SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 15 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 13 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Who wrote the novel Sahela Re?

(a)Vasanti Muzumdar
(b)Mrinal Pande
(c)Priyanka Sarkar
(d)Shubhangi Tiwari

Answer

Why

Correct — B. Sahela Re is a Hindi novel by Mrinal Pande. HarperCollins published its English translation, by Priyanka Sarkar.

The novel follows a mother-daughter pair of singers, Hira Bai and Anjali Bai, and the world of Hindustani music they belonged to → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Vasanti Muzumdar — Vasanti Muzumdar is not the novel's author. Sahela Re was written in Hindi by Mrinal Pande, and its English edition credits Priyanka Sarkar as translator.
(c)
Priyanka Sarkar — Priyanka Sarkar is the novel's English translator, not its author. HarperCollins published her translation of Mrinal Pande's Hindi original.
(d)
Shubhangi Tiwari — Shubhangi Tiwari is not credited on the novel. Sahela Re is Mrinal Pande's work, written in Hindi and translated into English by Priyanka Sarkar.

Concept

Mrinal Pande is a Hindi novelist and journalist. She was the first woman to be chief editor of the Hindi daily Hindustan and the first woman to chair Prasar Bharati, from 2010 to 2014. She was also the founder-president of the Indian Women's Press Corps.

The options include the book's translator. Priyanka Sarkar is credited on the English edition, which is why her name can feel right. The author is Mrinal Pande.

Key facts

Sahela Re is a Hindi novel by Mrinal Pande.
Its English translation, by Priyanka Sarkar, was published by HarperCollins.
Mrinal Pande was the first woman chairperson of Prasar Bharati, from 2010 to 2014.
She was the first woman chief editor of the Hindi daily Hindustan.

Study next

Prasar Bharati: Doordarshan and All India Radio under one public broadcasterContemporary Hindi women novelists and their best-known works

Common traps

Choosing the translator. Priyanka Sarkar translated the novel into English, and the question asks who wrote it.

Author and book questions also appear at 19 Sep 2025, 4:00 PM, GA Q.10 (Sleeping on Jupiter, keyed Anuradha Roy) and 15 Sep 2025, 4:00 PM, GA Q.8 (what Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni's Arranged Marriage is about).

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Culture — all 246 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.