written by Chaman Nahal?
A: The English Queens

695. Raja Rao’s The Cat and Shakespeare employs .....................................

path of bhakti.
A: Marjara-Kishora-nyaya

696. What is the subtitle of The Cat and Shakespeare ? A: A Tale of

Modern India
697. The Cat and Shakespeare is a sequel to .................. . A: The Serpent
and the Rope

698. Who is the protagonist/narrator of The Cat and Shakespeare, a clerk

living away from his wife and has a liaison with Shantha?
A: Ramakrishna Pai

699. Who is Pai’s spiritual guru? Govindan Nair

700. The three storeys of the house in The Cat and Shakespeare stands for
the three stages of consciousness ..................... .
A: Jagratha, Swapna and Sushupti
701. Srinivasa Iyengar compare Raja Rao’s Kanthapura to ................. .
A: Ramayana
702. Which novel of Raja Rao follows the oral tradition of Indian
sthalapurana ?
A: Kanthapura
703. Kanthapura was published in ................ . A: 1938
704. The narrator of Raja Rao’s Kanthapura is .............................. .
A: Achakka
705. Who is the village deity of Kanthapura? A: Kenchamma
706. How does the novel Kanthapura begin? A: It begins with the Salt
Satyagraha
707. Who is the Brahmin follower of Gandhi in the village of Kanthapura?
A: Moorthy
708. Who is represented as the devas in the novel Kanthapura ?
A: Satyagrahis
709. Who narrated tales in the Harikathas organised by Moorthy?
A: Jayaramachar
710. Why was Jayaramachar arrested?
A: He was arrested for his propagandist Harikathas
711. Who is the police officer sent to watch the activities of the villagers
of Kanthapura? A: Bade Khan
712. The revenue collector who helps Moorthy start a Congress group is
................... .
A: Patel Range Gowda
713. Who forms a women’s volunteer group and inspires the village
women with stories of Rani Lakshmi Bai, Sarojini Naidu, etc.?
A: Rangamma
714. The widow in Kanthapura, who questions society’s ostracisation of
widows is ................. . A: Ratna
715. What does Ratna’s mother claim as the source of her rebellion against
the rules of the society? A: School education
716. Srinivasa Iyengar compare Raja Rao’s The Serpent and the Rope to
.................. .
A: Mahabharata

