Preparation tips for Verbal Ability for MAH MBA MMS CET

The MAH MBA MMS CET

For many students (graduates or just about to graduate) and working professionals who wish to ascend the corporate ladder, an MBA is a dream that they wish to achieve. Now that CAT, SNAP, IIFT and XAT exams are over and if the candidates are not sure of getting a top MBA college based on their performance in these exams, they can still give it another try through MAH MBA MMS CET. For an admission to the Maharashtra colleges, taking the MAH MBA MMS CET Exam is required. MAH CET scores are accepted by some of the top MBA colleges including JBIMS, SIMSREE, Welingkar’s and PUMBA. So, do not miss MAH CET 2021, registration for which will begin soon. 

MAH MBA MMS CET 2021

• Total questions will be 200.
• Total time provided is 2 hours 30 minutes (150 Minutes). No sectional time limit.  
• 75 questions in Analytical Reasoning, 50 questions in Quantitative Aptitude, 50 in Verbal Ability, 25 in Abstract Reasoning.
• Marks per correct answer is 1. 
• No Negative marking 

Preparation tips:

Verbal Ability:

• The section is usually of easy to moderate difficulty.
• Vocabulary can be approached through etymology – understanding root meanings.
• Study topics of Grammar individually to have clarity of concept and their application. Practice sample questions after completing a topic to know how well you’ve understood the topic.
• Probable starters and Fill in sentences: these are fairly new type of questions so we recommend you to go through at least 30 questions of each type to get used to them.
• Cloze Test: One paragraph with blanks (5-10). These questions are easy and help you improve your performance. If you are confused between two options, then move on to the next question, answer it and come back to the question where you are confused. You will now have a better idea about the accurate choice.
• Use material provided by TIME to enhance your vocabulary and grammatical abilities.
• Apply the rule of elimination in fill in the blanks, cloze test, spot the error, etc. The VARC section of MAH CET MBA exam can be handled well with elimination rule by getting five options down to 50-50 choice. Again, trust your instinct for choosing between the two options.
• Don’t waste too much time per question. 30-35 minutes is ideally recommended for this section. 
• To perform well in VARC, reading is of utmost importance. No matter the tricks and tips you learn, the only way you can solve questions correctly is by understanding them. Devote one hour each day to reading. Regularly read the articles, editorials in the English newspaper to improve your RC skills. 
• In case of data driven RC passage, note down important points while reading it. In case of abstract passage, break it down and read it in parts.
• Reading on the computer will be beneficial in improving one’s reading and comprehending speed for the online exam.
• Note down unfamiliar words, phrases and idioms you come across while reading to check their meaning, context and usage.
• Maintain an accuracy of 80 percent in the section.
• Solving sample papers and attempting mocks will strengthen your grasp on this section.

We hope these inputs help you prepare for the VA section in CET exam. “A dream does not become reality through magic; it takes Sweat, Determination and Hard work.” All the best!!!

This article has been authored by Aniket Karane, a Verbal faculty member at TIME Mumbai.

Basics of Classics

Well, let us “Begin at the beginning, go on until you come to the end, then stop”. This was once said by a wise King. Now if you know your classics you would know which wise king.

Am I going to talk about waning interest of readers in classics, absolutely not! It is my firm belief that classics don’t need readers; readers need them. Why do I say this? Because at any point of time you open a classic, it is a conversation with the best and finest minds enriched with imagination, ingenuity, creativity, liveliness, the list is endless. it is the only thing in the world that is timeless yet timely relevant.

There are some books which are just more than books, here onwards is a list of such gems to suit your taste. I would urge you to try one, you won’t regret it.

