Books & Authors Quiz: Books by Sportspersons and Scientists

The correct answer is B, Sachin Tendulkar. Playing It My Way is the autobiography of the batsman Sachin Tendulkar, published in 2014 soon after he retired, and it was written with the sports writer Boria Majumdar. The book covers his first Test at sixteen, the 2011 World Cup win and his hundredth international century. Option A is wrong because Rahul Dravid has not written an autobiography; the volume Timeless Steel about him is a collection of essays by other writers. Option C is wrong because Sourav Ganguly's book is titled A Century Is Not Enough. Option D is wrong because Virender Sehwag is the subject of books by others rather than the author of a well-known autobiography. Remember the pairing by title: my way for Tendulkar, from the heart for Kapil Dev, sunny days for Gavaskar.

The correct answer is C, A P J Abdul Kalam. Wings of Fire was written by the aerospace scientist and eleventh President of India, A P J Abdul Kalam, along with Arun Tiwari, and it traces his life from a modest childhood at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu to his work on the satellite launch vehicle and the missile programme. His other titles include India 2020, Ignited Minds, My Journey, Turning Points and Indomitable Spirit. Option A is wrong because Homi Jehangir Bhabha, the architect of India's atomic energy programme, wrote scientific papers rather than a popular autobiography. Option B is wrong because Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian space programme, is the subject of biographies by others. Option D is wrong because C V Raman, the Nobel laureate in physics, is remembered for the Raman effect and not for this book.

The correct answer is B, Stephen Hawking. The British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking wrote A Brief History of Time in 1988 to explain the Big Bang, black holes and the nature of time to readers without a background in physics, and it became one of the best-selling science books ever published. He later wrote The Universe in a Nutshell and The Grand Design. Option A is wrong because Carl Sagan wrote Cosmos, another famous popular science book, and in fact contributed an introduction to Hawking's book. Option C is wrong because Richard Dawkins wrote The Selfish Gene, which is about evolution rather than cosmology. Option D is wrong because James Watson wrote The Double Helix, his personal account of the discovery of the structure of DNA. Attach each title to its subject and the options separate cleanly.

The correct answer is A, Milkha Singh. The Race of My Life was written by the sprinter Milkha Singh, known as the Flying Sikh, together with his daughter Sonia Sanwalka, and it describes his childhood during Partition, his rise in Indian athletics and the fourth place in the 400 metres at the 1960 Rome Olympics that he regretted all his life. The film Bhaag Milkha Bhaag was based on this book. Option B is wrong because P T Usha, the athlete from Kerala, is not the author of this title. Option C is wrong because Gurbachan Singh Randhawa, the hurdler who finished fifth at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, did not write it. Option D is wrong because Sriram Singh, the eight hundred metres runner of the 1976 Montreal Olympics, is not its author.

The correct answer is B, Mary Kom. Unbreakable is the autobiography of the boxer M C Mary Kom of Manipur, a multiple world champion and an Olympic bronze medallist at London in 2012, and the book describes her journey from a farming family in Manipur to the world stage while raising a family. Option A is wrong because Saina Nehwal's book is titled Playing to Win, with the subtitle My Life On and Off Court. Option C is wrong because Sania Mirza's autobiography is Ace Against Odds, a title that borrows a term from tennis. Option D is wrong because the wrestler Sakshi Malik, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist, is not the author of this book. A useful hint is that each title hints at the sport, so match the word to the game before choosing.

The correct answer is C, Abhinav Bindra. The shooter Abhinav Bindra, who won the ten metre air rifle gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and became independent India's first individual Olympic gold medallist, wrote this book with the sports journalist Rohit Brijnath. The subtitle names the achievement, which makes the answer clear in the question itself. Option A is wrong because Gagan Narang, a bronze medallist at the London Olympics in 2012, is not its author. Option B is wrong because Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, who won a silver in double trap at Athens in 2004, did not write it. Option D is wrong because Jaspal Rana, a decorated shooter of the Asian Games and later a coach, is not the author. Note the pairing of shooting with this title.