717. The French woman Madeleine appears in Raja Rao’s

............................... .
A: The Serpent and the Rope

718. Which subject does Madeleine, the wife of Ramaswamy, teach?

A: History

719. Who is the holy vagabond in the novel The Serpent and the Rope?
A: Rama
720. Why did Rama visit India in 1952?
A: For his sister Saroja’s wedding
721. Who is the protagonist of “The Cow of the Barricades”?
A: Gauri, the cow
722. What do people shout when they see Gauri walk up the barricade?
A: Vande mataram
723. Which is the street associated with Gauri? A: Suryanarayana street
724. Who is Kirillov in the novel Comrade Kirillov ? A: Padmanabha Iyer
725. Who is the Indian mathematician based in Paris, the protagonist of
The Chessmaster and the Moves ?
A: Sivarama Sastri
726. Who received the Sahitya Akademi Award for English Literature in
1960?
A: R. K. Narayan
727. Which books are included in the Narayan’s Trilogy?
A: Swami and Friends, The Bachelor of Arts and The English Teacher
728. Which work of R. K. Narayan is based on the death of Narayan’s own
wife, Rajam?
A: The English Teacher
729. Who found a publisher for the novel Swami and Friends ?
A: Graham Greene
730. Swaminathan is a student at the Britishestablished Albert Mission
School in the novel ................. .
A: Swami and Friends
731. Who is the police superintendent’s son, a friend of Swami, later
leaving to Trichinopoly? A: Rajam
732. Who is the most brilliant boy in Swaminathan’s class?
A: Sankar
733. The friends of Samuel call him by the nickname ............ .
A: Pea
734. Who is called the “Tail of Rajam”?
A: Swami
735. In the novel Swami and Friends, what is the full form of M.C.C.?
A: Malgudi Cricket Club
736. Who is the girl Chandran falls in love with but couldn’t marry
because he is a manglik ? A: Malathi
737. Chandran marries ................... after the spiritual transformation.
A: Sushila
738. Which is the newspaper associated with Chandran in the novel The
Bachelor of Arts ? A: The Daily Messenger
739. The novel The English Teacher is dedicated to ............... .
A: Rajam, R. K. Narayan’swife
740. Where did Krishnan, the protagonist of the novel The English
Teacher, work as the English teacher?
A: Albert Mission School
741. In the novel The Guide, Railway Raju grows up beside the railway in
...................... .
A: Malgudi
742. Who is the girl with whom Railway Raju falls in love?
A: Rosie
743. Rosie is the neglected wife of the archaeologist ................ .
A: Marco
744. In the novel, Rosie becomes famous as a .................. .
A: Dancer
745. Why is Raju in the novel The Guide imprisoned for 2 years?
A: For forging Rosie’s signature
746. After the release of Raju from the prison, who mistakes him as a holy
man?
A: Velan
747. Why does Raju take a 12-day fast?
A: To bring rains to the village that considers him as a holy man
748. What was the original name of Rosie before she became famous as a
dancer?
A: Nalini
749. Who is the titular character of the novel The Vendor of Sweets?
A: Jagan
750. How did the wife of Jagan, Ambika die? A: Due to natural cures
751. The son of Jagan who is a writer trained from America is ................. .
A: Mali
752. What is the nationality of the foreign wife of Mali?
A: Half-American, half-Korean
753. How does the father Jagan teach his son a lesson in the novel The
Vendor of Sweets ?
A: Mali is arrested for drunken driving and Jagan ensures that Mali is
imprisoned until he realises his mistake
754. Who is the titular character in the novel The Man-Eater of Malgudi ,
the man who forces Nataraj to rent him a room in the attic? A: Vasu
755. What is the occupation of Vasu?
A: He is a taxidermist
756. Who is the helper of Nataraj in his press? A: Sastri
757. Which is the elephant that Nataraj desperately tries to protect from
Vasu?
A: Kumar, the elephant
758. On which myth is the novel The Man-Eater of Malgudi based?
A: Brahmasura myth
759. Who is the titular character of the novel The Financial Expert ?
A: Margayya
760. In the novel, The Talkative Man , Dr. Rann arrives in Malgudi from an
unknown land called ................. .
A: Timbuctoo
761. What does the Talkative Man of Kabir Street aspire to be?
A: A journalist
762. Who is the wicked womaniser in the novel The Talkative Man ?
A: Dr. Rann
763. Who is the protagonist of the novel The Dark Room, a typical
housewife dominated and neglected by her husband?
A: Savitri
764. Savitri’s husband Ramani is an employee of ..................... .
A: Engladia Insurance Company
765. Who are the children of Savitri and Ramani? A: Kamala, Sumati and
Babu
766. The novel Waiting for Mahatma is written by ........................... .
A: R. K. Narayan
767. The live story that features in the novel Waiting for the Mahatma is
that of ................ .
A: Sriram and Bharati
768. How does the novel Waiting for the Mahatma end?
A: It ends with the assassination of Gandhi at the Birla House as well as
the engagement of Sriram and Bharati
769. Who is the photographer in the novel, a strong follower of Subhash
Chandra Bose?
A: Jagadish
770. The short stories of R. K. Narayan can be compared to that of the
writer ........................ because of his ability to compress the
narratives.
