He grew up in central Calcutta. As a child he was pretty cautious and silent, but quite disobedient. He wasn’t too demanding, though. He studied at Assembly of God Church School, Park Street. At times He felt very lonely as he did not have a sibling. He was a mediocre student, and not sport savvy at all. He enjoyed the chapel services at school which served as his inspiration. To be a good speaker you need to be a good listener, so listening attentively to the chapel services honed his skills as an anchor since his school days.
His father always had the upper hand in his life, although occasionally he got a good beating from his mother as well when she lost her temper. Once that he would complain to the Human Rights Commission against her!
Once, when they were collecting funds for Teacher’s Day celebrations at school, they fell short of money. He stole Rs 100 from my father’s pocket and gave it to the prefect. Everyone was surprised, the truth was out, and my parents were called. In effect, I was punished, rebuked in school, and roundly scolded at home.
He always aspired to be a genetic engineer, but everything changed after He chanced upon an advertisement in the newspapers about auditions for the newly launched FM channels in 1994. He was in college then, gave it a try and things shaped up just right for me. Born in a conservative Bengali Muslim family with strict-disciplinarians as parents, he would listen to the radio for hours . How he finally got into show-business is an interesting story. On a rainy evening in 1994 when Mir was in his first year of college, he was on his way home from the laundry and happened to read a six-day-old newspaper in which the washerman had wrapped his clothes. He chanced upon an advertisement which said that auditions were being held for radio jockeys who were needed for a radio station to be launched soon in Kolkata. Apart from making people laugh with his jokes on the radio, Mir explored his comic side by comparing events. When he finally made an appearance on TV, it was as a news reader on Khaash Khobor, a news programme on DD Bangla. Since then, Mir’s career in television has seen several highs, with television shows including Hao Mao Khao, and Beta Betir Battle to his credit. But the one show that made him known as the comedy king of the city is Mirakkel, on Zee Bangla.
