I love Parnab Mukherjee. In fact, I am such a big fan of his that I am actually thinking of spending $5.46 to buy his picture and take a print out for personal use.
So why do I love Parnab Mukherjee? Because I, being a parochial Bong trying desperately to hold onto our “What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow” intellectual leadership, consider Parnab to be the “Last Renaissance Man”—the dying flickering flame of a cultural conflagration that once made Bengal the thought leader of India.
Did I just call him the last “Great Bong” ? Please expunge that part from the records.
The last is, of course, me.
For those of you philistines who have never heard of him ,this is who Parnab is.
A media analyst by profession and considered as one of the foremost directors of alternative theatre movement in the country, Parnab Mukherjee is in the midst of a five-year fellowship on media and theatre from an international non-profit organization.
He specialises in Shakespearean education, campus theatre and contemporary third theatre techniques. He is considered as a leading light in campus theatre in the country with more than 40 productions of performance texts. Mr. Mukherjee is considered as the best live quizmaster in the country. He has conducted over 600 quizzes including all major campuses of the country.
As an analyst, Parnab specialises in home ministry in the field of journalism and has also covered four Wimbledons and a World Cup apiece in cricket and football.
He has interviewed amongst others Saddam Hussain, Fidel Castro, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Sheikh Hasina and Nelson Mandela.
Parnab won the 15th World Debating Championships and was considered as one of the five best speakers of the world at the Princeton University,New Jersey in 1994. He was declared as the best Commonwealth speaker in the Mcgill University International Debate at Montreal in 1995.
Of course men like him have their detractors—please read this, this and this. And also this and this (update)
First I would like Parnab to forgive these poor deluded souls for they know not what they do.
Canard Number One: Parnab never won the World Debating Championships in Princeton in 1994.
Just because someone did the very original thing of googling “World Debating Championships’ and found out that World Debating Championships were not held in Princeton in 1994 but in 1995, does not mean Parnab lied about his achievements.
Gimme a break, what’s an year in a lifetime of stupendous achievement ? Nitpicking… I tell you.
But then they also “discover” that “Chitra Jenardhan” won best speaker in 1995 at Princeton—and not Parnab. Ergo Parnab is a fraud.
Hooah. What they do not realize is that Chitra Jenardhan is nothing but a pseudonym for Parnab—-like Mark Twain was for Samuel Longhorn Clemens. You want proof? Here it is.
C H I T R A ———-J E N A R D H A N
P A R N A B———-M U K H E R J E E
Now you do not need to be a symbologist like Robert Langdon to understand that these two people are one and the same———–their first and last names have same number of letters.
Too much to be a coincidence—-is it not?
Take this challenge. Google “Chitra Jenardhan”. How many links turn up? How many pictures? None except the ones associated with this debate.
Makes you wonder doesn’t it, where did this person vanish ? Surely such a talented person should have found mention somewhere else in some other context in all the World Wide Web. Could it be because she never existed in the first place ? Could it be because she has metamorphosed, in true Kafkian style, into India’s best live quizmaster?
Canard Number Two:Parnab never did his PhD from Princeton. John Nash was not his advisor.
Evidence for the prosecution: There are no scholarly articles written by Parnab from Princeton….noone in Princeton ever saw him and John Nash and Parnab’s name never google together unless it is something written by Parnab himself.
Again what a bunch of crap. Noone has seen God but we all know He exists.
And as to not seeing Parnab at Princeton, even John Nash did not attend class…….so there !
Now what I just do not get is why Parnab-enemies overlook the most obvious proof that Parnab did his PhD with John Nash—-Parnab actually has a pivotal role in the movie based on John Nash’s life— ” A Beautiful Mind”.
Whoa…you say…..there is noone who looks remotely like Parnab in “A Beautiful Mind”. That is the precise genius of it my friend. You were expecting to see an unkempt, scruffy male (ie Parnab) and not a cherubic, beautiful girl (ie Chitra).
And I have already proven, beyond a shadow of doubt, that they are alter egos.
Still confused? Don’t be. Remember Marcee….the imaginary niece of John Nash’s imaginary friend who never aged. That was Chitra aka Parnab.
Which also explains to the uninitiated why Parnab’s age always stays fixed at 28.
In conclusion, all this brouhaha about Parnab’s PhD at Princeton is rubbish. What next do we have to hear? That Mamata Banerjee also did not do her PhD from US? Pleeeese…..
Canard Number Three: Parnab makes up the answers to the questions he asks during the quizzes he conducts.
I refer you to Gaurav Sabnis for some examples of Parnab’s “creative quizzing”. Okay I accept that most of the answers to his questions are made up by Parnab himself. And that depending on whether he likes you or not, he will suit the truth to fit your answer
Guilty your honor—as charged
But here’s why he does it. As a quizmaster his duty is to entertain—-and ,face it, sometimes mere facts are not entertaining.
Let me give you an example. You are the quizmaster in front of a bunch of jingoistic Bongs bringing down Dalhousie Institute……….and the question you ask is :
“What is the name of the Tintin book that Herge died before he could finish?”