Well let us begin with an all-time favorite-

1)Humour– Here is a list of some of the finest authors and humorists of all time:

a) P.G . Wodehouse – My personal favorite, he is a true philosopher who has a knack of sailing through life with minimum fuss. His famous works are – The inimitable Jeeves, Right Ho Jeeves, Code of Woosters , Aunts aren’t gentlemen, The best of Wodehouse, etc.

b) Jerome K Jerome – He is a humorist who is well known for his subtle and self-deprecating humour, who can transform the mundane into a riot of laughter. His famous works are – Three men in a boat, Idle thoughts of off idle fellow, 50 humorous stories.

c) Mark Twain – Not many people associate him with humour, but he is one of the best writers of this genre. His famous works are – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, his essays (Don’t let the word essay fool you, These are quite a light hearted reads) Advice to youth, How to tell a story, At the funeral, Taming a bicycle, etc.

(All the above-mentioned writers have fine collections of short stories which are simply chucklesome)

2) Mystery: This is a genre that has fascinated us through all times, here are a few cool sleuths.

a) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – More famously known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes, he is master of rationality and knowledge who takes us through the deep quagmire of criminal investigation. His famous works are – The Hound of Baskervilles, A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of the Four, The Adventures of the Dancing Men.

b) Agatha Christie – She is the uncrowned Queen of mystery novels, who enthralls reader with gripping storylines that keep them on the edge of their seats. Her famous works are – Murder on the Orient Express , Death on Nile, And then there were none , ABC murders.

c) Edgar Allen Poe – He is the father of mystery and crime novels genre , his storylines were way ahead of his time .His famous works are – The murders in the Rue morgue, The mystery of Marie Roget , The Man of the crowd , The Purloined Letter

3)Adventure: This is a genre that satisfies heroic cravings even among the most timid .

a) Robert Louis Stevenson – Let me introduce him with his own words  

“There are no foreign lands, it is the traveler only who is foreign”. The undisputed captain of this genre who makes his reader his loyal crew.His famous works are – Treasure Island , Kidnapped , Catriona , The Ebb Tide , Dr Jekyll and Mr.Hyde ( although not an adventure novel , it is a great read)

b) Jules Verne – “All that is impossible remains to be accomplished” . Well, this sentence pretty much sums up his writing style. His daring, imaginative, inspiring stories are an awarding experience. His famous works are – Around the world in eighty days, Twenty thousand leagues under the sea, Journey to the Centre of the earth, Five weeks in a balloon.

c)  Some other Notable reads – Moby Dick – Herman Melville, The Jungle book – Rudyard Kipling, Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe, King Solomon’s Mines – H. Rider Haggard, Tarzan of the Apes- Edgar Rice Burrough, Gulliver’s Travel – Jonathan Swift, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll (What was that again about a wise king)

4) Romance – “You pierce my soul; I am half agony half hope”. – Jane Austen

Well, I will not be audacious enough to introduce you to this genre but let us take it as a universal phenomenon. Here is a list of some of the famous causes of heart flutters.

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte

5) Short stories – Writers to be appreciated for short stories are O. Henry, Anton Chekhov, Ruskin Bond, Oscar Wilde, R K Narayan, etc. 

I will leave you with this: 

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes”. -Marcel Proust

This article has been authored by Priya Shegaonkar, a faculty member at TIME Mumbai.

Preparation tips for Verbal Section for CMAT

CMAT

Common Management Admission Test (CMAT) is one of the most sought after and popular MBA entrance exams among the MBA aspirants in India. It is a national level entrance examination whose score is accepted over 1000 B-schools across India. The entrance exam is conducted every year generally in the month of January, this year, the exam will be conducted in February. CMAT has a total of 4 sections- Quantitative Techniques & Data Interpretation, General Awareness, Logical Reasoning and Language Comprehension in the exam comprising of 25 questions each. CMAT 2021 will be conducted on February 22 & 27, 2021.  In this article, we will discuss the strategy to prepare for the Language Comprehension section of the CMAT exam.

CMAT 2021

• CMAT exam pattern has remained without any substantial changes, although NTA has taken over the CMAT exam from AICTE.
• Total questions will be 100.
• Total time provided is 3 hours (180 Minutes). No sectional time limit.  
• 25 questions per section with 4 options per question.
• Marks per correct answer is 4. 
• Negative marking of (-1) for every incorrect answer.
• No mark will be deducted for unanswered questions.

