I hate the Nobel laureate tag: Sen
So, gamely taking off the sling around his dislocated shoulder, the economist got down to business.
By Team ET, TNN |
I can’t count in English,” laughed the man who won the Nobel prize for economics in 1998 as he intoned, “Ak, dui, teen, char...”, checking the number of words in a blurb. For a man who has worked for at least 35 of his 73 years outside India, he is also rooted in this country. That’s probably why even a room full of ET journalists found it hard to fit Amartya Sen into any one template - Nobel laureate, economics icon, argumentative Indian, ivory tower Bengali.... even ET guest editor.
“ET in the classroom” was the phrase being bandied around before the Nobel laureate arrived - and speedily dismissed the first avatar. For the former Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, whose latest work is Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny, typecasting is clearly taboo. “I hate the Nobel laureate categorisation,” said Dr Sen, whose CV lists over 100 awards, honorary degrees and commendations, including the Bharat Ratna in 1999. “One prize by a north European country has blotted out every other kind of identity I have.” Nor is he a fan of the ‘argumentative’ tag courtesy his 2005 bestseller. “It's a cliché...I am introduced in meetings as the argumentative Indian these days...”
That left three other “identities” to be clarified, and that he did as he was presented with the pages on the topic he had suggested - Regional Disparities. So, gamely taking off the sling around his dislocated shoulder, the economist got down to business.
“ET in the classroom” was the phrase being bandied around before the Nobel laureate arrived - and speedily dismissed the first avatar. For the former Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, whose latest work is Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny, typecasting is clearly taboo. “I hate the Nobel laureate categorisation,” said Dr Sen, whose CV lists over 100 awards, honorary degrees and commendations, including the Bharat Ratna in 1999. “One prize by a north European country has blotted out every other kind of identity I have.” Nor is he a fan of the ‘argumentative’ tag courtesy his 2005 bestseller. “It's a cliché...I am introduced in meetings as the argumentative Indian these days...”
That left three other “identities” to be clarified, and that he did as he was presented with the pages on the topic he had suggested - Regional Disparities. So, gamely taking off the sling around his dislocated shoulder, the economist got down to business.
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