Now tell me what would entertain the crowd more—-”Tintin et Alph-Art” or “Tintin in Calcutta” ?
I, being a callow quizzer, remembered giving the first answer only to be greeted by a Parnabian smile which I, in the heat of the moment, interpreted as a condescending smirk. I will be honest. I was pissed.
But later , older and wiser, and having leafed through edition after edition of TOI I have a better idea of what constitutes truth. And have come to accept that it is better to be entertained than be given an earful of truth.
From a “Few Good Men“.
Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee (Tom Cruise): I think I’m entitled to them.
Jessep: You want answers?
Kaffee: I want the truth!
Jessep: You can’t handle the truth
Yep that’s right ladies and gentlemen. We cannot handle the truth—–and Parnab knows that.
I also remember back at JU, Parnab and his friends would come together, 4 or 5 teams would sit together, copy answers from each other and make it to the finals. The quizmaster would be one of his stooges( sorry disciples) and the final round was also one happy family dinner with one of the “friendly” teams pocketing the cheque and dividing it in true socialist style among the illimunati.
Again I felt pissed. I felt that he and his friends were killing quizzing. Later on did I understand that Parnab was a very inclusive kind of person—-not an uber-competitive blowhard like me. He wanted to take the competition out of quizzing and replace it with a more relaxed, mutual backscratching ethos which I suppose came from his exalted Marxian ideas.
In conclusion, many geniuses are not appreciated during their lifetimes because perceptions of the hoi-polloi are too constricted to gauge their greatness.
Parnab is one such.
PS: Many of you are wondering by now why I am so eager to defend Parnab. It is because whenever any of his detractors curse him, they curse me along with him (his name includes my name Arnab)
I like it… I do
hear, hear!
I’m laughing so hard, it hurts. Great post,
That’s a freaking crazy article. Where on earth did you get that picture?
I have a copy of the book A Beautiful Mind ( and I’ve met John Nash at the Game Theory conference in Bombay)…hmm…time to dig!
I can..*gulp*..handle the truth.
Thank you all…and a special shoutout to Parnab for all the entertainment he has unintentionally provided us over the years.
Thank you!
I first encountered Parnab last year…and…*dies of laughter*
Arnab,
I was about to mention about your post on my blog when I came across your comment.
The man needed someone to “stand up” for him in blogdom and who else could he rely on - on someone who has borrowed all but the first alphabet of his name.
Just went to search for his poster on Hindu Images. Well the poster for One time use costs USD 109.17 only.
Any takers !!
When I looked at it,a personal use cost $5.46….which is about $5.46 more than I was willing to spend.
One time use I presume is for one time commercial use…..geez….
Came across a review of Parnab’s book:
Transcreated Raktakarabi and other performance texts: A Parnab Mukherjee- Alternative Theatre omnibus (Mansi, Rs 125) is a creative experiment in bad writing, which mingles elucidations, allusions, intellections, and lines and lines of what could politely be called “poetry-in-theatreâ€, if perorations beginning with lines such as, “Words for me are like chewing gumâ€, can be thus apotheosized. Parnab Mukherjee is into hyphenated creations, specializing in “Shakespeare-in-educationâ€, “theatre-of-social-sculptureâ€, “installation theatre performancesâ€, and “contemporary third theatre techniquesâ€. The productions are possibly quite wasted within the covers of a book.
Another reviewer who is jealous of the great man…sigh !
Parnab seems to have developed quite a following on the net too…he deserves every bit of it. Great post and now I know what ROTFL truly means!
who is this man…he is a genius…hats off …i really adored the john nash part….
rotfl
Once again my dear hubby is proved right.That you don’t need a degree to prove your worth…you must know how to pfaff your way around in this world to be recognised!!
Of all people Parnab and shakespearean theatre…Shaaala (sorry..just couldn’t help this!)Choose to sympathise with the publisher who was conned to publish his prolap/bilap (demented thoughts). And also with this great bong who doesn’t have a choice but to share a part of the name.
Brilliant!!! My sentiments exactly about the great man.
In Shakespeare’s words
“the evil which men do lives after them; the good is oft
interred with their bones”
tch tch!! Ungrateful quizzers of India, be happy that you’ll were once blessed with a Parnab quiz!!
Waah waah kya Shakespeare hain……but nothing of course compares to our own desi John Gielgud when he thunders—-” Words are like chewing gum’
see people this is awesome.
i mean this tormented demented demonic tectonic, iconic and all the screwed up ic adjectives can be attributed to this scumbag
This man has established a strong foothold everywhere, IP, LSR , Hindu, HRC, Ramjas, Miranda House, and yes of course, St Stephens. which makes some of u not so happy i think. i mean this guy is worse than most rikshawallahs i have seen, he’s a farce on the face of quizzing. And the reason he’s getting this much mileage in delhi is because of IMS the CAT coaching centre, who r like his godfathers, no wonder JAM gives them a 2, actually it shud b -2. Antara’s blog was pretty cool and had some real posts, u dint have to pull it down.