Preparation tips:

Language Comprehension:

• Language Comprehension tests a candidate’s ability to read, comprehend and write in professional English.
• This section is usually easy to moderate in difficulty level.
• The language comprehension for CMAT covers various types of questions such as para jumbles, reading comprehension, sentence completion, idioms and phrases, one-word substitution and synonym and antonym.
• Vocabulary can be approached through etymology – understanding root meanings.
• Study topics of Grammar individually to have clarity of concept and their application. Practice sample questions after completing a topic to know how well you’ve understood the topic
• Use material provided by TIME to enhance your vocabulary and grammatical abilities.
• In the last few years only one Reading Comprehension passage of about 400 words which is easy to decipher consisting of six questions of four marks each has been a norm. 
• Regularly read the articles, editorials in the English newspaper to improve your RC skills. The RC passage in CMAT exam is usually from Literature, Art & Culture, Economy, Science, History, Philosophy, Sociology or Geography. 
• In case of data driven RC passage, note down important points while reading it. In case of abstract passage, break it down and read it in parts.
• Reading on the computer will be beneficial in improving one’s reading and comprehending speed for the online exam.
• Note down unfamiliar words, phrases and idioms you come across while reading to check their meaning, context and usage.
• Maintain an accuracy of 80 percent in the section.
• Solving sample papers and attempting mocks will strengthen your grasp on this section.

We hope these inputs help you prepare for the Language Comprehension section in CMAT exam. “Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.” All the best!!!

This article has been authored by Aniket Karane, a faculty member at TIME Mumbai.

Idioms for our taste buds

One would think that these bizarre people who have an extraordinary bent towards never saying what they want to say and making us decipher meanings from idioms would at least spare food! Well think again! They have infiltrated this area too.

So, for want of better methods, let’s don our Sherlock Holmes Caps and dear Watsons, follow me.

1. All the tea in China – I have to say, it sounds quite ambitious, like the food challenge “Man vs Tea”! But it isn’t, the meaning of this idiom is to refuse to do something no matter what the inducement.

It’s origin lies in the 19^th and 20^th centuries when China was a huge producer of tea.

E.G. Once Bertie Wooster asked Jeeves, “Should I wager with the ass Tuppy to wear pink pants if I couldn’t hit high notes of the new musical ‘Follow the girl’?” Jeeves gravely replied “You shouldn’t Sir, not for all the tea in China.”

(PG Wodehouse is one of the finest and best-known humourists of all time. Bertie Wooster, a rich socialite and his astute valet Jeeves are popular character of his novels)

2. Cut the mustard – Well here we go again, these idioms get more and more eccentric, why on God’s earth and by which enterprising soul is this to be accomplished? It is anybody’s guess.

The meaning of this idiom is to be successful, succeed or meet expectations. It first appeared in O Henry’s story published in 1902. One of the likely origins is related to military as it sounds similar to muster. ‘Pass the muster’ is to succeed.

E.G. Della Young decided to sell her locks of hair as the meagre savings she had couldn’t cut the mustard for a decent gift for Jim.

(O Henry is a well-known American short story writer. Della Young is a character from his famous short story ‘Gift of the Magi ‘.)

3. Baker‘s dozen –  Well what exactly are we talking of ,12 cakes , loaves, or, if I let my imagination run wild, his children? None of the above? So, now you are telling me a dozen is thirteen, so this idiom means thirteen of something. Then my good Sir, why call it a dozen to begin with?

The origin lies in the 16^th century when a few generous bakers gave an extra thirteenth loaf on an order of dozen to the retailer. This thirteenth loaf represented the retailer’s profit.

E.G – Phileas Fogg decided to visit more than Baker’s dozen places in his tour of Around the World to win the wager made at Reform’s club.

(Phileas Fogg is the protagonist of the novel Around the World in 80 days by Jules Verne)

4. Above the salt- And here I was thinking it can’t get any crazier !! Above the salt, are we talking about the periodic table? Position of something on the kitchen shelf? No to both! Well dash it.