A: Guy de Maupassant
771. The 1949 novel Mr. Sampath is by ....................... . A: R. K. Narayan
772. In the novel Mr. Sampath, Mr. Shrinivas and Mr. Sampath combine to
bring out the journal ................... .
A: The Banner
773. My Dateless Diary is a collection of ........................ essays by R. K.
Narayan.
A: Autobiographical
774. Gods, Demons and Others is a collection of rewritten and translated
short stories from the ...................... .
A: Hindu epics
775. Which river plays the role of a character in the novels of R. K.
Narayan?
A: The river Sarayu
776. Which Indian novelist is known as “The Veritable Dickens of the
East”?
A: Mulk Raj Anand
777. When was the title “India’s Charles Dickens” given to Mulk Raj
Anand?
A: It was given after the success of his first novel The Untouchable
778. Which is the art quarterly edited by Mulk Raj Anand?
A: Marg
779. Who wrote the introduction to the novel The Untouchable written by
Mulk Raj Anand? A: E. M. Forster
780. The Untouchable was published in the same year as T. S. Eliot’s
.................. .
A: Murder in the Cathedral – 1935
781. Who is the protagonist of the novel The Untouchable, the Bhangi
toilet-cleaner? A: Bakha
782. Who is the sister of Bakha molested by the priest, Pandit Kali Nath?
A: Sohini
783. The jealous woman in the novel The
Untouchable, who hates Sohini is ............... . A: Gulabo
784. How many days in the life of Bakha are presented in the novel The
Untouchable ? A: One day
785. When is Bakha blamed for an injury caused to a young boy?
A: During a hockey match
786. Who is the father of Bakha?
A: Lakha
787. In the novel The Untouchable, who says that Untouchabillty is the
greatest blot on Hinduism? A: Mahatma Gandhi
788. The salvationist who tells Bakha about Christianity is ............... .
A: Colonel Hutchinson
789. Who presents Bakha with a hockey stick? A: Havildar Charat Singh
790. The poet who tells Bakha that the flush system will bring about a
revolution in the life of the scavengers is ................ .
A: Iqbal Nath Sarshar
791. The 14 year old protagonist of Mulk Raj Anand’s Coolie is
........................ .
A: Munoo
792. Who abused Munoo in the house of Baboo Nathoo?
A: Bibiji, the master’s wife
793. In the house of Baboo Nathoo, who treats Munoo with respect?
A: Prem Chand (Chota Babu)
794. Where does Munoo work after escaping from Baboo Nathoo’s house?
A: He works in Prabha Dayal’s pickle factory
795. Why does the elephant-trainer take Munoo to Bombay?
A: To make him work as a coolie in Sir George White Cotton Mills
796. Munoo met with an accident while escaping to the Malabar Hills.
Whose car hit him?
A: Mrs. Mainwaring
797. How does Munoo die in the novel Coolie? A: He dies of consumption
(tuberculosis)
798. Which novel of Mulk Raj Anand features a Punjabi labourer Gangu
who tries to protect his daughter, Leila from a British solider? A: Two
Leaves and a Bud
799. Which is the Hindi adaptation of the novel Two Leaves and a Bud by
Dev Anand?
A: Rahi
800. Where is the Punjabi labourer Gangu working? A: In the Assam tea
plantation
801. Who is the wife of Gangu raped in the Assam tea plantation?
A: Sajani
802. The Englishman who fights for the labouring class is ................... .
A: Dr. John de la Havre
803. “I will make a good sheaf/ Plucking, plucking, plucking”. This song
features in the novel ................ .
A: Two Leaves and a Bud
804. Two leaves and a bud in the novel symbolises ................. .
A: Tea
805. Which is the only novel by Mulk Raj that has a woman protagonist?
A: The Old Woman and the Cow
806. The Old Woman and the Cow is dedicated to the Marxist Urdu poet
................. .
A: Ali Sardar Jafri
807. Which Russian work inspired Mulk Raj to write The Old Woman and
the Cow ?
A: The Peasant Woman by Nicholas Nekrassov
808. Who says in one of Mulk Raj Anand’s novels, “I am not Sita that the
earth will open up and swallow me.”?
A: Gauri in The Old Woman and the Cow
809. Who is the barber boy in The Barbers’ Trade Union whom the
narrator describes as “one of the makers of Modern India”?
A: Chandu
810. The narrator of The Barbers’ Trade Union belongs to the ..............
caste. Upper
811. Who forms the Barbers’ Trade Union in the novel?
A: Chandu
812. Who is the despotic ruler in the work Private Life of an Indian Prince
?
A: Victor Ashoke Kumar of Shampur
813. The Village, Across the Black Waters and The Sword and the Sickle
belongs to the “Lalu Trilogy” written by ................................. .
A: Mulk Raj Anand
814. Who is the protagonist of the Lalu Trilogy? A: Lal Singh from Punjab
815. In how many volumes is Mulk Raj Anand’s autobiography Seven Ages
of Man written? A: 7 volumes
816. What does the title of Anand’s autobiography allude to?
A: Shakespeare’s “Seven Ages of Man” speech in As You Like It
817. Who is the protagonist of the autobiography Seven Ages of Man ?
A: Krishnan Chander
818. Which is the only novel by Mulk Raj Anand set against the backdrop
of World War I?
A: Across the Blackwaters
819. The title of Mulk Raj Anand’s book The Sword and the Sickle was
suggested by .......................... . A: George Orwell
820. Which is the only published novel of M. Anantanarayan?