But in the words of macbeth ‘whats done is done’, howver if any of u wana free ur mind, do post on my blog and write as much as u want.
u knw whats the reason for him doin so many quizzes inspite of his reputation is? most people who call him still cant read or write, better still they cant see or hear either. if they were to do any of the things above that fuckbag wont do any quizzes
Hyuk. Great post!
I am 30 and still recovering from the two quizes we lost almost 12 years back becuase of Parnab’s “in-depth” knowledge of Pink Floyd songs and albums.
Shaallaa!!!!!!!B********!!!!!!!!
Nijer chelader ja tenechilo!!
Guaranteed K****** C****!!!
hiLLArious!!! oh man, oh man, oh man!!! i’ve wanted to see this post for ages now! we have put a link to this post on the blogger version of the JUDE wall magazine, hope you don’t mind…
@Rimi…No not at all….by all means please leave no stone unturned to defend Parnab.
Wow…a blog community for JU English alumni….wish there was one for Ju Engg….
@iloveparnab and Daeboo
Seems there are a lot of Parnab recoverers coming here for support…send more in folks !
@Zigzackly…thanks
one minute! i’m still IN jude. so it’s not an alumni blog in the understood sense of the term. do come around sometime–it’s blabberwocky.blogspot.com. and while you’re at it, it’d be nice if you stopped by at my blog as well. oh, and do you know why the queen mother’s coffin has gone down in rock history? *squiggly eyebrows*
is this the same parnab famous for his “anything under the sun” round? man!! he is awesome in “kitchen” questions…..
Pornob da once sat me down in the middle of a VERY BUSY day to tell me exactly what was wrong with me after having known me for a record 10 minutes and three e mails.What a guy!He is the toocoolzz.
I will not mince my words and make as emphatic a start to this hate-mail as I can. Borrowing on Holden Caulfield’s muse….
PORNOB MUKHERJEE IS A PHONY QUIZMASTER
The first time I saw him host a Biz-Quiz at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay was some three years back and was impressed-to-the-point-of-hero-worship. But, with time, I realised how he makes up qns, which have no head or tail and ends up with the audience’s adulation by inventing some strange (and at times utterly bullshit) ‘Funda’.
Sample this: Why is the Bikini named so?
Obviously it is named after the Bikini Atoll Islands which was the site of the first Nuclear explosion. Parallel with the explosive effect that a Bikini has on the observer and that is how the name stuck.
But, Mr. Peter Pan (Remember, Pornob never ages) talked at length about the US Govt passing a regulation stating that women at the Islands had to wear lesser clothes in order to save them from the harmful radiations of the bomb, and on and on and on…. I can’t even recollect the entire ’story’…It was that silly…
After a number of such unpleasant experiences, I finally decided to stop subjecting my quizzing abilities to the torture of morons like “Pornob without a B”. But, unfortunately there are certain sections of individuals who regard him as the Ultimate Saviour of Quizzing. In fact, it is QMs like him that Quizzing should be saved from.
He is nothing but a disgrace to the Spirit of Quizzing.
i did a survey of the most complicated problems and ideas that confront me at 4 in the morning.
what or which of the following is the least likely to happen, In some cases even hig enough to bet on william hill and ladbrokes
1. getting struck by lightning
2. getting overrun while crossing the road.
3. being poisened by a sushi
4 parnab asking a “FACTUAL” question
i wud choose 4, dont knw abt the rest of u.
seriously.. what a jackass this parnob is..
I remember attending 2 of his quizzes in Ahmedabad. Total cock and bull (and all puns included). At one point, he asked some vague question about Amul and some internal boardroom battle it was having at that time. We where the last team to answer.. and we made some arbit story about Kurien and I could not believe it when he said “correct”
Another one was about why Australia was called down-under. He come up with some vague funda about how there was some mineral which was mined there. This is inspite of everyone insisting that the reason it was called thus because of its location in the southern hemisphere.
I am still recovering from the damaging effects of those 2 quizzes
hahahaha!
awesome post!
Arnab, check out the interviews too. Of all those cited, I think he has actually interviewed The Haseena when she visited Cal. The rest is high-class dhop.
I heard that he lost a job because he claimed to have interviewed Saddam. It was printed in Barttaman and then formally denied by the Iraqi Press Attache (or some such) in Delhi. He’d just used company money for a trip to Baghdad and Dubai!
Now the other fraud who’s really made it big is Suhel Seth. Our generation. Know of him?
J.A.P.
i have known him…i dont know about the allegations but i feel that he has taken the “stunt” element to intolerable levels of absurd questioning and backing them with answers which god knows where he gets from. whatever you see or read through google or any other source is rubbish-what he says is absolute. i humbly ask…parnabda what is your source of all the “mind-bloswing” trivia you serve us? and how can you be sure that your source is right, google is wrong!
when it comes to his credentials, i feel sad…sad because if he’d cut down on his “godly” airs he can actually be a very very exciting quizmaster…from what i have seen no other person can equal the passion and energy he infuses into the quizes…what difference would it make to us had it been jadabpur and not princeton?
but what pains is his recipe of cooked questions and wierd answers…
@Rimi…sure shall.
@Debanjan—yes one and the same.