It means to give something or someone an honour or high standing. Its origin is in the placement of salt on the dining table. Yes, you heard that right! Salt was considered precious and placed in the middle of the table. The owner and his family were seated above the salt and the guest and the servants below the salt.

E.G.- “Letters from Earth” criticizes the society in general for placing religion above the salt when compared to rationality.

(Letters from Earth is a collection of essays written by Mark Twain)

This article has been authored by Priya Shegaonkar, a faculty member at TIME Mumbai.

Idioms for Greener Prospects

Yes, we are back to continue with the theme of understanding idioms better in a fun way, the emphasis being on fun! Let’s begin…

1. Can’t see the forest for the trees-

What the blimey does it mean, are not forest made of trees? Then by a logical process of thinking, should not seeing trees be equivalent to seeing the forest? Yes, we know it is not to be taken literally, but who comes up with these mental acrobats, would love to have a word or two with these bunch of ‘creative souls’!
The idiom simply means you are unable to understand the situation clearly because you are too close to it.
Well the origin of this idiom lies in Bath (not the bath), a place in England. Trust the English to come up with weird idioms and even weirder names! Well, getting back to the origin, there was a bloke named John Wood , who was an architect. He designed a concourse of houses. There was a tree planted directly in front of these houses, and it grew quite large. So people began to exclaim: “You can’t see the forest for the tree!”.

E g – Treebeard , the ent, couldn’t see the forest for the trees, as he suffered loss of friends , but  he was ultimately pivotal to the fall of Isengard and Saruman.

(Ent are the talking giant trees from J R R Tolkien’s magnum opus “The Lord of the Rings”. Treebeard was the oldest Ent )

2. Primrose path – 
   Wonderful! Finally, some respite from the ghastly idioms! No, is it not? You don’t say so..
   It simply means pursuit of pleasure even though it may bring disastrous consequences.
   Well dash it !
   The origin lies in Hamlet , yes it is Shakespeare again!
   The idiom was coined by Shakespeare in his famous play Hamlet in 1602, where Ophelia advices her brother not to reject the righteous path because it is arduous and reject the pleasure filled path of sin.

E.g. Professor Moriarty continues on his primrose path, what facilitates him is his diabolical nature which allows him to commit crimes without losing sleep.
(Prof Moriarty is a criminal Master mind in the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

3. Cut down the poppies –
   Well, are not they illegal to grow? Are we trying to become jailbirds now? Well, well!
   Poppy flowers are very bright red coloured and they stand out, so one fine day a Roman Emperor Tarquin got a brilliant idea to remove the heads of poppies to demonstrate how captive people should be treated. What a benevolent soul!
   Cut down the poppies means to criticize people who stand out from the crowd.

E.g. Mr Darcy was a firm believer and follower of cutting down poppies, that is until he met a certain Miss Elizabeth Bennet.
(Mr Darcy is a haughty and aloof protagonist in the novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, he was a stickler for conformity, decorum and general mannerism)

4. In the tall cotton – 
   Are we talking about someone wearing tall cotton? Even if we were, why not just cotton, why tall cotton? Oh, we mean the cotton plant when we refer to cotton! That clears a lot! 

The term ‘tall cotton ‘ originates from rural communities in the antebellum (pre civil war in America) South, which meant the crop was good. This idiom generally means a successful or prosperous time.
E.g., Being able to grow rice and barley in the deserted island put Robinson Crusoe in tall cotton.

(Robinson Crusoe is a novel written by Daniel Defoe, where Crusoe gets shipwrecked and stranded on a deserted island and the story narrates his attempts to make a life for himself)

This article has been authored by Priya Shegaonkar, a faculty member at TIME Mumbai.

