Question

Line of Blood' is a book written by whom?
A) Bairaj Khanna
B) Ursula Vernon
C) Amal EL-Mohtar
D) Diksha Basu

Answer 1

Hint: Born in Punjab, India, he is a painter and writer. He graduated from Chandigarh University with a Master of Arts degree in English literature and was on his way to Oxford University, but an incident prevented him from enrolling, and he ended up turning to art practically by accident. He had his first one-man show in 1965 at New Vision Centre Gallery after a convalescent vacation to France, although he continued to live a varied life.

Complete answer:
Line of Blood is written by eminent writer Balraj Khanna. It is an evocation of the agony and anxiety in Punjab's bordering territories in the months leading up to Partition in 1947. Perhaps never before have the pangs of the subcontinent's vivisection been depicted with such poignancy.

‘There is a magnificence about the novel that makes one think of Tolstoy... in this Line of Blood is a triumph and truly Dostoyevskian in its greatness,' writes well-known British writer Paul Pickering. Khanna has undoubtedly created one of the best Partition narratives, with exquisite mastery in portraying people who are both very real and larger-than-life.

Balraj Khanna, one of today's most well-known Indian painters in Europe, is the author of several books. His celebrated 1984 novel, Nation of Fools, won the Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize. Carmen Callil and Colm Toibin named it one of the 200 finest novels published since 1950 in The Modern Library. Khanna currently resides in London.

Therefore the correct answer is option ‘A’.

Note: He was a foreign journalist in the India-Pakistan War from 1971 to 1972, earned the Winifred Holtby Prize for his novel Nation of Fools from the Royal Society of Literature in 1984, and was a co-author of the Greater London Council's report Art on the South Bank in 1986. Khanna performed some figurative art, but his colourful, kaleidoscopic, abstract paintings, which were funny and innovative, made a lasting impression.