@Dhananjay—thanks for spelling him as Pornob. (My karma will get better)
@almost_useless &Anon—:-)
@JAP— This Saddam thing is new funda for me…gotta hand it to the guy he has “chutzpah”
Is this Suhel Seth the ad guy who was in “Rog” ?
Please do elaborate JAP.
@Anon2:–Parnab’s sources are of course himself…he knows he is right…right?
have been associated with this man and really if you met him, for a while youll worship the guy for being all knowing and all that … but then reality dawns when u come to know wat a conniving bastard he is. oh and i wish mr. mukherjee would read it. someone rightly said its PEE. mukherjee.we can actually have a club for people who know him and his endllllllless stories each one more mindboggling and incredible than the other. i mean wat can u say about a man who doesnt doesnt believe in stayinmg clean( i mean it … god… the body odour is as awful as the mans attitude) but hey there still are people who hero worship him… but keep up the good work…
beautiful. some more of this please.
i mean i dun really know, but i think porn o mookerji is a liar, such is the magnitude that his own reflection doesnt follow the same path as his lies. and i dont care abt his energy, frankly that can be used else where for better purposes to meet fidel and saddam and support the claims that he makes
now im sure evry1 has thoughts on what they wud b if they had hindsight, but they dont, however we dont go on talking shit about what we claim to have achieved. cos porno peter pan, who never ages, has actually manage to ZIP his achievements into 28 years what people may never get in 50 years. next thing u knw he wud say, presently working at MICROSOFT. Winzip 10 is gonna be out and i think he will be one of the help assistants the way he’s goin
junta,lets do something to throw him out of the fraternity instead of simply laughing at him for it wont do him any evil..lets use whatever contacts and spread the word to all the colleges, institutions etc. that still hire him…i really feel quizzing can do without him..
I was first introduced to this amazing phenomenon called Parnab at a very young age. Class 4 or 5. Most probably around the time of the Chernobyl disaster which was less dangerous than Parnab believe me.
Now Parnab has his own army of followers and critics. Luckily I was old enough to escape the period of Calcutta school quizzing when Parnab did nearly all the quizzes. He achieved this by clever use of charging nothing for quizzes. I have even heard of him paying to conduct a few also. I remember 1 especially interesting question of his: So here goes:
Q) How did the company Adidas get its name?
Parnab Ans1) The founder of the company a German who was a Prisoner of War in India captured by Montgomery’s troops at El Alamein. He was imprisoned at the Cellular Jail in Andaman. He escaped with the collaboration of an Indian revolutionary by the name of Adinath Das. Now this Mr. Das accompanied our German friend back to erstwhile West Germany after the war and the gentleman being in his debt named the company in his honour.
Parnab Ans2) Its an acronym which stands for All Day I Dream About Sports
For the record Adidas was named after its founder Adolf( Adi) Dassler.
The first story is priceless…Parnab is our new generation Teni-da. (a character in Bengali popular literature famous for tall, but extremely entertaining, stories—kind of like Baron Munchausen)
I met him at Antaragni in 1997 and like an ass invited him to conduct the quizzes at my college festival.
Some facts about him that he passed on to me
-assistant director on a documentary about Bismillah Khan. Stayed for over a month at his place in Benares.
-was joining reuters and going to baghdad. He must have interviewed Saddam Hussein some time after 1998.
He also got us to pay for an assistant’s travel expenses.Assistant turned out to be a woman companion who ended up participating in the quizzes as well.
I have to add a creative question of his as well.
Which war serves as the background for the famous Joseph Heller novel - Catch 22?Ans - Korean War
someone please enlighten me about suheil seth..
is he the same guy who gives atrocious answers to readers’ personal queries in “the telegraph graphiti” every sunday??
Please throw some light about other notable Bong - Arindam chaudhari from IIPM. Outlook magazine recently took out an advertisment withdrawing the grading it gave to IIPM. This grading was used in the fast by IIPM to deceive gullible students
I have never attended a quiz of his, and with you folks writing such s**t about him, I may never get a chance to watch or take part in one.
The problem with Pornob is that he lies with such a straight face - you can’t tell whether he’s bullshitting when you’re on stage for a quiz. He looks at you as if you’re a complete duffer, and you stop protesting immediately. Makes a mockery out of quizzing.
The problem with Pornob is that he lies with such a straight face - you can’t tell whether he’s bullshitting when you’re on stage for a quiz. He looks at you as if you’re a complete duffer, and you stop protesting immediately. Makes a mockery out of quizzing.
Lol.. Hats off to Arnab for this hilariously funny ‘defense’ of Parnab !
tremendous man..it seems like a whole movement out thr…im in…in the end..hahahahahahahahahahahahaha……
http://www.jammag.com/campus/index.php?section_id=6&article_id=238&submit=Go
pls whatvere u do, leave a comment here
Parnab surely deserves the SCAMSTER of the Century Award. He’s been dam successful at that!