Preparation tips for English Proficiency for TISSNET

TISSNET

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai offers a range of Masters’ programs at various campuses. M.A in Human Resource Management & Labour Relations is of prime interest to management aspirants. Unlike previous years, when TISSNET used to be conducted in January, this year, the exam will be conducted in February. TISSNET 2021 will be conducted on February 20, 2021. Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) conducts TISSNET exam for admission to postgraduate programmes offered in TISS campuses at Hyderabad, Mumbai, IMHST Chennai, G-SET Ranchi, Tuljapur, Guwahati and MHAT Calicut. In this article, we will discuss the strategy to prepare for the English Proficiency section of the TISSNET exam.

TISSNET 2021

• Each question carries one mark each.
• There is no negative marking in case of wrong answers.
• No marks will be deducted or awarded for questions not attempted.
• English Proficiency section will have 30 MCQ questions.
• The duration of the computer-based entrance exam is 100 minutes (1 hour & 40 minutes).
• 30% weightage in final selection.

Preparation tips:

English Proficiency:

• This section is usually easy to moderate in difficulty level.
• Focus on Antonyms, Analogies, Odd word out, Word substitute in a sentence, Right usage of words in fill in the blank, Right usage of word in match the following, Fill in the Blanks – Homophones, Idioms – Fill in the blank, Idioms – Match the following. If you want to do well in the vocabulary questions asked at the TISSNET. 
• To excel in this section, students need to brush up their vocabulary and grammar skills.
• With respect to Grammar the aspirant must focus on Error spotting – grammar/words/ punctuation, Sentence Correction, Active and Passive Voice, Direct & Indirect Speech, Prepositions, etc.

• For VA revise Basic English grammar rules. Use the TIME material provided for the same.
• Regularly solve the Verbal Ability questions from your study material especially on Para summary, Jumbled Paragraphs.
• For RC focussing on the following question types should be of utmost importance Purpose of the passage, Strengthen and Weaken, Assumption and Supporting Statement, Flaw and Discrepancy, Inference and Conclusion Drawn, Passage based questions, Author’s Point of View, Main idea of the passage.
• Make a habit of reading the newspaper daily for social, political and your syllabus relevant news.
• Maintain an accuracy of 80 percent in the section.
• Solving sample papers and attempting mocks will strengthen your grasp on this section.

We hope these inputs help you prepare for the English proficiency section in TISSNET exam. Always remember there are no shortcuts to any place worth going.  All the best!!!

This article has been authored by Aniket Karane, a faculty member at TIME Mumbai.

Time& Work and Time & Distance quiz solution

A New Dawn, A New Beginning

Each year, as the previous year ends and the new one arrives, the world wears a festive look. There are celebrations everywhere, we get busy making New Year Resolutions (most of which we never follow up!) and the 31^st night is generally synonymous with “Party Time!” But have you wondered how and when did this system originate?

Various cultures throughout history have celebrated the concept of New Year as per their calendars. The earliest recorded celebrations were in ancient Babylon, around 4000 years ago, on the first New Moon following the Equinox in March. In Egypt, the year began with the annual flooding of the Nile. In India, even today, each region has its own New Year: Ugadi in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra and Goa, etc. 

Of course, all over the world today, 1^st January is celebrated as the New Year. So, what is the story behind this? Let’s flow down the river of Time and go back to the 8^th Century BC when Rome was founded. The Romans followed a calendar consisting of 10 months and 304 days, with each year beginning on the March Equinox. Later the months of January and February were added, making a grand total of 12 months. However, over a period of time, the calendar fell out of sync with the Sun. In 46 BC, Julius Caesar (he of the “You too, Brutus!” fame) introduced the Julian calendar and made January 1^st the New Year Day. This was in honor of the Roman God Janus who had 2 faces, one looking into the past, the other, the future. In fact, the month Quintilis was renamed July after Julius Caesar. Later on, the month Sextillus was renamed August after the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar. In fact, March, May and August are examples of Capitonyms in English. 

Over the years, this calendar became very popular and even today, with the Gregorian calendar, we have continued this tradition.

