The first time I met Prof. Amartya Sen was after a talk he gave at UC Berkeley. I was then a graduate student there. It must have been around 1997 or thereabouts. At that time I was still learning the basics of my subject.
After his talk, I went up to him and introduced myself. I was not only a fellow Bengali economist (although in training), but we shared the same birthday. How cool was that! He was a Nobel laureate economist, to boot.
“Sir,” I said after introducing myself as a graduate student studying development economics, “we share a birthday.” He said he was pleased to know that. He was gracious and kind. People from Shantiniketan are like that only, as they say in India.
A couple of years later, Sen was back at UC Berkeley for another talk. This time I understood a lot more of the subject than I had at his previous talk. Once again after his talk I went up to him and introduced myself.
“Prof Sen. Pranam. I am Atanu,” I said. Pranam in our dharma conveys respect and reverence.
Without the least hesitation he replied, “Hello, Atanu, I’m happy to see you again.” Before I could remind him of our previous meeting he continued, “I have good news for you. You and I share our birthday with Tibor Scitovsky. He too was born on the 3rd of November. We are in good company.” I am quoting him verbatim.
It’s remarkable that Prof Sen would remember a brief 30-second conversation with a nobody like me from a couple of years before. But there it was. I was delighted. I did not agree with his economics since he is too much of leftist (as Bengali economists tend to be) but it pleased me no end. And I was also happy to know that Scitovsky was a member of our gang of economists born on Nov 3rd.
We are in good company, indeed. Continue reading “Happy Birthday, Tibor Scitovsky”