A: The Silver Pilgrimage
821. Jayasurya, the protagonist of The Silver Pilgrimage, is a prince of
sixteenth century .................... .
A: Sri Lanka
822. What is the epigraph of the novel The Silver Pilgrimage ?
A: Sell your Cleverness and buy Bewilderment
823. Which is the autobiography of K. A. Abbas? A: I Am not an Island
824. What is the subtitle of the autobiography of K. A. Abbas?
A: An Experiment in Autobiography
825. Which novel is described by its author as the first great novel of
Indian revolution?
A: Inquilab by K. A. Abbas
826. The World is My Village is a novel by ................... . A: K. A. Abbas
827. Who wrote the major screenplay Mera Naam Joker?
A: K. A. Abbas
828. Which is Abbas’ play about the early life of Mahatma Gandhi?
A: Barrister-at-Law
829. “One Thousand Nights on a Bed of Stones” and “Cages of Freedom”
are .................. by K. A. Abbas. A: Short stories
830. Which is the first novel of Allan Sealy with the subtitle “A
Chronicle”, a tale of the seven generations of an Anglo-Indian family? A:
The Trotter-Nama
831. What is the subtitle of The Everest Hotel by Allan Sealy?
A: A Calendar
832. Who is the author of Red: An Alphabet ? A: Allan Sealy
833. From Heaven Lake, a travel book by Vikram Seth, is an account of a
journey through ................... . A: Tibet, China, Nepal
834. Beastly Tales from Here and There by Vikram Seth is a book of
................... .
A: Children’s Literature
835. Which novel of Vikram Seth features a group of yuppies in San
Francisco?
A: The Golden Gate
836. Who advices John Brown, the protagonist of the novel The Golden
Gate , to put up an amorous advertisement of himself in the newspaper? A:
Janet Hayakawa
837. Who answers the advertisement of Brown? A: Elizabeth Dorati (Liz)
838. To whom is Liz legally married towards the end of the novel?
A: Phil (Philip) Weiss
839. Which novel of Vikram Seth is set in London, all characters are
European and is narrated by a professional violinist?
A: An Equal Music
840. Where is the title of the novel An Equal Music drawn from? John
Donne’s sermon
841. Who is the lover of Michael Holme, the professional violinist and
narrator?
A: Julia Nicholl, the pianist
842. In A Suitable Boy , who seeks a suitable boy for her daughter Lata?
A: Mrs. Rupa Mehra
843. Who is the opinionated brother of Lata? A: Arun
844. The suitors of Lata among whom she must make a choice are
................. .
A: Kabir, Haresh and Amit
845. Which are the four main families in the novel A Suitable Boy ?
A: Mehras, Kapoors, Khans and Chatterjis
846. Arun, the eldest son of Mrs. Mehra is married to ................. .
A: Meenakshi Chatterji
847. Which is the first work of Gita Hariharan that won the
Commonwealth Writers’ Prize? A: The Thousand Faces of Night
848. Who are the three generations of women in the novel The Thousand
Faces of Night?
A: Devi, Sita and Mayamma
849. Where was Devi educated before she got married to Mahesh?
A: America
850. What does Mayamma categorise as the key to marriage?
A: The ability to endure and move on
851. Shiv Murthy, the protagonist of In Times of Siege, is a professor of
................. in the Kasturba Gandhi Central University.
A: History
852. Shiv Murthy prepares a controversial lecture on a twelfth century
poet and social reformer. Who is the poet?
A: Basavanna
853. Who is the girl having a fracture in the knee taken care by Shiv?
A: Meena
854. What is the subtitle of Mukul Kesavan’s Men in White ?
A: A Book of Cricket
855. Which novel of Mukul Kesavan is about a young photographer on his
way to deposit his grandmother’s ashes in the Ganges when he falls off the
Mail Train and lands in 1942?
A: Looking Through Glass
856. Who is the young revolutionary in the Muslim family that takes care
of the young narrator? A: Masroor
857. Who is the mother of the Muslim household? A: Ammi
858. Which is the debut novel of Jeet Thayil? A: Narcopolis
859. In the novel Narcopolis, who has an opium house on Shuklaji Street?
A: Rashid
860. In Jaishree Misra’s Ancient Promises , ............... is a girl, from the
Keralite army family, who grows up in Delhi.
A: Janaki
861. In Afterwards , Maya leaves an unhappy marriage to elope with
................. .
A: Rahul Tiwari
862. Whom does the titular character of the novel Rani by Jaishree Misra
refer to?
A: Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi
863. Name two Indian writers who have written fictionalised biographies
of Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi.
A: Jaishree Misra and Mahasweta Devi
864. A Love Story for My Sister is a novel by ................. . A: Jaishree
Misra
865. Who wrote the work The Incantations and Other Stories?
A: Anjana Appachana
866. Appachana’s Listening Now is set in 3 places. Which are they?
A: Bangalore, Delhi and Lucknow
867. The Parrot’s Death and Other Poems is a collection of poems by
.............. .
A: P. Lal
868. Name one Indian writer who translated into English the entire
Mahabharata and Upanishads . A: P. Lal
869. “Trying to say Goodbye” is a poem by ........................... .
A: Adil Jussawalla
870. Which are the two books of poetry written by Adil Jussawalla before
he turned to journalism? A: Land’s End and Missing Person