The correct answer is A, Kapil Dev. Straight from the Heart is the autobiography of the all-rounder Kapil Dev, who captained India to its first cricket World Cup title in 1983 at Lord's and who was the first bowler to take four hundred Test wickets. The frank tone the title promises runs through his account of that campaign and of his later years. Option B is wrong because Mohinder Amarnath, the player of the match in the 1983 final, did not write this book. Option C is wrong because Bishan Singh Bedi, the left-arm spinner and former captain, is not its author. Option D is wrong because Ravi Shastri, the all-rounder who became a commentator and coach, did not write it either. Learn the World Cup pair together: Kapil Dev for 1983 and Straight from the Heart for the book.

The correct answer is C, Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, setting out the theory that species change over generations through natural selection, in which individuals better suited to their surroundings leave more offspring. He followed it with The Descent of Man. Option A is wrong because Gregor Mendel, the monk whose pea plant experiments founded genetics, published his findings as a scientific paper, not as this book. Option B is wrong because Jean-Baptiste Lamarck proposed the earlier and now rejected theory of inheritance of acquired characters. Option D is wrong because Alfred Wallace independently reached a similar idea of natural selection and presented a joint paper with Darwin, but the book itself is Darwin's. This title is asked in the biology chapter as well.

The correct answer is B, Aryabhata. The Aryabhatiya is a short Sanskrit work in verse, written by the astronomer and mathematician Aryabhata, which states an accurate approximation for pi, explains the daily rotation of the earth as the cause of the apparent motion of the stars, and gives the correct reason for eclipses. India's first satellite, launched in 1975, was named after him. Option A is wrong because Varahamihira wrote the Brihat Samhita, an encyclopaedic work on astronomy and natural phenomena. Option C is wrong because Brahmagupta wrote the Brahmasphutasiddhanta, which first set out rules for calculating with zero. Option D is wrong because Bhaskara II wrote the Siddhanta Shiromani, whose mathematical section is the famous Lilavati. Learn all four pairs together, as papers often mix them.

The correct answer is A, Viswanathan Anand. Mind Master was written by the chess Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand with the writer Susan Ninan, and it sets out the lessons in concentration, preparation and handling defeat that Anand drew from his world championship matches. Anand became India's first Grandmaster in 1988 and was the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna. Option B is wrong because Koneru Humpy, the first Indian woman to take the Grandmaster title, has not written this book. Option C is wrong because Pentala Harikrishna is a leading Indian Grandmaster but not its author. Option D is wrong because Gukesh Dommaraju, who won the world championship in 2024, belongs to a later generation. Match the word master with chess and the option is easy to pick.

The correct answer is A, Sunil Gavaskar. Sunny Days was written by the opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar, whose nickname was Sunny, and it covers his early career including the record-breaking debut series in the West Indies. He was the first batsman to score ten thousand runs in Test cricket, and he also wrote Idols, Runs and Ruins and One Day Wonders, so an examiner may name any of these titles. Option B is wrong because Dilip Vengsarkar, the batsman famous for his centuries at Lord's, did not write it. Option C is wrong because Gundappa Viswanath, Gavaskar's contemporary and brother-in-law, is not its author. Option D is wrong because Ajit Wadekar captained the side that won in the West Indies and England in 1971 but did not write this book.

The correct answer is A, Salim Ali. Salim Ali, known as the Birdman of India, was the ornithologist whose surveys built the modern study of Indian birds, and The Book of Indian Birds is his best-known work, long used as a field guide. His autobiography is titled The Fall of a Sparrow, and he was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan. Option B is wrong because Jagadish Chandra Bose, who demonstrated that plants respond to stimuli, wrote Response in the Living and Non-Living. Option C is wrong because Birbal Sahni was a palaeobotanist who studied fossil plants and founded the institute that carries his name. Option D is wrong because M S Swaminathan is remembered as the leading figure of India's Green Revolution in agriculture rather than as the author of this book.