Mrs Marlon Brando, Hollywood actress Anna Kashfi, was born in Chakradharpur, merely 85km from the steel city. Acclaimed author and animal lover Gerald Durrell was born in the steel city.
Scottish journalist Ian Jack, visiting Jamshedpur on Monday, shared the first piece of information and got the second.
In the steel city for an interaction organised by Association of British Scholars (ABS), Jamshedpur chapter, in association with British Council, at the Centre for Excellence, Jack was at his witty and insightful best.
Titled 'Fiction or Non-fiction: Which should you trust', the interaction saw Jack chatting with Anita Gupta, ABS (Jamshedpur) president, the many anecdotes of his long journalistic life prompting the audience to wonder if fact was stranger than fiction.
Jack, who co-founded the Independent on Sunday and edited Granta, besides working with The Sunday Times and The Guardian, has been reporting India for the global media since the late 1970s.
On India, he said: "It was a more foreign country to a foreigner when I came here for the first time in 1976."
But, India improved on acquaintance. In fact, in the early 1980s, Jack made a sensational discovery, that writer George Orwell, of Animal Farm and 1984 fame, was born in Motihari, Bihar. Orwell had been born as Eric Blair in 1903.
Jack recounted: "When I visited Motihari in 1983, most people and the administration were clueless about it. A range of enquiries followed before I found the opium godown where Richard Blair worked and their bungalow."
A year later Jack wrote a piece in Sunday Times titled In search of a Jaarj Arwil.
Jack has also authored Before the Oil Ran Out: Britain in the Brutal Years and a host of other books. He has also been writing regularly for The Telegraph.
At 70, age sits lightly on him. How does he find India in 2015?
"India has undergone lots of transformations from the time I've been visiting. It may be my 100th visit to India or I may be nearing that figure but I feel it is less foreign now. There was a time when people in India would want me to bring Mark & Spencer shirts but today there is nothing you don't get in India. Look at Jamshedpur, managed by Tata Steel, which owns Jaguar (sports car)."
It's very interesting from a journalistic point of view, he grinned.
As he puts it: "When you ask one question to four different people, you get four different answers. I would say it is a delightful place for people filled with curiosity."
On journalism, Jack breathes optimism. "India has a growing literate population and this is a positive sign. Therefore, it is better to be a journalist in India than anywhere else."