871. “Sea Breeze, Bombay” is a .............. poem by Adil Jussawalla.

A: Partition

872. Who wrote the poem “The Wolf ’s Postscript to ‘Little Red Riding
Hood”?
A: Agha Shahid Ali

873. What is the subtitle of Agha Shahid Ali’s poetry collection Call Me
Ishmael Tonight ?
A: A Book of Ghazals

874. National School of Drama was established by ......................... .

A: Ibrahim Alkazi and B.V. Karanth

875. Badal Sircar’s play Evam Indrajit has a cast of ............... characters.
A: 7

876. Which theatre group enacted most of Badal Sircar’s plays?

A: Shatabdi theatre group

877. Why is the Writer in Evam Indrajit unable to write the play?
A: It is because he feels that the modern life is chaotic and meaningless
that there is nothing to write about it.
878. Who suggests that the Writer should write the play about the
audience?
A: Manasi

879. The gentlemen who enter the auditorium when the Writer is confused
about the theme of the play are ............... .
A: Amal, Kamal, Vimal and Nirmal

880. On the Writer’s insistence, which character admits that he is Indrajit?

A: Nirmal

881. When Manasi expresses her dilemma about marrying Indrajit, he

goes off to ............... . A: Bhopal

882. When Manasi is sure about her decision to marry Indrajit, how does
Indrajit react? A: He goes out of the country and works as an engineer in
London

883. Mahaswetha Devi, the social activist and writer, was born in ............ .
A: Dhaka, Bangladesh

884. Who translated the collection Five Plays by Mahasweta Devi, which
contains the play Bayen ?
A: Samik Bandyopadhyay

885. The play by Mahaswetha Devi with Chandidasi as protagonist is

.................. .
A: Bayen

886. What is the meaning of Bayen according to the play Bayen ?

A: A bayen is a woman who breastfeeds dead children and has the ability
to curse others

887. Why did Chandidasi perform the task of burying dead children?
A: She belonged to the Kalu Dome and inherited this profession from her
father
888. The son of Chandidasi who declares that Chandidasi is not a bayen is
.............. .
A: Bhagirath

