Abhijit Good Friends With Amartya Sen: 2019 Nobel Winner’s Mother

Abhijit Banerjee was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences along with his wife Esther Duflo & Michael Kremer.

Abhijit Banerjee and Amartya Sen. 

(Photo: MIT website/PTI/Altered by The Quint)

Abhijit Banerjee, the Indian-American economist who was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, is very good friends with Amartya Sen, Nobel laureate from 1998, the former’s mother Nirmala Banerjee said on Monday, 14 October, moments after this year’s award winners were announced.

Mumbai-born Banerjee was awarded the prize along with his wife Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty”.

“There is a lot of love between them. Amartya’s wife loves Abhijit and Esther very much and often visits their house. They share a very good relationship... Amartya has known Abhijit since he was one-and-a-half or two years old. We were in Berkeley then. Abhijit’s father, Dipak, went to Berkeley as a fellow, and Amartya was also there. Our two families used to get together then.”

Nirmala Banerjee

‘Not a Top Student At School’

Speaking about Abhijit during his younger days, Nirmala Banerjee told The Quint that while he was not the top student at school, he harboured many interests.

“He likes singing, he plays table tennis and tennis although he doesn’t play either very well... He cooks very well and can cook food from many countries. He’s interested in people, in theory and is a very logical thinker,” she said.

The mother also pointed out that she got to know about Abhijit winning the Nobel not from him but from her younger son. “My older son hasn't talked to me as yet,” she said.

When asked what she was going to tell Abhijit when she talks to him, she remarked, “I am going to tell him why you didn't give a notice (about the Nobel Prize) before...”

‘Isn’t the Only One Doing Very Good Work’

Even though other people often talked about the prospect of Abhijit winning the Nobel, Nirmala Banerjee said that she had never hoped for her son to be honoured with the award.

“I never get overly enthusiastic about these things because I know that there are many people in the world who have done many kinds of work. I have no reason to think that out of all those people, he is the only one doing very good work, because I don’t know enough.”

Nirmala Banerjee

Fifty eight-year-old Banerjee was educated at University of Calcutta, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Harvard University, where he received his PhD in 1988.

He is currently the Ford Foundation International Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as per his profile on the MIT website.