Famous Personalities Questions and Answers

Answer: C

Charles Correa distinguished himself in architecture.

He designed the Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya at Ahmedabad, the Jawahar Kala Kendra at Jaipur and the British Council building in Delhi, and planned New Bombay. His work sought a modernism rooted in Indian climate and tradition, using open-to-sky space.

Answer: D

Naina Devi was associated with vocal music.

Born into the Tagore family and married into the royal house of Kapurthala, she took up the thumri after being widowed and became one of its foremost exponents, doing much to restore the form's respectability.

Answer: A

Pandit Jasraj established his reputation in music.

A Hindustani classical vocalist of the Mewati gharana, he was known for his command of the khayal and for the Jasrangi jugalbandi, a duet form he devised for a male and a female voice singing different ragas at once. He received the Padma Vibhushan in 2000.

Answer: A

Sanjay Dutt was held under TADA.

The Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act was invoked after the Bombay blasts of 1993. The TADA charges were eventually dropped, and he was convicted instead under the Arms Act for illegal possession of a weapon.

Answer: C

Jayanta Mahapatra is not a dramatist.

He was a poet, one of the founders of Indian English poetry and the first in that language to win the Sahitya Akademi Award, in 1981. Girish Karnad, Badal Sircar and Vijay Tendulkar were all playwrights.

Answer: B

The title Sparrow belonged to Major General Rajinder Singh.

He led the defence of Kashmir in October 1947, holding the advancing raiders at Uri with a small force until Indian troops could be airlifted to Srinagar. He was killed in that action and was the first recipient of the Maha Vir Chakra.

Answer: D

Shakuntala Devi beat computers at mental arithmetic.

In 1980 at Imperial College London she multiplied two thirteen-digit numbers in 28 seconds, a feat recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. She was called the human computer.

Answer: B

Jamini Roy was a famous painter.

Trained in the Western academic style, he turned away from it to the Kalighat pat and the folk traditions of Bengal, working in flat colour and bold line with earth pigments on cloth. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1955.

Answer: A

Limba Ram is associated with sports.

He is an archer from a tribal family in Rajasthan who equalled the world record in 1992 and competed at three Olympic Games. He received the Arjuna Award and the Padma Shri.

Answer: C

Sushmita Sen hails from New Delhi.

She won Miss Universe in 1994 at Manila, becoming the first Indian to hold that title, in the same year that Aishwarya Rai won Miss World.