The New Year’s Day stands for a lot of things: discarding the old, bringing in the new, etc. Historically a lot of interesting events have happened on this day. On January 1st 1808, importing slaves into the USA was banned, thus bringing an end to this highly unjust practice. On this day in 1925, the great astronomer Edwin Hubble announced the discovery of galaxies outside the Milky Way, opening up new vistas for Mankind and brining in the hope that we might not be alone in this vast Universe. Fun fact: On January 1^st 1907, the then American President Theodore Roosevelt shook hands with around 8510 people, setting a new Guinness World Record that stayed unbroken for nearly 70 years!  

This New Year, though, has come at a very challenging time. 2020 is a year most of us will remember as “The Year The World Stood Still”. In the clutches of one of the deadliest pandemics in known history, the world witnessed unprecedented lockdowns. Even now things aren’t completely back to normal. People have lost their jobs, their near and dear ones, and in some cases, their lives too. Just when things were starting to look better, we now hear reports of a second wave, third wave, etc. This prompts the question: “Isn’t there an end to this nightmare”?  It actually seems as though a real Thanos might be sitting up there somewhere, directing this chaos.

In the midst of all this then, how do we stay intact and positive? By looking around us and learning from Mother Nature. When Summer, Winter or the Rainy season is at its peak, we do feel uncomfortable. But eventually it ends and the next season starts. Similar is the case with day and night. This is a never-ending cycle. This is what exactly happens with our lives too. Happiness is going to be followed by sorrow, which in turn will be succeeded by happiness. Trials and tribulations are ephemeral in nature. Hence we need to endure and wait with the hope that better times are definitely in store for us. Just like Coal under pressure transforms into a diamond, these trying times will transform us into a better race.  

On that hopeful note, Dear Readers, Wishing all of you a Very Happy New Year from our side!!!

This article has been authored by Anirudh Jayaram , a verbal faculty at TIME Mumbai

Preparation tips for the Verbal section for IIFT

IIFT  

An IIFT 2021 Scorecard can be your ticket to seek admission in India’s finest MBA institute committed to impart education on foreign trade specialisation. It is a prestigious MBA entrance exam conducted annually for the aspirants seeking admission to the MBA (International Business) course. There are 420 seats in MBA (IB) 2021-23 batch at its Delhi, Kolkata and the Kakinada campuses. The IIFT test is usually conducted in the month of November/December but this year it is going to be held on January 24 2021 between 3-5 pm. The sections will likely have 110 questions. In 2019 the bifurcation was General Awareness (20 questions), Quantitative ability (25 questions), DI and LR (30 questions), VARC (35 questions).This blog will give you a comprehensive roadmap to enhance your verbal score in IIFT.

IIFT 2019 

4 RC’s with 4 questions each all the passages were of varied genres and a bit lengthy; Vocabulary based questions asked were 4; 4 questions on Analogies; 3 questions on Parajumbles; 3 questions on Idiom/Phrase; 3 Questions on Grammar; & 2 questions on sentence completion  made up the 35 questions that were asked in IIFT 2019. +3 for correct answer and -1 for incorrect answer was the marking scheme.

Preparation tips:

VA & RC: 

• This section is usually of moderate difficulty level.

• In the VARC section, there will be 35 questions in MCQ format. 
• 30-35 minutes out of the total 120 minutes need to be utilized in this section.
• The RC passages are direct and fact based. Absence of inference based passages makes this section doable.
• Generally, IIFT has 4-5 passages, so it is impractical to attempt all the passages, as it is highly likely that the passages will be lengthy.
• Keep in mind that two out of four reading comprehensions are of easy to moderate level.
• The candidates need to focus on reading speed as the length of each passages is usually 800 -1000 words.
• By going through the questions first, you can easily spot the relevant facts in the passage and answer the given questions.
• To prepare this section, develop reading speed and strengthen your grammar.
• Read newspaper editorials, online blogs, novels & short stories, business reports, etc.
• Practice as many RC passages as you can.
• For VA revise Basic English grammar rules. Use the TIME material provided for the same.
• Keeping in mind the time-constraint scenario, for the Reading Comprehension sub-section, you can comfortably attempt 9-10 questions, and for the English Usage section you can attempt 11-13 questions.
• Maintain an accuracy of 80 percent in the section.
• Start with vocabulary, Para-jumbles and other non-RC questions. Maximize your attempt in these questions.
• In the first go, do not attempt question types that are unique or you have not solved before.
• Solving sample papers and attempting mocks will strengthen your grasp on this section.

