Books and Authors Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The answer is Himalaya Ke Barf.

Pushpesh Pant, the food historian born in Almora, wrote From the King's Table to Street Food: A Food History of Delhi (Speaking Tiger, 2024), Victory Mantra: The Leader's Path to Success (Rupa) and Lazzatnama: Recipes of India (Rupa, 2024). A search for a book called Himalaya Ke Barf turned up no such title by him, so it is the odd one out; the finding rests on not locating the book, not on a catalogue that rules it out.

The other three options are real books of his, which is why they cannot be the answer to a question asking for the one he did not write.

Answer: B

Gita Govinda was written by Jayadeva, in the twelfth century.

A Sanskrit poem in twelve cantos describing Krishna's love for Radha, it is sung in temples across India and shaped both Odissi dance and the Bhakti movement. Jayadeva was a court poet of Lakshmana Sena of Bengal.

Answer: A

Les Misérables was written by Victor Hugo, published in 1862.

It follows Jean Valjean, imprisoned nineteen years for stealing bread, through post-Napoleonic France to the barricades of the 1832 uprising. It is among the longest novels ever written.

Answer: A

Aladdin was the first English film dubbed into Hindi.

Disney's 1992 animated feature opened the way for the routine dubbing of Hollywood releases into Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, which now accounts for a substantial share of their Indian earnings.

Answer: D

Gulliver's Travels was written by Jonathan Swift, published in 1726.

It is a satire disguised as a traveller's tale: the tiny Lilliputians, the giant Brobdingnagians and the rational Houyhnhnms each serve to mock some feature of European politics and human pretension.

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

Aristotle said man is a political animal.

The phrase is from the Politics: zoon politikon, an animal of the polis. He meant that human beings realise their nature only in the life of a city-state, and that one who could live outside it would be either a beast or a god.

Answer: A

Rakta Karabi - Red Oleanders - was written by Rabindranath Tagore, in 1924.

It is a symbolic play set in a gold-mining town where men are known by numbers, and is read as a protest against industrial dehumanisation.

Answer: D

Swami and Friends was written by R.K. Narayan, published in 1935.

It was his first novel and introduced the fictional town of Malgudi, in which he set almost all his later work. Graham Greene helped find a publisher for it.

Answer: A

John Keats wrote 'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever'.

It is the opening line of Endymion, published in 1818. Keats died of tuberculosis at 25, having written all his major poetry in about four years.