'SENSITIVE, PHILOSOPHER AND ECONOMIST'

Abhijit Dasgupta in Calcutta
The Pioneer
Thursday, October 15, 1998

The first call came at 8 a.m. Bablu told me that he was in New York for a day. Only last week, I lost my son-in-law, almost the same age as Bablu. I told him to be careful. He calls me every alternate day anyway. Later in the afternoon, around 3 pm, he called again. This was a little surprising," 87-year-old Amita Sen paused awhile over telephone from Shantiniketan. She was recalling the past 24 hours, telling The Pioneer about her Nobel Prize-winning son, Amartya, or simply Bablu to her.

"Yes, I found it a little surprising. He asked me, 'Ma, this is Bablu. Were you resting? Am I disturbing you?' I told him that it was quite hot and that there was a power cut. He suddenly broke the news to me in his typical fashion, `Ma, I think this time they have given me the award. And you are the first person in India that I am calling after getting the news officially.'

"He did not have to name the award since it could have meant only the Nobel. I said I did not believe him and would do so only after I saw it in print. He started laughing," she said. However, the mother is "happy" but not proud. "What is there to be proud of? The honour was expected, though it came late," she clarified.

Asked with whom she would have liked to share this hour of joy, Mrs Sen said: "My husband. When he died in 1971, there already were talks of Bablu's chances of winning the Nobel." On his deathbed, Ashutosh Sen had regretted not being able to survive long enough to see their son win the Nobel Prize, she said.

'Amartya' was christened by the first Indian Nobel laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, with whom the Sens had a close relation. "Those were the best days we have ever had when Gurudev (Tagore) was amid us and Amartya was a small boy," Mrs Sen fondly remembered.

The mother of India's latest pride said Amartya, whenever he comes down to Shantiniketan, still relishes his "dudh, muri and kola (a mixture-delicacy of milk, puffed rice and bananas)".

The Nobel laureate was born in Shantiniketan in 1933 where he did his schooling and returned later to research. Incidentally, all those whom this correspondent spoke to in Shantiniketan and Calcutta pointed out that the two Bengali Nobel laureates, Rabindranath Tagore and Amartya Sen, had Shantiniketan in common.

Incidentally, Tagore had founded Shantiniketan as an "alternate system of learning" in the latter half of last century. Prof Sen returns every year to Shantiniketan for the celebrated Pous Mela in the last week of December, a festival which was also started by Tagore.

However, the Tagore tree in Shantiniketan cannot "compare" Gurudev and Sen. Supriyo Tagore, a descendant of the poet, told The Pioneer: "There can simply be no comparison. Gurudev was in a different league altogether. But Sen is great, too. And as a student, I remember, he had great respect for the poet and his philosophy. Right now, I am extremely excited as is the rest of Shantiniketan."

Prof Sunil Sengupta, perhaps the closest friend and co-researcher of Prof Sen in Shantiniketan who has known the Nobel winner for the past 30 years ("And I am talking only of the academic years") was beside himself with joy. "I am seven years older than him, but we are thick friends.
"Even last time when he came here, he cycled down the adjacent road and stopped every morning for an `adda'. Whenever I asked him about the overdue Nobel, he simply laughed it away. I was almost despairing that it may never come," Sengupta, who had co-authored the "Sen and Sengupta Monograph" entitled "Malnutrtion Among Indian Rural Children and the Sex Bias" in 1984, said.

"We used to visit the villages of Sahajapur and Kuchli in Bankura district for our research and it was amazing the hours that he put in. He enjoyed his `phuluris' (a brinjal-onion fry) in the mud huts. And he was always asking questions. "His second wife, Eva, used to tell me that he was simply impossible to handle, working for 18 hours a day. In fact, when I was in London some years back, I woke up early one morning to see him studying. Actually, having seen him closely, I think he needs 25 hours in a day," the friend recounts.

Prof Sen is a lover of art, Mr Sengupta adds. "Once in London, given a choice between a stage show of `My Fair Lady' and a dinner hosted by his wife, he whispered into my ear, `There will be many Eva dinners. But don't miss the show. After that, return to my house around midnight. We will have a few drinks before having dinner and tucking in'," he recalled.

Asked why Prof Sen had chosen to work abroad most of his life, Mr Sengupta said: "Not many people know this, but he was suspected to have cancer of the tongue. After his surgery in London, he told me that the first part of his body which he touched upon regaining consciousness was his cheek. "The doctor had told him that if he had had cancer, then skin from his cheeks would be grafted. He was relieved seeing his cheeks untouched. Later he told me that post-operative treatment forced him to be abroad most of the time.

It was not as if he had any antipathy towards India. But yes, once when I asked him whether I should send a relative to study abroad, he snubbed me badly and said, `Why? Is it a sin to go abroad?' After that, I kept quiet," he said.

Prof Sen's mother had been "greatly disturbed" some years back when, asked to name some of the influences in a TV interview, the economist had not even mentioned Shantiniketan once. "Amita-di came to me and voiced her anguish. Didn't Tagore and the others leave any mark on her son? I told her that there was no reason for her to feel bad as this was not the case."

Mr Sengupta is "convinced" that the Nobel laureate would not have "too many good things" to say about the BJP: "He was livid after the Ayodhya tragedy. Also, he never fails to remind us that he cannot forget the 1943 famine in Bangladesh and the riots after Partition. He constantly harps on one childhood image: Of a Muslim asking for protection at his residence. I am also sure that he does not believe that the Pokhran blasts have done any good for the country."

Sengupta sums up the mood, saying: "You know what a real estate broker told me on Wednesday evening? He was convinced that land prices in Shantiniketan will now skyrocket."