Business

Ratan tata

Identity crisis:
JRD Tata

The Nano-No-No guy

Subhas Chakraborty

The Taj guy

Score: 28/40 passed

Verdict: When t2 conducted this test in July, Rakhi Sawant was the most recognised. This time it’s Ratan Tata!

Nandan M. Nilekani

Identity crisis:

Azim Premji

Vijay Mallya

He’s a politician

He is definitely a retired sportsman

He came after Narayana Murthy

Score: 4/40 passed

Verdict: Did someone say Calcutta is India’s next IT hub? Imagine that!

Lakshmi Narayan Mittal

Identity crisis:

Mukesh/Anil/ Dhirubhai Ambani

Vijay Mallya

The Arcelor man

The Tata guy

Paper mein dekha hai, yaad nahin aa raha hai…

Score: 25/40 passed

Verdict: Indian billionaires are more popular than politicians, even if most couldn’t remember his middle name, Narayan!

TOLLYWOOD

Hiran

Identity crisis:

South Indian/ Nepali actor

The Bhojpuri actor in Desh Drohi

Kareena Kapoor dressed as a guy

Dev

Looks like Himesh Reshammiya

Aneek Dhar of SaReGaMaPa

Score: 2/40 passed

Verdict: He’s still a new face. At least someone knew him!koel mullick

Koel Mullick

Identity crisis:

Konkona Sen/Koneenica/ Locket Chatterjee/ June

I see her almost every day because I stay next to a studio…

Sorry, I only know Rituparna

Definitely a trophy wife!

Score: 25/40 passed

Verdict: It’s difficult to miss someone who’s a favourite among photographers in town.

Claudia Ciesla

Identity crisis:
Maria Sharapova

Steffi Graf

She acted in Dasvidaniya?

The model/actress from 10:10

I read an article about her in the paper… I think her name is Jennifer

She was there in a James Bond movie

She was the chief guest in our college

Score: 17/40 passed

Verdict: Calcutta likes its films with a pardesi touch.


TV

Karan Singh Grover

Identity crisis:

Dr Armaan from Dil Mill Gayye (his screen name)

The actor in Sanjeevani?

Some TV soap star

Kunal or Karan…

Score: 16/40 passed

Verdict: Dil ka jhatka,dhirey se laga.

Rahul Mahajan

Identity crisis:

Murderer, philanderer, drug addict

Raj Thackeray’s son

Rahul Gandhi

Producer of Bigg Boss

Pramod Mahajan’s son

A college picture of Barack Obama?

Score: 27/40 passed

Verdict: Famous or infamos

Shweta Tiwari

Identity crisis:

Prachi Desai

Prerna from Kasautii Zindagii Kay (her screen name)

Raja Chaudhury’s wife

Shweta Sharma

Mrs Bajaj

Score: 23/40 passed

Verdict: Jaane kya baat hui...


POLITICIAN

Vilasrao Deshmukh

Identity crisis:

Riteish Deshmukh’s father

Shatrughan Sinha

Dawood Ibrahim

Johnny Lever’s dad

Score: 25/40 passed

Verdict: Pretty low score given how much we had seen of him just days before the test took place.

Sarah Palin

Identity crisis:

Hillary Clinton

Paris Hilton

The most glamorous woman to have ever campaigned

The one who got the Sarkozy crank call

Score: 15/40 passed

Verdict: Not bad for a foreign politician in these parts.

Shivraj Patil

Identity crisis:

Praful Patel

L.K. Advani

K.R. Narayanan

He looks very old…

He resigned a few days ago

He is our finance minister Chidambaram

Score: 20/40 passed

Verdict: Only half is hardly a good strike rate for the former home minister.


Sport

Abhinav Bindra

Identity crisis:

Mr Shooter

The Olympics guy

Samsung’s brand ambassador

He is a chess player

He is definitely not a TV actor or a businessman

Score: 26/40

Verdict: Not bad for a non-cricketer!

Saina Nehwal

Identity crisis:

Prakash Padukone’s younger daughter

Kyra Shroff

Her name is either Sanjana or Neha

Score: 14/40

Verdict: If only she looked like Sania!

Lewis Hamilton

Identity crisis:

Barack Obama

Narayan Karthikeyan

Michael Schumacher

Thierry Henry

Footballer? Boxer? Pass…

Is he Tiger Woods?

Score: 13/40

Verdict: Schumi should come back, if only because he is the driver Calcutta remembers best!


Author

Chetan Bhagat

Identity crisis:

Barry ’Brien

Jeffrey Archer

It’s not Amitav Ghosh, is it?

Robin Sharma

He is a sports anchor

Score: 22/40

Verdict: One mistake he hasn’t made is getting so very popular!

J.K. Rowling

Identity crisis:

Steffi Graf

Paris Hilton

Danielle Steele

Agatha Christie

Jeffrey Archer

Jemima Khan

The first Miss World

Score: 15/40 passed

Verdict: Harry Potter, who?

Aravind Adiga

Identity crisis:

Billiard champ

Arvind Daga

He looks like Yusuf Pathan

A hotelier

His name and surname begin with A… but…

Score: 9/40

Verdict: Guess it takes an Oscar, not a Booker, to get noticed.


Fun Moments

A die-hard TV addict Pallavi Singh (picture right) was caught off guard when asked to identify some of the country’s politicians. After a lot of introspection, this Class IX student of ABSS Institute of Higher Education, Liluah identified Shivraj Patil as P. Chidambaram. Shown a picture of Sarah Palin, Pallavi gave up. Threatening to quit the game she said, “I don’t know anything about Indian politics. How do you expect me to know about the US?”

We were hoping that 19-year-old Debjani Saha, an aspiring journalist and a student of Shri Shikshayatan College, would recognise Vilasrao Deshmukh with all eyes currently on Mumbai. But she is quite oblivious to such “serious matters”, being “a fun loving person”, she confessed. She “knows and loves everything about Karan Singh Grover”, however. “He is Dr Armaan in Dil Mill Gayye, he is 26 years old, he was born in Dubai and his birthday is in February,” gushed a very excited Debjani.

The boys shared a grudge against Karan Singh Grover. An angry 18-year-old Anirban Chatterjee said he “hates these soap stars” because he doesn’t get to watch TV at home because of them. Rahul Mahajan was the next most-commented on personality — remembered by most for all the wrong reasons. Sorry, Rahul!

Smart set

Diya Banerjee , first-year post-graduation student of Presidency College, stumped us with her quick calls. She recognised 15 out of 18 celebrities correctly and also filled us in on what most of them were up to in the recent past.

Laughing at his friend who was deep in thought in his attempt to identify the celebrities, 26-year-old Arijit Dutta, a senior relationship manager with Religare, had a winner of an excuse up his sleeve for his own poor celeb quotient. Looking unabashed after calling Saina Nehwal Prakash Padukone’s younger daughter, he said, “When a company pays you Rs 40,000 a month, it will make you work hard. So where is the time for GK?” Brownie points for honesty!

Somreeta De, a first-year student of Presidency College, was an all-out winner. She confessed to spending as much time reading t2 as she did her political science books. She could name everybody on the list, save Lewis Hamilton. She also had a brief description to add to each personality. Here’s how she described Claudia Ciesla: “She’s acting in Arin Paul’s 10:10 Tollywood film. She also wore a golden sari to the premiere and had problems with her blouse.” Wow.

Most recognised faces

Ratan Tata

Rahul Mahajan

Abhinav Bindra

Least recognised faces

Hiran

Nandan Nilekani

Aravind Adiga