Jamshedpur, March 2: Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata or Jehangir Naoroji Tata? Studied at the reputed Elphinstone College in Bombay or no college education for him? Established Swadeshi Mills or Bombay Dyeing?

A short quiz contest, conducted on the eve of the founder?s 167th birthday to be celebrated tomorrow, brought to light how little the people of Jamshedpur actually know about the man who was instrumental in the establishment of the city.

It perhaps came as a little surprise that even prominent city people were bowled out when it was their turn to tackle the volley of questions on the Tata Steel founder.

?Ummm? I think Jamsetji was born before 1850?? was all that R.K. Sinha, the president of Adityapur Small Industries Association (ASIA) and also the owner of two Adityapur-based industries, could come up with when asked about the founder?s date of birth.

He thought that he attended the ?only? college that Mumbai had at the time, revealing a fact that many would not know. ?As far as I know, Ratan Tata is Jamsetji Tata?s nephew,? said the principal of a reputed city school, coming up finally with an answer after a long pause.

The biggest surprise that she sprung was when she fumbled over the year of the steel plant?s establishment.

?If I am not wrong, it was somewhere around 1800,? she said, hardly knowing she was nowhere near the actual date!

Some also believed that Jamsetji is Ratan Tata?s grandfather, others were under the impression that the steel plant, set up by him, was started in 1940.

If academicians had this information to share, their students were definitely not lagging behind. If one student thought that Jamsetji went to Oxford, another came up with a funnier answer.

?The first textile mill started by him was Bombay Dyeing,? said a thoughtful T. Abhijeet of Loyola School, wanting desperately to refer to his general knowledge book before a final answer.

A student at Hill Top School, Varun Jaiswal, went a step further by saying that March 3 was celebrated as Workers? Day in Jamshedpur.

?I think he went to some college in Paris, perhaps the French College,? pat came the reply from the youngster.

Keeping them company was a graduate trainee at Tata Motors, Biswajit Sen, whose friends supplied him with the answers to most of the questions. Sadly, all they could come up with was also far from correct. ?J.N. Tata was the adopted son of JRD Tata, I guess,? chipped in Biswajit.

Ravi Soni, owner of Novelty Restaurant, suffered the common name problem and could only think of him as JRD Tata?s father.

So as the steel city gears up to celebrate yet another birthday bash of the founder in style, the denizens showed that they could perhaps be better placed with a crash course on the history of the city.