As a quizzard who was active in calcutta between 1992-95 and a former JU student, I can safely say that not a single quiz master at JU in that period was partial/ friendly towards Parnab or any body for that matter. In fact many of the quizmasters hated him. So his quizzing victories are not suspect.I cant comment on other things on which he has been accused of. I can speak of this I was his team mate a number of times. And in case if any body wishes to cast aspertions on his team mates, let me tell you, all of them have won big quizzes all over India sance Parnab as a participant and as a Quiz master. As for copying - it is general problem at all quizzes all over the country. Pls do not demean JU quizzing in your endevour to expose Parnab. JU has a great quizzing tradition
The only thing parnab is REALLY good at - making such an image for himself. From all the stories my Dad has divulged to me, I can only now begin to fathom the depths to which this unbridled, admired MONSTER is willing to stoop.
This guy is a jackass.
Worlds-Best-Debator? Super-Journalist-Man? John-Nash-Stooge?
No human in existence can claim to be all of this.
As for all you asslickers… you must have had some benefit from Parnab’s reign of terror. There seems to be a Parnab-Fan-Club…
…that exists in blissful ignorance of the true nature of its basic ideals.
Funny how some people are just dumb. They should go to http://attms.blogspot.com
It is the blog that defines them.
i have had painful experiences with the great guy on the BHU campus. the first year i watched as he decimated all my fundae and thought he was the greatest of all quizzers ever but then came to realise that none of the anything-under-the-sun questions could actually be found under the sun anywhere! great article. hats off
Hi
Tht Beautiful mind bit was just Priceless!!!!
Had followed a link from Vinodg’s Blog and stumbled on a treasurehouse of Anti-Parnob stuff. Confirmed my suspicions all along. Was a part of the Mumbai Bschool quiz circuit; and blimey i was mighty impressed with our man Parnob first time when he just blew us all away wth his (manufactured?) fundas at the TISS Quiz. Got to meet him etc later and was still overawed ; tho from time to time was confued why the answer to the same qs change from quiz to quiz.
Neway here’s my contribution to the collection- from old TISS/ NMIMS Quizzes
1. Which co:s tea did get thrown into the sea at Boston tea party- All says East India co-Parnob says Yule !!
2. A team chose Mahavira as anything undr the sun and got ” whch city in africa gets its name froom Mahavira??”-
believe it or not - it is Adis ababa as per Parnob
(from baba)-who cares if wikipedia says it means new flower or so :-))
3. Audio tapes of his own - Identiy singer and then “Who shot the sheriff” was sung with someone on guitar.. .We all exhausted all possible musicians …and finally the answer- Fidel Castro n Che Guevera!!!!!!
4. An NFDC film sound track…Veena sounds ; who plays it??
Prez Abdul Kalam plays the veena !!
Can remember more of such howlers…
Cheers
mail me at
flaashgordon@gmail.com
this page “http://www.montrealserai.com/2002_Volume_15/15_4/Article_8.htm” has a play “scripted” by him, though hopefully it has never been staged.It turned up while i was googling for the script of one of his plays which i attended “workshopping kurukshetra in my graveyard”. I was trying to find out if the performance had a script at all.
man you aew asslicker. same number of letters and they are the same people. and why did you suddenly think of the imaginary niece as pornob.
He had come to the national law school as well. started a ‘production’ with twenty five odd people attracted by what they thought they knew about this man. it was meant to be for two weeks. within three days he was down to four or so people.
the reason for this rather high attrition rate was that most of the two hour ‘rehearsals’ were about the man himself. he did not produce any play using national law school students when i was a student [1999-2004]. i seriously doubt he produced one before that using national law school students.
what a strange man. nice to see that there is a community out there to help us recover.
Awesome post Arnab. I have been reading the Parnab diatribes scattered across various websites with much amusement. Having known him right from his school days in Don Bosco and having had the privilege of actually taking part with the great man in several quizzes, I can state that he is fairly good in certain areas - sports and literature for example. We reached a North Star Final together sitting for Alekhine Chess Club. Some of his initial quizzes conducted way back in Calcutta in 1996 -98 were actually pretty decent, but somewhere along the line he just lost his way and became an unmitigated disaster of a quizmaster. His extreme desire to demonstrate more knowledge on every subject than everybody else led to this habit of making up questions and providing facts that appeared astounding to the audience, but which were in fact blatantly flawed. I still remember the day he asked the following:
Name the first bowler in Calcutta Maidan Cricket to pick up 4 wickets in an over - Parnab’s answer - Narendranath Datta better known as Swami Vivekananda. I remember how impressed I was when I heard this.
In those days, Parnab also had a knack for asking vague connection questions. Sample: Connect Sting and Derek Randall
A) Sting has a song called Nothing like the sun and Derek Randall’s autobiography is called the Sun has got his hat on so the connection is Sun?!
Another one: Connect Chess and WWF (Wrestling). Chess has grandmasters as does Sumo Wrestling. A Sumo Champion is called a Yokozuna which is the name of a WWF wrestler.
At least the above 2 questions though vague, and plainly bad, were based on fact. However, now, his questions are based on astounding but largely fake facts and are designed more to impress the audience and boost his ego. In a recent quiz of his I attended in NMIMS, only about 25% of questions were answered.
Overall, I think his ego has gotten the better of him and has led to the creation of his current avatar.
