Sunday, April 10, 2005
Quiz 6 : Indian (and related) Literature
Quiz 6 (April 11-17, 2005): Indian (and related) Literature
Most of the work is by Indian authors, some of them are not Indian, but either the subject is related to India or the author(s) are Indian born - basically, there is some indian connection. hence the 'almost indian' connection.
1. Which well known actor, playwright and director won the Jnanpith Award (India's highest literary prize) in 1998 for his literary contributions to Indian drama (most notably in Kannada)? His first is first play, titled 'Yayati', won the Mysore state award, while his second venture 'Tughlaq' was presented in London as part of the Festival of India in 1982. He has acted in several Hindi and Kannada films with eminent directors such as Satyajit Ray, and Shyam Benegal. He directed the movie 'Utsav' and more recently, his play 'Agni Mattu Male (The Fire and the Rain)' was made into a movie 'Agnivarsha', starring Jackie Shroff, Nagarjuna and Raveena Tandon. Hopefully, all these clues are sufficient.
2. For which novel set in the days of the partition of India did Bhisham Sahni win the 1975 Sahitya Akademi award in Hindi? It was later made into a television series with a stellar cast including Om Puri, A.K.Hangal, Bhisham Sahni himself, Dina Pathak, Deepa Sahi, and Amrish Puri.
3. Who was the author of the novel upon which the 2002 movie Devdas (Shahrukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit and Aishwarya Rai) was based?
4. Which Indian born writer (now based in New York) won the Pulitzer prize for her collection of short stories 'The Interpreter of Maladies'?
5. Which Indian born writer was a Pulitzer award finalist in 2005 for his book 'Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found'? Born in Calcutta, and raised in Bombay and New York, he co-wrote the Vidhu Vinod Chopra movie 'Mission Kashmir'.
6. Which Anglo-Indian writer, born in Kasauli, Himachal Pradesh in 1934, won the Sahitya Akademi Award for English in 1992 for his short story collection 'Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra'? Currently based in Mussorie, he received the Padma Shri in 1999. Most of his works have been published by Penguin India, and include 'The Night Train at Deoli and other stories', 'Time stops at Shamli' etc.
7. Which famous Indian writer wrote the novel 'The Guide', later made into a movie starring Dev Anand? He also received the Sahitya Akademi award for this work.
8. Which famous writer wrote the story 'Shatranj ke Khiladi', upon which the movie by the same name directed by Satyajit Ray is based? Born Dhanpat Rai, he started writing in Urdu under the name 'Nawabrai', and his works in Hindi include the novels 'Nirmala' and 'Gaban'.
9. Which famous poet received the Sahitya Akademi award for Hindi in 1968 for his work titled 'Do Chattanen'? He received his doctoral degree from Cambridge for his research on the works of W.B. Yeats, and has enriched Hindi through translations of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat, and Shakespeare's Macbeth and Othello. He wrote his last poem 'Ek November 1984' after Indira Gandhi's assassination, and is famous for his poem 'Madhushala'
10. MARATHI (This is purely for the significant number of people on this list who had marathi as a medium of instruction in school):
a. Who won the Sahitya Akademi award in Marathi for his autobiographical novel 'Smaran Gatha'? He also wrote the novel 'Padghavali', later made into a Hindi serial 'Kuch Khoya Kuch Paya' on Doordarshan.
b. Who wrote the award winning novel 'Yayati'?
c. Who wrote the famous play 'Natasamrat'?
11. Which French author wrote the book 'The City of Joy' about the slums of Calcutta, later made into a movie starring Patrick Swayze? He has also been a leading advocate of the rights of the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy and wrote his book 'Five Past Midnight in Bhopal' in 2002. He was one of the top foreign reporters in the 1960s and 1970s and co-wrote 'Freedom at Midnight', about the eclipse of the British Raj in India.
12. Which well known wildlife conservationist wrote 'Jungle Lore', generally considered his autobiography. Born in Kumaon, he established India's first national park in 1934 in the Kumaon Hills, and today it is a Tiger Reserve under the Project Tiger program, and one of the most favorable places for tiger sightings.
13. [THIS EXTRA QUESTION IS INTENDED TO COMPENSATE FOR THE MARATHI QUESTION ABOVE, #10] Which well known cricketer's autobiography is titled 'Straight from the Heart'? He made his Test debut against Pakistan at Faisalabad in 1978-79 and played his last test against New Zealand at Hamilton in 1994.
- posted by Aditya @ 9:24 PM
