Born in Bombay Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rudyard Kipling

Rudyard Kipling was born on 30 December 1865. His parents were living in Bombay at the time as his father had been appointed as the Principal and Professor of Architectural Sculpture at the Sir Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy School of Art located in the city. Rudyard Kipling was sent to England to complete his education and returned to India after that to take up employment.

His books draw extensively from his life in India and in 1907, he became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, a record which has stood for over a century. Kipling's well known works include "Kim", "The Jungle Book" and "Gunga Din".

Answer: Zubin Mehta

Zubin Mehta was born in Bombay in April 1936 into a Zoroastrian family. His father, Mehli Mehta, was the founder of the Bombay Symphony Orchestra. Zubin followed in his footsteps and became a conductor of Western classical music. He studied music in Vienna, Austria and has held the position of Music Director at the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra with the latter naming him Music Director for Life. Among the many accolades received by him are the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Answer: Sachin Tendulkar

Sachin Tendulkar made his debut in international cricket in 1989 when he was just sixteen years old and went on to play a dominant role in the sport for over two decades. By the time he retired from all forms of the game in 2013 he held multiple records including the highest number of runs scored in both test matches and one day internationals, the only player till that time to score 30,000 runs in international cricket and the first male player to score a double century in one day international cricket.

Answer: Aamir Khan

Aamir Khan is an Indian actor and filmmaker. His first major hit was a Hindi film "Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak" which released in 1988 and was an adaptation of Shakespeare's famous play "Romeo and Juliet". He went on to star in many successful films before also taking up roles as a director and producer. "Lagaan" was a period film set during the British colonial rule and was a fictional account of a cricket match between the villagers and the British governors of the region with a win holding the promise of tax waiver for the villagers after successive years of drought.

It was nominated for an the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film but lost to the Bosnian film "No Man's Land".

Answer: Merle Oberon

Merle Oberon was born as Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson in Bombay in 1911. She adopted Merle Oberon as a screen name when she got her first major role in "The Private Life of Henry VIII" as Anne Boleyn. The film also starred Charles Laughton and became a hit leading to more acting opportunities for Oberon.

Other noted films starring her were "The Scarlet Pimpernel", "Wuthering Heights" and "A Song to Remember". She was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for "The Dark Angel" but lost to Bette Davis who won the Oscar for her performance in "Dangerous".

Answer: Dadabhai Naoroji

Dadabhai Naoroji was an Indian trader and philanthropist who was also a Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons from 1892 to 1895, the first Asian to be in this position. His book "Poverty and Un-British Rule in India" was deeply critical of British colonial rule and put forth the argument that wealth was being drained out of India in far higher amounts that could be accorded for the services provided to the country by the British.

He eventually co-founded the Indian National Congress which was at the forefront of India's struggle for independence.

Answer: Basil Spence

Basil Spence was born in Bombay in 1907 and completed his early schooling in the city. He later went to Scotland for his further studies and graduated as an architect. He spent a year working with the noted architect Edward Lutyens who designed much of New Delhi including the Viceroy's House which is now the official residence of the President of India.

A list of famous buildings designed by Spence includes the Beehive which is the informal name for the Executive Wing of the New Zealand Parliament Buildings located at Wellington, The Edinburgh University Library and the Coventry Cathedral and was knighted in 1960 for his work on the cathedral.

Answer: Bhikaji Cama

Bhakaji Cama was born to a Parsi family in Bombay in 1861. After her education and marriage to a Parsi lawyer, she involved herself in various philanthropic activities. She was working with victims of bubonic plague in the late 1890s when she contracted the disease herself and was sent to Britain to recuperate.

It was there that she met other Indian nationalists like Shyamji Krishna Varma and Dadabhai Naoroji and got involved in the Indian freedom struggle. She was part of various revolutionary activities including writing and publishing the anti-colonial magazine "Bande Mataram". Along with Varma, she co-designed one of the earliest prototypes of a flag for independent India and unfurled it at International Socialist Conference in Stuttgart, Germany in 1907.

Answer: Ratan Tata

Ratan Tata trained as an architect at Cornell University before joining the Tata Group, a business house with diverse interests that was founded by his family in the 1860s. He worked in various companies within the group starting with the steel arm, Tata Steel and then moving to the engineering company, NELCO and the cotton mill, Empress Mills.

He took over as Group Chairman in the 1990s and oversaw the global expansion of the group. Notable acquisitions during his tenure included that of the British luxury car brands, Jaguar and Land Rover, the Dutch steel company, Corus and the British tea company, Tetley.

Answer: Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie was born in Bombay in June 1947, two months before India became independent. He writes mainly in the genre of magic realism combining it with actual historical events. He won the Booker Prize in 1981 for his second novel "Midnight's Children".

However, it was his fourth novel "The Satanic Verses" which drew the ire of certain Islamic groups for what was deemed by them to be blasphemous references. The Ayatollah of Iran issued a fatwa calling for his death and he had to be put under police protection.

The book was banned in Rushdie's birth country, India, for fear of provoking riots.