This may sound cliched but nevertheless is an contribution to the continuous chain of “FACTS” about the “Grandmaster”. Reading about the blog…I think he was inspired by a Sidney Sheldon novel where the protagonist goes on commiting one fraud after another
Me too I must say or rather a group of my friends was a “victim” of the grand perjury paraded before us on stage by a stooge. In fact I have attended three quizzes of his.
One of the rounds in his quizzes is the audio visual round. Still remember him showing an obscure photo of some japanese house I think with a couple of japanese letters and asking us to identify the Company!!!! Well as you would be knowing by now, none of the teams had any clue. Then the grand Baadshah comes out with an answer as the Japanese HQ of “Monsanto”. Now who the hell in the world know what this office looks like. My fellow bloggers who happen to work in Monsanto and have seen this office, if you can send me a snap then we can corroborate on the truth of this matter
And so this chain fraud goes on with one hilarity after another till the point of exhaustion
But I think we must all praise the man because without him some much of stuff would not be written about
That’s about it I guess. I leave it here and expect more “reporting” of Parnab’s expolits…..I am thinking of making an Omnibus out of this man’s “Works”!!!!
I’ve never attended any of Parnab’s quizzes but I’ve always known that he was a liar. While the havoc he’s wreaked on the country’s quizzing scene is undoubtedly something to be concerned about, it’s the fraud he’s committed as a journalist that I personally think he should be sent to jail for.
The fellow spent several years at the Asian Age, enjoying the patronage of the paper’s financier Tutu Bose, whose son Tumpai was a personal friend of his. Thanks to that friendship, he successfully pulled the wool over the eyes of no less than M.J. Akbar — or at least succeeded in persuading Akbar to ignore his wrongdoings. By the time he was through, the Age had acquired a reputation as one of the most untrusted broadsheets in the country. Dozens of lawsuits had been filed against the paper in every city it was published from, including London.
Almost everything Parnab wrote during those years was either completely made up or plagiarized. The range of topics he claimed expertise in was astounding. One day he’d break a story about the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, the next, he’d deliver a scoop on the Maoist movement in Nepal. The worst part of his reporting was the number of unsubstantiated allegations against individuals and organizations he published in the paper, week in and week out. Often, the source of these terribly libellous articles could be traced back to Tutu Bose and his shady associates, who were using him — with his very willing complicity — to influence politics, business, culture and everything else in Calcutta.
I’ll end with a little anecdote that sums up Parnab’s journalistic misadventures and also provides the reassuring lesson that even the wiliest crooks will one day get caught. (Parnab is wily but dumb at the same time; in my view, his lies have always been all too transparent. It’s just that the audience he’s founded his reputation on — middle and high school kids — is not the most discerning. In the case of The Asian Age, he got away because of his connections.)
Anyway, here’s the story: A few months after The Age was launched in Calcutta, Parnab wrote a story in the paper about how the rules of international chess were being changed to allow the king to move 2 squares in one direction and one square in another, as allowed in the Indian version of the game(or vice versa) The gullible news editor of course thought this was a cool story and it ran the following day as a first page anchor. A day or so later, the paper received a letter from a chess organization or somebody pointing out that the rules of the game hadn’t been changed. That led to a small investigation about the source of Parnab’s information. It turned out that he’d lifted the story, almost verbatim, from the Business Standard (or Financial Express), which had reprinted the original article from a British newspaper. The story had appeared in the April 1 edition of the Standard (or Express). I say “almost verbatim” because Parnab overlooked the fine print at the end of the story, in italics, which said the story was intended as an April Fool’s joke on readers.
hee hee i don’t know whether to marvel at the wit of teh blogger or or parnab’s ability to fool so many people…how come no one has mentioned his special performances for harold pinter etc at the fringe festival edinburgh???
sure i am also one of the recoverers….i was an IP student and an idiot (at least i am honest 3 years later)
I was a regular quizzer on the Calcutta circuit in 1996-2004, and dare I say it, a friend of Parnab.But I just cannot condone this humongous fraud he plays on the stage.Also I remember a play I went to see.There was this really beautiful girl from Indraprastha College with whom I was really smitten.One thing I did notice (easy considering the quality of the play) was that Parnab semmed to have an unusual interest in pulling the girls’ chheks.And the lady teacher accompanying them didn’t seem to mind.
He WAS a good quizmaster but perhaps the intention to fool all the people all the time made him what he is today.
forgive me for wanting gossip..who was the beautiful girl from IP?
and about his cheek pulling..lesser said the better….
but yes his quizzes were entertaining…and more so for the non quizzers…they were not boring as the firt time quiz watchers expected them to be…
As for the beautiful girl from IP, I can’t recall her name. But I do remember she was an EXCELLENT singer.
aaaaaaaaaah got it…the girl just got married…
anyway what’s the update on parnab…
Oh shit! She got married?!!?
Anywez. can u please tell me her name? I remember she had won some ghazal competition 3 times in a row?
So where is merry Parnab now?
do u think parnab has read any of the blog entries dedicated to him…
must have and must be getting some sympathy from freshers in some college in bombay cal or delhi….
guys what is the update on the man…parnab i mean?
