Books and Authors Questions and Answers

Answer: C

It is Ben Okri.

The Famished Road won the Booker in 1991. Its narrator Azaro is an abiku, a spirit child who keeps returning to the world of the living, and the novel moves between that world and this without marking the boundary.

Answer: D

Train to Pakistan was written by Khushwant Singh, published in 1956.

It is set in the fictional village of Mano Majra on the border during partition, and shows how a community that had lived together for generations was destroyed within weeks.

Answer: B

It is a book on economics.

Asian Drama, published in 1968 after a decade of research, argued that South Asian poverty persisted because governments were soft states, unable to enforce the policies they announced. Myrdal shared the Nobel in economics in 1974.

Answer: B

Salaam Bombay! was directed by Mira Nair, in 1988.

It follows a boy living on the streets of Bombay, and used real street children in its cast. It won the Caméra d'Or at Cannes and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Answer: B

We Indians was written by Khushwant Singh.

It is a collection of his observations on Indian habits and hypocrisies, written in the plain and often provoking manner that made him among the most widely read columnists in the country.

Answer: B

Tandoori Nights was directed by Jon Amiel.

The Channel 4 comedy of 1985, set in rival Indian restaurants in London, was written by Farrukh Dhondy and starred Saeed Jaffrey and Zohra Sehgal.

Answer: C

The Naked Triangle was written by Balwant Gargi.

Gargi was a Punjabi playwright and theatre director; the book is an autobiographical novel. He also wrote Loha Kutt and the study Folk Theatre of India.

Answer: A

It is Tony Blair.

A Journey, published in 2010, is his memoir of ten years as British Prime Minister, including his defence of the decision to join the invasion of Iraq. He gave the advance and royalties to the Royal British Legion.

Answer: D

We, the People was written by Nani Palkhivala.

A constitutional lawyer who argued Kesavananda Bharati (1973), Palkhivala collected here his writings on the Constitution, the economy and civil liberties. He also served as India's Ambassador to the United States.

Answer: C

The wrong pairing is Midnight's Children – A. Sanderson.

Midnight's Children is by Salman Rushdie and won the Booker in 1981. The other three are correct: Prithviraj Raso by Chand Bardai, Idols by Sunil Gavaskar and Meghaduta by Kalidasa.