889. Who is the government employed husband of Chandidasi?

A: Malindar

890. Chandidasi was declared a bayen with the death of the child ..............
.
A: Tukni

891. Hajar Churashir Maa is the Bengali title of Mahasweta Devi’s play
............... .
A: Mother of 1084

892. What does 1084 in the title of the play Mother of 1084 signify?
A: The mother of corpse no. 1084

893. What is the opening of the play Mother of 1084 ? A: Sujata, the
mother of 1084, recollects the memories of her son on the eve of his death
anniversary

894. Who is the wealthy husband of Sujata? A: Dibyanath

895. Who is the lover of Brati, Sujata’s son, through whom Sujata learns
the true nature of her son? A: Nandini
896. Which are the three acts of rebellion put forth by Sujata in the play?
A: Sujata refused to bear a child for the fifth time. She refused to leave her
job. She warned her husband against questioning her.
897. In the play Draupadi, whose body is kept as bait for Dopdi?
A: Her husband Dulna Majhi’s body
898. The plays “Draupadi”, “Breast-Giver” and “Behind the Bodice” of
Mahasweta Devi are grouped under the title ......................... .
A: Breast stories
899. Inquilab is a play that presents an imitation of the violent Naxalite
Movement in Calcutta written by ............................ .
A: Asif Currimbhoy
900. Which novel of Asif Currimbhoy deals with the influx of Bangladeshi
refugees into India? A: The Refugee
901. An Experiment With Truth is a play by ................... . A: Asif
Currimbhoy
902. Rootless but Green are the Boulevard Trees is a play by Uma
Parameswaran published in ........... . A: 1987
903. Which is the play by Uma Parameswaran centered on the Partition of
1947?
A: Sons Must Die

904. ..................... is a play by Manjula Padmanabhan in the form of

monologues, about the disastrous results of violence and riots in the
nation. A: Hidden Fires

905. Where does the central incident featured in the play Lights Out take
place?
A: Santa Cruze, Mumbai

906. In the play Harvest , who agrees to sell his organs through Inter
Planta Services Inc. to a rich person in the First World?
A: Om Prakash

907. The panoptic glance in the play Harvest is manifested in the actions
of .................. .
A: Ginni

908. In the end of the play, who is mistakenly taken away for organ
donation?
A: Om’s diseased brother Jeetu

909. How many poems are there in Toru Dutt’s A Sheaf Gleaned in French
Fields ?
A: 165

910. Which is the unfinished English novel of Toru Dutt published

posthumously?
A: Bianca, or the Young Spanish Maiden

911. Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan are translations and

adaptations from ...................... . A: Sanskrit literature
912. “Lotus”, “Our Casuarina Tree”and “Laxman” are poems by
........................... .

A: Toru Dutt
913. “Mayst thou be numbered...With deathless
trees-like this in Borrowdale.” For whom does
Toru Dutt make such a wish?
A: Our Casuarina Tree
914. Who is the stoic hero in the poem “Lakshman”?
A: Lakshman
915. The poem “The Lotus” by Toru Dutt is a
...................... sonnet.
A: Petrarchan
916. “The Lotus” argues that the Lotus is better than
the ............. and the ............... .
A: Lily and Rose
917. Meghnad Bodha Kavya, Tilottama and
Padmavati are poems by .................................. .
A: Michael Madhusudhan Dutt
918. Razia, Empress of Inde by Michael Madhusudhan
Dutt is a translation from .................. .
A: Bengali
919. Which work of Michael Madhusudhan Dutt is a
ballad divided into 9 parts starting from the
death of Beerbahu, the son of Ravana?
A: Meghnad Bodh Kavya
920. Meghnad Bodh Kavya ends with the satidaha of
.............. .
A: Prameela, the wife of Meghnad
921. “The Captive Lady” was published under the
pseudonym ................... .
A: Timothy Penpoem
922. The Shair and Other Poems is a collection of
poems by .................. .
A: Kashiprasad Ghose
923. The cousin of Toru Dutt who translated the
Ramayana and the Mahabharata in Tennyson’s
Locksley Hall metre is ................. .
A: Romesh Chunder Dutt
924. Who wrote Lays of Ancient India which contains
translations from Rig Veda, Buddhist literature,
Upanishads, etc.?
A: Romesh Chunder Dutt
925. What is the setting of Slave Girl of Agra ?
A: The Mughal Empire of the 17th century 926. What is the subtitle of
Slave Girl of Agra ?
A: An Indian Historical Romance
927. Which is the English version of Romesh Chunder
Dutt’s novel Sansar ?
A: The Lake of Palms
928. “The Child”, a poem of Rabindranath Tagore, is
originally written in ............... .
A: English
929. Jiban Smriti is the autobiography of .................. .
A: Tagore
930. The subtitle of Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali
is ............................. .
A: Song Offerings