Cracking verbal section depends on how well you understand and use English language. We hope these inputs help you prepare for the Verbal section in IIFT exam. All the best!!!

This article has been authored by Aniket Karane, a faculty member at TIME Mumbai.

Booked by The Booker Prize

BOOKED BY THE BOOKER

Books are treasures that open up new vistas for both readers and authors. From a reader’s perspective, they make us realize we aren’t alone in this world and instill empathy within us. For authors, writing helps them to communicate with and to touch the lives of known and unknown people. And then there are the awards: the ultimate recognition from your peers. 

In India, the main literary awards are the Jnanpith award and the Sahitya Akademi award.  The Jnanpith Award is presented annually by the Bhartiya Jnanpith to an author for outstanding contribution to literature in any of the 22 languages mentioned in the eight schedule to the Constitution of India and in English. As of now, the only author to have won it for writing in English is Amitav Ghosh in 2018. Next comes the Sahitya Akademi award, which is conferred by the Sahitya Akademi on writers of outstanding works in any of the 24 major Indian languages recognized by it, including English. The most recent winner of the Award for writing in English was Shashi Tharoor (yes, the one with the Vocabulary that launches a thousand memes and makes Twitterati look for their dictionaries!) for his novel “An Era of Darkness” in 2019. These awards stand testament to India’s amazing ability to assimilate various cultures and languages and make them her own.

Worldwide, the most prestigious literary awards are the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Pulitzer Prize and the Booker Prize. 

The Booker Prize is awarded each year, generally in October or in November, for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or in Ireland.  On November 20 2020, the Booker award for 2020 was given to Douglas Stuart for his debut novel “Shuggie Bain”. This is the story of a young boy in 1980s Glasgow, trying to support his mother as she struggles with addiction and poverty. It has struck a chord with people across the globe.

Did you know, there’s a connect between the Booker Prize and James Bond? Yes, you read that right! Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, wanted to avoid paying high taxes on the income he was earning from his books. So in 1964, he sold 51% of his literary rights to Booker McConnel Ltd, then a major giant in the Agri Business. Agatha Christie, one of the most famous mystery authors of the world, also known as “The Queen of Mystery”, did the same. This resulted in a win win situation for both the company and the authors.  Eventually, in a bid to give back to the literary world, the company set up the Booker Prize foundation in 1969 and started giving the award annually to deserving authors. 

5 authors of Indian origin have won the award so far. Amongst them, the most famous is Arundhati Roy who won it in 1997 for “The God of Small Things”. Set in her home village Ayemenem in Kerala, it traces the lives of a pair of twins, how a single event of great brutality transforms their lives and how they deal with it. Before this, Arundhati had written 3 movie scripts which were filmed by her then husband Pradeep Kishen. One of these was “In which Annie Gives it Those ones”, a quirky campus comedy, a sort of forerunner to “3 Idiots” and “Chhichhore”. Intriguingly, a small role in this movie was played by a then upcoming actor from Delhi called Shah Rukh Khan! 

In 2008, Aravind Adiga won the prize for “The White Tiger”. This narrates the story of how a village boy, working as a chauffeur for a rich landlord, eventually becomes an entrepreneur. It’s a wickedly satirical novel, filled with doses of dark humor. It has been adapted into a movie by Ramin Bahrani, starring Priyanka Chopra and Rajkumar Rao, and will be released on Netflix in January. Interestingly, Ramin was Aravind’s roommate when the latter wrote the book and helped a lot in its ideation. Hence the book is dedicated to him!

With this, we wrap up this trivia article, hope that you found it interesting, and that it has piqued your curiosity to give these books a try!

This article has been authored by Anirudh Jayaram , a verbal faculty at TIME Mumbai