Hey, Greatbong, I know just so many people who will love your piece. From the moment I started looking around the Cal theatre scene I have had such entertaining moments due to your hero. He has been the cause of some of the most inspired khisti from my friends. In addition, my boyfriend tells me P was the first person he ever practised his khisti on — and Vicky’s skills are considerable. I can only thank Mr. P. for being such a source of inspiration to his generation!
P.S.
Had to add… it’s funny how many took your hero-worship at its word. Oh, and Suhel Seth was at Madras a month ago. His interview in The Hindu nearly killed me. Funnee man.
Ok this made me laugh till I was rolling on the floor. I NEVER imagined in my wildest dream that the fan following for our very own tingri sized Porno was so huge!
I knew all details of his “achievements” - Reuters, Princeton and awards - but fail to understand why colleges still fall for his charms / or maybe they are stupefied by his bad breath.
Can’t the not yet breath-struck teachers save the IP girls from this psycho? I believe that’s where he is doing gondoogol at the mo
Pornob also interviwed Pol Pot and broke the ‘Jet Airways’ scandal (sic)
The real problem in quizzing, as I knew it in Calcutta 10 years back, was the DI crowd and their incestuous network. Whether it is Pornob or Keshta Banik, Rathin or Arijit Barman, not to mention some of the JUDE and Presi-English girls [’Daffodils’ comes to mind], their (ab)use of their urban [S.Calcutta] and convent [English medium old boys/girls network] background in a way reflects in microcosm the way elites everywhere use their priviledges, esp in the production of ‘Knowledge’ to maintain their social exclusivity, ie, beget more priviledges for themselves.
Been reading your blog for sometime now …suddenly stumbled upon this old post …I was always suspicious about Parnab, this confirms it !!
Btw, you simply are the GREATEST ..the first blog of yours I read was, Die Sourav Die ..and since then am an unabashed admirer. Keep going !
am really sorry that my last post a long time ago was out of the way…….sorry
just curious arnab…did you ever happen to interact him personally or you just know all that you do coz of R & D?
how did you get his picture?
I have sat on his team in a quiz, participated in many of his trivia competitions and have seen him in shorts. I got the picture from Buchu’s blog.
Is this the same Buchu who used to be a quizard in JU waaaay back?
Did you know, our famous Porno also inspired J.K.Rowling to create Lockhart in Harry Potter-2 ?
About those allegations about Pornob The Great letting his ‘chahnewallahs’ know some of the answers before a quiz,I can swear that it is true. I had heard a lot about him and once I had the (mis)fortune of attending a SPHS quiz Pornob was hosting out of his great magnanimity and as expected we lost , miserably . Though being on the rival quiz team I did have friends in SPHS(which won the quiz) who made me swear that i wouldnt divulge to anybody that Pornob had supplied them with his ridiculous answers beforehand. I’m Sorry Saurav, Ankit. I hate Pornob too much too keep shut.
Is Mamata Di the new Parnab Da?
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1048859
Have ‘fond’ memories of P stalking stages & shamianas in the days of my misspent youth in the early 90s spent quizzing in various college fests in Cal.
as a fellow bosconian i feel terribly ashamed that muh skool’s name has been linked wid Mr. Parnab.
Agree wid ya.. this guy SUXXXXXXXXXX
I have already posted this blog at Buchu’s page,but there are so many admirers here that I felt it bears repitition.
We did an interesting experiment on him once.
A very dear friend of ours got very upset when Pornob called the FRIENDS show “pulp shit”(I made a mistake in Buchu’s page) and walked out.We managed to qualify in the prelims.When Pornob called out our names our team leader(of sorts) suggested that we walk out.
He went to Pornob and told him we weren’t interested and he could take the next team.I’ll always remember the look on his face.
The next day he was heard to have said(translated from bangla) “Those were obviously small time quizzers,who had cheated and qualified.When they realized thay’d have to go on stage and face ME they got cold feet and ran away”.
The quiz purists(Pornobites) refused to acknowledge our existense but then we love to be hated anyway.
All of you guys got it all wrong about Pornob and his shows !!!
While he was doing one act comedy shows… you thought it was a quiz !!! Actually he had warped you all in a “Reality Distortion Field” ( Steve Jobs learnt it from him)
Being Pornob’s contemporary, a fellow quizzard and a quiz master, I distinctly remember Pornob and his JU cronies ruining the ethics of quizzing. Although I must mention that the quizzes conducted by the Tech section of JU were absolutely fair to all
But one important fact is not mentioned at this blog by his fans.
He flunked twice at Eco Hons at JU. he is not even A GRADUATE…. I know this for sure for many of us were fairly astounded when he landed up at Asian Age
I read a article about a “Parnab Mukherjee” in The Hindu an extract of which I quote:
“HE is energy personified. So he had to be, to hold the attention of his audience, which included Govind Nihalani, Mohan Agashe, Dhritiman Chaterji and Rakesh Sharma. Parnab Mukherjee’s “And the Dead Tree Gives No Shelter”, a blend of solo theatre and visuals on the screen, was the closing event at “A Billion Eyes”, Chennai’s first documentary film festival, organised by Prakriti Foundation.