931. The Introduction to the English translation of Gitanjali was written

by.................... .
A: W. B. Yeats

932. How many poems are there in the English translation of Tagore’s
Gitanjali?
A: 103 poems

933. When was Gitanjali first published by Macmillan?

A: 1913

934. What is the opening line of Gitanjali? A: “Thou hast made me

endless, such is thy pleasure.”

935. Which tradition did Tagore draw upon for the imagery of Gitanjali ?
A: Vaishnava tradition
936. Which of Tagore’s novels deals with a boatwreck where two marriage
parties are drowned?
A: The Wreck

937. In the novel Gora, the nationality of Gora’s mother is .............. .

A: Irish

938. Who is the idealistic husband of Bimla in the novel The Home and the
World?
A: Nikhil

939. “Fruit-gathering”, “The Gardener” and “The Crescent Moon” are

............ by Tagore. A: Poems

940. Which is the land ruled by King Renajith in the novel Mukta-Dhara ?
A: Sivatharai

941. Who is the engineer bestowed with the reponsibility of building a

dam across the river in the novel Mukta-Dhara ?
A: Bibhuti

942. Who is the foundling character in the novel Mukta-Dhara ?

A: Abhijith

943. In which of Tagore’s plays does Amal, a boy with an incurable disease
awaits a letter from the King?
A: The Post-Office

944. Who is the King that arrives at the end of the play The Post-Office ?
A: Death

945. Which is the most lyrical novel of Tagore translated twice as Last
Poem and Farewell Song ?
A: Shesher Kobita

946. Which are the countries whose National Anthem were composed by
Tagore?
A: India and Bangladesh
947. Tagore’s works Letters from Europe and The Religion of Man are
................... .
A: Travelogues

948. ............................ is a play by Tagore in which Ananda, the disciple of

Buddha, asks a tribal girl for water.
A: Chandalika

949. “Kabuliwalla”, “Kshudita Pashan” and “Atithi” are ......................

written by Tagore.
A: Short stories

950. Who is the first Indian poet in English? A: Henry Derozio

951. What is the peculiarly of Henry Derozio’s poetry?
A: A Byronic melancholy
952. How many sonnets did Henry Derozio address to the night?
A: 5
953. .................. is a sonnet by Henry Derozio, which laments the decline
of the rich tradition of Indian Literature during the period of British
dominion?
A: “The Harp of India”
954. Which is the narrative verse of Derozio that presents the vicissitudes
in the life of the Brahmin widow Nuleeni?
A: The Fakir of Jungheera
955. When does Fakir, the former lover, rescue Nuleeni?
A: He rescues her when she was about to be consumed by the flames on
the funeral pyre of her husband
956. The Ballad “The Song of the Hindustanee Minstrel” was written by
............................... . A: Henry Derozio
957. Who started the daily Bandemataram ? A: Bepin Chandra Pal
958. Which was the weekly newspaper edited by Sri Aurobindo?
A: Karmayogin
959. Where did the works of Aurobindo like The Life Divine, The Future
Poetry, etc. first appear? A: Arya: A Review of Pure Philosophy
960. Which work of Aurobindo is praised by Aldous Huxley and deals
with the theory of integral yoga?
A: The Life Divine
961. Which is the epic poem of Aurobindo based on the Mahabharata in 3
parts?
A: Savitri
962. The epic poem Savitri was composed in ........... years.
A: 50
963. What is the subtitle of the epic poem Savitri ? A: A Legend and a
Symbol
964. What is the metrical form of Savitri by Aurobindo?
A: Blank verse
965. According to Aurobindo, the future poetry will more and more
approximate to ..................... . A: Mantra
966. Which are the five lamps of our being according to Aurobindo?
A: Truth, Beauty, Delight, Life and Spirit
967. Whose poetry can be best described as overhead poetry?
A: Sri Aurobindo’s poetry
968. Which is the Syrian romance written by Aurobindo?
A: Rodoguna
969. Which is a romantic comedy by Aurobindo that recounts the days of
the great Haroun al Rashid? A: The Viziers of Bassora
970. Which is a romance of Scandinavia that features Odin and Thor?
A: Eric by Aurobindo
971. Which year was the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi published in
the book form?
A: 1925
972. Who translated the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi, The Story of
My Experiments with Truth , from Gujarati to English?
A: Mahadev Desai
973. Which Gujarati weekly serialised the
autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi?

