Kolkata basks in its prodigal son’s glory

Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service
Kolkata, October 14

Amid the ongoing political rigmarole in West Bengal, the news of Kolkata’s Abhijit getting the Nobel Prize for Economics has given the Bengalis something to cheer.

“To look for heroes, we have to go back to ‘Bengal renaissance’ and take recourse to people who were product of the renaissance. After Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen and cricketer Saurav Ganguly, Abhijit Banerjee fills the huge void that exists in Bengal of having internationally recognised icons,” says Achintya Biswas, former vice-chancellor of Gaur Banga University, Malda.

“We are very happy that Abhijit has been awarded the prestigious award. He is absolutely brilliant,” says Avirup Sarkar, Professor of Economics at the Indian Statistical Institute. Complimenting Abhijit, Sarkar also pays tribute to late Dipak Banerjee, Abhijit’s father.

Dipak Banerjee, who studied at the London School of Economics (LSE), and later taught at Kolkata’s Presidency College, was a legend in his own right. Dipak, who passed away in 2007, enjoyed a lot of respect among students.

Dipak was married to Nirmala Patankar, also an LSE graduate. Abhijit, who was born in Mumbai, carries middle name Binayak, showing his Maharashtra connect from the mother’s side. Abhijit’s grandfather was a school headmaster.

He studied in Kolkata’s South Point School, where the “bhadralok” (gentlefolk) Bengalis living in the snooty Ballygunge area and its neighbourhood send their children to.

In 1981, her completed his BSc from Presidency College (now a university), which boasts of producing stalwarts in the field of economics such as Amartya Sen and late Sukhamoy Chakraborty.

After his Class XII, he initially took admission in the B Stat programme at the famed Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata, but left it midway to study economics at Presidency College as ISI was far from his home. Banerjee completed his postgraduation from Jawaharlal Nehru University.