Who is the author of the novel 'The Guide', set in the town of Malgudi?

The correct answer is B, Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist, published in parts between 1837 and 1839, is his second novel and follows an orphan boy through a workhouse and the streets of London. Dickens also wrote A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, David Copperfield, Hard Times and The Pickwick Papers, and the workhouse, the pickpocket and the debtors' prison are the marks of his world.

Option A, Benazir Habib, is not the author of any novel that appears in general awareness lists. Option C, Paul Kennedy, is a historian known for The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, a work of history and not fiction. Option D, Eric Segal, wrote the popular novel Love Story in 1970, more than a century after Oliver Twist, so the period alone rules him out. When a Victorian title of London poverty is given, Dickens is the safe answer.

The correct answer is D, Jhumpa Lahiri. Unaccustomed Earth, published in 2008, is her second collection of short stories and, like most of her work, deals with Bengali families settled in the United States. Her first collection, Interpreter of Maladies, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2000, and her novel The Namesake was widely read and filmed.

Option A, Shobha De, is known for Socialite Evenings and Starry Nights, novels of Mumbai society. Option B, Arundhati Roy, wrote The God of Small Things, which won the Booker Prize in 1997, and later The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Option C, Anita Nair, wrote Ladies Coupe and Mistress. All four are Indian women writing in English, which is why the question is set this way; only Lahiri writes of the Bengali diaspora in America, and Unaccustomed Earth is hers.

The correct answer is B, Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Unfinished, published in 2021, is her memoir, written in English, and it recounts her school years in India and the United States, her win at a beauty pageant and her move from Hindi films to work abroad. The title itself signals a life the writer regards as still in progress.

Option A, Alia Bhatt, has not written a memoir, and no such book stands in her name. Option C, Deepika Padukone, is likewise not an author, though she is often placed in these options because she belongs to the same set of leading actors. Option D, Katrina Kaif, has also written no memoir. In a question of this kind only one of the four names has actually published a book, and here the book and the name are tied by the word Unfinished.

The correct answer is D, Khushwant Singh. The End of India, published in 2003, is his book of essays written in English on communal violence and the danger it poses to the idea of India. He is better remembered for the novel Train to Pakistan, a story of Partition, and for Delhi and his newspaper columns.

Option A, Dr. Manmohan Singh, was an economist and Prime Minister whose name is tied to policy papers rather than to such a book. Option B, Salman Rushdie, wrote Midnight's Children, which won the Booker Prize in 1981, and The Satanic Verses. Option C, Shashi Tharoor, wrote The Great Indian Novel and An Era of Darkness, and because his books also argue about India's past, he is the strongest distractor here. Tie the word Partition, and this title, to Khushwant Singh.

The correct answer is B, Salman Rushdie. Midnight's Children came out in 1981 and tells the story of children born at the hour of India's independence. It won the Booker Prize that year and was later voted the best of all Booker winners in two special polls, which is why it is the most asked Indian English novel of all.

Option A, Vikram Seth, wrote A Suitable Boy, a long novel of the nineteen fifties, and The Golden Gate, but he has not won the Booker. Option C, Amitav Ghosh, wrote The Shadow Lines and Sea of Poppies, and although Sea of Poppies reached the Booker shortlist, it did not win. Option D, V. S. Naipaul, did win the Booker, but in 1971 for In a Free State, and he also received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2001. Fix the year 1981 to Rushdie.