SSC
'One Life Is Not Enough' is the autobiography of:
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Answer: Option A — K. Natwar Singh
Detailed Solution
Natwar Singh. "One Life Is Not Enough" is the autobiography of Kunwar Natwar Singh, the former diplomat and Minister of External Affairs of India. It was published in 2014.
About the book:
It describes his childhood in a princely family of Bharatpur, Rajasthan, his education at Mayo College, St. Stephen's College (Delhi) and Cambridge, and his long career in the Indian Foreign Service.
It contains his observations on Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and many world leaders.
It caused political controversy because Natwar Singh wrote that Sonia Gandhi decided not to become Prime Minister in 2004 partly because her son Rahul Gandhi feared for her safety, rather than only because of her "inner voice".
About K. Natwar Singh (1931-2024):
- He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1953 and served in China, the USA, Pakistan and the UK, and at the United Nations.
- He was a close aide of Indira Gandhi and served in her Prime Minister's Secretariat.
- He received the Padma Bhushan in 1984 and then left the Foreign Service to enter politics.
He was Minister of External Affairs in the UPA government from 2004 to 2005. He resigned after he was named in the Volcker Committee report on the UN "oil-for-food" programme in Iraq.
He wrote several other books, including "Profiles and Letters", "My China Diary" and "Walking with Lions".
He died in August 2024.
Other political autobiographies:
- Jaswant Singh: "A Call to Honour".
- Yashwant Sinha: "Relentless".
- K. Advani: "My Country My Life".
- Pranab Mukherjee: "The Dramatic Decade" and its sequels.
- K. Gujral: "Matters of Discretion".
Why not the other options?
- ✗Jaswant Singh wrote "A Call to Honour".
- ✗Yashwant Sinha wrote "Relentless".
- ✗Salman Khurshid has written books such as "Sunrise over Ayodhya", but not this autobiography.
Quick tip
Remember: "One Life Is Not Enough" = K. Natwar Singh (2014; External Affairs Minister 2004-05); "A Call to Honour" = Jaswant Singh; "Relentless" = Yashwant Sinha.
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Books & Authors — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Books & Authors, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers famous books and their authors, including ancient Indian texts, works of the freedom struggle, classic and modern literature, autobiographies of famous people, and recently published books by well-known personalities. Questions usually name a book and ask for its author, or the other way round. Ancient and historical books, such as Arthashastra (Kautilya), Indica (Megasthenes) and Gitanjali (Rabindranath Tagore), are tested most often. Autobiographies are another favourite, so learn titles such as 'My Experiments with Truth' (Mahatma Gandhi) and 'Wings of Fire' (A. P. J. Abdul Kalam). Practise the books and authors questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.