SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 14 September 2025, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 9 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 11 September 2026.

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Consider the following statements about "The Vine of Desire" by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni: 1) Explores cultural conflicts in an Indian immigrant family across generations. 2) A historical account of India’s freedom struggle and politics. 3) A science fiction tale about identity and technology in future India. Which of the following is correct?

(a)Only statement 1 is correct
(b)Only statement 2 is correct
(c)Statements 2 and 3 both are correct
(d)1, 2 and 3 all are correct

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The Vine of Desire (2002) is the sequel to Sister of My Heart. It follows the cousins Anju and Sudha, who grew up in Calcutta, as they rebuild their friendship in America.

The author's own summary has them forming ties outside the immigrant Indian community while still bound to their families in India. That pull between two worlds is statement 1's cultural conflict.

Why the others are wrong

(b)
Only statement 2 is correct — It is a present-day family novel, not history. Anju and Sudha's lives in America, not the freedom struggle, carry the story.
(c)
Statements 2 and 3 both are correct — Both statements are false. The novel is a realist story of two cousins in America, with no future setting and no freedom-struggle history.
(d)
1, 2 and 3 all are correct — Statements 2 and 3 fail. A sequel to Sister of My Heart about immigrant life is neither a history of the freedom struggle nor science fiction.

Concept

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, born in Calcutta in 1956, sets her fiction largely in India and the United States, often around South Asian immigrants.

Sister of My Heart (1999) introduced Anju and Sudha in Calcutta. The Vine of Desire moves them to America: Anju rebuilding her life after a miscarriage, Sudha raising her baby daughter Dayita without her husband.

Their bond is tested when they must face the feelings Anju's husband has for Sudha.

'Across generations' is the stem's framing. The novel centres on two cousins, but the tie to their Calcutta families runs through it, so statement 1 is the fair reading.

Key facts

The Vine of Desire (2002) is the sequel to Sister of My Heart (1999).
It follows the cousins Anju and Sudha after they rekindle their friendship in America.
Divakaruni was born in Calcutta in 1956, and her fiction often centres on South Asian immigrants.

Study next

Divakaruni's The Mistress of Spices (1997) and Arranged Marriage (1995)The Palace of Illusions (2008), the Mahabharata retold through DraupadiIndian diaspora fiction: Jhumpa Lahiri and Bharati Mukherjee

Common traps

Choosing a grander theme such as the freedom struggle for an author known for immigrant fiction.

Divakaruni is also asked at 15 Sep 2025, 16:00, GA Q.8, where Arranged Marriage is set against a freedom-movement decoy as well.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: History — all 154 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.