Question Bank on Indian Literature in English

82 Pages·2.56 MB·English

by  Dr. Kalyani Vallath

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)