Set designer, quizmaster, debating champion (Princeton), scriptwriter, translator, media analyst and journalist (Sportsworld, The Asian Age, Sambad Pratidin), Parnab Mukherjee is the youngest Indian theatre director to have had retrospectives in four Indian cities.”
He seems to bear an uncanny resemblance to the person discussed above.
In the movie ‘catch me if you can’, I liked leonardo because of his ability to con so many people. It shows remarkable intelligence and low cunning.
My thoughts about parnab are similar. I have never encountered him except the blog-world. What I see here, makes me think about the fantastic mind job he does on the unsuspecting brains of ‘premiere’ institutes. Shame!! Hats off to parnab though. With loads of pseudo-intellectuals (aaNtel in bong, may be I am one of these) around the country and parnab’s ability to finger the aaNtels, parnab will be living ‘happily ever after’ for quite a long time.
Have you had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Charanpret Singh? A worthy rival he is.
hello greatbong,
after reading this post, i feel you should seriously consider joining the writing team of the colbert report. the style is terribly similar..
parnab took a creative writing workshop for me while i was in high school.
i rememebr how condenscending he was.
Who are you ? You are doing a fantastic job !
Parnob was a year junior to me during school days. He was, even then, the gas bag that he is today !
Let me start with the positives :
Parnob is a good speaker.
Parnob is a good quizzer as well.
Parnob has acted, and acted well in some plays.
Parnob, I believe, has also directed some plays.
All that is absolutely true. I vouch for it.
However, many of us have done all of the above - and been much better at it ! I will intentionally not divulge my name - being politically correct. But whether its in the IIM, or JU or school days, I have always had great success at all of the events Parnob brags about (and more) - and yet, believe me, I have never been even close to being the best !
Hmmm, come to think of it, if Pinochchio’s condition was a regular affair, the equator could be drawn using Mr. P’s nose.
Cheers.
The post is two years old now…..but I can’t help writing a comment…I have attended his quizzes and ohh god, didn’t I get angry! But now, in the light of your post, I could understand what a service he was doing to the quizzing community at last. “Tintin in Calcutta”……..wow…….really GreatBong, you ARE the last great bong!
hahahahahha i feel pity for those guys who hate parnab…. ya maybe he makes up some strange questions … but wat abt the excitement he generates……ya u guys who hate him stick 2 guys like…derek n barry …ya be a confidence champion…u guys pray quiz hosts n not quiz masters
Sounds a bit like that misunderstood genius in the Calvin and Hobbes strips:
Calvin: I’m a misunderstood genius
Hobbes: Why do you say that?
Calvin: Because nobody thinks I’m a genius.
By the way Arnab: I was right behind you on most of those quizzes, so suffered a similar fate.
whew.
it took longer to get thru the comments abt everyone’s favourite “Worst” QM, if u can call him that. remember reading his name sumwhere as p0rn n00b. there was this one time in nit durgapur.the event was exquizzit. mr. P gets the brilliant idea that it shud be an XXXquizzit fest.
never shall i forget that round. at about 1 am or so. Question number one. “tell us. sylvester stallone started his career with which pornographic feature….” thats abt the time i tuned out and fell asleep on stage.. have actually seen a quiz book by him, called “1000 questions in 100 pages”. also, was told by a frnd of an incident where he outshone all participants in a JU quiz. and how in the end, the QM thanked pornob da for the questions.
hats off to you sir for finally trying to look at things in a light showing something i’m not altogether too sure of.a change in the pornobisms swamping the blogosphere.
and my deepest sympathy for having your name as a part of his.
I have won quite a few quizzes conducted by him..
and wa always impressed by the way of asking questions..
but evn i ve had prob about him bluffing..
The Song played.. Ana Mere Pyar ko tum na tum jhootha samjho jaana”
one of the better films of SRK..Kabhi haan Kabhi naa..
Quiz#1
i answer Raj Kanwar..i don noe the answer..
He says Kundan Shah..
Quiz#2
the q is repeated..into the thrid round of the quiz n v hadnt opened our accnts..i was sure of gettin a 5 on the bonus..i answer Kundan Shah..
Wrong Answer!!!!!!!
this time he says RAJ KANWAR…!
probably the day this post was written i had just entered class 12 completing a year of Calcutta festing with more than 3 consecutive Parnab Quiz victories..
agreed they were a lot interesting thn Derek..
but slowly wen u read so much..all ur inhibitions come true..
n there re some 5 trophies in ll i haav from his quizzes..dn noe feel strange bout em
Dr. Parnab Mukherjee, who missed the Padma Vibhushan title in 2008 by the slightest margin (arguably due to a typo by the PMO), is a bona fide Princeton scholar extraordinaire. His thesis, ‘To Attain Nash Equilibrium in a Quiz Game with Instantaneous Fabrication Strategies’ is a landmark paper in Game Theory. No mala fide please - show some respect where it is due.
Its really funny that i saw parnab on the streets of Bangalore… surprisingly wandering alone… and then i read this post…
I didn’t talk to him of course… i’d had a really long tiring day…
I worked with him when i was in LSR…