A: Navjivan
974. The English weekly which serialised the
autobiography of Gandhiji is .................. .
A: Young India
975. In which language was Hind Swaraj written?
A: Gujarati
976. Which work of Gandhi constitutes dialogues
between him and a composite Indian
nationalist?
A: Hind Swaraj
977. The English translation of Hind Swaraj has the
title ................. .
A: Indian Home Rule
978. Which is the weekly newspaper began by
Gandhiji in 1933?
A: Harijan
979. Who adopted the translations of Indian lyrics
into English, made by Gandhi during his stay in
the jail, under the title Songs from Prison ?
A: John S. Hoyland
980. Glimpses of World History comprises of ..........
letters from Nehru to Indira.
A: 196
981. What was Nehru’s An Autobiography originally
titled?
A: “In and Out of Prison”
982. Nehru’s An Autobiography is dedicated to
..................... .
A: Kamala, his wife
983. Which work of Nehru is also called “Toward
Freedom”?
A: An Autobiography
984. Which book was written by Nehru in jail when
he was imprisoned for participation in the Quit
India Movement?
A: Discovery of India
985. Which is the collection of 30 letters written in
1928 by Nehru to Indira when she was 10 years
old?
A: Letters from a Father to His Daughter 986. Kalki, or the Future of
Civilisation, a book about
the increasing mechanisation and
industrialisation of the modern world, is written
by ....................... .
A: S. Radhakrishnan
987. Who is called the Nightingale of India?
A: Sarojini Naidu
988. The Golden Threshold, The Broken Wing and The
Bird of Time are collections of poems by
......................... .
A: Sarojini Naidu
989. Whose birthday is celebrated as the Women’s
Day in India?
A: Sarojini Naidu’s birthday
990. Which is the first anthology of Sarojini Naidu?
A: The Golden Threshold

991. Which work of Sarojini Naidu was

posthumuously published in 1961, edited by her daughter, Padmaja Naidu?
A: The Feather of the Dawn

992. Which poem of Sarojini Naidu deals with the idea that God is the
ideal refuge for birds of all types?
A: “Bird Sanctuary”

993. What is the name of the King in the poem “The Queen’s Rival”?
A: King Feroz

994. In the end of the poem, who emerges as the Queen’s rival?
A: The beautiful two-year old daughter of the queen

995. What is the subtitle of Sarojini Naidu’s trilogy of lyric sequences The
Temple ?
A: A Pilgrimage of Love

996. Which poem of Sarojini Naidu presents the bangles as a symbol of

happiness in the life of women?
A: “Bangle Sellers”

997. Siddhartha, Man of Peace is a play by .................... . A: Harindranath

Chattopadhyaya
998. The Flute of Krishna by P. A. Krishnaswamy is a .................. .
A: Verse play
999. Who is the protagonist of the play The Flute of Krishna, a girl who
aspires for the infinite and dreams of Krishna’s flute?
A: Vidyaratna
1000. J. M. Lobo Prabhu’s Mother of New India is a play in .............. acts.
A: Three